{"id":179,"date":"2006-12-19T14:38:03","date_gmt":"2006-12-19T18:38:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/?p=179"},"modified":"2006-12-19T14:39:01","modified_gmt":"2006-12-19T18:39:01","slug":"best-indie-artist-and-cd-for-2006","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/?p=179","title":{"rendered":"Best Indie Artist and CD for 2006"},"content":{"rendered":"

The editors of Blogcritics<\/a> have asked me for a 200-word description of my Best-Of (artist and\/or CD) for 2006. Here they are, freshly minted.<\/p>\n

Indie Round-Up<\/a>‘s Artist of the Year for 2006 is Mofro<\/a>, who, conveniently for my critical credibility, was just signed to the prestigious blues label Alligator Records<\/a>. Lead vocalist JJ Grey and his band evoke all at once the gritty funk of James Brown, the blue-eyed soul of Beck or Leon Russell, the bayou twinkle of Dr. John, and the shamanistic stage presence of Jim Morrison. The latest CD is a good one<\/a>, but in-concert<\/a> is the only way to fully appreciate the spell woven by Grey, guitarist Daryl Hance, and whoever else happens to be on their stage at the moment.<\/p>\n

Album of the year goes to Gregg Swann<\/a>‘s sparkling Everybody’s Got To Be Somewhere<\/i><\/a>, a spot-on power-pop set without an ounce of filler. The artist himself seems to be somewhat reclusive – the gigs page<\/a> at his minimalist website is empty as of this writing, and his Myspace page<\/a> – where you can hear three full tracks (go there now) – has been little visited. Swann emailed me a thank-you note when I published my review<\/a>, so, fortunately for fans of exceptional songwriting, it appears that he does exist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The editors of Blogcritics have asked me for a 200-word description of my Best-Of (artist and\/or CD) for 2006. Here they are, freshly minted. Indie Round-Up‘s Artist of the Year for 2006 is Mofro, who, conveniently for my critical credibility, was just signed to the prestigious blues label Alligator Records. Lead vocalist JJ Grey and … Continue reading “Best Indie Artist and CD for 2006”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}