Raul Malo, lead vocalist and leader of the Mavericks, has one of the best voices in pop. In several recent interviews Malo said he spent the early years of his career trying to “not sound like Roy Orbison,” the singer he was most often compared with. But since signing onto…

Bio Ritmo is Richmond, Virginia’s hottest salsa band, which may be damning it with faint praise since it’s the city’s only salsa band. They started playing together almost by accident when conguero Gabo Tomasini, timbalero Giustino Riccio, and singer Rei Alvarez put together a small group for a jam session…

Back in the day George Jones had a hit single, “Ragged But Right,” about a ne’er-do-well who managed to win the hearts of everyone he met. He could have been singing about the boys in the Old Crow Medicine Show, undoubtedly the finest bluegrass/ragtime/altcountry band in the land. OCMS, like…

One from the Heart stands as one of Hollywood’s most famous disasters. Written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola as an “antidote” to his Apocalypse Now, it was his only musical and was almost universally panned upon its release in 1982. It vanished from theaters in less than two weeks,…

After the Fall Mary Coughlan (Big Cat Records) Ever since the Beatles and Dylan began performing their own songs, critics and fans have placed as high a value on songwriting as performing. Indeed, singers who perform material written by others — Spice Girls, anyone? — are often considered suspect. Mary…