It has been in production far longer than I’ve called Miami home, but it appears the film East of Overtown is actually inching toward completion. After nearly seven years of snail’s-pace production, this chronicle of the glory days of Overtown and the racial tension that’s been brewing in Miami and…

Jim Lauderdale calls them “recording-artist horror stories,” and he can reel off a litany of them based on his own experiences as a singer/songwriter who’s steeped in raw honky-tonk as well as blues, rock, soul, bluegrass, and R&B. “The longer I’m in the business, the more I realize there are…

Al’s Not Well Glitter (Panacea) Most bands, even the great ones, have about three songs on which all their tunes are modeled. Just listen to the entire Nirvana catalogue. Some bands work with even less: The Ramones have two songs — a fast one, and a faster one. During the…

Jim Dickinson does a great imitation of Bob Dylan. So great that it’s impossible to convey in print just how the Memphis pianist/producer nails the nasally cadence of the master’s oddball speech patterns. So let’s just say it’s something he picked up while recording with His Majesty this past January…

What you bring to a Van Morrison concert in the way of expectations no doubt depends on the extent of your exposure to this odd man and his equally odd career. That career is so lengthy and vast — loaded with mainstream pop hits, standards of album-rock radio, adult-contemporary ballads,…

There’s a lot to like about the version of “Tramp” recorded in 1967 by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas. The song was a hit that same year for its originator Lowell Fulson, a journeyman guitarist and singer who to this day still stands in the immense shadow of B.B. King…

Try as I might to find a place in my heart for the local stuff that’s crossed my desk in the many weeks since I last reviewed any South Florida music, my ears — and heart, for that matter — keep taking me back to one disc. The Best of…

Strange things can happen after death swoops down and pulls someone away. Since absence no doubt makes the heart grow fonder, there is a postmortem tendency to gloss over the shortcomings of the departed — an impulse, natural or otherwise, to find nobility in their flaws, to excuse their faults,…

This a good time for the national music industry, what with South By Southwest just wrapping up in Austin, Texas, and Miami’s annual booze-and-schmooze expo taking place from March 22-26 in the form of the Winter Music Conference. I’m not real happy with the music industry right now, though, and…

Since most rock critics are neither swamis nor gypsies, they really have no business predicting the future, whether it’s the commercial faring of a new album or the direction an artist’s career will or won’t take. Nevertheless, the Miami Herald’s pop critic and resident Fleetwood Mac fanatic Howard Cohen wrapped…

Scott Drake is old enough to remember a time when traditional high-energy rock and roll and guttural punk rock shared more than a little common ground — when the squalling racket of the Damned, the Dead Boys, and the Vibrators revealed an obvious debt to the blues-derived work of the…

Mandela Original Soundtrack (Island) This 26-track collection from the documentary of the same name blows its own horn too loudly by claiming to represent “the essential music of South Africa.” Its best moments, though, shed intriguing light on the development of the country’s music. From the Manhattan Brothers’ upbeat, urbane,…

Since I do a lot of bitching and moaning about the largely pathetic live-music network in South Florida, where worthwhile touring acts are as rare as a Miami snowstorm, I think it’s only fair to point out that there are several fine shows lined up this week at various spots…

On the surface Columbus, Ohio, isn’t very different from a lot of not-so-progressive midsize cities in the Midwest, from its long, hard winters and obsession with college sports to its myriad flourishing country-and-western bars. Dig a little deeper, though, and you’ll find what may be the most vibrant and varied…