Email Author Rick Mason

2012 Stories by Rick Mason

• St. Vincent/Shearwater

  published May 16, 2012

  Following her tour-opening performance last fall at the Walker, this is the second coming of St. Vincent locally behind her third album,... More >>

• The Cranberries

  published May 16, 2012

  Roses, released in March, is the first studio album from Irish pop-folk band the Cranberries in more than a decade. The original quartet... More >>

• Amy Ray/The Shadowboxers

  published May 16, 2012

  Long established as the edgier, rock half of the Indigo Girls (vividly complementing Emily Saliers's folk lyricism), Amy Ray has further indulged... More >>

• Ramsey Lewis & His Electric Band

  published May 16, 2012

  After playing almost exclusively in an acoustic trio format for well over a decade, jazz piano icon Ramsey Lewis traded his Steinway grand for a... More >>

• Colin Stetson

  published May 9, 2012

  Colin Stetson plays a multitude of instruments and makes most of them sound like nothing you've heard before. His arsenal includes alto, tenor,... More >>

• Zacc Harris Group

  published May 9, 2012

  These AQ shows coincide with the release of the Zacc Harris Group's debut album, The Garden, the latest evidence of the burgeoning local... More >>

• Carolina Chocolate Drops

  published May 2, 2012

  The magical heart of the Carolina Chocolate Drops phenomenon isn't simply the group's revival of the African-American string band tradition. It's... More >>

• Tortoise/Minneapolis Jazz All-Stars

  published May 2, 2012

  In what's being billed as a "612-meets-312 experiment," the Walker has arranged for what promises to be an intriguing, ear-opening collaboration... More >>

• Loudon Wainwright III

  published May 2, 2012

  For 40 very odd years, Loudon Wainwright III's lacerating wit, unflinching candor, and impish glee have combined to skewer everything in sight,... More >>

• Snow Patrol/Ed Sheeran

  published April 25, 2012

  Snow Patrol still perform mostly moody rock grandeur on their sixth album, Fallen Empires, despite much-discussed efforts to stir up the... More >>

• Frankie Rose/Dive

  published April 25, 2012

  After cutting her musical teeth as a member of fuzz-pop garage bands like the Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls, and Crystal Stilts, Frankie Rose... More >>

• Nick Lowe / Paul Cebar

  published April 18, 2012

  Jesus of Cool was the U.K. name of Nick Lowe's first solo album in 1978. Even as rebranded for skittish stateside audiences, Pure Pop... More >>

• Greg Brown

  published April 18, 2012

  As poetic as William Blake, as raw as some old blues guy scratching away at a hand-built guitar somewhere in the Delta, Greg Brown easily ranks... More >>

• White Denim / Hundred Visions

  published April 18, 2012

  The writhing knot of delights White Denim pack into every tune can drive you crazy if you're foolish enough to try to unravel it. Expect that... More >>

• 

  The Toure-Raichel Collective forms via chance meeting

  published April 11, 2012

  It was a chance meeting between flights at a German airport. Two bands on tour notice each other's guitars and start talking. One act's led by... More >>

• The Cave Singers

  published April 11, 2012

  A Seattle trio of erstwhile rockers, the Cave Singers cut the electricity upon forming in 2007 and dove headlong into an amiable, relatively... More >>

• Glen Campbell

  published April 11, 2012

  Time hasn't been gentle on the mind of Glen Campbell, the 75-year-old country-pop stalwart who last year was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. With... More >>

• Seun Kuti & Egypt 80

  published April 11, 2012

  Seun Kuti was only in his mid-teens when his formidable father, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, died in 1997. Fela was a larger-than-life icon who created... More >>

• Bear in Heaven / Doldrums / Blouse

  published April 11, 2012

  If you started streaming Bear in Heaven's I Love You, It's Cool last December, you should be about finished now. The band's decision to... More >>

• Lucero / William Elliott Whitmore

  published April 4, 2012

  Although a punkish mix of rock 'n' roll and country has long been Lucero's hallmark, the band has finally fully embraced its Memphis roots. Like... More >>

• Irvin Mayfield Quintet: A Love Letter to New Orleans

  published April 4, 2012

  Trumpeter, composer, bandleader, educator, and cultural dynamo Irvin Mayfield may include on his lengthy résumé jazz artistic... More >>

• Pert Near Sandstone

  published April 4, 2012

  Given its polar clime, Minnesota wouldn't seem to be bluegrass territory. But it is, as evidenced by Pert Near Sandstone, the new-timey string... More >>

• Thomas Dolby

  published April 4, 2012

  Thomas Dolby cultivated a mad scientist schtick that still persists decades after his quirky 1983 hit "She Blinded Me With Science." Back then, he... More >>

• Willie Murphy

  published March 28, 2012

  As inextricably tied to the Twin Cities scene as any musician in modern times, Willie Murphy has just about done and seen it all in a career that... More >>

• The Ting Tings

  published March 28, 2012

  Depicted as a pair of zombies on the cover of their sophomore album, Katie White and Jules De Martino almost seem to be expecting that Sounds... More >>