Sound Bites

With Kristopher Weiss You can also follow Sound Bites on Facebook: @kristopherweisssoundbites

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Darrell Scott Presents “Another Rainy (Sun)Day” Video

- Weekly series travels to New Orleans for episode 86

Think Darrell Scott ain’t a true bluesman? Consider this opening line from “Another Rainy Day:”

Woke up blue this mornin’

That’s as blue as you can be and Scott sung that line April 25 in New Orleans, a solo-electric rendering captured on professional video and released as the latest episode (the 86th) of “It Must be Sunday.”

Electric and solo, Scott is free to improvise musically and vocally. He colors outside the melodic lines without resorting to scribbles and uses his vocal range to go as low as he feels in delivering the lyrics.

This “Rainy Day” is yet another piece of the puzzle that is Darrell Scott, a polymath singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who’s as comfortable playing bluegrass in a rural setting as he is slinging the blues in urban environs.

6/7/26

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Blind Boys of Alabama at Bicentennial Park, Columbus, Ohio, June 5, 2026

The Blind Boys of Alabama brought a sense of (Stevie) Wonder with them to Columbus, Ohio’s, Bicentennial Park, playing a variety of cuts from Songs in the Key of Life alongside a smattering of tracks in regular rotation in the Blind Boys’ sets.

The June 5 Celebration of Stevie Wonder gig kicked off the 2026 Scioto Mile Free Concert Series and the Blind Boys kicked that off with a rambunctious rendering of Key’s “Another Star.”

If there was one knock on this show, it was that the Wonder songs were slightly under-rehearsed, leading to a few uncharacteristic vocal lapses and harmonic miscues. Yet, the concert nevertheless did what all Blind Boys’ performances do, namely left their fans feeling better on the way out than on the way in.

Formed in 1939 and with a revolving door of membership ever since, the contemporary Blind Boys are centered around Ricky McKinnie, who joined the group in 1990 alongside co-founders Clarence Fountain, who died in 2018, and Jimmy Carter, who retired in 2023. The bandleader and onstage emcee addressed the crowd following the opener and said he was disturbed after watching television back at the hotel.

“We got some serious things going on in these United States,” he said before the band launched in to a couple of Blind Boys standards, beginning with the urgent sounds of “Praying Time.” This led to a funky rendering of “I Can See” that was so celebratory, it seemed McKinnie, Sterling Glass and J.W. Smith really could see.

Seven of the show’s 12 songs were In the Key of Life, including “Have a Talk with God,” which was tailored for the Blind Boys as much as their smart grey suits. “Village Ghetto Land” was set to synth strings and four-part harmony with the assistance of music director/guitarist/singer Joey Williams, the only sighted Blind Boy. The emphatic “Sir Duke,” meanwhile, overcome rough vocals owing to the Blind Boys’ emphatic dance moves and exuberance on the mic.

Between the covers were other Blind Boys standbys such as “Amazing Grace” set to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun” and “Heaven Help Us All,” a gospel plea written by Wonder (natch) for humanity to embrace its similarities. Backed by keyboards and rhythm section, the Blind Boys presented these songs exquisitely - they were flawless with a sense of in-the-moment joy not often seen on a concert stage.

Late in the 75-minute set, Glass took that joy into the audience with an assist from the band’s road manager. As he moved through the crowd, Glass sung, shook hands and danced with fans as he and his compatriots performed a fiery rendition of “I Wish.” When Glass returned to the stage, he removed his jacket, threw it to the ground and continued to dance on his own.

The singers, arms on one another’s shoulders, were guided on and off stage and returned to encore with a powerful version of Wonder’s Inversions track “Higher Ground,” replete with band introductions, solos and a special refrain:

We hope you had a happy, good time

We did.

Grade card: Blind Boys of Alabama at Bicentennial Park - 6/5/26 - A-

Setlist: “Another Star,” “Praying Time,” “I Can See,” “Have a Talk with God,” “Heaven Help Us All,” “Village Ghetto Land,” “Pastime Paradise,” “Amazing Grace,” “Sir Duke,” “Love’s in Need of Love Today,” “I Wish” E: “Higher Ground.”

See more photos on Sound Bites’ Facebook page.

6/6/26

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King Crimson Releases Isolated Tony Levin Tracks to Mark Bassist’s 80th Birthday

- “Tony’s Interludes” culled from Sept. 8-10, 2014, performances in New York

One of Tony Levin’s distinguishing characteristics as King Crimson bassist is his “conspicuous lack of interest in showboating or grandstanding.”

So said producer Alex Mundy, who, given the dearth of Levin solos, isolated his tracks from Crimson’s Sept. 8, 9 and 10 performances of “Interlude” and combined bits of each of them to create “Tony’s Interludes” in honor of the musician’s 80th birthday, today, June 6, 2026.

The result is three minutes of well-chosen notes as Levin plucks and bows his standup bass with precision and a clear understanding of the importance of open spaces in music.

“Some players in the profession, when given the opportunity, might use a piece as open as ‘Interlude’ as a vehicle to display how quickly they can traverse the fingerboard or to place the breadth of their technical prowess firmly in the headlights,” Mundy said.

“However, when approaching any piece, Levin’s guiding principle is always ‘What can I do to serve the music?’”

He served it well. And now Mundy has served Levin - and his fans - well with “Tony’s Interludes.”

6/6/26

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Sound Images: Blind Boys of Alabama at Bicentennial Park, Columbus, Ohio, June 5, 2026

Blind Boys of Alabama celebrated 50 years of Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life with a free gig June 5 at Columbus’ Bicentennial Park.

Sound Bites would’ve gladly paid admission to witness this uplifting performance. Here are a few of the sights from the evening; come back to the blog later for a full review of the sounds and see more photos on Sound Bites’ Facebook page.

6/6/26

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BEAT Goes on as Stick Man Tony Levin Turns 80

Low-playing Tony Levin’s numbers keep getting higher.

Born June 6, 1946, the bassist - currently touring Europe with his former King Crimson bandmate Adrian Belew as BEAT - turns 80 today and shows no signs of slowing his music-making pace. This, despite Robert Fripp’s decision to dismantle Crimson, with whom Levin played over four stints between 1981 and 2021.

The bassist, keyboardist and Chapman Stick innovator has played regularly with Peter Gabriel since 1977, was a member of Yes spinoff Anderson Bruford Wakeman and Howe, tours with Stick Men and counts recording and/or touring gigs with John Lennon, Pink Floyd, Lou Reed, Alice Cooper, Buddy Rich, Peter Frampton, Carly Simon, Judy Collins, Chuck Mangione and James Taylor among many others in his multi-page resumé.

Levin is also a photographer and prolific blogger, chronicling his semi-anonymous, but altogether-seminal, life on the road.

He released his seventh solo album, Bringing it Down to the Bass, in 2024.

And BEAT goes on.

6/6/26

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Song Review: Molly Tuttle - “Big Yellow Taxi” (Live, May 28, 2026)

Molly Tuttle did a number on “Big Yellow Taxi,” making the song her own without erasing Joni Mitchell’s fingerprints from the number.

As captured on video May 28 in New Hampshire, the performance finds Tuttle setting the “Taxi” in a key appropriate for her own vocal range and surrounding it in an arrangement that combines elements of rock and bluegrass music. There are drums.

The original melody remains but with extra space for Tuttle to show off her chops on acoustic guitar while showcasing her bandmates on mandolin, banjo and electric bass.

It’s a gutsy approach and one that works well as both homage and reimagination by a young artist who clearly has a bit of Mitchell in her DNA.

Grade card: Molly Tuttle - “Big Yellow Taxi” (Live - 5/28/26) - B-

6/5/26

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Song Review: Jefferson Airplane - “Somebody to Love” (Live, 1970)

Fun fact: a piece of rarely heard music can be both fascinating and, frankly, pretty terrible.

Case in point is a newly unearthed Wolfgang’s Vault video of Jefferson Airplane performing “Somebody to Love” in an unidentified studio in 1970.

It’s fascinating because the band sets the ubiquitous Sumner of Love number to a different arrangement and stretches it to nearly five minutes without relying on solos to do so. Grace Slick, meanwhile, alters her vocal phrasing accordingly and improvises some lyrics while Marty Balin gives a tutorial in tambourine as essential instrument.

Things turn toward the terrible when Slick, Balin and Paul Kantner join for what is supposed to be a harmonious chorus. It is not at all harmonious, giving the Grateful Dead of this era a run for its worst-vocal-performance money on this one.

All of which makes this “Somebody to Love” a must watch - once.

Grade card: Jefferson Airplane - “Somebody to Love” (Live, 1970) - D

6/5/26

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Song Review: Norah Jones - “Blue Bayou” (Live at Home)

From Roy Orbison to Linda Ronstadt to Leslie Mendelson and Bob Weir and on to Norah Jones, “Blue Bayou” continues to inspire singers.

Jones recently recorded and released a solo-piano arrangement of “Bayou” as part of her revived Live at Home video series. It’s informal and joyful as Jones reads - and occasionally stumbles over - lyrics from a sheet of paper set on her piano and plays a melody rooted in Orbison’s original and woven through with on-the-spot inspiration.

And Ronstadt - not Oribison or Mendelson/Weir - was clearly Jones’ inspiration, as she soars on the chorus.

“I’m no Linda but I did my best,” she says as the recital concludes.

Grade card: Norah Jones - “Blue Bayou” (Live at Home) - B

6/5/26

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Song Review: Warren Haynes and the Asheville Symphony Orchestra - “Shakedown Street” (Live)

Too much. Too fast.

That’s the quick summation of Warren Haynes’ version of Grateful Dead’s “Shakedown Street” recorded live with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra and a band that included Dead & Company bassist Oteil Burbridge, drummer Jeff Sipe, keyboardist John Medeski and a couple of background singers.

The pace is brisk - a little too brisk. ASO is unsubtle, overbearing even, as its flashy flourishes are more disco-dance floor than colorful nuance. And the background singers overplay their parts.

Haynes, as per typical, sings and plays Jerry Garcia’s parts with a smart mix of imitation and imagination. But it’s not enough to pull the song away from the things that plague it; that said, the audience goes bonkers at the end, so perhaps something was lost between the performance and its release.

“Shakedown Street” follows “Banks of the Deep End” from Haynes’ forthcoming (no release date) LP, Dreams & Songs.

Grade card: Warren Haynes and the Asheville Symphony Orchestra - “Shakedown Street” - C+

6/5/26

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“Paul Simon: The Quiet Celebration Concert” Premieres June 26

- Live album to follow Oct. 9

Paul Simon’s Quiet Celebration tour is spawning a concert film and live album.

“Paul Simon: The Quiet Celebration Concert” debuts June 16 on Hulu and Disney+; the as-yet-untitled LP arrives Oct. 9.

Simon, who retired from touring in 2017, launched the tour in support of Seven Psalms in 2025.

“There’s been a feeling of camaraderie and elation that we were playing this piece of music that we were really interested in, and that had a significant effect on me,” Simon said in a statement to Rolling Stone magazine.

“It made for one of the most extraordinary tours I’ve done - maybe the most joyous.”

6/4/26

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Song Review: Elizabeth Cook feat. Evan Felker - “Razorwire Wall”

If “Razorwire Wall” was credited to anyone other than Elizabeth Cook, it might be OK. But the middle-of-the-road country-rocker, with a Heartbreakers-esque arrangement and references to jail, trucks, Mama and moonshine, has none of the elements that make Cook, Cook.

Her twang is toned way down. And her lyrics, typically wry or devastating but always keen on observations of humanity, are trite as Cook and guest vocalist Evan Felker declare:

Boy I’ll drive this truck right through a razorwire wall/if there’s any doubt, they don’t know us at all

The track announces the Aug. 14 release of Great Television, which features Wynonna on “The Easy Kind,” also the title of Cook’s forthcoming film, and a cover of the Rolling Stones’ “19th Nervous Breakdown” among its 11 tracks.

Grade card: Elizabeth Cook feat. Evan Felker - “Razorwire Wall” - C-

6/4/26

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Song Review: Dan Tyminski - “Smile When You’re Alone”

Dan Tyminski probably could’ve called “Smile When You’re Alone” “Forever Young Pt. 2.”

While Tyminski’s melody and arrangement are not similar to Bob Dylan’s, the theme sure is as Tyminski, performing solo-acoustic style in a studio, seems to be addressing someone who’s already grown up and could use some adult advice:

I pray you’ll know how much you’re loved/and that you’ve always got a friend/that the rain rolls off your back and don’t stay long/hope your wheels don’t stop and your dreams get caught, you’re the life of every party/when the lights go out and those friends are gone/I pray you smile when you’re alone, he sings.

Co-written with Jimmy Yeary, “Smile When You’re Alone” is available only on YouTube. The songwriting and performance are so strong, a proper studio recording would likely diminish, rather than enhance, this heartfelt song of unconditional love.

Grade card: Dan Tyminski - “Smile When You’re Alone” - B+

6/4/26

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Song Review: Ruthie Foster - “Thank You”

Ruthie Foster is in typically powerful and peerless voice on “Thank You,” the gritty, soul-blues number than announces Just Say Yes.

The vocals and music are enough to negate a bushel of clichés - squeaky wheel, grinding my gears, ruffle my feathers and wind in my sails are but some of them - and silly asides like I can say it in French, too/mercí beaucoup that pop up across the three-minutes-and-change runtime.

But the lazy songwriting is a shame because underneath all the unimaginative lyrics lies a timely message:

Ain’t gonna join no hate nation, Foster declares.

“Thank You” is ultimately a decent song that could’ve been canonical with a different set of lyrics; Just Say Yes arrives Aug. 28.

Grade card: Ruthie Foster - “Thank You” - C+

6/4/26

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Song Review: Slow Accordion - “’71”

Slow Accordion’s debut single is a mid-tempo trance-rocker and there’s not a squeezebox in earshot.

“’71” is improvised, instrumental and a groove laid down by Wood Brothers frontman/guitarist Oliver Wood, keyboardist/percussionist Matt Glassmeyer, bassist Ted Pecchio (Col. Bruce Hampton) and longtime Sierra Hull drummer Mark Raudabaugh.

Though it was made up on the spot, “’71” is nevertheless cohesive and engaging across its seven-minute runtime as Wood and Glassmeyer, on Wurlitzer, feature on lo-fi, slightly dissonant leads that resemble something the eclectic Los Lobos spinoff the Latin Playboys might have dreamed to life.

It’s one of seven tracks that’ll appear on Slow Accordion’s all-improvised eponymous debut, scheduled for release July 17.

“We’ve all experienced how most modern music is meticulously recorded, so we pulled that drawer out, dumped it and stomped on it,” Glassmeyer said in a statement.

“We want people to hear the spirit of the music moving us, exposing us and being improvised in real time.”

With “’71” at least, Slow Accordion accomplished what it set out to do.

Grade card: Slow Accordion - “’71” - B

6/3/26

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Song Review: Little Feat feat. Tommy Emmanuel - “Dixie Chicken” (Live, 2022)

With drummer Tony Leone setting the brisk tempo, Tommy Emmanuel faced off with keyboardist Bill Payne as the rest of Little Feat and their guests watched the CGP bring a rare bit of rapid-fire acoustic guitar to “Dixie Chicken.” Payne, meanwhile, responded with jazzy notes and sound patches that mimicked human voices.

This all happened in 2022, in the midst of one of Feat’s best-known numbers, as the band recorded the PBS special “Celebrating Waiting for Columbus Live at the Ryman” in Tennessee.

With a four-voice choir and three pieces of brass further bolstering the sound, the latest Little Feat lineup did serious justice to the “Chicken” while leaving room for Fred Tackett and singer Scott Sharrard to shine on electric guitars, with the latter bringing slide into his solo.

It was, as Little Feat has been for decades, more tribute band than the band that recorded “Dixie Chicken.” But, despite Emmanuel’s decidedly anti-Feat showcase amid the cluttered-but-effectual arrangement, this was one of the modern band’s most-powerful presentations to date.

No wonder they released it as a standalone video.

Grade card: Little Feat feat. Tommy Emmanuel - “Dixie Chicken” (Live, 2022) - B+

6/3/26

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Album Review: Jarrod Walker - Nighthawk

Jarrod Walker has a new side hustle: frontman.

As Billy Strings’ mandolin player, Walker is well-known as one-fifth of bluegrass’ hottest band. Nighthawk, on which Walker sings lead and plays mandolin, guitar and mandocello alongside a host of friends including his bandmates Strings and bassist Royal Masat, proves the sideman to be a formidable bandleader in his own right.

For Nighthawk is Walker as his own singer, musician and composer and makes clear he has something to fall back on should that ever become necessary.

Despite the straight-up bluesgrass of such numbers as “Libby Phillips Rag” and the title track, Nighthawk is hardly a strictly bluegrass album. Outfitted with Spencer Cullum’s pedal steel, Jamie Dick’s drums, Cory Walker’s banjo, Christian Ward’s fiddle and other musical implements, the 10 originals and the cover of Chris Henry’s instrumental “West Dakota Rose,” are more like a hazy mix of country, folk, rock and bluegrass music with a purposeful nod to Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” embedded in “Leaving Canaan’s Land.”

Unbelievably, Walker seems to have stumbled upon something Strings - who does a bit of virtually everything - has not yet done.

Grade card: Jarrod Walker - Nighthawk - B+

6/3/26

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Emmanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma Tackle Third Movement of Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3

- “Always a thrill,” Ax says

After playing with Beethoven on camera in an empty performance space, Yo-Yo Ma is frozen in a lunge position, facing his musical compatriot Emmanuel Ax.

“It’s always a thrill to play that piece,” Ax says.

That piece is the First Movement of Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3, which pianist Ax and cellist Ma render with the fullness of a quartet or chamber orchestra as they navigate peaks and valleys; passages of high volume and near silences.

“Beethoven is a master of suspense,” Ma said in releasing the duo performance. It illustrates Ax and Ma’s ability to interpret and modernize the music without losing sight - or sound - of the centuries-old composition, which runs nearly a quarter-hour in this audio-visual setting.

6/2/26