Lowell George may well be the most underrated and underappreciated figure in the history of rock ’n’ roll. As a writer, guitarist, singer, and producer, his influence spanned genres—rock, R&B, country, blues, and the adventurous rhythms of West Coast jazz—and seemed to know no bounds.
Born and raised in Hollywood, California, George mastered multiple instruments at an early age. His prodigious talent soon caught the attention of Frank Zappa, leading to a stint with The Mothers of Invention. In 1969, after parting ways with Zappa, George formed Little Feat. With Zappa’s support, the band secured a deal with Warner Bros. Records and quickly became a musicians’ band, revered for its originality and virtuosity. Alongside George were standout players…
Category: tribute
Tenor saxophonist Javon Jackson brings out the soulful side of Bob Dylan on his 2026 covers album, Jackson Plays Dylan. One of the final members of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Jackson plays with a big warm tone and lyrical harmonic style that evokes a pure balance of both John Coltrane and Joe Henderson. While he’s never been shy about underscoring his influences, he’s been deliberate about tribute projects, releasing one Coltrane album in 2012 and unexpectedly pairing with poet/activist Nikki Giovanni for two covers albums that creatively expanded the format. Tackling Dylan feels less out of the blue, yet no less inspired, as Jackson takes on some of the iconic folk singer’s best-known songs, transforming them into something that feels as earthy…
On his own, Tony Trischka is considered one of the world’s foremost banjo players.
He is comfortable paying tribute to tradition of bluegrass pioneers while also stepping outside the box and innovating. To his own substantial body of work, Trischka adds two mammoth tribute projects: the 2023, Grammy-nominated Earl Jam, followed by Earl Jam 2.
…Both albums are built around a remarkable discovery: a cache of previously unheard recordings of Earl Scruggs and John Hartford informally jamming at Scruggs’ home between 1987 and 1998. Earl Jam 2 features 15 newly selected performances drawn from the same archive, spanning traditional standards, deep-cut fiddle tunes, and iconic American songs…
Joe Bonamassa releases B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100, A Landmark Tribute Album Featuring Dozens Of Music Stars To Celebrate The King Of Blues’ 100th Birthday. The result is a bespoke project, nine months in the making, with contributions from Buddy Guy, Keb’ Mo’, Slash, Shemekia Copeland, Marcus King, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Larkin Poe, Jimmie Vaughan, Warren Haynes, Dion, Aloe Blacc, Kirk Fletcher, and many others. Each artist was matched with material that felt personal – sometimes surprising – and all were given space to interpret King’s catalog through their own lens.
Bonamassa, who first opened for B.B. King at age 12, credits the blues titan with shaping his approach to music and life. “He mentored me,” says Bonamassa. “But I wasn’t the only one.
There’s a profound irony in Warren Zevon’s work: a songwriter fixated on mortality who left behind songs that continue to outlive him. More than twenty years after his death, Keep Me in Your Heart, a new multi-artist tribute album, suggests why that may be.
For an artist who never had much commercial success, Zevon is having a moment. Over the past year, he has been welcomed into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, celebrated at a high-profile tribute concert in Los Angeles, and now honored on Keep Me in Your Heart, a new multi-artist tribute album drawing from across his catalog. The attention-especially his recognition by the Hall-feels overdue, a reminder that Zevon’s reputation has always rested less on sales or radio play than…
Naive Melodies is a bold and visionary tribute to the music of Talking Heads, reinterpreted through the lens of Black musical innovation. Curated by Drew McFadden – the creative mind behind BBE’s acclaimed Modern Love (David Bowie tribute album) – this new collection dives deep into the Afro-diasporic rhythms and experimental soul roots that helped shape Talking Heads’ unmistakable New Wave sound. Inspired by artists like Fela Kuti, Parliament, and Al Green – whose influences loomed large in the band’s rhythmic DNA – Naive Melodies shines a light on the Black music traditions that underpinned their artistry.
Far from a conventional tribute, Naive Melodies reframes the band’s catalog through the voices and visions of a new generation…
…a remixed and remastered version, with new parts recorded, including by Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett and strings recorded at the iconic Abbey Road Studios in London.
Tackling a legendary progressive rock concept album is a dangerous proposition, especially when a recent remaster has refocused the spotlight on the original. But drummer/vocalist Nick D’Virgilio is better suited than most to reinterpret Genesis’ classis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1975). A member of contemporary progsters Spock’s Beard, perhaps more importantly D’Virgilio played drums on four tracks of Genesis’ overlooked post-Phil Collins album, Calling All Stations (1997). With such a connection, and in collaboration with Nashville producer Mark Hornsby — who…
The Raspberries blazed briefly but brightly.
When Eric Carmen and Wally Bryson of Cyrus Eyrie teamed up with Jim Bonfanti and Dave Smalley of The Choir, the result was pure bliss. The Raspberries emerged from the ashes from the two bands, and over the course of four albums originally released between 1972 and 1974 – three with the original line-up, and one with just Carmen and Bryson joined by new members Michael McBride and Scott McCarl – they came to define power pop. Despite placing just one Top 5 single in the U.S. and two more Top 20s, The Raspberries’ influence has happily endured for decades, inspiring countless other groups and setting a joyful standard for impeccably crafted rock with big melodies, crisp guitars, youthful…
Rufus Wainwright and the Pacific Jazz Orchestra’s I’m a Stranger Here Myself – Wainwright Does Weill is a compelling tribute album that delves into the rich and complex songbook of German-American composer Kurt Weill. Known for his theatrical flair and vocal prowess, Wainwright brings a unique interpretation to Weill’s compositions, which are celebrated for their fusion of classical, cabaret, and jazz elements. Premiering in May 2023 at New York City’s Café Carlyle, “Wainwright Does Weill” marked Wainwright’s first extensive exploration of Weill’s repertoire. Rufus Wainwright’s fascination with Kurt Weill’s music goes back for decades – in his early twenties he wore out the vinyl grooves of Teresa Stratas’ famous Weill album. While Weill‘s musical influence can be heard in Wainwright‘s…
Le Collectif Tango Negro Ensemble honors the legacy of Juan Carlos Cáceres (1936–2015) with a double album, Tribute to Juan Carlos Cáceres, that reinterprets his most iconic works alongside previously unreleased compositions. A pioneer of what he called “tango negro” (black tango), Cáceres traced the African roots of Río de la Plata music, fusing jazz, candombe, milonga, and murga into a singular Afro-Argentine aesthetic.
The ensemble features a wide network of international artists from tango, jazz, and world music spheres. Guests include Horacio Burgos, Sedef Arçetin, Daniel Melingo, Chino Laborde, Olivier Manoury, Minino Garay, Natalio Mangalavite, Flaco Biondini, Paolo Fresu, Peppe Servillo, Fausto Beccalossi, and Javier Girotto.
Willie Nelson spent much of the summer out on the road with the Outlaw Festival, so it’s only appropriate that his new studio album is paying tribute to a fellow Outlaw.
Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle finds Young celebrating his late friend Merle Haggard, with whom he recorded three albums between 1983 and 2015. Willie’s 78th original album, Workin’ Man features a host of Hag favorites including “Okie from Muskogee,” “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down,” “Today I Started Loving You Again,” “Mama Tried,” and “If We Make It Through December.”
…The album was recorded at Nelson’s Pedernales Studios in Austin and marked the final recordings that Nelson made with a pair of members in his longtime Family band: drummer…
Heavy Metal and Punk Rock! It’s fair to say that these two noisy tribes now have a great deal in common, often melding together to produce bastard offspring of their own. But it wasn’t always this way. Indeed, there was a time when fists were more likely to be thrown than bumped, and beers more likely to be hurled than shared, except when it came to Motörhead. That was the one band all could agree on. The one band that was truly ours! But while Motörhead’s impact on metal has long been acknowledged, their influence on punk, particularly the post-Sex Pistols second wave shouldn’t be underestimated. Cause and effect: It’s that simple. And such is the case with hundreds, thousands, of other bands, all made faster, dirtier, louder, better, by Motörhead.
Like many a listener, Resonance founder George Klabin was bewitched when he heard Milton Nascimento’s singing voice for the first time. Introduced to him by Airto and Flora Purim when they were playing at a small NYC club, Klabin learned that the young man was in town to record at Rudy Van Gelder’s legendary New Jersey studio. Issued in 1969 on CTI Records, the resultant album was Courage, a classic-in-the-making (Klabin’s all-time favourite, in fact) featuring Herbie Hancock and orchestral arrangements by Eumir Deodato. Now, fifty-six years after its release, renowned clarinetist Eddie Daniels offers a fresh re-take of Courage, his third tribute album to a Brazilian music icon after earlier ones focusing on Egberto Gismonti and Ivan Lins.
Songwriter Cindy Walker’s name is well-known to country music fans. Her songs have charted more than 400 times, recorded by icons such as Ray Charles, Bob Wills, Roy Orbison, and Elvis Presley. Willie Nelson released an entire album devoted to Walker’s work: (You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker) back in 2006. She has been celebrated for her ability to capture emotional moments in everyday situations that define our lives, such as meeting an old lover, aging gracefully, and dreaming of a better future.
Grey DeLisle, a longtime admirer of Cindy Walker, is best known for her voice acting work, but she’s also a Grammy-winning singer-songwriter. With her own deep roots in music, DeLisle recognizes the significance of Walker’s legacy as…
It’s been more than a decade since Jason Molina died at the age of 39, leaving behind a powerful legacy of stark, emotionally resonant music that made much of an earnest voice, a heart-torn story and the barest accoutrements of alt.country-into-blues-rock sound. First as Songs:Ohia and later as Magnolia Electric Company, Molina made a series of slow-burning, desolate classics, including the landmark Didn’t It Rain from 2002.
Lucas Schleicher reviewed the 2014 reissue of this disc very movingly at Dusted, writing, “The rest depends on Molina’s commanding voice and his lyrics, which swim in an ambiguous play of shadow and light. The spaces between the notes and the black quiet that laps against each strummed chord play as large a role in setting…
Delving into the Great American Songbook of Howe Gelb, Sandworms is a new collection that rephrases and rephases the legacy of Giant Sand across generations. This release offers bold reinterpretations from Water from Your Eyes, Deradoorian, Jesca Hoop & John Parish, Holiday Ghosts, Lily Konigsberg, Ella Raphael, Monde UFO, The Golden Dregs, and Gently Tender.
…Giant Sandworms does a reasonably good job of covering the gamut, enlisting a diverse and notably young group of artists to reimagine 13 songs recorded between 1986 and 2013. They’re predominantly Giant Sand covers, with a few solo cuts mixed in. None of the covering artists are especially intuitive — no past collaborators, no strong and obvious lines of influence.
It’s about time. Clifton Chenier finally got the biggest birthday gift of his life. For what would have been his 100th birthday, Louisiana based independent label Valcour Records, who specialize in both traditional and innovative Louisiana music, assembled a stellar cast of movers and shakers to pay tribute to the man who planted the roots of the music that made their careers.
…Chenier’s swaggering, accordion-driven sound introduced the Creole music of rural Louisiana to the world – now known as zydeco, the name derived either from the Creole pronunciation of haricots, or possibly a west African word for music-making. Created by the US’s poorest communities, zydeco is very much dance music, and concerts were once held outside to…
The 2025 release of Look At All The Love We Found: A Tribute to Sublime marks the 20th anniversary of the original 2005 tribute album Look At All The Love We Found (Cornerstone R.A.S.), now reworked and remastered, featuring over 30 artists covering classic Sublime tracks including Zac Brown Band (“Wrong Way”), Pennywise (“Same In The End”), Jack Johnson (“Badfish”) and more, in addition to 8 previously unreleased tracks. One of the unreleased tracks includes a collaboration with Slightly Stoopid and Stick Figure with their take of the Sublime classic “Slow Ride.”
“We’re honored to release our cover of “Slow Ride” with our brother Stick Figure to honor the legacy of Sublime. Produced by our good friend “Miguel” Happoldt, the OG Sublime producer…