CD Reviews

Throttle the Sun: The Odyssey of the Rock Star is an upcoming documentary by Raul Sandelin sure to be a must see for anyone who lived through the era of the rock band and rock star as cultural icons. The era of hair metal, groupies, excess, and trashed hotel rooms isn’t completely over, but YouTube […]

This Year is the new album by Robert Warren, who sings personal folk songs that often have a melancholy tone, as evidenced on his previous releases, including 2017’s The Road From There to Here. His music is stark, but arresting, chronicling tales of heartbreak, personal failure, wandering, and sometimes even hope with a riveting voice […]

Young Ms. Shay is a phenomenon who is clearly on an upward trajectory. The four-time San Diego Music Award winner (she nabbed Artist of the Year and Best Blues Album in 2019) recently became that most-rare musician: one with an actual recording contract—having inked a deal with respected German independent blues music label Ruf records […]

I suspect there’s a contingent of San Diego Troubadour readers drawn to the concept of a radio play (aka audio drama, audio play, radio theater, etc.), especially those who are familiar with Orson Welles’ legendary 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds, which is infamous for convincing an innumerable amount of Americans that Martians […]

Fast Heart Mart (Martin Stamper) is a local banjo and guitar player-vocalist who has been part of the local acoustic scene for two decades. He has been busy with nine recorded releases, and his latest is Keep on the Sunny Side. The 13 tracks represent what Mart terms a collection of his most requested songs. […]

Later Than Never is the debut by the Mikerotones, an EP-length project built around the talents of Michael Hoisington. He is a singer-songwriter-guitarist who put the group together in 2017, and the other members of the trio are bassist Josquin Des Pres and drummer Danny Barragan. The seven tracks were recorded at Track Star Studios […]

After years as part of several SoCal roots scenes, including singing for the Burning Sage Band, singer-songwriter Ken Lehnig has been releasing solo discs since 2014, and Broken Heart is his fourth. The new CD has the same crew of solid studio musicians aboard like his last two, including Lehnig’s guitar, banjo, mandolin, keys, and […]

I used to think of Jack Tempchin as a SoCal country-rock musician. Now I’m thinking of him more as a country-western outlaw à la Willie, Waylon, and Merle. Jack has gone through many transitions over the years. I remember his electric band that played the Calypso in Encinitas in the early-2000s. Then, Jack went solo […]

San Diego jazz pianist Sue Palmer, the Queen of Boogie Woogie, the Sultana of Swing, the Lady Who Skates on the 88s. That is to say Ms. Palmer has been an invigorating presence on the live music scene in our busy burg, hustling and bustling her infectious blend of rhythm, riffing, boogie woogie, and barnstorming […]