Newsboys

By Bert Saraco • Sep 24th, 2008 • Category: Album Reviews

First order of business: yes, they are now known simply as ‘newsboys,’ not ‘The’ newsboys - and no capital ‘N.’ Somebody at Inpop must hate grammar checkers. Grammatical awkwardness aside, newsboys have always been a band out to please their target audience, and their newest project is a bumper-crop of newsboys, to be sure. Newsboys [...]


Take 6

By Bert Saraco • Sep 20th, 2008 • Category: Album Reviews

It can reasonably be argued that, in the wake of their stunning 1988 debut, Take 6 was primarily responsible for the revival of interest in a cappella music that carried through into the nineties and beyond. Coming out of nowhere, these six young men not only created complex, soulful jazz vocalizations, but they put those [...]


Jake Smith

By Bert Saraco • Sep 6th, 2008 • Category: Album Reviews

All That We’ll Ever Need is an enjoyable near-half -hour musical detour to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, compliments of Jake Smith, Joe Causey, Josiah Bashta, and Darren Phipps. From the first notes plucked on Phipps’ acoustic bass, All That We’ll Ever Need has the ambiance of an intimate club where the audience and band members have [...]


Brian “Head” Welch

By Bert Saraco • Sep 1st, 2008 • Category: Album Reviews

Chances are, you’ve heard this man before. Brian “Head” Welch, founding member and former guitarist of KoRn, is no stranger to the heavier side of rock music and, as a member of that band, is partially responsible for the rise of what some have dubbed the New Metal movement. Welch was, however a stranger to [...]


Jimmy Needham

By Bert Saraco • Aug 20th, 2008 • Category: Album Reviews

When you’re looking for something bluesy, with a dose of funk on the side, one of the places you check out would be Texas. Well, here comes a blue-eyed soul man from Texas, by the name of Jimmy Needham. Not Without Love is a decidedly Christian album which has, for the most part, escaped the [...]


CONCERT REVIEW: Over the Rhine

By Bert Saraco • Aug 13th, 2008 • Category: Features

At The Living Room, NYC - August 4, 2008


Brooke Fraser

By Bert Saraco • Jul 31st, 2008 • Category: Album Reviews

Brooke Fraser is a name that might be new to most of you – it certainly was to me. Honestly, I didn’t know quite what to expect as I observed the somewhat sultry-looking singer pictured on the cover art of this Wood & Bone release. “Hmm. Probably some shallow, over-produced, commercial, big-studio clone,” I thought. [...]


CONCERT REVIEW: Salvador Live

By Bert Saraco • Jul 30th, 2008 • Category: Features

At Bellerose Assembly of God Church – NYC, July 20, 2008


Amy Courts

By Bert Saraco • Jul 30th, 2008 • Category: Album Reviews

If you meet Amy Courts walking down the street, don’t ask her how she’s doing unless you don’t mind getting a bit depressed: her own press sheet says that her album, These Cold and Rusted Lungs, “illustrates the realities of weariness within the inner person.” No, this is not a ‘party’ album …which is not [...]


Francesca Battistelli

By Bert Saraco • Jul 22nd, 2008 • Category: Album Reviews

You can take the girl to Nashville, but you can’t take New York out of the girl. Sure, Francesca Battistelli is actually ‘from’ Florida, but she was born in New York and still sounds (to these ears) like a northeasterner, in the tradition of Kathy Troccoli or Margaret Becker. According to her MySpace bio, Francesca [...]