Ken Tucker
Stories
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Holiday offerings by Ben Folds and others offer devout takes on the season
Rock critic Ken Tucker picks his favorite new Christmas songs, including "Christmas Time Rhyme," by Ben Folds; "Glow," by Little Big Town; and "Maybe this Christmas," by Jason Kelce and Stevie Nicks.
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Country songs by Dwight Yoakam, Maren Morris and Shawna Thompson blend old and new
Yoakam has recorded a harmonious new duet with Post Malone. Morris is stretching beyond country's borders. And Thompson — half of the duo Thompson Square — looks back to the roots of honky-tonk.
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Singer/songwriter Randy Newman looks back on his decades-long music career
Ken Tucker reviews Robert Hilburn's biography of Newman, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country. Plus, we listen back to a 1998 archival interview with the Grammy Award-winning artist.
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Some of Bob Dylan's most raucous rock comes to life on 'The 1974 Live Recordings'
Dylan's 40-show 1974 tour with The Band produced a live double-album later that year. Now, the music available from that tour has increased dramatically with the release of a new 27-CD set.
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50 years later, Neil Young's 'On the Beach' remains bleak -- and beautiful
The recording sessions for Young's 1974 album were gloomy, drug-fueled affairs, but the end result proves that artists can make good work no matter how hemmed-in, churlish or depressed they may be.
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Revisiting the hard-rock swagger of the New York Dolls' 1974 album, 50 years later
Though sales were lackluster, Too Much Too Soon captured the band's spirit. Less than a year after its release, the Dolls broke up in a combination of commercial failure and personal misbehavior.
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50 years ago, 'Country Life' solidified Roxy Music's reputation as art-rockers
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50 years later, Stevie Wonder's 'First Finale' remains ripe for rediscovery
Fulfillingness’ First Finale won the Grammy for Best Album in 1975, yet today it feels underrated — perhaps because its overall tone was more meditative than the albums immediately preceding it.
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50 years later, Steely Dan's 'Pretzel Logic' still sounds fresh
By 1974, Steely Dan's two albums had helped established the band as a viable business proposition. With Pretzel Logic, they began a quest for studio perfectionism that would last for decades to come.
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3 exhilarating songs showcase music genres being explored in new ways
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs' “Dare To Dream," Tommy Richman's "Million Dollar Baby" and Jeff and Steven McDonald's “Born Innocent" feature spontaneous sounds rooted in deep knowledge of the past.
