NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
"Live at the Fillmore East 1970" (Reprise), iiii
Young has been coasting for decades on the splendid work he did from 1969 to 1975. This unexpected delight, the first of many archival sets to come from Young's bulging tape vault, is a sizzling 1970 show from New York's Fillmore East featuring the short-lived original incarnation of Young's best backing band Crazy Horse.
Along with deliriously wonderful, charged versions of "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and "Down by the River," the highlight of this six-track treasure is the glorious rocker "Come on Baby Let's Go Downtown," Crazy Horse guitarist-singer Danny Whitten's subversive, joyous ode to scoring smack. Two years later, Whitten would be dead from the stuff, inspiring Young to pen his classic album "Tonight's the Night."
Whitten, the best guitarist Young ever played with, almost steals the show again on an epic 16-minute "Cowgirl in the Sand," where his concise guitar lines in tandem with Young's, urged along by fellow Horsemen (pianist Jack Nitzsche, bassist Billy Talbot and drummer Ralph Molina), reveal a great, loose band at the peak of its powers.
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"Live at the Fillmore East 1970" shouldn't be missed.
-- Fred Shuster
JOHNNY CASH
"At San Quentin (Legacy Edition)" (Sony), iiii
This release actually supersedes 2000's expanded "complete" version of Cash's fabled 1969 concert by presenting the show in its entirety, including songs from Carl Perkins, the Statler Brothers, the Carter Family and June Carter Cash, as well as four more unreleased songs from the Man in Black. The unearthed tracks are electrifying, but the real bonus comes on the DVD, a 52-minute documentary made by England's Granada TV that intersperses Cash's thrilling work with interviews of prisoners. Cash's empathy for these men is repaid with an enthusiasm that's almost heartwarming. Check out the ovation after Cash sings "San Quentin." If only for a moment, these men believed they had a friend who understood.
-- Glenn Whipp
BIANCA RYAN
"Bianca Ryan" (Syco/Columbia), iii
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Her glorious pipes brought Brandy to her feet during round one of NBC's "America's Got Talent," which Ryan later went on to win (and deservedly so). Her rich, unwavering voice can rise to any challenge, including an album filled mostly with really bad covers. "You Light Up My Life"? There hasn't been a good version of that song in years. And yet Ryan tackles these kinds of has-beens like the old pro that her big, powerful voice makes you think she is. Her golden chops soar over an eight-voice kids' choir toward a grand finale in the R. Kelly-penned "I Believe I Can Fly" and nail "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" from the musical "Dreamgirls." Granted, hearing "I'm not waking up tomorrow morning and finding that there's no one there" sung by a 12-year-old doesn't really seem appropriate but there's no denying her vocal prowess. It is truly awesome.
-- Sandra Barrera
RUST KINGS
"Hotel West Virginia" (Dren), iii½
Definitely Appalachian yet somehow, observantly contemporary, this mountain music band has a way of picking and singing about bad love, wasted lives and uncertain hope for a better world while sounding amiably easygoing. Recorded in a living room but sounding no less polished for it, this versatile collection of shuffles, waltzes, breakdowns and hymns boasts three- and four-part harmonies as distinctive as the Kings' individual voices.
-- Bob Strauss
