You rarely see a musician dabbling in sports — OK, Marvin Gaye did try out for the Detroit Lions — but it’s certainly not unusual to see an athlete turn to music. So it was with London Dubstep producer/DJ Gary McCann, more prominently known as Caspa.
  

One spin through Pete Dressman’s new album, Vol. II, might give the impression that the Cincinnati singer/songwriter and his band, the Soul Unified Nation, are unrepentant lovers of contemporary classic Rock icons like Pearl Jam who wouldn’t be the least bit out of place opening for locally-based Psych Rock trio Buffalo Killers. And you’d be right.   

When George Clinton founded the Parliaments, he had the standard issue ’50s Doo Wop look — clean shaven, slicked back hair, sharp suit. At 2010’s Grammy Awards, Clinton looked like a gene spliced voodoo priest/tie-dyed Zulu shaman/bearded rooster on a mescaline drip.    

 JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound knows Soul and folds into its musical mix healthy chunks of Garage Rock energy, smooth R&B style and frenetic Punk swagger, tapping into the best aspects of   

When George Clinton founded the Parliaments, he had the standard issue ’50s Doo Wop look — clean shaven, slicked back hair, sharp suit. At 2010’s Grammy Awards, Clinton looked like a gene splice  

It’s a safe bet that not even Alex Trebek’s research brainiacs could conceive an entire category’s worth of answers on the subject of Contemporary Celtic Rockers, unless they cheated and did   

Larry Kirwan is no mere Punk provocateur; he’s written a memoir, two novels and a dozen plays and musicals, and he’s currently collaborating with Schindler’s List author Thomas Keneally on a musical about female Irish convicts exiled to Australia (could be the summer’s feel good hit).   

The air seems sweeter here in the front of the website, the sun a little brighter and the deadlines a little more immediate, but as Uncle Ben once reminded Peter Parker, with great power comes great responsibility. So here we are in relatively short order with a batch of new reviews and a few more older titles in my continuing quest to revisit the deserving releases from the not-so-waning months of 2011. We’re getting there, slowly but surely. Read them while they’re hot; there’s more where they came from.  

In the beginning, there was Tanya Morgan. And Tanya Morgan was good. Comprised of gifted Cincinnati rappers Ilyas Nashid and Donald “Donwill” Freeman, along with equally talented Brooklyn, N.Y., MC/producer Devon “Von Pea” Callender, Tanya Morgan was hailed as one of Hip Hop’s brightest young groups.  

Most Folk/Roots/Blues fans would pony up plenty to see Carrie Rodriguez, Kelly Joe Phelps or Erin McKeown on their own. A triple bill for free with that line-up is a gift from the musical heavens. Here’s why: