TED DROZDOWSKI
SENIOR EDITOR
I’ve sought refuge during the pandemic—mental deliverance and comfort food for the soul—in my roots. Blues has long been a source of the latter for me. And Mississippi Suitcase is elemental: a celebratory bonfire, radiating Parcek’s virtuosity, creativity, and musical intelligence.
Peter Parcek
Mississippi Suitcase
It’s not simply his world-class and richly original guitar playing, which dances on an emotional high wire between transcendent invention and deep tradition, or his songwriting, which illuminates all the corners of our humanity, that makes him such an important and hauntingly expressive artist in today’s blues and roots scene. Or even the way his singing breathes with life and wisdom. There’s also his ability to reframe classic material, whether by Sonny Boy Williamson or Lou Reed, in a way that’s respectful of history and yet resonant in the present. He can be wild and unpredictable, yet resolute as granite. And, like a bonfire, he burns. He is truly a master, and I love this album.
Pink Floyd
Delicate Sound of Thunder
Pink Floyd has been my shelter in this year’s storm. I revisit everything in the band’s and David Gilmour’s catalogs constantly, finding warmth in the weirdness and beauty, and in the empathy of their finest lyrics, and uplift in Syd Barrett’s and David’s performances. So it felt like this reissue, recorded during the 1987 Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, was a gift made for me. The remastered sound and the performances are killer—a sonic, psychedelic spa I can soak in infinitely, and there’s music not on the original release, including the wordless wonder “The Great Gig in the Sky.” And while I love Syd’s left-field virtuosity, nobody has a more beautiful, burnished tone than David, and the delicate precision of his bends and phrasing cut to my heart. I really get lost in his playing, in the best way possible. Adding to my Floydian refuge was the also-just-reissued book Barrett: The Definitive Visual Companion, by Russell Beecher and Will Shutes, packed with early photos of Syd, with and without the band, and his paintings and drawings, including work through the early mid-2000s. It’s a fascination look inside a wonderful and difficult mind.
Henry Kaiser, Mike Watt, Vinny Golia, Wayne Peet, and John Hanrahan
A Love Supreme Electric: A Salvo Inspired By John Coltrane—A Love Supreme & Meditations
This two-album set answers a theoretical: What if Coltrane had survived cancer and joined Miles Davis in pioneering electric jazz? Five of the world’s finest improvisors weigh in via compositions from the two brilliant ’Trane albums in the title. There’s a lot of mystery, satisfaction, and surprise in these 12 performances, as instrumental voices blend and fracture, melodies skyrocket and flare, and notes tumble in a stampeding herd or slowly and elegantly stretch like lazy cats in the sun. Kaiser’s guitar playing is full of energy and invention, but, honestly, so is everyone’s. At times there are clear nods to Sonny Sharrock, who was himself a Coltrane disciple, and the improv supergroup Last Exit. During pandemic isolation, this rune to chaos and control (and Coltrane, of course!) is a marvelous reminder of freedom—and a reminder that free jazz has always been about human, rather than musical, liberation.
Most-anticipated 2021 releases: Please, Tom Waits … please, this year! Any unreleased Sonny Sharrock, R.L. Burnside, or Junior Kimbrough recordings. More great discoveries and productions from Dan Auerbach and his Easy Eye label. And new music from Julian Lage, Anthony Pirog, and Valerie June.
Telecasters and offsets dominate Division of Laura Lee’s guitar landscape, with an early-2000s Fender Tele Custom (middle, with Black Flag sticker) being Stålberg’s main guitar (he uses its Rio Grande bridge pickup exclusively). His other current go-to is a stock Squier J Mascis Jazzmaster, while the 1978 Greco Les Paul Standard copy (behind the Tele) was a staple of early DOLL tunes. Stålberg’s main amp is a Fender Super-Sonic head. Meanwhile, Victor Lager’s main guitars are a couple of Fender Jazzmasters (right), and his favorite amp is a ’90s Fender Tone Master head.
As a studio owner, Stålberg has all sorts of gear on hand for recording, but for DOLL he relies on a handful of time-proven pedals: a TC Electronic PolyTune, a Fulltone OCD, a Way Huge Swollen Pickle fuzz, a Boss RE-20 Space Echo, an ’80s Ibanez DL10 Delay, an MXR Micro Amp, and a Gollmer ’60s Trem from Sweden.
Lager’s main axe for the last two decades has been a black early-2000s Fender Jazzmaster with Seymour Duncan Antiquity II pickups and a Staytrem bridge (left). To avoid accidental switching, he has deactivated both the upper-bout rhythm circuit and the main circuit’s tone control. His most recent acquisition is a blue Fender American Original ’60s Jazzmaster (right) that he upgraded with a Mastery bridge.
Functioning more as the band’s soundscapist, Lager has more stomps than Stålberg—and more adventuresome ones, too. He tunes with a D’Addario Chromatic Pedal Tuner, then runs into a Jim Dunlop Cry Baby wah, an MXR Booster Mini (out of sight behind the wah), a Hamstead Soundworks Odyssey, an MXR Phase 95, an Electro-Harmonix POG, an MXR Carbon Copy Deluxe, a Red Panda Particle, a Tru-Fi Colordriver, an Electro-Harmonix Oceans 11 Reverb, a modified ’90s Pro Co RAT, and a Walrus Audio Monument.
Lager’s main guitar for his previous band, this 1973 Fender Tele Custom, is unusual in that it features a rosewood (rather than maple) fretboard.
Click below to listen wherever you get your podcasts:
 |  |
 |  |