New name…same great music

Perhaps you’ve noticed the new name of this column. For eight years, I disliked the name “Music Scene,” so from now on, we’ll have a fresh moniker and a new attitude as we look at a wide variety of music every week. Let’s roll.

Harper: Way Down Deep Inside, Under The Radar Music

Harper is an Australian harp player (with a name like Harper, did you think he played the guitar?) who has been hailed as the “Jimi Hendrix of the harmonica” by some journalists. It was probably his publicist who coined the name.

Harper is no blues man as might be expected, but a rocker with a taste for raucous hard-edged rock, R&B and funk, with soulful vocals and fleeting, almost jazz-like harp improvisation on top. One listen to his new CD confirmed that this guy knows what he’s doing; great songs, superb vocals and a tight backup band make for one fine disc. For more information visit undertheradarmusicgroup.com.

John Hiatt and The Goners: Beneath This Gruff Exterior, New West Records

John Hiatt may be the best singer/songwriter/guitarist working within the roots rock milieu today, and this new release with his backup band, The Goners (which includes ace slide guitarist Sonny Landreth), contains 12 new Hiatt classics like “Uncommon Connection,” “The Nagging Dark,” “Circle Back,” “That’s My Window On The World” and “The Most Unoriginal Sin.”

Hiatt is known as a “songwriter’s songwriter” and has scored many hits for other artists. He is also a recognizable vocalist and a solid rhythm guitarist. A national treasure, he waxes poetic with his characteristically wry, smart-ass humor and irony about bad coffee, middle age, love relationships and kids growing up too quickly. “Beneath This Gruff Exterior” is as good as it gets.

Various Artists: He Was Fab—A Loving Tribute To George Harrison, Jam Records

I’m pretty sick of the whole tribute album thing, just as I was with all the “unplugged” discs force-fed to the listening public in the late 1990s. “He Was Fab” might be the exception.

Contained are mostly high-quality renditions of George Harrison songs by lesser-known power pop artists, although there is the occasional misstep. If you admire Harrison’s work, you’ll probably like this, but be warned that the late ex-Beatle’s original versions will always exceed anyone’s re-creations, no matter how sincere the effort.

Peter Frampton: Now, Framptone Records

Remember Peter Frampton? If you grew up in the late ’70s, you do. “Frampton Comes Alive” is still the best-selling live rock album of all time, though after those halcyon years of incredible success, Frampton suffered severe injury in a car accident, lost all his instruments in a plane crash and eventually lost his fortune to bad management and investments.

Slowly, he’s begun to regain a following. Now in his 50s and balding, the family man who lives quietly in the suburbs of Cincinnati has come roaring back with a new disc that rivals the quality of his earliest solo work. The material is generally good, with plenty of mature, stunning guitar work (and the usual sappy ballad, par for the course with Frampton). “Now” should keep Frampton’s fans happy, but it’s not his best work by any means. For more information visit frampton.com.

Drive By Truckers: Decoration Day, New West Records

The Drive By Truckers are slowly becoming critics’ darlings of the Alt Country/ Americana set with their desperate tales of rural life and the twisted traditions and darker aspects of life in the southern United States.

Sporting a triple guitar lineup, the band gained notoriety for their recent disc “Southern Rock Opera,” in which they paid tribute to Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their latest disc is loaded with references to guns, murder, lost love, desperation and more. If you like raw southern rock with a country twist, check this out.

For more information visit newwestrecords.com.