THE MOJO GURUS, Let's Get Lit
JIM SUHLER & MONKEY BEAT, Tijuana Bible
The vitality of straight-ahead, hard charging, guitar-fueled rock 'n' roll with a blues base and a southern twist is no better demonstrated than on new long players from the Mojo Gurus, by way of Tampa, and Jim Suhler & Monkey Beat, by way of Texas. For those about to rock, they salute you.

DAVE FIELDS, All Wound Up
Accomplished on multiple instruments (not all of them the stringed variety) and a musical jack-of-all-trades as a producer-musician-composer and head of his own Fields Music, which services original music to media and industrial markets, Dave Fields has kept his solo career on low flame, this being only his third album following his 1998 debut, Field of Vision. But his previous album emerging in 2007, and now a third in early 2009 perhaps indicate a new focus on making his personal statement. If so, the blues couldn't be happier, if that's not an oxymoron. All Wound Up is a solid, in the pocket long playing exploration of various blues styles in configurations both expansive and compact.

GRAHAM WILKINSON, Graham Wilkinson
Usually leading his band The Underground Township, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Graham Wilkinson cut a bunch of solo acoustic songs in a friend's apartment some time back, and promptly put them away to focus on his other projects. Persuaded by Town Council Publishing president Wayne Dalchau to release the collection on CD, Wilkinson now has something on his hands, namely an immediate claim to being one of his generation's most promising singer-songwriters.

DVD: RON BLOCK: A FRESH LOOK AT BLUEGRASS BANJO
If anyone wants to know what the ideal instructional DVD should contain, Ron Block's A Fresh Look At Bluegrass Banjo is a textbook example of a comprehensive, accessible, smart short course by a master of the art. If something is missing here, one would be hard pressed to say what it is. Block and the folks at AcuTab have covered so many angles of the banjo in and out of a band context, and addressed so many issues of style, tone and execution-and made sure to emphasize the importance of practicing-as to make the title of their effort indisputable. In fact, Block does such a good job connecting the dots between passion and technique that even non-players might want to check out the DVD, if only to gain a greater understanding of what they're actually hearing when a good bluegrass band engages a song fully.