Striking out on your own as a musician after being part of an ensemble is never easy to do, save for the fortunately marketable front men and Beyoncés of the world. Roosevelt Collier is doing his best, and while picking up steam, has never forgotten where he came from and what made him the musician he is today. Forged out of the Pentecostal beliefs surrounding “Sacred Steel,” Roosevelt is both carrier of the torch and genre-hijacking outlaw.

Dylan Muhlberg of Grateful Web. I am thrilled to be joined by Grammy Award winning bassist Victor Wooten. His virtuosic techniques have yielded an illustrious solo career and continuing collaborations with music legends of similar caliber such as Bela Fleck and Stanley Clarke.

If the spirit of the 60s was still alive, it’s probably not through the music. Nostalgia is what connects most folks to those simpler, but equally perplexing socioeconomic times in American history. On a grand scale, the human-be ins and connectivity that brought the young generation, the baby boomers, growing into adults of the late 1960s, was a time when youth stopped buying into their elder generations ideas of conformity and the lies about being patriotic by supporting a pointless war halfway across the world.

EOTO just unleashed their 6th annual live compilation K-Turns & U-Turns Vol. 6, Best of 2013, featuring 3½ hours of live uninhibited music from their 2013 tour. Arranged and produced to have the feel of a live show, the album slides effortlessly from track to track bringing the listener through some of EOTO’s best live performances last year.

Since I began my professional music writing career over 20 years ago, one thing I have taught myself over that time when it comes to new album reviews is to never pass judgment after only one listen.  Yes, there is something to be said about first impressions however one cannot truly digest the music until given ample hearings.