The Reverend's Favorite New Albums of 2025

Much like the swallows return to Capistrano, each year I check out the various "best of" album lists in different publications. As I've stated before, I'm old as dirt, and a lot of today's pop music isn't being made for me. I'm OK with this...my tastes are pretty eclectic, anyway. 

Much of today's disposable pop music does little but enrich the bank accounts of record label execs, and few of those featured on today's lists will forge long-term careers. I see few legit new "rock" LPs on young writers' lists, and absolutely no blues grooves. So I thought I'd put together my own danged list. 

Yeah, because I'm a rockin' geezer, my list tends to skew towards classic rock and blues musicians. These aren't necessarily the 25 "best" albums of the year to anybody but me, and the list largely reflects the new music I bought or acquired in 2025...

The Black Keys - No Rain, No Flowers
Steve Boyd - King of the Losers
Tommy Castro - Closer To the Bone
Bootsy Collins - Album of the Year #1 Funkateer
Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice Cooper
Marshall Crenshaw - From the Hellhole
Guided By Voices - Thick Rich and Delicious
Buddy Guy - Ain't Done With the Blues
Luke Haines & Peter Buck - Going Down To the River To Blow My Mind
Curtis Harding - Departures & Arrivals
Peter Holsapple - The Face of 68
Cristone "Kingfish" Ingram - Hard Road
Jason Isbell - Foxes In the Snow
Jethro Tull - Curious Ruminant
Willie Nile - The Great Yellow Light
Old Town Crier - Peterson Motel
Richie Owens - Redemption
Rich Pagano & the Sugarcane Cups - Hold Still Light Escapes
Piper & the Hard Times - Good Company
Robert Plant - Saving Grace
Mitch Ryder - With Love
Todd Snider - High, Lonesome & Then Some
Dave Specter - Live At SPACE
St Paul & the Broken Bones - St Paul & the Broken Bones
Superchunk - Songs In the Key of Yikes
Tedeschi Trucks Band - Mad Dogs & Englishmen Revisited
Walter Trout - Sign of the Times 
William Tyler - Time Indefinite
Webb Wilder - Hillbilly Speedball
Tommy Womack - Live A Little

Links are to That Devil Music album reviews...

 

Archive Review: Dave Specter’s Spectified (2010)

Chicago blues guitarist Dave Specter has flown under the radar for much of his considerable career. Mentored by Sunnyland Slim’s great guitarist Steve Freund, Specter honed his skills by apprenticing under giants like Hubert Sumlin and Son Seals. When he finally stepped out on his own to launch a solo career, Specter continued to play in the shadow of larger-than-life vocalists like Barkin’ Bill Smith, Jesse Fortune, and Tad Robinson.

Throughout it all, Specter has quietly created a solid body of work, with eight acclaimed studio and live albums to his credit, as well as well-regarded contributions to recordings by Al Miller, Steve Freund, and Lurrie Bell, among others. Spectified, the guitarist’s first studio effort since his 2004 collaboration with Freund, Is What It Is, is an inspired collection of instrumentals that showcase Specter’s talents and place him firmly among such rarified company as Freund, Ronnie Earl, or Duke Robillard.   

Dave Specter’s Spectified

Spectified opens with a bang, the soulful and slightly funky “Stick To the Hip” featuring an engaging recurring guitar pattern, a solid rhythm, and below-the-horizon horns from the Bo’ Weavil Brass, led by former Tower of Power trumpeter Mike Cichowicz. Keyboards, courtesy of John Kattke and Pete Benson, evoke the wonderful glory days of Booker T & the M.G.’s and Stax soul, the resulting mix a sheer delight, the song a rambunctious rave-up that stays polite while proving the listener and the band alike no little amount of joy.

By contrast, Specter’s “Octavate’n” could easily be mistaken for a Stevie Ray Vaughan outtake, the song resounding with slinky Texas blues-styled fretbanging, Specter’s lively tones jumpin-n-jivin’ like the parking lot of a Jack-In-The-Box drive-thru in suburban Dallas on a Saturday night as the keyboards add some energetic riffing of their own. “Soul Serenade” is another engaging instrumental, with a hint of Southern rock and a little twang in the grooves between Specter’s jazzy tones and hot licks, the shuffling rhythm complimented by a subtle horn arrangement. This is the kind of warm and fuzzy tune that, in more adventurous times, could have topped the charts; instead it will be embraced by blues fans with good taste and an open mind.

Rumba & Tonic

With the indigo-hued “Blues Call,” Specter delivers what he knows best – a dusky instrumental that perfectly fuses a blues aesthetic with the imagination of jazz guitar (I’m thinking John McLaughlin or Al di Meola). This is break-of-dawn music, best heard by candlelight and preferably with something strong to drink…blues to the core, but sophisticated in a way that belies urban, urbane influences. The keyboards chime in around the three-minute mark with an extended solo that sounds fresh and yet familiar, influenced by the work of folk like Booker T and Isaac Hayes while adding something new and exciting to the vibe. “Alley Walk” is another rattletrap electric blues-burner with strutting rhythms and some of the raunchiest guitar Specter has ever played. 

David Hidalgo of Los Lobos lends his talents to the “Rumba & Tonic,” creating a Tex-Mex atmosphere, the song a spry little sucker with great echoed guitarwork and some south-of-the-border pickin’, tinkling honky-tonk piano, ringing accordion, and a strong rhythm that will set your feet to moving. Specter and gang jump back to the Windy City for “Lumus D’ Rumpus,” a strutting Chicago blues shuffle with a walking rhythm and dashes of piano and drums on top of which Specter embroiders his imaginative fretwork, which ranges from jazzy licks to ringing riffs. Spectified closes out with “Alley Walk Acoustic,” revisiting the earlier number with far different effect, Specter plucking the strings Delta-style, sounding more like Son House or Charley Patton than the seasoned Chicago bluesman that he is. It works like magic, creating a mesmerizing sound that sticks in your mind long after the album has stopped playing.    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Dave Specter is a phenomenal talent, to be sure, but he’s not a musician that is content to rest on the laurels proffered his earlier work. Spectified stretches out the guitarist’s repertoire with some daring new styles and tones, Specter revealing a few new tricks to tickle your eardrums while still providing quite a few moments of old-school blues that the fans of come to expect. While he doesn’t have a shelf full of awards to bolster his reputation, Specter lets the music do all the talking with the realization that if you play this well for this long, the accolades will come when they come. If you’re a fan of blues guitar, you owe it to yourself to check out Spectified. (Fret12 Records, released September 2010)

Also on That Devil Music:
Dave Specter - Live At SPACE review
Dave Specter - Live In Chicago review

CD Review: Dave Specter’s Live At SPACE (2025)

Dave Specter is the secret weapon of the contemporary Chicago blues scene. A guitarist of extraordinary talent, Specter is well-versed in, and adept at melding blues, jazz, and rock into a singular, unique style. He’s kept the flame burning for blues music in his hometown, and although he doesn’t seem to venture far beyond his Illinois base too often, he’s helped promote and support other artists as a co-founder of SPACE, the Evanston IL club that features a wealth of performers of the blues, folk, jazz, and rock persuasion. Even a glance at the club’s upcoming schedule – which includes a slate of ‘must-see’ artists like the Sun Ra Arkestra, Don Flemons, Cedric Burnside, Roseanne Cash, NRBQ, and Walter Trout – is enough to make any music enthusiast not in Chicago green with envy.

If Specter isn’t as well known to the casual blues fan, it’s not for lack of anything. The guitarist has played with some of the finest in the blues universe, artists like Sam Lay (Paul Butterfield Blues Band), Hubert Sumlin (Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist), and Son Seals, and he’s produced a slew of records by talented bluesfolk. His relationship with the legendary Delmark Records goes back roughly 35 years, and the recently-released Live At SPACE album is Specter’s 14th release with the esteemed blues label. Specter doesn’t get nearly the respect he’s earned, nor the attention he deserves, but his legion of loyal fans wait in anticipation for each new album.

Dave Specter’s Live At SPACE

Specter’s Live At SPACE isn’t his first live effort – the wonderful Live In Chicago came in 2008, and the equally-engaging Live In Europe way back in 1995 (with soulful vocalist Tad Robinson on the microphone). Still, 40 years into his career, Specter pursues growth as an artist and Live At SPACE displays a still-creative performer using his guitar as the brush and the stage as his canvas. It helps that his firecracker band, comprised of keyboardist/vocalist Brother John Kattke, bassist Rodrigo Mantovani, and drummer Marty Blinder, has developed a closeknit musical chemistry with the bandleader and is skilled enough to follow his every move on stage. The result is an entertaining and enticing live performance that would thrill any Chicago blues fan.

Live At SPACE opens with a pair of rambunctious instrumentals – “Rumba & Tonic” and “Alley Walk” – that are reminiscent of Booker T. & the M.G.’s and Stax Records. The former offers up an exotic, jazzy guitar intro and a loping rhythm that sways from one speaker to the other, with some elegant guitar licks along the way. Kattke adds a rollicking piano jam in the middle, followed by some Southern-fried keyboards. The latter song offers up more of a menacingly slow-paced, low-slung groove that allows the band to revel in some free-wheeling instrumentation like Specter’s livewire fretwork, Blinder’s jazzy brushes, and Mantovani’s fluid bass lines. It’s an invigorating performance that, at nearly six minutes, still ends too soon. A cover of the 1962 Otis Rush single “Homework,” by way of the J. Geils Band, is a clever amalgam of both versions, jazzy six-string flourishes and soulful vox vying with Kattke’s lively keys.  

(Not The) Same Old Blues

Specter’s own “Blues From the Inside Out” offers a jaunty, up-tempo performance that matches its sly lyrics to a jump-blues framework with plenty of jazzy guitar and a swinging rhythm while the original “Chicago Style” is both a reverential tribute to those who came before, from Howlin’ Wolf to Otis Clay, while establishing a Chicago blues sound for the new millennium, with vibrant guitarplay, hearty vocals, and an infectious walking rhythm. A cover of Memphis music legend Don Nix’s “Same Old Blues” (originally recorded by Freddie King) is a pastiche of 70 years of rhythm and blues history, honoring the soulful original while embellishing it with some hot licks and subtle, yet powerful Gospel-tinged keyboards. Specter’s original “March Through the Darkness” offers an uplifting, almost anthemic performance marrying a spiritual, Staples Family vibe to Specter’s gorgeous fretwork and Kattke’s soulful, Booker T-styled keyboard runs. 

A cover of the traditional folk song “Deep Elem Blues,” best known as recorded in 1935 by country outfit the Shelton Brothers, but resurrected in 1981 by the Grateful Dead as an Americana-styled excuse for extended jams, hews closer to the Dead’s version in spirit, but puts a ‘Chicago blues’ stamp on the song with a distinct Midwest vocal drawl, lively guitar strokes, and a funky groove punctuated by Kattke’s honky-tonk piano-pounding. Specter’s take on the great Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Bluebird Blues” is a blissful blues romp with heartbreak vox, late-night piano trills, and nuanced but emotionally-powerful guitarplay while Specter’s reverent take on Chicago blues legend Magic Sam Maghett’s “Ridin’ High” closes the album with an upbeat, intoxicating blend of Chicago-styled guitar pyrotechnics delivered against an exhilarating rhythm track.    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Dave Specter may not be as well known as some of his contemporaries, but he’s been a constant presence on the Chicago blues scene for better than four decades – so long that he’s helped refine and define the city’s traditional sound with disparate elements that have expanded and improved upon what stalwarts like Tampa Red, Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Paul Butterfield, and others had accomplished. Live At SPACE captures a March 2024 show by the underrated guitarist and it documents a performance without peer, as electric and entertaining a blues album as you’ll hear this year, or any other. If you’re a blues fan and haven’t yet picked up Dave Specter, you owe it to yourself to check out the transcendent performance offered by Live At SPACE. (Delmark Records, released June 6th, 2025) 

Also on That Devil Music:
Dave Specter’s Live In Chicago CD review

Buy the album from Amazon: Dave Specter’s Live At SPACE

Archive Review: Dave Specter’s Live In Chicago (2008)

Guitarist Dave Specter came up through the ranks differently than your typical blues artist. Specter didn’t pick up the guitar until the relatively old age of eighteen, but quickly immersed himself in the instrument. While working at the city’s famed Jazz Record Mart, the Chicago native took lessons from Steve Freund, Sunnyland Slim’s former guitarist. Freund subsequently hooked him up as a touring musician with Hubert Sumlin, Howlin’ Wolf’s guitarist, and Chicago blues legend, drummer Sam Lay.

Before putting his own band together in 1989, Specter made his bones as a guitar-for-hire, touring with such major league talents as Son Seals and the Legendary Blues Band and recording with artists like Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, and Jimmy Rogers, among many others. When it came time, Specter signed with Delmark, and released his debut album, Bluebird Blues, in 1991. In the decade-and-a-half since, Specter has recorded six highly-regarded studio albums and a live album.

Dave Specter’s Live In Chicago

Specter’s Live In Chicago, released on both CD and DVD, documents two August 2007 performances – one at Buddy Guy’s Legends club, and the other at the legendary Rosa’s Blues Lounge. The talented guitarist doesn’t sing, so he enlisted the help of several friends to handle the microphone while Specter did what he does best…play. Tad Robinson, Jimmy Johnson, and Sharon Lewis lend their voices to the event. To back him up, Specter put together an incredible collection of Chicago blues talent, including keyboardist Brother John Kattke (formerly of Buddy Guy’s band), bassist Harlan Terson  (Otis Rush’s band), and drummer Marty Binder (a veteran of Albert Collins’ band).

Live In Chicago opens with the lively instrumental duo “Boss Funk/Riverside Ride.” Specter brings a jazzy tone to his playing, a fluid ease similar to B.B. King. Whereas King often imbues his songs with a darker hue, Specter’s fretwork is bright and playful. The opening song includes some tasty Southern-fried keyboard courtesy of Brother John. As Kattke double-taps the keys with a funky flair, Dave and the boys strut through the song with a smooth groove. 

Vocalist and harmonica player Tad Robinson joins Specter onstage for “What Love Did To Me, blowing the harp with a soulful self-assuredness. Robinson’s vocals are where his strongest talents lie, however…sweet, bluesy, gruff, and welded to the energetic harp passages. The song shuffles along to a fast-walking beat, Specter adding guitar flourishes throughout that add to the emotion that Robinson is pouring into the performance. 

How I Got To Memphis

A cover of Tom T. Hall’s urban country classic “How I Got To Memphis” is a fine example of Dixie soul that mixes a slight country twang with rough-hewn vocals and a deep rhythmic groove. Specter’s playing here is transcendent, displaying a tougher edge, trembling tone, and plenty of heart. Robinson’s potent vocals convey the song’s heartbreak and anguish. The instrumental “Texas Top” showcases the fine talents of the band that Specter assembled for the recording. Drummer Marty Binder keeps a steady, if subdued beat alongside Terson’s muted bass lines. Specter picks out a nasty sort of Lone Star state funk, channeling both Stevie Ray and T-Bone Walker on a red-hot six-string workout. Brother John Kattke’s fingers fly across the keys, lending a honky-tonk feel to the song.    

Guitarist Jimmy Johnson joins the band for the old-school Jimmy Rogers’ tune “Out On The Road.” Johnson’s style compliments Specter’s, the guitarist achieving a blunt, rich tone shorn of its edge, but stinging nonetheless. Johnson’s higher-pitched vocals, although not as strong as, say, Robinson’s, are just as expressive. The rocking standard 12-bar blues structure of the Chick Willis classic “Feel So Bad” benefits from Johnson’s opening six-string salvo, the bluesman playing off Terson’s bass groove before launching into a sorrowful tale of love gone wrong. It’s a classic blues tune, full of energy yet always just bubbling under the boiling point.

Singer Sharon Lewis hits the stage for the raucous, up-tempo “In Too Deep.” Lewis is an entertaining vocalist, capable of really belting out a song with heart and soul. Specter adds his tasteful fretwork astride a slip-sliding rhythm while Lewis delivers a crowd-pleasing performance. An original Lewis song, the soul ballad “Angel,” closes out the too-brief Rosa’s set. Specter’s delicate guitar intro reminds of the Jimi Hendrix’s classic “Little Wing” with beautiful tone and enchanting space between the notes. Lewis displays the other end of her great vocal range, delivering an emotional reading of the song in a Gospel vein. 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

A gifted instrumentalist with a variety of styles at his disposal, Dave Specter is an unsung talent on the Chicago blues scene. Specter is no blues purist, but rather an enthusiast who incorporates elements of bluesmen like T-Bone Walker, Magic Sam, and Otis Rush in his work, along with jazzier influences like Kenny Burrell and, although it’s understated, B.B. King. Live In Chicago is an incredible display of Specter’s talents as a guitarist, as a stylist, and as a bandleader. This is a good show, and well worth hearing for any dedicated blues fan. (Delmark Records, released 2008)