This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Here are three reviews published in today's Tribune:
Tuesday's release of "So Beautiful Or So What" is Paul Simon's best new album since 1990's "The Rhythm of the Saints."The album finds Simon reconnecting with the syncopated African rhythms and lilting instrumentation that he fell in love with on 1986's "Graceland."But instead of recycling that album's dive into a foreign culture, now now blends Western bluegrass and African folk idioms so that the music never seems forced. These songs are consistently graceful, and his clear voice illuminates probing but never esoteric lyrics.At 69, there goes rhymin' Simon, still charming and inviting after all these years. GRADE: A-
The Clark Planetarium's new Cosmic Light Show, "Led Zeppelin," opens Friday, April 15, at 8 p.m.The 45-minute show is a dazzling follow-up to the planetarium's U2 light show, which debuted in 2008.The new Hansen Dome theatre production was done in-house, and includes abstract, surreal 3-D images choreographed to lasers and a 150,000-watt surround-sound system, featuring John Bonham pounding along to "Stairway to Heaven," "Whole Lotta Love," and other favorites from the 1971 ZOSO album.The effect is a simulation of what it must have been like to binge on bath salts before they were outlawed by the Utah Legislature. Grade: A-
Alison Krauss and her crack bluegrass band Union Station, scheduled to perform at Red Buute Garden in September, haven't released an album together since 2004. Krauss herself hasn't released new music since 2007's "Raising Sand," her collaboration with Robert Plant. The 2004 and 2007 albums won 10 Grammys altogether, and on "Paper Airplane" the hillbilly fiddling soprano again illustrates why she deserves acclaim. Purists might call her sanitized, but these delicate songs feature her sweet, angelic vocals. She also generously shares the spotlight with band members, including Dan Tyminski, who was the voice of George Clooney in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Grade: B+