AMG Review of Best of Columbia Records Radio Hour, Vol. 1

Richard Meyer
All Music Guide

This selection from the Columbia Records Radio Hour programs lets us hear some unusual collaborations. Roseanne Cash performing together with her producer, John Leventhal, as well as Bruce Cockburn with Rob Wasserman, and James McMurtry performing with Jules Shear. These live-in-the-studio sessions have a relaxed spontaneity that you don't hear on their more produced releases. Shawn Colvin's duet version of "Shotgun Down the Avalanche" with Mary-Chapin Carpenter is a good example. Other performers are Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, and David Byrne.