AMG Review of Best of Columbia Records Radio Hour, Vol. 2

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

Featuring such artists as Bruce Cockburn, James Taylor, Shawn Colvin, and Mary-Chapin Carpenter, the second compilation drawn from The Columbia Records Radio Hour remains primarily a forum for singer/songwriters on the Sony Music roster. But the lineup has been expanded to include groups like Toad the Wet Sprocket and Booker T. & the MGs, thus taking in more produced music in different genres, and also such artists as the Dave Matthews Band, Little Feat, Nanci Griffith, Victoria Williams, Lou Reed, and Boz Scaggs, who work for other record companies. As that list of performers indicates, there is a lot of talent here, and the open format, in which, for instance, Cockburn and Youssou N'Dour sing Bob Dylan's "Chimes of Freedom." each in his own language, and in which Boz Scaggs fronts Booker T. & the MGs on the Albert King song "As the Years Go Passing By," allows for some interesting mixtures.