I'm not really up on the new music acts--I live in Mexico so don't listen to radio..Mostly I'm into the older favorites..Dylan, The Boss, Van the man. So I read the NY Times music section and when one of my favorite musician's comes out with something new, I order from Amazon..It's great, within 2 weeks it arrives.
Yesterday my three new CD's arrived. I put the outside speakers on, headed to the kitchen to wash dishes, my maid is off Saturday and Sunday, and the dishes sure stack up, and listened to my new "Lyle Lovett" (It's Not Big it's Large) which got a great review. I remember back in the 80's watching the Today Show and Jane introduced a new singer..out walked this dorky looking guy with a guitar and an accompanist..he sat on a stool as I recall and sang "If I had a boat"--It was great, he was shy, and I fell in love with his music. So this dorky guy ended up a star, married Julia Roberts, and has lasted all these years. I'm sitting here typing, with my headphones on, playing his new album and loving it. He has a great, unique voice that has a hundred years of Texas hardscrabble in it, and he is a great songwriter--almost every song is written by Lyle. His band of 20 is great--I highly recommend this album--rated 4 aces--out of 5.****update..after a few listenings I find only a couple of songs have held up--
One day I'm in a Tower records and riffling through the bargain bin. I came across a disc with a picture of a man in his underwear jumping on a trampoline..also the name of the CD (Trampoline). His name is Joe Henry. It quickly became one of my favorite CD's and receives heavy play in my rotation. I recently bought another of his CD's called (Scar) which also has some great music. 4stars****
I belong to a web site, now inactive last time I looked, called Fullerup--named after Bobby Fuller. This site lists the deaths of musicians, how they died, dates, a brief biography..broken down into categories(Car accidents, motorcycle accident, overdose etc). I've discovered several great, unknown, musicians here. Perhaps the greatest of them all was James Carr..if you loved Otis Redding, this guy was better!! However he was bi polar and lived in the streets most of his life. He was semi-popular in England but almost unknown in the US. Thankfully they got him into recording studios enough to preserve his great music. The Goldwax singles CD has a lot of great music, and gets a lot of heavy play on my disc player. 5 *****+ ps Bobby Fuller was destined to be a big star--he had it all-looks, talent, a hit record (I Fought the Law)..One day in LA he was sitting in his car and was asphyxiated by gasoline and killed.. the case never solved.
Next up is a classic singer from the 60's--he had one monster hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" and then pretty much disappeared from view. This great song was voted 54th best song out of 500 by Rolling Stone--Then a few years ago a music producer wondered what had happened to Percy Sledge, found him and found he still was a great singer. So they did an album together called "Blue Nights"--this CD has a lot of great soul and blues ballads, with Percy's unique voice adding to them. This is in my player quite often and I always enjoy it.4****
OK, next is my favorite concert- bar none. A friend of mine called all excited--"Jane Oliver is playing at a small theatre here, do you want to go"..I vaguely remembered the name but hadn't heard it in years. He reminded me she had a couple of hits in the 70's then disappeared. She was very big in the NY gay scene in her day until..The personal problems, such as stage fright, her husband developing cancer, her unhappiness with success, etc. drove her into retirement. So here we are in the late 80's going to see her in a small movie theatre in downtown West Palm Beach, in her first concert in years. We had 5th row center seats..she walked out very slowly and the audience went wild. (I'm sitting here watching Boston/Cleveland baseball and bawling my head off telling this story--Abe thinks I'm nuts! I've never been able to get through this without some tears) Anyway she starts crying on stage, the audience is screaming we love you, people start crying, soon the whole audience, 400 people at least, are crying, hugging each other..--perhaps the most real, emotional moment its been my privilage to see. She finally pulled it together enough to talk to us, her husband had died, she hadn't performed in years, she didn't think anyone remembered her..she walked out and all the love hit her. So she sang all her songs with a beautiful voice, emotive, just great- the next day I went out and bought "Chasing Rainbows" her 2nd album..When I have the blues I put her into my rotation--By the way Her first album in many years, "Love Decides" gets great reviews.4****
I will close this tonight with another 5 star album..I listen to this a lot and never tire of it. Back in the 70's a Canadian group had a big hit "American Woman"--the lead singer was Burton Cummings..eventually he went solo and had a handfull of hits. I have his greatest hits album and it is spectacular, every song is great, plus he has one of the best voices ever in Rock..His ballads are wonderful, he sings of lost love, one of my favorite themes. 5*****+
Yesterday my three new CD's arrived. I put the outside speakers on, headed to the kitchen to wash dishes, my maid is off Saturday and Sunday, and the dishes sure stack up, and listened to my new "Lyle Lovett" (It's Not Big it's Large) which got a great review. I remember back in the 80's watching the Today Show and Jane introduced a new singer..out walked this dorky looking guy with a guitar and an accompanist..he sat on a stool as I recall and sang "If I had a boat"--It was great, he was shy, and I fell in love with his music. So this dorky guy ended up a star, married Julia Roberts, and has lasted all these years. I'm sitting here typing, with my headphones on, playing his new album and loving it. He has a great, unique voice that has a hundred years of Texas hardscrabble in it, and he is a great songwriter--almost every song is written by Lyle. His band of 20 is great--I highly recommend this album--rated 4 aces--out of 5.****update..after a few listenings I find only a couple of songs have held up--
One day I'm in a Tower records and riffling through the bargain bin. I came across a disc with a picture of a man in his underwear jumping on a trampoline..also the name of the CD (Trampoline). His name is Joe Henry. It quickly became one of my favorite CD's and receives heavy play in my rotation. I recently bought another of his CD's called (Scar) which also has some great music. 4stars****
I belong to a web site, now inactive last time I looked, called Fullerup--named after Bobby Fuller. This site lists the deaths of musicians, how they died, dates, a brief biography..broken down into categories(Car accidents, motorcycle accident, overdose etc). I've discovered several great, unknown, musicians here. Perhaps the greatest of them all was James Carr..if you loved Otis Redding, this guy was better!! However he was bi polar and lived in the streets most of his life. He was semi-popular in England but almost unknown in the US. Thankfully they got him into recording studios enough to preserve his great music. The Goldwax singles CD has a lot of great music, and gets a lot of heavy play on my disc player. 5 *****+ ps Bobby Fuller was destined to be a big star--he had it all-looks, talent, a hit record (I Fought the Law)..One day in LA he was sitting in his car and was asphyxiated by gasoline and killed.. the case never solved.
Next up is a classic singer from the 60's--he had one monster hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" and then pretty much disappeared from view. This great song was voted 54th best song out of 500 by Rolling Stone--Then a few years ago a music producer wondered what had happened to Percy Sledge, found him and found he still was a great singer. So they did an album together called "Blue Nights"--this CD has a lot of great soul and blues ballads, with Percy's unique voice adding to them. This is in my player quite often and I always enjoy it.4****
OK, next is my favorite concert- bar none. A friend of mine called all excited--"Jane Oliver is playing at a small theatre here, do you want to go"..I vaguely remembered the name but hadn't heard it in years. He reminded me she had a couple of hits in the 70's then disappeared. She was very big in the NY gay scene in her day until..The personal problems, such as stage fright, her husband developing cancer, her unhappiness with success, etc. drove her into retirement. So here we are in the late 80's going to see her in a small movie theatre in downtown West Palm Beach, in her first concert in years. We had 5th row center seats..she walked out very slowly and the audience went wild. (I'm sitting here watching Boston/Cleveland baseball and bawling my head off telling this story--Abe thinks I'm nuts! I've never been able to get through this without some tears) Anyway she starts crying on stage, the audience is screaming we love you, people start crying, soon the whole audience, 400 people at least, are crying, hugging each other..--perhaps the most real, emotional moment its been my privilage to see. She finally pulled it together enough to talk to us, her husband had died, she hadn't performed in years, she didn't think anyone remembered her..she walked out and all the love hit her. So she sang all her songs with a beautiful voice, emotive, just great- the next day I went out and bought "Chasing Rainbows" her 2nd album..When I have the blues I put her into my rotation--By the way Her first album in many years, "Love Decides" gets great reviews.4****
I will close this tonight with another 5 star album..I listen to this a lot and never tire of it. Back in the 70's a Canadian group had a big hit "American Woman"--the lead singer was Burton Cummings..eventually he went solo and had a handfull of hits. I have his greatest hits album and it is spectacular, every song is great, plus he has one of the best voices ever in Rock..His ballads are wonderful, he sings of lost love, one of my favorite themes. 5*****+
A little unknown rock and roll history--I've been delving into early R and R..and came across a little known guitarist by the name of Danny Cedrone. In about 1953 he cut "Rock this Joint" which featured him playing a guitar solo his bandmates called a gimmick at the time. His bandmates were Bill Haley and the Comets. A year later they went into the studio to cut two sides..they spent most of the day on the A side, "Thirteen Women" and had about 40 minutes left in studio time to cut the B side..called "Rock around the Clock". Danny Cedrone plugged in his "gimmick" solo he had invented for "Rock this joint" and the Rock era officially began..this was the first guitar solo that people noticed, and were influenced by. Life is full of twists of fate..the record was released and didn't do much until about 6 months later it was used as the theme song for "Blackboard Jungle" a movie about juvenile delinquents..suddenly the song was a big hit. However two months after recording what is called the most famous guitar solo in rock history, Danny fell down a flight of steps and broke his neck and died. He had gone to a friends restaurant on the 2nd floor to pick up sandwiches for his family. Who knows, he could have gone on to create a new sound in rock many years ahead of its time, he did record at least one other great solo on "Rocket 88"..recognized as the first rock and roll song ever recorded..1951 Danny's guitar is in the R and R Hall of Fame--he should be.
Another obscure musician--back in the early 60's a big group of American folk singers went to London..Simon and Garfunkle among them. One of the folk singers was a handsome and brilliant singer/ songwriter named David Ackles. David was really a can't miss talent..wrote some beautiful music, had a low and unique voice..most of his songs were written in the first person, and told a story. Elton and Bernie Taupin loved him, in fact he opened Elton's first concert in the US at the Troubadore in LA.and Bernie produced one of his albums, his best, American Gothic. All together he released 4 or 5 albums that went nowhere. Then he had a terrible auto accident and disappeared from the music world. In the 90's Phil Collins was interviewed on Desert Island Discs program and named "Down River", one of David's songs, as one of his 8 favorites.."Down River" tells of a lost romance because the man went to prison. A gorgeous song that I love. Another favorite is "The Road to Cairo"--Elvis Costello named David as a great influence when he was inducted into the hall of fame. So he was well known with musicians but not the public.
David never did go back into the music world, his injuries kept him out for a long time so he taught, did some theatre work in LA--and died from cancer..a forgotten man. I highly recommend "American Gothic", called his masterpiece. In 1972 it was named Melody Maker's album of the year. Though a few of his songs have been recorded by some famous singers he is still pretty much unknown. Another disc I've been listening to is "Gimmee Fiction" by SPOON-last year on Tv there was a Mercedes ad with a song about "I turn my camara on" which caught my attention so I Googled and ordered the disc. This Austin band has a great sound, I love the lead guitarist, who uses a lot of distortion, and the disc, though a bit uneven, has some great tunes.
YOUTUBE again--Can't stay away from this site..At the moment ´I'm listening to Van Morrison "Til I gain Control Again"--about 5 times--Earlier I listened to Les Paul, the grandfather of the electric guitar in a duet with Chet Atkins. Awesome--Les Paul and Waylen Jennings--with youtube you may never need to buy a disc again-
YOUTUBE again--Can't stay away from this site..At the moment ´I'm listening to Van Morrison "Til I gain Control Again"--about 5 times--Earlier I listened to Les Paul, the grandfather of the electric guitar in a duet with Chet Atkins. Awesome--Les Paul and Waylen Jennings--with youtube you may never need to buy a disc again-
Update..some new Youtube favorites--Mario Frangoulis--my god where has he been hiding--handsome Greek with a great voice.."Caruso" and "Nights in White Satin" are in constant play. Mark Knophler and Clapton in a duet of "Sultans of Swing"--like some hot guitar? check it out. Remember Timi Yuro? "Whats a matter baby", the first blue eyed soul singer. Next A song that has haunted me for years--Fleetwood Mac the early lineup..I finally found it on Youtube.."Hypnotized" great song about UFO's. BB King and Clapton--"The thrill is gone" again great guitar--great guitar solos seems to be my theme today so one of the greatest--Wilson Pickett and the great Duane Allman--perhaps the greatest 2 minute ending of any song ever.."Hey Jude". Wilson reached his peak driven by Duane's driving solo--as the song fades you can hear Wilson say "Good god almighty"--To find an unknown Dylan song is always exciting to me, this one written by the great John Hiatt, called "The Usual",--incredible song-it starts "I'm tripping over dumb drunks at a party"--ok John Hiatt--"Perfectly good guitars" Why do stars smash their perfectly good guitars? Great lyrics- Another "Slow Turning" great song, great album. John is under appreciated for sure.
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