Play On: A Raspberries Tribute 2025

 

Here's a fine idea. Get a bunch of pop and power pop bands and artists to cover Raspberries songs from their four LPs, which were released between 1972-1974. 2 CDs, 37 songs, only two artists get more than one song. Lemon Twigs get two, and author and musician Ken Sharp gets two. Sharp also plays on and produces many of the recordings. Usually these things stick mostly to the hits, but there's plenty of deep cuts here. In fact, those four original records contain a total of 39 tracks, so all but three songs are represented here. That math doesn't work, but there is also a cover of Please Let Me Come Back Home, a demo that was only included on the Raspberries - Greatest Hits Columbia CD from 2000.

Plenty of big names contribute, but so do some less well known bands and artists, as well as a few names I didn't think were still recording (Shoes, Spongetones). Almost everyone does a fine job. In fact, the quality of these covers is consistently very good compared to how discs like this usually go. That may be due to the level of respect that The Raspberries have achieved, or maybe the songs are just that good. Spending time with those four originals certainly supports the later theory. 

I could nitpick and point out the three or four efforts that are inferior. But four out of 37 is darn good for a various artists tribute record. So this is one great tribute to one great band, who deserve the adulation they have belatedly achieved.

There is only one better way to listen to these songs. I made a playlist of the originals in the same order as this set. You can do a good job of covering The Raspberries, but you can't really improve on the originals. 

Carl Perkins Some Things Never Change 2025

I need an editor. If I had one, she would have told me some time ago to stop using the phrase "there's not a weak track". I'll be working on that, but this new Carl Perkins record is going to test my resolve.

Recorded in 1990 and produced by the talented Bill Lloyd, the recording was lost until Lloyd found it in his archives in 2024. It is essential Perkins. It sounds like the follow-up to Perkin's debut, the wonderful Dance Album of Carl Perkins from 1958, which was a collection of singles released on Sun Records between 1955-1958. 

It is 33 minutes long. Lots of artists make records that are too long in this CD era. This one leaves you wanting more. 

The record kicks off with Perkins' Baby, Bye Bye, a classic rockabilly stomper, followed by Don't Cha Know I Love You, a fine mid-tempo rocker with Perkins' southern drawl and sweet pedal steel guitar from Pete Finney. Then it's on to John Hiatt's great Memphis In The Meantime, and Perkins does it even better than the original and gives it a hot lead guitar break. Messin' Around With Rock and Roll tells the story of a young man in love with country and blues who discovers that his rockabilly is indeed rock and roll, and Perkins lays down some serious chicken-pickin' leads and fills.

The title track is a sweet love ballad about love that lasts, and is enhanced by Joe Schenk's piano. Miss Muddy is a piano-led boogie-woogie blast of an ode to the Mississippi river with more hot guitar in Perkin's inimitable style. The country-folk of Where Does Love Go makes heartache sound fresh, and again Carl adds a simple yet perfect lead. Since Carl played lead guitar in Johnny Cash's band for a decade he has the right to do a cover of Get Rhythm, and while nothing new, it's a fine version again with Carl's guitar featured. Finally Heart Of My Heart is pure stomping rockabilly with more guitar and steel guitar.

Every song is an opportunity for Perkins' country twang of a voice to light up the room. He's a fine singer, a great songwriter, and a killer guitarist. His sons make up the rhythm section, and they are competent professionals. In addition to the aforementioned sidemen, Jerry Douglas helps out too.

Perkins made five or six more records after this before his passing in 1998. But like that Jerry Lee Lewis record I reviewed recently, this is a late career masterpiece. Available for streaming and on all physical formats, including vinyl. 

Rod Stewart Every Picture Tells a Story 1971

It's a classic, and it sat idle in the stacks for years until a few days ago when I gave it a spin and was reminded of how great it is. Like Stewart's previous two solo outings, it is a mix of rock, folk, blues and soul. Those first two, An Old Raincoat Won't Ever Let You Down (The Rod Stewart Album in the US) 1969 and Gasoline Alley 1970 are both solid. The third time was the charm. 

Maggie May was the B side of the cover of Tim Hardin's Reason to Believe, but DJs flipped the record and that B side became a #1 hit on both sides of the pond. Rockers That's All Right, (I Know) I'm Losing You and the title track are all great in that loose Faces way. The folk numbers Seems Like a Long Time, Tomorrow Is a Long Time, Reason to Believe, and Stewart's own Mandolin Wind are a fine song selection and are presented in lovely arrangements. Stewart sings everything with as much bravado or sensitivity as the tune requires. As great as the cover songs are, the three from Stewart's pen are all highlights. There isn't a weak track.

There is a lot of good music on Stewart's early solo work; the seven records from 1969-1976 all contain some great songs, and 1976's A Night on the Town closes Stewart's early career on a high note. Remarkably the five Faces records were all released during the same period. That's a whole career for anyone, but Stewart has soldiered on and continues to this day. That voice is a rare gift, and Rod has never let it rest very long. 

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era, 1965–1968 1998, Nuggets II: Original Artyfacts from the British Empire and Beyond, 1964–1969 2001

 

The original Nuggets double LP, compiled by Lenny Kaye, was released in 1972. It was an important seed for punk rock in the seventies, and frankly a whole lot of fun. Then in 1999, at the height of Rhino's compilation fever, comes this four CD box set. The first CD includes the same 27 tracks that were on the original LP. You might think that the quality would sag a bit to fill three more CDs, but alas you would be wrong.

Kaye's original concept was to focus on what he termed Garage Rock, a simple, bash-it-out aggressive style often featuring relatively primitive recording techniques. The psychedelic and poppier sounds included weren't exactly what Kaye was looking for, but the set achieves it's goal. Many of the songs made the charts although quite a few languished in the higher numbered positions. Quite a few didn't chart and will be new to many listeners. Some were regional hits that weren't as successful nationally. That was a thing in the 60s before corporate radio owned every station.

The box set was a big hit for Rhino, and for good reason. The song list is excellent. Songs you've heard if you were around in the 60s plus similar and only slightly weirder or more challenging songs from the period, many of which listeners haven't heard. The box is well curated, well sequenced, and the music is well documented in the accompanying book.

Three years later they couldn't resist a Volume 2. But they didn't try to dig up more similar material from the US. Instead they went international, collecting songs from the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Iceland, Peru, and Brazil. This time, there are not many that you've heard. That means that this is a big old box of garage rock exploration. Approach with open mind and ears, and you're in for a treat. While the band names may not ring a bell, a lot of the artists in those bands became familiar names a few years later. Again, well assembled material and another informative book.

Two great box sets. One a classic, the other a wild deep dive.

Loud, Fast, and Out of Control: The Wild Sounds of 50s Rock 1999, Rockin' Bones: 1950s Punk and Rockabilly 2006

Here's two four-CD box sets that both cover the rocking 1950s, but they are certainly not the same product. Both are from Rhino Records. Both feature 50s music that parents of the day would not appreciate. Given that those parents were raised on The Andrews Sisters and Benny Goodman this should come as no surprise. Loud, Fast and Out of Control covers a broader range of sounds and hits a few more of the big name artists that anyone (over 60) will recognize. Rockin' Bones focuses more on rockabilly, and as such includes a few more artists and songs that will be unfamiliar to most listeners.

As an introduction to what made early rock and roll sound dangerous to adult ears, either will help a young person today in an academic study of the era. For the older music fan that wants to dive deep into 50s rock, both are almost indispensable.  

Several writers have complained that the two sets have too much overlap, and I have thought that myself. So I did the dull work of actually finding out how many songs they share. Both sets have just over 100 songs. There are fifteen identical songs that are included on both sets. There are also four songs that are included on both, but in versions by different artists. So there is less that a CD's worth of duplication. It could (and should) have been avoided by Rhino without significant loss to either set, but it isn't as big of a deal as I thought it was.

I think Loud, Fast and Out of Control is the better all-rounder. It's got more familiar material and still throws enough lesser-knowns into the mix to keep things interesting. But Rockin' Bones, with it's focus on rockabilly, has more to offer someone already tuned into the early days of rock and roll. If you already have some early rock compilations, Rockin' Bones will have more new material you haven't heard.

I'm happy to have them both. Neither appear to be available through streaming, a situation that applies to many great compilations. Both are available used at reasonable prices well below their original cost. As usual with Rhino, the booklets that come with the sets are well done and discuss each song individually.

Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives Space Junk 2025

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives have been together for over twenty years. They have made at least twelve records. They are essentially a country band, but that is a pigeon hole a bit too tight for these guys. All four members are virtuoso players that can play anything that comes their way. All four are in-demand studio and touring musicians and have played in more bands and on more records than you can count. Their moniker is both cute and funny, and very accurate. There really aren't enough superlatives.

This record will probably disappoint some of their die hard country fans. It's got some country sounds on it, but it shares more in common with Los Straightjackets and the Ventures than with country music. It's an instrumental rock record, and it is amazing. Stuart and Kenny Vaughn are both super hot guitarists, and bassist Chris Scruggs could probably play all the parts himself, since he plays guitar, mandolin, steel guitar and drums. Harry Stinson is a top-tier drummer. They are all songwriters, and good ones, so these instrumentals are beautifully crafted. There are no weak tracks.

This one could have bumped several from my top ten list for 2025, and probably should have, but I just discovered it a few days ago.

On Marty's web site, there's this quote: "We thought the world needed a fresh instrumental album by a pretty good band, so we composed twenty instrumentals and took them to the microphones." Pretty good band? Humility is nice, but Marty Stuart knows better.

Merry Christmas