Finn Wolfhard Fire From The Hip 2026

 

Smart guitar driven pop-rock with a touch of folk is hardly a rarity these days. And really, there's never been a time when it wasn't popular, at least as a fringe movement. Canadian actor/musician Finn Wolfhard's second solo album is a solid example.

Album opener and lead-off single I'll Let You Finish kicks things off in fine power-pop style. Other highlights include Common Side Effects, with it's driving beat, second single Tunnels, a pounding mid-tempo rocker, and Crater, a straight-ahead rocker with big fat guitars. His softer, folky side is represented by Lights Go Down and the more acoustic Maggie and Trail. The record closes with more acoustic guitars and solid harmonies on The Climb (Not That One).

Wolfhard has a high, slightly nasal, sometimes whiney voice that is effective. His songs are generally good, although sometimes they drive the same chords all the way through, and could use a more distinct chorus or middle eight/bridge section. Harmony vocals are good, and drummer Josh Resing deserves special mention for his particularly fine work. The first half has more energy than the second. 

It might not be a thrill all the way through, but it is darn good, especially when compared to some of the stuff that actors-cum-musicians have produced over the years. Wolfhard writes all the songs, and if he got help from one of the many song writing pros out there to flesh things out just a bit more, his acting career could end up being the lesser of his talents.

Jazz

I'm a lightweight when it comes to jazz. BeBop, Hard Bop, Fusion, Free Jazz, Modal Jazz, they all chase me away with aggressive and/or chaotic music, loud and frenzied horns. I've heard lots of those styles, and I can appreciate even what I do not enjoy. But I'm more of a Cool Jazz, West Coast Jazz, Pop-Jazz type of guy. I like female jazz singers, classic trios from the fifties and sixties, and generally more mellow, less challenging fare. This isn't a list of the finest jazz, and I'm not qualified for that list. But I think these are all very good records, and they strike a chord with me. I went through the stacks looking for my favorites. All of these records get played frequently around here.

Karrin Allyson In Blue 2002 There's a theme, and it is done brilliantly. 

George Benson The Other Side of Abbey Road 1970 Odd choice, odd record. Fascinating reinterpretation.

Kenny Burrell Midnight Blue 1963 Bluesy jazz guitar from a master.

Eva Cassidy Live At Blues Alley 1996 An amazing voice. Jazz-pop of the highest order.

Nat King Cole After Midnight 1957/2006 The trio with soloists on most songs. Cole's voice and piano are smooth as silk. The reissued 2 LP version from 2006 is sonic nirvana, but it will be great however you get to hear it.

John Coltrane My Favorite Things 1961 Not many sax players on this list, but this is irresistible.

Bill Evans Sunday at the Village Vanguard 1961 One of the two greatest piano trios at the top of their game. All the praise of Scott Lafaro is well-deserved. 

Bill Frisell Good Dog, Happy Man 1999 There's plenty of great Frisell records, this is my pick.

Melody Gardot My One And Only Thrill 2009 Sensuous. 

Original Chico Hamilton Quartet Complete Studio Recordings 2006 West Coast jazz, mellow and distinctive. 

Milt Jackson and the Monty Alexander Trio Soul Fusion 1978 Fine jazz piano trio plus Jackson's vibes. Jeff Hamilton and John Clayton many years before they were Diana Krall's rhythm section.

John Handy Hard Work 1976 Funky jazz-blues.

Ahmad Jamal At The Pershing: But Not For Me 1958 The other of the two greatest piano trios. 

Norah Jones The Fall 2009 I'm not sure this is jazz, but it's my favorite of Jones' work.

Stacey Kent Breakfast On The Morning Tram 2007 Kazuo Ishiguro provides the lyrics for Jim Tomlinson's music on the four best tracks. The rest is well-chosen covers. Kent's singing is always the star. 

Diana Krall Live In Paris 2002 The voice, the piano chops, the amazing small combo. Wow.

Peggy Lee Ultimate Peggy Lee 2020 Great vinyl pressing that combines her Decca and Capitol recordings in one place.

Robin McKelle Mess Around 2010 The best singer you never heard in your life. 

Maceo Parker Roots and Grooves 2008 Maceo with the WRD Big Band Cologne do a tribute to Ray Charles and then give a master class in funk. Indispensable. 

Frank Sinatra In the Wee Small Hours 1955 The concept album is invented. And Frank sings every song perfectly.

Frank Sinatra Classic Sinatra- His Great Performances 1953-1960 2000 A fine compilation of Frank's greatest fifties hits for Columbia, his peak period.

Frank Sinatra Moonlight Sinatra 1966 Nelson Riddle and Sinatra on Frank's most woefully neglected album. Strangers In The Night came out three months later.

Cal Tjader Soul Sauce 1964 I just love vibes.

Allen Toussaint The Bright Mississippi 2009 Toussaint's late career masterpiece, and an all-star supporting cast.

Cassandra Wilson Blue Skies 1988 Wilson takes on the great American songbook. Mulgrew Miller, Lonnie Plaxico and Terri Lyne Carrington provide trio support.

Randy Newman Sail Away 1972, Bad Love 1999

He's an unusually gifted songwriter and lyricist. Randy Newman made lots of interesting records over the years, and made many dollars writing songs for others, as well as thirty-one movie soundtracks. These two, made twenty-seven years apart, are his finest.

Sail Away opens with the title track, which Newman described as "a commercial jingle written for slave traders looking to recruit naive Africans", a beautiful delivery of very dark satire. Lonely At The Top outlines the downside of stardom. He gives Us All His Love is a not at all ironic ode to God. More like a nightmare, Last Night I Had A Dream tells of nocturnal fear while Simon Smith and the Dancing Bear is a curious story of strange fame. Old Man is an unsentimental look at the end of life.

The humor in Political Science is biting and a bit sardonic, and hilarious or scary depending on your outlook. As a Clevelander, Burn On has a special place in my heart. The seemingly slight Memo To My Son turns out to be as sentimental as Newman gets. The quaint Dayton, Ohio 1903 longs for a simpler time. You Can Leave Your Hat On, made famous by Joe Cocker, sounds both sexier and just a bit sad and creepy in Newman's superior version. The final track, God's Song, is one of the more nasty rants against religion ever put to music. 

Some of them seem small compared to the big statements, but everything is perfectly crafted with the appropriate support and ideal arrangements. Classic.

Bad Love contains some of Newman's most sentimental moments as well as some of his most biting satire. Newman himself said, "Before I started Bad Love, I wasn't exactly sure I could do a rock 'n' roll record at 65, or however old I was. But I was satisfied that it was a good record. Maybe my best record."

My Country starts things off with a lovely story of family, community and television. Shame presents a pathetic old man's lust for a younger woman. One of the highlights is I'm Dead (But I Don't Know It), a scathing indictment of rockers who have kept at it too long that includes the lines "Each record that I'm making, Is like a record that I've made, Just not as good". Then we get the sadly sentimental longing for lost love that is Every Time It Rains. That's followed by The Great Nations of Europe, an hilarious (or awful) evaluation of the barbaric tendencies of the "refined" European explorers of the Americas. The One You Love is a warning to men that can't read their lover's mind.

The World Isn't Fair is Newman's critique of the Aristocracy we all live in (or with). Newman sings the praise of untruths in the western swing of Big Hat, No Cattle. Better Off Dead tells the sad tale of one-sided love affairs, in his own funny way. I Miss You is a beautiful, sensitive, sentimental ode to a lost love. Going Home is a brief WWI soldier's story, and then I Want Everyone To Like Me ends the record on an upbeat swinging tune about just what it sounds like. It is both funny and true.

Some of them seem small compared to the big statements, but everything is perfectly crafted with the appropriate support and ideal arrangements. Classic.

Fleetwood Mac The Middle Years (A Playlist), Like Crying - The Songs of Danny Kirwin 2025

 

From 1966 to 1969 Fleetwood Mac was a blues-rock band headed by Peter Green on guitar with Jeremy Spencer on guitar, Mick Fleetwood on drums and John McVie on bass. Danny Kirwin was added to the line-up in 1968. Peter Green left the band he founded in 1969. This playlist covers the “middle period” Fleetwood Mac between Peter Green’s departure in 1969 and Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks’ arrival in 1975. 

From 1970 to 1974, multiple line-up changes occurred. Kiln House was recorded by the remaining four members after Green left in 1969, plus Christine Perfect (McVie) on keyboards (uncredited). After Kiln House Jeremy Spencer left. For Future Games, Bob Welsh on guitar and Christine McVie on keyboards were added to the group. This same line-up recorded Bare Trees, after which Danny Kirwin left the group. On Penguin, Bob Weston on guitar and Dave Walker on vocals were added to replace Kirwin. Walker left after Penguin, leaving the Fleetwood, McVie, McVie, Welsh and Weston line-up to record Mystery To Me. Weston left after Mystery To Me, and the four remaining members recorded Heroes Are Hard To Find. After Heroes Are Hard To Find, Bob Welsh left the group, replaced by Lindsay Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. This became the line-up that owned rock radio in the late 1970s. But the years between Peter Green and Lindsey Buckingham produced some great music, highlighting the songwriting of Kirwin, Welsh and Christine McVie, all built on the foundation of one of the great rock rhythm sections of John McVie and Mick Fleetwood.

So here's a 1970-1974 playlist I burned to CD from vinyl years ago, and which is now a playlist on my iTunes and on Qobuz. If you're streaming, it's easy to assemble for your very own pleasure:

From Kihn House 1970:

1. This Is The Rock (Spencer)

2. Jewel Eyed Judy (Kirwin, J. McVie, Fleetwood)

3. Tell Me All The Things You Know (Kirwin)

From Future Games 1971:

4. Future Games (Welsh)

5. Lay It All Down (Welsh)

6. Sometimes (Kirwin)

From Bare Trees 1972:

7. The Ghost (Welsh)

8. Homeward Bound (C. McVie)

9. Bare Trees (Kirwin)

From Penguin 1973:

10. Remember Me (C. McVie)

11. Dissatisfied (C. McVie)

From Mystery To Me 1973:

12. Somebody (Welsh)

13. Believe Me (C. McVie)

14. Hypnotized (Welsh)

From Heroes Are Hard To Find 1974:

15. Heroes Are Hard To Find (C. McVie)

16. Silver Heels (Welsh)

17. Come A Little Bit Closer (C. McVie)

Another way to appreciate this period of the band is with the recently released Like Crying - The Songs of Danny Kirwin (digital only release). Danny Kirwin was a fine guitar player and an excellent songwriter and singer. He joined Fleetwood Mac for Then Play On in 1969, Peter Green's last record with the band. Like Crying includes all the songs Kirwin wrote (in chronological order) from Then Play On 1969 through Bare Trees 1972. It also includes three songs that were released on singles, and in the case of Trinity from the Bare Trees sessions, not released at all until 1992 on 25 Years- The Chain box set. Kirwin's songs are very good, and the collection is a cool way to focus on one important songwriter's work.

The Rolling Stones Foreign Tongues 2026

After eighteen years without new studio material, the Stones made Hackney Diamonds three years ago. Now we have Foreign Tongues, the follow-up. Some of the tracks were apparently recorded during the Hackney Diamonds sessions, while most were recorded in new sessions more recently with Andrew Watt producing as he had for Hackney Diamonds. The sound of the two is very similar and Watt updates the Stones' sound similarly on both records. I'm not a huge fan of the overly loud, too clean, compressed sound Watt achieves, but it isn't the worst either.

Hackney Diamonds was a remarkable return to form for the Stones, with only a few disappointments. Foreign Tongues is not the equal of it's predecessor, but it's not bad either. Remove 14 minutes from this new one to make it equal in length to Hackney, and maybe it's almost as good.

Rough and Twisted gets things started with fine guitar interplay and a big Stones-y racket. In The Stars comes next and sounds a bit like a Start Me Up remake with more good guitars, great Jagger vocals and a hooky chorus. Mick breaks out the falsetto on Jealous Lover and it sounds like it would have fit nicely on Black and Blue. Mr. Charm took a few spins to convince me, but it rocks. Divine Intervention sounds like a Hackney outtake- it's almost saved by a fine lead guitar break. The classic Stones country tonk of Ringing Hollow scores with political commentary and hot lead guitar.

Never Want to Lose You isn't great but it's good deep cut material. Hit Me In The Head disappoints and again sounds like leftovers from Hackney. Whoever thought that they should cover Amy Winehouse's You Know I'm No Good was just wrong. They take a great song and do nothing particularly interesting with it, and Mick's vocal affectations sound forced. Some of Us is the requisite Keith ballad, and it's good, if not as good as Tell Me Straight from Hackney. Covered In You has a killer chorus, nice harmonica from Mick, and more politics. Side Effects is lame. Back In Your Life is an acoustic ballad with two nice lead breaks and an excellent lyric, and Mick gives it a sensitive reading. Beautiful Delilah is an OK Chuck Berry tune they could play in their sleep.

The guitars sound great. Mick Jagger sounds like the younger Mick Jagger and as invested in these tunes as he sounded on Hackney. That's probably why some other reviewers have been more generous.

Eight solid winners by my count, six I could do without. Not terrible, and roughly on par with Steel Wheels. It's no embarrassment, but Hackney Diamonds Two it is not. 

Dr. John, the night tripper GRIS-gris 1968

Just picture yourself in 1968 hearing this for the first time. I personally had no idea what to expect, but I was enthralled. And a bit confused. It is a dark backwater of a record where the rhythm of New Orleans meets the town's darkest soul.

And it still sounds weird today. It's a swampy New Orleans psychedelic trip through the delta. Made in LA with a relatively small group (several others also from the Big Easy), it sounds thick with voodoo, chanted group vocals, layered percussion, and Dr. John's gruff vocals.  

Swampy opener Gris-gris Gumbo Ya Ya, where Dr. John introduces himself as the shaman, sets the stage. The mystical chant of Danse Kalinda Ba Doom follows, full of percussion and flute and wordless chant. Soulful, funky Mama Roux lightens things a bit with a lilting chorus while it tells the story of a voodoo queen. Danse Fambeaux continues the percussion-thick chanting and strange off-kilter music.

Side two opens with Croker Courtbullion, a jazzy spaced out trip of guitar, flute, and sax solos that drift in and out through the percussive background and incomprehensible chanting. Jump Sturdy follows and offers a few minutes of melodic structure, chanted vocals, and Dr. John's funky vocals. The record closes with I Walk On Gilded Splinters, a classic that's been covered by many. It is Dr. John conjuring voodoo ritual with smoldering, ominous foreboding. It's a deep, threatening groove. 

The record takes you into the dark, swampy delta with it's magical mojo. Dr. John never made another just like it, and no one else has either. A truly unique musical experience. 

Dave Edmunds Plugged In 1994

Dave Edmunds made a bunch of fine records in the 70s and 80s. Then in 1994, in response to all the "unplugged" records being made, Edmunds went with Plugged In. A solo record all the way, Dave produces, sings, and plays all of the instruments. Not always a good idea, but Dave does it as well as anyone.

Edmunds never writes a lot of the songs on his records (two on this one), but he has impeccable taste in songs to cover. Chutes and Ladders is a driving opener with a hot riff. A bluesy riff pounds away on Billy Gibbons' One Step Back. Dave's own I Love Music has a funky backbeat, the sentiment is clear, and Dave rips a nice lead break. Jim Lauderdale's Halfway Down is another hot rocker, and Dave lays on the reverb on the vocal. Beach Boy Blood (In My Veins) is a wonderfully fun pastiche of Beach Boy melodies and vocals that more than simulates the real thing. Jerry Reed's instrumental The Claw gets the rockabilly guitar twang from Edmunds, and it's a skill set he's particularly good at.

I Got The Will is an Otis Redding tune that Dave turns into a stomping soul rocker. Then Dave does A Better Word For Love, the lovely Al Anderson/NRBQ ballad that is one of Anderson's best songs. Standing At The Crossroads rocks hard, and Dave's high tenor and smoking guitar are all the song needs. Edmunds' own It Doesn't Really Matter is rockabilly magic with a cajun feel and something that sounds just like an accordion. The records ends with Sabre Dance '94, a remake of Khachaturian's classical piece, and Dave's first hit song from 1968 with the band Love Sculpture.

And there you have it. A fine outing that stands up to comparison with Dave's best from his productive 70s and 80s. He made three more good records records after this, but this is the last one that sounds like the ones he made with Rockpile.