The Beach Boys

The Beach Boys early records were all about surfing, cars and girls. The first six records fit this category, and while some may find gold digging into the album tracks, the period is best served for most listeners by the Endless Summer 1974 compilation. Today! and Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!), both from 1965, see the band's music and Brian's production getting more sophisticated and both are more than the singles and filler of their earlier work.

And then in 1966 comes Pet Sounds. Widely hailed as one of the greatest pop records ever, it is all that and more. Brian's masterpiece. Interestingly, it was met with mixed reviews on it's release in America, and Brian was deeply hurt by the rejection he felt. In England the record was met with universal acclaim. Go figure. It actually took a long time to develop it's reputation for greatness. In 1974 it was out of print and you could buy it in cut-out bins.

I'll skip over the whole Brian's breakdown and the collapse of Smile, the planned follow-up to Pet Sounds. The next ten years would be a roller coaster of quality for Beach Boys releases, some of which have received better reviews retrospectively than on their initial release. The band was trying hard to become relevant in a more grown-up album market that rejected their 60s surfer image. On the road they were becoming a nostalgia act even while they were producing some excellent work.

So I'll go ahead and tell you the ones I think are well worth hearing, and there will be plenty to disagree with. In the period from 1967-1977, I like Wild Honey 1967 (An unusual R&B outing, and fun and different because of it), Sunflower 1970 (Their last great record, and a showcase for under-appreciated Dennis), Surf's Up 1971 (Uneven, but when it's good, it's great), and Holland 1973 (Not perfect, but close, and their last really good record).

Then there's the one's that have received some good press, at least retrospectively. I don't really think they cut it for my list, but Friends 1968, 20/20 1969, and Love You 1977 all have their supporters, and they are at least interesting to hear from a historical perspective.

That leaves Smiley Smile 1967, Carl and the Passions "So Tough" 1972, 15 Big Ones 1976, and M.I.U. Album 1977, none of which deserve your time. There are good songs here and there, but they'll show up on any number of compilations. And everything after 1977 is at least as bad or worse, that is until That's Why God Made the Radio 2012, a decent stab at a reunion of what was left of the band 50 years after their debut. Better than almost anyone would have expected, but still not essential.

For all the myriad compilations, there's really not one that sums everything up. Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys 1993 has all the good stuff, but also includes a lot of unreleased material related to the aborted Smile, outtakes and assorted junk in a 5-CD box set for the collector. The two-CD Fifty Big Ones 2012 comes very close, and if you didn't have any Beach Boys music, it covers everything you need (except Caroline, No, but you need Pet Sounds anyway). 

Sly and The Family Stone 1967- 1975

Sly and the Family Stone were as great a band as everything you've ever heard. They broke new ground on several levels, interracially, politically, and most of all in the pursuit of pure funk. You can argue about who invented funk, but Sly and the Family Stone moved funk forward in a seriously big way. And got white folks into it too.

The 1970 Greatest Hits is an indispensable record. Even if you have all of their studio records, you'd still need it for the three great singles that appeared new on the album. Absolutely everyone with any cool at all owned it in 1970.

Other compilations that came later and include the songs on Greatest Hits are strong contenders these days for someone new to the Family Stone, assuming such people exist. For vinyl lovers, the 2009 Music On Vinyl two-disc The Best of Sly and the Family Stone adds a few more tracks and includes a couple from Fresh, which many see as his last great record. The 2003 The Essential Sly and The Family Stone, on two CDs, is even better, as it includes a couple from the 1967 debut A Whole New Thing (Underdog is definitely essential) as well as Small Talk 1974 and one from Sly's 1975 solo debut High On You, plus lots more album tracks that deserve to be heard.

Many would argue that the best way to appreciate the band is in live performance, and there's also a couple of good ways to do just that. Woodstock: Sunday August 17, 1969 from 2019 or The Woodstock Experience from 2009 both include the whole set, and it's easy to see why they wowed the peace and love crowd in upstate New York (Experience also includes Stand! on a second CD). Live at the Fillmore East October 4th & 5th, 1968 from 2015, available as a comprehensive four CD set or a two LP edited version is also killer.

By the way, their criminally neglected debut A Whole New Thing is not a lesser record just because it sold little and didn't really sound like what was coming. It's quite good. It sounds a little like a good War record without the Latin bit.

Dance To The Music is hands down one of the greatest singles of the sixties. 

Cynthia and Jerry got a message they're sayin' All The Squares Go Home!

Live Shows Part 1: 1966-1980

I was never a frequent attendee at live shows, and I never saw any stadium shows at all. I did enjoy seeing artists in theatre-sized rooms, and occasionally in smaller venues like the Cleveland Agora or Beachland Ballroom. I started making a list a while back as a memory exercise, and it's beginning to feel about as complete as I'm ever going to achieve. I'm going to try to be chronological as best I can. Hopefully I'll get the decade right. I did a list of my favorites here if you want to check it out. So here goes:

The Rolling Stones 1966 Cleveland Arena. My older brother's date got sick last minute and my mom made him take me. It's the only time I saw the Stones, and I don't remember much, but I can see the stage in my mind from where we sat. I was 11.

Lemon Pipers, Rotary Connection 1968 Cleveland Music Hall. My brother played bass. I went with my parents. I fell in love with Rotary Connection, and the amazing voice of Minnie Ripperton.

Chambers Brothers 1968-69? Cleveland Music Hall. I loved the Chambers Brothers. They were really good live, very energetic. I think my mom took me.

The Band 1970 Cleveland Music Hall. One of my most memorable concerts. They were outstanding, doing two hours with an intermission and no opener. 

Jethro Tull, Lee Michaels, Clouds 1970 Allen Theatre. Michaels was doing the stuff from his eponymous record with just him on B3 and Frosty on drums. They were killer, and very loud. Tull was good too. The weird bit where Ian Anderson wrapped his leg around the mic stand was wacky.

Little Richard, New York Rock Ensemble, several other bands, Cleveland Public Hall 1970. I got too high at this show, and the New York Rock Ensemble got me through the worst of it and saved me from a visit to the ER. They were one hot band.

Fanny, James Gang, Glass Harp, New York Rock Ensemble, some others 1972? Edgewater Park. So I'm very shaky on this, and it may have been two different shows a year apart. Fanny was great live, and everything amazing you've heard about James Gang is true. I absolutely loved New York Rock Ensemble.

Bruce Springsteen 1975 John Carrol Fieldhouse. A top ten show. Before Born To Run was released, and they were, well, early live Springsteen when he was the only guitarist. They did lots of The Wild, the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle.

Sons of Champlin, The Tubes 1975 San Diego. I loved and still love the Sons of Champlin. I had no idea they were in town. I was in a record store and bought their new self-released album. The guy at the register asked if I was going that night to see them, and he sold me tickets. Terry Haggerty is one of my favorite guitarists ever. I liked the Tubes more than I thought I would.

Various 70s shows: Loggins and Messina/Little River Band Cleveland Music Hall (Little River band were really good), Average White Band Music Hall, Beach Boys Blossom, Jimmy Buffett (at least three times) Music Hall, Blossom, Stevie Ray Vaughn (and I think B B King on the same bill) Blossom, Boz Scaggs/Melissa Manchester John Carrol Field House, Barnstorm/Todd Rundgren, Starstruck, Kinks (on a bad night) Music Hall, Van Morrison (also a bad night) Music Hall, two bands I absolutely love, and both put on disappointing shows. Morrison was going through some kind of stage fright stage and had his back to the audience most of the night. Ray Davies was just too drunk.

Rockpile/Carlene Carter Cleveland Music Hall 1978. Rockpile were so special, with Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds, Billy Bremner, and Terry Williams. As much talent as any other four guys. Carlene was dating or maybe married to Nick, and she was great with them behind her.

Elvis Costello/The Rubinoos The Agora 1979. Costello and The Attractions were just one of the most tight ensembles ever to plow their music into your ears. And the Rubinoos were a blast. Another of the top ten.

Music Streaming (is killing me)

I started streaming music about a year ago. I bought a Bluesound Node, hired an electrician to run an ethernet line from my router to my living/music room, and subscribed to Qobuz. I don't use the DAC in the Bluesound Node, I use the DAC in my Benchmark DAC3 HGC.

Why Qobuz? Well, Qobuz streams everything in the highest resolution available. I think high resolution audio sounds better than CD, and I find mp3 to be unlistenable. I can check something out with mp3, but it sounds like crap to me on the music room kit. I know that Tidal and some others also offer high resolution streams, but Qobuz is also the service that pays artists the highest royalty rate, although it is still too low. If you want to support artists, listen on a streamer, and then buy what you like on Bandcamp, which actually pays artists reasonably well.

But streaming is killing me because I can no longer keep up with all the music I want to hear. New music listed on Qobuz, old music by artists I've liked but not fully explored, recommendations from music blogs I read, and music reviewed in magazines (I've also started using Libby, a library app which lets me read a ton of magazines).

I have 86 records saved in Favorites in BlueOS, the software interface from Bluesound. A while back I put four that I'd like to get back to on a list on my iPad just to get them out of Favorites. That's 90 records I want to hear again, or which I haven't gotten to yet. Many of them get one listen and are then removed, but if I want to hear them again, I leave them in favorites. There might be a better way to save things or file them to a different list in Roon, I'm not sure. I tried Roon for a while but the BlueOS coupled with iTunes Remote (to listen from my iTunes library on my computer) seemed to do most of the Roon functions, and the additional info in Roon didn't seem all that much better than in BlueOS, especially given the cost of Roon, which is even more than Qobuz. If I want credits or more info, Discogs and Wikipedia do a good job with that. Liner notes would be nice, but I guess I'll get over it.

I have over 1100 vinyl records and over 1300 CDs. Over the years, and with recent purges, I have sold off at least as many vinyl records as I now own and a whole bunch of CDs. I am currently working on putting all the CDs on a hard drive accessible through iTunes. I'm about 1/4 of the way through that tedious job. I still buy vinyl occasionally. I used to take a lot of music out from our local library system to hear it, but streaming has replaced that function almost entirely.

When I want to listen to music I love in the best sound, I listen to vinyl. I know the technical arguments regarding digital music's superiority, but those arguments by themselves don't make music sound better. Maybe it's because I grew up with and never left vinyl. CDs generally sound fine to me unless they were transferred to CD in the mid-late eighties, before record companies and mastering facilities got their act together. I very rarely have bought the vinyl version after I bought the CD. For casual listening or background music (music is never really background music to me), I like the playlists I can find on Qobuz, or ones I have generated myself either in iTunes or Qobuz. Everything in my iTunes is lossless digital. I bluetooth music directly to my hearing aides from my phone at the gym. In my car, I have music on a USB flash drive.

Now I have to go work on catching up on my list of Favorites. I've never used the word "work" when discussing listening to music before now. It's killing me.

Rick Nelson Garden Party 1972

Two things made me think of this record. The first was the country rock sounds on the Peterson/Cowsill record I just reviewed, and the other was Bob Dylan's recent cover of Garden Party on YouTube. Rick Nelson was a huge hit in the late 50 and early 60s, recording a string of top 10 pop singles (several with rockabilly stylings) and successful albums. Around 1966 he began his exploration of country rock, and he made solid, if less successful records in the genre. His later sixties success was hampered by his difficulty overcoming his teen idol image. In 1969 he formed the Stone Canyon Band with Randy Meisner (bass guitarist of Poco and The Eagles), Tom Brumley (steel guitar player from Buck Owen's Buckaroos), Allen Kemp (guitar) and Patrick Shanahan (drums). They were a very talented group, and in 1972 they released Garden Party, his last chart success.

Nelson wrote six of the songs on the record, and they are all solid. The title track is the star, documenting his disappointing experience at an oldies concert at Madison Square Garden. But there isn't a weak song on the record. Rockers Let It Bring You Along, I Wanna Be With You, Chuck Berry's I'm Talking About You (with a jazz middle section!), and the honky-tonking So Long Mama all cook. The ballads are good, too, especially Nelson's Night Time Lady and the closer Palace Guard.

Most of Nelson's work is well worth exploring and available for streaming. As the pinnacle of his country rock records, Garden Party is a fine example of the genre, and just an excellent record by any standard.

Vicki Peterson and John Cowsill Long After The Fire 2025

Vicki Peterson was in the Bangles, Psycho Sisters and Continental Drifters (the last two with Susan Cowsill). She played lead guitar, wrote songs and sang with the all three bands. John Cowsill played drums in the Cowsills starting when he was ten years old. Later he played in Dwight Twilley's band (also with Susan Cowsill), and toured for twenty years with the Beach Boys, contributing vocals, keyboards and drums. The couple married in 2003.

And now we get their debut as a duo. The songs were written by Bill and Barry Cowsill, two of John's older brothers and Cowsills members, both deceased. The record was produced in Nashville by multi-instrumentalist Paul Allen, who plays guitars, bass, keyboards, and drums. Dave Pearlman adds pedal steel guitar, and Jimmy Calaire adds keyboards to two songs. Cowsill sings, plays drums, keyboards, and harmonica, and Peterson sings and plays guitar and mandolin. 

Fool Is The Last One To Know is classic country rock featuring hot lead guitar, great harmonies, and Cowsill's country twang of a voice (which he doesn't use on all songs). Vagabond is more solid country/rock with nice pedal steel guitar and verging-on-cliche lyrics that's a solid song. Peterson takes the lead and most of the glorious harmonies on Come To Me, a sweet keyboard driven rocking mid-tempo ballad. Is Anybody Here has another fine vocal from Cowsill. They actually rock out on the driving Sound On Sound with big loud guitars and a hot lead courtesy of Peterson. Peterson provides fine lead and harmony vocals on the folky acoustic Don't Look Back.

Peterson sings lead on You In My Mind, a power-pop gem that sounds like it could have a been a Bangles hit. Country sounds return for the two-step A Thousand Times with more pedal steel, a fine lyric, Cowsill's twangy lead vocal and great harmonies from Peterson. Embers is a slow country heartbreak waltz that gives the album it's title, and Cowsill blows some skillful harmonica. Downtown is a solid rocker that almost sounds like a Tom Petty song. The record ends with two ballads. When Hearts Collide sees the duo trade lead vocals, and Peterson wraps things up with the gentle acoustic of Ol' Timeless.

Cowsill gets 7 lead vocals, Peterson 4, and they share one. John Cowsill has an excellent voice, but then so does Vickie Peterson. They sound great in harmony. Some of the songs have almost cringy lyrical cliches (not many), but the melodies are strong, the musicianship is good, and the pleasure that Peterson and Cowsill share together is infectious. They're having fun and honoring John's brothers at the same time, and it works. 

The Proclaimers Live at the Belly Up 2017

 

One of the best live shows I ever enjoyed was the Proclaimers in 2008 at the 500 person capacity Beachland Ballroom in Cleveland. They were great. Hard Stop. It was one of the times that they toured America with the full band, and it was a blast. 

The Proclaimers play to huge stadiums and festivals in the UK and Europe, but they end up in much smaller venues here in the states. On this 2017 tour, they were supporting their latest, Let's Hear It For The Dogs from 2015, but they did songs from throughout their career. It is an excellent way to get to know a top-tier pop/rock band. Great songs, tight band, and those perfect harmonies that always seem best by siblings, let alone twin brothers. 

Once you realize what you've been missing, you should pick up one or two of their fine records. Persevere 2001 is my favorite, Sunshine On Leith 1988 was their biggest hit and includes their international hit single I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) and I'm On My Way, which was featured on the Shrek soundtrack. Dentures Out 2022, their latest, is excellent. You can't go wrong with any of them as they haven't made any weak records. The Very Best Of: 25 Years 1987–2012 2013 is a solid two-disc overview. 

This live set from 2017 wasn't released in any physical formats, but is available for streaming, and the entire show is also on YouTube.

Elton John and Bradi Carlile Who Believes In Angels? 2025

I originally intended to post this along with the previous Irma Thomas and Galactic record as a comparison between two legacy artists both working in tandem with younger artists, but I decided the Irma Thomas deserved it's own feature. More people are going to hear/buy this one, and that's a real shame. In the last 25 years Elton has made five really solid studio records that restored his work to his seventies high standards. This isn't the sixth.

Not that it's all bad. In fact some of it is pretty darn good and some of it is, well, less exciting. If you're a Brandi Carlile fan it will be more exciting than it is to Elton John fans, because it mostly sounds like a Brandi Carlile recording of John/Taupin songs. Carlile performs the acoustic You Without Me essentially solo, while John finishes the record with the fine ballad When This Old World Is Done With Me solo at the piano, and is featured prominently on Little Richard's Bible. The rest of the record is duets sorta. On a few songs Elton and Brandi sing separate verses and then duet the choruses, but on most they duet the entire song. And there's the rub. When they sing together, Elton's voice is swamped in the mix by Brandi's big brassy voice. That's probably on producer Andrew Watt, but it makes Elton a background vocalist for most of the record.

The record opens with homages to Laura Nyro and Little Richard. The Rose of Laura Nyro opens with a too long overblown intro reminiscent of of Funeral For A Friend while Little Richard's Bible is another version of Crocodile Rock that's not bad, and Elton gets to sing it without Carlile drowning him out. The title track twists the piano figure from Amoreena to decent effect, but it's another duet with too much Carlile in the mix. And that's really the story of the whole rest of the record. 

There's a bunch of good songs. The production by Watt is a bit too overblown-big-pop-production on some songs, but it's mostly OK, and the band is talented. Elton's recent records have managed an organic sound that this record eschews for modern glossy pop. I can almost see why the critics have been gushing over it. Almost, but not really.

Galactic and Irma Thomas Audience With The Queen 2025

New Orleans funksters Galactic have written an entire record (there's one cover song) for the amazing, still great Irma Thomas. At 84, Thomas can still sing like she sang 40 years ago, if not better. Of course if you heard her at the Jazz and Heritage Fest or on After the Rain 2006, Simply Grand 2008, or Love Is The Foundation 2020, you already knew that. Here, her classic soul/blues/gospel style is updated both stylistically and lyrically, and she storms into 2025 backed by the members of Galactic that both revere her and refuse to take a single step back from their funky march forward.

There's new/old school soul Piece In My Heart, Be Your Lady, and People, all of them sounding a tad like the best of Sharon Jones and the Daptones. Funk oozes out of Where I Belong, Love's Gonna Find A Way, and the social message of the great first single, Lady Liberty. Over You is bluesy, and How Glad I Am and Puppet On Your String have gospel overtones. Gang backup vocals, full choir on a few, and frequently super horn charts spruce up the sound. There's hot guitar and keyboards, and the always fabulous drumming of Staton Moore. The arrangements are darn near perfect every time.

And Irma Thomas sings everything to the ground. She had her first hit in 1959, and she's as great as ever right now. She inhabits, indeed embodies, every lyric in a way only a few singers can. She is magnificent.

I thought After The Rain was her late career pinnacle. Then came Love Is The Foundation, and that raised the bar again. This time a rare, beautiful legacy artist charges into the present and gives us something so wonderful it's just hard to even believe. But here it is. Anyone Who Knows What Soul Is (Will Understand).

Van Morrison Live At Orangefield 2024, New Arrangements and Duets 2024

I'm having a real problem keeping up with Van Morrison. Every decade since the 70s, he has released 9 or 10 (that's not guessing, it's accurate) new records. Now in the 2020s, only five years in, he's released 8 records already, and another is due in June 2025. The guy is 79 years old, and clearly won't slow down. I have managed to write about each of them in my Van Morrison series, which you can read here. 

Van Morrison has made several rock solid live records. Live at Austin City Limits Festival 2006 was good, and his live reimagining of Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl in 2009 was a blast. It's Too Late to Stop Now 1974 is just one of the best live records ever, and A Night In San Francisco 1994 was a brilliant reworking of his sleepy 80s catalog into funky R&B, and great.

So now comes Live At Orangefield 2024, documenting his live performance at his old secondary school just before it closed in 2014. It is a good selection of songs, and Van certainly seems motivated to perform in the place he gave his first live performance ever as a young school lad in a skiffle group. He can still sing today, so he certainly could do so in 2014. The band is the solid group he'd been touring with for a while, and Dave Keary shines on guitar throughout as do Paul Moran on keys and Alistair White and Chris White on horns. 

There's no surprises, but it is enjoyable almost throughout. Cleaning Windows, Moondance, Precious Time, Real Real Gone, Rough God Goes Riding, they all sound very good. The record ends by fading out during In The Garden as the "no guru, no method, no teacher" chorus is still going on. Why? Maybe he was about to walk off and let the band finish, well then lets hear that. It's not that big of a deal, but it's irritating. They could have left out the spoken word On Hyndford Street, which the crowd loves because he name checks locations throughout Belfast, but for the rest of us, it's the least interesting thing here. So it's a good one but not great one. More on that later.

Also in 2024, we get New Arrangements and Duets, an oddball mix of nine older songs rearranged and six duets, all of which were recorded between 2014 and 2019. About half of it is quite good, some is good enough, and two songs are particularly wrong. So it's a good one but not great one. More on that later.

The highlights: Kurt Elling duetting on Ain't Gonna Moan No More (scatting plus a great trumpet solo), a swinging version of Only A Dream, The Beauty of Days Gone By done up hot and jazzy with more great solos on sax and organ, a funky version of So Complicated that isn't much of a rearrangement from the original, and two fine duets with Willie Nelson(!) on What's Wrong With This Picture? and the lovely Steal My Heart Away, where Willie also contributes with his idiosyncratic guitar playing. 

The only real disappointments are a big band version of I'll Be Your Lover Too, which bulldozes the gentle original, and a duet with Joss Stone on Someone Like You that makes you want to hear Stone do the song without Van crowding her mostly out. The remaining unmentioned songs are all just fine, and some of the new arrangements are improvements, or at least interesting variations, on the originals. 

If you're a fan, both of these are well worth your time. I suppose thinking he's going to come up with one that matches his work in the seventies is a bit like thinking the Rolling Stones will give us another Sticky Fingers.

As for the "it's a good one but not a great one" line, I'll give a fellow blogger the last word. Wardo, an excellent music reviewer who blogs at Everybody's Dummy, left a comment on my most recent Van Morrison entry. He wrote "He keeps making competent, "not-bad" albums...  I will be very surprised if he gives us a modern masterpiece."

Jesse Winchester 1944-2014

This is a guest post by Steve Walmsley

I was already a huge fan of Jesse Winchester when in 1977 my then pregnant wife, Kathryn, and I went to see him in concert at Bogarts, a small venue in Cincinnati. Winchester was a draft evader that had gone to Canada in 1967. He was allowed to return to the US after Jimmy Carter’s amnesty for draft evaders in 1976. Kathryn was resplendent in a long white muslin dress with our first child inside her protruding belly. I was never prouder to be out with her.  We arrived late and it appeared every seat at every table was occupied. Undeterred, we ventured down front to discover that a small table with three chairs right in front of the middle of the stage was empty. We couldn’t believe our luck. It was one of those meant to be moments. It was like having the band in your living room. With the intimacy of the closeness to the band, it remains to this day one of my all-time favorite concert performances. 

I first became aware of Jesse Winchester when, after the breakup in 1970 of the Lemon Pipers (for whom I played bass), I moved to Wilmington Vermont with a three piece group I had formed with my best friend from high school. The band failed and I moved in with a group of hippies, one of whom became my beautiful wife. We will soon be celebrating 53 years together.  

It was there that I was turned on to Jesse’s Winchester’s self-titled classic 1970 eponymous first album. It was produced by Robbie Robertson and recorded by Todd Rundgren. It contains The Brand New Tennessee Waltz, the first song he ever wrote, Yankee Lady (a favorite), and the haunting Quiet About It. It’s the place to begin if you’re not familiar with Winchester.

His 1972 release, Third Down, 110 To Go, is my favorite of all his albums. It displays the beautiful lyrics, simple arrangements and minimal instrumentation that are typical of all his recordings. It is near perfect in it’s deceptive simplicity. Just listen to it. Bob Dylan once said, “You can’t talk about the best songwriters and not include [Jesse Winchester] ”.

The 1974 release, Learn To Love It, has the catchy and endearing Third Rate Romance written by Russell Smith, later of the Amazing Rhythm Aces. The heartfelt Mississippi You’re On My Mind shows the fondness Winchester had for his southern roots. 

In 1976 he released Let The Rough Side Drag. The title song is a lyrical expression of his philosophy of life. I find all his songs both poignant and uplifting. The album ends with a reprisal of his first song, The Brand New Tennessee Waltz. It was eventually covered, as were many of his compositions, by Joan Baez, Ralph Stanley, the Everly Brothers and Patti Paige, who had recorded the original Tennessee Waltz 50 years earlier.

Nothing But A Breeze 1978 contains Twigs and Seeds, a humorous plea for ganja legalization, and a nifty little tune titled Rhumba Man. The album features a who’s who supporting cast of Ricky Scaggs, James Burton, Emmylou Harris, Ann Murray and Nicolette Larson.

1981’s Talk Memphis showed his special affinity for Memphis, as his family moved there from Mississippi when he was six. He was influenced by the sounds of rhythm and blues and rockabilly via radio stations like WDIA and WHBQ where Dewey Phillips was playing the mixture of black and white artists that came to characterize Sun and Stax Records. The title song Talk Memphis is an homage to this early influence. This album also contains his only US Top 40 single, Say What. 

In 2007 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

In 2009 he released his tenth studio album, the well-received Love Filling Station. 

In 2012 a tribute record to Jesse, Quiet About It, was released that featured Jimmy Buffett, Elvis Costello, James Taylor, Lye Lovett, Roseanne Cash, Allen Toussaint and Lucinda Williams.

Jesse Winchester passed away in 2014. His final album titled A Reasonable Amount Of Trouble was released later that year with liner notes by his friend Jimmy Buffett, who recorded six of Winchester’s songs over the years. The record was nominated for two Grammys. Rolling Stone called it “one of the most moving, triumphant albums of Winchester’s 45 year career “ and “a gentle collection of playful songs about love, memory and gratitude”. The same could be said for most of the songs he ever wrote.

The Lemon Pipers Green Tambourine 1968 Jungle Marmalade 1968

The Lemon Pipers' story is a classic from the late sixties. Classic in that they were actually two bands. They were the hard rocking/blues/country/folk/psychedelic band from Oxford, Ohio, and they were the bubblegum pop band they were forced to be by the Kama Sutra record label they signed to, not realizing that they would have little to no control over their material. 

It is somewhat surprising then that they were allowed to record their own songs in addition to the the many bubblegum pop tunes penned by producer Paul Leka and songwriting partner Shelly Pinz. They made two records, both released in 1968, and both records included plenty of the Leka/Pinz material and a reasonably heathy dose of Lemon Pipers originals. The bubblegum fans that bought those records must have wondered what was going on when the bands' originals came out of their speakers.

The Wikipedia entry about the Lemon Pipers is mostly accurate. How do I know this? My older brother was the bass player in the Lemon Pipers, and in February 1968 when Green Tambourine hit #1, he had his fifteen minutes of fame, and then some. Gold record on the wall, all very cool. For my brother, the best moment of all was when the Lemon Pipers played the Fillmore (and Winterland) on a bill that included Spirit, Traffic, and Moby Grape.

My brother, we'll call him Steve Walmsley, since that is his name, loved Moby Grape, and admired their bass player because he was excellent. Moby Grape were standing in the wings checking out the Lemon Pipers, and Bob Mosley, bassist with Moby Grape, gave my brother the thumbs up from the wings. Of all the star moments that happened on the roller coaster of having a #1 one-hit wonder, that was the moment most cherished by Steve. And why not? Getting approval from one of your idols (when you're nineteen), well, ain't that the shit.

Here's a picture of Steve (left), Ivan Browne (vocals and guitar), and Bill Bartlett (lead guitar, vocals) from the early days of the band:

The band also included Bill Albaugh (drums) and Bob Nave (organ and vocals). And here's one of Steve in 2007 in Cincinnati at a Lemon Pipers reunion concert:

I saw them live on the Green Tambourine tour in June 1968 with my parents in Cleveland. Rotary Connection opened, with the amazing five-octive voice of Minnie Ripperton. I was 13. I also saw that 2007 reunion in Cincinnati.

I put together a playlist of the Lemon Piper originals and chosen covers from their two albums, with no Leka/Pinz songs. It is of it's time certainly, but if you want to know how very not bubblegum they were, this will do it. Each song plays in YouTube.

The Real Lemon Pipers tracklist:

Catch Me Falling (Lemon Pipers) Lead Vocal: Browne

Straglin' Behind (Albaugh/Bartlett) LV: Browne

No Help From Me (Browne) LV: Nave

    No Help was surprisingly the flip side of the Green Tambourine single, but not on the album

I Was Not Born To Follow (Goffin/King) LV: Browne

Through With You (Bartlett) LV: Browne/Bartlett

Ask Me If I Care (Eric Ehrmann) LV: Browne

Hard Core (Lemon Pipers) LV: Nave

Turn Around Take A Look (Bartlett) LV: Bartlett/Browne

Fifty Year Void (Lemon Pipers) LV: Nave

Wine And Violet (Lemon Pipers) LV: Bartlett/Browne

Dead End Street/Half Light (Lemon Pipers) LV: Nave/Browne

The Lemon Pipers split in the spring of 1970. All five members stayed active in music in one way or another. Bartlett and Nave formed Beachwood Farm. Then in 1972 Bartlett and Walmsley formed Starstruck. After Walmsley was replaced by David Goldflies (later of Allman Brothers), Starstruck recorded Bartlett's version of Leadbelly's Black Betty. The same recording would be used later when it was credited to Bartlett's Ram Jam (Interestingly, that means that Bill Bartlett was a one-hit wonder, twice). Walmsley played in Backporch Light with Kieth Sherman and Slipstream with Meg Davis, and then in the band that backed the soul vocal group The Fabulous Determinations. Walmsley and Albaugh joined Bruce Newman in Medicine Wheel. Bartlett joined and later Newman left. Walmsley, Albaugh, and Bartlett played in local bands Midnight Fire in the 80s and Mystical Presence in the 90s. Walmsley last played in Second Nature from 2003-2009. All of these bands played in the Southern Indiana/Ohio area.

Ivan Browne moved to California, became a postal carrier, played and recorded music with his wife in the Ivan and Isa Band, and carried on his minor celebrity as lead singer of Green Tambourine. Bob Nave became a financial consultant by day and a popular jazz DJ on WNOP-AM in the 70s and then at WVXU-FM from 1984 to 2005. In 2006, Nave was a founding member of Cincinnati's Blues Merchants. 

2007, 2008, and 2017 saw Lemon Pipers reunions with Browne, Walmsley and Nave in Cincinnati.

Albaugh passed away in 99, and Nave died in 2020.

There's a good article from Cincinnati Magazine in 2008 called Off The Charts. Lots of details, and all four surviving members were interviewed.

Tracy Nelson Life Don't Miss Nobody 2023

A mere sixty years after her first record, Tracey Nelson graces us with yet another fine piece of work. That 1964 debut, Deep Are The Roots, was a sparse acoustic record of blues chestnuts with vocals, guitar, harmonica and occasional piano. It was fairly ordinary for that sort of thing, but Tracey’s vocals impressed the few that heard it. Next up was the first Mother Earth record in 1968 after Tracey moved to San Francisco and founded the band. Since then she’s recorded some 20 records for at least half that many different labels. A journey woman for sure, and even if she’s not a household name, any and all of her work is well worth hearing.

It had been ten years since her last record, and fans had reason to wonder if she was done. Not nearly. She produced this new one, curated a great set of songs and wrote a couple herself, put together a killer band, and invited several big names and friends to guest star. At seventy-nine, she hasn’t lost any of the vocal strength and interpretive skill she’s famous for, and dare I say, this may well be her finest work. 

A blues singer mainly, she has recorded country, rock, R&B, gospel and soul throughout her career. Her taste in material to cover is impeccable. She's written a bunch of good ones herself, most notably her signature tune Down So Low, which has been covered by Linda Rondstadt, Etta James, Dee Dee Warwick, Ellen McIlwaine, Maria Muldaur, and Cyndi Lauper.

Strange Things Happen Every Day kicks things off rocking a blues/R&B groove, with a great piano break. Kevin McKendree tickles the ivories throughout the record, and he's consistently fabulous. Doc Pompus' There Is Always One More Time features Mickey Raphael's harmonica and a big choir on the gospel choruses. The title track, co-written by Nelson with Mike Dysinger has a latin rhythm and hot horns. Your Funeral and My Trial from Sonny Boy Williamson's pen is a walking blues with more great piano. Ma Rainey's Yonder Comes The Blues is an old-timey blues with wonderful, and apropos clarinet. Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas join Nelson for the rocking Allen Toussaint swamp rock of I Did My Part. The gospel influences return for  a stunning Hard Times, featuring piano, accordion and the big choir again. Wow.

Willie Nelson guests on Hank Williams' Honky Tonkin', with steel guitar and more fine harmonica. Charlie Musselwhite, who was featured on that 1964 debut, plays knock-out harmonica on It Don't Make Sense, a Willie Dixon blues that also has a hot guitar break. Eugene McDaniels' Compared To What features Terry Hanck on sax playing off the piano in a tight dual solo section. Nelson co-wrote Where Do You Go When You Can't Go Home with Marcia Ball, and the gospel choir again rocks the choruses. A nice rocking version of Chuck Berry's Brown-Eyed Handsome Man features a bevy of female guests vocalists and rocks like crazy. The record ends with another version of Hard Times, this time with just Tracey and guitar to wind things down with deep emotion, in the simple acoustic style of her 1964 debut, bringing things full circle.

There isn't a weak song. The record was nominated for a 2024 Best Traditional Blues Record Grammy. Tracey sings everything with the powerful voice that is her trademark. If you're a blues fan or a Tracey Nelson fan, or heck, just a good music fan, you gotta hear it.

Songbird: An Intimate Biography of Christine McVie Lesley-Ann Jones

I'll start right off with the conclusion of this review: don't bother.

Supposedly the author was a friend of Christine McVie. Clearly McVie was a very private person, and if Jones was her friend, she certainly was not an intimate one, regardless of the book's title. Just how revealing was a guarded rock star with a rock journalist "friend"? I would speculate that the answer is "not so much".

And so speculation is what Jones does repeatedly in an attempt to explain McVie's childhood, her relationships with her parents, where her talents came from, and her motivations for many decisions throughout her life. She talks in depth about McVie's phycological background and reasons for her life's pathway with a psychologist that never met Christine McVie. She uses a jealous bass player that wanted but never got John McVie's role in Fleetwood Mac like he is an expert on Christine. 

No family members contributed. No Fleetwood Mac members gave new insights (although they are often quoted from past interviews). No lifelong close friends (real ones) talked to Jones. No neighbors from  Wickhambreaux, the small country town where Christine lived for some fifteen years had anything to say.

There's scant detailed or new information on the Fleetwood Mac records to which Christine famously contributed. In fact, I thought Jones wasn't even going mention Heroes Are Hard To Find, when she went off on a multi-page tangent and discussion of Bob Welsh's departure from the band before she even mentioned Heroes, the last Fleetwood Mac album on which he was featured. She of course spends lots of pages on the famous version of the band, but skims over the 1970-1974 era, when Christine wrote many of the bands best songs during the transitional phase, and helped keep things together before Buckingham and Nicks signed on.

The book covers all the sex, drugs and rock and roll mess and excess that was the famous post 1974 band. There's nothing new here, that story has been told to death. Same with her disastrous love of Dennis Wilson, a brief period of true love for Christine that ended in heartbreak.

If Lesley-Ann Jones was actually a friend of Christine McVie, she would have never written this sham of a biography.

Donald Fagan, Michael McDonald, Boz Scaggs The New York Rock and Soul Review: Live at the Beacon 1991, The Dukes of September Live at Lincoln Center 2014

Not every release you might enjoy needs to be important. Sometimes just "fun", or "nice" or "cool" is all that's needed. That's how I feel about these releases. Neither of them is a good as a good Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, or Michael McDonald record (Well, maybe not McDonald). But they are well worth your time to hear them.

Both feature the three stars. The New York Rock and Soul Review features additional guest stars worthy of their appearance. And both are backed up by stellar backing musicians and vocalists.

The New York Rock and Soul Review: Live at the Beacon includes Phoebe Snow, Charles Brown, and David and Eddie Brigati, covering Rascals hits, soul gems, Brown's blues, Steely Dan and Doobie Brothers hits. We get hot guitar from Jimmy Vivino and others, and great horns from Cornelius Bumpus and a great horn section. What's not to like?

Twenty years later the three got together and toured. The band included Steely Dan regulars plus all-pro horns and backup singers. Without the guests, we get that much more of Steely Dan and McDonald/Doobies, and considerably more Boz Scaggs, which can only be good. A few choice soul covers round out the set, with the Isley's Who's That Lady? being a standout.

You don't need these records, but you'll probably enjoy your time spent with them.

Dwight Yoakam Brighter Days 2024

In 1993, Dwight Yoakam made one of the best records ever, This Time. And not just country records, but best records ever, period. Every song, every note, every lyric, just about pure perfection. I followed his work for a while after that one, and I liked Gone 1995, and A Long Way Hone 1997. I even liked his covers record, Under The Covers 1997.

The ones before 1993 were all solid, and many critics and fans rave about the first three, and well, I liked those too. In this century he has made plenty of competent records, all with some great songs, but none quite reaching the perfection of his work in the mid-nineties. But they come mighty close, and he's made more solid records than most artists in any genre. His Bakersfield-inspired country/rock and his authentic vocal twang have stood the test of time, and his songwriting is impressive and mostly consistent.

Now, after an eight year hiatus comes Brighter Days, and if I may say so, it lives up to the name. The record storms out of the gate with Wide Open Heart. The lead single I'll Pay The Price is a Bakersfield beauty filled with melancholic hope. Other highlights include the sad California Sky, stomping Can't Be Wrong, hokey I Spell Love, the optimistic title track, a cover of the Byrd's Time Between (he has a knack for finding great songs to cover), a rocking version of Keep On The Sunny Side, and the "save the last dance for me" sentiment of Every Night, which rocks the record to a close. There aren't really any weak songs. With fourteen tracks, you'd almost expect some filler, but instead the songs just display all the various aspects of his talent. 

He never really went away, but he's back. 

Eva Cassidy I Can Only Be Me 2023, Walkin' After Midnight 2024

I wrote about Eva Cassidy before, covering her Live At Blues Alley and the 2015 expansion of that record, Nightbird. In the Blues Alley review, I also discussed the many posthumous records released after her untimely death, all of which contain moments of beauty, and none of which would have seen the light of day had she lived (except for Eva By Heart, which was almost complete before her demise). While she has her fans in America, she is rabidly adored in the UK and parts of Northern Europe, where she has had far more sales success than in the US. Oddly, her posthumous records have sold better than her finest hour, the original Live At Blues Alley.

I Can Only Be Me is previously recorded vocals (isolated with AI technology) with The London Symphony Orchestra providing the orchestral backgrounds. It is pretty, and the orchestrations are lush and complement her singing quite well. But all of the vocals heard here are previously released, and her voice is the show. While orchestrated versions may well appeal to some of her fans, there's really nothing new here. 

Walkin' After Midnight is actually material that has not been previously released. It was recorded thirty years ago at the Maryland Inn’s King of France Tavern in Annapolis. Without her usual full band, only bassist Chris Biondo and guitarist Kieth Grimes, along with guest violinist Bruno Nasta accompany Ms. Cassidy and her acoustic guitar. Most of the songs were also performed just two months later for the Live At Blues Alley session, but these casual arrangements are unique to her body of work. Her cover of ZZ Hill’s Down Home Blues is a song not previously released by Cassidy, as is her version of Desperado, which is a live recorded vocal isolated from a different performance with a new piano and organ backing provided by former bandmate Lenny Williams. The stripped down band lets Cassidy's vocals shine, and the addition of violin makes for a different twist on some of the songs. Cassidy is in particularly fine voice and the recording is very good. Cassidy herself didn't want to release Blues Alley because she had a cold the night it was recorded (you can't tell), but she's certainly healthy here. Compared to most of her tossed-together posthumous records, at least this one is from one show (almost), and it is a worthy addition to her catalog.

While I have not always been happy about the way her legacy has been milked by her family, I absolutely recognize her as an amazing talent, an astounding voice coupled with heartfelt interpretations, and an impeccable taste in songs to cover from a broad spectrum of genres. Live At Blues Alley remains an essential addition to any collection, and either or both of these will find an audience among her fans.

Overlooked Gems

Katie Love's Ready Or Not from 2015 is a pure pop/soul gem. According to her Facebook page, it was pressed on vinyl. It's really fine, along the lines of a Canadian Duffy, with less bombast. Every song is a winner. There were some country singles that predate this record by Katie Love Hess that I think are the same person. 

Another lesser-known but solid record is Boomtown (1986) from David + David, who were David Baerwald and David Rickets. The record is full of well-crafted classic rock ala Springsteen, examining hard times, isolation and urban decay. The record reached 39 on the Billboard charts. Both Davids later contributed to Cheryl Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), with Baerwald one of the primary guitarists.

Splinter were a power pop duo who's debut, The Place I Love (1974) was the first release from George Harrison's dark Horse Records. Harrison produced, played guitar, and brought in an all-star supporting cast to make a lovely Badfinger-like beauty.  They went on to record at least four more records, and two of them are available for streaming in addition to this knockout.

April Smith and the Great Picture Show released Songs For A Sinking Ship in 2010. Highlights include Colors, Terrible Things, and Can't Say No, but the whole record is big fun. Several songs were used on TV shows. Colors was used in a memorable commercial for Valspar paint. Smith has a big brassy voice, the band is talented, and they put on a great show, which I was fortunate enough to see. Sort of old-timey, vaudevillian window dressing on some quality pop songs.

Christian Cuff's Chalkboard (2010) is just one of the best folk/rock singer-songwriter records you haven't heard. His first record was a simple guitar and voice affair, but they went all out for the follow-up (both are available streaming). Keyboards, bass, guitar, drums, harmonica, woodwinds, trumpet, baritone horn, and string quartet are all used generously to broaden the palette and make this record special. The arrangements are top notch. Not to be missed. 

Any one of these will make you happy to find a lost gem. Five very different records, you're almost bound to love at least one of them.

Louis Cole nothing 2024

In my Best of 2024 post, I described this record as "Jazz fusion/pop/funk/electronic/orchestral music" and believe it or not, that is accurate.

Cole made this record over a period of three years, mostly recording live with the Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley during three or more live performances in 2022 and 2023. The orchestra was also recorded in a studio session in 2021, and there are several vocal and instrumental overdubs, but it's mostly live. In addition to the orchestra, there's Cole's remarkable drumming, synth and vocals and a small rock band of bass, guitar, keyboards, and saxophone, plus six vocalists in chorus (including Cole's longtime musical partner Genevieve Artardi).  The record took six months for Cole to mix, combining different takes and merging multiple orchestra recordings in to a whole. There's a lot going on.

The record opens with Ludovici Cole Est Frigus, a lovely modern classical overture. Things Will Fall Apart follows, and it is a funky rock tune with Cole's falsetto vocals and hot drums, and orchestral backing. I should note here that all but two of the songs feature the orchestra either prominently or in the  background, and those two are short Cole solo pieces. So if I don't mention the orchestra, they are always there. Life is next, and it's a fast pop song with vocals and crazy hot playing. It Always Passes is a slow, charming orchestral piece.

Cruisin' For P, a highlight, is a big band jazz that swings, featuring just the brass and woodwinds of the orchestra. It has a swell piano solo and Cole's outstanding drumming, always fast and busy. The rock of A Pill In The Sea shows off the band, the vocal chorus in a quieter middle section, and then returns to rockingly with a wild synth break. nothing, the title track, is an airy, ethereal orchestral piece that is lovely. Who Cares 1 is all Cole on multiple instruments, a pulsating alt-rock gem. Who Cares 2 is sort of the same song, but with Cole's drums and voice, the vocal chorus, and a big dramatic orchestra section. It sounds like an odd mix, but it works. I could say that about the entire record.

And that's just the half of it. Wizard Funk opens side three, and it's another brass and woodwinds only funky big band jazz that has a lilting, almost calliope-like sound in parts. Weird Moments is aptly titled, with fast drums, choral voices, and horn blasts, all amidst experimental orchestral funk. Soft vocal and orchestra fill High Five, while a sweet melody and and fine synth break highlight These Dreams Are Killing Me. On Shallow Laughter: Bitches, lilting strings and vocal are followed by funky drums and a wild dual sax and synth break.

Let It Happen is an ethereal, chant-like, drums, vocal and orchestra piece. The 11 minute Doesn't Matter is modern orchestral melodic melancholy that builds slowly with simple, fetching melodies.  Finally, the gentle solo piano of You Belong puts a tender coda on the whole affair. Then you can sit and ponder what you just heard.

It works as a singular piece of modern stylistic potpourri for those who still have the attention span to listen to music for an hour straight. If the description above has put you off this music, I have performed a disservice. Cole's writing for orchestra is melodic and easy to digest. This isn't atonal, challenging orchestral music, even if it is modern. His funk/pop/rock is fast and fun. It really is a unique, enjoyable musical experience, and that is pretty darn rare these days. It deserves to be heard, and if you have any kind of open mind, you'll be glad you gave it a try.

Todd Snider Trouble 1994

Todd Snider is a brilliant and successful songwriter and performer who can pen humorous songs as well as heartbreak and serious social commentary. His snarky satire is almost always spot on. He's been cranking out solid, critically acclaimed records for 30 years. Sometimes there's a band, sometimes it's just him and a guitar.

From his 1994 debut Songs for the Daily Planet, here's Todd with one of my favorite cheatin' songs, with the prefect line "A woman like you walks into a place like this, You can almost hear the promises break".

You're gonna get me into trouble

I knew it right off the bat

You're gonna get me into trouble

If you keep lookin' like that

Well, I may be alone, but there's someone at home

I just know I'm makin' a mistake

A woman like you walks in a place like this

You can almost hear the promises break

You're gonna make me need an alibi

You're gonna make me have to watch my back

You're gonna make me have to tell a bunch of lies

You're gonna make me have to cover my tracks

Well, I told her I wouldn't, I thought I couldn't

Now I'm so ashamed

When I look at you, that's all that I can do

To think about what's-her-name

You're gonna get me into trouble

I knew it right off the bat

You're gonna get me in trouble

If you keep lookin' like that

Don't look like that, baby...no, no, no, no

You're gonna mix my emotions

And you're gonna tangle my net

You're gonna make me do somethin'

That I'm afraid I won't regret

I may be alone, but there's someone at home

I just know I'm makin' a mistake

A woman like you walks in a place like this

You can almost hear the promises break

You're gonna get me in trouble

You're gonna get me into trouble

You know you're gonna get me, you know you're gonna get me,

You know you're gonna get me in trouble, now don't ya?

Lonnie Mack The Wham of That Memphis Man! 1963

Like there could actually be someone who invented blues/rock guitar soloing. Well, if anyone should get credit for such an honor, it's Lonnie Mack. His debut album from 1963 shows off his impressive skills both on guitar and as a fine soul singer. 

Instrumentals Wham!, Memphis, Bounce, Down and Out, Down in the Dumps, and Susie-Q all feature killer, absolutely super hot guitar. And not just a phrase here or there, but extended solos. Hot licks on Baby What's Wrong and Why, coupled with Mack's blue-eyed soul vocals make for some genuinely rocking soul/blues. Where There's A Will, Satisfied, and I'll Keep You Happy all feature his impressive vocals as well as fine saxophone solos. There isn't a weak track.

Guitar really wasn't played this way before Mack did it. Ok, there were the Ventures, Duane Eddy, Dick Dale, and other rock instrumentalists, and plenty of guitar solos by guys like Ike Turner and James Burton, but the blending of blues and rock in more than four-bar, extended solos was unique to Mack. Not only his guitar, but his soulful singing put him in a category with very few white singers.

That's why Jimmy Guterman in his 1992 book The Best Rock 'N' Roll Records of All Time put this record at number 16. Admittedly Guterman's is an unusual and somewhat controversial list, but this record clearly deserves more praise than it typically receives, and it's a pure joy to hear.

The list of accolades on the Lonnie Mack Wikipedia entry is impressive. I like this quote from Duane Allman, "Now, [in 1963], there was a popular song on the radio called 'Memphis'—an instrumental by Lonnie Mack. It was the best guitar-playing I'd ever heard. All the guitar-players were [saying] 'How could anyone ever play that good? That's the new bar. That's how good you have to be now."

Nick Lowe Indoor Safari 2024

Nick Lowe made four excellent "crooning" records between 1998 and 2011. They were fine outings each one, and established a distinguished late career revival. Lowe toured these records mostly solo and those shows were killer, and of course he did a few of his earlier hits as well. In 2013 he made the unusually good holiday record Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family. When he toured the record he began his association with Los Straightjackets, and a live album from the tour was released in 2015. There was also a hot live record (download only) Live at the Haw River Ballroom in 2020, again with Los Straightjackets. It is super good. Check it out.

Los Straightjackets have returned Lowe to some of the rockabilly of his early outfit Rockpile, and they can play just about any style. Eddie Angel is a wonderful guitar player and Chris Sprague stands out behind the drum kit. They have brought back the rocking to Lowe's performances. It's not the basher of old, but there's energy that those 1998-2011 records lacked. 

Between 2018-2020, most of the songs on Indoor Safari were released as singles and EPs. There's only two songs here that haven't been previously released in some form, but most have been newly rerecorded for this record. And what a swell record it is. Lowe is still in laid back mode, but with Los Straightjackets things are going to rock, and that they do. Lowe has written a bunch of great songs, as usual, with good melodies and hooky chorusses, and his singing is his not-so-secret weapon. There's only one slow ballad, the lovely Different Kind of Blue, and the rest swings and pops and rocks.

Standouts include Raincoat In The River, an old Ricky Nelson song, and Bert Bacharach and Hal David's Blue On Blue, first recorded by Bobby Vinton in 1963. Lowe's humorous Went To A Party, sad Love Starvation, the bad girl can't be resisted Jet Pack Boomerang, and rockabilly Toyko Bay are highlights. An unusually happy Lay It On Me, the lyrical twist of Don't Be Nice To Me, and especially the play that sad song one more time of Trombone show Lowe working his talented pen, and Los Straightjackets keeping the backbeat coming. There isn't a clunker in the set. Every Eddie Hazel lead guitar break is perfect. 

Lowe has never made any bad records, and since the career standout The Impossible Bird in 1994, he's been on a thirty-year hot streak. 

I did a career overview here.

Kirsty MacColl Titanic Days 1993, Free World 2023

Great news for vinyl lovers. For Record Store Day 2024, Kirsty MacColl's Titanic Days was reissued on (green, not that it matters) vinyl. While she made several great records, this has always been her finest work in my view. This is the record's first appearance on vinyl.

From my From Croydon To Cuba review: Produced by then husband Steve Lillywhite, Titanic Days has it all: bright love song You Know It's You, tales of very bad men (to which MacColl seems drawn, at least in her lyrics) Titanic Days, Can't Stop Killing You, and Bad, and the sentimental melancholy of Soho Square. The airy, dreamy Angel and Tomorrow Never Comes are beautiful. Lillywhite's production and the backing of crack musicians help realize MacColl's most consistent songwriting, and her performances are both cool and riveting.

I also recently discovered that a new double vinyl best of set titled Free World was released in 2023. It is a thoughtful collection that doesn't bring any new surprises, but collects most of the essentials, and it's available on (yellow, not that it matters) vinyl. There are too many compilations of Kirsty's work, and some are not really hits collections, but this one is a good selection of songs, spans her career, and gets most of the important picks right. Of course if you are a big fan of Ms. MacColl's work, you probably have most of these songs, and if you're a casual fan, maybe you've got one of the decent single CD overviews. So I guess this is mostly for those of us that would want to hear these songs on vinyl rather than CD. Most of her work is available on original vinyl releases (and recent vinyl reissues) of the individual albums.

The Electric Flag (An American Music Band) A Long Time Comin' 1968

Michael Bloomfield was an enormously talented blues and rock guitar player. He first came to notice on the first two Paul Butterfield Blues Band albums in1965-66, Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited 1965, and frequent session work. In early 1967, he formed The Electric Flag in San Francisco with an outstanding line-up of musicians. Harvey Brooks on bass and Buddy Miles drums and vocals held down the rhythm, Nick Gravenites on guitar and vocals, Barry Goldberg on keys, and a smoking hot horn section with Marcus Doubleday on trumpet, Peter Strazza on tenor sax, Stemsy Hunter on alto sax, and Herbie Rich on baritone sax. 

Bloomfield and Goldberg saw the group as one which would feature an amalgamation of American music styles of soul, blues, rock and R&B, and on their audacious debut, they achieved that goal. 

The set kicks off with Howlin' Wolf's Killing Floor, with Nick Gravenites' smooth vocal, hot guitar from Bloomfield and killer horn charts. Ron Polte wrote three songs for the record, and Groovin' Is Easy is all smooth soul, hippie vibe, and hot horns. Over-Lovin' You from Bloomfield and Goldberg is an uptempo soul that gets a really fine Buddy Miles vocal and horns, horns, horns. She Should Have Just from Polte's pen again is more terrific R&B that sounds like a future Tower Of Power hit. Side one ends with Wine, sung by Bloomfield (or Herbie Rich?) is fast blues with a very cool jazzy outro.

The second side is almost as good. Buddy Miles rips another tasty vocal on Texas, as Bloomfield solos throughout the entire song. Barry Goldberg wrote Sittin' In Circles, with it's complex arrangement and another melodious Gravenites vocal. You Don't Realize is a great Bloomfield blues ballad that has everything except the guitar solo it practically begs for, and it's still solid. Another Country, again from Polte's pen, starts as a mid-tempo rocker with classic sixties paranoia/escapist lyrics, slides into a too long music concrete collage, followed by a jazzy section featuring piano, and finally returns to the first verse and chorus with up-tempo guitar and horn charts. It's an impressive piece, but at nine minutes it's just a tad too long. The record ends with a 53-second East Rider with Bloomfield teasing us with some nice licks.

Another Country is a good song, and was ahead of the curve with the music concrete section, but it is a thing of it's time, and you might need to be high. The rest of the record is near perfect.

Bloomfield and Goldberg would leave the band before their second record, and Buddy Miles, Herbie Rich and Nick Gravenites tried to produce a follow-up, and almost got there with An American Music Band, also in1968. It's OK, but doesn't have the magic or the songs of A Long Time Comin'. Miles and Gravenites were not the songwriters that Bloomfield, Goldberg and Polte were. Two from that follow-up, Bobby Hebb's Sunny, and Mystery from Miles's pen, both have strong vocals from Miles and were added to the 2003 CD reissue of Long Time Comin' along with two obscurities, one with some hot Bloomfield guitar. 

There were plenty of horns on soul records of the time. But this one in 1968 was before Chicago, Sons of Champlin, and Tower of Power. It isn't just the horns that make this record so special. Great songs, singing, guitar, the blues/rock/soul blend, and an all-star band make this a lost classic of the first order.