The 2024 Year End Review - Part 1: The 1st Annual Bloggy Awards
With deep apologies to the Grammy Awards it's time to present the 1st
Annual Bloggy Awards showcasing the best in music and related art forms
of 2024. Not everything listed below is new this year, but to paraphrase Casey
over at
The College Crowd Digs Me,
"Every song or album is a new one if you haven't heard it
before!"
Last year I began posting other bloggers' annual "best of" lists. It
proved to be popular, so part two of this year's recap will be an expanded
second edition that will be available to readers on New Year's Eve. I know you'll find some clever and
unique lists, so stay tuned.
_________________________________________
- Easily, the Bloggy for "Best New Album" this year is presented to a very talented newcomer Kimmi Bitter, a California country star greatly inspired by Patsy Cline and Loretta Lynn. I reviewed her debut, full length CD, Old School, and followed it up with an online interview a couple of weeks later. If you missed these two posts the first time around now is your chance to catch up.
- The award for the "Best Old Album I Heard For The First Time In 2024" goes to a live, 1998 set by Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham for their Live: Moments From This Theatre CD. Even if you don't know who they are there's a great chance you'll know the songs they wrote a long time ago for a whole bunch of primarily R&B influenced artists of the 1960s.
- The winner of the 2024 Bloggy for "Best New Music Memoir" goes to England's Chris Charlesworth for Just Backdated, his book detailing the years he wrote for Melody Maker magazine in the 1970s and the close relationship he cultivated with many of the legendary rock acts of the decade, especially The Who and Led Zeppelin. The author's blog has the same name as his highly entertaining book.
- He doesn't need any more awards, accolades, recognition, or money, but Paul McCartney picks up a 2024 Bloggy anyway for his excellent photography exhibition that features a couple of hundred pictures he took while The Beatles were touring the world in 1964. He also published an excellent coffee table book containing all of the photographs that were hanging on the walls of several museums around the world.
- The Bloggy for "Reissue Of The Year" goes to the late, great Louis Armstrong for Louis In London, a 2024 release of a great concert he played for the BBC in 1968. It was originally issued on LP with only nine tracks. The new CD has thirteen. Many people have called it Satchmo's last great performance.
- This year's Bloggy for "Outstanding Streaming Radio Station" goes to The Jazz Groove, a non-profit, non-commercial music service that offers five online jazz outlets all year and a sixth every December that plays Christmas music. All of their streams play mellow jazz with a distinct edge, so you'll never be bored. You may hear Miles Daves, John Coltrane, Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis, Chet Baker and a whole lot more.
- Let's finish with the trophy for "Outstanding Series By A Music Related Blog." The Bloggy goes to Any Major Dude With Half A Heart for In Memoriam, a monthly rundown of music related deaths from around the world that includes both the iconic and musicians who are completely unknown to most of us. A lot of research, time and effort goes into these posts each month. It's so much work that the feature has almost come to an end on more than one occasion. I've been reading it for almost two decades now and the "Major Dude" has never gotten the credit he deserves.
WHAT'S HOT TODAY!
The Band - Christmas Must Be Tonight (1977)
In 2006 Hall and Oates released Home For Christmas , their one and only holiday album, an extremely good set of music that immediately became one of my favorite seasonal listens. I wrote then that I was stunned at how many overtly religious songs the famous duo put on the the disc considering the very politically correct climate of the new millennium. One of them was a cover version of a song that alluded me for almost thirty years, "Christmas Must Be Tonight." I liked the new, upbeat track sung by Daryl Hall and it made me go out and search for Robbie Robertson's never-to-be classic. Sung by Rick Danko, it appears on the great American band's last album, Islands (1977). It's a surprise that a group whose members were not known to have any specific or powerfully strong religious beliefs would release a song that tackled the subject of Jesus's birth as blatantly as our most loved Christmas carols. It's not about a reckless reinde...
Chicago: An Album By Album Analysis Of The Terry Kath Era (1969 - 1977)
The original lineup of Chicago has always been one of my all time favorite bands. My affection for this great horn band is such that I want to discuss all of the albums they recorded before Terry Kath's unfortunate and accidental passing. Their debut album is now forty years old, and it's followup is not far behind, yet their music endures to this day. * * * * * Everyone Must Own * * * * Excellent * * * Good * * Fair * Poor * * * * * Chicago Transit Authority (1969) - Whether they were playing screaming psychedelic hard rock, jazz, blues, or love songs, everyone in the band proved they were worthy of the huge mass success that followed CTA 's release. The band's ability to play anything and play it well is the hallmark of their debut album. The stars are Robert Lamm, Terry Kath, and the horns, and even Peter Cetera demonstrates he can be a rock and roll animal when he wants to be. The standout tracks are Lamm's "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It...
Slower Than Slow: 16 RPM Records
Have you ever heard of a long forgotten vinyl format, the 16 2/3 RPM record? They were half the speed of the 33 1/3 RPM albums that were the traditional standard for recorded music. Most record players in the 1950s and 1960s came with a speed setting to play these long forgotten discs that were considered novelties even during the years they were available. Because most, but not all, 16s had big holes and were 7" in diameter many of them were mistaken for 45 RPMs and at that size the speed allowed for up to 20 minutes of playing time per side. However, there was no true standard size and they were also manufactured to be 9, 10, or 12 inches in diameter, and these larger records played even longer. Just like the other speeds and formats 16s could be played one record at a time or stacked on a changer for continuous play. Radio stations often used the discs for pre-recorded radio shows containing interviews, dramas, and documentaries. More frequen...
The Chieftains With Jackson Browne - The Rebel Jesus (1991)
"The Rebel Jesus" is a Christmas song composed by Jackson Browne and performed with The Chieftains, the eclectic, veteran Irish folk band on The Bells of Dublin, their 1991 holiday album. Browne wrote the song specifically for his guest appearance on this record. The singer-songwriter, who is deservedly in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, can be a bit preachy when he wants to be, and he is again here, but no one can dispute what the man is saying. The last two verses are the key to the song. Browne points out that people often feel more generous at Christmas so they'll give to those who were less fortunate than themselves during the holidays. But, if anyone tries to dig deeper and root out the poverty that envelops the downtrodden they are often scorned like Jesus was. This message is coming from a man who is admittedly a "heathen and a pagan," but on this occasion he is "on the side of the rebel Jesus." At the same time Browne doesn't want to sp...
The Beatles - Christmas Messages (1963 - 1969)
For seven straight years beginning in 1963 - even before they were famous in America - The Beatles recorded annual Christmas messages exclusively for their fan club members as a holiday thank you. They were issued on seven-inch, vinyl records that were very thin, very bendable, and easily damaged. These flexi-discs, as they were called, could not be stacked on record changers. Over the years the tracks have been bootlegged in countless ways, and until a few years ago the only legal release was sent to fan club members in 1970 on 33 RPM vinyl records after the boys from Liverpool went their separate ways. The LP cover shown here is from that album. Finally, in 2017, a limited edition box set on colored vinyl was released and is now an expensive collector's item. Many Beatles fans managed to hear these records over the years, and with the Internet being what it is, there are several websites where anyone can easily listen to all of them. Archive.org ...
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