Bloggerhythms

Newcomer Annie Dolan is a singer-songwriter and guitarist who recently released her debut album,  Atta Boy Girl , in the fall of 2024. It consists of nine cover songs plus the instrumental, "Fussbudget," the collection's only original composition. She's in the midst of recording a full-length, self-written, pop-rock release, but in the interim she's issued this very fine set of throwback tunes. Dolan gets a lot of help from lead guitar player and mentor  Joel Paterson who produced the sessions for her. Even though he's new to me Paterson is a highly regarded axman from Chicago who has recorded several albums of acoustic and electric guitar instrumentals. He's very much worth listening to, and it seems I've been missing out on his very cool chops. He'll be featured here in a future post. Dolan's album isn't country, nor is it rock. Instead, it blends both genres with the artist's pop sensibilities and her...

"Nights In White Satin" only managed to reach #103 on the Hot 100 in 1967. It didn't become a massive #2 hit until five years later, so its followup, "Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)," became The Moody Blues' first top forty entry since a very different sounding band - with a future Wings member, Denny Laine, on lead vocals - made the top ten in 1965 with "Go Now." "Tuesday Afternoon" was released as the second single from the quintet's sophomore album, Days Of Future Passed . It peaked at #24 on the Hot 100 in 1968. Both the song and the LP helped set the tone for almost all Moody Blues' records in the future. The track was recorded by The Moodys' classic lineup that featured a fine, new, lead singer, Justin Hayward, who composed this soon to be classic on his acoustic guitar. John Lodge supplied backing vocals and bass, Mike Pinder played mellotron and piano, Roy Thomas played flute, and Graeme Edge w...

Jazz may have its roots in New Orleans, but New York City has always been synonymous with the art form that has sometimes been called "America's Classical Music." The Big Apple is as much of a jazz town as New Orleans is, so this CD, New York, New York: The City in Song -   at one time available only through The Metropolitan Museum Of Art   which is where I bought my copy back in  2008 - is an entirely appropriate salute to the city that never sleeps. All of the song titles reference America's largest city in some way. The disc is loaded with vintage jazz. Louis, The Duke, and The Count are all here and there is even an Armstrong/Ellington duet on "Drop Me Off In Harlem." Stan Kenton contributed "Stompin' At The Savoy" and Buddy Rich shines on the lengthy "West Side Story Medley." Peggy Lee, Dakota Staton, and Lena Horne all sing their hearts out while The Modern Jazz Quartet, Benny Green, Bud Powell, and George Shearin...

I've become addicted to  Tom Petty's Buried Treasure , found at SiriusXM channel 711. It's a continually running, hour long show where Petty mostly played obscure records from his own collection. At one time the program was a weekly feature on the satellite radio service's Deep Tracks channel. Later, all 250-plus episodes were spun off onto their own station. Petty featured a lot of rock and roll, rhythm & blues and straight ahead blues from the 50s, 60s and 70s, but the rocking DJ with a great sense of humor didn't hesitate to play newer stuff - like The White Stripes and Kings of Leon - if he was so moved. The late star has played a lot of very old music that is new to me. A typical show may feature Sonny Boy Williamson, Elmore James, The McCoys, The Zombies, The Animals, Chuck Berry, Ann Peebles, Canned Heat, Paul Revere and The Raiders, Taj Mahal, Jimi Hendrix, The Rascals, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Shangri-L...

John Lennon recorded six albums with his wife, Yoko Ono.  Milk and Honey,  released in January 1984, was both his final one with her and his last record overall. The late, ex-Beatle's six songs on this set were largely recorded during his 1980 Double Fantasy sessions and were intended for later release, but because of his death - unlike the tracks on its predecessor - they remained unfinished when Ono delivered them to the public over three years later. Most of Ono's six tunes on the album were newly recorded in 1983 and were given all the polish Lennon's were orignally intended to receive. They were far more accessible and mainstream than any music the Japanese-American star ever released up to that point. Milk and Honey  made it to #11 in America. Of Lennon's three singles pulled from the disc, only "Nobody Told Me" (#5) reached the top forty. The other two were "I'm Stepping Out" (#55) and "Borrowed Time" (#1...

Cumbria Pizza is an all acoustic, concert album by Hardwicke Circus recorded at Pizza Express Live in Holborn, London, England in May 2023. Although the band currently has only two studio albums to their name, this recent release is subtitled The Greatest Hits Unplugged ,   and while it may seem overblown to talk about "greatest" hits at this point in the Carlisle, UK band's career - especially in America - that superlative easily applies to this show because they played their best-loved and most well-known songs. To quote the quintet's producer  Dave Robinson - who also was the legendary founder of Stiff Records - directly from the back of the LP cover,  "There are two kinds of people in the world, Hardwicke Circus fans and people who haven't heard them yet." Hardwicke Circus plays melodic, upbeat rock 'n roll with plenty of hooks. As mentioned in my earlier review of their latest studio album,  Fly The Flag...

A few days ago I saw  A Complete Unknown , the new film biography on Bob Dylan. As a movie with a coherent storyline, fabulous acting - especially by its star,  Timothée Chalamet - you couldn't ask for more. Unusually, for a mainstream Hollywood film, it's mostly accurate. That  means a lot to me because I've always been a curmudgeon when movies and TV shows play too fast and loose with historical facts so much that the viewer gets a totally skewed view of real events. Because I liked the movie a lot and wanted to continue liking it, I began researching its historical accuracy online after I got home.  I'm OK with the  liberties  director James Mangold took because he didn't change the intent of the storyline. According to the website, Shortlist , it doesn't matter that actress Elle Fanning's character, Sylvie Russo, is an entirely different woman than Suze Rotolo who was Dylan's real first girlfriend in New Yor...

Let me start by acknowledging that I've always been a fan of Peter, Paul and Mary. I once saw the trio in concert at the famous Musikfest   in Bethlehem, PA. I own their four CD box set and a couple of their later albums. I recently played their live, Christmas CD during the holidays. Peter Yarrow died of cancer on January 7, 2025 at age 86. I'm aware that I posted on several social media platforms that I wasn't going to write a tribute to him because of his past. That's still true, but his disgusting, criminal acts are bothering me too much to ignore them. There was an extreme paradox between the public life Yarrow led - and what he and his singing group meant to a multitude of noble social causes - compared to what went on behind the scenes. These contradictions compel me to say something about him now because of the way many media outlets are reacting to his death. Most older music...