Bloggerhythms

Much has been written about the troubles of the late guitarist Peter Green (1946 - 2020), the founder of Fleetwood Mac. After leaving the band in 1970 Green spent most of the decade either in jail or in hospitals due to mental illness that was heavily fueled by his unfortunate usage of LSD. You can read about the sad and sordid details of his personal life at various stops along the Internet. Regardless, Green was considered one of the premier blues-rock guitarists of the classic rock era and many considered him the equal of Eric Clapton, the man he replaced in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Green released one poorly received solo album, The End of the Game , not long after he left the Mac but it took another nine years until he issued In the Skies , quite possibly the best work he's done outside of his famous band. Green sang lead on the LP's only four songs with vocals. The rest are instru...

Last week Bob Dylan introduced us to his band's new guitar player. Joel Paterson is a very talented electric and acoustic axman who specializes in releasing concept albums that show off his unquestionable versatility playing instrumental covers of  rockabilly, country,  jazz, blues, and  western swing. On his own, Paterson has recorded two Christmas records, an album of original, acoustic blues, and  two albums of Beatles' classics. I first discovered Paterson last year playing lead and steel guitar on an album starring upcoming singer-songwriter Annie Dolan with whom he shares equal billing on a set of tunes that emphasizes her fine vocals on a bunch of old pop, rock, and country standards mostly from the fifties and sixties. Let It Be Guitar! was originally released in 2019 and again in 2023 as a digital only album. Paterson's choices are mostly from The Beatles' touring years, and that could be because th...

Among the seemingly endless number of songs Gerry Goffin and Carole King wrote together is "I'm Into Something Good." As usual, during their songwriting partnership she wrote the music and he wrote the lyrics. "Something Good" was first released in 1964 by Earl-Jean McCrea who only used her hyphenated first name on the record. McCrea was also a member of The Cookies, a girl group who earlier had R&B and crossover successes with "Don't Say Nothin' Bad (About My Baby)" and "Chains." (The latter was later covered by The Beatles on their full-length, debut LP, Please Please Me. ) Both of these Cookies' hits were also written by Goffin and King. Earl-Jean's version was a pop-rhythm and blues single that only reached #38 on the Hot 100. The 45 rpm was arranged by King and produced by Goffin. ...

Emerson, Lake & Palmer superfan, Andy Pincus, posing with Keith Emerson's "World's Most Dangerous Synthesizer" Do you want to marvel at Keith Emerson's very own Moog synthesizer? Do you also want to hear someone play it live? Are you interested in the history of ARP and Moog synthesizers? Do you want to learn about electronic wind instruments, keytars, guitar synthesizers and electronic drums? Do you want to test drive an electro-theremin yourself just like I did? If your answer is yes to any of those questions you'll need to visit one of the coolest music museums you'll ever find, the hands-on  Museum of Music Technology (MMT) in Harleysville, PA, a small but bustling suburb about forty-five minutes from Philadelphia and only about two minutes from the Pennsylvania Turnpike. MMT is operated by EMEAPP , a 501(c) (3) privately owned, non-profit ...

Walt Parazaider during a performance at the Dodge Theatre in Phoenix, AZ Photo used by permission of Ken Young & Wikipedia In the early 70s Chicago meant almost as much to me as The Beatles did and I'll love their early studio albums forever. No one was more disappointed than me when the band's music took too much of a turn toward hornless power ballads. Even so, the sad news of Walter Parazaider's passing at age 81 on June 17th hit me harder than many other deaths of more famous and celebrated musicians. He had been suffering from heart disease and Alzheimer's for close to a decade. Parazaider earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Depaul University in classical clarinet but after being influenced by The Beatles' "Got to Get You into My Life" he helped organize the band that eventually became Chicago with his friends - guitarist Terry Kath and drum...

The Riflebirds of Portland (ROP) were once known simply as The Riflebirds. Their hometown was added to the group's name when they recently discovered there's another band using their shorter, original moniker. Both bands are named after a beautiful and unique looking bird. It's only after Lee Oser and producer Marvin Etzioni reunited two years ago that the quartet regrouped after decades apart to record a second album. Etzioni is well known as a founding member of Lone Justice. ROP have a unique backstory. They released two singles and an album simply titled  April only on cassette   way back in 1989. Earlier this year it was finally released on both CD and on a long-playing twelve-inch record. The lineup on this thirty-seven year-old set is composer Lee Oser on rhythm guitar and bass; his wife, singer Kate Oser; lead guitarist Kevin Kraft and drummer Kevin Jarvis. They got lots of help from in-demand, recording session all-stars including multi-instrumentali...

No doubt about it, "In-a-Gadda-da-Vida" - the 1968 album and song by Iron Butterfly - is a relic from a different age. I bought the record to reward myself for passing my driver's license test after I turned sixteen the following year. Every classic rock fan has an opinion about this 17:05 track that took up all of side two on the original 33 1/3 rpm record from which it came. It's a song that people either love or hate. There appears to be no middle ground. While it's really a very simple composition built around a very famous riff it represents all of the excesses of the psychedelic era: extended guitar jams featuring both fuzz and wah-wah pedals, lots of electric organ, and long drum solos. The lengthy work's name is based on the phrase "In the Garden of Eden." Supposedly, singer/organist/composer Doug Ingle was so drunk in the studio that when he recited the lyrics of the epic-length ...

I liked the Grateful Dead, but I was never a Deadhead. I wholeheartedly believe the sextet was better in the studio than they were live. To adherents of the late 20th-Century religion known as Deadism that statement is enough to send me to Hell for eternity. The Dead's faithful do not believe in Purgatory because it's not possible to cleanse a sinner's soul in the Afterlife. Only total devotion to the band while earthbound can save a person from eternal damnation. I know I'm one of the condemned because I believe The San Franciscans' sacrosanct triple LP/double CD,  Europe '72 , is boring. It's the album that never ends. I came to that conclusion after listening to it a few times back in my college days and again just a few weeks ago to see if my opinion had changed. It did not. Garcia, Weir and company continued to release live material regularly, but they abandoned the studio completely after 1980's Go to Heaven ...