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There's a store near me - appropriately named The Archive - that sells used books, comics, magazines, old trading cards, old post cards, records, CDs, DVDs, video games, toys, pop culture memorabilia and more. Are you looking for old Mad Magazines? They have them. Old Atari game cartridges? It's a possiblity. The place looks, feels and smells just like the musty warehouse it is, and I love it. None of The Archive's music is ever sold at collector's prices. Anyone can go in and pay a buck a piece for CDs and even their more in-demand vinyl is nicely priced. I visit there on occasion just to see what I can find. That's where I discovered the genre bending, classic album by Ray Charles, Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music ,   originally released by ABC-Paramount Records on a 12-inch LP way back in 1962 and on CD by Rhino Records in 1988 with three bonus tracks. First, a little background for those of you who are unaware of the original ...

The original Outlaws were only together for two albums: their spectacular, eponymous inaugural LP (#13) and  Lady in Waiting, their commercially less successful follow up (#36). The quintet featured three rock guitarists:  Hughie Thomasson, Billy Jones, and Henry Paul. Bassist Frank O'Keefe and drummer Monte Yoho rounded out the unit. This early lineup didn't have a keyboard player. Some reports indicate O'Keefe was fired after this LP. Others say he left because he broke his neck after falling into an empty swimming pool. He eventually became dependent on pain killers for the rest of his life that ended in 1995 after an unfortunate overdose. Lady  in Waiting is very similar to Outlaws' ten song debut. The three axmen could blow the doors down with sheer volume - as they did with "Green Grass and High Tides" from the earlier set - but their beautiful, three-part harmonies reminiscent...

Are you tired of Paul McCartney being treated as a musical wimp? The people who dislike his "granny music" - as John Lennon once called it - get stuck on an extremely small sample of the legend's tremendously huge catalog with The Beatles, Wings and as a solo artist. McCartney's granny songs didn't sound the least bit off-putting to me, possibly because - as I've mentioned here before - I grew up listening to my mother's big band records. I've always believed it was wrong that one of the most important men who helped shape rock music in the 60s was criticized for having broader tastes, and since when is writing melodies a crime? McCartney was greatly influenced by his father. Jim McCartney led his own jazz band and Paul liked what he heard. His first instrument was a trumpet given to him by his dad, but the future star traded it in for a guitar so he could sing while playing. It turned out to be a very smart move on his part. ...

Maybe I'm naive, but I've always wondered why so many musicians take up the ill-conceived lifestyle of using dangerous, mind-altering drugs. To me, their poor choices were hypocritical and in direct conflict with the important social causes many of them campaigned for on a regular basis, especially in the 1960s and 1970s when the "sex, drugs & rock n' roll" lifestyle seemed to reach epic proportions. Bonnie Raitt was among the stars who would rail against the possibility of radiation from nuclear power plants poisoning people  while voluntarily doing the same to her own body by frequently using deadly, illicit substances.  I always said to myself - but never to anyone publicly before, "Why should we listen to these celebrities on any subject - peace, civil rights, clean energy - when they're not smart enough to prevent their own personal destruction."   To m...

I'm not the least bit Irish, but I've been a fan of Celtic-rock for quite a long time now. So, to celebrate St. Patrick's Day today I'm rerunning one of my very early posts. It was originally published here on September 10, 2005. Keith Roberts and Young Dubliners offer a slick, polished, and commercial Irish-rock sound that befits their home base of Los Angeles. Their style is a complete contrast to bands such as Black 47 who flaunt their grittier New York City street image. While Larry Kirwan's band, along with The Saw Doctors, U2, and The Pogues, wear their shamrocks on their sleeves the Dubliners devotion to their roots is a little more subdued. The fact that The Dubliners are more mainstream than any of the bands mentioned above is given away by the arena rock sound of the title track as well as "Touch The Sky," and "Say It's So." There are no politics on this album, no songs ab...

Modern English is a one-hit wonder whose most famous song never reached the Top 40. "I Melt With You" may have climbed to #7 on the US rock chart, but it never made it higher than #76 on the Hot 100, and that was after it was re-recorded and released a second time in 1990 on the quintet's Pillow Lips CD. The original version - and the one most people know from the album After The Snow - placed two spots lower. The video shows a couple dancing, but don't let the song's catchy melody and exuberance fool you. Its opaque lyrics reveal a serious theme. Lead singer Robbie Grey explained that "I Melt With You" is about a young couple making love during a nuclear holocaust. Grey wanted to write a love song, but he told Lori Majewski and Jonathan Bernstein, authors of   Mad World: An Oral History of New Wave Artists and Songs That Defined the 1980s , that " The last thing we wanted was to write a song where boy meets girl, they ...

Country Joe McDonald - who died March 7, 2026 at age 84 - and his band, The Fish were almost entirely known for "The Fish Cheer" and its accompanying song "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Rag," but McDonald had a long career. He recorded over thirty-five albums and EPs with his group and as a solo artist, none of which are familiar to me. McDonald used his fifteen minutes of fame at Woodstock for his performance of the infamous cheer that leads into his still well-loved, anti-Viet Nam war protest song. Along with Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" the "Rag" was a strong statement against the war and was even more pointed than Guthrie's sidelong, LP narrative. Just like Guthrie, McDonald used dark humor to get his point across even though the subject matter wasn't the least bit funny. I remember snickering the first time I heard it way back in prehistoric times when I was a teenager and ...

Stevie Ray Vaughan - deservedly elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2015 along with his band Double Trouble - is sorely missed. Sadly, Vaughan left us more than a quarter of a century ago with a discography that's limited in size due to his early passing in a tragic helicopter crash. In Step was the fourth and last studio album Vaughan recorded with Double Trouble, and it was the last one to be released in his lifetime. It went to #33 on Billboard's top 200 album chart. SRV's actual final recording was Family Style , an album on which he shared equal billing with his brother, Jimmie, who is best known for his work with The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Another excellent set, The Sky Is Crying , was issued posthumously two years later, but it was assembled from unreleased tracks found in the vaults. In Step is a fine record, and it opens with a blast. "The House is Rockin'" is nothing fancy, just good old fas...