Bloggerhythms

Hammond B-3 jazz master Jimmy Smith (1925 - 2005) is someone whose music I've always enjoyed, but I've never owned any of his work until recently. While perusing the used jazz bins at a local, independent record store I saw his 2001 collaborative CD and grabbed it without reading any of the liner notes, so I really didn't know what I was buying. I would have preferred to have picked up a set that was truly a showcase for Smith's virtuosity, but it's my fault that I didn't. The disc, Dot Com Blues , is over an hour long with eleven tracks. Five of them feature guest vocalists, and that's more than any other full-length record Smith has ever released. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic  accurately described this album as Smith's version of Santana's  Supernatural  record - an attempt to "broaden his appeal" by bringing in a lot of guests. All of the singers spotlighted here identify more with blues than jazz and h...

Chuck Negron has passed away from heart failure and COPD at age 83. He was one of Three Dog Night's talented trio of lead singers. I was a big fan of the band and Negron in particular. He's in the foreground on the album cover pictured here. Negron sang lead on many of the septet's big hits including "One," "Easy to Be Hard," "Joy to the World," "An Old Fashioned Love Song," "Pieces of April," "The Show Must Go On," and a spectacular deep track - a melodramatic cover of Stevie Wonder's "Never Dreamed You'd Leave in Summer" that most music writers ridiculed. It's always been one of my go-to Three Dog Night songs. The band was a hit singles machine that placed twenty-one songs in the top 40. They seldom wrote their own material, but they had a knack for recording songs by many of the more talented composers of the era - often...

Ringo Starr turns 86 this year, and yet he never stops working. He continues to record albums and EPs and goes out on the road annually with his all-star band. Not bad for someone who was so sickly as a kid that many people believed he wouldn't survive to adulthood. Starr continues to collaborate with some of the top musicians and producers in the business and he mostly lets them run his recording sessions. I don't know if he lacks the confidence or the skills needed to take more control of his own work or whether he just enjoys the camaraderie and teamwork. Last year, he and T-Bone Burnett worked together on Look Up , Starr's very good, heavily country influenced, full-length album. Previously, for his 2024 EP, Crooked Boy , he turned the sessions over to Linda Perry, who's best known for the #14 single, " What's Up ," by the alt-rock, one-hit wonders 4 Non Blondes back in 1993. Perry gave Starr a couple of songs for two of ...

Chris Pellnat has been blogged about here on several occasions in recent years so he's not a newcomer to the music world and hopefully not to Bloggerhythms' readers. In 2023 Pellnat released a single, "Bibles, Flags and Guns," a blatantly political song that makes it very obvious where the singer-songwriter stands regarding America's current political climate even though it was written while a very different chief executive occupied the White House. It captures the temper of the times perfectly. What makes the song more provocative is how well it evokes early 60s, pre-electric Bob Dylan. Pellnat's voice is unique on its own, but he conjures up that bygone era by saluting the hall-of-famer's vocal inflections, guitar work and especially his harmonica playing.  Pellnat opens the song with a very powerful, straightforward volley: " Oh, the fascists they are everywhere,  Yes, they are the ones, known to hide their hate behind Bibles, f...

Most people are only familiar with Jim Messina as one half of a very musical and eclectic middle of the road duo, Loggins and Messina, who were incredibly popular in the first half of the 1970s. Some readers may remember that before L&M rose to stardom Messina helped Richie Furay organize Poco after they both completed a stint with the marvelous Buffalo Springfield. Messina's recording career began at age sixteen while he was still in high school as lead guitarist for His Jesters, a totally instrumental, rock n' roll sextet. Other members were Ron House and Bill Beckman on rhythm guitars, Jim Sholstedt on bass, drummer Larry Cundieff and saxman Dave Archuleta. Despite their ages, the group secured a recording contract and released an LP, The Dragsters,  on Audio Fidelity Records in 1964. While the music they played is surf-rock, the album's theme centers around the related West Coast car culture. The record has two cars on the front cove...

Although he had a long recording career, gruff voiced Barry McGuire was technically a one-hit wonder. In 1965 he topped the charts with "Eve of Destruction," one of the most powerful pop protest songs of all time. The unlikely hit was written by highly regarded, 60s songwriter, P. F. Sloan who normally wrote lighter fare for artists like Herman's Hermits ("A Must to Avoid") and The Turtles ("You Baby"). He also composed "Secret Agent Man," a big hit for Johhny Rivers that was the theme song of a popular TV series at the time. 1965 was the year folk-rock began its reign as an influential sub-genre. It was the year The Byrds released "Mr. Tambourine Man" and Simon and Garfunkel debuted with "Sounds of Silence." If you were paying attention to the news during the mid-60s you'll understand the impact "Eve of Destruction" had in the music world. The record was far removed from the sin...

CDs are not dead yet - or even on life support - but they are definitely in intensive care. Over the last fifteen years its dominance as a musical format has declined to almost the point of no return, so it’s time for a tribute to those shiny, little discs. I was one person who immediately fell in love with the CD when it arrived on the scene in 1982. I thought I had died and gone to stereo heaven because I always obsessed over the annoying scratches, clicks, and pops that most records accumulated over time even though I took extremely good care of them. I used Discwasher regularly, and I still use it today on any records I play. As soon as I put my first CD in the player's little sliding drawer I appreciated its extra playing time - most double LPs could fit on a single disc - and the expanded sonic field. The increased clarity was apparent to me immediately on most percussion and acoustic instruments. Female vocals sounded far superior then they ever...

Way back in 1970 I bought one of the many bootlegs of the soon-to-be-released final Beatles album, so I heard most of the songs from their joint movie and LP project before many people did. It seemed like there were dozens of different, illegal versions of the soundtrack sold in record stores everywhere. I bought my copy at Jerry's Records located in a long out-of-business discount mall named Bazaar of All Nations in Horsham, PA. Like other stores selling this coveted piece of contraband, I remember that Jerry's very prominent counter display advertised the LP as Get Back . I also remember paying more for it than it was probably worth. The packaging was odd even for a bootleg because it came in a plain, white, carboard jacket with no printing, photos, liner notes, cover art, or track listing - nothing! Inside, the white record label was also totally blank. As you can see here, I had to write on it myself. When I pulled the record out r...