Bloggerhythms

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 ...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Mojo - The UK's unique music magazine - and what a wonderful perk it is that everyone who subscribes to their print edition receives a bonus CD usually related to that month's cover story. It's quite likely that readers are not going to love all of the music the publication sends their way, but it's not their fault. It's just not possible for them to know and satisfy every subscriber's taste every single month. Regardless, the fact they're providing readers with music they most likely haven't heard before is very much appreciated. The recently released June 2026 cover story discusses Joni Mitchell's fifty greatest songs spread out over nineteen colorful pages, and it comes with a fifteen track, sixty-eight-minute compact disc loaded with both well-known and obscure artists re-interpreting her work. Today - because these compilations are loaded with deep cuts and rarities - Bloggerhythms begins a new, ...

The late Vince Guaraldi is known to most people only as the pianist on the soundtracks to the Peanuts TV specials and especially as the genius behind the most famous jazz Christmas album in history, A Charlie Brown Christmas. That is a real shame for a man who died too young of a heart attack at age 47 just after completing work on another Peanuts TV show earlier that day. Fantasy Records released this fourteen-song greatest hits disc on vinyl in 1980 and on CD in 1989. It's far from being a complete retrospective because it only contains music Guaraldi recorded for that label, but it still serves as a very nice overview of this intriguing jazz man's work. Guaraldi started making records in the mid-50s as a sideman for Cal Tjader. He also sat in with Woody Herman. Later he played with percussionist Mongo Santamaria and Dave Brubeck's bassist, Eugene Wright. In 1959 Guaraldi set out on his own. It would be 1963 before he hit paydirt when "Cast Your Fate to the Wind...

NOCONA's leader, Chris Isom, is from the Texas town of the same name. It's also the name of a company that makes fine Western boots, so to avoid any confusion with both of these entities the quartet decided to capitalize its name. There's also a second salient point that needs to be made to avoid confusion. Although NOCONA has the look of a country-rock outfit, records in Nashville and bill themselves as an "alt-country/cowpunk band,"'  to my ears - especially with guest star Rosie Flores onboard - they're a kick-ass, rock 'n roll band. In addition to composer, lead singer and guitarist Isom, the lineup includes his wife, Adrienne, on vocals and bass. Matt Brundrett is behind the drum kit and Elan Glasser plays harmonica. NOCONA have been a fixture on the Los Angeles bar scene for twelve years. They've recorded three albums, but "How Do You Feel?" is their first new music since ...

Way back in the early 80s - before they had a recording contract and were the toast of the Philadelphia club scene - The Hooters sometimes played entire shows accompanied by a horn section that supplemented their unique ska, reggae, and pop-rock musical stew. The band still tours, and they also released a new album in 2023 that gives fans an opportunity to remember why Philadelphia was so devoted to them all those years ago. Rocking & Swing is an excellent and fun set of tunes that proves the group haven't abandoned their pop sensibilities at all, but after several decades of forcing their Jamaican influences to operate almost totally from the sidelines it brings the Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian led outfit back home to their roots. They even brought the horn section with them. Rocking & Swing  includes two original, ska-fueled instrumentals: "Guava Jive" and "Pete Rose" (I have no idea why the ballplayer's name is bei...

Dave Mason passed away on April 19, 2026 at age 79, and I have to admit that although I always liked his work, I really hadn't thought about him in quite a long time. That's what happens when an artist stops recording new material for almost two decades (1987-2008) and disappears from the radio. During that time, he only released four live albums. Mason only experienced modest chart success, placing just two singles in the top 40 and none after 1978. His debut LP,  Alone Together,  was his most successful, peaking at #22. Is it because he didn't fall into one of the two major rock sub-genres most British classic rockers gravitated to in the early 70s, either blues-rock or prog-rock? As a solo act he always was an outlier. Mason's first single to make the top 100 was "Only You Know and I Know" that peaked at only #42. It was lifted from his debut, a very good, middle-of-the-road record that rocks without being ...