Bloggerhythms

Grace Potter and The Nocturnals are a rock and roll band that is obviously in love with the blues. Potter, who was only twenty-two when this CD was recorded, is a student of rock and roll's great white blues ladies. Her voice is a lot smoother than Janis Joplin's, rougher than Bonnie Raitt's, and she mixes a little Susan Tedeschi in the stew for good measure. Potter also has a top notch band. The Nocturnals manage to sound spontaneous and loose while playing songs that have well thought out arrangements. Her Hammond B-3 organ adds color to almost every track. While Raitt and Joplin often interpreted other people's songs Potter and the band, who specialize in songs about love gone bad, have written a disc full of originals. Lyrically Potter has an edge to her that makes this typical radio friendly subject come alive. The opening track "Toothbrush and My Table" sets the mood. The relationship is over and all the singer wants from the whole affair is her stuf...

My recent attempts to discuss the current music scene are rudely interrupted once again, this time by a sad event. Denny Doherty , who rose to fame as the male lead singer of The Mamas and The Papas, died on January 19, 2007. During the brief time the quartet recorded together, 1966 to 1968, they were one of the biggest musical acts in the world. Because I considered The Beach Boys a rock band, and more than just a group of singers, I have often stated that The Mamas and The Papas are the greatest vocal group who ever graced a recording session or took to the stage. Their first album, If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears was one of the most popular debut albums of the decade. The Mamas and The Papas weren't just singers controlled by a manager, producer, and a record company. Leader John Phillips was an excellent composer who wrote most of their songs and he also arranged almost all of the vocals himself. Phillips didn't like to sing lead so Doherty assumed that role...

Any discussion of The Sons Of Champlin, Bill Champlin's recently revived 1960s band, inevitably leads one to a discussion of his other horn band, the far more famous and successful group that takes it's name from America's second city, Chicago. Champlin was recording horn band influenced rock with The Sons before Chicago ever released their first LP, Chicago Transit Authority , in 1969. I'm certain his horn band experience played a large part in his invitation to join Chicago in 1981 to replace the soulful vocals of the late Terry Kath and to replace keyboard player Robert Lamm who was thought to be leaving. Fortunately Lamm never left but Champlin, who is considered a master of the Hammond B-3 organ, stayed on anyway and remains a member of Chicago to this day. Because Chicago sold their souls to the devil (and spent most of their later years as a power ballad atrocity in the studio and as a traveling oldies road show when on tour) they have largely squandered Cham...