Bloggerhythms

After The Beatles broke up 60's musical god Paul McCartney formed the sometimes dreadful Wings with his late wife Linda who instantly and consistently proved to the world that she should have stuck to photographing musicians instead of performing with them. Then, after Wings ended, McCartney embarked on a very uneven solo career. Highly respectable albums such as Tug Of War were frequently followed by head scratching mediocrity such as Pipes Of Peace and Press To Play . The excellent Flowers In The Dirt was followed by the far less enjoyable Off The Ground . Fortunately, over the last decade McCartney has regained much of the muse he lost after the split with his famous Liverpool band mates but, while he remains very prolific, he still has never come close to writing songs as great as "Yesterday," "Here, There, and Everywhere," "Eleanor Rigby," "Penny Lane," and many more. He can still write good songs but the memorable melodies and humm...

The Salvation Blues is Mark Olson's first true solo CD. Olson was the leader of The Jayhawks until he left them in the good hands of co-founder Gary Louris in 1995. One of the reasons he cited for leaving the band was to be with his wife, singer-songwriter Victoria Williams, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. Then, leading a loosely organized group called The Creekdippers, he and Williams made several CDs together. Unfortunately Olson and Williams eventually divorced which sent him into a period of depression. He moved out of his home and began a period of aimless world traveling. He lived with his aunt in Colorado, then with friends in Wales. From there it was on to Krakow, Poland, then back to his original home town in Minneapolis, and finally back again with his aunt. The Salvation Blues was written during Olson's travels. It's a cathartic collection of songs he felt compelled to write. His state of mind is evident all over the disc. "Keith" is about ...

Black 47 has a reputation for playing high volume, high energy live shows. Leader Larry Kirwan once described his band as being "loud and proud." While the New York City based musicians were a bit more subdued than usual this past Saturday night (Only Kirwan was animated and appeared to be having fun) it made their performance tighter, so the music shined through without any distractions. Perhaps the band's lack of exuberance was reflected by the fact that the sextet performed in front of a very small crowd. The seventh annual Xtreme Folk Festival was sparsely attended and there appeared to be only about a hundred people present when the festival's headliner hit the stage a little after 9 PM. By the time the two-hour show was completed there didn't appear to be more than fifty people in attendance and these included festival workers and volunteers. Perhaps it was just getting late for everyone after a long day of music. It was a night for a lot of old Black ...

I'm sure most of you have never heard of Seamus Kelleher . I wrote about him briefly last year when I reviewed Push & Pull , the latest CD by his Celtic rock band, Blackthorn . Kelleher is an Irish immigrant who, for the last twelve years, has been the lead guitarist for the quintet who may be Philadelphia's most popular unsigned rock band. In concert Blackthorn plays rock versions of Irish folk music, covers of Irish rock standards, and songs from their three independent CDs of original material. As with a lot of musicians, who play very important but supporting roles in their respective bands, Kelleher felt a need to express himself more fully outside the framework of his group's proven formula. This led the guitarist to pursue his dream of recording a solo CD, Four Cups Of Coffee , that was recorded over a four day period this past April in Nashville. Four Cups Of Coffee is an eclectic mix of styles that reflect all of the varied influences tha...