Bloggerhythms

Few people under the age of forty are familiar with Jimmy Dean the singer, actor, and TV host. If they're aware of him at all it's because they saw him hawking his sausages for many years on TV commercials. He left the music business so long ago that millions of people who grew up with his career totally forgot about him. Honestly, I haven't thought of Dean in a long, long time and it took the news of his recent passing on June 13, 2010 to trigger some pleasant memories. The country star had one hit record during the 1950s ("Bummin' Around" in 1953) and is primarily known for his 1961 single "Big Bad John," a spoken word "song" about a huge, burly, coal miner. The record starts, "Every morning at the mine, you could see him arrive. He stood 6 foot 6, weighed 245. Kind of broad at the shoulders, narrow at the hip. And everybody knew you didn't give no lip to Big John." The singer's other number one country hit was...

The original vinyl release of this 1969 cartoon film soundtrack had one full side of orchestral music composed by legendary Beatles producer George Martin. The rest of the album contained a couple of previously released Beatles oldies that appeared in the film and only four new original songs. Yellow Submarine Songtrack contains those four songs ("It's All Too Much," "Only A Northern Song," "Hey Bulldog," and "All Together Now") plus eleven previously issued tracks The Beatles recorded spanning the period of time from Rubber Soul through Magical Mystery Tour . All appear in the film, and for this disc, all have been remixed from their original versions. Except for restoring an additional verse to "It's All Too Much" that lengthens the song a bit, none of the re-mixes add anything to the superior originals. In many cases the differences are barely noticeable. If you still need the four songs that were first released with ...

After seeing Raul Midon perform a brief live set I was impressed enough with him to plunk down $10 for his debut studio CD, State Of Mind . Unfortunately, after a few listens this has turned out to be a mixed blessing. Vocally Midon can be described as a cross between Stevie Wonder and George Benson, and that is good news. He also plays very nice acoustic guitar in a very rhythmic and aggressive style that, when you close your eyes, gives you the impression you are listening to a full band.  Midon can also do an uncanny vocal impression of trumpet playing that he calls "mouth trumpet" in the liner notes of his CD. It is a very cool gimmick that enhances his sound. You can tell that EMI’s Manhattan Records took Midon seriously as a talent. The CD was produced by veterans Arif and Joe Mardin. Stevie Wonder played harmonica on "Sittin’ In The Middle" and there is a duet with Jason Mraz on the jointly penned "Keep On Hoping." The problems arise whe...

The Corrs have always been one of the more mainstream, radio friendly, Irish bands. Even though their music has sometimes bordered on sappy they never forgot, nor totally abandoned, their musical heritage. The siblings are at their best, and are often outstanding, when they fuse the more traditional sounds of their homeland with rock 'n roll to create a unique hybrid. Here they use tin whistle, fiddle, acoustic guitar, dobro, and bodhran (the Irish percussion instrument that looks like a giant tambourine) on a cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" (also famously covered by Derek and The Dominoes). Here, the three sisters, their brother, and guests give a terrific performance of the song that, in this version, sounds as if it could have had its roots in Irish folk music. The video below is not the version of "Little Wing" from the group's Live In Dublin CD featuring Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones. That concert also had Bono helping out on two tra...

Craig Lincoln has released two CDs in a short period of time. His solo debut, Cats & Dogs , received a nice writeup from Bloggerhythms a few weeks back. He has also teamed up with another singer-songwriter, Sabrina Schneppat, and together they just issued One Home......One Heart . Much of this CD has the same personality as Lincoln's work that features just his voice and acoustic guitar. However, the band they use on most tracks adds fullness to the duo's music, giving it some color missing from his solo disc. Schneppat, who wrote four of the eleven songs, has a really nice voice that blends well with Lincoln's. Her partner, a multi-instrumentalist who wrote everything else, includes four holdovers from Cats & Dogs : its title track, the title track from this CD, "Fall or Fly," and "Little White Lies." Lincoln conjured up another tribute to his parents. "Call Your Mom" is a perfect companion piece to "My Father's Son...