Bloggerhythms

CPR was a band that included David Crosby, guitarist Jeff Pevar, and keyboard player James Raymond. I'm sure the trio's name was inspired by the acronym used for the Hall of Famer's legendary outfit, CSN&Y. CPR has an interesting back story. Crosby is Raymond's natural father. He gave the child up for adoption in the early 60s and for decades Raymond didn't know anything about Crosby except that he was a famous musician. After the younger man discovered his roots in 1992 the father and son talked on the phone, hit it off quite well, and they met two years later. Ironically, Raymond was also a musician who majored in music at Cal State – San Bernardino so Crosby asked him to join a new band he was organizing. They began writing songs together and this led to CPR's eponymous debut CD . Too appreciate this disc at all you have to be a fan of Crosby's work. He always wrote the least accessible music for CSN - that does not mean bad - and this albu...

It's unusual to do a tribute to someone while he's still alive but James Taylor is a man who deserves all of the accolades he receives because, while he didn't invent the sub-genre, he is the person most associated with kick starting the entire singer-songwriter movement into the popular mainstream. Details about Taylor's young adulthood, his hospitalization, his serious heroin addiction, and his upper middle class upbringing have all been well documented so we're not here to discuss those titillating parts of his life. It's only his music that matters, although as his folk-rock masterpiece, "Fire and Rain," from his first hit album, Sweet Baby James , proves it's not always possible to separate the two. What is it about Taylor's music that gave him such widespread appeal even with people who were into the hardest rock and roll? The soon-to-be star came along in 1970, when rock was at one of its most creative and loudest eras, and to t...

Not recording an album of standards once an artist is eligible to join AARP (American Association of Retired People for you non-patriots) must be a violation of international law. Paul McCartney's recent, semi-successful attempt and Rod Stewart's four unspeakable atrocities are just two examples that prove the rule, so it's really a good thing when someone who was born to sing these songs actually croons into a microphone. Such is the case with San Antonio’s Bett Butler , a jazz singer and pianist who just released her third CD. Butler's first disc, 2001’s self-written, horn-drenched Short Stories was loaded with R&B influenced jazz songs. Six years later she issued Myths & Fables , another album full of original, more intricate and progressive jazz fare, and now she has released American Sampler , an eleven track collection of old songs she loves. Butler plays piano and handles all of the vocals. Her husband, Joel Dilley, is a successful jazz bassist...

The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds ,simply stated, is one of the most gorgeous pop-rock records ever to be released. Unfortunately, it took decades for the album to achieve gold record status and there are still a multitude of casual Beach Boys fans who are not familiar with it beyond the three huge hit singles it contained: "Wouldn't It Be Nice," its b-side, "God Only Knows," and "Sloop John B." A fourth single, "Caroline No," was issued in Brian Wilson's name only and it also did well on the charts. Never was his songwriting more mature, never were the arrangements more intricate, celebratory or sad, and rarely were the vocals of the five original bandmates plus Bruce Johnston more beautiful. The album is notorious for not having any of the Beach Boys playing a single note on it. However, the sextet contributed all of the vocals. It's still their artistic vision, not the company's or any outsider's, because Wilson was in t...

Ryan Adams has often been too prolific for his own good. Unable to edit himself, he released too much music over the last decade and often railed against his record company when they tried to reign him in. Since a successful, well publicized stint in rehab about four years ago cleaned up his lifestyle the country-rocker has mellowed, married Mandy Moore, a singer and actress with a squeaky clean image, and he's been more careful about the music his public gets to hear. All of this has led to the critically acclaimed Ashes & Fire , Adams' first new CD since breaking up his really nice backup band, The Cardinals. Ashes & Fire is an album in which the lyrical content is far more important than the music so it makes sense that it's also one of the quietest efforts in Adams' catalog. Even so, the all-star veteran really knows how to construct a song and the seriously catchy "Lucky Now" deserves the substantial radio time it has won on stations inter...