Bloggerhythms

The ten piece horn-rock ensemble, Mom's Apple Pie, is remembered by record collectors more for the famously obscene cover from their first LP (1972) than they are for their music.  Let me be as delicate as possible. The artwork featuring the sexually explicit, steaming apple pie "Mom" is holding can be seen on the group's Wikipedia page and elsewhere on the Internet.  The cover of the Ohio band's second album (1973), shown here, is far more tame and mundane. Horn bands were still all the rage in '72 and Mom's Apple Pie tried very hard to cash in. The large outfit started making some noise and they were eventually able to open for big names such as The Doobie Brothers and David Bowie. They were signed to the late Terry Knight's record company, Brown Bag Records. Knight was best known for previously producing Grand Funk Railroad and Bloodrock. The horns usually played only as a unit and hardly ever took a solo.  Their two lead singers, Tony Gigliot...

Unique is a unique word and it's commonly misused. It means one of a kind, so when people say "very unique" or "most unique" the word is improperly employed. However, if an additional superlative was ever needed to describe an album of music it would apply to Santana's outstanding second LP, Abraxas , released in the fall of 1970. With deep apologies to Los Lobos, Los Lonely Boys, Richie Valens, and every other Santana record ever made this album has to rank as THE single greatest Latino-rock release of all time. It's also one of the greatest rock albums recorded by anyone, anywhere, anytime. In hard rocking 1970 this platter didn't just blast away at you. It's colorful and often intricate arrangements fused rock, salsa, and jazz together and was presided over by nominal leader, Carlos Santana, who quickly became one of the best rock soloists on the scene. Santana didn't just jam. He played melodies too and the group's percussi...

The Baseball Project is a quartet consisting of four rock music veterans, all of whom have staked out a nice reputation for themselves in other bands. The starting lineup is Steve Wynn, founder of the 80s band, Dream Syndicate, his wife, drummer Linda Pitmon, and recent free agent, Peter Buck of R. E. M. The clean up hitter is Scott McCaughey of The Minus Five who later became an unofficial member of Buck's late, great band during their final years together. The four assembled for this side project because McCaughey and Wynn, two huge baseball fans, decided to start a band with a unique concept. All of the songs would be about their favorite sport. Volume 1, Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails , was released in 2008 and Volume 2, High & Inside , was released last year. Of course, dedicated baseball fans with knowledge of the sport's rich history will appreciate these two albums more than anyone else. However, because the songs are also history lessons and commentaries...

It's indisputable that the musical genre known as jazz was invented by American Blacks in the deep South around a hundred years ago, mostly in and around New Orleans. As a music fan who likes some jazz I thank them for doing so. However, a long standing debate has apparently gained new momentum and it is this: should jazz be considered Black music? I pose the question because there has been increasing talk about renaming the genre Black American Music as this article indicates. Yes, the contributions Blacks have made to jazz are well documented and all music fans have benefited from their efforts, but Whites have also played a key role from the very beginning. As early as the 1920s cornetist Bix Biederbecke became one of the new music's premier soloists. The late thirties and World War Two was the time when swing was at its peak of popularity. It was the only time in history that jazz was also the country's most popular music. Institutional discrimination allowed the W...