Bloggerhythms

None of the five members of Poco were commercially successful when Richie Furay exited the band in 1973 and without their acknowledged leader no one expected anything to change. In fact, at that point it wouldn't have been surprising if the band simply dissolved. They didn't, and when one of their many different lineups finally charted two big hit singles, "Crazy Love" and "Heart Of The Night," from their 1978 album, Legend , most of the world was surprised to learn the long player became a certified gold record. Poco's 1976 album, Rose of Cimarron (#89 on Billboard's Hot 100), featured the remaining quartet of Rusty Young, Paul Cotton, Timothy B. Schmit, and George Grantham. Their streak of commercial disappointments remained in tact but fortunately, with Furay gone, everyone except drummer Grantham, proved they could write. When you add in the band's always pleasant vocals and their excellent musicianship (supplemented this time around...

Jimmy Lafave is constantly referred to as one of the very best unknown singer-songwriters in the music business. With a stellar twenty year career based out of Austin, TX you would think that an artist with his talent would be more well known. Sadly, he still languishes in near obscurity outside of Texas and his native state of Oklahoma. It took Lafave five years to follow up his 2007 CD, Cimarron Manifesto , an outstanding set of thoughtful songs that prove his reputation is well deserved. It's an album with all killer and no filler so you need to own the entire album, not just individual tracks. In one of the more lengthy articles in the All Music Guide you'll find some of the most glowing praise I've ever read in a music review. The trouble with making an album as outstanding as Cimarron is that it's almost impossible to follow it up and such is the case with Lafave's tenth album, Depending on the Distance . Lafave's ego is not so large that...

This appropriately titled reissued edition of Let It Be released in 2003 is something that was talked about and wished for by Beatlemaniacs for decades, ever since the Beatles' internal squabbles allowed Phil Spector to muck up the original album in 1970. By the time the quartet was done with the recording sessions that accompanied the film the four bandmates were sick of the music and each other so the quite eccentric and infamous producer was brought in to try and salvage something good from the whole, tense affair. As John Lennon so famously said after he heard Spector's completed work, "..... he made something of it. When I heard it, I didn't puke." For those who don't know, Let It Be...Naked is a remixed and revised version of The Beatles' last official album.  It will always be considered a minor part of their catalog but this updated CD, minus the the overly flamboyant clothes Spector used to gussy it up, is a better work of art. The imp...

A little late, here are Bloggerhythms' picks for the best releases of 2012. 1 – The Avett Brothers – The Carpenter The country-rocking outfit from North Carolina does it again with their second terrific album in a row. The banjo driven "Live and Die" couldn't be more catchy if it tried and you really need to listen to the great power-pop treat, "I Never Knew You." Most of the album is country music with a rock attitude. Great arrangements, songs, and vocals are everywhere. Rick Rubin has really turned the brothers into stars. Details here . 2 – Brandi Carlile – Bear Creek Carlile's always mature song-writing blooms into full adulthood on this, her fourth, full length, studio album. Reflecting on her childhood and sometimes demonstrating a spiritual side she never displayed before the young singer-songwriter and her ever-present cohorts, the Hanseroth twins, gave us a top notch set of inward looking, philosophical songs. The ballads are sw...