Bloggerhythms

Craig Doerge (rhymes with "Fergie") made a huge name for himself as a session keyboard player in the 70s for many of Southern California's heaviest hitters. He worked with Crosby, Stills, and Nash on their albums and he was a mainstay of Jackson Browne's band for most of the decade. He also contributed regularly to the studio work of both James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt as well as playing on sessions for Willie Nelson, Peter Cetera, and a host of others.  Later he went on to form the all-star band known as The Section with Leland Sklar, Danny Kortchmar, and Russ Kunkel. Doerge's resume was already impressive when he hooked up with lyricist/singer Judy Henske who, at the time, had a promising music career that never lived up to early expectations.   She wrote the lyrics for all ten tracks on Doerge's 1973 eponymously titled LP. Unfortunately, Doerge's one and only solo album did nothing in the marketplace partially because it got buried under a whole ...

Manzarek is pictured on the far left Back in the late 60s I listened to The Doors largely because of Jim Morrison's big, booming voice. He remains, to this day, one of the great rock singers of all time. However, over the years listeners discovered just how much the late Ray Manzarek (who passed away this week) contributed to the sound and overall success of the band. When you listened beyond the vocals it became obvious that The Doors' first single and most famous song, "Light My Fire," was really a vehicle for keyboard player Manzarek to show off his stuff. As the album version of the song morphed into an organ fueled jam session that was never heard on Top 40 radio you realized just how talented he was. With his ability to improvise Manzarek could have been a fine jazz musician. To me, Manzarek's greatest moment came on "Riders on the Storm." He played some very spooky electric piano that complemented both Morrison's vocals and th...

Working with Bob Rock, his new producer, may have inspired Michael Bublé (not that he's ever sounded as if he's needed inspiration) because on To Be Loved the singer soars through fourteen new entries to his catalog as if he's never had this much fun in his life. Bublé's public persona is that he's too nice of a guy to have traveled with the original Rat Pack but, as usual, musically he would fit right in with his updated, 21st century, version of the old gang's act. The Pack's leader, (Frank Sinatra, of course) would wholeheartedly approve of Bublé's swaggering version of "You Make Me Feel So Young" that opens the album as well as his duet with Reese Witherspoon on "Something Stupid." "Young at Heart" also rivals Old Blue Eyes' more famous arrangement. Among the older offerings is one of the first country songs to crossover onto the pop charts. "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You" (not the Van ...