Bloggerhythms

Shelby Lynne's fifth album was her first to break away from the Nashville establishment. Anyone who listens to I Am Shelby Lynne, would quickly realize this is the album on which she became the woman who was determined to control her art, her career, and her destiny. This is the set that initially earned Lynne the respect she enjoys today and the reason for this is simple. The disc is as much a blue-eyed soul album spiced with a dash of real blues as it is a country record. It's Dusty Springfield sprinkled with a heaping dose of Bonnie Raitt. Lynne's vocals make all of these self-penned tunes special. Her voice suits this material perfectly. She can coo like a kitten on "Black Light Blue" or wail like a blues queen on "Life Is Bad." The latter comes complete with slide guitar and a vocal style that indicates she may have considered Raitt a mentor. "Your Lies," which opens the album, sounds just like a 1960s hit by the late Springfield. ...

I don't care what "The Dude" said. This one really hurts. Glenn Frey is gone at age 67, another great musician done too soon. He wasn't old, not by today's standards anyway, but he had a host of medical problems. He suffered from acute ulcerative colitis, pneumonia, and rheumatoid arthritis and the ensuing complications from all of them unfortunately took his life. I was a big fan of the Eagles and by default, Frey. Not only did I love the early country-rock version of the quartet more than the Joe Walsh era quintet, I believe the Eagles' founder was an absolutely wonderful singer. He was the smoothest of the smooth, almost a crooner. In the hall-of-famers' early days he was the man. Frey took the lead vocals on "Take It Easy," "Tequila Sunrise," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "James Dean," "Lyin' Eyes," "New Kid In Town," and many more. After the Eagles Frey forged a solo musical care...

A lot has been written about David Bowie this past week in newspapers, websites and blogs (He is even on the cover of the latest issue of Time ) but you haven't seen anything posted here until now and that’s because I was never really a big fan. I didn't hate Bowie, I learned to appreciate him more as time went by, but for a long time I just didn't "get" him. Initially, I was put off by his Ziggy Stardust persona and the glitter rock movement in general although I thought T Rex and Mott the Hoople were good bands. Bowie became a star when I was coming of age and my freshman college roommate instantly became a huge fan of both the Thin White Duke and Alice Cooper at pretty much the same time. We were both big music fans but our tastes didn’t cross paths all that often. I was listening to Yes, most of the Southern California folk-rockers, The Beatles, Beach Boys, and Chicago. Despite our differences we took turns raiding each other's record collection when ...