Bloggerhythms

On Goodnight Rhonda Lee Nicole Atkins makes full use of all her natural talents as a vocalist. She is among the best of the current crop of women rockers and, to her credit, auto-tune does not appear to be among the devices she uses to make her records. If she has become a victim of the gross trend that depends on electronic gimmickry to mask vocal deficiencies it's not obvious here. The gifted Asbury Park, NJ native, now living in Nashville, doesn't need her voice manipulated and based on the retro-rock music presented here the overused and mostly robotically sounding piece of technology just wouldn't fit in. Her fine alto is all that is needed. Atkins' eleven song record is a throwback to the era of classic Top Forty radio. Whether she is paying tribute to the country queens of the 60s and 70s on the title track, channelling Aretha Franklin on "Listen Up," or trying to be a female version of Roy Orbison on "A Little Crazy" (composed with her...

Dion DiMucci was making hit records before The Beatles actually called themselves The Beatles. Unfortunately, the singer of early R&B and doo-wop influenced hits like "The Wanderer," "I Wonder Why," and "Runaround Sue," and several years later the soft, folk-rock anthem "Abraham, Martin, and John," is largely unknown today except by people who were listening to Top 40 radio way back in the pre-British Invasion years. Most younger people have never even heard his name, let alone his music. The good news is Dion, who still only uses his first name professionally, has never left us and he's recorded dozens of albums. Much of his work is heavily influenced by the blues as is his latest set of original songs, New York Is My Home . Dion wrote or co-wrote eight of the ten tracks on this album and, while he still sings quite well at age 76, his voice sounds nothing like the one he possessed back in his hitmaking days of "Ruby Baby....

I've never been one to delve into politics on this blog and that's because I only want it to be about music but, on occasion, their paths do cross. For example, almost three years ago I posted an article, Kent State & The Protest Song , in which I discussed how much I missed these songs of substance and how we continue to need them today. I'm still not going to talk politics or about the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. but I am going to show you the official video for the finest protest song I've heard in a long, long time. In December 2017 Jackson Browne, a deserving member of the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, released a new single, "The Dreamer," with Eugene Rodriguez and Los Cenzontles who Browne met through his friend, Linda Ronstadt. Rodriguez told Browne about one specific dreamer's story and the star used it to complete the unfinished piece. In an article published in Forbes Browne says that Rodriguez's input was vital ...

Songs In The Key Of Life is easily Stevie Wonder's peak and one of the greatest albums of all time. It's also huge, clocking in at over an hour and forty-four minutes and twenty-one songs. Not only was Wonder's record a double it was accompanied by a four song EP. Similar to The Beatles' White Album in size, scope, and diversity it's more consistently great than the Fabs' 1968 epic. It's one of the few records of its size that does not wear out its welcome while listening to it from beginning to end. There is no filler. Motown's resident genius offered us ballads, funk, African rhythms, jazz, R&B, pure pop, vocals and instrumentals. There are love songs, songs about peace and spirituality, politics, the plight of Black people, and no "Revolution #9." The album also had four singles: "I Wish," "As," "Another Star," and "Sir Duke," the last one written as a tribute to the late bandleader Edward...

In the past I've usually hesitated to write about artists who are truly local because I've always believed most readers will not be interested in them. These are the people, many of them quite talented, who appear at the local bars and outdoor summer music festivals on the grounds of your local high school or town hall and usually have no reputation at all outside of the few locales they play. Fortunately, as we all know, the Internet allows the whole world to discover music that they could never have been exposed to before and because the web has been around for more than just a handful of years now I decided that it's time for me to get over my provincial ambivalence. Case in point: Imagine where music would be today if record store owner Brian Epstein felt the same way when he went to hear a certain, unknown rock quartet at The Cavern in Liverpool, England back in 1961. So, keeping that in mind it's time to discuss the music of Will Hodgson. Hodgson is the le...

On her website Eilen Jewell said it was the blues that jump-started her interest in music back when she was a teenager in Idaho but, oddly, she never believed she was allowed pursue her passion. Jewell said, “I’ve always had this sense of self-doubt about it,” she admits. “Like, who am I to sing the blues? I’m a white girl from Idaho. I don’t know if I have a right to do that.” But she also remembers an old friend's advice: "Everyone has the right to do what they love in this world, regardless of who they are and what background they come from." Therefore, Down Hearted Blues is the singer-songwriter's first album of blues covers. Jewell recorded the album employing her usual stripped down arrangements with Jerry Miller playing outstanding electric guitar. Her husband, Jason Beek, played drums as well as washboard. The bass is an upright (unplugged, of course) and other acoustic sounds included fiddle, banjo, and mandolin. Soul-jazzman, Curtis Stigers, added so...