Bloggerhythms

Because I'm writing this only as a listener and a fan - and not as a musician - I'm unable to discuss the fine points of drumming, so I'm just relying on my untrained ears to determine if Ringo Starr is a master of his instrument. Many years ago I believed that the rest of The Beatles defended Starr's talent more out of loyalty and deep friendship than anything else. I never heard his name mentioned with the widely acknowledged great drummers. Dudes such as Charlie Watts, Ginger Baker and John Bonham were all supposed to be better than Liverpool's native son. I assumed I wasn't totally wrong when I discovered that producer George Martin (a man who should know) used another drummer of his choosing for his first Beatles recording session. I always cited "In My Life” and “Free As A Bird” as proof Starr wasn't super-talented, but later I determined that his playing wasn’t the problem on either one. John Lennon's otherwise outstanding song from Rubber So...

There is no need here to discuss Bob Dylan as a musician or as a legend. Plenty has been written about him for more than half a century by people way more qualified than me. Yes, Dylan is rock's second most influential act after The Beatles but despite all of the accolades he's received the man has never been a top player on the singles charts. While the singer-songwriter, who just celebrated his 80th birthday a couple of weeks ago, has had his share of hits, being a highly successful singles act is not what he is known for, nor is it what he ever aspired to be.  Deservedly, Dylan's  Blood On The Tracks  is one of his most celebrated albums, and one of that record's most beloved songs is the minor hit single, "Tangled Up In Blue," the classic LP's opening track. Sadly, it never climbed higher than #31 on Billboard's Top 100 in 1975 even though Rolling Stone Magazine later listed it at #68 on their list of all time great songs.  Dylan had recently separ...

CMH Label Group , the independent record company that has issued dozens of string quartet tribute albums under the moniker Vitamin String Quartet (VSQ) has covered artists as diverse as Slayer, Enya, Bon Jovi, Oasis, Warren Zevon, Bjork, Radiohead, Rush, Fleetwood Mac, and more. Even more recently they've released albums covering Lana Del Rey, Sigur Ros, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, and Kanye West. Tom Tally, a producer of over 50 VSQ albums  described VSQ's mission on Wikipedia. " Vitamin String Quartet is about applying rock n' roll attitude to classical technique."   Back in 2005 VSQ was responsible for a nice reworking of The Beach Boys' 1966 classic,  Pet Sounds. I   can't envision either string quartet fans or Slayer fans listening to classical arrangements of that band's work, but Pet Sounds is music that easily lends itself to a classical treatment. Despite the limitations of using only three string players and a percussionist the quartet's spars...

If you don't know the name Ted Russell Kamp it's time to get educated. The roots-rocker recently released Solitaire , his thirteenth studio album and it will definitely be worth your time to listen to one of the finest albums in the Americana musician's catalog. Solitaire  is a more subtle affair musically, if not lyrically, than Kamp's previous work. He regularly uses a full band but the unfortunate events of the last year forced him - like almost everyone else - to spend more time at home alone, and like many musicians he put his time to good use by recording fourteen songs at his home studio. The record has been advertised as "Seeking Comfort In Soulful New Music During These Hard Times." Kamp played 90% of the instruments himself, and when he worked with friends their parts were overdubbed remotely. The guests played and sang harmony on the songs he wrote with them. Kamp's recent approach helps make the album more of a singer-songwriter affair than mos...

Released in 1980, Nine To The Universe is a virtually all-instrumental album that has never officially been issued on CD and was another in a long line of posthumous releases of Jimi Hendrix's music. Reportedly recorded in the first half of 1969 during the Electricladyland sessions, Nine To The Universe is nothing more than a bunch of informal and spontaneous jams Hendrix undertook with anybody who would play with him at that moment. The original album had only five tracks yet clocks in at over thirty-eight minutes, a good length for the days of the old 33 1/3 RPM record. In order to make it all fit on one LP over 40 minutes of music was edited from the original sessions. One example is the title cut. It was faded at 8:45 on the album but the full performance stretched out to 18:49. Hendrix is sensational on this album. Most of his playing is high energy, sometimes bordering on frantic. The best jams are the title cut in which a mean bass riff never relents under Hendrix...