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The Philadelphia Phillies are finally in The World Series again for only the sixth time in my lifetime. Considering my days as a baseball enthusiast began in 1961 - the year of their infamous twenty-three game losing streak - that isn't very often. It's a record of futility that has never been broken. They finished that season with a horrid 47-107 record.  UGH! The Phillies are historically known for playing poorly all the way back to 1883 when the National League expanded to Philadelphia after disbanding a team located in Worcester, MA. Their original name was the Quakers and they played like pacifists. Most of their reputation as losers came from many terrible seasons that followed World War One until they finally assembled an outstanding lineup in the mid-70s. In 1976 the "Bicentennial Bombers" made the post-season for only the third time in their history, and they finally won their first ever World...

How Swing of Many Colors by Jazz Arts Trio was created makes no difference to me because the end result is pleasing piano jazz. But, I'm sure many of the genre's true aficionados will be appalled as soon as they discover how the album was made - even without ever hearing a note. The trio's goal while making this album was to exactly duplicate recordings originally made by great jazz pianists they admire. Almost all of the selections on  Swing of Many Colors  were transcribed note for note - including the bass and drums - and recorded much like classical musicians recreate works that are centuries old. That's the part I believe may upset some of the more devoted jazz fans. It's a genre that takes pride in improvisation and you'll find little of it here. Jazz Arts Trio are Frederick Moyer on piano, Peter Tillotson on bass, and drummer Peter Fraenkel. They were high school friends who played in a band together, went in separate directions after graduation, then re...

The disappointing Gaucho was Steely Dan's followup to  Aja , their superlative 1977 album that still ranks as one of my all time favorite records decades after its release.  Gaucho had two tracks that received heavy radio airplay when it was released, and both "Hey Nineteen" and "Babylon Sisters" are still heard on classic rock radio stations today. When I initially heard them I immediately noticed that they   sounded like nothing more than outtakes from its highly regarded predeccesor. Steely Dan was not a band known for writing beautiful melodies. Instead, they always offered an abudance of hooks and jazzy solos that kept listeners interested. Listen to the unique, instrumental midsection on Aja 's title track. Compare it to anything on Gaucho  and you'll find the newer album just doesn't hold up, even with the help of the great Mark Knopfler who added a guitar solo to "Time Out of Mind." The record's mechanical stiffness has stole...

Until researching this post I never realized how many songs exist that never mention their titles anywhere in the lyrics. Both Led Zeppelin ("The Lemon Song," "Black Dog," "Four Sticks," and "Immigrant Song") and Bob Dylan ("Subterranean Homesick Blues," It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry," "From A Buick Six," and "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35") each have more than a handful of songs that fall into this category. Because it's too easy to pick a tune from one of these two legacy artists I ignored them while compiling my picks of five song titles not mentioned in the lyrics. Cream - SWLABR (1967) This track is from the power trio's Disraeli Gears LP and it later became the flipside of Cream's first, big  American hit single, "Sunshine of Your Love." The lead vocal is by bassist Jack Bruce who wrote the music. The obscure lyrics are by poet Peter Brown . The title is an acronym fo...

Two years ago I praised musical poet Zach Phillips and his remarkable California themed album,  The Wine of Youth . It was the best set of new tunes by an unknown artist that I heard in a long, long time. My opinion of that album hasn't changed in the slightest, but it also made me believe Phillips would have difficulty following it up. That said, his recently released twelve-song set,  Goddaughters, is definitely a flawless piece of California rock. Deciding which of these two gems I prefer is like a Beatles fan choosing between  Rubber Soul, Revolver,  Sgt. Pepper's, or Abbey Road. It's really not fair to pick one, but if forced to I'll give a slight edge to the new album's predecessor. Goddaughters   is firmly rooted in the  SoCal  singer-songwriter tradition, but while  The Wine of Youth  had more of a Dan Fogelberg, 70s feel to it Phillips' latest rocks a bit harder and could be what Fogelberg may have sounded like if he had begun his c...

This morning I found out that that Loretta Lynn has passed away. There are going to be many tributes devoted to her life and career - both online and on many traditional media outlets - so, instead of what could become just another repetitive retrospective I'm going to discuss one of her songs that truly symbolizes the kind of artist she became and what she meant to many rural, Southern women. Never one to shy away from controversy, in 1975 Lynn had the extreme nerve of releasing a single called "The Pill," a song that crossed over onto the pop charts. It peaked at #70 and was her highest charting song ever on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the only single lifted from her LP, Back To The Country .The track was recorded in 1972 but her record company took three years to release it in any format. Considering the time period that shouldn't be surprising. The song is a humorous take about a woman who tired of her husband getting her pregnant every year and now that sh...

Here is a rerun of a post I wrote over ten years ago that was inspired by the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton that took place the next day. Folk singer Ralph McTell came from the same English coffeehouse circuit that helped give birth to the careers of Al Stewart and the late John Martyn . McTell has always been better known in his homeland and Australia than in the United States where he has received almost no attention whatsoever. McTell frequently performs live with just his voice and a guitar but, unlike similar artists who do the same, his concerts are still satisfying because the man has quite an appealing voice. The veteran singer-songwriter owns a rich baritone and sings with an obvious English accent that enhances his live shows and recordings. He doesn't need the adornments of a band to cover up any vocal deficiencies. Proof of this lies with his solo acoustic performances on Ralph, Albert, and Sydney , a cleverly named live album full of songs he recor...