Bloggerhythms

One-hit-wonder Barrett Strong passed away on January 29, 2023 at age 81, so today we'll honor him and his song "Money (That's What I Want)." "Money" has the distinction of being the first hit Berry Gordy released from his now iconic Motown recording studio in Detroit. It was originally issued on Tamla, Gordy's first label. "Money" reached #23 on the Hot 100 and #2 on the R&B chart. It sold 1,000,000 copies and earned a gold record. The song didn't become a hit nationally until it was leased to another fledgling label, Anna Records , led by Gordy's two sisters. It was their only significant hit before the label was absorbed by their brother's company. Gordy's production sounds earthier and less polished than most of his later Motown songs we've come to know and love, but it's the record that helped the company become one of the dominant forces of pop music in the sixties. It brought in a lot o...

This post is really nothing more than a free advertisement so if you decide to click away from it I wouldn't be surprised, but music lovers who are running out of storage space for their large CD collections - and can't stand the thought of parting with any of them - may want to keep reading. SpaceSavingSleeves.com  - a company I have no affiliation with other than as a satisfied customer - has a solution for you. They did not ask me to post this article for them. I never understood why CDs came in hard plastic boxes when they were much more durable than vinyl records that were protected almost exclusively by paper and cardboard. I understand that plastic packaging for a 12" record could be unwieldy and too heavy - especially if you are carrying a pile of them - but there was never any good reason I could think of to sell CDs in jewel boxes that take up a lot of space and are easily damaged. The cardboard packaging in which most CDs are currently sold sh...

I've always been a sucker for almost any music that came out of the Laurel Canyon. The harmonies that emanated from many Southern California folk-rockers who lived, worked and thrived there will always have a place in the musical part of my heart. To this day the vocal sounds of artists like The Beach Boys, The Mamas and The Papas, Eagles and Crosby, Stills and Nash always have me listening in awe at how people can sing so beautifully together. CSN had three distinct personalities. Stephen Stills rocked out more than his two bandmates, Graham Nash was the pop tunesmith, and David Crosby was the one who wrote songs that were the most out-of-the-mainstream. It was true even when the trio was joined by Neil Young. Nevertheless, when their voices blended together it was a thing of beauty.  "Guinevere," "Wooden Ships," "Déjà Vu," "Almost Cut My Hair," "Shadow Captain" "Long Time Gone," and "Delta...

Most singers and musicians who are attracted to the Great American Songbook mine its old classics extensively, but the new album by Rachael Price and Vilray Blair Bolles , I Love A Love Song! , mostly does the opposite. Instead, it salutes the period from which those great standards were born and bred without living there because Bolles wrote almost a whole album of fresh songs heavily influenced by the sound of that golden era. On this - their second album together - "Goodnight My Love" is the only cover. Price is the lead singer for Lake Street Dive and Bolles is an excellent composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist from New York City. The two friends and collaborators met almost twenty years ago at the New England Conservatory of Music but never recorded together until their first album saw the light of day in 2019. Lake Street Dive's music has always hinted that they could easily embrace early and mid-Twentieth Century music, and on this albu...

Once again it's time to write about a musical artist named Brinsley Schwarz, but this time it's the early 70s, English, pub-rock quintet, not the musician born with that name who served as the lead guitarist for the group that also used it as their sobriquet. Bloggerhythms' earlier posts about Brinsley Schwarz's Christmas song  and the  interview  that followed it primarily focused on the music and career of the solo artist.  The compilation, What IS So Funny About Peace, Love & Understanding? is an out of print, seventeen track CD that I purchased from  Discogs . It's title is a slight variation of the one Nick Lowe used for his song - originally released as a Brinsley Schwarz single and album track - that later became a standard for Elvis Costello. Everything on this album was broadcast on BBC's Radio 1 from 1972 through 1975. The group worked exactly as The Beatles did for most of their BBC appearanc...

Here is a rerun of a review about a Los Lonely Boys concert CD from from February 2, 2007 that's worth telling the world about a second time. Please be sure to read the comment at the end that corrects what I originally wrote. Live at Blue Cat Blues is Los Lonely Boys second live album in less than a year's time following 2005's Live at The Fillmore . It's rare that an artist issues two live albums before a second studio album ever hits the stores but that is exactly what the band did before releasing Sacred last year. Marketing two live CDs may seem a bit too much with only one studio release on their resume but since demand for their work is high, and there was no new studio material ready for release, mining early archival performances such as this one is the result. Live at Blue Cat Blues has a different sound than Live At The Fillmore . It was recorded on the ev...