Bloggerhythms

Many artists record tracks that are never released on their albums. Sometimes, it's because the songs are deemed unworthy. Others are intentional one-offs intended for movie soundtracks or themed albums featuring various artists. Frequently, they serve as B-sides to hit singles. Billy Joel is no exception at having non-album songs scattered all over the place, so he released a full CD's worth of these rarities back in 2011. Complete Additional Masters is a seventeen song bonus CD included with Joel's Complete Albums Collection  that is only available at  Amazon  as the fifteenth disc in a package that will cost you an unfathomable $600. For some people that is a week's pay.  The good news is that you can also purchase the whole set on i Tunes for less than $100, or you can just buy the seventeen rarities as a standalone purchase for only $11.99, which is how I bought mine because I already have every one of his studio ...

The ghost of Patsy Cline has come to visit us in the form of Kimmi Bitter - the best, young, country singer I've heard in a long, long, long time.The Oceanside, California singer-songwriter is a throwback to another era and that's the way she likes it - not only with her music but right down to her 1960s mini-dress and go-go boots. Bitter told Saving Country Music that  "You can’t really explain why you love the things you love, but for me, I have this undeniable love for the 60s and earlier."   "To me, music peaked then and I have been wanting to do a straight up tried and true good old fashioned record for as long as forever." The appropriately named Old School is Bitter's first full length album except for a very limited edition LP only release of a few years ago. She also has a few singles and two EPs available for download on iTunes. The up-and-coming star's album has eleven new, o...

It's St. Patrick's Day and time for this American of Italian heritage to celebrate his love of Celtic-rock. I don't mean U-2. I'm talking about bands that actually sound like they came from the Emerald Isle. While Bono and his friends embraced their roots lyrically and politically, there are many other bands playing today who sound way more Irish than they do. Among them are The Pogues, The Saw Doctors, The Corrs, and the late great Black 47. Irish musicians love to embrace their roots. In 2007,  The Young Dubliners  - a Los Angeles based rock quintet - recorded an entire album of fired up arrangements of thirteen traditional Irish folk songs and cover versions of more modern fare. Among The Young Dubliners excellent choices for  With All Due Respect, The Irish Sessions  are a hard rocking take on The Pogues' "If I Should Fall From Grace With God" plus a second Shane McGowan composed song, "Pair of Brown Eyes." The folk songs include ...

I'm a little sad today as I write this because Eric Carmen has passed away at age 74. I never followed Carmen's career closely, but I always liked what I heard whether it was with The Raspberries or later as a solo artist. Hardcore rock fans of the 1970s looked at Carmen's music as being too mainstream, and the guys in my dorm made fun of The Raspberries as nothing more than an early Beatles clone who wore matching suits while playing bubblegum pop. But, let me tell you, no bubblegum song I ever heard had a hard rocking intro - and a song title and lyrics - like "Go All The Way." The Raspberries were not The Ohio Express or The 1910 Fruitgum Company. There was nothing highbrow or avant garde about Carmen's music, but he recorded quality mainstream rock interspersed with a few ballads - most notably "All By Myself" - and he was a master at writing hooks and melodies that complemented his huge sounding tenor voice. ...

It's safe to assume that more albums and songs have been written about California than any other state in the union, such is the love many of its residents have for it. As far back as 1924 Al Jolson praised the place of sunshine, great beaches, beautiful mountains and the desert with "California, Here I Come," a song from Bombo , a Broadway musical he starred in and helped compose. Later, in the mid-60s, we had The Mamas and the Papas celebrate their adopted home with "Twelve Thirty" and "California Dreamin'." More recently - in 2021 - the great Mexican-American rockers, Los Lobos, released Native Sons , a full length album covering songs originally recorded by local Los Angeles artists to their ususal positive reviews. There is no need to even discuss  The Beach Boys   - for a long time the Golden State's number one musical celebrants - because so much has been written about them on this blo...

In a July 2023 blog post I discussed an alternate history of the most famous rock band of all time. It's Real Life: An Alternate History Of The Beatles was written in 2022 as a short story and radio play by Professor Paul Levinson of Fordham University. Since then, the author has expanded it into a full length novel that includes his original story as chapter one. Below my original post you'll find a link to a fascinating  podcast where Levinson discussed his book with NBC's Chuck Todd followed by an  intriguing  email question and answer session that Levinson graciously gave to Bloggerhythms. _______________________________________ In 2005, novelist, playwright and rock musician, Larry Kirwan - best known as the leader of New York City's renowned Celtic-rock band, Black 47  - used his vivid imagination to write  Liverpool Fantasy , a novel about what could have happened to each of the four Beatles if they hadn't hit the ...