Bloggerhythms

This is a word-for-word rerun of a post originally published here on September 8, 2007. It's definitely worth running again. I'm going to assume you have never heard of Sterling Harrison. Until a few weeks ago neither had I. Harrison was a rhythm & blues singer working out of Los Angeles who had a long career performing in low rent bars and nightclubs for the last couple of decades. Over the course of fifty years Harrison made only a handful of records. The first was recorded in 1955 -  at age fourteen - before John Lennon met Paul McCartney and before Elvis Presley became a star.  The soul man's few opportunities to put his voice on vinyl for posterity never produced anything worthwhile yet many who saw his live act swore Harrison's showmanship and vocal skills made him the greatest hidden treasure rhythm & blues ever produced. In the 60s, Harrison opened for Sam Cooke, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Jackie Wilson, and Otis Redding. While he was performing i...

I've never seen the 1991 Irish film, The Commitments , but curiosity got the best of me when I discovered the soundtrack on CD for $2 at a local church fair. After only one listen it became clear that I've missed out on some great music that stands on its own even without seeing the movie. There is nothing remotely Celtic about the enthusiastically performed fourteen songs on this disc that make a strong case that this small, music loving, island nation has a powerful affection for American R&B. The movie is about that love affair and how a bunch of young, working class Dubliners try to hit the big time simply by playing the music they love best. The group's most talented lead singer is clearly Andrew Strong whose career took off after the flick became a hit. He has toured with Elton John, The Rolling Stones, Prince, and Lenny Kravitz and released several best-selling albums. Strong possesses a powerful voice, and here he turns in two Wil...

I wrote about Chris Pellnat's two previous solo albums - Rain (2020) and Go (2022) - because they deserved the accolades given to them, as does his latest collection, Cairn , a wonderfully unique ten-song set released earlier this Spring.    As I've written in the past, Pellnat's music is hard to categorize. He can be a straight up singer-songwriter with inciteful lyrics, or he can rock tastefully - and even quietly - without falling into the often derided soft-rock genre. Pellnat plays most of the album's instruments himself. “Ship on the Horizon,” uses dulcimer and accordion, and "Better" features some tasteful banjo. "Child's Play," "The World Won't Let Me Believe" and "Dragonflies" have rocking electric guitar solos. "The Final Wager" is pure acoustic folk music. Musical diversity is Pellnat's name of the game. "Forest Giants...

Controversy often limits a good song's exposure and hinders its climb up the charts. Such is the case with The Rolling Stones' double A-side single, "Let's Spend The Night Together" that only got as high as #55 on the Hot 100. It did much better in the UK, where it topped out at #3. It also served as the lead off track on their American LP,  Between the Buttons . The more famous and more deserving flip side, "Ruby Tuesday," reached #1 in the USA and #3 at home in England. Many American radio and television stations refused to play "Let's Spend The Night Together" because they considered it an obscene song, and in 1967 that wasn't surprising. Even with today's more lenient standards the lyrics still generate a lot of controversy. When the quintet appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in January 1967 to promote the record Sullivan told Mick Jagger - who composed the song with Keith Richards -   "Either the song ...

I didn't plan to post anything about  James McCartney 's new single and video, "Primrose Hill" because so many blogs and websites have written about it already, and I really don't have anything new to add. That said, I'm too big of a Beatles fan to let this opportunity pass me by, and I've had a request to write about it. "Primrose Hill" is the latest song released by the younger McCartney - son of Linda McCartney and the prolific and still relevant James Paul McCartney, ex-Beatle and musician extraordinaire - but it's the first one he's composed with Sean Ono Lennon , son of Yoko Ono and Paul's late and equally creative songwriting partner, John Lennon. That is what makes this new track an event even before hearing it. The song is named after a park in the high-end Regent's Park section of London, England. On his official Instagram account  James McCartney posted, "I had a vison as a child in Sc...