Bloggerhythms

Back in the mid-60s when I first listened to top 40 radio I considered The Mamas and The Papas the greatest vocal group I ever heard. I never tire of listening to "California Dreamin'," "Dedicated to the One I Love," "Twelve Thirty," "I Call Your Name," and a lot of their other wonderful songs. Cass Elliot  (born Ellen Naomi Cohen in 1941) was my favorite female singer for a long time, so I was immediately interested in My Mama, Cass , the new memoir written by her daughter, Owen Elliot-Kugell. The star's life story is told in the first half of the book and the more interesting chapters are found there. The second half is mostly about Elliot-Kugell's life and how her mother's early death from a heart attack in 1974 at age thirty-two when the author was only seven years old (She's now fifty-six) affects her life even today. Elliot's family tree is discussed, so are her formative years as a sing...

Among my earliest memories of listening to music for adults were playing my Mom's 78 RPM records on my portable record player. Even when I was eight years old I thought a lot of her music sounded cheesy and dated, but I took a liking to her Glenn Miller, Harry James, Bing Crosby and Al Jolson records. Miller and James sparked any interest in jazz that I have today, and we all know that Crosby was - and continues to be - a legend, especially at Christmastime. On the other hand, many people are only aware of Jolson as the star of  The Jazz Singer , the first partially talking, feature-length movie with synchronized speech, way back in 1927. My mother told me that Jolson was a massive multi-media star. He dominated the American music scene from World War One into the early 1930s. To this day I can't tell you why I liked him so much way back when, and the fact that I still do could be nothing more than ...

Cullen Brian Gallagher is a country music newcomer from New York with a very pleasing voice whose eponymously named debut album sounds like it came from a seasoned veteran.  It's an inspired collection loaded with substance. Gallagher's extremely laid-back, twelve-song set of original tunes features the star playing his Gibson acoustic guitar, electric lead, and bass. He's the only musician on the sparsely arranged set. Gallagher is heavily influenced by Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson, two artists who always keep it simple and that's what makes this record so good. There is nothing flashy, and every note played is in service to the songs. Gallagher's songwriting is pure country. It's full of bus rides, too many evenings spent at local bars and women he wants to be with but isn't. Song titles like "Tanked at Hank's," "I Can't Sleep Alon...

Paul Simon 's first solo album, The Paul Simon Songbook , has an interesting backstory, but first let me give you my overview of his career. Even though Simon has never been deified like Bob Dylan, the Queens, NY native has always occupied an exalted place in the halls of popular music. While more people hold Dylan in higher regard it can be said that Simon has been the more eclectic composer of the two. He's explored alternative genres that the Bard of Minnesota has never touched. Dylan's excursions into country music don't wander very far from folk-rock and his cover versions of the Great American Songbook are discounted because he has never written in that vein. Simon has taken full album deep-dives into South African music on Graceland and Brazilian themes on his follow up, Rhythm of the Saints . He wrote gospel influenced works, music for Broadway, and on his most recent release, 2023's Seven Psalms , he blended seven songs tog...

"Now That You've Gone" is the third track on side one of Chicago V , and it also serves as the flip side of the band's 1972 hit single, a truncated version of "Dialogue Parts I and II" from the same album. The subject matter of this loud rocker is nothing out of the ordinary. It's a simple breakup song, but what sets it apart from the mundane and blasts it into the stratosphere is trombone player and composer James Pankow's unique arrangement. It's an unselfish, group effort from the full band. "Now That You've Gone" is cool right from the start. It's a frantic, fast-paced, speaker shattering performance. It begins with Danny Seraphine clobbering his drum kit. Then Terry Kath's guitar, Robert Lamm's electric piano and Peter Cetera's outstanding bass line join in before the horn section blasts off and leads into Kath's fine lead vocal. The instrumental break features the horn section again, and after...