Bloggerhythms

It's fitting that Dawes calls Los Angeles home because the quartet's easy rock is attractive to fans of the once popular, so-called, Laurel Canyon sound that rose to prominence out of the West Coast's most musical city way back in the 1970s. All three of the band's albums immediately remind you of the singer-songwriters who were on radio and the charts back in the day. Much has been written about how Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and a host of other more modern composers with literary pretensions (such as Conor Oberst) have influenced the young outfit's writing. Dawes is definitely a rock band for thinking adults. Composer Taylor Goldsmith bathes his songs in intelligent lyrics with musical arrangements that are neither too loud nor too soft. His lead vocals won't make you forget the great voices of our time but, like Browne, James Taylor, Steve Forbert, and others cut from the same cloth his singing is comforting, in tune, and perf...

Even though I grew up with the generation that let their "freak flag fly" (thank you for that, David Crosby) the musicians of that era seldom used language that was considered inappropriate in polite society on their recordings. Steppenwolf's "The Pusher" used a word similar to "darn" along with the deity's name and John Lennon used the English language's most infamous four letter word on "Working Class Hero" from his LP, Plastic Ono Band . Nils Lofgren employed the same word in "I Had Too Much" from Grin's first album. Billy Joel dropped it in one of his attempts to win over critics on "Laura" from The Nylon Curtain . There may have been a couple more examples but not many. Call me old, stodgy, out of touch, narrow-minded, or whatever insult suits you, but the current generation of musicians seems to have no qualms about using this word that begins with the sixth letter of the alphabet quite routinely i...

Dawes Beginning in 1989, with the exception of one year, Appel Farm , a non-profit arts and music summer camp for children, located in the rural outpost of Elmer, NJ, has hosted a one day music festival whose lineup has always been loaded with adult alternative artists. Past headliners have included Jackson Browne, The Indigo Girls, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Avett Brothers, Rufus Wainright, Fountains of Wayne, and Trombone Shorty. Other favorites who have played there over the last decade are Los Lonely Boys, Madeleine Peyroux, The Smithereens, Josh Ritter, and Roseanne Cash. This year's headlining act was the critically acclaimed jam band, The Tedeschi-Trucks Band. The festival almost ended a few years ago due to financial concerns partially caused by several years of inclement weather but this year it came back with a vengeance as 2012's advance ticket sales outnumbered the total gate receipts for last year. Terrific weather and a stellar lineup helped Saturday beco...

Bloggerhythms' top five CDs for 2011 are more mainstream than in previous years. Two of them are by long time veterans (Shelby Lynne and The Jayhawks) and the other three are releases by relative newcomers and Adele has already reached superstardom. In a year when recent online news stories wrote about the probable death of the CD all of the albums on this list should be purchased in their entirety, not just track by track on iTunes. Overall it was a very good year for recorded music. 1. Dawes – Nothing is Wrong With only their second release these SoCal boys hit paydirt in a big way. Twenty-five year old songwriter Taylor Goldsmith offers a rare combination of pleasing vocals reminiscent of Jackson Browne, melodic songwriting with deep hooks ("Time Spent in Los Angeles"), and intelligent, moving lyrics ("A Little Bit of Everything"). If you're a fan of Hall of Famer Browne this CD is for you. It's the comeback album he never made. The 70s sta...