Bloggerhythms

The Riflebirds of Portland (ROP) were once known simply as The Riflebirds. Their hometown was added to the group's name when they recently discovered there's another band using their shorter, original moniker. Both bands are named after a beautiful and unique looking bird. It's only after Lee Oser and producer Marvin Etzioni reunited two years ago that the quartet regrouped after decades apart to record a second album. Etzioni is well known as a founding member of Lone Justice. ROP have a unique backstory. They released two singles and an album simply titled  April only on cassette   way back in 1989. Earlier this year it was finally released on both CD and on a long-playing twelve-inch record. The lineup on this thirty-seven year-old set is composer Lee Oser on rhythm guitar and bass; his wife, singer Kate Oser; lead guitarist Kevin Kraft and drummer Kevin Jarvis. They got lots of help from in-demand, recording session all-stars including multi-instrumentali...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Mojo - The UK's unique music magazine - and what a wonderful perk it is that everyone who subscribes to their print edition receives a bonus CD usually related to that month's cover story. It's quite likely that readers are not going to love all of the music the publication sends their way, but it's not their fault. It's just not possible for them to know and satisfy every subscriber's taste every single month. Regardless, the fact they're providing readers with music they most likely haven't heard before is very much appreciated. The recently released June 2026 cover story discusses Joni Mitchell's fifty greatest songs spread out over nineteen colorful pages, and it comes with a fifteen track, sixty-eight-minute compact disc loaded with both well-known and obscure artists re-interpreting her work. Today - because these compilations are loaded with deep cuts and rarities - Bloggerhythms begins a new, ...

Chris Pellnat has been blogged about here on several occasions in recent years so he's not a newcomer to the music world and hopefully not to Bloggerhythms' readers. In 2023 Pellnat released a single, "Bibles, Flags and Guns," a blatantly political song that makes it very obvious where the singer-songwriter stands regarding America's current political climate even though it was written while a very different chief executive occupied the White House. It captures the temper of the times perfectly. What makes the song more provocative is how well it evokes early 60s, pre-electric Bob Dylan. Pellnat's voice is unique on its own, but he conjures up that bygone era by saluting the hall-of-famer's vocal inflections, guitar work and especially his harmonica playing.  Pellnat opens the song with a very powerful, straightforward volley: " Oh, the fascists they are everywhere,  Yes, they are the ones, known to hide their hate behind Bibles, f...

Lexxi Raine is a young, talented, pop-rock, singer-songwriter originally from Buffalo, NY who now resides in Manchester, England. Raine is currently engaged to a man who proposed to her even though he's aware the love of his life wrote an entire EP about the breakup of an earlier relationship that includes a song about murdering her ex-boyfriend. Despite that, she promised the entire staff here at Bloggerhythms (me) that the ex is perfectly fine and he doesn't have to worry about taking his last breath any time soon. Here's how Raine describes her recently released EP, The Grief Case , on her Bandcamp page :  " Grieving the end of a relationship is messy and never a straight line. Some days you’re angry, other days you’re numb, and sometimes you still convince yourself he’s coming back. My new EP, The Grief Case , lives inside that turbulence. Each song is its own chapter in the 6 stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargain...

The kind of country music Kristen P. (KP) Hawthorn creates abandoned the mainstream a long time ago. Not all country songs have twang, and the artists who create them don't all wear cowboy hats, flannel shirts and denim, and hail from Texas or the deep South, meaning California native Hawthorn isn't Miranda Lambert. She offers a distinctly feminine perspective to a heavily male dominated genre without projecting any kind of tough girl image in her music, and that is refreshing. Hawthorn's debut solo set, Til The Glitter End , is being marketed as country music - its nine tracks were recorded in Nashville where she's now based - but it's easy to believe she sounds more like a 70s, Laurel Canyon, singer-songwriter. The SoCal influence is apparent in her sometimes oblique and introspective lyrics, traits most conventional country songs aren't known for. You'll also find the canyon's impact in her musically astute arrangements and high-class...

I'm one of the many music aficionados who have deservedly spewed venom on Yoko Ono over many decades for her awful music but never for breaking up The Beatles. She may have greatly annoyed three of them, but she isn't the reason they disbanded. Instead, you should blame most of the Liverpool four's internal friction on the death of Brian Epstein. Without him, the Fabs' business affairs became tangled in a fatal, downward spiral that caused hard feelings among them for a long time. But today, I'm willing to cut Ono a little bit of slack regarding her music. When she wasn't striving to be as musically outrageous and avant-garde as possible John Lennon 's muse sometimes wrote and recorded work that wasn't too far out of the mainstream. The primary criticism on most of her songs from Double Fantasy ,  Milk and Honey  and beyond comes from her completely unappealing singing voice, not from her songwriting. Every Man Has a Woman  isn'...

I'm not surprised if you're unfamiliar with Victor V. Gurbo . That's because he's another one of the innumerable spokes caught in the wagon wheel of talented, but sadly unknown musicians who deserve a larger audience. The singer-songwriter's website describes him as " a Brooklyn-based roots revivalist musician " who has built a solid reputation on his home turf. Gurbo's Outrun the Invisible Man is a ten-song album he recorded at home during the COVID lockdown with his multi-instrumentalist friend and collaborator, Mark Caserta, who is the only other musician on this set. After meeting on Craigslist, they worked together during the unfortunate lockdown by sending iPhone recordings to each other for overdubbing. Together, they recorded over a hundred songs. Gurbo's six original songs on Invisible Man were inspired by the pandemic and feature themes the lockdown made people th...

Medleys are a group of unrelated, short songs that are joined together when played. The majority of side two of The Beatles' Abbey Road  is a significant example. Suites are different. They're also a group of individual songs or movements played together, but they are related to each other in some way. Audio Apartment  defines a suite as:  "an ordered set of individual pieces or movements tied together by themes or tonalities." According to the website CLRN :  "The concept of a suite dates back to the Baroque period, and it has evolved over time to incorporate various styles, forms, and instruments." By the late 1960s suites became part of the burgeoning, eclectic pop and rock music scene. It was a device frequently employed by The Moody Blues and Chicago in their early years, but one of the most prominent examples was the second single by the wonderfully talented composers and harmonizers, Crosby, Stills & Nash. ...

I probably should have paid more attention to the late Harry Nilsson a long time ago because he was one of the more eclectic artists to ever establish himself on the pop and rock music scene. If you're like me and have mostly known Nilsson through his songs that were played on the radio a great introduction to his work is All Time Greatest Hits , a five-star compilation by the dynamic composer and singer.   If you never dig deeply into his catalog, this twenty-song release is a must have. Nilsson had eight top 40 hits, most notably "Everybody's Talkin'" (#6 on the Hot 100) in 1969 and " Without You ," a Badfinger composition he covered in 1972 for his only #1 single. Even if you're not a fan of Nilsson's music, what's indisputable is how wide-ranging his records were. When I listen to this collection I immediately think of The Beatles'  White Album , a set where they jumped from genre to genre over the ...

John Lennon recorded six albums with his wife, Yoko Ono.  Milk and Honey,  released in January 1984, was both his final one with her and his last record overall. The late, ex-Beatle's six songs on this set were largely recorded during his 1980 Double Fantasy sessions and were intended for later release, but because of his death - unlike the tracks on its predecessor - they remained unfinished when Ono delivered them to the public over three years later. Most of Ono's six tunes on the album were newly recorded in 1983 and were given all the polish Lennon's were orignally intended to receive. They were far more accessible and mainstream than any music the Japanese-American star ever released up to that point. Milk and Honey  made it to #11 in America. Of Lennon's three singles pulled from the disc, only "Nobody Told Me" (#5) reached the top forty. The other two were "I'm Stepping Out" (#55) and "Borrowed Time" (#1...

A few days ago I saw  A Complete Unknown , the new film biography on Bob Dylan. As a movie with a coherent storyline, fabulous acting - especially by its star,  Timothée Chalamet - you couldn't ask for more. Unusually, for a mainstream Hollywood film, it's mostly accurate. That  means a lot to me because I've always been a curmudgeon when movies and TV shows play too fast and loose with historical facts so much that the viewer gets a totally skewed view of real events. Because I liked the movie a lot and wanted to continue liking it, I began researching its historical accuracy online after I got home.  I'm OK with the  liberties  director James Mangold took because he didn't change the intent of the storyline. According to the website, Shortlist , it doesn't matter that actress Elle Fanning's character, Sylvie Russo, is an entirely different woman than Suze Rotolo who was Dylan's real first girlfriend in New Yor...

I've written about singer-songwriter Chris Pellnat   a few times before. He's released several folk-rock albums while playing a wide range of instruments, but his new single, "We Are Not Robots," is a bit different. It's a true rock record blending multiple influences. You'll hear grungy guitars and new wave keyboards along with the star's always pleasing, idiosyncratic singing and his inclination for writing pop hooks. Thematically, "Robots" is Pellnat's emotional reaction to unfortunate, major news stories of the past year. In the first verse, a female friend says to him, " please don't expect me to act my age"  a nd l ater she defends her actions by saying, "I'm trying to escape reality." Pellnat explains that he's "horrified" by our current state of affairs and how they've affected his "overall outlook and mental health"   forcing him to seriously cut back on his news con...

There are a lot of Winter songs that have nothing to do with Christmas, but that hasn't stopped many of them from becoming fully embedded into the standard holiday repertiore. So many songs about snow, sleigh rides and the weather have been beaten to death that I understand why some people hate Christmas music. To any singers and musicians out there who have a desire to add "Baby, It's Cold Outside" to their concert setlists or new albums this year, all I've got to say to you is, please don't. We've had enough! Thankfully, folk singer Jonathan Foster  - who has six full-length albums to his credit - has just released a new single, "Snow Globe Angels," for this 2024 Yuletide season. This pleasant, original song is available digitally on iTunes and  Bandcamp . The song tells the tale of people happily playing in the snow while the singer is entertained by the show happening outside his window and staying toasty by the fire. ...

In 2022 I wrote a blog post on The Rolling Stones' Blue & Lonesome as part of Bloggerhythms' Last Albums series. Then Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and their friends ruined the whole thing by by releasing Hackney Diamonds two years ago. Despite that, I'm taking my chances that 76 year old James Taylor won't let me down too and release another album, even though that might not be such a bad thing. In 2020, Taylor released a set of tunes from the Great American Songbook, and it's a good one.  American Standard is a fourteen track record of cover tunes from the man who is often credited with jump-starting the entire 70s singer-songwriter movement. Taylor is no stranger to covers. Even though he's a songwriter of great importance he's recorded many singles written by others, most notably, Carole King's "You've Got A Friend," his only Billboard #1 hit from very early in his career. He also charted with "How S...

Below is a partially rewritten article from 2012 that I'm reposting today due to the sad passing of singer-songwriter and actor, J. D. Souther. John David Souther has always been a much loved songwriter despite the fact he didn't have an extensive catalog of his own recorded music. There are only seven solo, studio albums in his name since 1972, but he always had a lot of success penning tunes for others, most notably the California soft-rockers of the 70s. Souther wrote for and with many of music's top flight acts including Linda Ronstadt, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, Jimmy Buffett, Glen Campbell, The Chicks, India.Arie, Roy Orbison, Warren Zevon, Brian Wilson, and especially Eagles. He also played in the Souther, Hillman, Furay Band during the same decade with Chris Hillman (The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, and The Desert Rose Band) and Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield and Poco). Souther's reputation as a songwriter rather than a pe...

If you're a fan of inward looking folk-rockers with appealing but earthy baritone voices you need to look no further than  Lessons , David Luning 's new album. Luning is one of those unfortunate singer-songwriters who was born too late. He missed the genre's heyday of the 1970s through the 80s - that time in pop music history when albums like Lessons actually made the charts. Sometimes, they were even rewarded for their efforts with a top forty hit or two. On Luning's third long player he ponders his existence, and seems to view himself as a bit of an outlaw. The opening track, "Every Day I Am" conjures up images of The Grateful Dead's "Friend Of The Devil." Luning sings,  "I can't let them catch me, I'm a wanted man" and " if they catch me I’ll be fearing for my life . Every day I Am."   The very next track, "Down Below," is where the protagonist believes he...

Rick Murnane isn't a household name. I've just discovered him, but if you're a fan of Marshall Crenshaw - who hasn't released anything new in several years - you may discover that the Massachusetts native is a fine substitute. Murnane is a pop music veteran who makes vintage rock.  Summer Fun  is his sixth album. There is nothing progressive or alternative about this short, nine song set that clocks in at only 27:13. It's a mixture of hook filled power pop, garage rock, and British Invasion influences spiced with a little dose of country thrown in for variety. For several years Murnane released one new song online every summer that he always removed on Labor Day. Now, these cool little tunes are back and available at Bandcamp where you can name your own purchase price at the time you download it. Murnane explains where these songs came from. " While digging around in one of my external backup drives, I rediscovered...

To celebrate the relationship between music and movies Starbucks Coffee, Sundance Channel and BMG Music jointly opened a coffeehouse in an old Elk's lodge in Park City, UT, the town that annually hosts Robert Redford's renowned festival featuring new, independent films. Where Music Meets Film: Live from the Sundance Film Festival is a 1999 soundtrack CD with fifteen songs from the gala's after hours, live music shows. While none of these songs were written or performed specifically for films they were released as part of a made for TV documentary. A portion of the profits were donated to the non-profit Sundance Composer's Lab. The disc's liner notes get right to the point. "From silent film to contemporary cinema, music has always been part of the movie experience. It enhances the story and helps set the mood of the film." The CD features a few established stars - John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, and ...

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...