Bloggerhythms

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...

It has been written here several times before about the love-hate relationship I have with the Carpenters , the brother and sister duo who achieved great commercial success in the 1970s. While I recognized the rare beauty of Karen Carpenter's voice I also lamented the outright dreck the duo often recorded - especially "Sing," a children's song originally featured on  Sesame Street .   It didn't complement their more sophisticated work at all - hits such as "Superstar," and album tracks like "A Song For You," and "This Masquerade," both composed by Leon Russell. The young siblings greatest moment came when they woke up and realized they were making music during what would eventually become the first great era of classic rock. The result was their #7 hit, "Goodbye To Love," released off of their finest album, A Song For You in 1972. According to the DVD documentary,  Close To You: Remembering The Carp...

This is an unedited rerun of an old post originally published here on February 27, 2007. It's a very good album by one of the best soft-rock bands of the 70s. If you're not acquainted with it yet here is another chance to to become familiar with this really fine set of tunes. America , one of the most successful and famous soft rock bands of the 70s, is back with their sixteenth studio album, Here & Now . Original members Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell (who are two thirds of the original trio) stay true to their trademark sound while injecting new life into the music by working with some prominent names of the current alt-rock and modern rock communities. America was one of the many bands who forgot their roots and fell prey to the synthesizer craze of the 80s, but older fans will easily and happily embrace Here & Now. The new CD has more in common with their mid-70s middle-of-the-road music than it does with their first two albums, the 1971 self-titled debut and ...

There are too many singer-songwriters born with sub-standard vocal chords. I've always said they should just compose and leave the singing to those who can. Fortunately, the recently departed Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (1938 - 2023) was never one who needed to avoid a microphone because his elegant baritone always enhanced his highly literate songs. I've thought many times about adding some Lightfoot to my already large CD collection, but for reasons that can't be explained, I never did. So, proving that death is often a good career move the recent, sad news about the beloved, Canadian star's passing finally spurred me into action with my purchase of  Complete Greatest Hits .  This excellently re-mastered, 2002 compilation from Rhino Records is loaded with Lightfoot's most popular songs. For the majority of music lovers this outstanding, twenty song collection - that clocks in at almost an hour and fifteen minutes - should be enough. Complete Greatest Hit...

As part two of a three part series originally posted here in February 2008 I wrote about my all time top ten guilty pleasures with a statement that my number one choice would be receiving its own separate post. I'm bringing it back today - inspired by a tweet I stumbled upon by "Morning Joe" Scarborough that you can see below. The original article and links to the other posts in this series follow immediately after the tweet. This album reminds me of my parents more than any other. I listened to it countless times in my mom & dad’s car. One of many reasons I love this album and was just never cool enough to think the Carpenters were uncool. Always loved them. Always will❤️ pic.twitter.com/Q3DsRcTb2I — Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) June 7, 2022 One of the Twentieth Century’s most beautiful female singing voices belonged to the late, golden-voiced, balladeer Karen Carpenter. She was the more famous half of The Carpenters , the brother and sister duo who had a...

Funky Kings were a manufactured band, meaning the guys didn't get together themselves but at the behest of Clive Davis of Arista Records. The Kings were a short-lived sextet who recorded their one and only LP in 1976. Davis was looking for another Eagles, the famous, Southern California, country-rockers who were one of the most popular bands on the planet at the time. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. The album failed to make the charts and it went out of print quickly. When Arista passed on a sophomore attempt the group disbanded. Don't let their horrible moniker - they weren't the least bit funky - and even worse commercial success fool you. The Kings made a very nice album of mid-70s pop-rock and that is because - while they may not have succeeded as a unit - they were a band loaded with individual members who all went on to various degrees of musical success after the group was long forgotten. The band had three very talented songwriters. The best known at the t...

Most classic rock fans know who Robert Lamm is, but it's less likely they're familiar with Jim Peterik. Peterik was the leader of The Ides of March - a horn band like Chicago - who had a #2 hit with "Vehicle" way back in 1970. He had additional success later as one of the founders of Survivor  - a band that turned "Eye of the Tiger" into a big hit after recording it for Rocky III in 1982. In the sadly closed-down year of 2020 Peterik wrote the lyrics to a Robert Lamm track that sounds somewhat like the pop side of Chicago's long-gone, 70s jazz-rock. Lamm enlisted help from some of his newer bandmates using file sharing instead of bringing them together to record the single "Everything's Gonna Work Out Fine." By the mid-70s Chicago decided to become a more mainstream band. "Everything" represents the four lane highway many of their original fans wish they merged onto in the 80s instead of the muddy, rutted, dirt road to nowhere the...

Bridge Over Troubled Water is the fifth and final album Simon and Garfunkel made together. The eleven song record is quite eclectic. It's considered to be the gem of gems in the duo's catalog. It was released in January 1970 and they parted ways just a few months later. While they would get together in the future for a few concerts and a live album - plus a one-off single, " My Little Town ," that appeared on a solo album for each one - this marked the end of their time together as true collaborators. All of the songs, except for a cover of The Everly Brothers' "Bye By Love," were written by Simon and the title track is often considered the best song the two ever produced together. The single that gave the album its name soared all of the way to #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 and stayed there for six weeks. It won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Simon wrote it for his partner to sing although Garfunkel originally insisted that ...

During my college years of the early 70s I played Jim Croce on my radio show mostly because the station had a required playlist that every DJ had to follow. It wasn't the hippest college station in the world and every third song we played had to be from that list. I liked Croce more than most of the other atist's records we were forced to spin so I didn't really have a problem airing his stuff.  I knew all about Croce, his eight top 40 hits in about eighteen months (including two #1s), and the tragic plane crash that took his life at age thirty. I also knew Croce was a local boy who spent most of his youth in Upper Darby, Pa, but what I didn't know is how highly respected he was as a singer-songwriter. I plead ignorance in that regard unless his reputation as a great, working class storyteller grew over the years and elevated him above the status of just being another 70s soft-rocker. He never became the rock...

You know an artist is slated for the big time when T-Bone Burnett is the producer so it shocked me that I never heard of Australian Wendy Matthews when I first listened to her second CD, Lily , several years after its 1992 release.  I had no idea who she was and I wondered why Burnett, Booker T. Jones, and INXS members Jon Farriss and Garry Beers  were all playing in a band with a singer I knew nothing about. Later, I was surprised to learn that Lily went double platinum and contained the big hit single, "The Day You Went Away." The song peaked at #2 on the Aussie singles chart and is Matthews highest charting record.  Matthews is a native of Montreal who left home at seventeen to busker her way to Los Angeles. She eventually ended up singing backup on countryman Glenn Shorrock's tour after he left Little River Band. When the tour was over she made the decision to stay in Australia and the singer quickly became a frequently sought after session vocalist for many of he...

This review was originally published on Bloggerhythms in 2006. After all of these years it's still one of my favorite Celtic albums of all time so I'm giving it another chance to be loved by all. It's been updated ever so slightly from the original. Commercially, The Corrs became a blockbuster success but to me they were never totally satisfying because they always lacked a clear identity. Did they want to be a mainstream pop band who frequently recorded some wimpy material or did they want to explore their Irish folk roots? The quartet tried to have it both ways, and unfortunately the two genres didn't always mesh well together. That uncertainty often lead to some schizophrenic and uneven albums. With Home , their aptly named CD from 2006 - and their last before a lengthy, decade long hiatus - The Corrs finally appeared to have found a home. The band still sounds very much like they always did but the three sisters and their brother ha...

Tommy West, one half of the early 70s soft-rock duo, Cashman and West, passed away on May 2, 2021. In tribute, below is a very slightly edited reposting of an article that was first published on Bloggerhythms on September 30, 2010.  My lifelong passion for the Philadelphia Phillies is second only to my passion for music. For those of you not in North or South America, The Caribbean, Japan, or South Korea, they’re a professional baseball team from The United States and in 2008 they were the champions of the whole sport. On Monday night The Phillies won their division title for the fourth straight year and earned a chance to play in their second straight World Series. If they do indeed make it to the final round I'm hoping they get to play Joe Girardi's New York Yankees this fall so they can show The Bronx Bombers that they are the new sheriff in town. ( From 2020 to early in the 2022 season Girardi managed the Phillies. - Updated May 15, 2026. ) The impending post-season go...

I don't know whether to file "Yellow Balloon," released by the band of the same name, under  Buried Treasure or under  Almost Hits   because both labels easily fit this little ditty by a forgotten "one-hit wonder" quintet.  This slice of Southern California sunshine reached #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was from the only LP The Yellow Balloon ever made - and believe it or not - it's still available for purchase on iTunes. The most interesting piece of trivia about the short-lived outfit was that the late Don Grady (1944 - 2012) was the group's drummer. He was better known for playing Robbie Douglas on  My Three Sons  and for being a Mouseketeer from 1957 to 1958. For reasons unknown the band sometimes billed him as Luke R. Yoo instead of using his real name. For a brief time the band's lineup also included Daryl Dragon (1942 - 2019) who later became the captain in The Captain & Tennille. "Yellow Balloon" is quite typical of the Laur...

It's been a long time since I've heard anything like The Wine of Youth , Zach Phillips' third album overall and his first in thirteen years. It's a record for those of us who grew up on 70s singer-songwriters. The reason for that statement should be obvious to anyone who is familiar with the music the San Diego resident and native Chicagoan makes.  It's been written that Phillips' sound is reminiscent of Dan Fogelberg and Jackson Browne. Both descriptions fit although the Fogelberg comparison is far more accurate. The Wine of Youth is a beautiful sounding, melodic, thirteen song set of electric and acoustic Americana music with a little bit of perfectly placed Laurel Canyon harmonies that make you want to listen to the opaque lyrics. Back in the day artists would write about the Golden State in a way nobody would ever rhapsodize about places like Connecticut, Kansas, or Delaware and Phillips proves that is sometimes still the case.  The album possesses a vibe t...

I've only recently become aware that people have been clamoring a long time for Stephen Stills and Judy Collins to work together. That time finally arrived late last year with their album, Everybody Knows. Now that it's happened I can say that, at least professionally, Judy Blue Eyes and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's best all around musician are a perfect pair. Stills' vocals are less gravelly than they have been in recent years and Collins' angelic voice has not withered at all. She sounds exactly as she did in 1968 and when they duet she more than compensates for any aging in her partner's voice. Song for song there is very little new music on Everybody Knows . The ten track set includes five covers, three Stills compositions and two by Collins. The originals are mostly older songs but it doesn't matter because the end result is quite rewarding. The ten track album's rockier moments are all courtesy of Stills. The only two obvious rockers...

Whenever Harry Chapin took the stage you realized how much more dynamic he was live than on record. That is where he earned his reputation as one of the great musical story tellers of all time. His rapport with the audience was virtually unequaled and you could tell he loved every second of it. Often his records, regardless of subject matter, just didn't convey the same emotion. People who happily saw Chapin live knew they were in for a treat even before they heard his 1976, double disc LP, Greatest Stories Live , because it included all of his best known work. Featured are "Taxi" and his biggest hit, "Cat's In The Cradle." There is also "W*O*L*D," a song that "snuck onto the charts for about fifteen minutes" according to Chapin, and the wonderful concert opener "Dreams Go By." He also included "Mr. Tanner," "I Wanna Learn A Love Song" and much more. The singer also closed with a lengthy and very fu...

Despite hailing from that hipster heaven known as Brooklyn it turns out The Lone Bellow may be out of touch. They actually released their new album, Then Came The Morning on CD in a plastic, shrink-wrapped, jewel box complete with a booklet loaded with liner notes, lyrics, and credits. How 90s of them. No cheap cardboard packaging for this trio. Once you open the case you'll also realize that there is nothing cheap about the music inside of it either. The group clearly doesn't suffer from the sophomore jinx, proving their eponymous debut was not beginner's luck. Lone Bellow remains true to the their sound but their vocals have improved, especially in the case of lead singer Zach Williams (not that they were shabby before). His voice is stronger, more self-assured, and the powerful singing of Kanene Donehey Pipkin continues to be an asset. She is the band's secret weapon and deserves more than the single lead vocal ("Call to War") she is allowed he...

By 1977, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, and Graham Nash had not released a studio album as a threesome since their eponymous debut in 1969 or together with Neil Young since Deja Vu in 1970. When they finally issued CSN during the Jimmy Carter Administration it became a major hit even though it's never been held in as high esteem as their two earlier LPs. However, it was good enough to prove there was still a demand for the kind of music they made almost a decade earlier. CSN , with the smiling trio on the cover masking their ever present behind the scenes turmoil, was the last album for seventeen years that would show them to be a functioning, self-contained unit. So, it's amazing that with just three LPs from their golden era (nothing they ever did together after this album would come close to matching the artistic achievements or popularity of these three) that this band became legendary as one of the greatest in rock history. Why? Because the trio is so supremely tal...

In short, Graham Nash's Wild Tales is one of the best musical autobiographies I ever read. To his credit the singer-songwriter used a lot less ink than Keith Richards needed to tell his tale while offering us many riveting details about his personal life and solo career, as well as the careers and lives of The Hollies, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Mama Cass Elliott, Joni Mitchell, and a whole lot more. Nash grew up very poor in Manchester, England but unlike a lot of kids in his situation his home life was relatively stable with two parents who loved him even though his father was eventually imprisoned for theft (unfortunately it appears he was innocent). An interesting pre-Hollies anecdote is about a 1959 battle of the bands that featured a lot of up and coming British rockers including Nash and his best friend from childhood, Allan Clarke, with whom he would eventually form The Hollies. This is where the two teenagers first encountered three Liverpool kids who...

Welsh singer-songwriter, Judith Owen, Harry Shearer's wife since 1993, played a free, ninety minute concert at a small Portland, OR venue with a very cool name, Doug Fir Lounge , early in June. Unfortunately, it was only in front of a small crowd of less than fifty people. Nevertheless, everyone went home satisfied because, as good as her performance was, Owen is quite a hoot on stage. The singer-songwriter has a great sense of humor that kept the audience completely entertained. She talked a lot between songs offering up funny stories and one liners, often at her own expense. She enjoyed kidding around with people in the seats and the pianist even discussed her battle with depression that has plagued her for a long time. Owen performed most of her new album, Ebb & Flow which is a tribute to the "American Troubadour" music she loves from the 1970s, including Joni Mitchell, Carole King, and particularly James Taylor. She wrote in the liner notes, "I fell ...