Bloggerhythms

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, ...

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'...

It's Opening Day once again, and the Phillies are pursuing their third World Series championship, so it's time for a little baseball related music.   The appeal of Baseball's Greatest Hits (1989) lies almost exclusively with hardcore baseball fans and those who like to bask in its history. It's an interesting and informative artifact but not something a listener would routinely pop in his CD player (if you still have one) on a regular basis because it's a collection of novelty songs that are mostly really, really old. The album has twenty-two tracks that are predominantly songs but it also includes a handful of spoken word radio broadcasts and comedy bits. Among the latter are museum pieces such as Abbott & Costello's famous "Whose On First" (1945), "Lou Gehrig's Farewell Speech" (1939), and "Bobby Thomson's Shot Heard 'Round The World" (1951). Also featured is actor and vaudeville star DeWolf Hopper who rec...

Jazz may have its roots in New Orleans, but New York City has always been synonymous with the art form that has sometimes been called "America's Classical Music." The Big Apple is as much of a jazz town as New Orleans is, so this CD, New York, New York: The City in Song -   at one time available only through The Metropolitan Museum Of Art   which is where I bought my copy back in  2008 - is an entirely appropriate salute to the city that never sleeps. All of the song titles reference America's largest city in some way. The disc is loaded with vintage jazz. Louis, The Duke, and The Count are all here and there is even an Armstrong/Ellington duet on "Drop Me Off In Harlem." Stan Kenton contributed "Stompin' At The Savoy" and Buddy Rich shines on the lengthy "West Side Story Medley." Peggy Lee, Dakota Staton, and Lena Horne all sing their hearts out while The Modern Jazz Quartet, Benny Green, Bud Powell, and George Shearin...

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 ...

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...

The First Hot 100 Of the 60s is a 4 CD set featuring all of the songs, in order, on the Billboard chart for the week of January 4, 1960 starting at #1 and running through #100. It was only a couple of years earlier, in August 1958, when the first Hot 100 was published and in just two years it became the ultimate guide to the US singles market. At the time of this chart Billboard determined a song's popularity based on sales of 45 RPM singles and radio airplay. Today, a song's ranking in the United States is based on the total sales of both physical and digital formats, radio airplay, and online streaming. So, it's possible that if the current methods were used in 1960 the chart may have had a very different look. We'll never know. Hot 100s always included many genres and they usually contain some classic tracks along with a lot of simple-minded dreck. The January '60 chart is loaded with one hit wonders and novelty songs but it was also home to a lot of fam...

I offer my deepest apologies to those people who believe the Rolling Stones really were the "world's greatest rock 'n' roll band" because I'm about to commit rock 'n' roll blasphemy with this statement: Exile on Main Street , the band's 1972, double-disc LP, considered by most critics of the musical cultural elite to be one of the finest rock albums ever recorded, is an immensely bad set of songs. Maybe it's the very muddy sounding final mix that made every track, except for the two big hit singles, "Tumbling Dice" and "Happy," sound exactly the same, or is it the crudity of many of the songs. After all, what is there to like about a song titled "Turd on the Run?" Therefore, you may be surprised to find that I feel just the opposite about this compilation from Telarc consisting of ten songs from Main Street re-recorded by a crackerjack blues band along with a host of blues all-stars. Exile on Blues Street is ...

Holidays Rule, Volume 2 is the second unique compilation of Christmas music backed by MPL (McCartney Productions Limited), one of the World's largest music publishers. Volume 1 was released in 2012 and is discussed here . Both discs in this series are for people who love Christmas music but are tired of the same old thing and offer a mix of famous, all-star talent along with a host of up and coming artists. Kudos to the former Beatle and to everyone involved for having the foresight to understand that not everyone wants to hear Brenda Lee every single hour, every single day, for a whole month every year. The album opens with Paul McCartney, Jimmy Fallon, and The Roots performance of the classic rocker's "Wonderful Christmastime" that is more in the spirit of Christmas than his perennial standard. This take was originally performed on The Tonight Show in December 2016. Other heavy hitters include Norah Jones performing a non-Christmas tune, a live version of...

As a movie offering us a good love story La La Land easily satisfies. Actors Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling are excellent and they have a great rapport with each other. They look and act like a real couple, something that is a must for a romantic film to be successful. This best film nominee of 2016 is well paced and looks great. Both things can be attributed to Damien Chazelle who is quickly establishing himself as a fine director. Much of the plot of La La Land is driven by Gosling's character who is an aspiring jazz musician. Chazelle is also the man behind the award winning Whiplash , a 2014 film about a jazz drummer at a music conservatory. Apparently, the director is a big jazz fan. La La Land gets four stars for its acting, plot, direction, cinematography and all of those neat little things Hollywood gives awards for. Unfortunately, the music is not as rewarding. The jazz, pop, show tunes, and instrumentals - all composed by Justin Hurwitz who also worked with Ch...

Holidays Rule is this year's Christmas compilation from Hear Music and, as usual, it's available at both Starbuck's and at Amazon . It's also one of the finer seasonal collections the mega-huge coffee empire has ever released and the seventeen song CD may just be their most eclectic ever. With just a couple of major exceptions Holidays Rule is loaded with a boatload of current pop and rock stars, many who arrived on the scene just in the last couple of years. Among the old timers and veterans are Irma Thomas and The Preservation Hall Jazz Band. Their "May Everyday Be Christmas" features a more modern arrangement than the famous New Orleans outfit is normally known for. Rufus Wainright and guest Sharon Van Etten acquit themselves well with a slightly new slant on the overplayed, "Baby, It's Cold Outside." Southwestern rockers Calexico check in with "Green Grows the Holly" while folk-rocker Andrew Bird's "Auld Lang Syne...

Live At The World Cafe, Vol. 33 The World Café , a very eclectic music program syndicated nationally by NPR celebrated its 20th anniversary last year. It's a daily, two hour show hosted by David Dye, a local Philadelphia DJ, who has a long history in rock radio dating back to the early 1970s. Dye plays a wide-ranging mix of folk, jazz, country, rock and even some world music. The show originates and is transcribed from the studios of WXPN , the alternative-rock station owned and operated by the University of Pennsylvania. It's currently aired on more than 250 NPR outlets nationwide. Dye's on air guests have included hundreds of fledgling artists trying to find their way in the music business as well as many interviews and mini-concerts from superstars such as Paul McCartney, Yo-Yo Ma, and Joni Mitchell. As with all programming on public radio the show is commercial free so that means it relies heavily on funding from corporate sponsorship, the government, and don...

Let It Snow is this year's Christmas CD from Starbucks and it's another good one. The Seattle coffee chain's annual collection of seasonal tunes are always among the best compilations assembled for the holidays. A lot of thought has gone into every single one of their Christmas discs and, as always, they combine tracks by famous heritage artists with more current stars (along with a couple of complete unknowns) yet somehow they make all of the songs feel as if they belong together. At first glance I was disappointed when I saw Brenda Lee's name on the song listing. "Here we go again," I thought, "the same old stuff." But what to my wondering eyes should appear was not "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" but her version of "Jingle Bell Rock." Yes, it's a very famous song by an artist we always hear from at Christmas but it's a different version than the one we are normally exposed to so my faith in Starbucks wa...

Five years after his brother's death Jimmie Vaughan organized a tribute concert to Stevie Ray that was broadcast on Austin City Limits on May 11, 1995 before it was released to the public on CD. In the CD's liner notes (it was also issued on DVD) Jimmie said, "Doing this has been in the back of my mind for a long time. But I wanted it to be far enough removed from Stevie's passing (August 26, 1990) that it could be a happy, celebratory event." Vaughan's timing was perfect because the concert became a giant blues party. In addition to Double Trouble (Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, and Reese Winans) everyone who played with Stevie on stage during his last concert just a few hours before he died was there: Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and Jimmie. Also invited to pay their respects were Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, and two keyboard players, Art Neville and Dr. John. Your first reaction may be, "Why get this CD when you can get the real thing?...

Front cover It's been a few years since Starbucks scaled back their entertainment division although their cafés continue to carry CDs that are appealing to upscale pop music fans. What is missing today are the discs the coffee giant packaged themselves, most of them compilations. Stockings By The Fire is one of their past Christmas collections and the people at Starbucks Entertainment did a very nice job assembling these sixteen songs for your 2007 holiday listening pleasure. Even though the recordings on Stockings By The Fire cover a period of over fifty years it should fulfill listeners of all ages. Timeless icons such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, and Ella Fitzgerald are represented but so are more current singers such as Rufus Wainwright, Jack Johnson, Aimee Mann, Corrine Bailey Rae, and The Bird and The Bee (featuring the late Lowell George's daughter, Inara). Two artists most of us have never heard of, Hem and A Fine Frenzy, are also included. ...

Rhino's Billboard's Greatest Christmas Hits, Volume 1 (1935-1954) and Volume 2 (1955- Present) contain twenty classic songs, ten on each disc. All were top 40 hits or million sellers over the decades since they were recorded. Most have become perennial classics, heard every December, until you can't stand it anymore. Volume 1 contains Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" and Gene Autry's original versions of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and "Here Comes Santa Claus." Also included are "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus," from twelve year old Jimmy Boyd, a one hit wonder in 1952, Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby," and "All I Want For Christmas (Is My Two Front Teeth)" by Spike Jones.   Volume 2 is even better due to the presence of much loved Christmas songs such as Bobby Helms' "Jingle Bell Rock," "The Chipmunk Song," Elvis's "Blue Christmas," Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Aroun...

Putumayo has always released a lot of high quality American jazz compilations as part of their international focus on music and Putumayo Presents: New Orleans Christmas is no exception. Just from reading its title there should be no surprise that New Orleans Christmas is a jazz and blues CD. All eleven tracks feature artists who are natives of the Crescent City or have a long time affiliation with the town's jazz scene. One of the many jazz veterans who appear on the disc is Lars Edegran, an unknown to the general public even though he has had a long and impeccable career in the business. Edegran is a former Academy Award nominee, garnering the honor in 1979 for the soundtrack to the Louis Malle film, Pretty Baby . On "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" a big band frames Big Al Carson, a popular New Orleans R&B singer for a rousing version of this often tired old classic. Singer and trumpeter James Andrews does his best Louis Armstrong on "Christmas...

Even if you're not a big fan of World Music you have to admit that nobody can put a compilation together better than Putumayo . The love, care, and research the organization works into each of their CDs is superb, right down to the cover art and liner notes. Their new release, A Jazz & Blues Christmas , is no exception. This brief ten song disc is only slightly longer than thirty-three minutes but its richness will leave jazz and blues fans in anything other than a state of blues. In their detailed liner notes Putumayo says that, "This holiday collection exemplifies the close relationship between jazz and blues. Both genres developed side by side and most of these artists go from one to the other seamlessly." The artists Putumayo blends together on the disc include some of the giants of music, including Ray Charles, jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis, Charles Brown, and Riley B. King and his long-necked girlfriend who goes by the name of Lucille. Many unknown artist...

In 1975 film director Jim Szalapski had a burning desire to film a documentary showcasing the new generation of singer-songwriters and performers he believed were about to change the face of country music. Fortunately his dream came true even though it took six years for the fruits of his labor, Heartworn Highways , to be released in 1981. Many of the unknown artists featured in Szalapski's film include now respected alt-country or outlaw-country artists Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Rodney Crowell, David Allan Coe, and John Hiatt. Lesser known but still talented performers such as Larry Jon Wilson, Gamble Rogers, and Steve Young are featured here too. Detailed liner notes stress that this CD version of Heartworn Highways is not a "literal soundtrack" to the film because producers David Gorman and Michael Nieves wanted a "CD that stood on its own as an audio companion to the movie." Gorman and Nieves sought to create a specific mood for ...

Every year, new holiday fare is released to the public to satiate their never-ending desire to hear Christmas music. It amazes me how the music industry continues to recycle the same Christmas songs year after year in various packages, by every conceivable artist known to man, and we keep buying. From James Galway, to Willie Nelson, to Clay Aiken, and everybody in between, Christmas music sells and sells and sells. One of the nice things about this time of year is we all enjoy music by artists that we would never otherwise think of listening to the rest of the year. A case in point is my daughter. She knows nothing about Nat King Cole except for his Christmas album and his perennial chestnut (pun intended), "The Christmas Song." While she enjoys this standard holiday tune very much, she would never consider listening to anything else he recorded without poking fun at the old folks who realize that Cole was one of the great jazz and pop singers of his era. At what other time o...