Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa “Don’t Explain”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#518 in the Series) is Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa, Don’t Explain I have been waiting for one of hot-shot guitar slingers to separate themselves from the pack, and with this collaboration with Blues/Soul/Rock singer Beth Hart Joe Bonamassa has clearly vaulted himself head and shoulders above his blues-rock brothers Jonny Lang and Kenney Wayne Sheppard. He continues to take on interesting and eclectic projects and this one, much like his earlier 2011 release Dustbowl features a collaboration that fits perfectly with his musical tastes, his personality, and his ability to play slow blues, dirty blues, and soulful blues. Don’t Explain is collaboration in the true sense of the word with Joe doing...
Rory Gallagher “Irish Tour ’74”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#497 in the Series) is Rory Gallagher, Irish Tour ’74. On top of the list there’s Jimi Hendrix. Look up anything on the genre of blues-rock bands, blues-rock music etc. and that’s who’s always at the top. Cast your eyes down a notch. Just a bit, not far, not far at all and you’ll land on Irish guitarist extraordinaire, Rory Gallagher. If for some reason, you landed on Stevie Ray Vaughan’s name first, well then cast your eyes upward. Why, because in every way, Rory Gallagher’s name is listed above. It’s not even close. SRV should not be even mentioned in the same breath with this man. When I’m trying to decide on...
Wet Willie ‘Keep on Smilin’
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#461 in the Series is Wet Willie, Keep On Smilin.’ There’s often a common theme among many of the write-ups that I do. That theme is how an album stands up to time. Mind you, that usually has little to no effect on what I write because I try to write about how I felt about an album when it was released. How it fit into the times, what was on the radio, how it affected what was happening in my life etc. This is one that stands up to time much better than most. Often it’s not the band’s fault if something sucks now that was good once before, it’s more about how my...
David Bromberg readies New Album with Help from Levon Helm, John Hiatt, Linda Ronstadt and others.
David Bromberg’s new Use Me tickles the ear with a spicy smorgasbord of the many musical ingredients that make up the “Americana” genre. David’s concept for the CD was to ask a wide variety of singer-songwriters and musicians to write (or choose), produce, and perform on songs showcasing his versatility as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. Answering his call were some of the greatest talents in contemporary music: Dr. John, spreading New Orleans “fonk”; Los Lobos (with a Mexican-flavored waltz); country music’s Vince Gill and bluegrass’s Tim O’Brien; Linda Ronstadt, making a rare appearance (on a Brook Benton ballad); Levon Helm (playing on two chunks of Woodstock blues and goodtime music), Southern jam band Widespread Panic, contemporary roots singer-songwriter John...
Paul Barrere’s Bluesbusters “Accept No Substitutes”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#406 in the Series) is Bluesbusters, Accept No Substitute I was really missing Little Feat in the mid-eighties when I first heard about The Bluesbusters. Like a good ol’ bowl of crawfish etouffee, let’s say they really hit the spot. If you don’t know about them, let me clue y’all in. The Bluesbusters featured five very talented musicians that made their name mostly in other acts. Paul Barrere was of course a lead vocalist, guitarist, slide guitarist in Little Feat. On Keyboards was the late T.Lavitz. T spent most of his time in another great band, The Dixie Dregs. Freebo was on bass. He previously added the boogie to the woogie of Ms....
ZZ Top “Eliminator”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#391 in the Series and #14 in the Whale Wednesday Series) is ZZ Top, Eliminator. Is Eliminator my favorite ZZ Top release, oh heck no. My vote would always by placed on one of the earlier, more guitar driven more blues based offerings. I’m featuring Eliminator because it truly was a “Whale.” No, it wasn’t a number one album, far from it. It actually only made it up to #9 on the Billboard Top 200 Album chart. I don’t care where this charted, this was a HUGE album. This album was all over the radio during the summer of 1983. ZZ Top was clearly an established act when this was released in March....
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals “Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#390 in the Series) is Grace Potter and the Nocturnals The word “Nocturnal” means “of or pertaining to the night,” a perfect moniker to describe the band of traveling gypsies known as Grace Potter & The Nocturnals. 2010 and on in to 2011 has been a very busy time for the band. In an effort to make a name, and establish their identity, they embarked on a “scorched earth” tour of America, traversing the country, delivering to the unwashed masses, their unique blend of funky blues, gritty soul, and smoldering rock. The band also made time to make all of the usual Fallon, Kimmel, Letterman, talking head stops, as well as to lend...
Roy Buchanan “You’re Not Alone”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#381 in the Series) is Roy Buchanan, You’re Not Alone. Many of you are aware of Roy Buchanan. In fact, we’ve featured him once before. You probably know him as this guitar slinging blues player with the fastest licks in the business. This would be true, but this album is a little different. Yes, he still plays those killer notes. The music still has some blues base to it, but this was still quite different. OK, what makes it different? Firstly, Roy tackles some pretty well known cover tunes on this record. He plays Neil Young’s” Down By the River” and Joe Walsh’s “Turn to Stone.” Another interesting aspect here was the use...
Led Zeppelin “Led Zeppelin”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#356 in the Series) is the self-titled debut from Led Zeppelin. I remember back around 1977 or so. I had a friend named John Popenleur. I hope I’m spelling that correctly. One day he was going on and on about his new turntable and how much he liked it. ‘You have to hear this thing, you have to hear this thing,” he kept saying. OK, I finally agreed to check it out. To this day, I remember what he put on to show off its sound. He tossed the first Led Zeppelin album onto the turntable. He fired it up, loudly!!! I can still hear how cool “Good Times, Bad Times” sounded. It...
Al Anderson “Party Favors”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#339 in the Series) is Al Anderson, Party Favors Al Anderson. Do you know the name? You might. Al was the long time guitarist for NRBQ. Besides his work with “The Q” he’s also written a country hit or two, most notably for Carlene Carter. This was actually released about the same time that he was doing well with the Carlene hits. It also was directly before NRBQ was to release one of their few major-label albums, that being Wild Weekend. That album was on Virgin Records. This album was a side project during that time. Al actually played most of the instruments on the disc. Some reviews have said it had a...
