Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#1018 in the Series) is Hellucination. Los Angeles based songwriter/ producer Betty Moon has been a familiar name in her native Toronto scene since the early 90s. Over the span of over two decades, Moon has released over nine studio albums and countless singles to keep her name top of mind. What’s unique with Moon is that without substantial touring she has managed to maintain a long term career which is credited to “finding other creative ways to spread the word including streaming music, local shows, licensing and selling physical product.” There’s no question her music is stellar and her brand is 110% individual, which we can see from just checking out some...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#977 in the Series ) is Nanci Griffith, One Fair Summer Evening. “Variety; Learning about different types of music; bringing different genres to different people.”   These were just some of the objectives that we publically discussed when we started this project just about a year ago. We’re most definitely going to continue in that direction tonight.  This is one of those albums that requires you to “be in the proper” mood. However, when you are, this album is about as good as it gets. “What mood is that?” you ask?  Mostly a mellow feeling I’d say, interested in hearing some wonderfully written songs being sung by a woman with a marvelous voice that...

  Today’s Cool album of the Day (#948 in the Series) is Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach, Painted From Memory   Reviewers hated this album. I call it the “Album to Never Listen to When Going Through a Breakup” simply because it’s heartfelt and full of emotion. Someone said to me, I’m hurting, and I said be sure to not listen to this then. I grew up with Burt Bacharach, and as a semi-adult I became smitten with all that Elvis Costello did. This “marriage” was a dream coming true. I love this album so much. Add Steve Nieve (keyboards) to it and it makes it close to perfect. Elvis is a crooner at heart, despite his “punk rock”...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#938 in the Series) is the eponymous debut from Karla Bonoff Karla Bonoff is almost the female version of J.D. Souther.  Like J.D., she was a denizen of Laurel Canyon and hung with the likes of Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, and the rest of the cosmic cowboys. The two also shared the unique gift of song-craft that perfectly suited the times and the country-rock vibe that was permeating the L.A. scene in the early to mid-seventies. Also like Souther, Karla made a name for herself with her songs that were recorded by other artists most notably “Home” that was recorded by Bonnie Raitt, as well as “Someone To...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#934 in the series)  is XTC, Apple Venus (Volume 1) The sun was streaming in through my living room window the other day, making me feel all happy and upbeat and summery , even though it was still pretty cold outside. Upon deciding that i needed some music to enhance this lovely mood the first album which sprung to mind was this little beauty , Apple Venus (Volume One) by XTC , a late period classic from one of my favourite bands. There’s eleven songs on here, each a perfect little gem in it’s own right. As it played i had cause to reflect : this album came out very near  to the...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#894 in the Series) is Don Dixon, Most of the Girls Like to Dance but Only Some of the Boys Do Quite often the hardest thing about maintaining this website is trying to come up with the next day’s “Cool Album of the Day.” There are times when nothing jumps out at you that you feel like telling people about. Then there are times when you get an idea from places you never expected. That’s what happened yesterday when I was looking for our next entry. As you know we also have a Facebook page for “Cool Album of the Date.” On the page there is often continuous discussion on the entries along...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#889 in the Series) is Diana Krall, Live in Paris Diana Krall was another one of those artists that I knew more ‘of’ than actually knew.  I couldn’t tell you anything that she had done.  I’d see her listed as being on different shows etc.  I had a little interest. Some of it also generated from being familiar with her superstar husband, Elvis Costello.  I wonder if she’s ever worn his red shoes? So one day I’m surfing thru the television channels when I see her sitting at her piano singing this marvelous song. “OK’ I said, this sounds pretty good’ Maybe I’ll watch a song or two.” Well, about 80 minutes...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Push Push” by Herbie Mann Duane Allman’s final session… Herbie Mann was already ten years into a career that established him as a purveyor of Afro Cuban Jazz, Latin Jazz and Bossa Nova music by 1971 and the release of his album Push Push. Mann had released albums for Bethlehem, Prestige, Epic, Verve and Savoy, before signing with Atlantic Records in 1962 where he would release numerous records for the label over the next eight years that established him as the premiere flautist in all of jazz. While at Atlantic, Mann worked with a whole host of influential percussionists and instrumentalists like Ray Barretto, Michael Olatunji, Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#624 in the Series) is Loey Nelson, Venus Kissed the Moon I’ve wanted to do a piece on this Loey Nelson album almost since I started the website.  What’s always stopped me has been the fact that it’s long been out of print, and it wasn’t available on any of the download nor streaming services. Also, nothing from it was on YouTube. So I could yap until I was New York Giant blue in the face and most likely, no one would have a clue what I was talking about. So I couldn’t really share this absolutely marvelous album without being able to hand out any samples to the class. But alas!...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (# 601 in the Series) is Boz Scaggs, Silk Degrees 1976 was a banner year for the album format. Hotel California, Takin’ it to the Streets, Songs in the Key of Life, and Boston all charted in 1976. Silk Degrees generated four monster Billboard Hot 100 charting singles, “What Can I Say (42)”, “It’s Over” (38), “Lido Shuffle” (11), and “Lowdown (3)” may have been the best of the lot, and was the coming out party for Texas born guitar slinger Boz Scaggs. The album was released right in the heart of disco fever and was just before the titanic, or travesty depending on your point of view, Saturday Night Fever, and...