Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#196 in the Series) is Darden Smith, Trouble No More. Yesterday we gave you one of the most popular singer songwriter/rockers that ever walked the planet. So today, I’m going to give you another great singer-songwriter. This time one that, I’m betting, not as many of you have heard. That man is named Darden Smith. He’s an Austin, Texas native.  He’s been recording since the mid-80s. The most of his commercial success was a little after that period when he released a number of albums for Sony Music. This was another artist that I became aware of after receiving a promo of his latest effort. In this case it was this album, Trouble...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#190 in the Series) is the self-titled debut from Monsters of Folk. The Monsters of Folk consist of four gents who are moonlighting from their day jobs. Conor Orberst and Mike Mogis are members of ‘Bright Eyes,’ M.Ward is the Him of ‘She and Him’ while Jim James (aka Yim Yames when solo) calls ‘My Morning Jacket’ home. This 2009 release wasn’t an overnight project by any means.  The four of them had actually been trying to get this project off the ground since 2004.  Time restrictions kept pulling them apart until late 2008. They actually put a good amount of this together playing backstage while on tour with their other bands. Sometimes...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#185 in the Series and) is Loggins and Messina, On Stage. Loggins and Messina was a VERY good 70s band that history has not treated as well as it should. Why, my guess is that Kenny Loggins solo success, especially in the soundtrack realm, has had the most to do with it. Plus I don’t think their largest hit, ‘Your Momma Don’t Dance,’ was a very good representation of their sound. As good as it was, I always like others better.  But do you ever hear Loggins and Messina on classic rock stations, hardly. Not even great stations like WXRT play them nearly as much as they used to, if at all.  I’d...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#182 in the Series) is Steve Earle, Guitar Town. His first and still my favorite. I saw him at the Park West shortly after his second album; Exit 0 was released. But I always liked this one. The Chicago market was onto Steve Earle pretty early thanks to WXRT.  They played this album from day one, If not earlier.  What’s a great thing about Steve Earle too is that he’s never forgotten that. He’s repaid the favor to them many times over.   They were not the only help he had here.  Steve Dahl was onto him early as well. “Guitar Town,” plus “My Old Friend the Blues” and “Someday” were some of the...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#158 in the Series) Is Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Déjà Vu. I was just sharing the story on Facebook about remembering buying Déjà Vu back in 1970.  I purchased it at the famous Chicagoland record chain called Hegewisch Records.  I was spending the summer at a cousin’s in Calumet City. We road our bikes to Hegewisch  and quickly we were in the store.  I plopped down my $3.49 and we we’re off.  All their LPs were $3.49 back then.  I still remember the sticker on the shrink wrap!   On the way back I wiped out on the bike and the album went flying.  Fear not, it was OK.  I still remember the...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#134 in the Series) is Gram Parson’s, GP. I was shocked to see that I hadn’t featured Gram Parson’s as of yet.  He’s one of my all-time favorites.   I did feature him as part of The Byrds, Sweethearts of the Rodeo era. GP was Gram’s first of two studio albums.  Grievous Angel was the second and could have been as easily featured as GP since they are both outstanding pieces of music. GP was home for some of Gram’s most wonderful moments.  He was in excellent voice in this era.  Give a listen to some of the slower moments of the disc including ‘A Song For You, Streets of Baltimore, She’ or ‘The...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day is Tom Waits, “Blue Valentine.” What a piece of music this one is.  I just love Tom Waits.  This is yet another example of the album I love is the tour I saw. I can’t remember the name of the place. But there was a little roadhouse between Merrillville + Valparaiso, Indiana where I saw this tour.  It had to be in 1978 or ‘79.  The opening act was Leon Redbone who had laryngitis that night and did everything instrumental.  He then held up a ‘thank you’ sign after every song. TW does an amazing version of ‘Somewhere” from West Side Story as an opening number on this album. It’s truly a remarkable...

Today’s “Cool Album of the Day” is Atlanta Rhythm Section, “Red Tape.” Kind of a forgotten band here. Atlanta Rhythm Section was all over the radio in the late 70’s early 80’s. ‘Red Tape” was a little before that. This album was released in 1976. Some of the best tracks were ‘Jukin/San Antonio Rose, Free Spirit’ and especially ‘Mixed Emotions.’ Recorded in Doraville, Georgia and released on Polygram, “Red Tape” peaked at #146 on the Billboard Top 200 Charts while the only single to chart, ‘Free Spirit’ reached #85. Track listing “Jukin’/San Antonio Rose” (Buie, Nix, Wills) – 3:43 “Mixed Emotions” (Buie, Cobb, Nix) – 3:20 “Shanghaied” (Buie, Cobb, Nix) – 2:14 “Police! Police!” (Buie, Cobb, Nix) – 3:11 “Beautiful...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (A Milestone! #100 in The Series…hold the applause please, thank you, thank you.) is Heartsfield, The Wonder Of It All. Today we are going to celebrate the music of Heartsfield. Well anyone that knows me knew that a Heartsfield album was coming sooner or later. I decided awhile back to make it entry #100. Heartsfield was one of, if not the main reason for my love of music and for me making a career in music for what were many years and coming from many different angles. The members remain some of my closest friends for well over 30 some years now. They’ve been a major influence to much of the music I did, and...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#90 in the Series) is Bodeans.Love & Hope & Sex & Dreams. The BoDeans are still huge in Chicago.  I’m not sure how big they’re ever gotten outside of this area.  It’s hard to tell from the inside. This was their debut release.  I personally like the 2nd album, “Outside, Looking In” better, but I’m featuring this one. This one has many of their concert favorites to this day. “She’s a Runaway, Fadeaway, Still The Night” jump out at you at the top of the disc.  Nice opening to a career boys! BoDeans are basically Sammy Llanas and Kurt Neumann.  They’ve gone thru numerous band members. A little birdy told me that they’re...