Ryan Adams and The Cardinals “Cold Roses”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#305 in the Series) is Ryan Adams and The Cardinals, Cold Roses. I’ve always appreciated artists that know the history of their roots and are not afraid to pay homage to them as well. This is the case with Ryan Adams. I’ve read more than once about his love for artists like Gram Parsons. His previous band, Whiskeytown were known for adding more than one Gram tune to their set lists. They even performed Gram’s, “A Song For You” on a tribute album. He’s also mentioned acts like Tom T. Hall, and Big Star as adding to his roots. How well respected is Ryan Adams? Well enough to have Willie Nelson ask him...
Steve Earle and the Dukes “Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#297 in the Series, and #21 in the Live, Saturday Night Series) is Steve Earle and the Dukes, Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator. Steve Earle kicked off his career with two “4-Star”- country-rock, Americana, singer-songwriter styled albums. Then he decided to change his band and resurfaced with a bit of a harder sound. That sound was evident on Copperhead Road and also on The Hard Way. This live album was released from recordings of that tour. I loved those first two albums and was quite glad that a good chunk of them are represented here. We needed some good live versions of “Guitar Town, Someday, Good Ol’ Boy (Gettin’ Tough), I Ain’t...
New Foster and Lloyd album Coming April 19th
FOSTER & LLOYD IT’S ALREADY TOMORROW Pre Order Your Autographed Copy of ‘It’s Already Tomorrow’. (FYI, You will be ordering via Foster and Lloyd’s site, not mine.) All Pre-orders will be shipped the week of April 19th. Price: $15.00 + $4.00 s&h Foster and Lloyd It’s Already Tomorrow Looking back at the history of music, you can pinpoint those times when change takes place…something new replaces the old. Music that once sounded “like this” suddenly sounds “like that.” In the 1930’s, country music was considered to be the sound of hillbilly string bands. When the music was electrified, a honky-tonk shuffle played with a drummer became the new sound. It was still country. In the mid-to...
Robert Plant “Band of Joy”
Today’s Cool Album Of the Day (#294 in the Series) is Robert Plant, Band of Joy. Robert Plant? Think about this one…. How many artists from his era are still releasing strong, relevant music at this stage of their careers? Sure, we get some dynamite tours from some of them. However, for most of them, if they play their latest albums on those tours what you’ll usually find is that the restrooms are at capacity when they play them. Not Robert Plant, his work before this was the extremely popular album with Alison Krauss called Raising Sand. It only won about five Grammys! He’s reinvented himself the last decade and done it with-out going the Rod Stewart route. Band...
Los Lobos “How Will The Wolf Survive?”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#270 in the Series) is Los Lobos, How Will The Wolf Survive? I’ve mentioned a few times before that my tastes have really been leaning towards the ‘Americana’ genre for quite some time now. What can be better than ‘Americana’ with a little ‘Tex-Mex’ added to spice it up a little! Los Lobos have been around steadily for well over thirty five years now. It’s a real testament to the band to see that their latest album, 2010’Tin Can Trust has the same line-up that recorded this 1984 release. Not to mention some before that as well. (That’s a live link to Tin Can Trust so check it out.) Los Lobo’s music is...
David Bromberg “How Late’ll Ya Play ‘Til?”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#255 in the Series, and #15 in the Live, Saturday Night Series) is David Bromberg, How Late’ll Ya Play ‘Til? It’s about time we got some good ol’ blues on here! There is a few different versions of this album. This is, of course, the ‘live’ version. David Bromberg is a multi-instrumentalist. Not just playing, but creating instruments as well. He’s proficient as a fiddler, acoustic, steel, electric guitar and also dobro. He’s only released a handful of albums since 1980 as he’s concentrated more on his violin workshops. His first was in the Chicago area and has since moved it to Wilmington, Delaware. David has completed tracks with the following guest artists...
Justin Townes Earle ‘Harlem River Blues’
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#250 in the Series) is Justin Townes Earle, Harlem River Blues. (Bloodshot Records) I’ll be the first to admit. I ‘think’ I had heard of Justin Townes Earle. But I’m not sure. He’s an Americana musician and that pretty much is my favorite genre for years now. Somehow, Justin slid through the cracks. This week changed that. I was watching a few ‘DVRed’episodes of David Letterman last night. (I can’t believe he didn’t have ‘Mike Singletary’ on to discuss his firing.) On Tuesday this week, Justin was the musical guest. To say the least I could not have liked his performance more! He was outstanding. I then was able to see that his...
The Flying Burrito Brothers “The Gilded Palace of Sin”
Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#216 in the Series) is The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Gilded Palace of Sin. I was looking at the track listing. I was trying to figure out which songs to mention first. It’s nearly an impossibility to determine one over another. This album is that good. It should go down in the history of American music as one a ground breaking piece of music. It’s that good. I’ve loved the solo work that Gram Parson did after leaving the band. The work here that he created along with Chris Hillman, “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow and Chris Ethridge is unmatched in the world of Americana or country-rock. ‘Christine’s Tune (aka She’s a Devil in Disguise),...
Darden Smith ‘Trouble No More”
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...
Monsters of Folk “Monsters of Folk”
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...
