Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#852 in the Series) is Josh Ritter, The Beast In Its Tracks I have come to expect great things from Josh Ritter over the handful of years that I’ve been a fan of his. And were it not for my pawing through a friend’s estate sale and picking up Animal Years because he swore I’d like it, I’m not sure how or when I would have found Josh Ritter. But man, now three LPs and two EPs since that career-defining release, am I ever glad I did. When I heard about the scheduled release of The Beast In Its Tracks  I went all out. I pre-ordered the 180-gram vinyl (with free CD album...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “99 Revolutions” by Green Day Can an artist who has been charged with being a party animal for an arena full of people still be the life of the party after coming off a stint in rehab? That question was answered this evening when Green Day took the stage for their rescheduled 99 Revolutions Tour supporting three recent album releases Uno!, Dos!  and Tre!. And with the help of his two band mates Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool, plus longtime touring guitarist and new fourth member James White augmented by touring members Jason Freese on keyboards and saxophone and Jeff Matika on guitars, Billy Joe Armstrong managed to whip up...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#850 in the Series) is Eric Clapton, Old Sock, but first we look at his 50th Anniversary Tour concert stop in Oklahoma City. It is hard for me to put into words the excitement I had going to see Eric Clapton in concert. This is the man who inspired me to pick up a guitar and learn to play.  At the same time, his playing can make me want to quit the guitar as there is no way I can imagine being able to sound that good. Whenever I feel like I can’t find any enjoyable music, I turn to Eric. The week before the show I made sure to have a...

  Today’s Cool album of the day (#849 in the Series) is The Black Lillies, Runaway Freeway Blues. This marks the band’s third album and I’ll say right here that you should go ahead and not just buy this new one, but first two , Whiskey Angel and 100 Miles of Wreckage  as well. You will not be disappointed. It might make sense to tell you a little about the band itself and then get to the details of this new album. The Black Lillies are an independent “Americana” band. They consist of Cruz Contreras – lead vocals, guitar, piano, mandolin; Trisha Gene Brady – vocals, guitar, ukulele, hand percussion; Tom Pryor – electric guitar, pedal steel, dobro, banjo;...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “When My Man Comes Home” by Brittany Howard and Ruby Amanfu Yesterday I wrote about a single from Jack White’s Third Man Record label by Gibby Haynes of The Butthole Surfers. The record was a recent release in Third Man’s “Blue Series” of 45rpm releases. Over the past few years, Third Man has released interesting one-off singles by the likes of Beck, Tom Jones, Stephen Colbert, Jeff The Brotherhood, Wanda Jackson, Chris Thile & Michael Davis, Laura Marling and Insane Clown Posse in the “Blue Series.” Typically the records are produced by Jack White and are recorded very quickly during stop offs at the Third Man headquarters by artists passing...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Paul’s Not Home” by Gibby Haynes (with Jack White) Today’s Song Of The Day hails from a Third Man Records’ “Blue” Series single released by Jack White, who also plays guitar and sings on all three tracks. Gibby Haynes is the ex-captain of the Trinity University basketball team, ex-accountant and founding member (along with Paul Leary) of Texas’ own Butthole Surfers. The Surfers remain purveyors of hard core left-wing psychedelic music since their formation in 1976. With albums like Locust Abortion Technician, Hairway To Steven and Psychic…Powerless…And Another Man’s Sac, the surfers have spent the better part of thirty years bending the rules in rock and roll while staying far...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Love On A Two Way Street” by Boz Scaggs Boz Scaggs has led a dual career over the years. On one hand, he’s been a master bluesman who cut his teeth recording with the likes of Steve Miller and Duane Allman, and then there’s the silky-smooth soul man who became a platinum- plated superstar during the late ‘70s. Fortunately for his fans, both sides of Scaggs are present on his essential new album, Memphis. The record was recorded in three days at Royal Studios in Memphis, the hallowed ground where Willie Mitchell once worked with Al Green on his biggest hits. Matched with sympathetic backing from drummer Steve Jordan (who...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Improvisation #2” by Pat Metheny Orchestrion Project If the essence of Jazz is to listen to and improvise off of the musical ideas of those you are playing with, and you are in essence a one man band, can you still consider the music you make jazz? The orchestrion is a mechanically controlled mini orchestra that was designed by Pat Metheny and controlled by his touch on the guitar. Metheny based his orchestrion on his childhood fascination for his grandfather’s player piano. But where the player piano plays itself, Metheny, in essence plays an entire orchestra controlled through his guitar in the album and film, The Orchestrion Project. Metheny has...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#846 in the Series) is Devon Allman, Turquoise The first thing that hits you between the ears with a critical listen to “When I Left Home,” the opening track of Devon Allman’s fine new album Turquoise, a song that takes you through an autobiographical narrative that touches only sparingly on his rock royalty pedigree as the son of Gregg Allman and the Nephew of the late Duane Allman, is that Devon‘s musical path was not a gold and glitter strewn road that was pre-paved for success, but rather an ongoing journey that may have blessed him with some heavy-duty pixie dusting of artistic genes, but certainly did not come with a GPS...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Holy Drinker” by Steven Wilson If you thought that the progressive rock dinosaurs that dominated the musical landscape of the 1970s were all but extinct today, think again. Sure, bands like Yes and Jethro Tull are still churning out the classics on stages around the world, but in recent years the prog-rock scene has seen a full on rejuvenation starting in the ‘80s with Metallica, whose brand of progressive metal made them superstars and in the ‘90s The Mars Volta rose out of the ashes of the punk band At The Drive In to begin dressing their music in proggy clothing. In recent years there’s been a plethora of...