Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#658 in the Series) Mink Deville,  Cabretta Willy DeVille is a rock star. Just look at him.  If you saw Bryan Adams or Elvis Costello walking down the street they could be mistaken for a mechanic, college professor, or accountant, certainly not for rock stars. But Willy Deville, looking like a slightly less road worn version of Keith Richards with a few less battle scars, could only be mistaken for the front man for the seminal post-punk band Mink DeVille and a rock star of highest order of which he is both. Willy Deville was a product of the 60’s, from the West Village New York City. Very much influenced by the...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#657 in the Series) is Randy Newman, Sail Away Randy Newman may just well be the best American songwriter ever, and if he’s not he’s definitely in the team picture and waiting to be next in line to have his face sculpted on the side of the Mt. Rushmore of scribes alongside Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Townes Van Zandt. Newman, with his short story idiosyncratic style, creates a sort of Tom Waits via Dr. John and Charles Bukowski parallel universe of misfits, hoolligans, and charlatans with a nod to Mark Twain. Always with tongue firmly planted in cheek, He became best known for his satirical homage to little people with the...

Today’s Cool Album of The Day (#655 of the Series) is Stanley Clarke, School Days We have a large number of musicians in our group. I KNOW they know this one!! Stanley Clarke was on a roll in 1976 when this was released. Playing bass for Chick Corea’s Return to Forever will do that for you. He had just released three albums. Children of Forever, Stanley Clarke and Journey to Love had both faired quite well. But School Days was a monster for him. The title track has been hailed as one of the most influential songs by a lead bassist in jazz fusion. “The Dancer” also got some play.  It’s really too bad that rock radio doesn’t play albums...

Today’s Cool Album of the day (#650 in The Series) is the debut self-titled solo release from Steve Winwood. When discussing Steve Winwood’s solo albums the first one that’s usually mentioned Is Back in the High Life. That indeed was a huge album for “Stevie” and deserves all the praise it received. The 1986 release peaked at #7 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and won Grammys for Record of the Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance along with an engineering award.  “Higher Love” was a #1 single. Arc of a Diver also gets kudos tossed its way. And yes, it’s another good one. As far as hits there was the title cut along with “When You See...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#645 in the Series) is Yes,Close To The Edge A  friend once told me a story about this record that I would have a hard time verifying as he has been to hell and back, but the story was that he took a class at UIC (University of Illinois at Chicago) at which the syllabus for the semester covered only the meaning and interpretation  of the epic and classic title track of one of the best, if not the best ever record by this band of immensely talented musicians that were either ahead of their time, before their time, or most likely in a time that few would ever understand. This is likely...

Today’s Cool album of the Day (#644 in the Series) is The Doobie Brothers, What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits. I really enjoy the decade or so tradition of bands playing one of their albums in its entirety. I know it would probably never happen, but if the Doobie Brothers were to do add join that tradition, then they should play “What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits.” This was easily my favorite album of theirs. I always loved the overall sound of it. The breezy feel that it had, the use of harmonies and wooden instruments and yes, a trombone tossed in here and there. The Doobies were a long time favorite of mine, but mainly for...

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#643 in the Series) is Dan Fogelberg, Home Free Somehow it’s easier to believe its 40 years since the release of Dan Fogelberg’s inaugural album Home Free than to accept it’s also going on five years since the untimely passing of the Illinois’ native. Look “Dan Fogelberg” up in Wikipedia and you’ll read that Home Free met with a “lukewarm” response—but that’s not the way it was that fall in Champaign at a time when a college freshman could walk wide-eyed into the music store heaven known as Record Service and encounter a giant display in support of this album.  Suffice it to say it appeared they were buying and selling...

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#642 in the Series) is the eponymous release by The Pat Metheny Group. (ECM) Often when I post these pieces to either here at the website or on our sister Facebook Page I often get a reaction saying something like, “this album is good but I like ‘blank’ better” or possibly “you should’ve done their other album called ‘blank’ as apposed to this one.” As I’ve said before our goal was never to just feature an artist’s best album, that would narrow the field down considerably plus whom am I to say if what I think is the best album parallels with what you think is the best album. Don’t worry...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#639 in the Series) is Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, Where’s The Money? What do I look for in a band? Some of the elements that I like to see to make me really like an artist are 1) Great Musicianship. 2) Great Writing 3) Uniqueness, and a little 4) Sense of Humor for good measure. When you throw all those in the pot you usually get something that’s fairly entertaining to listen to. One of my all-time favorite bands that easily qualifies on all four fronts is NRBQ and another one would be these guys Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks. In fact I’m giving this great album another listen...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#637 in the Series) is the Montrose debut release, Montrose. When was the last time you pulled this one out of the rack? Talk about an album that sounds as good in ’12 as it did in ’73. I’m truly amazed how timeless this one sounds.   I’m betting that twenty years from now I’d be saying the same thing. I listened to this one about a year ago for the first time in a decade, at least. I couldn’t get over how much fun I had in reminiscing.  The groove in “Space Station #5” really stood out. I think I played the darn song twice. Of course you still have the classics...