Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#798 in the Series) is Johnnie Johnson, Johnnie B. Bad On New Year’s Eve 1953, history was made when Check Berry walked on stage for the first time with the Sir John Trio creating an embryonic musical moment pairing up Johnnie Johnson, the Grand Poobah of the Piano, with arguably the greatest guitar player of all time, creating a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup worthy blending of scorching three chord guitar rock with boogie woogie piano blues. Using the same “If Lee Harvey Oswald was never born would John F. Kennedy still be alive?” progression of thought, it would be relatively safe, albeit futile, to assume that had Chuck Berry not walked on...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#710 in the Series) is The Finn Brothers, Finn The Finn brothers are Neil and Tim Finn who were an integral part of Split Enz and they also collaborated on one Crowded House record, Woodface. But their first release as a duo came out in 1995 and was made up of a bunch of cool songs they put together over the years but never released. This 11 song record was done almost entirely (writing and music) by the siblings and contained some well written and creative tracks that were either too good or not good enough for the two aforementioned groups. Actually some were perhaps too personal, as many song’s lyrics told...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#661 in the Series) is the only album from Little Village. One album, One tour from a “Cool Musicians Super Group.” Who was Little Village? I think many in this group know, but I’ll fill in the names. This 1992 group included Nick Lowe, Jim Keltner, John Hiatt and Ry Cooder.  How’s that for fire power! They only lasted one album and one tour.  They played the Arie Crown Theater here in Chicago.  If  you look around the internet you can find an audio of the show.  It was a hell of a show since they played almost the full album and each member did a tune or two from their solo...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#635 in the Series) is The Spanic Boys. Today we are looking at an early 1990s band called The Spanic Boys. They are yet another band from the great state of Wisconsin. I raise that topic because besides looking at The Spanic Boys, I also want to take a look at how underrated the state of Wisconsin is in regards to being a producer of some great music. The all-time patron saint of music in Wisconsin is probably not other than the late Les Paul. That name is about as historic in the world of music as you can get. But even in the last 30 or so years state has produced...

  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 (#619 in the Series) is The Subdudes, Primitive Streak I have to admit when I first purchased the CD of this album it stayed in my car’s player for a good long time, and back in 1996 I don’t think they had multi-disc players.  However, I am quite sure it was not because I was sick of it that it became a forgotten part of my collection until just recently. When I did revisit, I was blue that I had missed it for so long. Luckily my spirits quickly lifted as I made my way through this thoughtful piece of music. It’s best described as New Orleans style roots music, with lots...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#593 of the Series) is Freedy Johnston, Never Home Have you ever taken a chance and bought a record even though you never heard anything by the artist before you made the investment? I found this CD in the “Country” section of the department store (Venture- Midwest chain now long gone). Maybe subconsciously I did hear his music featured in one of my favorite movies “Kingpin”; “Bad Reputation” was featured in the film. Or maybe I was on a lucky streak and looking to discover more new music. Whatever it was, I hit a home run with this gem. These are some of the catchiest pop tunes you never heard. The hook on...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#586 in the Series) is Todd Rundgren (TR-i), The Individualist. Todd Rundgren’s ever-changing diversity is often hard to keep up with and difficult to follow and, with the birth of TR-i (Todd Rundgren interactive) in 1993, he reinvented himself yet again, this time as an artist wanting to share sound and vision with fans in an intimate fashion. His first venture into his TR-i persona, “No World Order”, was mostly centered around producing a CD-i in which the listener could interact with the music in a non-linear fashion. It represented a chance for Todd to reinvent himself while providing an opportunity for the listener to talk back to the music. Todd basically used this moniker as a...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#558 in the Series) is Radiohead, Ok Computer (Parlophone (UK), Capitol (US)) At many points of this record a listener might get the idea the band was trying not to put out a breakthrough record that would make them popular, but the final product in total is one of the records I will bring with me to the moon. There is a lot more guitar and quite a bit more rock on 1997’s, OK Computer, but the production in the end is satisfying for many reasons. Though the lyrics are nearly impossible to decipher, the vocals of Thom Yorke, whether singing or talking are musical. From the notes of the very first...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#556 in the Series)is Sonny Landreth, Outward Bound In 1987, John Hiatt released his great Bring the Family album. This was the work that took him from being a guy just known for being a good songwriter, to a known musician and record maker in his own right. Part of the reason that radio found that album to their liking was that it featured some great backing musicians with well-known identities. That project included the likes of Nick Lowe, Jim Keltner and Ry Cooder  (who later would all record together again as Little Village). That album was a critical success and did not do badly sales-wise either. What would John do on...