Today’s Cool Album of the Day is the soundtrack to the film, The Harder they Come. The Harder They Come could almost be considered a Jimmy Cliff album. In fact, Cliff, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, has his name featured prominently on the cover.  Officially however, this album is considered a soundtrack to the film with the same name. Other artists that appear on the album include Desmond Dekker (He of ‘Israelites’ fame), The Maytals, The Slickers and Scotty. The film and soundtrack have long been considered classics. Forty years later, the film is still the number one movie produced in Jamaica by Jamaicans. The Harder They Come went a long way in pulling Reggae music into...

  Today’s Cool album of the Day (#901 in the Series) is Rosanne Cash,The River & The Thread.   Many people will to want to know – is this a country album, a folk album, an Americana / Alt-country album? Well – yes to all three but primarily I think it’s a Southern album. Each of the songs are finely crafted short stories in the great Southern tradition. They each work all by themselves telling a story that’s either from the Cash family history or a work of fiction. They also work together to paint a portrait of the South that is equal to the best Southern fiction writing. There are songs of family, a feeling of community or the...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#900 in the Series) is The Sundays, Reading Writing and Arithmetic I have never been that big a fan of the MP3 revolution. For one, it put the buying power of music more into “tweens” and teens who for the most part do not have very good taste in music. As a result, the themes in popular music became much less sophisticated. Artists were no longer developed, they were produced because it was no longer albums that mattered but singles. Not to mention, soon shows such as American Idol came along offering to make anyone a “star” as opposed to these people working their way up in the traditional way where you hone and perfect...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#899 in the Series) is The Jam, This is the Modern World The punk rock explosion of 1975-1980 made for some strange bed fellows. The Stranglers and Eddie and the Hot Rods were holdovers from the pub rock era. Many claim that the Sex Pistols and Clash were puppets controlled by ego maniacal managers. The Buzzcocks and Undertones were pop tune perfectionists. For the want of an easy title, the media called them all punk. The Jam were thrown under this umbrella. The Jam were formed in 1975 in Woking, Surrey, England by 17 year old singer, writer, guitarist Paul Weller, bassist Bruce Foxton, and drummer Ric Buckler. The trio came together with...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#898 in the Series) is Tuff Darts, Tuff Darts!  In the spring of 1979, I was a freshman in high school in a little Appalachian town in Western Maryland and a few of my older friends in the Media Department at the local community college were putting on a Saturday Night Live type show titled “Media Madness.” Just like SNL, they did live sketches interspersed with prerecorded pieces that you could see on TV monitors around the auditorium.  It was a very funny and well done show and one of the videos was by a guy I did not know and never really met but I remember his name was Dave Thomas because...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#897 in the Series) is Tom Russell, Heart on a Sleeve  Going back to Lukenbach with Waylon, Willie, and the boys, Texas has been ground zero for singer songwriters. With a couple of them you only need to mention their first names to experience the magic. With others, two first names may be necessary. Just ask Jerry Jeff, Billy Joe, or Jimmie Dale, and with Bob Wills you only need to hear a few notes to understand that he is still The King, but the true beauty of the Texas music scene is the regional diversity and eclectic musical differences you can experience depending on what part of the Lone Star State you...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#896 in the Series) is Nick Lowe,  Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All The Family. I love Christmas albums. I have a pretty good collection of them and I usually find something old every year that I add to it. It is rare that I find something new as I am very picky and traditional about my Christmas music. Let’s face it. We have the traditional carols and then about a dozen or so once original pop Holiday songs penned from the 1930’s through the 60’s that get redone over and over again. It is rare that an artist is brave enough to mess with that and if there is anything...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#475 in the Series) is Bill Nelson, The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart) Who is Bill Nelson you ask?  Well, did you read our recent Be-Bop Deluxe feature written by one of our contributors Jim McCabe?  Bill Nelson was the leader/guitarist/front man for them. That piece triggered much discussion about Bill on the site and facebook.  Many people were not aware of the long and prosperous solo career that Bill has had.  So I’ve decided to come right back with one of his best solo efforts, The Love That Whirls (Diary of a Thinking Heart.) Be-Bop Deluxe pretty much called it a day back in 1978 with the release Drastic...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#229 in the Series and then re-posted in 2011) is a Charlie Brown Christmas, music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. We all remember the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. Because of that special, we were first introduced to one of the bestselling Christmas albums of all time. The Charlie Brown Christmas with music by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. It was recorded way back in 1965. It made it to CD in 1986. Many Decembers, if you don’t grab it in the first few weeks, you can’t find it. It seems like there is always shortage of these produced. Downloading has taken care of that issue. A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first animated television...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#895 in the Series) is Warren Zevon, Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School In what can be considered a what came first, the chicken or the egg, sort of symbiotic of relationship, we will never know if Earnest Hemingway could have written The Old Man and the Sea if he was clean and sober, and wasn’t wrestling with more demons than Anton LeVay. Fortunately, in the case of Warren Zevon, we have the exact answer. You can go home again, and second chances to make a great first impression are sometimes given, which is exactly what happened with the release of Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School in 1980. Following the somewhat...