Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#971 in the Series) is Hal Ketchum, Past the Point of Rescue. I don’t know what it is. I’ve always been a sucker for those songs when an artist takes a known track, their’s or possibly another artists, and recreates it using a slower tempo.   I’m thinking of tracks like Joe Jackson’s live version (played as part of the Big World tour) of “Steppin’ Out” or Loey Nelson’s take on “To Sir with Love” if you were lucky enough to hear that. Here, Hal Ketchum does a spectacular rendition of The Vogues, “Five O’Clock World.”  Please check it out below. That was the track that first exposed me to Hal Ketchum.  As I...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#970 in the Series) is Jellyfish, Bellybutton. My guess is that a good number of you don’t know this album or even this band. In one word, “you should!” They were one of the best power-pop bands of the early nineties, Jellyfish.  One of those bands that you ask yourself, Why wasn’t this all over radio, why were they not more popular? They definitely had some radio friendly songs, a good look a unique look and a major label.   So it’s hard to say what happened.  They should have had much more success. You can hear a little Squeeze in their sound, a little XTC and a little Beatles. The songs that did...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#969 in the Series) is The Pixies, Surfer Rosa  Playing my Surfer Rosa album last night reminded me that the album is not just The Pixies first album, but my favorite album as well. It also reminded me why I keep my record collection in my room away from my kids- the album’s cover features a topless woman who I remember swooning over when it first came out. In case anyone is wondering I bought the album at Sound Stage Direct, which is where I usually get my vinyl when ordering online. Check it out. You’ll find other cool stuff there as well. People always talk about Surfer Rosa’s subject matter but...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#968 in the Series) is Ten Years After,  A Space In Time When you are three pints in, and the conversation as it inevitably does, turns to the greatest guitar players of all time, and the usual suspects Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and the rest are shouted out from around the bar, the name Alvin Lee is largely and criminally ignored.  As one of the early pioneers of Blues Rock, Lee and his band Ten Years After were mostly known for their spacey psychedelic blues jams that were groovy enough to grab the ears of concert promoter Bill Graham, who brought the band to San Francisco for a series of...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#967 in the Series) is Traffic, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. Back in 1986, my friend Bruce Embree and I went to see Steve Winwood in concert. He was touring in support of his Back In The High Life album.  We had second row-center seats.  That was a treat considering I nabbed them via phone order!!   On the way to the show we had discussed ‘what were our chances to hear any Traffic tunes?’ This was one of the first solo Winwood tours that I had remembered. We certainly had not seen him before.  So we weren’t sure what to expect. Some artists will play quite a number of songs from...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#966 in the Series) is My Morning Jacket, Circuital A Review of Circuital ….With a Slight History and Very Public Secret Crush Thrown in. When I first heard of My Morning Jacket, their genre was described as “Southern Rock”, which instantly made me turn my head and say bleh. Then, shortly thereafter,  WXRT in Chicago played a song from their 2001 Release, At Dawn. (Bermuda Highway). I remember being in the car, pausing, thinking, then saying to myself. “Who the hell was that?” You see, that was long before I could look anything up in the car, , and I certainly didn’t have the internet at my fingertips, otherwise known as the Pre-...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#965 in the Series) is Tim Finn, Escapade By the time 1982 ended, the Split Enz where a hot band.  Their album Time and Tide had done quite well for them, thank you.   Neil Finn was looking forward to getting a follow up on the street. His brother Tim had other ideas. Tim wanted to get a solo release into the market.  Both things ended up happening. In later 1983, the Split Enz would release Conflicting Emotions, while Tim released, Escapade.  Both fine albums.  As it turned out, Tim did spend much of his time completing this album. This left Neil to pretty much completely compose Conflicting Emotions. I’ve always loved this Escapade. I...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#964 in the Series) is The Kenn Morr Band “Along the Way.” The Cool Album of the Day site went dormant for way too long.  At times life interferes with life. One thing I’ve missed is finding cool little surprises in my mailbox. Yet once in a while I would still find a nice bubble wrapped package separating bills, coupon packets and info from the latest candidate that promises to make my life better. However, every so often I’d still get one of those care packages. Every so often the content in said package is also a darn good listen. Can you believe that not every gift isn’t always good. Tru dat....

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#963 in the Series) is the 10,000 Maniacs, The Wishing Chair. I actually remember when I first purchased this album. I was looking for something different. Local radio played a few tunes off this and I loved the sound.  I distinctly remember making the trip to trusty ole’ Hegewisch Records to see if they had it. It was good news/bad news when I got to the store. It was a little more popular than I expected. The vinyl was sold out so I had to buy it on cassette. Okay, I didn’t have to but I did. Say what you want about those old cassettes, but there was actually something good about...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#962 in the Series) is Dave Edmunds, D.E. 7th Welsh rocker, Dave Edmunds released the fabulously rich album, “D.E. 7th,,” in the spring of 1982 after the turmoil of seeing the band he had been with for most of the past decade dissolve and changing record labels. It was his first project for the Columbia label after spending five creatively productive years with Led Zeppelin’s “Swan Song” label and the first in nearly a decade without his old Rockpile cohorts, with whom he recorded and produced as a solo artist, band and on Nick Lowe’s solo projects. Being the talent magnet that he is, he never missed a step by reuniting with...