Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Where Are We Now” and “Try Some Buy Some” by David Bowie What a great way to start a new year! The first new David Bowie music in ten years, in the form of a single called “Where Are We Now?,” was released on Bowie’s 66th birthday this week, and a new album, The Next Day, is coming down the pike on March 12. The recording sessions were held in secrecy, so few knew that this one was on the books for 2013. Even in our linked-in totally-online-world, surprises are possible! Anybody that’s known me for a long time knows that I’ve been a huge fan of David Bowie since...

  Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “I Lost My Job Of Loving You” by Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale – Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale are both superb songwriters and troubadours. They are country music journeymen who spend their life on the road making music, supporting other musicians and supporting each other. Miller has recorded many records with his wife Julie (under the moniker Buddy & Julie Miller), and has worked with Robert Plant, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Solomon Burke and numerous others. Lauderdale has won Grammy Awards and has worked with and or written songs for George Strait, Dwight Yoakam, George Jones, The Dixie Chicks, Ralph Stanley (of The Stanley...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#820 in the Series) is Led Zeppelin, Celebration Day  OK, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and make a statement that will have Led Zep fans loathing my very existence. The Led Zeppelin of the 2007 reunion show and recent Celebration Day DVD/CD are so much better in every way than the Led Zeppelin of The Song Remains The Same circa 1973. Or, at least, the slightly touched up Led Zep of 2007 is better. While it’s tough to compare a band that’s fresh off of releasing an album like Houses Of The Holy with a bunch of semi-retired veterans who have remained somewhat active over the years with various...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#818 in the Series) is Deacon Blue, The Hipsters Deacon Blue, The criminally ignored, critically acclaimed, and artistically brilliant band from Glasgow, Scotland, with The Hipsters, their 25th album and their first in 11 years, has delivered a solid set of pop-centric tunes that are sneakily good, and could stand up to anything that has been released in the current millennium. With six million album sales, 12 top forty hits in the U.K., and two number one albums, the group was popular on the musically astute side of the pond, but if you would have asked any of the un-washed U.S. musical listening masses about Deacon Blue they probably would have said...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#816 in the Series) is Graham Parker and the Rumor, Three Chords Good From the minute Graham Parker and The Rumor came out of the gates with the phenomenal 1976, Nick Lowe produced album Howlin’ Wind, they have been a bit of a musical conundrum and have stayed so since Parker disbanded the group in 1980. He remained so throughout his long and confusing solo career, being that he, nor the band, ever had any real chart hits to speak of, could never be tied down to a specific genre and relied mostly on the reputation of boisterous live shows and critical acclaim. With the band, his closest thing to chart hits...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#805 in the Series) is Iris DeMent, Sing the Delta  Well, we’re into November now (already!) and to be honest I was starting to get my head around compiling my Albums Of The Year list. There are a few weeks to go but I thought we’d had all the good stuff and it was wind down time, compilations and reissues to the fore in the bid for our Christmas present cash. Then this little gem appeared like a bolt from the blue and took me over. It’s a delightful treat which has held me enthralled all week and has, naturally, caused me to rethink that list…….. I knew Iris DeMent had to be something...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#797 in the Series) is KISS, Monster KISS has recently released their 20th studio album, “Monster,” and every KISS fan in the world is gonna gobble it up, no matter what it sounds like or how it is reviewed. They always have and always will and they are part of the reason the band has been a perpetual marketing juggernaut, regardless of whether they were producing a good product musically, or not. There are basically three versions of KISS; The classic lineup (Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Paul Stanley) from our beloved “Dazed and Confused” era from 1974 to 1982 (KISS – Unmasked ). They were amazing trailblazers in many...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#794 in the Series) is Rosie Flores, Working Girl’s Guitar In a musical landscape where you can’t swing a stray cat without hitting a female rockabilly influenced Alternative Country artist, Rosie Flores is the real deal.  With Working Girl’s Guitar, her 11th album and second release on Bloodshot Records, Flores opens up the vault to display on one record most of her influences that include blues, rock, country, rockabilly, even Dick Dale Surf guitar, and for the first time does most of the finger-picking herself. In a brilliant piece of song sequencing the album begins with the title track with the story line unfolding from the perspective of her road worn telecaster...

  The Rolling Stones have released their first new single in over six years. The song is titled “Doom and Gloom” and will be included in their upcoming greatest hits package titled GRRR! The album will see the streets on Nov. 12th. It’s one of two new songs that will be found their. Reviews so far have been mixed. “Received music industry wisdom has it that new Rolling Stones material exists purely to flog compilation albums or tour tickets,” wrote Dan Silver in The Mirror tabloid. The Daily Telegraphs Neil McCormick awarded  “Doom and Gloom”, saying it was “business as usual” for the band and drawing comparisons between the song and the “basement rock” of their acclaimed 1972 album “Exile...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#786 in the Series) is Morse, Portnoy and George, Cover 2 Cover I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about a new release that as I was listening to each track for the first time, I kept thinking of more and more people I had to turn on this incredibly unique, won’t believe it until you hear new record from a trio of rock gods that are so talented, I am almost at a loss for words, so let me just say, Transcendent! Neal Morse is the talented singer/songwriter known in the progressive rock community for his work as founder and front man of both Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic,...