Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#889 in the Series) is Diana Krall, Live in Paris Diana Krall was another one of those artists that I knew more ‘of’ than actually knew.  I couldn’t tell you anything that she had done.  I’d see her listed as being on different shows etc.  I had a little interest. Some of it also generated from being familiar with her superstar husband, Elvis Costello.  I wonder if she’s ever worn his red shoes? So one day I’m surfing thru the television channels when I see her sitting at her piano singing this marvelous song. “OK’ I said, this sounds pretty good’ Maybe I’ll watch a song or two.” Well, about 80 minutes...

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “I Married Myself” by Sparks American brothers Ron and Russell Mael formed the group Halfnelson in 1970. Their first two albums were recorded in Woodstock, New York, produced by Todd Rundgren and released on the Bearsville record label. Both records tanked on these shores, so the brothers broke up the band, changed their name to Sparks, moved to England, got on the glam bandwagon and formed a new band that has gone on to endure for decades. In a musical world dominated by David Bowie, Mott The Hoople, Lou Reed, The New York Dolls and Queen, the newly reformed Sparks caused a sensation across the pond in 1974 with songs like...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#784 in the Series) is Brewed in Texas. Part collection of morality tales, part Saturday night party record, and part Austin hill country travelogue, Brewed in Texas  is quite possibly the best collection of drinking songs on one barstool since the Merle Haggard classic, Back to the Barrooms. Lovingly produced by Houston based Compadre Records, this album celebrates the joys of getting plastered, the necessity of drowning your sorrows, draining your tears in your beer, and most importantly, the Honky-Tonk. This album features contemporary Texas singer songwriters Kevin Fowler, Slaid Cleaves, Beaver Nelson and Hayes Carll, right beside hill country road dogs Jerry Jeff Walker, Tommy Alverson, and Rusty Weir, the bastard...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#479 in the Series) is Roddy Frame, Surf I think it would be fair to say that Aztec Camera were one of the very best bands to ever come out of Scotland. Their first two singles were released on the tiny (and now legendary/very influential) independent label Postcard, swiftly followed by a move to Rough Trade. Debut album High Land , Hard Rain (1983)was an utter classic and possibly even the best debut album by a Scots act. That particular gem has already been featured on this site, so its merits need not detain us here. Suffice to say its well worth anyone’s time and attention. The second effort (1984’s “Knife”, produced by...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#360 in the Series) is Jackson Browne, The Naked Ride Home This album is generally not considered to be the best Jackson Brown album. That honor belongs to the The Pretender, or Running on Empty, depending on your tastes, or for my mine, Saturate Before Using, which contains two of my favorite songs, “Doctor My Eyes”, and “Rock Me on the Water.” The Naked Ride Home, released in 2002, peaked at number 36 on the billboard charts, and was highly anticipated since Browne had not released a new album since 1996, the six years between records representing the longest recording gap in his career. Some critics have dismissed this collection, complaining that these...