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Category: Music

Albert Cummings’ – Strong – Starts March Strong!

Albert Cummings - Strong

Ok so since September of last year my wife and I have spent most of our days babysitting our 4th grandchild, Emma.  We’re at my daughter’s house from 7 am until roughly 5 pm. The result is I don;t have a lot of time to blog and/or listen to music. But I’ve been trying to listen when I am out and about on the weekends and at night. Lately, the two blues albums that have been in my music rotation are the latest releases from two of my favorites. First came Albert Cummings latest releases Strong.  Then came Mike Zito’s  Life is Hard .  read more

Political and Musical : Two Things Learned!

As I write and read about political and musical matters I am always learning something new. Here are two things I just learned about at 72!

What counting slaves as 3/5 of a person in the Constitution really meant!

The first political thing I learned came via the book Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Livitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.. I just finished the book.a few days ago. It’s really a terrific read. It’s a book anyone who’s concerned about the future of our country should read. I’ll write more about it later,

However, now I just want to discuss what counting slaves as 3/5 of a person really accomplished for the southern states. It’s the first time anyone really explained the effect of that action to me!

The counting of slaves as 3/5 of a person meant that for every 5 slaves a plantain owner had they counted as three people for representation in the House of Representatives. As a result even though New York had a larger white population than Virginia, when you added the slave population in Virginia to their total they received a larger number of representatives! Overall the net effect is that the southern states representation was 25% greater than the more populated Northern states.

So once again Southern states benefited from owning slaves, while the slaves suffered! And yes Southerners should feel guilt about that!

The musical part of musical and political things I learned at 72. “Alabama Song”The Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar) by the Doors Came From Where?

The musical thing I learned was the origin of The Doors song “Alabama Song”.

I wasn’t a big Doors fan back in the day. However, I have heard “Alabama Song” countless times on the radio.Additionally, the song is  on their Absolutely Live album . I didn’t know it was on their debut album The Doors, until I bought the album at Goodwill last year. It’s side.1 track 5, if you care.

Anyway last night, when I was writing The Folk Revival post,I discovered that Dave Van Ronk and the Chad Mitchell Trio had covered the song. And did so well before The Doors debut album!

Later I found out more about the “Alabama Song” at Wikipedia….

The “Alabama Song”—also known as “Moon of Alabama”, “Moon over Alabama”, and “Whisky Bar”—is an English version of a song written by Bertolt Brecht and translated from German by his close collaborator Elisabeth Hauptmann in 1925 and set to music by Kurt Weill for the 1927 play Little Mahagonny. It was reused for the 1930 opera Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny……More at Wikipedia

Who knew! Not me!  You can find out more about The Doors Version of “Alabama Song” at Wikipedia

“Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar)” landedo The Doors a Contract

I also learned that it was their cover of “The Alabama Song that landed them a contract here’s how that came about read more

Mystery – Redemption – a Best of 2023

Mystery Redemption a best of 2023

So yesterday I decided to continue listening to new (2023) prog rock albums. I again visited the Prog Archives to review their best of 2023 album list. Rather than just work my way down the list I decided to filter the list and search for bands that are included in the Neo-Prog sub-genre. When I first started listening to current Prog I discovered that most of the albums I liked were Neo-Prog bands. A  brief review of the list revealed that many of the bands I like released new albums on 2023.  I didn’t need to look far down the list to see the name of a band that I like. Redemption from the band Mystery checks in at number to on the list and number 23 on the list unfiltered! Two spots below Karnatanka’s Requiem for a Dream. Anyway, I listened to the album and I liked it. So let’s find out more about Mystery…..

From Prog Archives….

A project of French Canadian guitarist/lyricist/producer Michel St-Père, MYSTERY took form in 1986 as a six-member outfit. They released a self-titled album in 1992 that generated quite some interest across Canada…..

…..Over the years, MYSTERY’s style has evolved from AOR (STYX, ASIA) to more adventurous art rock like that of RUSH and SAGA, but featuring delicate acoustic passages not normally heard from these two. Their music is based on St-Père’s guitar play, which is well executed yet appropriately restrained, while the keyboards remain in the background. MYSTERY won’t dazzle you with technical prowess but you will appreciate their strong melodies, outstanding vocals (Gary Savoie is often compared to JOURNEY’s Steve Perry), elegant arrangements and attention to detail. Their compilation CD “At the Dawn of a New Millenium” is made up of remastered tracks of their three albums and is a fairly good sampler of their répertoire for those wanting to get acquainted with the band. Read More read more

Coco Montoya at his Best on Writing on the Wall

Coco Montoya Writing on the Wall

It always amazes me that at one point in John Mayall’s storied career, both Walter Trout and Coco Montoya were Bluesbreakers ! (Watch Them  Here) Throughout the years, I listened to more music from Walter than Coco. However, Coco is closing the gap based on his last three  albums. And while I admit to not having heard all of Coco’s albums, his recent release  Writing on the Wall may be my favorite.

About Writing on the Wall

Throughout Writing on the Wall Montoya’s vocals are as strong as his impeccable guitar playing. Additionally, the album is the first to feature Coco’s touring band.

Writing on the Wall is the second  Coco Montoya album Grammy Award-winner Tony Braunagel (Bonnie Raitt, Taj Mahal) has.produced. In addition, Tony provides drums on four tracks. The band’s keyboardist  Jeff Paris (Keb’ Mo’, Bill Withers).co-produced and recorded at Jeff’s Garage. Other members of the band include bassist Nathan Brown and drummer Rena Beavers.

Musicians joining Coco and the band on the album include: guitarists Ronnie Baker Brooks, country star Lee Roy Parnell, and Dave Steen.

Of the 13 tunes that comprise the album five were  composed or co-written by Montoya. Steen wrote four and Paris one. All three together they co-wrote the title track .

The Bottom Line

The following quote found at the top of Coco’s biography on his website pretty much sums up Coco’s music:

“Blistering contemporary blues…piercing attack, funky, shivery guitar tones and aggressive, soulful vocals” -Blues Revue

While the following advice from Albert Collins seems to be taken to heart on Writing on the Wall...

’Just play what you feel, be real about it, and enjoy yourself.’ That’s what Albert Collins taught me,” 

It seems that bringing in his touring band to create this album has been a real success and produced one of Coco’s best if not the best albums. From the start of his solo career Montoya has incorporated the  lessons he learned from his mentors, both the iconic Collins (for whom he originally drummed), and UK legend John Mayall,

His first solo album in 1995 won him the Blues Music Award for Best New Artist. And from that point forward Montoya has been one of the top blues artists in the world. But he hasn’t rested on his laurals, but continues to find new ways to improve his music! And sharing the songwriting with his band along with the top-notch producing of Tony Braunage in the creation of Writing On The Wall  have  done just that!

The bottom line is Writing on the Wall is an A+, so Check It Out!  AllMusic writes the following about Coco and I totally agree!

“One of the most prodigious and gifted electric bluesmen on the planet…a deeply soulful singer and incendiary guitarist [with] a seemingly endless penchant for invention.” – read more

Cyrus Chestnut – Soul Food – 6/11/23 – Random Album

So occassionally I use a random number generator to pick an album to listen to that evening. I did just that tonight I counted the albums on the top shelf of my jazz albums, Then, I used a random number generator to select an album. The number generator result was 21, which led me to Soul Food from jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut. I am enjoying the album as I am writing this post. Here’s a little biographical back ground about Cyrus.

=&0=&anuary 17, 1963. His father McDonald was a retired post-office employee and church pianist. Mother Flossie was a city social services worker and church choir director, By the age of nine, he was studying classical music at the Peabody Institute. In 1985, Chestnut earned a degree in jazz composition and arranging from Boston’s Berklee College of Music

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chestnut worked with Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, and other bandleaders. Also in the in the early 1990s  Cyrus joined the band of jazz vocalist Betty Carter and appeared on her 1992 album It’s Not About the Melody. That same year, he recorded his first albums as a bandleader, The Nutman Speaks. and The Nutman Speaks Again, and Nut. Since that time, he has released twenty-nine albums as a leader and has appeared as a sideman on countless others.

Soul Food was released in 2001 and is comprised of 11 original compositions. Cyrus has some terrific band mates on the album including: Christian McBride on bass, Lewis Nash on drums, Stephon Harris vibraphone, Marcus, Printup Trumpet, Wycliffe Gordon trombone, Gary Bartz, alto sax and James Carter on tenor sax.

What a great array of musicians and throughout the album Cyrus doesn’t hesitate to let them shine! So check out the music of Cyrus Chestnut!

Links for the Further Exploration of Music of Cyrus Chestnut

Musician Website

Facebook
 Instagram
YouTube
AllMusic
Amazon.com

 

Nick Schnebelen – What Key is Trouble In? Powers a Great Run

Nick Schnebelen - What Key Is Trouble In? Cover
Ok so I have been moving forward in many ways and also feeling my age (71) in others. I have been moving forward in my battle with my ADHD, as I try to do more thing that I’ve thought about doing. While doing others when I think about them, rather than putting them off ! And so far it’s working! One of those things I didn’t  put off was this morning’s run!

The Run

I’ve been running on a regular basis over the last few months. Today I was torn between a 3.1 and a 4 mile run. I chose the 3.1 mile option. In addition I told myself I needed to take it easy.

Even though I thought I was taking it easy, my time for the first mile was 11:30. Ok so I thought I’ll take it easy through the rest of the run.

However, my pace hovered around 11:30 and I was running fairly comfortably over mile two. subsequently, I ran that mile in 11:26. I thought can I finish with an average pace less than 11:25 which would be my fastest time for the year!

I ran the last mile in 11:21! And with an old man sprint of 9:52 pace over the last .12 miles of the run, I finished with an average pace of (drumroll please!) 11:22 min/mile! Yeah me!

The Nerdy Details

Total Dist: 3.12 miles Time  35:28. Pace: 11:22 min/mile

Splits

Mile 1 11:31 Mile 2: 11: 27 Mile 3 11:21 Mile 0.12 9:52

Avg HR 145 Max HR 161 Cals Burned: 370 Cals

All in All a great morning!

The Soundtrack – What Key is Trouble In?  -Nick Schnebelen

What Key is Trouble in? has been in my music rotation for a while now and it may be my favorite blues album for 2023.

Nick Schnebelen is a multiple Blues Music Award Winner. Nick joined the elite of the blues community in 2008 as a founding member of the Kansas City band Trampled Under Foot.
Nick and His siblings Danielle and Kris, overwhelmed the competition to win that year’s
International Blues Challenge. Nick won the Albert King Award for “Best
Guitarist”. While the band later won the “Contemporary Blues Album” Blues Music Award.

In 2014 Nick left the band. What Key is Trouble In? is his fourth solo album. The album is comprised of 13 original blues rock  tracks that showcase Nick’s great guitar work.

His band mates include Adam Hagerman (drums), Cliff Moore (bass), Red Young (keyboards), Buddy Leach (saxophone), Aaron Mayfield (organ).

The album was co-produced by Chris Hardwick.

Links for the Further Exploration of the Music of Nick Schnebelen

Artist’s Website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Amazon

Here is Nick and his band performing “Ten Years After, Fifty Years Later” the opening track of What Key is Trouble In? 

 

Grant Dermody – Behind the Sun. Great Blues Harp!

GRant Dermody - Behind the Sun

Over the last month or so there have been three blues albums in my music rotation. Each features a great blues harmonica players. The  albums are the latest release from: Bob Corritore, The Dig Three and Grant Dermody. I am going to start the discussion of these albums with Behind the Sun. The latest album from singer, songwriter and acclaimed harmonica player Grant Dermody.

Ok so I confess I am not a huge Grant Derrmody fan. I first listened to his music in 2020 when he released his fourth album My Dony. I remembered I liked the album so I was excited to hear his latest release  Behind the Sun. Well I was blown away and Behind the Sun has become one of my favorite albums of 2022.

 

About Grant Dermody

From Grant’s website…

Grant DermodyIn the hands of harmonica master Grant Dermody the harp rumbles like a freight train, sidles up like a soul singer, purrs like an electric cat, rings out in a rhythmic dance. Pair it up with his voice, a strikingly honest vocal approach that resonates in the direct center of your chest, and the intrigue just increases.

read more

Catching Up and an LP Haul from The Princeton Record Exchange

Lp haul from The Princeton Record Exchange

So once again I must confess to not wrting many new posts. One of my excuses is I am still trying to fully recover from the ankle sprain that occurred on my May 28th run! In order to facilitate that recovery, for the last several weeks I’ve been going to Physical Theraphy twice a week. Additionally, I’ve been working more at Target.Finally, last week in an attempt to get myself to write more I bought a new laptop.

Only I shopped price and bought an HP Chromebook. And while it works fine for using the Internet, which means it works well for most of my uses. It doesn’t play nicely with my iTunes music library. Now because not all of my music was recorded by iTunes and moved right into iTunes my albums and recording are located in various folders on various storage devices! So what I’ve beem doing is relocating them to devices where I know what I have and where they are located! I actually bought a 256 GB microSD card that I think will hold my whole library.

In the midst of all this my wife did make a trip to the NJ State Archives in Trenton on Wednesday of this week, That means that I get to head further north and visit The Princetion Record Exchange! Now because I’m still dont know how to rip CDs using the Chromebook, I only bought vinyl albums, which is actually what I wanted to buy anyway.

My LP Haul from The Princeton Record Exchange

Jazz

Master of the Art – Woody Shaw

I confess I didn’t know anything about Woody Shaw until I started to listen to more jazz in the middle 2010s. I only gave this album a quick listen but I likes what I heard…..from AllMusic

Master of the Art is the studio companion to the album Night Music, also reissued on Wounded Bird records from the original Elektra Musician masters, with the same band as on the live date, but with completely different songs and a short interview from the trumpeter. At a time when Shaw was one of the most consistently brilliant trumpeter’s of the modern era, this effort did nothing to hurt that estimable reputation.

Vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson and trombonist Steve Turre being on the front line made for an arresting sound, while the emerging pianist Mulgrew Miller was asserting himself as a major force, with drummer Stafford James and drummer Tony Reedus sounding like they had worked together for decades Read more at AllMusic read more

A Pain Free Run with Albert Cummings Ten

Albert Cummings Ten and a pain free run yeah !

Ok so now that this site is about all aspects of my life and not just about the books I read or have read. And one of the things you will be reading about is my running. Now you haven’t missed much over the last month and a half because I sprained my ankle on May 28th and I have been rehab since then! The physical therapy I’ve had at NovaCare over the last several weeks has really worked wonders. Over the last few days I have had virtually no pain. So I was hoping for a pain free run..

On my last two walks, I have incorporated half and quarter mile segments of slow running. The total distance of the walk/jogs have been two miles.

This morning,  I thought I would try and walk the first quarter mile and then run maybe a mile or a mile and a half. However, when the lady on my Runkeeper app said begin activity I instinctively started to jog! I made the first quarter mile with no pain! I also made it to the first mile with no pain. I knew at that point I couldn’t stop because I would be just a pile of sweat that wouldn’t be able to start up again.

So I kept going and altered the route I was running to maximize the shade and figuring if I could hold on I could finish the run in some shade! I was able to do just that and then walk home, which turned into walking another half mile. So the total workout was 2.5 miles with two miles of slow jogging! The best part was it was a pain free run and a pain free cool down!

Here are those Nerdy Details!

The Nerdy  Details

Total Dist: 2.5 Time  37:02 Pace: 14:44 min/mile

Splits

Mile 1 12:52 Mile 2: 13:02

Avg HR  read more

Dion and other Oldies Still Going Strong!

A few days before Dion was appearing at the Keswick Theater in Philadelphia, a woman commented on Facebook post about his appearance. She said that like Grace Slick said rock stars should retire. What Grace Slick told VH1 was that she retired from the music business because…..

….all rock stars over 50 should retire as they look stupid….

While that may apply to many aging stars who haven’t recorded an album in many years it doesn’t apply to Dion! And just writing this it doesn’t apply to two of her ex-band mates Jorma Kaukonan and Jack Cassidy (Hot Tuna)

Anyway, let’s get back to the eighty-two year young Dion. While I have not seen Dion live,  I have viewed many of his recent video. In them he introduces songs from his last two albums Blues with Friends and Stomping Ground and lwhat I’ve seen is an 82 year-old having the time of his life and producing some really good music!

 The Friends on Dion’s Albums

What Dion  has done on his last two albums is write some great songs and then surround himself with all-star talent to make them come alive!

On Blues with Friends, Dion’s friends included:

Joe Bonamassa, Jeff Beck, Joe Louis Walker, Sonny Landreth, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen!

While Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, Boz Scaggs and others joined him on Stomping Ground.

Now I know that all these people aren’t playing with Dion on tour but I bet he’s put together a band that can come pretty close!

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is Dion keep your music coming and I’ll keep a listening’

Now in addition to Dion there are several other rockers (mostly blues rockers) who are around 80 years old whom are still producing great music!

Oldies But Still Going Great

So while there maybe be others here’s some of my favorite blues artists Recent music…

First and foremost tracks from the great 2022 album from 88 year old John Mayall The Sun is Shing Down. This is one terrific album. Like Dion Mayallbhas surrounded himself with some great young talent! You can read a great review if the album at the following site:

Blues Rock Review: John Mayall: The Sun is Shining Down Review

ONext are a few tracks from Dion’s aforementioned Stomping Ground

Then some from Charlie Musselwhite’s June 2022 release Mississippi’s Son

Followed by John Primer and Bob Corritore’s 2020 release The Gypsy Woman Told Me.

The last track is from Elvin Bishop and Charlie Musselwhite’s 2020 release One Hundred Years of sBlues

The bottom line is, while in some cases Rockers over 50 should retire, there are many that should just keep on rocking and creating great blues! And right now Dion falls into that later group!

Links to Explore the Music of Dion

Artist’s Website
Facebook
YouTube
Amazon

Do let’s check out the music of these oldies but still goodies and thank them for their great music!

I’m