This disc got a lot of play around my house when it was released four years ago. I played it to death while I was slinging mud and pitching paint at the walls of my recording studio. We had a copy of it in the car for a long while. We got to see her on [...]
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The Sister of Glory
The Ageless Cowgirl
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Artist:
Maria McKee. Shannon McNally. Tift Merritt. Mary Chapin-Carpenter. Lucinda Williams. Who of this group of singers (or any similar list) can deny the influence of Emmylou Harris? One of the most beautiful, enduring voices of country rock never makes a bad record (and always seems to grow more beautiful with age). Yesterday's Kid's Commute featured her [...]
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Voices Electric
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Artist:Voices Electric
I have no idea how this record landed in my collection. My copy is a promo, so my first thought was I found it at the bottom of a radio station discard box. But, it was released in 1995, after my radio career was done, so it's a puzzle. It might've been in a goody [...]
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Answer The Door. You’ve Got A CarterGrammer.
Up top, I want to say ‘hello’ and thanks to Barely Awake In Frog Pajamas, who has been kind enough to add a link on their site back to F45. All hail!This morning on the Kid’s Kommute we listened to Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer’s album from 2001, Drum Hat Buddha.I was introduced to their [...]
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I’m Your Lucky Dog
We listened to the Replacements‘ All Shook Down album yesterday morning on the commute to school. The kids didn’t really take note until we got to cut five, Sadly Beautiful. The boys recognized the song from the Glen Campbell record I’ve been playing to death for the past several months. It was cool they recognized [...]
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Is That A(lfred) C. Newman?
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Artist:
A.C. Newman, the solo moniker for Carl Newman, was a member of Superconductor and Zumpano in the 1990's and, in 2000, became the leader of the New Pornographers. His second album, Get Guilty, was released about 2 weeks ago and is getting all kinds of hype on eMusic. His wiki says he's compared with Ray Davies and [...]
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Inspired By A Rodent On A Bag
I was sitting here thinking there's nothing, really, I want to write about today. I've listened to T. Rex, the Zombies and Jimmy Webb albums today, but nothing really got me to excited. Then my 6-year old dropped this on my desk. Of course! It's Ground Hog's Day. We need to eat Humble Pie and trim the [...]
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Looking For Lions In New Timbuktu
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Artist:
I remember the first time I heard Bruce Cockburn. The AM radio station where I got my first part-time gig played Wondering Where The Lions Are (along with every Urban Cowboy wanna-be on the planet). I've not loved everything I've ever heard from Bruce Cockburn but everything he's done I respect. And much of it I [...]
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Pick Up The Phone, Joan
BR-549 made the trip to school with us this morning and the kids kept requesting a repeat of Cherokee Boogie. Something about the words Hey Ho Alena that appeal to a 6-year old.I discovered BR-549 at SXSW ‘95. I had been to some meeting, then walked over to 6th and Brazos to meet my girlfriend-soon-to-be-wife [...]
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I’m So Into Imaginary Lovers
We know from our dabbling with Denny Yost and the Classics IV last week that a couple of their members, Buddy Buie and J.R. Cobb, went on to form Atlanta Rhythm Section.What I didn’t know is that ARS was the outgrowth of another business entirely. According to the excellent history written on the ARS website, [...]
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A Strange Undertaking
A couple of years ago, I was at a consumer electronics trade show in Denver, walking around the show floor one early Saturday morning. Standing at one of the booths was a gregarious, outgoing guy with a British accent who looked a little like this:Actually, he looked a lot like this considering that this is [...]
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Yeah, I Like REO Speedwagon. You Gotta Problem Wid’ Dat?
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Artist:
Yesterday, I mentioned REO Speedwagon in a post I wrote about those rock one-hitters I discovered while working my first AOR radio gig. This morning, Jeff over at The Midnight Tracker gave me an inside tip on a little "midwest madness" he'll be serving up on his site in the days to come. (Sorry, can't spill [...]
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Ain’t Necessarily So
I recently put Pat Travers and Trooper in the same category. Then I thought about it and realized that ain’t necessarily so.Pat Travers was steeped in the blues. Many people categorize him with guys like Gary Moore, for example. Trooper, on the other hand, were very much a party band. Some would put them in [...]
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Pixie And The Bear
We heard an interesting juxtaposition of styles this morning on the kid commute to school and back. From the top of the library stack I grabbed Robbie Fulks' 13 Hillbilly Giants and Countrypolitans' Face of My Hometown. Listening to them back-to-back was like watching a couple of kids on the playground teeter-totter. On one side, high [...]
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Quincy Jones: Our Future of Hope
On January 17th, an article by this title appeared in the Op/Ed section of The Chicago Tribune.It was subtitled “Having faith that Obama will put America back on track”.Like many Americans and citizens of the world, on the morning of Nov. 5, 2008, I awoke with a renewed sense of purpose. The night before I [...]
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A Traffic Jam With Mary
At times they sounded like a polyester cabaret act. At times they sounded like a taste of blue-eyed southern soul. But, at all times, they had a pointed sense of melody and texture and that’s what made the Classics IV so popular for so many years.They started as a cover band in South Florida in [...]
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A Traffic Jam With Mary
At times they sounded like a polyester cabaret act. At times they sounded like a taste of blue-eyed southern soul. But, at all times, they had a pointed sense of melody and texture and that’s what made the Classics IV so popular for so many years.They started as a cover band in South Florida in [...]
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Two Bares In The Country
My next door neighbor is a doctor, an anesthesiologist. He's as kind and caring as anyone I've ever met. He's also meticulous and controlling, witnessed with his obsession with how many vegetables spring each year from my largely unattended garden. "If you tie up those cukes, you'll get a better yield," he tells me as he [...]
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The Archangel Sings
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Artist:the archangel
There are a lot of reasons why people like Antony And The Johnsons. Some latch onto him because of the whole transgender thing (which, in some pockets of the world, seems to be somewhat trendy). There's the whole downtown-post-Andy-Warhol thing, sadly reaching the point of its final diminuendo with the exodus of The Knitting Factory to [...]
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