OK music freaks - Whatcha listening to? Vol. 2

[mjjm367]

Just finished listening to Susan Tedeschi - Hope And Desire CD from 2005. Highly recommended. A mellow, soulful combination of blues, r&b, roots rock & gospel. Tedeschi later married Derek Trucks from the Allman Brothers band, and now performs with the Tedeschi-Trucks Band.

Excellent backing band, but the clear star here is Tedeschi's vocals, coming straight from the heart & soul. Just good stuff.

[West Coast Mets Fan]

I have never been a big Derek Trucks fan, especially when he plays with the Allman Brothers Band. He style feels to me more jazzy than bluesy. Doesn't seem to fit well in my opinion.

[mjjm367]

The internet is a wonderful thing. Was listening to a pair of jazz albums by the same artist. Noticed the same acoustic bass player on each, but on one album he was credited with "bass", and on the next "double bass". Always assumed they were the same thing (they are), but worth an internet search. And first search result is this cool article from Bass Musician magazine in 2012. Something that normally would have been seen by however many subscribers and then lost to eternity.

http://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2012...aureen-pandos/

By the way, note the forearms on the lady in the picture. Bass player arms. Learned the hard way once, from a bass player friend, not to get sucked into the game of "Who has a firm handshake" ?

My maternal grandfather was a city bus driver in White Plains NY (about 30 miles north of Manhattan). Drove for his entire working career. Buses back then didn't have power steering, just the big flat steering wheel that you palmed around. He had forearms like Popeye, just huge. I remember one day, to get a reaction out of his grandsons, he grabbed my grandmother's broom, the old kind with the thick round broomstick. Just held it up with his hands spread wide apart, and snapped it. My grandmother was mad as hell, but we all thought it was the coolest thing we had ever seen. My father and uncles tried to do it with another broom. Not a chance.

I once broke a chopstick. (It had it coming.)

[West Coast Mets Fan]

The internet is a wonderful thing. Was listening to a pair of jazz albums by the same artist. Noticed the same acoustic bass player on each, but on one album he was credited with "bass", and on the next "double bass". Always assumed they were the same thing (they are), but worth an internet search. And first search result is this cool article from Bass Musician magazine in 2012. Something that normally would have been seen by however many subscribers and then lost to eternity.

http://bassmusicianmagazine.com/2012...aureen-pandos/

By the way, note the forearms on the lady in the picture. Bass player arms. Learned the hard way once, from a bass player friend, not to get sucked into the game of "Who has a firm handshake"?

My maternal grandfather was a city bus driver in White Plains NY (about 30 miles north of Manhattan). Drove for his entire working career. Buses back then didn't have power steering, just the big flat steering wheel that you palmed around. He had forearms like Popeye, just huge. I remember one day, to get a reaction out of his grandsons, he grabbed my grandmother's broom, the old kind with the thick round broomstick. Just held it up with his hands spread wide apart, and snapped it. My grandmother was mad as hell, but we all thought it was the coolest thing we had ever seen. My father and uncles tried to do it with another broom. Not a chance.

I once broke a chopstick. (It had it coming.)

My dad worked for the NYC Dept of Sanitation. He was 5'8" but packed like a brick s%$t house. No one in the family would arm wrestle him. He was really pissed when the lowered the physical standards to allow women into the department. His test was something like running 100 feet carrying two garbage pails weighing 200 lbs each and they cut that in half to allow women in.

In contrast, my two forearms put together would be smaller than one of that woman bass player.

[mjjm367]

Ok, due to the massive outcry from all of you for it, I will post a review of the last set of albums I had in the car.

Ok, due to the muted murmur from both of you...

Ok, due to the absolute silence from all of you regarding my reviews, I'll assume you are all just shy.

Black Country Communion - self titled from 2010 - Initially picked it up as I am a fan of the guitar player Joe Bonamassa. But it is not at all just a vehicle for his guitar playing, he is just part of the group. A put together bad, with guitar, keys, bass/vocals & drums. Vocalist sang lead for Deep Purple for a while, drummer is Jason Bonham, John's son (who very much can play the drums, not just riding on his father's name). As Bonamassa normally plays with a bluesier influence, that is what I expected. Not the case, but a very pleasant surprise. The album sounds like classic hard rock, very well done. Music is good, sounds fresh, as opposed to just a stylistic cover band sound. Am looking forward to their 2nd album, just added to the current car rotation. Recommended, just good stuff.

Dickey Betts - Pattern Disruptive from 1988 - Have acquired a bunch of Allman related stuff, and just recently finished going through a bunch of Gregg Allman recordings. Moved to this CD next, from the same time as when the Allman Brothers Band was getting back together and sounding better than they had in a while. Disappointing. Vocals was nothing special, maybe I was looking for too much with Gregg A in mind, but even on anther listen, just eh. Just nothing special here, not bad, just not something I would reach for again. Moving on to a pair of albums from Devon Allman, Gregg's son next.

Ramsey Lewis - Taking Another Look from 2011 - Pop/soul jazz. Was kind of leery of this one, as Lewis has really veered away from the soul jazz vein into pop jazz. To me, pop jazz is fine on occasion, much better than the bland pablum of smooth jazz (fancy elevator music). Back in the early 70's, Lewis had a lot more soul in the jazz he was playing, but had really gotten bland over the last couple of decades (as a jazz musician I knew from NY said "Hey, we gotta eat too'"). This one, while better than most of his recent stuff, again, wasn't something I would reach for again.

The Beatles - Past Masters, Vol. 1 - already had Vol. 2, so this was a nice companion piece. A collection of singles, B-sides, covers & oddities. Beatles, good stuff and some things I hadn't heard before (I Want To Hold Your Hand, sung by them in German). Good, and interesting.

Fine Young Cannibals - The Raw & The Cooked from 1988, not normally my cup of tea, at all, but do like the track "She Drives Me Crazy" & knew the song "Good Thing". Never heard the rest of the album. Just not my thing. Once you get past those first two cuts, it was just too formulaic. Typical 80's pop, overreliance on synthesizers and production.

[yogi8]

It has been a very wet year and we're not done yet. Todate we have received 51+ inches of precipitation, the norm as of this date is 39+. We still have another 50 days remaining in 2018. Isn't this thread about music, so what am I doing writing about rain....segue coming.

Singing in the Rain, arguably Fred Astairs signature scene. I saw Singing at a summer stock theater near home, for many years the Gateway productions were a portion of our date nights. 20 minute drive, AC, comfortable and reasonable. two shows that we saw at Gateway and on Broadway...There Playing Our Song and Phantom were better at Gateway. Our seats for Singing were front and center, we got splashed during the song and dance number as the character swung around the street light.

Continuing there is BJ Thomas' Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head, you all may remember Katherine Ross riding a bicycle in the rain.

Finally; a golden oldie from Lee Andrews and the Hearts. During my doowop phase I would sing every word in a tunnel to get that echo effect. I Sit in my Room Looking Out at the Rain my tears are like crystals, they cover my window pane. Think it was a little blond named Diane that I associate with that song.

If you don't know it...look it up. It's from a time when pop music was great.

[mjjm367]

I very distinctly remember the Katherine Ross bicycle scene. It is from my favorite movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

I wish I knew more about Doo Wop than I do. Most of the limited amount of it that I have are a few Best Of collections. It directly lead to one of my favorite styles of music, the soul harmonies of the 60's, groups like the Dells and the Delfonics.

[yogi8]

The list is forever long, Duprees, Silhouettes, Rays, Solitares, Dell Vikings, Impalas, the Diamonds, 5 Satins, Dion and the Belmonts, etc etc etc.

[West Coast Mets Fan]

I just came across this on YouTube

[mjjm367]

Very, very nice. Enjoyed that one a lot WC

[West Coast Mets Fan]

First observation in watching this, Phoebe is a pretty good guitarist! Second, fun to watch David play slide guitar, what am I saying? He plays a pretty good lead guitar too! Interesting show.

[mjjm367]

Great sequence at 12:39 where Phoebe Snow & Bromberg play acoustic together.

[mjjm367]

I was listening to Joe Tex - Greatest Hits. He's an R&B artist from the late 60's. One track that really struck me was "I Believe I'm Gonna Make It" from 1966. It's written from the perspective of a soldier in Viet Nam, responding to a letter from his girl back home. Lyrics are simple but powerful.

Edit: Note the record label in the video above. On the right hand side it says "Plug Side". This is a copy that was distributed to DJs and the plug side was the side the record label wanted the DJ to play.

[mjjm367]

Time for another set of album reviews.

Black Country Communion - 2 from 2011. Was looking forward to this one, especially after their 1st album. They did not disappoint. Very much of a Led Zeppelin sound. Did more research on these guys between albums and learned that they were aiming for a classic rock sound. They very much succeed. Highly recommended.

Robben Ford - Talk To Your Daughter from 1988. Bluesy guitar player. Nice enjoyable set. good guitar work from Ford.

Dave Grusin - Collection from 1988. Big disappointment. I'm quite familiar with Grusin. Jazz pianist and producer. He is the "G" from the jazz label GRP Records (Grusin Rosen Productions). Normally has a large stable of jazz players to draw from, and puts together good albums. Don't know who picked the tracks for this "collection", but with one or two exceptions, it seems like they picked the blandest tracks possible.

Beatles - Let It Be... Naked. Normally, Beatles albums were produced by George Martin, who had a large hand in the shaping of the Beatles' sound. For the Let It Be album, the tapes were handed over to Phil Spector, famed for his Wall of Sound production sound. The "Naked" album strips Spector background away. Taking nothing away from the great job Spector did, there is a pleasant difference. It sounds like an "unplugged" version of the album, not all acoustic, but with the vocals much more upfront in the mix. (Although, in fairness to Spector, there have been almost 50 years of advances in sound engineering to make the mix sharper.) The song with the most noticeable difference was "The Long And Winding Road". Most obvious change in sound, followed by "Let It Be". By the way, "Let It Be" is one of the greatest songs written. Taking absolutely nothing away from the original production, this was an interesting variation.

Devon Allman - Ragged & Dirty from 2014 - Gregg Allman's son. Plays guitar & sings. I really liked this one. Both the guitar work and the vocals are sharp, with good song writing. Liked it quite a bit more than the Dickey Betts album I listened to recently. While I initially gave this a shot due to the Allman name, I was very pleasantly surprised. Looking forward to his next album which I have teed up in the car. Recommended.

[West Coast Mets Fan]

I heard this on SiriusXM on my way to work this morning. Great song!

[West Coast Mets Fan]

Awesome performance of a great tune.

[mjjm367]

Her first album is in that batch of music I sent you. This concert is 25 years after her first release and she is still hot as hell.

Have you had a chance to poke through any of the music?