Whitey Morgan & The 78’s “Waitin’ ‘Round To Die” (2015)
One of my favorite regular reads is “Saving Country Music” penned with an acerbic wit and what can only be described as righteous indignation by a dude named Kyle Coroneos, aka “Trigger”, with whom I agree on just about everything he writes in defending his self-imposed, virtuous cause. Some time ago, in regard to the...... Read More
J. Geils Band “(Ain’t Nothin’ But A) House Party” (1973)
Not that long ago the rock world lost a great, a guy whose name everyone knows, but I’m not sure whether everyone knows he was that name. Huh? John Warren Geils Jr., better known professionally as J. Geils, was, of course, the namesake for the long-time blues/rock powerhouse, the J. Geils Band, the group he...... Read More
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes “Wake Up Everybody”
For starters, fuck Harold Melvin. There actually was a Harold Melvin in the Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes band, the founder and very briefly the lead singer when they were unknowns just starting out. But everyone knows it was the incomparable Teddy Pendergrass who put them on the map after joining (originally as the...... Read More
Guster “Do You Love Me” (2010)
It was about 11:00PM on a warm, late-summer night last August at Thompson’s Point in Portland, Maine, the smell of salt air and spilled IPAs still present, as the starlit sky guided a muddy path for an eclectic group of giddy patrons departing the just-concluded concert by the band Guster. I was meandering slowly with...... Read More
Dan Baird & Homemade Sin “Licka Sense” (2017)
Dan Baird is everything I love about rock and roll. “Three chords and a cloud of dust,” as his website proclaims. Including his stint as a solo artist, he’s occupied the lead spot in four of my favorite bands of the last 4 decades. If you wanted to package up his work in a time...... Read More
Gregg Allman “My Only True Friend” (2017)
The Midnight Rider's final ride: with "My Only True Friend" Gregg Allman wrote his own farewell song.... Read More
The Knickerbockers “Lies” (1965)
I guess the biggest of the “lies” here was that this delightful, melodic and catchy little song was not actually recorded by 4 mop-topped Beatles in Liverpool, England – as one might quite naturally assume – but by a garage band named The Knickerbockers led by a couple of brothers from Bergenfield, New Jersey. Apocryphal...... Read More
Albert Cummings “Man On Your Mind” (2004)
Like Ted Striker in the Airplane! clip, I (too) have been nervous lots of times. Taking exams, going into surgery, just about any type of public speaking..and a million other things. But, I’ve never been more nervous than when Massachusetts bluesman Albert Cummings handed my 13-year-old son his guitar.... Read More
Li’l Queenie & The Percolators “My Darlin’ New Orleans” (1981)
Their recording output was exactly one record. Not one album, mind you, but one song – a 45 single. And yet, last week Leigh Harris, aka Little Queenie, was inducted into the... Read More
The Wild Magnolias “All On A Mardi Gras Day”
It’s Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras day.
So accordingly, here’s my favorite Mardi Gras day song,... Read More