Mike Farris “Mercy Now” (2014)
All I could think to say after first hearing this song was, “What a goddamn voice.” The production is fantastic – the strings, the horns, the organ, the backing singers – but goddamn, that voice is incredible. It belongs to Mike Farris, a guy who had a somewhat notable run in the ‘90’s as the...... Read More
The Lone Star Cafe // Albert Collins “Iceman” (1991)
The best live music venue of my lifetime is The Lone Star Cafe, formerly located at the corner of 5th Avenue and 13th Street in New York City. When it closed in 1989, Manhattan music fans lost their only true honky-tonk and blues joint. They also lost a 40-foot iguana. More on that later. The...... Read More
Old 97’s “Longer Than You’ve Been Alive” (2014)
I recently saw an Old 97’s show with my friend Kenny at the Tarrytown Music Hall, an 843-seat capacity theater built in 1885, the oldest in Westchester County and one of just 6% of theaters in the U.S. built before 1900. It’s a sleepy place. I’ve been to about a dozen concerts there before, and...... Read More
Don Henley “Boys of Summer” (1984)
One of this blog's regular readers, perhaps motivated by my apparent dismissiveness for lyrics, first in a post on the Drive-by Truckers and then in a follow up with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, has written in to be heard from. For our first-ever... Read More
Allman Brothers Band “Trouble No More” (1969)
Is it possible the most influential member of a band that existed for 45 years was in it for just it’s first 3? Duane Allman was one of 6 founding members of the Allman Brothers Band in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 – along with his brother Gregg Allman, Dickey Betts, Berry Oakley, Butch Trucks, and...... Read More
Professor Longhair “Big Chief”
I’d never heard of Professor Longhair before going away to college. I mean really, who the hell growing up pretty much anyplace outside of New Orleans would have? But down there he was a living legend. Only not for long. The living part, that is. He died of a heart attack in 1980, less than...... Read More
The Blasters “American Music” (1981)
I’ve told this story a hundred times and to be honest I’m not positive it really happened. But I think it did. I’m pretty sure. Yeah, yeah, it did, I’m saying it did. When I tell it, I always say it was about the most rock-and-roll thing I’ve ever seen someone do on stage at...... Read More
David Bowie “Stay” (1976); Apollo 100 “Joy” (1972)
I started going to NY Rangers games at The Garden with my dad when I was about 7 or 8 years old, and it was love at first, ah, skate. Hockey immediately became, and will unquestionably always be, my favorite sport. The moment when the players first take the ice just prior to the game...... Read More
The Hellecasters “Mad Cows At Ease” (1997)
Time for another instrumental. The Hellecasters are a trio of fine Fender Telecaster pickers. If you ever thought about playing the guitar this will either convince you to immediately get started, or more likely not to bother.... Read More
Lucinda Williams “Buttercup” (2011)
Some rock singer’s voices are almost so bizarre you wonder how they even had the audacity to step up to a microphone and try in the first place. I mean, what on earth gave Tom Waits the idea that his grotesque growl could possibly ever work in popular music? Or Lou Reed? Or Joe Cocker??...... Read More