The Top 10 Best American Bands
To celebrate Independence Day, So Much Great Music went through the painstaking process of choosing the Top 10 Best American Bands... Read More
Bruce Springsteen “Mary’s Place” (2002)
Whether Mary's dress waves or sways to open Thunder Road, a character named Mary recurs with peculiar frequency in Bruce Springsteen's songs... Read More
Buddy Guy – “Damn Right I Got The Blues” (1991)
Buddy Guy, at 85, is the last man standing. And you're damn right he's still got the blues.... Read More
J. Geils Band “Musta Got Lost” (1976)
Peter Wolf rapped rock's greatest intro (before rap was even a thing)... Read More
Steely Dan “Bodhisattva” (1973)
It’s doubtful you would ever think of Steely Dan as a “guitar solo” band, and that’s true in part because their jazz/R&B/rock amalgam never made them a typical rock and roll group, but also due to the fact that their ostensible main guitarist, co-founder, Walter Becker, played only a fraction of them... Read More
Dennis Wilson “River Song” (1977)
From California surfin' to Charles Manson, Dennis Wilson's life was one of edgy contradictions. What he was, though, was the one true Beach Boy.... Read More
Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes “Wake Up Everybody” (1975)
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
Gregg Allman “My Only True Friend” (2017)
Chilling is the only word to describe the experience of listening to this beautiful and poignant song under its heart-wrenching circumstances. Just try to imagine: After all of the miles he had covered, Gregg Allman confronted the fact that – unlike one of his and the Allman Brothers most famous lines – the road does not, in...... Read More
Professor Longhair “Big Chief” (1980)
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
Stevie Ray Vaughan “Love Struck Baby” (1983)
The greatest guitarist I've ever heard, or will ever hear. This song changed my life.... Read More