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
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
Louis Armstrong “Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans”
Satchmo posed the enduring question: Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans? Can you conjure the sound of the Streetcar clickety-clacking it’s way up St. Charles Avenue? Could you spend hours listening to a brass band play both in a crowded club on Frenchmen Street or sitting alone in Jackson Square? Do you... Read More
Kermit Ruffins “Drop Me Off In New Orleans”
As part of their 2018 series marking the tricentennial of the city of New Orleans and highlighting “300 people who have made New Orleans New Orleans”, The Times-Picayune, the city’s local newspaper, ran a feature on beloved local trumpeter... Read More
Jim Pepper ‘Witchi Tai To’ (1971)
Freshman year of college two of my friends disappeared one day to some record store, and returned later with a few offbeat choices: “German Drinking Songs,” “Gregorian Chants,” and “Music Of The American Indian.” I think the three of them cost a dollar combined, and they probably overpaid, but we sat in their dorm room...... Read More
Gregg Allman “My Only True Friend”
The Midnight Rider's final ride: with "My Only True Friend" Gregg Allman wrote his own farewell song.... Read More
Still with Weezer, none the wiser
These are very confusing times to be a Weezer fan... Read More
Rolling Stones “Dead Flowers” (1971)
There’s a lot of talk nowadays about what’s “real” country music. Personally, my views fall pretty much in line with a righteous fellow named Kyle “Trigger” Coroneos, whose website “Saving Country Music” has been around for over 10 years, and whose mission seems pretty self-explanatory (clue: It starts with something like Waylon & Willie, not...... Read More