Category Blues & Roots
BOB BOX
There have been some fantastic CD boxed sets released in the past few years. Often they are great value and can fill a hole in the collection. Well, that’s my justification. The plan is to share some of these in mid-week posts. This first artist doesn’t need any introduction at all, but I’ll reproduce the text […]
1972 COUNTDOWN — THE STORY SO FAR
As a warm-up to a possible resumption of play in the 72 FROM ’72 countdown, here is a summary of the posts and albums so far. GREEN AND SUBMARINE kicked things off in mid-January. Summer Downunder is a time for thinking about beaches and oceans and spinning one of my favourite film soundtracks ever. It […]
8 ALBUM COVERS WITH GROUP PORTRAITS
From the time TheBeatles opted to use Klaus Voorman’s charming portraits of the fab four on their seminal 1966 album, bands have commissioned visual artists to represent themselves on their musical offerings. Here is a selection. * With graphics by Linda Guymon and Art Direction by Richard Roth, this 1975 compilation of Rolling Stones ‘Rarities’ […]
1972 COUNTDOWN… SOME BLUES AND ROOTS
JOHN LEE HOOKER — NEVER GET OUT OF THESE BLUES ALIVE Exploring an idea he returned to with great success on The Healer (1989), John Lee Hooker invites several guests to join him on this album, including Van Morrison and Elvin Bishop. This See For Miles CD re-issue is a strange beast, including a track […]
SOME 1971 FOLK
Sifting through over two hundred albums released in 1971 has been enjoyable, at times surprising, and occasionally daunting. It would have been impossible without the Vinyl Connection database. An early approach involved allocating each entry into a band: 10, 20s, 30s, etc. then sorting each cohort into order. That helped me map out a rough […]
1971 LIVE [PART ONE]
By the close of the 1960s the technology and knowhow for recording live music had improved substantially. Sure, the results were patchy on many occasions, but overall live albums had become much more listenable. Here (and in the forthcoming Part Two) we trawl through Vinyl Connection’s 1971 “Live” holding, counting ‘up’ to my favourites. 13 […]
FEBRUARY 1971 — PART ONE
We’re running late, by about two months, so let’s get into it. * FEBRUARY 1971 ALBUM RELEASES Simply the most infectious collection of straight-ahead electric boogie that you’ll ever hear. John Lee was a savvy veteran by the early 1970s, he’d witnessed the surge in interest following the British blues boom of the early 1960s […]
JANUARY 1971 — THREE LATE ARRIVALS
It is tempting to believe that the internet knows everything about everything. When it came to finding release dates for Vinyl Connections bushel of 1971 albums, it became clear that the www is not as all-knowing as you think. Sure, I discovered a number of errors in the VC spreadsheet, mostly albums where I had […]
HOLLYWOOD BLUESEVARD
The 60s bands of UK born John Mayall are legendary for being the workshop where some of the eras most revered guitarists honed their chops. Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), Eric Clapton (Cream) and Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones) all served under the benign yet exacting blues baton of Mr Mayall. Yet by the end of the […]
ROCKIN’ ALL OVER THE WORLD – INTRO/USA
One of the delights of blogging is the sense of sharing interests and passions with people around the globe. This is especially true of music with its capacity to cross boundaries, cultures and even language. Now and then I’ll bring up the map of the world showing number of views (by country) depicted in varying […]
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