Category: Now Spinning
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Now Spinning: The Allman Brothers Band – Cream Of The Crop 2003
Often times my favorite Record Store Day releases are the ones that I’m able to pick up after the ‘holiday’ at a discount. That was the case with this year’s Allman Brothers Band release, which turned up at my local used record store just days after Record Store Day, and still looks to be available […]
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Now Spinning: Bill Black’s Combo – Plays Tunes by Chuck Berry
What an absolute blast this one is to listen to, which somehow serves as a pinnacle, last gasp and tribute to early rock ‘n’ roll all at once. Bill Black, of course, is legendary for teaming with Scotty Moore to back Elvis on his first sessions at Sun Studios. Black would remain with Elvis until […]
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Now Spinning: Herbie Mann – Memphis Underground
Funky Friday music with this classic from Herbie Mann and a frighteningly loaded cast of supporting musicians. Few, if any, musicians can compete with the constant musical open-mindedness and curiosity of jazz flutist Herbie Mann. He would quite literally explore a different genre or set of influences with every single album – Impressions of the […]
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Now Spinning: Plant And See
Plant And See was a very short-lived but extremely unique late sixties group that mixed the standard psychedelic rock sound of the day with a wider palette of influences than your typical garage rockers, leading to a southern gumbo of sound featuring an earthier, swampy funk edge. The band had only very minor success, and […]
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Now Spinning – Blue Grass Get Together
The Charles River Valley Boys are a largely forgotten band in the history of bluegrass, despite having a significant impact during their all-too-brief 1960’s heyday. As students at Harvard, the members of the Charles River Valley Boys hardly fit the typical rural bluegrass demographics, but word of their impressive skill spread, reaching the ear of […]
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Now Spinning: The Rolling Stones – Flowers
While The Rolling Stones 1967 release Flowers is hardly an unknown album, in their intimidatingly massive catalog, the album is an overlooked gem, if also a slight misfit in their discography. Much like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones early albums were issued with slightly altered tracklists, which stemmed from cultural differences between British and American […]
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Now Spinning: John Mayall – USA Union
Once John Mayall’s latest guitar hero departed for the Rolling Stones, Mayall risked sharing a legacy much like The Yardbirds: more famous for the guitarists he employed than his own talents, as Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor graduated from Mayall’s blues school on their way to classic rock titans. But instead of fading […]
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Now Spinning: James Talley – Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, But We Sure Got a Lot of Love
The browning leaves and cooling temperatures of fall bring to mind The Band’s famed self-titled’Brown Album’ for me, which, along with Music From Big Pink and The Basement Tapes is widely considered a cornerstone of the rootsy and rural rock ‘n’ roll offshoot that has become known as Americana in the years since. Much like […]
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Now Spinning: Juke Boy Bonner
One of the first suggestions I’d offer to any collectors of old blues records – always buy Arhoolie Records releases. Arhoolie Records was formed by a young blues aficionado Chris Strachwitz, who traveled to Texas as a young man to record Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mance Lipscomb and many more, beginning with simple field recordings. From those […]
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Now Spinning: Robert Hunter – Tales of the Great Rum Runners
The world lost one of the very best lyrical poets last week with the death of Robert Hunter, principle lyricist for the Grateful Dead as Jerry Garcia’s longtime songwriting partner. Though Hunter was fairly reclusive compared to the rest of the band, he was, apart from Garcia, the most quintessential member, combining folk imagery, strains […]
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