Home Archive by category "Roots Music Safari" (Page 20)

Category: Roots Music Safari

B.B. King – Blues Icon – Born September 16, 1925

B.B. King – Blues -Born near the town of Itta Bena, Mississippi
(September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015)

Back in May of this year the music world lost the legendary blues boy Riley B.B. King at the age of 89. Today September 16th, B B King would have turned 90! An autopsy performed on the musician, because two of his daughters alleged that he had been poisoned, revealed that King had died of complications of Alzheimer’s disease and congestive heart failure, with no evidence of poisoning. The following was posted last year at Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries….. Read More

1971 Is It The Greatest Year in Rock??

 John Prine’s First Album and Others Make 1971 a Stellar Year – at least for me!!

There were many great albums released in 1971, but, only a few of the commercially successful albums made their way into my vinyl collection.However, a lot of the less commercially successful albums did! Even back then, the music that I sought out and enjoyed was from the albums and artists whose albums, if they were on the charts, weren’t at the top! So let’s take a look at some of the big albums and then some not so big ones, that have been favorites of mine over the years!! Read More

The Greatest Year in Rock was it 1970???

Renaissance Granddad  takes a look at some of his favorite rock from 1970!

The other day when I was writing about my favorite books from the 1970s, I mentioned that I considered my college years (1970-1975) as the greatest years in rock history! After writing that post, I was in the car and heard on the radio that WXPN is asking listeners to vote for what they consider the greatest year in rock music! My thoughts first went to 1971 and then quickly to 1970 then 1969, 68 and 67!! Actually, I think the ten-year period between 1967 and 1977 is the greatest decade in rock music and the five years that I was in college at the University of Florida and the University of Georgia (yes I am a mutt – a Gator DAWG?) maybe the pinnacle years of the decade! So with that being said I would like to take a stroll down memory lane and in a series of posts remember each year those five years! Read More

RGrandad Searches for New Rock!

Are  New Bands out there this Old Rocker May Enjoy?

Over the last few years, I have found few new rock bands that I like. Lately my wife has requested that the radio be tuned to Philadelphia 104.5 Philly’s Alternative Radio and while I like some of the music, nothing really jumps out and makes me say wow! I like that band! Yesterday afternoon, I decided that I’d check out the College Radio Chart to see if there is anything different on their chart, that would possibly interest an old rocker like me! Read More

Morning Music: Van Morrison – Turns 70 Yrs. Young!

Van Morrison – Northern Ireland – Born August 31, 1945

So last night as I was looking through old posts from Me, Myself, Music and Mysteries I kept seeing old morning music posts.When I first started blogging those posts were a staple of my blog. They were often just videos of musicians that I like, sometimes it was connected to the musicians birthday, while other times it was connected to a day in music or the artists birthday. When I looked down the list of jazz musicians who share birthdays today I saw Van Morrison’s name and thought that today would be a good day to re-introduce morning music!! The jukebox in my head immediately began to play Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey”. So I decided to make that today’s morning music! It could have been “Brown-Eyed Girl” for my brown-eyed girl, but hey “Tupelo Honey” works, too! Read More

An Am Walk with Oliver and the Music of Eldad Tarmu!

Dance of Death - Preston & Child

Eldad Tarmu – Vibraphone – Born August 26, 1960 in California

Today we are babysitting our grandson, Oliver and so far so good. He has been in a good mood, ate his breakfast and we just went for a long walk at the end of which he fell asleep!! This morning, I decided that I was going to listen to some music when we went on our walk and for the soundtrack I thought about making it some jazz, possibly someone new whose birthday is today!! Many times when I review the jazz birthdays I look for musicians who play an instrument that I love and today the instrument that was prevalent was the vibraphone with three musician’s sharing today as the day of their birth. The first was Eldad Tarmu, then Patricia Franceschy and finally Peter Appleyard. I chose to listen to Eldad Tarmu. When I went to Spotify to check out Eldad’s music the first album that popped up was Songs for the Queen of Bohemia. Okay. I said to myself, I  have listened to this album before and liked it. When I went to Eldad’s website I immediately remembered the picture of him. I thought maybe I have previously written a post about him, so I searched my posts and with no results! I guess he is one of the many musicians, I have listened to and never written about! So let’s do it now……First some background from his website biography…… Read More

Barna Howard – Quite a Feelin’

Exploring the Music of Singer-Songwriter, Folkie – Barna Howard and his album – Quite a Feelin’

I discovered the music of Barna Howard on the June 2015 Euro-Americana Chart , where his album Quite a Feeling held down the number eight spot. One night when I was going to work at Target I listened to the album for the first time. After listening to the first song “Indiana Rose”, I knew that Mr. Howard and I were going to get along just fine! Barna’s has a sound that harkens back to the folksingers of the 60s. He has a distinctive voice and his accompanying guitar playing is pretty nice also! So the question in my mind was – Who is this Barna Howard! Read More

“Into the Night” with Tony Rice and Friends

Tony Rice – Guitarist Extraordinaire – Born June 8, 1951!

Celebrating his birthday today, June 8th, in addtion to Boz Scaggs is the great musician Tony Rice. Tony was born just a few months before me in the year of 1951. Tony Rice is a great guitarist whose solo work and work with brother Larry, Chris Hillman and Herb Pederson (Rice,Rice,Hillman &Pedersen) appear in my library! Here’s some background for those of you who don’t know Tony. From Wikipedia: Read More

Bosch and Art Pepper Perfect Together!

Watching Bosch leads to the Music of Art Pepper

Last night my wife and I finished watching the first season of Bosch on Amazon Prime. The series is based on the books of Michael Connelly featuring LA Detective Harry Bosch.  If you haven’t seen it do, because it’s really, really good. I have not read many of the Harry Bosch books, but what I have read I have enjoyed, and there are three of them on my TBR shelves! Michael Connelly is the executive producer of the show and I’m sure he has a lot of say over the way Harry is portrayed, which makes the series that much better! Read More