John Gorka, and thoughts about the first song I ever heard from an artist…..

Sometime in the early 90s I picked up the CD Legacy: A Collection of New Folk Music.  Through that album, I was introduced to two WH_Legacyfolksingers who became favorites from that album on, John Gorka and Bill Morrissey. I was thinking about the album and John Gorka,  because I was listening for the first time to Stu Larson and his album Vagabond, about which you will be reading soon. Anyway, my thoughts revolved around the first songs I ever heard by artists. Read More

Saturday Morning Music from John Mayall – “Good Time Boogie” – Jazz Blues Fusion!!

John Mayall - Jazz blues Fusion

Jazz Blues FusionSo the other day I decided to visit an album that I haven’t listened to in a long while, Jazz Blues Fusion from John Mayall.The abum is a live album. The first side is from a concert in Boston on 18 November 1971, and the second side was selected from two concerts at Hunter College, New York, on 3 and 4 December 1971. John released two albums with this jazz fusion bent. On the albums he brought jazz musicians into his band. On this album the musicians were Freddy Robinson on guitar, Blue Mitchell on trumpet, Ron Selico on drums and Clifford Soloman on tenor and alto saxophones. Larry Taylor long-time member of the band provided bass. Read More

Exploring Birthdays on October 14th leads to Jazz Guitarist Garrison Fewell and Blues Artist Chris Thomas King!

Garrison Fewell2

Over the last several years that I have written this  blog, I have used the lists of birthdays that I have found at several sites as a source to find new music. What I do is read down the lists, find names of musicians that I don’t know then go to Spotify listen and if I like the music I go and read more about the artist,  then I write about them. Here is a post I wrote last year on October 14th, when I discovered Garrison Fewell, and Chris Thomas King……. Read More

Hot Rize – When I’m Free

Note to Hot Rize: 24 yrs between albums is too long!!

When I started to listen to a lot of music and collecting CDs, thanks to the used CD bins at Tunes in Marlton, in the early 2000s,  I found the music of Tim O’Brien, an amazing multi-instrumentalist and singer.  I also discovered the music of guitarist Charles Sawtelle. It took a while before I stumbled upon a great bluegrass album So Long a Journey (2002)  from the band Hot Rize. I discovered that both O’Brien and Sawtelle were members of the band, along with  Pete Wernick, and Nick Forster. Subsequently, I discovered that the album was a live album that had been recorded in 1996 and was a reunion album of  the band, that had retired in 1990. In 1990, the members had parted ways and went on to have distinguished solo careers. From their biography at the band’s website. Read More

My Summer Folk/Americana Playlist – Check it Out!

So on the left sidebar there is a playlist of some of my favorite songs from a variety of albums, most of which were released in July August and September of 2014. There are a couple that I’ve added from earlier months basically albums that I didn’t get around to writing about but  still really enjoyed! So here’s the list of the albums that the songs were taken from to make the playlist! Read More

“Into the Morning” with Two Bluegrass Masters – Jim Hurst and Rob Ickes – “Going Down that Road Feeling Bad”

This afternoon I was listening to the latest release from Breaking Grass Just as Strong, after listening for a while, I went and found a video of the band seems that the band has everything I like fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and bass, wait! There’s no dobro! But I listened anyway and they are a damn fine band without the dobro and I will listen to Just as Strong a few more times before I write about it…. but thinking about the dobro got me thinking about Rob Ickes, and then I came across this post and thought I’d post it again!!! Read More