The Musicians Train ends with The Rides – Can’t Get Enough!

The RidesSo now if you get to old timers together like Stephen Stills and Barry Goldberg together and they start thinking, hey how about we do an album like Super Session. We’ll get some guys together and just have some fun making music. So how should they round our their little group?…. hum maybe by getting a young Mike Bloomfield which they by adding Kenny Wayne Sheppard to round out their trio!! The result is supergroup of great talented musicians Stephen Stills, Barry Goldberg and Kenny Wayne Sheppard and they call themselves The Rides.  Today I  listened to their new album Can’t Get Enough for the first time – hell it was only released yesterday! Can't Get Enough Read More

The Train of Musicians keeps Chugging along Stills, Kooper, Bloomfield and Goldberg!

Electric FlagSo about a year before Chris Hillman and Gram Parsons were forming The Flying Burrito Brothers, two blues musicians from Chicago went west to form the great American blues band.  The result was the short-lived band The Electric Flag and the album A Long Time Comin’ has always been a favorite of mine. The album introduced me to the music of Mike Bloomfield. From Wikipedia: Read More

Today in Music – 1990 – The Music World loses Stevie Ray Vaughan

So often late on a Friday night, and I’m working at Target, and not feeling particularly chipper, Jerry Jeff Walker’s song “Blue Mood” pops into the jukebox in my head. Well, tonight, as I reviewed the musical events that occurred on this date, the final verse of the song came in loud and clear. Here it is….. 03 Blue Mood clip Yes, on this date 23 years ago, the music world lost one of the best blues guitarist ever, Stevie Ray Vaughan. From Wikipedia: Read More

The Roots of My Love for the German Language – not!!

.German earDer Bär spricht die Wahrheit!!! The Bear speaks the truth and it has haunted me for many many years!! (I had to go to Babelfish to write that by the way) So here’s the story, to graduate from the University of Florida and receive my BA in Political Science, I needed a year of a language. What ever made me think I could handle the German language, I don’t know. Maybe I thought that the ghosts of my ancestors on my father’s side, who all came from Germany, would come to me in the middle of the night and by morning I could speak like a native – not! Anyway, for someone who hates English grammar, can’t diagram a sentence if his life depended on it, German is not a great language to study. With der, die,and das, changing with direct and indirect objects,and verbs that split and part of it moves to the end of the sentence, (what;s up with that!) I was quickly lost. Well, not quickly because I did make it through the first semester, but that was because my roommate was taking the class with me and we studied together. But then, he didn’t take the second semester – that’s when I was quickly lost!! So rather than struggle through and feel stupid, I took the easy road and dropped the class! Unfortunately, that was my last semester at school, so the only way that I could get my degree was to take the class via correspondence. (this was in the days before on-line classes)   At least I didn’t have to feel stupid in front of a teacher, and I could actually not feel stupid at all because I could just put off doing the work!! I had more important stuff to do, I had a girlfriend to be with!! Read More

Trader Joe’s, a Cemetery and a Five-mile Run, Oh My!

BadlandsSo sometimes when I sit down to write a post the words just come out, that does not usually happen on the days that I run! For some reason sometimes running not only gets to me physically, but also mentally as well. Today after a my first five-mile run in a long, long time I am wiped out. It also may be the result of working all day, Friday 8:30-5:00 and then 6:00 to 11:15 and then again last night from 5:30 to 11:15 or a combination of the two!! Read More

Book 29 of 2013 – Caribbean Moon – Rick Murcer

Caribbean MoonSo Rick Murcer‘s book Caribbean Moon, the first book in the Manny Williams series, has been on my Kindle and iPhone for a long while now. The other day (while I am in the middle of The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury) I started reading it and I didn’t put it down until it became book 29 for 2013. You can pickup the e-book at Amazon for 99 cents and I tell you it’s well worth it and a lot more! Murcer has nor always been a full-time writer’ He lost his job in 2008 due to the crashing of the economy. He then sent out over 600 resumes and still was unable to find employment. So  with unemployment benefits waning and savings nearly depleted he decided to become a full-time writer!! From his biography at his website: Read More

August 2013 Music – Part 1 -Vibes from Warren Wolf – Wolfgang

WolfgangOver the last few days I’ve been listening to several new albums from several different genres. A new jazz album from vibraphonist Warren Wolf Wolfgang, an Americana album from a new supergroup Willie Sugarcapps, and a new bluegrass album from two artists that have been around a while and seem to be getting better with age Ricky Skaggs and Bruce Hornsby Live. These three albums were released this week and have joined my music rotation quickly, They’ve joined another album that’s been in the rotation for over a week now. The new album from jazz-blues guitarist Jeff Golub and organist Brian Auger Train Keeps A Rolling. Willie Supercapps was the only album of the four that didn’t get listened to yesterday. Warren Wolf was listened to early in the day, while I was working, Ricky and Bruce joined mne on my way to and from a wetland site in Medford and finally Jeff and Brian’s music was heard, as I ran some errands. So let’s take them one at a time in the order I listened to them yesterday, Read More