A Glimpse of the Past and thoughts about the Ashton Family.

So as someone who enjoys genealogy research, it’s always nice to see the name of your ancestor in a census, on a marriage certificate or a ship’s passenger list. It always makes you think of what their lives must have been like.  When I came home from work at Target last night, my wife said “look what I found” She had found among the papers of Louise Marter, who had a massive amount genealogical information she had collected over the last 30 to 40 years. Louise passed away a few months ago and Kathy has been given the task of going through the boxes and boxes of papers to decide the relevancy of each piece of paper  Better her than me because Pack-Rat Edward would be tossing nothing!! Anyway back to  last night’s find. it was at list of school children in the Beverly schools in 1865 and 1866 and there among children was my great-grandfather John or Johnny Ashton Read More

Afternoon Music from the Guitar of Lawson Rollins……

So this morning I was in beautiful Newark NJ. Last night we went to a fund-raiser for Team Willpower, a night of bowling. It was the first time I bowled in many years. It took several throws to even be respectable, and for me the 110 I bowled was not even that! But it was for a good cause and we had a good time!Lawson Rollins Full CircleOne of the artists that I’ve been listening to over the last few days has been Lawson Rollins I listened to his fine guitar playing a while ago as part of the duo Young and Rollins,.and really liked their sound. This week I’ve been listening to Lawson’s latest album Full Circle. On his website, Lawson says this about the album: Read More

2013 – American Roots Music – from Rattleshack

Rattleshack band

So there once was a group of musicians that lived back in the woods, and they played traditional American roots music, with story songs about, hangings, murder, and moonshine running, with titles like “Hillbilly Hick”, and Sons O’Dixie. After the release of their début album, they will be touring throughout the country playing dates in Rougham Suffolk, Cambridge, Wisbech, Cambs and in October they will be playing sets both days at the Prickwillow ploughing festival and country fair near Ely, Cambs. Not sure what part of the south they’re from – well you should be because this terrific new band is from jolly old England!!RattleshackRattleshack is their name and playing great American roots music is their game!!  Their début album is self-titled and great. According to the band they were: Read More

Today in Music – 1967 – John Coltrane passed away (not)…. and the jazz world still mourns..

John Coltrane

According to About.com/Oldies Music, on this date in 1967, the jazz world lost a legendary figure when John Coltrane died from liver cancer at the age of forty. (The actual date of his death is July 17th) Coltrane was and still is one of the most influential jazz musician, ever. I have never been a big fan of the sax, most of my jazz listening revolves around guitar, organ and vibes, but every time I hear Coltrane’s music I love it. From Wikipedia: Read More

2013 Blues – Austin Young and No Difference – Blue as Blue Can Be!

Blue as Blue can eOh, to be seventeen years old and as talented as Austin Young. The young Colorado Blues musician has a long and stellar career ahead of him if his 2013 release, Blue as Blue Can Be is any kind of indicator!! I’m not exactly sure where I came across his name, hum, it may have been last weeks, New Releases Now newsletter, but wherever I saw it I’m glad I did because the album is flat-out terrific as are Young’s guitar playing and his vocals. Read More

A Jazzy Night with Music from Blue, Wynton and Hank and friends!!

Soul StationSo tonight I turned the sound down on the Phillies game and turned up the stereo and spent a jazzy Saturday night listening to albums from  Blue Mitchell, Wynton Kelly, and Hank Mobley. Of the three Hank Mobley is the musician I know the least about, but his album Soul Station was my favorite of the evening. The link between the three albums is the piano artistry of Wynton Kelly. Read More

Nighttime Jazz – Freddie Hubbard – Open Sesame – (1960)

Open SesameSo not that long ago I lied, and said that the focus of my musical listening was going to be jazz and New Age,  since then I don’t think I’ve really written about either genre! That doesn’t mean that I haven’t been listening to artists in those genres because I have, I just haven’t written about them yet. One of the albums that I’ve been listening to is the début album of Freddie Hubbard Open Sesame  which was released way back in 1960, when Freddie was 22 years old. I listened to this album because it was on a list of essential albums. It’s not like I haven’t listened to and enjoyed Freddie’s trumpet before, because I have, music from when he was a teenager and was playing with the Montgomery Brothers in and around Indianapolis, Echoes of Indiana Avenue. Read More

Life’s Soundtrack – Black Sabbath’s 13!

Black Sabbath 13I have never been a Black Sabbath or Ozzy Osbourne fan, so the release of 13 the first Black Sabbath album in 35 years to feature Ozzy really did nothing for me. But we were going to a picnic at the shore today, about an hour plus away, and both my son Nick and wife like Ozzy, so I went to Mog and put the album on the iPhone. Now while I am not an Ozzy fan, I did enjoy the first season or two of  The Osbournes, mostly to laugh at Ozzy’s incoherence. So I was surprised, as we listened to the album, that Ozzy’s vocals were really good, and more importantly for the most part I could understand the lyrics!! On the way back, I put the album on again and commented that I didn’t understand how an incoherent Ozzy could perform like this! Nick said some people are saying that there’s been some auto tuning with Ozzy’s vocals, but my wife explained it by saying when he’s singing he doesn’t have to think! He just reads and sings and doesn’t have to form coherent sentences! Like a stutterer who can sing without stuttering. Anyway, I’ve heard enough Ozzy over the years to know that overall this album is pretty close to vintage Ozzy and Black Sabbath. I did enjoy Tommy Iommi’s guitar work and the overall sound of the band. So I think that most of the band’s fans will like this album a lot! I know my wife liked it! From Ultimate Classic Rock’s:Black Sabbath, ’13′ – Album Review” Read More