Book 12 of 2013 – Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy

ImpeachedFirst a comment on my March reading. I started the month reading James Lee Burke’s Creole Belle and three non-fiction books. Impeached by David O. Stewart, The Armistad Rebellion by Marcus Rediker and Kofi Anann’s Interventions. I had also gotten out of the library The Blood Gospel by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell. By the middle of the month, I had made the most progress on the David Stewart book and minimal progress on the others. About the day before Blood Gospel was due back at the library, I started reading it. No wait, it was actually overdue when I started it! Anyway I was enjoying it, so Creole Belle got set aside! I continued to read Impeached along with The Blood Gospel and managed to finish Impeached at the beginning of this month. It is Book 12 for 2013. I was pleased that I finished the book because it’s the kind of book that I usually start and enjoy and then ,move on to something else, so to finish it is a good thing! Read More

Life Intrudes and “Into the Night” with The Searchers!

So this week has been really rough. Since Target was closed last Sunday for Easter, the HR rep. at the store scheduled me for an extra night, which was Tuesday and instead of my usual Friday night I worked last night because my wife and I are going out tonight. Now of and by itself that’s not all that bad what made it worse was that Tuesday, yesterday and today I was scheduled to work on the drill rig so my day began at 7:00 am. So Tuesday and Thursday my day went from 7 AM to 11:15 PM! Added in there was a funeral on Wednesday. Three weeks ago my wife’s Aunt Anita passed away, leaving her Aunt Nancy as the last of my father-in-law’s four sisters. The Thursday before Easter we received a call that Nancy had fallen down her basement stairs, and died, Wednesday was her funeral. Anyway with all that it has been hard to post anything to my website! Hopefully, next week will be better! Read More

New Age: “Into the Night” with the nouveau-flamenco sounds of Luna Blanca

El DoradoSo a while back, when I was listening to Jesse Cook, The Blue Sessions album, the album finished and MOG radio came on with artists similar to Jesse Cook. One of the groups that caught my ear was Luna Blanca. I listened to their 2007 release, Magic and really enjoyed it. Since then I have listened to their 2012 release El Dorado and the album Live and enjoyed both of them as well! I have since discovered that the group is from Germany and is one of the most popular  nouveau-flamenco groups in the world. Currently, another 2012 release Obsession is at 2 on the Music Zone Reporters’ Top 100 Radio Airplay Chart for February 2013.Luna BlancaLuna Blanca features Richard Hecks (guitar) and Helmut Graebe (piano). On the last three albums, Hecks and Graebe have been joined by rhythm guitarist Bino Dola (flamenco guitar) and Clemens Paskert (bass, percussion and keyboards). Read More

Life’s Soundtrack: Greylevel – Hypostatic Union

Hypostatic Union

So it does bode well for a run when within the first quarter-mile you start thinking to yourself, “You know my legs don’t feel very good, maybe I should just go back home”, which is exactly what happened today! But I kept going and turned inward and tried to concentrate on the music, which was provided by a progressive rock band from the west coast of Canada, Greylevel and their 2011 release Hypostatic Union. I passed the first mile mark in just under 10 minutes and my heart rate was too bad. Then it was up Pancoast Avenue, to the beats in second song on the album. After reaching the top of the climb it was downhill to Bridgeboro, all to the great sound that Greylevel crafts. The band calls it  ” a unique blend of progressive and emotional rock music”.GreylevelGreylevel started as a solo studio project for Derek Barber a vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, In 2005 Barber teamed with guitarist and bassist Richard Shukin and vocalist Esther Barber (Derek’s wife) to form a real band.  Since then Greylevel has developed into a full-fledged band. Read More

Life’s Soundtrack – RPWL and Todd Snider!

TAWKI-cover-300Ok so yesterday we had a family gathering to celebrate Easter and Andrew’s 31 birthday, which is today. Anyway about midway through the day, Andrew went upstairs and came down with three albums by RPWL which I mentioned in the other days post about Blind Ego! So on the way down to the job site at milepost 53.9 on the Garden State Parkway, I listened to a mix of RPWL and enjoyed their music. I’ll write more after I’ve listened to the albums a few more times. Read More

Prog Rock Explorations: Blind Ego – Numb

Numb2So I this morning I listened again to the album Numb from the German group Blind Ego and I liked it as much this time as I did the several previous times I listened! So I was surprised when I went to ProgArchves and saw a rating in the low 3s (3.12). To me, and I know I am just a neophyte when it comes to Prog Rock, the album has everything – good musicianship and vocals, and lots of tempo changes keep me interested in the music! The band is a side project for RPWL guitarist Karlheinz “Kalle” Wallner. (note to self find out who the hell RPWL is!) Here’s some information on the band from the ProgArchives: Read More

American History Explorations with: The War Lovers and The Imperial Cruise!

The War LoversSo yesterday found me in Barnes and Noble with a gift card from either last Father’s Day or my birthday  that sill had twelve dollars on it. So while I spent time looking at the new books, I knew that my purchases would probably come from the Bargain Books. I ended up with two history books that continue my explorations of the late 1800s and early 1900s. The two books are The War Lovers: Roosevelt, Lodge, Hearst, and the Rush to Empire, 1898 by Evan Thomas  and The Imperial Cruise by James Bradley. Of the two, The Imperial Cruise is to me the most interesting Read More

“Into the Night” with the Jazz Guitar of Grant Green with Organ!

Grant Green Organ Trio and QuartetThis morning when I opened MOG the first album that caught my eye was a Grant Green album entitled Organ Trio & Quartet. Now I have occasionally listen to the fine guitar of Grant Green, but I don’t ever remember him being associated with an organ trio. So with visions of Jimmy Smith and wes Montgomery dancing in my head I put it on and I was impressed the group was tight and the organ was really smoking. It seemed that through the early tracks of the album the organ was either equal to or more prominent than the guitar of Green. At lunchtime I looked up information about the album and found that it was actually a combination of two albums. The first half of the album was actually the début album of organist Sam Lazar, Space Flightreleased in 1960. Grant Green was a sideman on that album. It was Green’s second recording.  The second half of the album came from a Grant Green album, Iron City, recorded in 1967 and released in 1972. The organ player on this album is listed as “Big John” Patton. When I found the video that will close this post, I read some of the comments,. Included in the comments was a discussion as to whether the organist was actually Big John or someone else possibly Larry Johnson. Since I could not tell you the difference I will bow to their experience and say the player may not be “Big John” Patton! So here’s the track, it’s actually the title track “Iron City”. What do you think?? John Patton or Larry Johnson either way Grant Green is still terrific! Read More