Rick Sparks – Endless

Rick Sparks

Rick Sparks – Endless                                                         Quiet Piano to Replenish Your Spirit

Many times I am drawn to an album by the album cover’s art work. That was the case with the album at #7 on the Zone Music Reporters December Chart, Endless from Rick Sparks. The second thing about the album that caught my eye was that the album is a self-release. It seems I’m always drawn to these albums!. Hurrah for the little guy! But it was the quiet,and relaxing beauty of Spark’s piano playing that ultimately made this one of the most enjoyable New Age albums, I have listened to in a while! The tag line on the album reads “Quiet Piano to Replenish Your Soul”and that’s just what it did for me! Read More

Voyager: Cailyn's voyage through our Solar System!

Cailyn Lloyd

Voyager – Cailyn (Lloyd) – Released January 2015

 
Several weeks ago, I took a trip through space courtesy of the music of John Serrie and his album Day Star. Over the last week I have traveled through our own solar system tracing the travels of the Voyager ship, via the music of Cailyn (Lloyd)and her latest release apply titled Voyager. 
Cailyn is a guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. She began her music career at an early age, starting with piano and quickly moving on to violin and bass. By her teens she was living in London, England and playing in blues and prog-rock bands Cailyn eventually returned to the states, still studying and playing guitar, bass and keyboards. Not satisfied with that she added drums to her repertoire. Oh, and she took some time off to raise a family!! Around 2004, Cailyn returned to music full-time, initially touring with the Alimony Blues Band as a guitarist and then with the power-rock band IX Lives playing guitar, bass and keyboards.
Since 2008, when she released her first EP, Cailyn has released three full-length albums,True Lies and Other Fairy Tales, a classic rock album recorded with WAMI award-winning vocalist Dani Daly , “Four Pieces”, an album composed of a fusion of progressive rock and classical music, that features three standards from the classical repertoire and one original composition, all performed on modern instruments, and her current release Voyager.
I really, really liked Voyager from the opening track “Voyager”, but then I got to the fourth track :”Jupiter” and I thought I know this song, and I feel in love with the album!. Seems that Cailyn and I share a mutual love of Gustav Holst‘s “The Planets” and for years she has dreamed about creating a progressive rock adaptation of the work. Finally, well let’s let Cailyn talk about what happened……, Read More

Imbolc – Let's Celebrate the Arrival of Spring!!

Imbolc – Gaelic Festival Marking the Arrival of Spring (February 1 – 3)

Back in 1968, Phil Ochs wrote these words about the Vietnam War, in what may be his most popular song “The War is Over” ……

Silent soldiers on a silver screen
Framed in fantasies and dragged in dream
Unpaid actors of the mystery
The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free
And what’s this got to do with me Read More

Imbolc – Let’s Celebrate the Arrival of Spring!!

Imbolc – Gaelic Festival Marking the Arrival of Spring (February 1 – 3)

Back in 1968, Phil Ochs wrote these words about the Vietnam War, in what may be his most popular song “The War is Over” ……

Silent soldiers on a silver screen
Framed in fantasies and dragged in dream
Unpaid actors of the mystery
The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free
And what’s this got to do with me Read More

More Treasures from The Princeton Record Exchange!

A Trip to the Princeton Record Exchange Yields Seven New Treasures!

So on Wednesday night, my son Nicholas and I went bargain-hunting at the Princeton Record Exchange, armed with our Christmas Gift Cards. I had a $25.00 gift card from my birthday back in October,plus my $25.00 Christmas gift card. I came home with 13 CDs and my $25.00 Christmas gift card! Six of the thirteen albums were from the Cheap Jazz album shelves and you can read about them here. Of the remaining seven, four are Alt-Country/Folk albums, two blues albums and one New Age album. Here they are: Read More

Riders of the Universe – Amen Road – Ride On!

Riders of the Universe : Netherlands

I must say that what first attracted me to Riders of the Universe new album was the cover. But it only took listening to a few minutes of the opening track “We AreRiders Pt 1 & 2” For me to know that I was going to like this album. I had it on in the background the other night as I was reading and when the title track “Amen Road” came on my ears perked up, and I thought I have to pay more attention to these guys! I did just that , yesterday, and again in morning, which only reinforced the fact that I really like this album!! Read More

Live Albums – Here are Sixteen of My Favorites!

So this afternoon I made a run to the library, which was closed because of the massive storm that luckily missed our area, sorry Massachusetts. . The  soundtrack for the trip was  the new live blues album from Brandon Santini, Live and Extended, which is a really great and I will probably write about it tomorrow. As I listened to the album, I started thinking about my favorite live albums. Several albums like Happy Trails from Quicksilver Messenger Service, Absolutely Live from The Doors and Ten Years After’s Undead quickly came to mind. But then I thought of several others, and then still more, until I quickly had a list of 10 plus albums! So here is a short list of my favorite all-time live albums….. Read More