Led Zeppelin“Destroyer” April 2, 1977. Cleveland, Ohio Yesterday (June 28) marked nineteen years since my brother was killed. I spent most of the evening listening to music to that reminds me him, which included some of the mighty Zeppelin. But I neither need to nor will make any excuses for digging the Led Zeppelin and…
As a rule I avoid weddings and funerals. They both represent transitional stages for which I’m not ready, and – if I had my way – would put off indefinitely. However I’ve often sat around thinking about what music I would like to have playing at both of them, should I be so unfortunate as…
This album from 1958 had a profound influence on a great many people involved with the “folk revival” in the United States during the 1960s. Elizabeth Cotten played finger-style guitar and banjo that brings to mind her much better-known contemporary, Mississippi John Hurt, rooted in cross-picking patterns related to ragtime. Cotten, like Hurt, had basically…
Syl Johnson – Is It Because I’m Black, 1969-1971 (2006) 320kbsFeaturing the Hi Records crew and arrangements by Donny Hathaway So, I *believe* that the first 8 tracks of this CD make up what is a stone-soul classic of an album, a lost classic of Chicago soul at that. It really is nothing short of…
Fred McDowell was a one-man blues orchestra. Although sometimes playing in a trio setting, the recordings most considered ~classic~ consist of just him on voice and guitar, sometimes electric, sometimes acoustic. Like most, if not all, of his contemporaries in southern blues from the same era, he would cover all the bases with finesse and…
Sister Rosetta TharpeComplete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, 1938-1944Volume 2, 1942-1944 1 I Want a Tall Skinnny Papa Millinder 2:51 2 What He Done for Me Traditional 2:39 3 I Want Jesus to Walk Around My Bedside Harris 2:38 4 All Over This World Traditional 2:42 5 Pure Religion Traditional 2:33 6 This Train Tharpe…
