Michael Jackson towered over the 1980s the way Elvis Presley dominated the 1950s, and here’s why. On Thriller, the child R&B star ripened into a Technicolor soulman: a singer, dancer, and songwriter with incomparable crossover instincts. – Rolling Stone By 1982, Michael Jackson had been … Continue reading Featured Album – Thriller – Michael Jackson
Until I started researching this post, I would have sworn on a stack of Bibles that the original version of this song was done by The Animals. It just had that gritty sound that we came to expect from them. As a matter of fact, … Continue reading One Song/Three Versions – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
(pictured: The Neville Brothers) When I do a longer series, I like to take a break in the middle. Hence this side trip from San Francisco to The Big Easy. In the meantime, if you want your Dead fix, I’ll cheat a little bit and … Continue reading Tres Songs – New Orleans Gumbo
Note: Blues great James Cotton passed away a few days ago. The Music Enthusiast is working on a post about this essential singer and harmonica player. Junior Walker (born Autry deWalt Mixon) was a Midwestern kid who picked up the saxophone in high school. He got … Continue reading Jr. Walker & The All Stars
When I first heard the Rolling Stones were going to record an all-blues cover album, I thought yay! and then hmmm. Yay, because they originally started out as a blues band. And they have always continued playing some blues, even doing acoustic sets in their live … Continue reading Album Review – Blue and Lonesome – Rolling Stones
I had initially drafted this post to celebrate what I – and pretty much everybody – thought was going to be a Hillary Clinton win. But to see we are all shocked here would be a tremendous understatement. I don’t think even Trump’s supporters thought … Continue reading A Song I Love – River Boulevard – The Pointer Sisters
In the New England area, there is a chain of convenience stores called Tedeschi Food Shops. The stores were started in the 1920’s by a guy named Angelo Tedeschi. And like any good family, one would assume his great-granddaughter Susan would enter the family business. … Continue reading Tedeschi Trucks Band
