This record has a pretty sterling critical reputation and one has to think that has to do with the overall quality of Hardin’s songs and the fact that this is a debut (so it likely took a few people off guard). Because there is a pretty problem with this album and most of the reviews …
Tag: Blues
Spirit in the Dark (1970) by Aretha Franklin
This is particularly bluesy Aretha record, at least based on my very slight knowledge of her catalogue. Though it produced two hits, it infamously did relatively poorly as an album and, listening to it, it’s fairly easy to see why.
12 Songs (1970) by Randy Newman
With virtually every Randy Newman album I’ve yet encountered my problem with him has in part been the aesthetic – a unique and not particularly compelling singer singing acerbic is often backed by extremely slick arrangements. But that’s not the case here as Newman has abandoned the massed arrangements of his debut for members of …
Blue Valentine (1978) by Tom Waits
I am very a much a fan of the Tom Waits who reinvented himself and who gave the world a unique sound. I am less a fan of the early Tom Waits, whose music was far less inventive and imaginative. That’s not to say I dislike ’70s Waits, more to say that I prefer his …
Tell Mama (1968) by Etta James
Somehow this is the first time I’ve managed to give an Etta James album my requisite three listens. I definitely checked out at least one other, but for some reason dropped it from the podcast list.
Night Beat (1963) by Sam Cooke
The Sam Cooke I’m familiar with is a slick, polished soul singer, backed by lush, professional arrangements, singing catchy songs that blur the line between soul and pop. Not on this record. The story with this record seems to be that Cooke and his band recorded these songs over a few nights. I doubt they …
Texas Flood (1983) by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
When I was first becoming a really serious music fan, Stevie Ray Vaughan was just one of the guitar greats. It was just assumed but it was hard to really question it. If you talked to more knowledgeable (inevitably male) music fans about which guitarists to listen to, SRV was always on the list. I …
Cadillac Records (2008, Darnell Martin)
From the opening scenes of this docudrama about history of Chess Records, things feel a little off. The attempt to balance the stories of Leonard Chess and Muddy Waters feels a little wonky and the pacing definitely seems off. A man just walks up to Muddy in a field and says he’s Alan Lomax and …
Bo Diddley (1958) [Compilation]
I don’t like reviewing compilations normally and I try to avoid them as much as possible. But this record is an exception because, prior to this record, Bo Diddley had never released an LP, just singles, for about 3 years.
Taj Mahal (1968)
It’s interesting and illuminating listening to a a blues musician who came of age in the rock era, as opposed to the older ones making music at the same time. (Mahal was 25 at the time of this record.Albert King and BB King were in their 40s, for comparison.)
Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967)
Simone’s second of three albums in 1967 was her first for a new label and one wonders if that had a lot to do with the rather drastic left-turn on this record. As you can tell from the title, this is a blues record, where influence on her sound was rather muted on the previous …
The Best of RPM and Kent Recordings (2011) by BB King
This disc compiles some of King’s A-sides for both the RPM and Kent labels throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s.
King of the Blues Guitar (1969) by Alberta King
This is a reissue of Born Under a Bad Sign (released only two years before), with the addition of a few more tracks. (At least the version I am listening to, which has 17 tracks compared to the 11 listed for the original LP.) Born Under a Bad Sign was itself a compilation, this time …
The Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton (1966)
This is probably the definitive British blues album: it sounds like it could have been made by Americans in the US, it features great playing (particularly by Clapton) and I don’t know of any other pre-psychedelic blues album from the UK that is remotely this good. There is just one minor problem: by the time …
White Lies for Dark Times (2009) by Ben Harper and Relentless7
I have long struggled with Harper. When I arrived at University at the beginning of this century, I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I found was that there was a remarkable amount of commonality in the “underground” music that was cool. In fact, looking back it seems really odd to me that …
Alice (2002) by Tom Waits
So expectations were going to be high for something like this; a “lost” album from a theatrical production in Hamburg ten years earlier. No doubt many people came to this expecting the “lost masterpiece” that we almost always associate with the work major artists don’t record / release at the time of conception.
Alex Steen’s Hot Start to the 2013-14 NHL Season
I know Steen’s hot start this year is unsustainable and likely going to end very soon – his GPG is currently .93 on the season! But I can’t help regretting that the Leafs let him go and, moreover, that I supported the move at the time.
The Chess Box (1988, Chess) by Willie Dixon
So Dixon is unlike pretty much all the other major figures in post-war blues in that he rarely led groups. He was more of a songwriter and producer (and, of course, bassist). He’s only the frontman on something like 5 or 6 of these songs.
Lie to Me by Jonny Lang (1997 A&M)
I have no issues with Lang’s playing. He manages to sound like multiple players at different times, which is generally a good thing, since he doesn’t remind me of any one guitarist too much to seem derivative. He is a pretty good blues guitarist, and very good for his then age.