Charles Brown is a fascinating figure in American music. He’s great, first of all. Absolutely great. He’s legendary in the blues and traditional R&B worlds, but most people now probably don’t know him by name. He was a singer, pianist, and songwriter. The easiest way to describe Brown’s sound is he is where Ray Charles…
I just got a new CD player (the guy at the store would tell you it’s a 4K HD, Blu-ray, entertainment hub or something, but I got it to play CDs). It’s amazing. Revelatory. I don’t know how I’ve lived so long without one. I know that sounds weird. This isn’t 1988. I know no…
I discovered Esperanza Spalding in 2005. I was at a show celebrating George Wein (founder of the Newport Jazz Festival among many other things). Herbie Hancock played, and Spalding was the bassist in his band. They sounded great. I was an instant fan. I still remember when Herbie introduced the band, when he got to…
I saw Lisa Fischer perform a couple of nights ago at the Ridgefield Playhouse. She was accompanied by Taylor Eigsti on piano. It’s the first live music I’ve seen in over a year. That’s gotta be my longest drought ever. The venue was only at partial capacity, we wore masks, maintained social distance, and I’m…
Daft Punk announced they are splitting up. Normally, I wouldn’t even notice the announcement. I’ve never been a fan. They’re just not my thing. If they’re yours, I’m glad they were able to bring you happiness over the years. I am a little bit familiar with them. I was managing a record store when Discovery…
My car was in the shop recently, so I was driving a borrowed car for a few days. Normally, when I drive, I listen to CDs or my iPod. (Yes, I said iPod. The old school iPods are way better than smartphones as music players.) Since it was temporary, I decided not to load any…
Anyone who knows me, or anyone who has read my December posts from past years, knows that I love holiday music. I binge it every year starting the day after Thanksgiving. It always makes me happy. I’ve written many things about my favorite holiday songs. Today, I thought I’d try something a little different and…
As the 2010’s come to a close, there are a ton of “best of” lists floating around. I’m not going to do a best of because I don’t understand how you rank things like that. But, I thought I’d share some of my favorite music from the past decade. Basically, this is music that I…
Many of you know that each year I do a holiday music binge starting the day after Thanksgiving and ending on Christmas day. It’s one of my favorite parts of December. This year, my favorite has been Sacred Steel for the Holidays by The Campbell Brothers. So, I wanted to share it with everyone. The…
This is my ninth story for the 12 stories in 12 months challenge. This month’s prompt was “For the glory,” and the word count was 1,250. As usual, I came in slightly below the word count, so I had to add some padding. Otherwise this month went pretty smoothly. Let me know what you think….
