Contrary to popular belief, the Big Band Era didn’t end in the 1950s when the popularity for the form diminished in sales. Big bands have continued throughout time and still exist today. One of the premier big bands of the mid-to-late 1970s was the Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band. The group released a clutch of […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Long Haired Country Boy” by Charlie Daniels Band
Before he became a right-wing zealot, recording TV-sold religious records, Charlie Daniels was a superb session musician, songwriter and producer. Daniels wrote songs for Elvis Presley (“It Hurts Me”) in the early 1960s, and played on numerous late ‘60s sessions for producer Bob Johnston including on records by Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, Marshall Tucker Band […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “True Thrush” by Dan Deacon
Somewhere between the robotic synchronicity of Philip Glass and the electro-crunch of LCD Soundsystem that threatens to dance yerself clean, lies the sound of Dan Deacon’s latest record “America.” Some categorize it as electronica…others contemporary classical…I just listen and marvel at one of the truly original artists making music today. Case in point is this […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Baby Hold On” by Eddie Money
This ex-NYC cop burst onto the music scene in 1977 with his own brand of meat ’n’ potatoes rock that fit perfectly into FM radio formats of the day. It was rock impresario, Bill Graham, who signed the former Eddie Mahoney to his management company and secured him a record deal with Columbia Records resulting […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Loser” by Grateful Dead
The mammoth box from the Grateful Dead archives “Spring 1990” features 18 discs spanning six full shows between March and April 1990. If you believe the powers that be at Dead.net, the Spring 1990 tour was “consistently great, where every show is excellent, not a dud in the bunch.” Now I saw my share of […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “All Apologies” by Nirvana
I don’t know how many people realized what we had with Kurt Cobain when he was alive…much less himself…but his contributions to music have grown enormously with the passage of time. No time to write today…it’s Yom Kippur and that would be considered work. So I will just leave you with “All Apologies” until tomorrow […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “I’m Sorry” by Brenda Lee
Brenda Lee was 15 years old when she recorded her smash hit and Decca Records held back the release of the single because they thought she was too young to be sorry for, well, anything. When it was finally released on a single, it was the flip-side to the up-tempo hit “That’s All You Gotta […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Labrador” by Aimee Mann
Aimee Man has been creating articulate character sketches in song since the 1980s when she was MTV-marketed as part of the group ‘Til Tuesday and could regularly be seen (heavily made up) singing “Voices Carry” sandwiched between Milli Vanilli and Culture Club videos. After the demise of ‘Til Tuesday, Mann set out on a solo […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Aurora” by Oregon
Orgeon is a progressive Jazz quartet that created a singular sound all of their own by melding a then New Age sensibility (before New Age was a genre) with Indian sensibilities. Featuring phenomenal musicianship courtesy of the world-class talents of Ralph Towner on guitar, Paul McCandless on reeds, Glen Moore on piano and the late, […]
Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Trying” by Dwight Yoakam
It’s been seven years since Dwight Yoakam’s last album of original material and although time has moved on, it has seemingly stood still when it comes to this album…and that, of course, is a good thing. Yoakam has been treading the line between honky-tonk country and roots rock ‘n’ roll for over 30 years and […]
