Grant Hart - Intolerance

Grant Hart - Intolerance - 1989

Grant Vernon Hart was an American musician, best known as the drummer and co-songwriter for the alternative rock and hardcore punk band Hüsker Dü. After the band's breakup in 1988, he formed the alternative rock trio Nova Mob, where he moved to vocals and guitar. His solo career became his main focus after the dissolution of Nova Mob in 1997.

As the co-songwriter of Hüsker Dü, Hart's songs (such as "The Girl Who Lives on Heaven Hill" and "Turn on the News") received praise from critics and contemporaries. His vocal style, in contrast to that of Hüsker Dü bandmate Bob Mould, had a more measured and melodic delivery. His choice of lyrical themes, which ranged from teenage alienation in "Standing by the Sea" and the depiction of a murder in "Diane," to playful story-telling in "Books About UFOs," helped to expand the subject matter of hardcore punk.

Grant Hart's first full-length solo album after the breakup of Hüsker Dü, 1989's Intolerance is an eclectic, sometimes disorienting mishmash of styles that surprisingly works more often than not. From the psychedelic tape frenzy and carnival organ of the opening "All of My Senses" onwards, Hart largely disavows his punk roots in favor of a variety of late-'60s styles, including the Blonde on Blonde pastiche (complete with caterwauling harmonica) "Now That You Know Me" and the sneering Van Morrison shuffle "You're the Victim," one of several songs that seem to touch on the acrimonious breakup of Hüsker Dü. The harrowing "The Main" is a piano-led, almost gospel-like first-person chronology of drug addiction, one of the most vivid and personal songs Hart has ever written, while the remake of "2541," his pained remembrance of the band's old rehearsal space from his debut EP, gives the previously acoustic song a dose of electric rock & roll energy that suits it just fine. It didn't get the press attention of Bob Mould's much slicker Workbook, out around the same time, but Intolerance is probably the better album.

Hart died on September 13, 2017 from liver cancer.

01. All Of My Senses
02. Now That You Know Me
03. Fanfare In D Major (Come, Come)
04. The Main
05. Twenty-Five Forty-One
06. Roller-Rink
07. You're The Victim
08. Anything
09. She Can See The Angels Coming
10. Reprise

Grant Hart - Vocals, All Instruments







+@320

Chris Norman - Don't Knock The Rock

Chris Norman - Don't Knock The Rock - 2017

Famed for fronting huge 70’s hit band Smokie, Chris Norman has gone on to carve a successful solo career since leaving the band in 1986, when his first single ‘Midnight Lady’ became a massive hit throughout Europe including holding the German No.1 slot for 6 weeks!

Now, with over 20 solo albums to his name, he’s back with a brand new collection and sounding better than ever. It is an eclectic mix of new and original recordings that have that his unmistakable sound. The tracks are hallmarks of a true singer-songwriter with timeless melodies and memorable harmonies that soar. The single ‘Crawling Up The Wall’ is an instant classic highlighting Chris’ unique and instantly recognisable voice. Chris Norman was destined for show business after coming from a family with connections reaching back two generations. His Grandparents toured their own concert party around England during the First World War and their daughter Pat (Chris’s mother) joined a dance troupe when she left school. Pip Norman, (Chris’s Dad) was part of a dancing/comedy act called ‘The Four Jokers’ and worked all over Europe in the 1930s/40s and had a British Royal Variety Performance to their credit.

He got his first guitar at the age of seven and his early musical influences were Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly and Lonnie Donegan. Later the 60’s beat groups, in particular The Beatles, and the folk singer Bob Dylan, were a huge influence on Chris. He formed a band at school and played all over the UK in the late 60s and early seventies.

By 1974 the group had developed their own sound reflecting their close three part harmonies and Chris’s distinctive vocal sound wrapped up in a guitar rock sound, a sort of mixture between Crosby, Stills & Nash and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The band changed their name to ‘Smokie’ and their first album ‘Pass it Around’ was released in 1975 on Micky Most’s RAK records. Smokie had started as an album orientated rock act and their many live experiences had given Chris and Smokie a good grounding in all the tricks of the Rock 'n’ Roll trade. Chris remembers: “We weren't so much interested in pop singles at first. That's why the back cover of our first LP ‘PASS IT AROUND’ was designed in a way that made us look kind of folk/rocky instead of a Glamrock band.”

Nevertheless, by the summer of that year they had their first hit single with ‘If you think you know how to love me’. This was followed by a string of 15 hit singles including ‘Living next door to Alice’, ‘I’ll meet you at Midnight’, ‘Lay back in the arms of Someone’, etc. Plus the very successful duet with Suzi Quatro, ‘Stumblin’ In’ which gave Chris his first taste of success outside the group.

01. Don't Knock the Rock
02. Crawling up the Wall
03. Sun Is Rising
04. You Are the Light
05. Sweet Virginia
06. Good, Good Loving
07. Losing You
08. If We Had Wings
09. On Night of Love
10. Resurrection
11. Chasing After Starlight
12. Straight to My Heart
13. Suicide Street
14. Little Butterfly 

+@320

Simo - Rise & Shine

Simo - Rise & Shine - 2017

Rise & Shine is the new album from Nashville trio SIMO on Provogue/Mascot Label Group (Black Country Communion, Joe Bonamassa, Black Stone Cherry, Monster Truck, Beth Hart, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Walter Trout, Jonny Lang)

The album began taking shape on the road, where SIMO’s three bandmates — singer, guitarist and namesake frontman JD Simo; drummer Adam Abrashoff; and bassist Elad Shapiro — spent most of 2016 on tour. They played 215 shows that year (including supporting Beth Hart, Blackberry Smoke and the late great Gregg Allman) leaving behind their Nashville headquarters and traveling to nine different countries in support of their Billboard Top 10 blues album, Let Love Show the Way. The trio worked on new music along the way, hashing out chord changes in hotel rooms and tweaking song arrangements during soundcheck. It was a time of growth and self-improvement for everyone, and they became better friends, better musicians, and better people. At the same time, the outside world was changing. Political pundits were screaming at one another. Elections were pitting candidate against candidate, party against party, neighbour against neighbour. The need to write music that truly meant something — music that not only demonstrated the band’s explosive chops, but also sent a clear messag.

NB --> The Best Album of 2017'

01. Return    
02. Meditation    
03. Shine    
04. People Say    
05. Don't Waste Time    
06. I Want Love    
07. The Climb    
08. Light The Candle    
09. Be With You    
10. The Light    
11. I Pray

JD Simo - Guitar & Vocal
Elad Shapiro - Bass
Adam Abrashogg - Drums

+@320

Others JD SIMO' Albums? Click HERE

HillBenders - Tommy - A Bluegrass Opry

The Hillbenders - Tommy - A Bluegrass Opry - 2015

From RollingStone.com

On paper, it sounds like the Pickin' On… album from hell: the Who's classic 1969 rock opera, but all-acoustic and played on bluegrass instrumentation. And yet this Appalachian take on Tommy — played on banjo, guitar, mandolin, doghouse bass and Dobro with nary a kickdrum or electric guitar in sight — is as awesome as it is audacious, a fully satisfying interpretation that walks a just-right line between homage and reinvention. Keith Moon's thunderous drums were such a key part of the original's percussive atmosphere that you wouldn't think a drum-free version could work, but the seamless arrangements deftly imply all the tempo flourishes you remember. Clipped strums substitute nicely for drumbeats, and Pete Townshend's steady rolling rhythm guitar transposes perfectly to banjo. Best of all, mandolinist/frontman Nolan Lawrence pulls off Roger Daltrey - style bellowing with operatic, lusty aplomb

+@320

Doug Pettibone - Gone

Doug Pettibone - Gone - 2014

Doug Pettibone started to play the guitar at the age of eight. His first teacher was Andy Summers, formerly of The Police. With nine years, Doug studied with Eddie Lafreniere, guitarist for big band leader Jimmy Dorsey, with whom he spent the next five years studying the music of Dave Brubeck and Duke Ellington. Later he received a scholarship to Pepperdine University-Malibu for Jazz Guitar, Classical Guitar and Voice, graduating with a triple major in 1984. In the following years he played with many different artists of various genres.

In 1999, Doug started a world tour with Jewel that lasted for a year and a half. In 2001, he played pedal steel, mandolin and background vocals for Tracy Chapman's North American tour. Shortly after that, Lucinda Williams hired Pettibone as her multi-instrumentalist, singer and music director to tour, record, and co-produce. Doug´s intensive collaboration with Lucinda lasted for eight years, and continued at a later stage again. In the following years, Pettibone realized several projects with other artists. In 2004 Doug participated in the Legends Rock TV show produced in the South of France, featuring guest artists such as Sam Moore, Billy Preston and Tony Joe White. Ray LaMontagne is amongst the artist Doug went on tour with, in 2009 it was Marianne Faithfull who called him up to go on tour. After that Marianne Faithfull and Doug Pettibone started to write together new songs for a new album.

In the last few years, Pettibone has played live and/or recorded with some of the most influential artists of our times, among them Keith Richards, Norah Jones, Steve Earle, Elvis Costello, Joan Baez, Mark Knopfler, Draco Rosa, Sting, Michelle Shocked, Vic Chesnutt, Kevin Montgomery, amongst others. In 2012 he went on tour with Lisa Marie Presley, daughter of Elvis Presley.

01. Love Sick
02. California
03. Sugar
04. Gone
05. Big Love
06. Just Right
07. Old Friend
08. Long Haul
09. Baby What You Want Me to Do

Doug Pettibone - Guitar, Pedal Steel, Vocals
Lucinda Williams, Anne McCue, Chris Peirce - Vocals
Bill Frisell - Guitar
Taras Prodaniuk - Bass
Jim Christie - Drums
Hector Espinosa - Percussion
Sebastian Stienberg - Upright Bass
Phil Parlapiano, Rob Burger, Juan Covarrubias, Peter Schimke - Keyboards







+@192

Steve Winwood - Winwood Greatest Hits Live

Steve Winwood - Winwood Greatest Hits Live - 2017

The material on 'Winwood: Greatest Hits Live' is a collection of songs sourced from Winwood's personal archives of live performances. With a 23-song tracklist handpicked by Winwood, featuring his best loved songs, 'Greatest Hits Live' offers fans a definitive musical portrait of his five-decade career.

"I'm excited about the release because I have recorded every show for many years and so it evoked many memories of the performances and reactions from the fans over the years who have supported me," says Winwood. "I suppose it is sort of a tribute to the band members and crew I've been fortunate to have with me on the road. The songs were chosen for being the ones most recognized throughout my career which have left an impression and so I hope the record will be a souvenir that brings to mind happy memories of a good time experienced at one of my shows."

The expanded 2CD/4LP gatefold package features rare, previously unreleased material touching on all aspects of Winwood's extensive catalog, including contemporary arrangements of the music he created with the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith, and on his classic solo recordings. The collection channels R&B, Jazz, Funk, Folk, Classic Rock, Pop, and Afro-Caribbean & Brazilian rhythms, highlighting Winwood's unique ability to fuse multiple genres into a singular, cohesive musical expression. The record not only demonstrates Steve's mastery of the Hammond B3 Organ, but also showcases his remarkable guitar skills.

Featured songs include "Gimme Some Lovin'", "Back In The High Life Again", "Can't Find My Way Home", "Arc Of A Diver", "Higher Love", "Roll With It", "While You See A Chance", "Dear Mr. Fantasy", and "The Low Spark Of High Heeled Boys", among many others.

For more than five decades and over 50 million records sold since he burst into prominence at the age of 15 with the Spencer Davis Group, Steve Winwood has remained a primary figure in Rock 'n' Roll, a respected innovator who has helped to create some of the genre's most celebrated achievements. His skills as a composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist have developed an impressive catalog of popular music.

Winwood, named one of the 'Greatest Singers Of All Time' by Rolling Stone Magazine, is a recipient of the Ivor Novello Outstanding Song Collection, the BMI Icon Award, the Musicians Union Classic Rock Award, the Nashville Symphony Harmony Award and has been nominated for 11 Grammys, winning two. Steve has received Honorary Doctorate degrees in Music from Berklee College of Music, Aston University in Birmingham, England; and from The University of Gloucestershire. In 2004, Traffic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the following year, he was honored for his "enduring influence on generations of music makers" by BMI.

CD1

01. I’m A Man
02. Them Changes
03. Fly
04. Can’t Find My Way Home
05. Had To Cry Today
06. Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
07. Empty Pages
08. Back In The High Life Again
09. Higher Love
10. Dear Mr Fantasy
11. Gimme Some Lovin


CD2

01. Rainmaker
02. Pearly Queen
03. Glad
04. Why Can’t We Live Together
05. 40,000 Headmen
06. Walking In The Wind
07. Medicated Goo
08. John Barleycorn
09. While You See A Chance
10. Arc Of A Diver
11. Freedom Overspill
12. Roll With It


+@320