ONLY GOOD SONG

terça-feira, 31 de maio de 2011

Leon Russell - Bad Country

Leon Russell - Bad Country - 2008

By Stephen Thomas Erlewine, from cduniverse

One of many albums Leon Russell released on his own Leon Russell Records in the new millennium, Bad Country contains a selection of 12 original songs by Russell. As the title lightly implies, this is indeed a country album, but it's not bad - either in its quality or its sound, as the music is perfectly pleasant. There's not a lot of raunch here - it's a clean, slightly stiff production, sounding as if it has been stitched together with MIDI, as there's no breathing room in the rhythms and a slight steely ping to his keyboards. The only soul here comes from Russell's signature drawl, which is still in good shape, and while the songs here are hardly his best, they're nice showcases for Russell as an endearingly lazy country-rock stylist. To be sure, this is just for the fans - and it's even kind of marginal on that level - but if it doesn't have much that's compelling, it's not hard to enjoy in passing, either.

01. A Little Bit of Your Love
02. Honkytonk Dream
03. Oklahoma Girl
04. California Dreams
05. Hungry Eyes
06. Real Love
07. Rio Grande

08. Sweet Magic Love
09. Tennessee Hayride
10. Come Lay with Me
11. Bad Country

+@320

sexta-feira, 27 de maio de 2011

John Lennon - Madison Square Garden

John Lennon - Madison Square Garden - 30-Aug-1972

In September of 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono relocated to Greenwich Village in New York City and found themselves at the epicenter of political activism. They soon became friends with high profile activists Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman and began making public appearances protesting the Vietnam War and the imprisonment of Angela Davis and John Sinclair. Fearing Lennon's influence and more specifically, that he had the ability to humiliate President Richard Nixon, the FBI began investigating, documenting John and Yoko's every move in an effort to find grounds on which to deport him. It was against this highly charged political backdrop that John and Yoko began recording their album, Sometime In New York City, with an agenda to protest against the social injustices they observed in the United States. With Phil Spector producing and accompanied by members of the Plastic Ono Band and Elephant's Memory, the album was completed in March of 1972 and remains the most overtly political recordings Lennon ever recorded.

At the request of their friend Geraldo Rivera, shortly after the album was released, Lennon agreed to headline two charity concerts to benefit the Willowbrook Home, a facility for learning disabled children. Also featuring Sha Na Na, Roberta Flack, and Stevie Wonder, the event was called "One To One," and New York mayor John Lindsay declared the date, "One To One Day." Both concerts were filmed and recorded, with excerpts of the evening show broadcast on ABC Television and performances from the afternoon show eventually compiled for release in 1986 as the live album and home video releases Live In New York City. Not only would these performances go down in history as one of the few times John and Yoko ever performed material from the Sometimes In New York City album, but they would unfortunately prove to be John Lennon's last and only full-length public concerts following the breakup of The Beatles.

quarta-feira, 25 de maio de 2011

Delaney Bramlett - Sweet Inspiration

Delaney Bramlett - Sweet Inspiration - 2002

Born in Mississippi in 1939, Bramlett came to Los Angeles in the 1960s and played guitar in the house band for the TV pop show Shindig. With his then- wife Bonnie Lynn he formed the short-lived Southern blues-rock band Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The band toured as the opening act for Blind Faith, the supergroup that featured British guitarist Clapton. After Bramlett and his first wife divorced in the early '70s, they parted professionally as well, and he faded from the spotlight.

During his career, Bramlett performed, co-wrote or recorded with stars such as Harrison, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, John Lennon, Dave Mason, Billy Preston, J.J. Cale, the Everly Brothers and Mac Davis. He also produced artists including Etta James and Elvin Bishop.

domingo, 22 de maio de 2011

Denny Laine - Reborn

Denny Laine - Reborn - 2001

By Joe Viglione, from answers.com

Reborn is a brilliant album by an erratic and often misdirected artist. It is, actually, quite refreshing in its simplicity, with Laine's vocals surprisingly in good shape. In the late '80s and early '90s, the founding member of the Moody Blues who should never have left Wings had little of his great voice left.

He was performing in New England doing covers of previous glories, talking about a musical opera he was writing, and raising a daughter with his girlfriend Helen Grant, daughter of the late Peter Grant, manager of Led Zeppelin. Hearing "Hard Labor" on this disc definitely shows the rebirth the title track acknowledges. The voice is more flawed here than on other tracks, but it works, like a drunken Steve Marriott might sound today had he lived, raspy and sincere. Brian Hines, in his Denny Laine persona, crams choruses he was so good at creating into compact little tunes with great melodies. "Misty Mountain" is a good example - this pop tune dives right into that sound Laine helped establish.What a shame he didn't come up with songs like this when Paul McCartney generously gave him room to express himself on Wings albums.