Blogroll

Midweek Music Moment: Chicago V, Chicago

Thirty-seven years ago hard-core Chicago fans like me thought the rest of the county had finally caught on. In retrospect, what we were seeing was actually the beginning of a new and different path, one that would lead some of us from the band.

On August 19, 1972, Chicago V became the number one album […]

Book Review: Pistonhead by Thomas A. Hauck

Although I don’t watch the show, the concept behind American Idol strikes me as a microcosm of music in America today. The general auditions attract “tens of thousands each year, a few hundred might get to audition for the judges, a couple dozen might be “semifinalists” and the show then winnows them out with some […]

Midweek Music Moment: Highway 61 Revisited, Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan took only six days to record Highway 61 Revisited, the last being August 4, 1965. What did he accomplish in those six days? Well, the album itself ranked fourth in Rolling Stone‘s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. The opening track, “Like A Rolling Stone,” tops the magazine’s list of […]

Midweek Music Moment: The Concert for Bangladesh

We didn’t realize it at the time but one of them there paradigm shifts occurred in music on August 1, 1971. That afternoon and evening, more than two dozen famous and not so famous musicians performed at two sold out shows at Madison Square Garden. Gathered by George Harrison, the performances were benefit concerts for […]

Midweek Music Moment: The Uninvited, The Uninvited

So the opening tune on a CD makes clear it’s a guitar band that knows how to use power chords. You grab the CD box to see who’s playing what and something jumps out at you — electric banjo. What? A pop rock band with an electric banjo? Well, that’s just part of the eclectic […]