Dexys’ Do-over Kevin Rowland’s overlooked 1999 album, My Beauty, got a deserved second chance with its 2020 rerelease. Now Too-Rye-Ay, the sophomore LP from Rowland’s band, Dexys Midnight Runners, is getting another shot in the spotlight as well, thanks to a recently issued three-CD 40th-anniversary edition. Unlike My Beauty, Too-Rye-Ay didn’t go unnoticed when it […]
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Carly’s Surprise The most you can usually hope for when you walk into New York City’s Grand Central Station is that your train will be on time, but travelers on April 2, 1995, got something more: a surprise concert by Carly Simon. The show—the first live performance in 14 years for the performer, who suffers […]
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At around 6:00, the opening of the doors inside the Birchmere Music is a ritual that is ingrained with music history spanning over forty years and the countless legends who have played on this stage in Alexandria, Virginia just outside Washington, D.C. Outside the 500 seat listening room, fans would gather in the early afternoon […]
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Dead of Winter “I will measure up my life, my days as they go screaming by With Xs on the calendar, till pennies on my eyes I will count my many blessings with gratefulness my mentor And I will count myself in luck as I count the dead of winter” An unfinished song by […]
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Elvis Presley’s precipitous decline, which led to his death in August 1977, appears to have begun about four years earlier. He did perform a hugely popular TV special in January of 1973 (Aloha from Hawaii), but that’s the year when his divorce was finalized, the hit singles stopped coming, his drug use was rising, and […]
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Grooves & Cuts January 2023 – by John Apice Every now & then I rummage through all the music I’ve received, been pitched, in my own collection, or acquired through friends in shoeboxes, milk crates & overseas containers. Stuff that came from major labels & independents or directly from artists. I have had CDs & […]
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An Unusual Anthology Collects Hits from 1957, plus Marvin Gaye and Diane Hubka Most multi-artist anthologies embrace some sort of cohesive musical theme, such as a focus on a particular genre or the work of a certain performer or composer. That’s not the case with American Bandstand US Top 100, 5th August 1957. This four-CD […]
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A Box Set Showcases Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind Sessions, plus Jeb Loy Nichols and Josh Sinton By 1997, many fans had probably lost track of the number of times Bob Dylan had fallen short or gone silent, been counted out, and then proved the critics wrong with yet another tremendous album. He did […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand: January 2023 By Bill Bentley The Bad Ends, The Power and the Glory. What’s better than a surprise? When The Bad Ends album was released and holding down the drum spot was R.E.M.’s Bill Berry, it was like a circle had been completed. Berry had supplied so much of the power and finesse […]
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Bob Weir, the Impressions with Jerry Butler, Orchestra Gold, & Howdy Glenn “Hey, That Sounds Like a Dead Album” Though Bob Weir’s name is on the cover, 1972’s Ace sounds like a Grateful Dead album because…well, that’s what it is. True, Weir provided all the lead vocals for the record, which was ostensibly his solo […]
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