The late music producer Joe Meek has often been called England’s answer to Phil Spector, and the comparison is apt. Both men created their greatest work in the 1960s, and both viewed the recording studio as if it were as important as the singers or their instruments. The final chapters of their lives also included […]
Rory Block – Heavy On the Blues Aside from Rory’s impeccable guitar playing is her vocal inflection, intonation & phrasing on these vintage blues are so impressive. Rory doesn’t have the lived-in sandpapered voices of veteran blues elders, but does have dedicated skill, tonality, character & personality in her showcase. It’s not the roast beef […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand July 2024 By Bill Bentley Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore, TEXICALI. These two musical brothers have always had a strong connection. Dave Alvin covered the rock & roll waterfront a little more than Jimmie Dale Gilmore, but Gilmore dug into country a bit deeper than Alvin did coming up. But in the end they […]
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An Exhaustive Rascals Box Set Stevie Van Zandt heaped a ton of praise on the Rascals when he inducted them into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. If you think he was being hyperbolic, you probably haven’t heard the group, which likely means you weren’t around in the mid and late 1960s. […]
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Rory Block – Positively Fourth Street – A Tribute To Bob Dylan Several artists have recorded full LPs of nothing but Bob Dylan songs (Judy Collins, Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music & Fairport Convention & Friends among others). But a raw voiced, guitar virtuoso like Rory Block – that’s a different turn of the card. […]
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Music & Film Reviews: Dion Girl Friends and the Rolling Stones Live at the Wiltern’ plus John Smith and Doris Troy Dion DiMucci, one of rock’s most deservedly celebrated singers, regularly occupied high positions on the pop charts from 1957 to 1963, first with his group the Belmonts, and then on his own. He hasn’t […]
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Pink Floyd Remixed ‘Animals,’ Mark Knopfler’s ‘Studio Albums 2009–2018,’ and Rory Block’s ‘Ain’t Nobody Worried’ Your first question about the recently released 2018 remix of Pink Floyd’s Animals might well be, “Why did a 2018 remix take four years to come out?” The answer is that it took the group’s Roger Waters and David Gilmour […]
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