Musically Rich

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner, I’m going to string another series of albums together for you that will give you another set of albums to check out during these times while stuck at home! The journey starts out in Nashville, TN with an album from the mid-‘70s Outlaw Country movement. From there, we will go to California, hop over to Jamaica, and take a detour through England before coming back to America for some hip-hop and jazz.

Waylon Jennings- I’ve Always Been Crazy > Jimmy Buffett- A White Sport Coat And A Pink Crustacean- Waylon puts out another classic Outlaw Country album with a set of Nashville’s best sidemen. Jimmy Buffett’s second album still has him focusing on a folk/country sound with a set of players that also include some top notch players including Steve Goodman and Memphis-born Reggie Young who plays guitar in the backing band on both of the above albums!

Buffett > Old & In The Way- s/t- The one notable player I didn’t mention above in Buffett’s band is the carryover to Old & In The Way, fiddler Vassar Clements. The great bluegrass fiddler joins the supergroup including Jerry Garcia, John Kahn and Peter Rowan for a great, one-off live, bluegrass album (2 later albums came out that contained 2 full shows that went into the creation of this album).

Old & In The Way > Peter Rowan- Reggaebilly!- Peter Rowan goes from Old & In The Way to his solo album, Reggaebilly!, which combines reggae and bluegrass in both the musical content and the players!

Rowan > Lee Perry “The Upsetter” presents- Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Corn Bread- One of the reggae artists that were part of the Peter Rowan album is extremely well-known guitarist, Earl “Chinna” Smith. He is one of the most recorded reggae musicians ever and was also on Lee Perry’s album “Roast Fish, Collie Weed & Corn Bread”, which also contained drummer…

Lee Perry > Peter Tosh- Bush Doctor- Sly Dunbar. Best known as half of the duo Sly & Robbie he also played drums for many other reggae artists and on a ton of albums. That includes the album “Bush Doctor” by Peter Tosh. This album was made shortly after Tosh befriended the Rolling Stones and had The Stones down in Jamaica for the making of the album which is how it included guitarist…

Tosh > Keith Richards- Crosseyed Heart- Keith Richards. Obviously, best known as the guitarist for The Stones, Keith Richards played with Tosh and I’m following that with one of his recent solo releases “Crosseyed Heart”. This album also features some backup vocals from…

Keith Richards > Q-Tip- The Renaissance- Norah Jones. She not only is working with Richards, but she also shows up on Q-Tip’s “The Renaissance” singing the hook for the song ‘Life Is Better’.

Q-Tip > Kurt Rosenwinkel- Heartcore- Q-Tip is the holdover into my final album on this trip. He is going from his solo album here to produce the amazing jazz guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel and his album “Heartcore”. A laid back album, overall, Q-Tip shows that he can venture far away from the world of hip-hop and dives headlong into a jazz album from an (at the time) young and upcoming guitarist who has sense proven to be one of the best modern jazz artists we have.

I hope you have the chance to check out some of these albums and find a new favorite or two!

Enjoy the music!

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner, I’m going to string another series of albums together for you that will give you another set of albums to check out during these times while stuck at home! Today we are going on a journey that starts with a 1957 album by Thelonious Monk then flies through some jazz fusion, into the jam scene, seeing some blues and finishing off in the early 1990s rock movement.

Thelonious Monk- Brilliant Corners > Sonny Rollins- Don’t Stop The Carnival- “Brilliant Corners” is a jazz masterpiece that features Sonny Rollins on saxophone. I think it then goes without saying that Sonny Rollins is the holdover on his live album “Don’t Stop The Carnival”, which gives him the room to mix traditional jazz, music from the Caribbean and funk in this highly engaging set that features Donald Byrd on a little over half the program. It also features drummer extraordinaire…

Sonny > The New Tony Williams Lifetime- Million Dollar Legs- Tony Williams is the holdover from the Rollins’ album to the revamped version (both in personnel and sound) of his fusion outfit. This is a great album with phenomenal playing from all involved, especially guitarist…

Tony Williams > Allan Holdsworth with I.O.U.- Metal Fatigue- Allan Holdsworth is the holdover here. Allan keeps the fusion fireworks going here with a stacked band, which includes…

A.H. > John McLaughlin & The 4th Dimension/Jimmy Herring & The Invisible Whip- Live In San Francisco- Gary Husband. Drummer/keyboardist Gary Husband contributed to the Allan Holdsworth albums and is a member of John McLaughlin’s 4th Dimension band. This live album is taken from John McLaughlin’s tour in which Jimmy Herring and his band The Invisible Whip opened for them. This album catches the third set in which both bands would join together to play classic Mahavishnu Orchestra material.

JM > Col. Bruce Hampton & The Aquarium Rescue Unit- s/t- Jimmy Herring is also the guitarist in the Aquarium Rescue Unit. A band started by Col. Bruce Hampton that was originally just a weekly jam session in a club that started to get a handful of regular players coming in.

ARU > Fiji Mariners featuring Col. Bruce Hampton- s/t- Col. Bruce Hampton also runs this collective (I don’t know, maybe super group) known as the Fiji Mariners.  This album, which overall, has a strong upbeat vibe to it includes great guitarist…

Fiji > Susan Tedeschi- Back To The River- Derek Trucks. Along with playing in the Fiji Mariners he also (at the time of both of these albums) also had his own band and was playing with The Allman Brothers Band. He is one of the guitarists on Back To The River.

ST > Pearl Jam- Vs.- Until I was gazing at the liner notes on Susan Tedeschi’s album, I would have never guessed I’d be jumping from a 2008 Tedeschi album to a 1993 Pearl Jam album. There it was though, longtime Pearl Jam producer (and producer of Vs.) Brendan O’ Brien playing guitar on one of the tracks from “Back To The River”.

I hope you found something new in this article whether a new album or two, or some new information about an album you are already familiar with.

Enjoy the music!

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner, I’m going to string another series of albums together for you that will give you another set of albums to check out during these times while stuck at home! Today’s list will start you in London with some early ‘60s British Blues Rock. From there we will take a trip that takes us to the birth of psychedelic rock in San Francisco across the country to the start of the Northeastern jamband scene, cut through a singer/songwriter and back to LA for a modern telling of the Laurel Canyon scene. Here are plenty of fun albums to give a listen to as we make our way through these times.

John Mayall Blues Breakers w/ Eric Clapton > The Beatles- s/t (White Album)- Between his start with The Yardbirds and his time in the power trio Cream, Clapton collaborated on one album with John Mayall (his second album). This is the first Blues Breakers album Mayall released, and following this pairing he had great success breaking guitar heroes from his Blues Breakers’ groups, including Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), and Harvey Mandel (Canned Heat) amongst many others over the years. The Beatles released their “White Album” in 1968 and it is their most individualized album (most of the songs were brought in, and in many cases, recorded in isolation of each other. The crossover is fairly famously known; Eric Clapton played the guitar solo on ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’.

The Beatles > Gary Moore- Still Got The Blues- British guitar player released “Still Got The Blues” in 1990. A very good hard rocking blues album, it featured George Harrison on guitar on a track to link it to The Beatles album.

Gary Moore > Jerry Garcia Band- 12/31/1975- Nicky Hopkins played keyboards with Gary Moore on his blues rock album. Nicky Hopkins, despite being on seemingly everything coming out from the British Rock movement all of a sudden also was seemingly all over the ‘60s/early’70s San Francisco scene from Quicksilver Messenger Service to working with Jefferson Airplane (or at least with a number of their members). What that all led to was him being the initial (albeit relatively short-lived) keyboardist for the Jerry Garcia Band, I have this show and two other bootlegs from this time period and I will say I think it is Jerry Garcia at his best on guitar, that I’ve heard, during these +/- 6 months that this line-up was together.

JGB > Grateful Dead- Fare Thee Well- You might think that this is obvious, JGB to the Dead must be Jerry…not this time, Bob Weir and Mickey Hart both make special appearances with the NYE show by JGB and, of course, were part of the Fare Thee Well Shows.

Fare Thee Well > Phish- The Baker’s Dozen: Live At Madison Square Garden- Filling in for Jerry (who passed away in 1995) Trey Anastasio joined the Grateful Dead for their final run of shows at Soldier Field in Chicago. Then, you can also find him leading his band, Phish, live through highlights of a 13 night run at MSG.

Phish > Cass McCombs- Mangy Love- The bass player for Phish, Mike Gordon, has many side projects and artists that he works with. One of those is Cass McCombs and Gordon is one of the bass players to appear on the brilliant singer/songwriter album “Mangy Love”.

Cass > Circles Around The Sun- s/t- On “Mangy Love” Cass McCombs also finds the bass player that will be his permanent player going forward, Dan Horne. He is also the bass player that Neal Casal (R.I.P.) had chosen for his psychedelic rock band, Circles Around The Sun. Another connection to this list with this band is that they were put together after Casal was tapped to create the Intermission music that would play alongside a film by Justin Kreutzmann.

CATS > GospelbeacH- Pacific Surf Line- Neal Casal along with starting CATS has been a guitar for hire in many bands, including Ryan Adams’ Cardinals. With this link, I’m going to bring up one of his stints in GospelbeacH in which he was a contributing member.

GospelbeacH > Beachwood Sparks- s/t- The final link in this run of albums takes Brent Rademaker who was a founding member of both GospelbeacH and his band that came before, Beachwood Sparks. A sunny, psychedelic tinged pop/rock group makes some fun music, and I have picked their debut album here for this list.

I hope this brings some new ideas for music to listen to while you have the time to do so. Hopefully, you found someone who played in a favorite group that you were not aware of, or a group you weren’t aware of that has one of your favorite musicians!

Enjoy the music!

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner, to continue trying to give you as many new music options as possible to listen to (for more, check out my Instagram, info below) I am going to string albums together. What I mean by this is each album is going to have a person that contributed that will be on the next album. I’m not going to use a single artist more than once in the line of albums. I will (as I did last week with my Medeski albums) try to keep these between 6-10 records. Enjoy, and I hope you find some new favorites!

From modern rock/Americana to ‘70s Latin rock and funk. Late ‘60s R&B to various subgenres of modern jazz including avant-garde and groove jazz. This list covers a lot of musical ground, with crossovers from album to album. Let’s get to them; I’ll try to be somewhat brief. I’m using a series of slashes to separate the two albums from the person in common and short descriptions of the albums. Also, I will use initials for the artist & album the second time I write it to save time.

The Wood Brothers- ‘Paradise’ > Oren Bloedow- ‘The Luckiest Boy In The World’/////// Chris Wood plays bass on the funky 2015 album by The Wood Brothers. It is incredibly catchy and will leave you waning more at the end of it. He also, played bass, alongside his cohorts in MMW, behind art-rock/pop musician Oren Bloedow. The group adds a great vibe to his songs.

OB-TLBITW > Charlie Hunter and Bobby Previte as Groundtruther w/ special guest John Medeski- ‘Altitude’/////////// John Medeski is one of the M's in MMW that backed the Oren Bloedow album. He also joined as a special guest on one of the three albums that guitarist Charlie Hunter and drummer Bobby Previte did together as the side project Groundtruther (yes, the other two albums are named Longitude and Latitude). Despite both having their fame come mostly from being able to get people up off their feet dancing by being funky and groove-oriented, they are both equally adept at all various subgenres of jazz and on this one they explore a completely improvised approach that takes the trio from the occasional groove into complete chaos and all in between.

Groundtruther > Charlie Hunter/Leon Parker- ‘Duo’///////////// Charlie Hunter is obviously the crossover on this one as he plays his 8-string guitar, so he can play bass and guitar rhythm and leads simultaneously, with exceptional drummer/percussionist Leon Parker. This definitely falls on the groove side of Charlie Hunter.

CH/LP > Tom Harrell- ‘Labyrinth’///////////Leon Parker makes the jump from the ‘Duo’ album to play on Tom Harrell’s ‘Labyrinth’. A fantastic trumpeter and composer, this is a great acoustic modern jazz album by Harrell.

‘Labyrinth’ > Aztec a- ‘Pyramid Of The Moon’////////Back in the 1970s Tom Harrell played trumpet in a San Francisco, Latin rock band. Alongside Pete Escovedo, Coke Escovedo and Paul Jackson, amongst many others, they laid down a brand of rock that quality-wise certainly reached Santana’s, if not surpassed it, even if the fame never quite found this band. Santana’s current second guitarist at the time a young, shredding Neal Schon contributes a lead solo to one of the tracks.

Azteca > Greg Errico- ‘San Francisco Giants’///////// The (by the time this album was put out) former Sly & The Family Stone drummer put together this late ‘70s funky, Latin rock album that had the tie to the last album on guitar, Neal Schon.

SF Giants > Sly And The Family Stone- ‘Stand’/////////// Greg Errico was, of course, the drummer for this outstanding album from 1968 by Sly And The Family Stone. The album had hits ‘I Want To Take You Higher’, ‘Stand!’, ‘Everyday People’ and a few more, and is also still a fantastic statement on what was happening during those times.

I hope you get a chance to check out these 8 albums and enjoyed following the string of artists that overlapped from album to album!

 To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner, we are going to take a look at a (slightly) unique and (hopefully) fun way of putting together a playlist. I’m sure you’ve seen playlists put together by a friend, a favorite radio show or by someone on a music platform (Spotify, YouTube, etc.). I’m changing it up for you with a way that will give you a little more ability to use some of that extra free time you may have. I am going to be doing some album playlists for the next few weeks. So, when I order the albums, it’s not in an order of their quality, or how much I like them. I’ve ordered them so if you decide you’re going to listen to 8 albums in a row in a day; this would be the way I would order them for the smoothest listening transitions possible. For these lists, I’ll be running them from between 6-10 albums and giving a sentence or two about each album so you have a little bit of an idea of what you’re getting into with each album.

Today I’m going to focus on non-jazz albums from John Medeski. He is best known as the keyboardist in jazz/funk/avant jazz group Medeski Martin & Wood. As you will see he has performed with and produced a number of artists and albums outside of the jazz world, and this is just a taste of the albums and groups he has worked with in other music areas.

Medeski (non-jazz)

         Chocolate Genius- Black Music- This album, along with Medeski, features Chris Wood, Marc Ribot, Melvin Gibbs and others. The music on this excellent album toes the line between singer/songwriter, R&B, rock and has a laid back vibe.

         G. Love & Special Sauce- Electric Mile- G. Love expands the sound on this album with Special Sauce by adding in keyboardists (in most cases John Medeski) to fill out these groovy, funky pop songs. Highlights on the album include ‘Praise Up’, ‘Night Of The Living Dead’, ‘Rain Jam’ and ‘Free At Last (Reprise)’.

         Oren Bloedow- s/t- For his debut album he released an angular rock record that never quite ends up right where you imagine, but also doesn’t get out into experimentalism. His follow-up album featured Medeski, Martin & Wood as his backing band.

         The Dirty Dozen Brass Band- Buck Jump- Medeski produces and plays with New Orleans best-known brass band.

         The Word- Soul Food- The Gospel side project (consisting of Robert Randolph, John Medeski and North Mississippi All-Stars) put out their second album consisting of great funky, fun original material.

         Campbell Brothers- Can You Feel It?- Medeski produced and played on this album by the great gospel family. This album is especially recommended for fans of guitarists.

         Club D’Elf- Now I Understand- Mike Rivard produced and arranged this psychedelic electronic album that used a host of musicians including John Medeski, Billy Martin, DJ Logic, Reeves Gabrels and many others.

These are a number of albums from various genres that John Medeski contributed heavily to. I hope you get a chance to check these out, and be well.

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Also, remember during these times where you are looking for more entertainment, check out my IG (djmusicallyrich) to get other ideas for albums to listen to (and every once in a while a movie to watch).

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner I am going to look at an album that was made about 15 years ago, but seems by title, to be perfectly suited for where we are today. While we all begin to think about our end-of-the-world parties, you know…just in case, I decided to review the 2004 album from Medeski Martin & Wood ‘End Of The World Party (Just In Case)’.

The album opens with ‘Anonymous Skulls’. Minor chords swirl around as Billy Martin (drums/percussion) drives the song with his drum groove. It feels as if the acoustic piano is trying to keep hope alive as the surrounding electric keyboards continue to hover ominously over and around the track. That is followed by the entrance of a heavy, slightly distorted, bowed bass. That leads to the track, ‘End Of The World Party’, into a groovy mode with a catchy riff by Medeski that sets the boundaries for the song that they will then almost immediately break out of. ‘Reflector’ starts with a syncopated beat from Martin with guitarist, Marc Ribot, beefing up the sound a bit. Ribot and Medeski continue to play atmospherically (yet, somehow with a point as well) while Wood keeps the rhythm steady and allows Martin to dance around the beat while still pushing it forward.

‘Bloody Oil’ opens side 2 with an ominous bass line, with some driving cymbal work underneath. Medeski’s organ then follows, eerily floating above the grounded rhythm section. About half way through the drums completely drop in and turn the tune into a funkified driving song to the end. ‘New Planet’ brings an uplifting sound to the album. The steady, funky drums and uplifting bass lines make it feel like new life is just around the corner, while the song breaks down into a dance party. Straight ahead funky rhythms and sounds drive ‘Mami Gato’, and yet some world music nods sneak in, especially in Medeski’s tasteful piano work.

Side 3 opens with a great, catchy song that has a lot of bounce to it, ‘Shine It’. It is a little more musically involved, especially the interaction between Medeski and Wood, which remind me of the melodies that were coming from the CTI label in the mid-late ‘70s. ‘Curtis’ starts out with a couple jabs from the organ right out of the gate. Once it settles into the body of the song it becomes a bit more laid back, but it constantly finds its way back to the skittering beginning. Martin’s control of the song from the drum set is something to behold. ‘Ice’, which closes side 3, is a tune that puts the vision in your head of being somewhere surrounded by cold and snow and you are taking a run into a cave that just keeps you going down as the stalactites and stalagmites get larger and larger.

For the start of side 4, MMW bring back Ribot and bring in Steven Bernstein (slide trumpet) and Briggan Krauss (sax) to add a little more depth to ‘Sasa’. ‘Midnight Poppies/Crooked Birds’ has a very haunting beginning. It almost feels like Scooby and the gang are searching around an abandoned amusement park looking for ghosts. The song picks up as it moves to its second half and the three all go into driving mode to take the song to its conclusion. ‘Queen Bee’ is maybe my favorite song on the album. Medeski states the theme which includes a descending organ line that becomes the heart of the song. Marc Ribot enters the song as it picks up steam and it begins to sound like all four instrumentalists are sounding off against each other, while still, somehow, being able to absolutely lock in with each other as well. I also want to note that Ribot gets to lay down a solo that is absolutely on fire to close out the song. ‘Whining Bitches’ is a bonus track, only available on the LP. Medeski takes a bit of a spacey tactic with this tune that closes out the album.

This is a very good album that musically stretches all over the funky music scene, and within that, the longest tune on the album just barely breaks the 5 minute mark. If you are getting ready to put together your end of the world party, don’t forget to include this album!

Stars: 4/5

Available on: 2LP/CD

RIYL: Trio Subtonic- Cave Dweller/ Soulive- Up Here/ DRKWAV- The Purge/ The Clinton Administration- One Nation Under A Re-Groove

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

During this time where many of you may be looking for things to keep your time occupied, I will suggest (as I do at the end of all of these posts) check out my Instagram, djmusicallyrich, for more ideas on albums to listen to and check out.

In today’s Crate Digger’s Corner I’m going back to look at a group that is the definition of the musical subgenre Americana. This is a band that especially over their first two albums had heavy influences from string band music, bluegrass, country, folk, rock as well as others from that corner of the musical landscape. This was their first release after gaining some notoriety for finishing the lyrics to and writing the music to the partially finished song Bob Dylan gave them, ‘Wagon Wheel’.

The album opens with ‘Down Home Girl’ a funky, back porch tune. They intertwine the harmonica riff from The Beatles’ ‘I Should Have Known Better” into the fabric of the song. There also is a solo section with great interaction between the harmonica and slide guitar, which happens a few times on the album between those two instruments in particular. Something producer David Rawlings seems to like to do on an album, or at least doesn’t mind it, is to leave a false start on at the beginning of a song. He did it on Ryan Adams’ album “Heartbreaker”; actually having it happen during a conversation they were having as they were getting ready to begin the track that he turned into the first track of that album. From there, you get the driving bluegrass-ish ‘Minglewood Blues’, a ballad ‘My Good Gal’, laid back groover ‘James River Blues’, some bouncy up-tempo tunes like ‘New Virginia Creeper’ and a cool blues shuffle ‘God’s Got It’. They end the song on the song that really sounds like it was right out of Dylan’s catalog, although it is an original, ‘Bobcat Tracks’.

I believe these first two albums by Old Crow Medicine Show are their strongest two albums. The live in-studio sound that Dave Rawlings gets any time he produces fits their songs and voices perfectly. Their next two best albums, in my opinion, also have extremely strong producers in Don Was (their third album, “Tennessee Pusher”), now the leader of Blue Note Records, and Dave Cobb (their most recent “Volunteer”) that help shape the sound of the albums on which they worked. However, the raw sound, booming bass and cutting instruments in the mid-range are all mixed perfectly to give a sound in which the room they are recording in is truly involved in the sound of the album. This album is highly recommended.

Stars: 4.5/5

Available on: CD

RIYL: Crooked Still- Shaken By A Low Sound/ The Wood Brothers- Ways Not To Lose/ The Steel Drivers- Reckless/ Sam Bush- Ice Caps: Peaks Of Telluride

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Today in Crate Digger’s Corner, I’m going to take a look at the Jim James (My Morning Jacket) produced album “Ouroboros” by Ray Lamontagne. This album was recorded so that each half of the record plays continuously, which is especially nice for those that have the vinyl version. Part one is a little more varied and has the heavier moments of the album on it. The second side is extremely lush and delicate and is beautifully sequenced, so it truly sounds like one extended song.

The first side starts with soft drums and effects slowly build into the opening song, ‘Homecoming’. An airy melody accompanied by acoustic guitar floats through the breeze. The song takes shape with a subtle pulsating beat, which is the only thing that keeps it from floating into the ether. The second song is ‘Hey, No Pressure’ which comes out of the breezy first song and drops some heavier fuzz guitars into the mix. Those guitars introduce the song and fit perfectly, setting up a rocking groove for Lamontagne to sing over. Make sure to pay attention to the keyboard song that takes place in the last 1/3 of the song and essentially plays the song to its close. ‘The Changing Man’ is an interesting transition piece. The opening guitar arpeggio is quick enough that it transitioned almost seamlessly out of ‘Hey, No Pressure’. When the rest of the instruments enter, including voices, they do so at half speed, which allows the listener to prepare for the song to move into a slower tempo for the next song. ‘While It Still Beats’ medlies out of the end of ‘The Changing Man’ to set up the end of the first side. This song sounds like it would fit perfectly on Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”. As the song comes to an end the instruments slowly back out until all is left is the voices and a keyboard in a very airy setting and low volume.

As I said earlier, the second side runs perfectly as one continuous long playing song. It opens with ‘In My Own Way’, a hushed ballad, which is absolutely gorgeous. ‘Another Day’ continues on in exactly the same mode. You’ll know ‘Another Day’ is over, because you’ll hear a guitar solo enter and that is the beginning of ‘A Murmuration Of Starlings’. ‘A Murmuration Of Starlings’ is a spacey, guitar-led instrumental that leads the very lush second side of the album to its final song. This quietly gorgeous album ends on ‘Wouldn’t It Make A Lovely Photograph’. Once again veering into Floyd territory (not that it ever really totally leaves it), or even Crosby, Stills & Nash if they had a bit more of a spacey side, it ends this wonderful album on a quiet, peaceful note.

I think it’s fairly easy to see that Jim James produced and played on the album (and the subsequential tour had My Morning Jacket without Jim James backing Lamontagne. A show that I was able to catch and was fantastic!), it feels like it falls in between the MMJ albums “At Dawn” and “Circuital”. “At Dawn” being their more pastoral rock that led to the likes of the Fleet Foxes and such, and “Circuital” one of their later albums which became more experimental musically. Jim James and Ray Lamontagne seemed to find a comfort zone between them on this wonderful album.

Stars: 4/5

Available on: LP/CD

RIYL: Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here/My Morning Jacket- Circuital/Miranda Lee Richards- Echoes Of The Dreamtime/Norah Jones-…Little Broken Hearts

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Entering from nothing, a cloud of sound floats towards and over you to open the Overture section of ‘Into The Blue’. The musical themes that will reappear throughout ‘Into The Blue’ are grandly stated during the Overture. The second section, The Dreamer And The Healer, is a soft, airy song during most of the lyrical part of the song. Once the lyrics drop, the song moves into a heavier groove which signals the start of the third section, A New Beginning. This section leads to an extended instrumental passage that resolves into another light musical part of the song. That next section is the ballad Written In Your Heart. The instrumental section following that ends with a series of arpeggiations that drop the song into The Dreamer And The Healer (Refrain), section V, which slowly closes the 25 minute song.

The next three songs are more straight forward songs, each under 8 minutes. ‘Shine’ is an uplifting ballad led by acoustic guitar. ‘Black As The Sky’ has an Emerson, Lake & Palmer sounding opening. A driving, aggressive beat pushes this hard rock song forward with great playing by the band. ‘Beyond The Sun’ is a quiet, slow ballad with very intimate playing.

‘Kaleidoscope’, the title song, ends the album. The same way the album started, the album also ends, with an extended song that has multiple sections. In this nearly 32 minute finale the band once again starts with an instrumental, Overture, which gives a taste of the themes to come. Ride The Lightning, section 2, sounds as if you are flying over the country and taking in all the scenery as you go by high above the ground. A set of chimes lead to the next section, Black Gold. The verses of Black Gold lead to some gorgeous vocal harmonies during the choruses. Black Gold also has an amazing keyboard solo followed by a beautiful guitar solo that matches the vibe of the music perfectly. Section 4, Walking This Road, is a song about the search within oneself that ends with the repeated (as it fades away) phrase “to find myself, define myself…”. A stately guitar solo leads to the next section, Desolation Days. At moments I hear some influence from The Who’s “Quadrophenia”. Before Desolation Days moves into another instrumental section, Lemon Looking Glass, it teases the final section. Lemon Looking Glass, once again, has amazing playing from all four members, and it gives them all a chance to show their chops. That leads to the Ride The Lightning (Reprise), which concludes this magnificent album.

Transatlantic is a progressive rock/metal supergroup that includes Neal Morse on keys (Spock’s Beard), Roine Stolt on guitar, Pete Trewavas on bass (Marillion) and Mike Portnoy on drums (Dream Theater).  This album is heavily influenced by the 70’s progressive rock groups such as King Crimson, Frank Zappa, ELP, amongst others. This is an excellent representation of progressive rock.

Stars: 4.5/5

Available on: CD/LP/DVD-A/DVD-V

RIYL: Dream Theater- Seasons Of Change/King Crimson- Red/Yes- Close To The Edge/Opeth- Heritage

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Steve Grossman (saxophonist) brings together a great band consisting of Gene Perla (bass), Don Alias (drums/percussion) and Jan Hammer (keyboards) that bring this magnificent jazz/fusion album to life! Steve Grossman got his start (in recording) with the electric Miles Davis albums of the early 1970’s including “Bitches Brew” and this, his debut album, stays very close to that expansive jazz/fusion sound.

Side 1 opens with ‘WBAI’, a short dissonant/free track. That leads into the seven minute ‘Haresah’, which opens with a grooving bass line and syncopated drumming. The song uses mid-eastern modes within its construct, which allows Grossman to play a laid back melody to open the main theme of the song. From there, as with most of these songs, they go into extended jams and melodies. ‘Zulu Stomp’ is a heavy funk track with some African rhythms integrated into the gritty music. The first side ends with ‘Extemporaneous Combustion’, which starts off very minimalistic, then builds to a glorious jam. During that jam, the bass player starts to modulate keys first by staying on a static bass tone, then as he starts to move the tone around in conjunction to what the others are playing you get the sense that he is briefly flying through different keys until he comes back and settles into the regular key and groove.

Side 2 starts with ‘Alodian Mode’ and the churning rhythm section gets a groove going with African-styled drumming and has solos from both Grossman and Hammer flying all around. ‘Pressure Point’ is the one track that takes a detour from the fusion sound, I believe. To me this sounds like something closer to the “sheets of sound” period of Coltrane. It’s a great track, but feels slightly off in this setting. Finally, ‘The Sixth Sense’ drops back into some heavier funk with bassist Gene Perla and drummer Don Alias setting a rock solid foundation for Grossman and Hammer to attack.

This is another of the many great fusion albums by former Miles Davis band members, and it is of the high quality that has been expected of those in general. This is a great album that dives down the world of funk, world and jazz music and mixes them seamlessly.

Stars: 4.5/5

Available on: LP/CD

RIYL: Miles Davis- Black Beauty/ Weather Report- Live In Tokyo/ Wadada Leo Smith’s Organic- Heart’s Reflections/ Powerhouse- In An Ambient Way

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

What would happen if The Beatles and Talking Heads had a musical baby? You might get this album (as well as a couple of others by this band) from Of Montreal founder, Kevin Barnes. This album incorporates heavy doses of influence from the Fab Four, especially in the melodies and vocal harmonies. New Wave is also an obvious influence on this album, as well as other dance rock and electronic music.

The album starts off very strongly, with the first five songs creating a continuous flow and are all individually strong on their own as well. The opening two songs, ‘Disconnect The Dots’ and ‘Lysergic Bliss’, are probably the two catchiest songs on the album. Song six, ’Eros’ Entropic Tundra’, ends that opening run of songs. As the album moves into the second half, nothing changes except the songs are no longer running continuously and the songs take just a slight dip in their memorability. That’s not to say that they still aren’t quality. Song seven, ‘City Bird’, is a straight-ahead acoustic ballad that sounds like it could have been a song left on the “Rubber Soul” cutting room floor. You also have the New Wave-bop of ‘Chrissy Kiss The Corpse’ or ‘How Lester Lost His Wife’ and its psychedelic breakdowns. In short, it’s not that the second half of the album isn’t very good, it just doesn’t quite catch up to the excellent first half.

Kevin Barnes has steered this band in many different directions throughout the years (and continues to do so), and largely has released at least very good albums overall (there have been a few misses through the years, but not many). If you’re looking for a musically upbeat album, it makes a great party album and just a very good album in general. It will undoubtedly want to make you pull out some of your old records as you hear the influences of the album.

Stars: 4/5

Available on: CD/LP/LP+7”/2LP

RIYL: The Beatles- Rubber Soul/ Beach Boys- Pet Sounds/ The Apples In Stereo- The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone/ Kula Shaker- Peasants, Pigs & Astronauts

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

What do you do after a huge break-up? Get friends together and go out a bunch and try to forget about it? Do you isolate and try to figure out what happened and where you’re going? Well, if you’re Beck, you go out and possibly release the best album of your career. This is psychedelic folk/downtempo electronica music at its best. I’d say it also fits right in with what Zero 7 did with their debut album, “Simple Things”, the year before.

Beck lays out a stunning album from beginning to end that tastefully uses tasteful strings, pedal steel guitars, synths, and so much more to put a spacey but grounded atmosphere to the album. Songs swell to climaxes, then you hear individual instruments come through the denseness to start and bring the melody back down. The music, like the lyrics are fragile, soulful and beautiful (even if they are sad). Songs such as ‘Guess I’m Doing Fine’, ‘Lonesome Tears’, ‘Lost Cause’ and ‘Already Dead’ give a clear meaning to where the pain is coming from and are just a few of the standouts on this album.  I want to point out one musical moment in particular on this album that generally sums up the great musical choices that were being made on this album. If you listen to the last 30 seconds of ‘Guess I’m Doing Fine’ you’ll hear the end of the chorus and these glorious pedal steel guitars swirling up above the music, and you have a harmonica just appear out of the air for a short 10 second ending. It seems as if it wouldn’t matter if it was there or not, but the song absolutely would not have ended with the same impact without it. It just drops a beautiful final teaser of the song to bring it to conclusion. Another example is in the first third of ‘Sunday Sun’ (and is repeated at times in various ways) following the chorus, in a song in which all the instruments including vocals are just hazy and blissed out, a piano comes in with just a simple and beautiful melody out of the haze, the acoustic guitar picks up and follows on it and then they just fade right back into the mist. These are seemingly very simple things that make a huge musical impact on the songs. I will also note that the producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead) was at the helm and undoubtedly help find this cohesive sound. He’s a producer good enough that if his name is on it it’s going to at the very least be worth listening to, even if it’s not something right up your musical alley.

A few years ago Beck’s album “Morning Phase” won the Grammy for ‘Best Album’. It was critically often called a sequel to “Sea Change”, not only musically speaking, but it was also made during a distressed time in his life (during recovery from a life-threatening accident, which was kept quiet but came out after the album was released). I have always felt that “Sea Change” is a better album; with its musical embellishments that help keep the album flowing from song to song puts it ahead of “Morning Phase” (which I do also like very much, along with most of Beck’s catalog). So, if you were a fan of “Morning Phase” and didn’t realize he had made this 12 years earlier I’d highly suggest going back to listen to this gem of an album!

Stars: 5/5

Available on: CD/2LP/ HDCD/DVD-A/SACD/Blu-ray/Cass

RIYL: Zero 7- Simple Things/Miranda Lee Richards- Echoes Of The Dreamtime/ Paul Simon- Surprise/Norah Jones- …Little Broken Hearts

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from the album as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Have you ever listened to a new album, and swear that it must be a lost classic from a different era? Songs sound familiar but you know you’ve never heard them. It sounds like a number of bands from that era, but you can’t quite put your finger on which one would have made this album. Then, once you listen enough, you hear some modern touches in the playing, production, etc. that you see that some of this was influenced at a more recent time than where you would have placed this “lost” album. That is how I feel about The War On Drugs- Lost In The Dream. When I first heard this album, it felt like a lost Dream Pop album from the 1980’s. The melodies are beautifully languid, with tons of reverb thrown onto everything (although, the amount of reverb used does vary from song to song for effect).

The album opens with ‘Under Pressure’ that builds from an out of phase rhythm track and slowly builds with hazy guitars and keyboards being played for effect, until it all comes together  to lead to a catchy, almost Cars-like, ‘80s anthem. That leads to a bit more up-tempo song in ‘Red Eyes’ that continues to push the retro feel of and expand the sound of the album. ‘Suffering’ is a sparse sounding song with some very nice relaxing guitar riffs that back the verses. ‘An Ocean In Between The Waves’ opens with another rhythm track, that once the bass locks into its groove with it becomes a pulsating vehicle that feels like the constant rolling of waves. As it builds, it begins to cross the Dream Pop with a feel of a little more rock from the New Wave side of things. ‘Disappearing’ floats off into the ether, which leads to the much more grounded ‘Eyes To The Wind’. With its shuffling opening by acoustic guitar and some pedal steel in the background (which continues subtly on and off throughout the song), this song sounds a little like if you mixed ‘The Tennessee Fire’ and ‘Circuital’ My Morning Jacket eras and tossed in just a bit of Bob Dylan. Then, there is the atmospheric musical interlude (it could also be considered an extended intro for the next song) ‘The Haunting Idle’. ‘Burning’ builds out of the fade out of the instrumental into a solid driving tune with a little bit of a Springsteen feel. The penultimate (and title) tune ‘Lost In The Dream’ is a taste of the cosmic country sound with even more effects and reverb thrown in. The final song is ‘In Reverse’. It opens up with some quiet music floating about and the sound of something approximating the sound of crashing waves (or maybe they are using a field recording) and keyboard effects that seem to approximate seagulls. It’s a song that makes you feel like you’re riding off into the sunset.

One band that I did not mention, but I felt they have a large influence on the musicality of when the band “jams out” a bit more, is Sonic Youth. When The War On Drugs goes into their instrumental sections, the whole band just sort of rides a soundscape-ish sound throughout the sections. It is reminiscent to me of the instrumental passages of a song like ‘The Diamond Sea’ by Sonic Youth, obviously with a shorter time span and less distortion, but the idea of not really having anyone soloing and the entire band just, kind of, hovering all the way through and keeping it interesting to listen to is similar between the bands.

This is a great listen that touches on many influences and sounds like it could have been an album from the ‘80s. It is also an album that will hopefully lead some people to not only discover this band and album, but to also discover some of the many influences on The War On Drugs.

Stars: 4.5/5

Available on: LP/CDS

RIYL: Kurt Vile-Bottle It In, My Morning Jacket- Circuital, Courtney Barnett- Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit, (this one’s a little out of the box, but I think fits extremely well) Zero 7- When It Falls

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from the album…

Crate Digger’s Corner…by DJ Musically Rich

(If you’d like to listen to a track from Rush as you read, go to the end of the post to start the song)

Neil Peart, best known as the drummer/lyricist for Rush, passed away on January 7, 2020. He had been fighting brain cancer, which he had only shared with his most inner circle. When Rush retired from touring a few years ago, the reasoning was that Peart was having shoulder issues. He joined Rush prior to their second album, “Fly By Night” and took their music to another level of complexness. Considered one of the best technical rock drummers, he should be mentioned with names such as Bill Bruford, Terry Bozzio, Ginger Baker along with many others. Highly influential, Neil will be missed by the rock community.  

These pictures are the Rush albums I own that have Neil on them, I put the studio albums in the order I would suggest listening to them in general in the list below (if I know your tastes, it’s possible I would put them in a different order). Then, I’ll list the live albums separately (you can’t go wrong with any of their live stuff).

Studio

1.       2112

2.       Caress Of Steel

3.       Moving Pictures

4.       Clockwork Angels

5.       A Farewell To Kings

6.       Fly By Night

7.       Permanent Waves

8.       Hemispheres

9.       Vapor Trails Remixed

Live

1.       Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio 16th of December, 1974 (picture disc)

2.       All The World’s A Stage

3.       Exit…Stage Left

4.       Different Stages- Live

5.       Working Men

For the live albums, the first was a live show shortly after Peart joined the group before the release of “Fly By Night”. “ATWAS” was released on the tour that followed “2112”. “E…SL” was released from the tour following “Moving Pictures”.  “DS-L” was largely taken from the 1997 “T4E” tour with a few tracks from the “Counterparts” tour in 1994, also included is a third disc of an entire show from 1978. “WM” is a CD compilation from the DVD’s “Rush In Rio”, “R30” and “Snakes & Arrows Live”.

To see photos of other albums in my collection follow my IG: djmusicallyrich

To listen to a track from Rush…