James Hunter - "The Hard Way"

I've gotten a little bit into 60s soul music recently. That's largely a result of Atomic Ballroom starting up a Swing & Soul night a few months back, though I have enjoyed The Temptations for a while. A few days ago when browsing through Starbucks' music site I found James Hunter. His music could be best described as modern soul. It's got a great groove that makes sitting still tough to do. I met up with Collyn at the Starbucks by her place and my gym on Friday morning before I hit the gym and grabbed the album from the music rack. It's been in my car cd played since and I've listened to it full through a couple times now. I'm enjoying it. Check it out at Hear Music.

Lyle Lovett and his Large Band - "It's not big it's large"

Collyn loaned me this one. She's been buying most of her music from Starbucks as of late, which is where she picked this one up. I'm not typically a Lyle Lovett fan, although admittadly, I don't know much about his music, having just heard him here and there during tv appearances. The album runs the gamut from country to jazz. It's one of those albums that is just good music. It's an enjoyable album to just sit and listen to. The first track is Lester Young's "Twinkle Toes", a big band jazz piece. One of my favorite tracks "Up In Indiana" makes two appearances, the first as a more modern sounding country tune, and then as the last track on the album as an acoustic bluegrass styled piece. You can preview it at Starbuck's music site, Hear Music.

That's all folks.

As of today, I'm out of albums. The posts of this only represent a small fraction of my music, since for the past few years I've been acquiring a lot of mp3s. Most of my music is purchased in mp3 rather than album form anymore. As a result I have a lot of really good music that is still worthy of a post. In order to include this music, from this point I'm transitioning the blog to a general music blog. Whenever I find new music or a new artist that really hits me you'll find a new post here. The posting probably won't be as frequent as in the past, but considering the amount of time I invest in finding music, it will still be pretty frequent.

Seth Horan - "...this is the session"

I bought this cd after first hearing Seth play at The Neighborhood Cup coffee shop. At the time he was in the process of recording Conduit. I was a little disappointed, because this album is more about the songs than Seth's bass playing. That means that there is a full band, so his bass playing just becomes part of the overall sound. The problem with this is that his bass playing is so unique and interesting it's a shame that it isn't showcased more. After listening to his fans, he's since changed the way he records, so that his recorded stuff is almost exactly like what you hear if you see him live...bass, vocals, and a multi-track loop recorder. The songs on here are good, but when I'm in the mood for Seth Horan, Conduit is such a better album that I always go for it. As a result I haven't listened to this much since acquiring the other.

Lonesome River Band - "One Step Forward"

This is the last album of theirs that I own, purchased several years. Like their others, the talent shown here is phenomenal. This album has a couple of songs that I really like, such "When You Go Walking", the instrumental "Southern Comfort", and "Carolyn the Teenage Queen". I haven't listened to this album much in the last year or two, simply because I've been listening to a lot of jazz. However, it's one that at some point will make it back into regular rotation. You can preview it on Amazon.

Last Action Hero- Soundtrack

I bought this back in high school, and I can't exactly remember why. I haven't seen the movie. It was likely because the bands were all pretty big at the time, AC/DC, Alice In Chains, Tesla, Cypress Hill, and more. Most of the songs skew toward the hard rock/metal side of things. I never really listened to this album much, as I just don't think it's all that good. Great bands, but mediocre songs. This one will get lost amongst the other albums again. You can preview the tracks on Amazon.

The Swing Years - Volume 1

I bought this cd back in 1995 from a second hand store. It was my first ever cd of swing music. It has some well known swing songs, such as "Take the "A" Train", "Sing, Sing, Sing" and "In The Mood" as well as many others. It was a great introduction to 40s swing music. I listened to it a fair amount up until I started to expand my swing music collection, and I rarely listen to it anymore. No luck finding this one online so you'll just have to imagine the songs.

The Brian Setzer Orchestra - "The Dirty Boogie"

This is the album that gave the orchestra their only radio hit, a remake of Louis Prima's "Jump, Jive An' Wail". When I bought it, I felt kind of lame, like I was just another person jumping on the neo-swing bandwagon, but dangit, I'd been listening to this group for years. This is the last album of their's that I bought, because they largely transitioned to rockabilly swing. I used to really like this album and listened to it a lot. Brian Setzer is an absolutely amazing guitarist, and there is a spectacular version of the early rock and roll instrumental "Sleepwalk" on here. There's also a swingish remake of the Stray Cat's (Setzer's old band) hit "Rock This Town". I don't listen to this album much any more, but every once in a while I get in the mood for it. You can find it on Amazon.

Howard Emerson - "A Tale To Tell"

I found this album looking for finger pickers on the internet 3 summers ago. Howard Emerson does clinics for Martin guitars and plays off and on with groups and on his own. The album is superb. It's played with a lot of alternate tunings, which I have never played in before. He has a percussive syncopated style, sort of a modern twist on Delta style acoustic blues. I don't listen to this album all that often, because although it's a collection of songs, it really needs to be listened to all at once. Some of the tracks are just 30s riffs just showcasing a style. This ranks as one of the best guitar albums that I own. It's the type of things that makes me want to pick up mine and become a better player. You can hear clips at Howard's website.

The Gibson Brothers - "Bona Fide"

I purchased this album from Sugar Hill Records a few years back. They specialize in bluegrass artists. I must have not previewed this album first, because it's a bit of a disappointment. There are a couple of good songs, but for the most part it just seems soft. I have only listened to it a couple of times. I think a large part of the problem is that the songs just aren't that good. Maybe they should hire someone else to write for them. You can check it out on Amazon.

Ugly Kid Joe - "America's Least Wanted"

I'll admit it, I bought this album for one song, namely "Everything About You". I love that the character Pat from SNL made some vocal contributions to this album, although in all likelihood it was simply sampled. These guys are a hard rock band that made little headway in the grunge era, scoring two small hits, "Everything About You" and a remake of the Cat Steven tune "Cats in the Cradle" which is also on this album. The only other song I really care about on this album, is "Busy Bee", mostly because it has a great guitar solo. Aside from those 3 songs, I haven't listened much to this album. It never has been a favorite of mine, but I do like those couple of songs. You can hear those and the rest at Amazon.