Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#701 in the Series) is Fairport Convention, By Popular Request Fairport Convention, in part to mark their 45th anniversary put us, their fanbase, to the voting box last year to surmise which 20 tracks they would like to see the current, and longest standing version of the band perform. A band which brought, among many other notables, Richard Thompson and Sandy Denny to the awareness of the musical world. Of these 20 tracks 13 were chosen, it is my intent to give a track by track assessment of this outing, one which surely may be placed alongside many of their other finest outings in their long history. You can see it below....

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#700 in the Series) is Genesis, Foxtrot One thing that we do here at Cool Album of the Day is endeavor to bring you something special for our milestone numbered posts. As you’ve just read, this piece represents entry number 700. So today we bring you an album that more than arguably could be considered the best progressive-rock album of all time. It contains a song that could also potentially be considered the best progressive rock song of all time.  You already know the album is Foxtrot, and the song of course that I’m referring to is “Supper’s Ready.” Some  may say that Genesis’ magnum opus should be considered The Lamb lies...

    Saturday Night Live has released some great promos for this weekend’s season finale starring Mick Jagger. He come across as quite a comic natural on these. I look forward to the show. One thing that hasn’t been mentioned much about this episode is “Who of the long term regulars will be appearing for the final time?”  I’ve heard rumblings that many could be leaving including Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg. Oh, and it doesn’t appear that Keith Richards will be part of the fun. He recently told Rolling Stone Magazine. “”I spoke to Mick and he said it’s something that he said yes to many months ago, so he’s just doing it,” Richards says. “He’s on his...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#699 in the Series) is Elvis Costello & The Imposters, The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook There isn’t any way I could be looked to to provide an unbiased review of an Elvis Costello album, that’s impossible for me to do. A fellow who can have a career such as his for so long, reinventing (or rather exploring) his genres and styles, combining those with phenomenal lyricism and musicianship, and topping it all off with a charming personality like Elvis has….well, there just isn’t much not for me to like. But thankfully this isn’t technically a “review” site, rather a place to get to know an album and hear one person’s opinion...

  For quite some time now I’ve been harsh on today’s country music, or more specifically, the state of today’s country radio. Now I’ve been joined by Vince Gill in its critique. It’s sad when Taylor Swift can dominate country radio and Merle Haggard can’t get a sniff. And I’m not talking about Merle’s old great albums I’m referring to his last couple of albums. They’ve been great yet completely ignored. Justin Townes Earle’s “Harlem River Blues” also did not receive any country airplay. – Larry Carta Vince’s career began with country-rockers Pure Praire League. He recently spoke with Great American Country’s Sarah Wyland. This appeared on their website. ———— Vince Gill released his latest album, Guitar Slinger, in...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#698 in the Series) is Carole King, The Legendary Demos Carole King demos have been floating around the music industry for as long as I can remember. Some sounded really good.  This release is the first time that some of those have hit the streets on an official basis. Let’s say, it’s been worth the wait. This package was released late last month and it covers about a decade of Carole’s early writing career.  These songs are indeed demo versions, but they are not solo demos. Many of the songs do indeed have a small band playing with her, some songs however are just her. I have a close friend that always...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#697 in the Series) is Jimmy Webb, Just Across the River If you stopped right now and wrote down your five favorite songs the odds are that a Jimmy Webb song would be among them.   The list might include “Wichita Lineman”, “By the Time I get to Phoenix”, or even “Galveston”.  Whichever one is chosen the songs of Jimmy Webb wrap around us like a warm snuggy and have been the soundtrack of our lives for many of us. The list of artists that have covered his songs range from Jackson Browne to Dionne Warwick, and of course his own personal muse (or is it the other way around?), the Rhinestone Cowboy...

    Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#695 in the Series) is Kick the Cat, Scramble This was a new find for me when I saw them live at Reggie’s Rock Bar on the near south side of Chicago (where they have one of the coolest record stores around with tons of rare vinyl), They were opening up for a band called District 97 who was having a guest appearance by singer John Wetton, ex of King Crimson, Asia, etc. who was in town for the UK reunion show (I saw it, great). So I did not know what to expect from the opening act and it was an extremely pleasant surprise and they turned out to be...

  Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#694 in the series) is The Smiths, The Queen is Dead.  By the time this album was released The Smiths were slap bang in the middle of one of the greatest creative rolls that any band or artist has EVER managed , four studio albums and nine stand alone singles in little over four years . And yes, you did read that correctly , they released nine singles in this time period that weren’t on any album!  And, just for good measure, the majority of those singles contained brand new , and for the most part ,superb, tracks on the flipside. Can you imagine anyone even coming close to that sort of...

Today’s Cool Album of the Day (#693 in the Series) is The Bangles, All Over The Place I remember when this one was just released. It was too early in the girl-band genre to admit that a 26-year-old male was a fan.  It still had to be a guilty pleasure that you played when no one was around. Heck, I even remember when I bought the first Pretenders album. I looked around the record store to make sure none of my buddies were watching, and that wasn’t even a girl band. The Go-Go’s had much to do with that. Yes, they were a very good band, but they were marketed very much for the young girl record buyer. The...