CHRIS STAPLETON - "STARTING OVER"

 "Starting Over" (Chris Stapleton) - 4:17

OMG !!!   I guess you'd have to tag Stapleton as a country artist, but here's one of those cases that make you believe labels just don't matter.  

Stunning in every way ...  and it has a bass line to die for.

And here's a link to the promotional video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3svABDnmio

MARY ANN REDMOND - "BOYS OF SUMMER"

Boys of Summer  (Don Henley - Mike Campbell)

I've been a Mary Ann Redmond fan since the late-'80s.  I've probably seen her perform three dozen times and among my proudest possessions are one of her concert flyers from show at The State Theater and a photo of the two of us.  She graciously allowed my wife to take a picture of the two of us at a performance The Mary Ann Redmond Band made in Great Falls.   My wife still makes fun of me for having looked like a love struck teenager in the photo.

Anyhow, if you are a child of the '70s you've probably heard the Eagles original hundreds, if not thousands of times.  I certainly have, to the point the song's been reduced to background noise.

And then I stumbled across Mary Ann Redmond's drastically rearranged version of the tune.  The basic melody is still there and still recognizable, but ... well just check it out for yourself.

Great video production too boot and it features an old Cadillac.

When life get's back to normal, Mary Ann Redmond is one of those acts you owe it to yourself to see.

https://www.facebook.com/maryann.redmond.12/videos/10220384739482842/

DEL AMITRI - "JUST BEFORE YOU LEAVE"

"Just Before You Leave" (Justin Currie - Iain Harve) - 5:15

I was working at home and had YouTube randomly playing songs in the background.  Out of the background noise this song just came screaming at me. 

Del Amitri was one of those mid-'80s bands that were constantly on my stereo and those countless hours of exposure mean Justin Currie's voice is instantly recognizable to my ears.  The thing is I probably hadn't listened to a Del Amitri in a decade  ...  My loss.

Released in 2002 (so I'm 18 years late to the party), "Just Before You Leave" is simply gorgeous.  Kicked along by a Currie's purring vocals, Big Kev's driving bass line and Andy Alston's stabbing organ licks this may be the best soul song ever recorded by a Scottish band.  Imagine what Curtis Mayfield would have sounded like had he been born and raised and Glasgow and you'll get a feel for the sophisticated soul vibe these guys captured.  I could listen to this song 20 times in a row and not get sick of it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xFBj9EZVcQ

THE MIGHTY CLOUDS OF JOY - 'TIME'

"Time" (Dave Crawford) - 3:18

OMG - I'd owned this LP for a decade and never gotten around to playing it. Sunday morning I was adding a photo of the LP to my BadCatRecords website and decided to give it a  spin.  Good thing the basement blinds were shut,or my neighbors would have seen a 60 year old white guy shaking his fat ass to this amazing tune. If you thought the Mighty Clouds of  Joy were just another pompous Gospel group,check this track out.  The best of Philadelphia International and secular moves ...

Check it out: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlZD3sjZUgg

THE MALIBOOZ -"CAUGHT A WAVE"

"Caught a Wave" (John Zambetti) - 3:43

I'll keep these comments real short - addictive, top-rank dreamy beach rock.  Imagine the best Brian Wilson song that Brian Wilson never wrote.

For anyone interested,YouTube has a promotional clip at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTgXusqo5jM

THE MAD LADS - "PASS THE WORD (THE WORD IS LOVE)"

"Pass the Word (The Word Is Love)" (John Gary Williams - William Brown - Dale Warren) - 6.04

Okay you can skip the first 2:46 of this one since it's nothing but mindless spoken word jive.   That said, if you get through the extended intro to the real song, you'll be rewarded with one of the best slices of  mid-'70s group soul you've ever heard.  Kicked along by a pounding piano riff, John Gary William's Gospel-soaked voices, and the group's silky smooth harmony vocals, this one built and built to the point  your turntable threatened to explode.

Check it out courtesy of YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiTYbrgKM3U

NILS LOFGREN - "VALENTINE"

"Valentine" (Nils Lofgren) - 4:28

I'm not a gigantic power ballad fan, but I'll make an exception for this tune.  One of the prettiest tunes Lofgren ever wrote and having Bruce Springsteen on vocals, makes it even sweeter. Plus,the lyrics are only mildly cringe worthy.

The tune was released as a single in the US (in the US it was issued by Rykodisc as a promotional CD single) and throughout the world in 7" and 12" formats. There's even a promotional video for it (standard,cheesy '80s vibe - seems like 50% of all MTV videos were filmed on the Bonneville Salt Flats), but in spite of the significant marketing efforts, the tune attracted little attention.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfdNjdWYgwU

THE ISLEY BROTHERS - "TELL ME WHEN YOU NEED ME AGAIN"

Tell Me When You Need Me Again (Parts 1 and 2) (Rudolph Isley - O'Kelly Isley - Ernie Isley  - Marvin Isley - Christopher Jasper) - 5:03  rating: ***** stars

Flashbook time - Brussels American High School class of '77 ...  

This was one of those albums that represent that special time in my life.  Yeah, most of my class was listening to Fleetwood Mac, or Journey (okay Mark Funk was listening to Robin Trower and all sorts of oddball sounds), but The Isley were the band that caught my ear.  And 'Tell Me When You Need Me Again' was amongst the cream of the Isleys' crop.  

The entire "Go For Your Guns" album was magical (I can't even begin to count the number of times I played it), but 'Tell Me When You Need It Again' managed to blend the very best of soul and hard rock into a five minute package.  Reflecting one of Ron Isley's most impressive vocals, Marvin Isley's fattttttt slap bass, Christopher Jasper's burping moog, Ernie Isley's Hendrix-inspired guitar, and a refrain as addictive as any Class 1 drug ...  what wasn't their to love about this one?

And if you haven't heard this track, here's a link to a YouTube clip: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSPwhpDqF3k&list=OLAK5uy_mvrBXNfhM_raXOkO2tbzeTDgOlNLln67k&index=3

HOLLIES - "GIVE ME TIME"

Give Me Time (Allan Clarke - Terry Sylvester) - 3:06  rating: ***** stars

In December 2019 I decided I would update all my BadCatRecords sales listings to include LP cover photos.  When I originally put my record collection online, I did it quickly, only putting up photos for the really expensive items. Anyhow, at the time I started to upload the images, I thought it might take me six months to finish the project.  Here I am a year later and I've done "A" through most of "H" and "N" through "S".

While adding "H" entries I discovered I owned a ton of albums by The Hollies.  While adding the LPphotos I started listening to some Hollies tunes and rediscovered what a great band these guys were.

Of of their 1975  Another Night" album, 'Give Me Time' simply captured that special Hollies sound.  Allan Clarke's instantly recognizable voice, those to-die-for-harmonies, coupled  a wonderful "Irish bar" melody made it a track that could have been a massive radio hit had anyone at the label, or on radio been paying attention.  And that damn hook sets it's hooks in your head and won't let go ...  "give me time, give me, give me time ..."

And for anyone who wants to check it out themselves: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxIhQWbF49Y

CHRIS HILLMAN - "CLEAR SAILING"

Clear Sailin' (Chris Hillman - Richard Marx - Rick Roberts) - 4:31  rating: ***** stars

Chris Hillman's always struck me as having been The Byrd's forgotten secret ingredient. That didn't do him much good surrounded by the likes of Gene Clark, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, and Gram Parsons, but at least some of us noticed his talents.

His solo work is uniformly good, but to my ears mid-'70s  country-rock  quickly starts to suffer from a sounds-the-same  slickness.  That's certainly the case with much of 1977's "Clear Sailin'".   Luckily the title track is one of the exceptions.  Yeah, your life many not need another mid-tempo ballad, but this one has a beautiful melody and the lyrics are actually  rather  thought provoking.  Nice guitar solo from John Brennan.  

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HARPER'S BIZARRE - "WITCHI TAI TO"

"Witchi Tai To" (Jim Pepper) - 2;55

While in college I heard this on some obscure radio station, but didn't hear who was performing it. Years later I heard a version of it on a Brewer and Shipley album that I bought at a yard sale. That let me track it back to the late Jim Pepper's original version, which in turn, allowed me to hear versions by Everything Is Everything and finally the "commercialized" Harpers Bizarre cover which was the one I'd originally heard.



The late Pepper was best known as a jazz musician. As a sax player he worked with an impressive array of jazz artists including Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry. A member of the Kaw and Cree tribes, in the late-'60s Pepper began mixing Native American music and jazz. Having supposedly learned the song from his grandfather, "Witchi Tai To" was a nice example of the jazz and Indian influences hybrid.

The Harper's Bizarre version didn't include the extended Pepper sax solo, but featured a young Ry Cooder on lead guitar and is simply mesmerizing ... Yeah, it's little more than an extended Indian chant, but it's one of those efforts that's get under your skin and simply won't leave.

YouTube has a clip of the song at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1L9RPEM634

HIGH MOUNTAIN HOEDOWN - "NELLIE"

Nellie (Jerry Williams)  rating: **** stars


Having stumbled across an interesting Jerry Lynn Williams solo album, I poked around and discovered his High Mountain Hoedown catalog.  Wish I knew more about the outfit.  What little biographical information I can find comes from a December 2006 article Nick Joe Paloski wrote for The Texas Monthly.

[Williams] tenure with Little Richard lasted nine months, and shortly after, he returned to Fort Worth, where he made it through a semester at Arlington Heights High School before snagging regular gigs at the Bayou Club and the Silver Helmet Club in Dallas, which was owned by several Dallas Cowboys players. “I was doing Otis Redding stuff three nights a week,” he remembered, “and within two weeks I had so many people in there that the fire marshal started showing up.” Then, in the late sixties, Williams discovered orange sunshine, tie-dye shirts, and the hippie lifestyle, so he formed a three-piece psychedelic blues outfit called High Mountain and went to L.A. to score a record deal with the ATCO label. It became another learning experience. The resulting album, High Mountain Hoedown, went nowhere, and the musicians got to split a paltry $10,000."

You can read the full article at:  http://www.texasmonthly.com/articles/he-writes-the-songs/ 

Produced by Charles Greene (best known for his work with The Buffalo Springfield), 1970's "High Mountain Hoedown" was one of those albums that deserved a fate better than the total obscurity it has fallen into.  While there's little biographical information on the the band, the line-up apparently featured Williams with support from drummer Rex Ludwick (who went on to support Willie Nelson) and bassist Jerry McDonald.  Williams was credited with most of the seven original tunes.  McDonald wrote the county-ish 'I'll finish My Song'.  Musically the set was quite varied, which might be one of the reasons the album didn't do very well.  The collection found the trio taking stabs at country ('I'll Finish My Song'), Poco-styled country rock ('Nellie'), and conventional hard rock ('Voodoo Woman'), Round it out with a pair of Chuck Berry tunes ('Nadine' and 'Brown Eyed Handsome Man').  Mind you, it wasn't a lost classic, but it's still a fun set to spin.  Shame Williams didn't turn in a couple of additional rock-oriented performances.  

As good as the first two tunes on 1970's "High Mountain Hoedown" were, 'Nellie' was even better.  To my ears, this was the kind of country-rock tune that nobody seems to write anymore.  The track had everything you'd expect from a major radio hit - killer melody; sweet vocals; tight drumming; and a refrain that simply wouldn't leave your head.   This one would have sounded dandy on a Poco albumm. 

STEELY DAN - "HOME AT LAST"

Home At Last (Donald Fagen - Walter Becker) - 5:35  rating: **** stars

The only band I've seen a dozen times, I'm surprised I haven't listed a Steely Dan track up to this point.

"Aja" came out when I was a freshmen in college. Rob, my first  roommate, bought a copy of the album and played it day after day after day.

I'll  readily admit to  initially finding the jazzy grooves less than  overwhelming, but in time I fell under the Steely Dan spell and perhaps because I was living hundreds of miles away from my family, this bluesy ballad became one of my favorite performances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW59IsQkGmA&list=OLAK5uy_k1bmKyX3ZwpFftKrooQJyw9CN1l3H6S4c

HEARTS OF SOUL - "IF I COULD GIVE YOU THE WORLD"

If I Could Give You the World (Carl Cutler - John Myers - Lyndsey Griffin - Floyd Lawson) - 3:10  rating: **** stars

Anyone who has poked around the BadCatRecords website will realize I'm a big Motown fan.  That said, Hearts of Stone were one of those groups I knew existed, but I had never stumbled across any of their releases.   Imagine my heart of joy when I scored a copy of their obscure 1970 album.

Hearts of Soul trace their roots back to the early 1950s when teenager John Myers and his brothers formed The Echoes. Still in high school, by 1955 The Echoes were veterans of the touring circuit, as well as having recorded some unreleased material and done backing vocals for a number of artists.   Their manager Fred Logan arranged for an audition with Atlantic Records, but they ended up signed to Savoy Records, which promptly insisted on renaming the group The 5 Pennies (a curious choice given there were six members).   With various line-up changes, Myers and The 5 Pennies also recorded material as The Chimes,  and The 4 Jokers.

By the mid-'60s Myers was living in Tampa, Florida where he formed The Larks.  The original line-up featured Myers, Clemon Davis (bass), Lindsey Griffin (tenor and baritone), Rudolph Hill (tenor), lead singer Floyd Lawson.  By 1966 the group was known as The 4 Pennies, featuring lead tenor Carl Cutler. 

By 1970 they were performing as Hearts of Stone, which led to a recording contract with Motown's V.I.P. subsidiary.  Teamed with producer/arranger/writer Henry Cosby, all hyperbole aside,1970's "Stop the World - We Wanna Get On" stands as one of the most overlooked albums on the Motown imprint.  Featuring a mixture of group originals (several co-written by Cosby) and an eclectic mix of covers, these guys were simply stunning.  Lawson may have been the lead singer, but the other three members were equally talented and their group harmonies were equally impressive.  

I'll readily admit it didn't have that instantly identifiable Motown sound, but the breezy, mid-tempo 'If I Could Give You the World' was still a wonderful performance.   More shag, than Motown, it isn't hard to picture yourself dancing to this one on a summer evening at a beach.  Besides, how many Motown acts can you think of who wrote their own material?  How many wrote material as good as this one?

Here's a link to a YouTube clip of the song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwzacpePlRI

YES - "LOVE WILL FIND A WAY"

Love Will Find a Way (Alan White - Chris Squire - Jon Anderson - Tony Kaye - Trevor Rabin) - 4:14 rating: **** stars

Saturday afternoon I was driving home from a cross country race my younger son participated in when this oldie came on the radio.  I don't think I'd heard this one since it originally came out back in 1983.  And to be honest, I wasn't exactly the biggest Trevor Rabin-era Yes fan back then.  The funny thing is today the song sounds great.  Say what you will about Rabin's influence on the band, but the guy sure knew how to write a catchy tune.  Flying down Route 66 with a new stereo (finally replaced the original 2002 Jeep Cherokee system with five of the six speakers being blown), the song sounded great.

With the song firmly lodged in my head I remembers the cheesy video and looked it up on YouTube.  Still cheesy ...  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrowi4hHz8A   LOL

MARK KNOPFLER - "BOOM LIKE THAT"

Boom Like That (Mark Knopfler) - 5:40 rating: **** stars

Mark Knopfler's languid, instantly recognizable sound has always been a personal favorite.  

A couple of years ago I went and saw the Michael Keaton starring flick "The Founder".  The film as based on Roy Kroc's history with McDonalds.  As most things in life, the portrayal wasn't particularly sweet to the late Kroc.  Anyhow, the film was a blast.  

Taken from Knopfler's 2004 album "Shangri-La", "Boom Like That" was written for the film, but for anyone tight on time, managed to capture the entire plot line in under six minutes.  The sound is instantly recognizable as a Knopfler effort; his dry voice and classic guitar moves just screaming hit single (naturally the track did nothing).

Here's a link to the official video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sYK2RwH5E8

TOTO - "21st CENTURY BLUES"

21st Century Blues (Steve Lukather) - 6:08 rating: **** stars

To be honest, I hadn't bother listening to a Toto song since college ...  

I was sitting on my deck reading a book with Radio Caroline playing in the background when this tune popped up.  Joseph Williams' voice and the group harmonies grabbed me by the throat and wouldn't let go and the song got even better when the Steve Lukather guitar solo kicked in.  Unfortunately, I missed the artist and song title, so I had to dig around a little to find the act.  Imagine my surprise to discover it was Toto !!!  Not sure what the rest of the 2015 "Toto XIV" album is like, but this slice of AOR is simply killer.  The dark and cynical lyrics only make it stronger.   May just have to buy this one.

BRYAN FERRY - "DON'T STOP THE DANCE"

Don't Stop the Dance (Bryan Ferry) - 3:56 rating: **** stars

In college I got into a Roxy Music phase and ended up buying a bunch of Brian Ferry solo albums.  Unlike his work with Roxy, for some reason, Ferry's sophisticated, man-of-the-world solo sides just let me cold.  I tried hard to like those album, but just never could get the taste.  The albums just sounded cold, distant, and calculated.  They sat out there on my for-sale list for years and then a couple of weeks ago a Japanese collector bought them all at once.  While I was packing the albums up I decided to give a couple of them one last spin.  Imagine my shock when I discovered how appealing 'Don't Stop the Dance' was.  Yeah, it featured Ferry at his sleekest, but the song had a slinky groove that was simply stellar and it featured one of the coolest sax solos out there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjhTHQhJLxs

STING - "BRAND NEW DAY"

Brand New Day (Sting) - 3:59 rating: **** stars

In late August my wife and I say Sting at Wolftrap Farm Park.  I grew up on The Police and Sting so it was nice to hear so many of the hits and semi-hits.  At the same, time the highlight for me came in the form of 'Brand New Day'.  Maybe because the song hasn't suffered from the same overexposure as most of the hits; the clever wordplay, or the fact it's always reminded me of a Motown/Stevie Wonder song (Wonder played harmonica on the original studio version), it just kind of jumped out from the rest of the show.  In fact, I found myself humming it for days.

Here's a link to the original video, followed by a live take with Wonder guesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA46ZNjrzeY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pu9R4egeg_I

TAYLOR DAYNE - "I'LL WAIT"

I'll Wait (Shep Pettibine - Taylor Dayne - Tony Shimkin) - 4:44 rating: **** stars

Yeah, this one even surprises me ...  I can remember when the sound of Taylor Dayne's voice would see me quickly changing radio channels.  There was just something about her voice that I found shrill and irritating - her performances evoked a chalk-on-the-blackboard response to my ears.   At least on the surface 'I'll Wait' isn't all that different from her standard dance moves (which were at least better than the over-the-top ballads).  Mindless dance moves with the title repeated time after time after time ...  And yet this one's always struck a chord with me.  I've never counted the number of times the title is repeated, but the song's got a catchy beat and Dayne's normally nasal delivery didn't sound half bad here.  Go for the dance remix since it speeds up the arrangement. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvIWRoXBfnc