When I first heard the ethereally smooth, wistfully dreamy, like-it’s-hovering-off-the-ground, “Green Rocky Road” by Creation with Felix Pappalardi, I had no idea the rabbit holes (plural) I’d soon be descending. But before getting to all that, sit back, watch the sunlight glitter through the trees, and drink in “Green Rocky Road.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z20xeQrzJ0 Okay, so where to start? Maybe with who the heck Felix Pappalardi is. Pappalardi was a fixture of the early classic rock scene, albeit one who may have flown somewhat under the radar. Perhaps best known for producing Crea ..read more

Calling all Black Crowes fans! Run, don’t walk, to your phone, Sonos system, laptop, record store (just kidding) – however you roll – and check out The Magpie Salute’s eponymous live debut record. The Magpie Salute is the new band put together by Crowes co-founder and guitarist Rich Robinson. It also features former Crowes guitarist, Marc Ford and bassist, Sven Pipien. From the first few notes, literally, you will be transported back to your days blasting Shake Your Money Maker in your college dorm room. Check out those first few notes of which I speak, from “Omission,” below, and tell me I’m ..read more

Just in time for the holidays, I present you with a new Fine Tuning “Old, New, Borrowed and Blue” set. And because I feel bad for not posting in a while, I'm going to give you a bonus ONBB set! That’s right — two ONBB sets! Twos are definitely wild with this post. There are two songs by the same band; two songs that prominently feature violin and 2.5 artists that hail from Scotland. We have a lot of ground to cover so let’s dive in. Kicking off the first ONBB set is “Chance” by Big Country, released in 1984. I tolerated as best I could my older brother’s obsession with this band back in the d ..read more

If you like Nick Drake’s chillingly introverted masterpiece, Pink Moon, then you may want to continue reading. A.A. Bondy’s music is similarly spare, dark and penetrating. Much of it features just Bondy on acoustic guitar singing of sadness and loss. “Of The Sea” tells of a suicide pact between lovers – by drowning. You get the idea. Bondy, the former front man of the indie rock band Verbena, hails from Birmingham, Alabama, and has released three solo albums since 2007. His sampling of the Rolling Stones’ “I Just Want To See His face” on the track “Rapture (Sweet Rapture)” initially piqued my ..read more

Bonnie Bishop has been around for a while, recording five albums between 2002 and 2012. But after a decade on the road struggling to support herself, she called it quits, sold her traveling van and moved back to her parents’ ranch outside Austin, enrolling in a graduate creative writing program. Ain’t Who I Was (2016), marks her return to the music scene. It is most welcome. Bishop has evolved from a self-described country singer trying to sell beer at Texas dance halls to a soul singer more in line with who she is as a musician. She cites Otis Redding as an influence and her voice is both s ..read more

J.S. Ondara immigrated to the United States from Nairobi, Kenya in 2013 at the age of twenty, settling in Minnesota because, well, that’s where Bob Dylan’s from of course. Seriously. That’s why he decided to hunker down there. Dylan inspired the young Kenyan somewhat accidentally – Ondara thought “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” was a Guns N’ Roses tune until his buddy schooled him, at which point Dylan seeped irrevocably into his bloodstream. Although Ondara was a prolific lyric writer in Kenya, he didn’t pick up a guitar until he arrived in the United States. The influence of Dylan on Ondara, bo ..read more

Apologies for interrupting your Mother’s Day festivities, but today’s the day I pull back the curtain on Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, a band from Brooklyn that’s been around since 2010 but that, sadly, I didn’t come across until 2019. “Hang on a second, “ I hear you saying, “2019 was a lifetime ago, pre-COVID, for crying out loud. Why’d you hide the ball for so long? And then decide to bust in on Mother’s Day to finally drop the news?” These are fair questions. I guess I’ve been waiting for just the right time to introduce everyone to Sister Sparrow’s bluesy, soulful stylings. And toda ..read more

The Basement Tapes Playlists consist of songs I've intended to write about for a while but for whatever reason have yet to make it out of my notebook and onto the blog.  So I'm packaging them up into a nice little playlist and discharging my curatorial duties in one fell swoop.  Enjoy! This Playlist is available on Spotify. 1.  “Flood Song” — Quiet Hollers 2.  “Anna is a Stool Pigeon” – Tom Gabel 3.  “Got Your Back” — Matt The Electrician 4.  “Hey, Snow White” — Destroyer.  These guys really channel the Velvet Underground on this one. 5.  “1922” — Phil ..read more

Before “social distancing” was trending on Twitter and the live music industry was forced to shut down, my wife and I ventured to Nashville to catch some music and meet up with old friends. It was a mixed bag. The music that is. No complaints about the old friends. I was fired up to see Archers of Loaf, a ‘90s band from Chapel Hill, NC that broke up twenty years ago but just released a new single, “Raleigh Days,” which is fantastic. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nLjSIJtYkU&list=RD7nLjSIJtYkU&start_radio=1 Although the track is straight ahead rock ’n roll, I knew ..read more

Welcome to the second annual year-end Memorial Playlist, a concept I shamelessly cribbed from a trainer friend of mine who creates them each year for her spin class. The concept is pretty straight-forward: make lemonade out of lemons by compiling a playlist of some of the artists who passed away during the year.  Sadly, this year’s playlist is a Who’s Who of rock legends, from Chuck Berry to Gregg Allman to Tom Petty to Chris Cornell. This playlist is available on Spotify. Gregg Allman – “Ain’t Wastin’ Time No More.”  I have to start with Gregg Allman.  As I noted in a pos ..read more