Spin Doctors - Pocket Full of Kryptonite 1991

After nearly a year of solid touring, the Spin Doctors scored a huge, unexpected success with the incessantly catchy "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong." The rest of Pocket Full of Kryptonite will please fans of that song; the album is full of the loose, leisurely three-chord pop/rock jams the Spin Doctors specialize in. It may be unfair to compare them to the Grateful Dead, but the Doctors often suggest a lighter, more pop-oriented version of that band. While all of the best tracks were issued as singles ("Jimmy Olsen's Blues," "Two Princes," and "Little Miss"), there are still enough good moments on the rest of the album to please anyone who loves the hits. AMG.

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Shuggie Otis - In Session Great R&B 2002

Capitalizing on the unexpected resurgence of acclaim for Shuggie Otis in 2001 due to Luaka Bop's reissue of 1974'sInspiration Information, Blues Spectrum/GoldenLane turned out the compilation In Session: Great Rhythm & Bluesthe following year. Despite the appearances -- the same photographs from the Luaka Bop edition of Inspiration are all over this disc, including the same picture used for both front covers -- this is hardly a disc for those newly converted fans, since there is none of the trippy, one-man psychedelic soul that distinguished that record. This is Shuggie, the session-man, from the mid-'70s, when he was playing guitar and co-engineering the Great Rhythm & Blues Oldiesseries for his father, Johnny, who produced this series for Blues Spectrum records. The idea behind the series was simple: Bring a bunch of R&B and blues legends into the studio to record new versions of their classic songs, backed by Johnny Otis' house band, featuring Shuggie on guitar. Not a bad idea on the surface, and it was not unpleasant in practice, but it's also hardly noteworthy, either, since these were pretty much guys doing their hits with a pickup band, captured with indifferent '70s sound. Some of these guys rise above the occasion -- Louis Jordan sounds lively, for instance, on both of his cuts -- but this is all latter-day recordings by artists past the peak of their game. Sometimes, they update their sound a bit (Richard Berry takes a stab at funk), but most everybody simply brings their trademark sound into the '70s, with a band that's competent but lacking character -- and that includes Shuggie, whose playing here is standard blues/R&B licks that are perfectly fine, but never distinctive. It's a very nicely produced package, particularly in how it reproduces the artwork for all of the albums in the series, but the music is what matters and anybody that hears this, either as a fan of the featured artists or Shuggie, will be disappointed by these passable but undistinguished latter-day re-recordings. AMG.

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The Oliver White Group - Control 2008

Oliver White grew up in Marietta, Oklahoma, a small town just a few miles north of the Oklahoma/Texas state line. Both of his parents taught at the local school, his father was the band director, and his mother was the choir director. The White house was always enriched with all types of music, from Beethoven to Blood, Sweat, & Tears. Oliver's father eventually retired from teaching to get involved in a music ministry with his church. This part of Oliver's childhood included playing southern gospel music with his parents in churches all across the south. A little later in life, Oliver played the trumpet in the school band, but it wasn't long before boredom set in and he picked up his first guitar. After graduating from Marietta High School, he attended college at Southeastern Oklahoma State University in Durant, Oklahoma with the intention of becoming a band director like his father. It didn't take long, however, for Oliver to realize he'd much rather MAKE music than teach it. A short time later, he and some friends put together a blues band called "Little Brother" with Oliver on lead guitar and lead vocals. He learned the ropes and honed his guitar chops before leaving the band and taking his music in his own direction. And so, "The Oliver White Group" was born. The OWG, as they have come to be known, have covered many styles of music, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chris Duarte, Buddy Guy, Ian Moore, and Doyle Bramhall II. However, their true strength is their original material. These songs are enriched with a blend of blues, roots, and modern folk that defy the boundaries of any genre. Songs about real life, real problems, real love, and real people. The Oliver White Group is currently riding the success of their album "Control", released early 2008 by Overdrive Records. The Oliver White Group delivers on Control, which of course features guitarist Oliver White, an awesome, top-shelf, soul-powered bluesy heavy guitar rocker from Texas. Special guest guitarists on Control include Lance Lopez and Wes Jeans. The disc offers twelve tracks (60 minutes) of outstanding, killer blues/rock riffage with tons of serious six-string "Texas Attitude". An excellent diverse and dynamic debut disc from this Texas axeslinger that will burn your good jam house down to the ground. Excellently produced by Don Moore and highly recommended to fans of SRV, Doyle Bramhall, Ian Moore, Wes Jeans and Lance Lopez.

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Request: Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies 1992

The group's seminal debut album is aptly titled: The melodies shimmer and drone and hum like otherworldly pop tunes, and Radley and Pierce's vocals hover gently in the mix. One of the premier dream pop albums, Lazer Guided Melodies is both beautiful and innovative. AMG.

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Rui Mingas - Canções de Angola com Rui Mingas 2001

Rui Mingas is an Angolan singer. He was Angolan Sports Minister and Ambassador to Angola in Portugal. Rui Mingas belongs to an influential family of Angolan musicians from whom he received a new way of interpreting the Angolan music rhythms and developed his sound and influenced future generations of Angolan musicians.

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The Pahinui Brothers - The Pahinui Brothers 1992

Hawaiian standards sung in English, island takes on country & western, plus a reggoid cover of a John Lennon song, would seem to forecast a tropical depression; but this disc is brilliant, its boundary-busting all enhancement and no dilution. The cowboy version of the Fijian classic "Isa Lei" is a natural-born transformation, "Do You Love Me," a duet with Dwight Yoakam, is even stronger, and if Youssou N'Dour can diddle with mainstream rock, why shouldn't these Hawaiian jalis -- sons of slack key guitar pioneer Gabby "Pops" Pahinui -- spread their toes in the grass a little by laying a heartfelt reggae consciousness on a poignant version of Lennon's "Jealous Guy"? AMG.

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Sean Riley And The Slowriders - Only Time Will Tell 2009

Sean Riley & The Slowriders is a Portuguese band from Coimbra with a sound close to music of americana roots such as folk, rock and blues. The band is slated to represent Portugal at the 2010 Eurosonic Festival. Afonso Rodrigues, the front-man, started out by writing songs on his own under the alter-ego Sean Riley. While DJing at Rádio Universidade de Coimbra he met other radio hosts, Bruno Simões (ex-Tu Metes Nojo) and Filipe Costa who joined in. Filipe Rocha was the fourth musician to complete the band.

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The Mackrosoft - Antonio's Giraffe 2006

A Dust Brother (Cheeba), a peripheral Beastie Boy (Money Mark), a Headhunter (Mike Clark), and a slew of other musicians join producer Aja West's tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim. Throw in the fact that the album is mastered by Brian "Big Bass" Gardner, better known for his work with gangsta rap acts like N.W.A., and you start to see the hodge-podge of influences involved in this record.

Antonio's Giraffe is funky electric jazz. In that, it hints at the music of the other Antonio, but there the similarities end. While Aja West's original compositions harken to the era of Jobim, this is not a cover record.

Rhodes, horns, and drums ride high throughout. The percussion is exceptional as you might expect with a Headhunter manning the kit. There's nothing extravagant, just good solid rhythm for the other players to work from. The strength here is the Rhodes of both West and Alex Veley and the horn interplay.

"Hold Up" gives a perfect example of the Rhodes getting busy. While songs like "The Mighty Loconchu" show the coordination of the horn players at their best.

This is billed as a tribute to Antonio Carlos Jobim, but outside of the title, I wouldn't have picked up on that. In the end, it doesn't really matter. This is good music that stands on its own without any reference needed.

This is funk-jazz of the absolute highest order. Showcasing fabulous tunes, brilliant playing, and imaginative production, Antonio's Giraffe is my left-field disc of the year.

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Steve Turre - One 4 J 2003

Leaving his conch shells -- and more offbeat ideas -- home this time, Steve Turre's motive for this release was to honor the fountainhead of bop (and thus, modern jazz) trombone, J.J. Johnson, who had tragically taken his own life in 2001 in the face of a terminal illness. In doing so, Turre loads his front line with nothing but trombones -- as many as six, but usually fewer. Besides himself, the other trombonists on the album are Robin Eubanks, Steve Davis, Andre Hayward, Douglas Purviance, and New York Philharmonic principal trombonist Joe Alessi (who also plays good jazz). It's a fairly conservative recording by Turre's standards, with an emphasis mostly on the straight-ahead bop thatJohnson championed. Indeed, many of the duo-trombone charts sound like latter-day echoes of the famous K and J.J.(Kai Winding/J.J. Johnson) records of the 1950s and '60s. But there are, thankfully, exceptions to the pattern as the disc unfolds -- which is only right since Johnson himself displayed an experimental streak away from bop now and then. "Mr. Johnson," penned by Harold Mabern when he was Lee Morgan's pianist and not unrelated to Morgan's own "Mr. Kenyatta," switches to a modal vamp; "Kelo" is treated to a mild yet unmistakable funk backbeat; and "Wee Dot" is a blues jam with a difference, modulating up the scale in five different keys just to give everyone a challenge. Turrealso borrows Slide Hampton's full-sounding, infinitely subtle four-trombone chart of "Lament" and adds Senegalese percussionist Abdou Mboup to drive "Minor Blues." Ultimately it is Turre who makes the most individual impression among the soloists, particularly in his quirkier moods on plunger ("Kelo") and with a Harmon mute ("El Camino Real"). Pianist Stephen Scott, bassist Peter Washington, and drummer Victor Lewis comprise the standard-issue rhythm section. Turre's liner notes for each track are so detailed -- a virtual play-by-play -- that you almost don't have to hear the CD in order to know what's on it. But do hear it anyway. AMG.

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Sarah White - Hiding Blind 2008

Sarah White’s voice can be described as hypnotic at times, with breathy, soothing soliloquies, and deep, seductive stanzas. What’s impressive is her ability to effortlessly transform from singer to emcee, as in the introspective song, C Train.The smoky-eyed chanteuse is a songbird of a different flock with a sound fusing electrodub, crunk sounds, hip-hop, tribal and jazz-soul among other genres and interesting lyrical content. White does something rather odd: she sings in a somewhat haiku, on topics ranging from sexual encounters and unrequited love to rather interesting music.

 In this selection, she combines a spitfire flow, with dancehall style chatting and soulful melody, to create her own unique ‘scatois’. Each of Sarah’s songs is a perfectly balanced moment, reflecting the full spectrum of her vocal abilities and bringing a positive focus to the issues of growth, fulfillment, and love. Songs “Big Dance,” “Dance on Mars,” “Freakness” and the EP’s title track are all magical surprises especially for a record only housing nine songs on its playlist.Sarah White has opened for artists such as Jill Scott, J*Davey, K-Os, Camp Lo, Amy Winehouse, Fishbone, and The Roots.She was also featured in 2007’s Black Lily Festival in Philly, and is poised to become the next post-genre fixture, much like fellow Minnesota export Nikki Jean of Philadelphia’s Nouveau Riche. Sarah White has clearly found her calling, and we should all join in her commute to the top.

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Raging Slab - Black Belt In Boogie 1995

Led by singer and guitarist Greg Strzempka, Raging Slab is known for its highly unique Southern-rock boogie sound, with influences from punk and metal. Part of the group's impact comes from slide guitarist Elyse Steinman, who serves as a rhythmic anchor and sometimes adds texture -- unusual functions for a slide player. The band also includes third guitarist Mark Middleton, Alec Morton, and Bob Pantella. While the band's style and innovative arrangements give them their appeal, they have been plagued somewhat by subpar material as typified by albums including 1987'sAssmaster, 1993's Dynamite Monster Boogie Concert and 1996's Sing Monkey Sing. AMG.

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Cass McCombs - Wit's End 2011

In several sometimes perplexing ways, Cass McCombs' fifth full-length outing, Wit's End, veers moderately but decisively away from the appealingly direct, rootsy indie folk of its predecessor, Catacombs. In its place is a stark, occasionally stifling collection of dark, literary, chamber folk, melodramatic piano balladry, and one sterling piece of country-pop classicism. Album-opener "County Line" is a quiet stunner: a mellow-grooving country-soul burner so achingly smooth you'd swear it was a turn-of-the-'70s chestnut from the L.A. soft rock scene -- a stray cut from the vaults of Asylum Records, perhaps, or maybe a particularly glossy tune by the Band -- complete with that iconic Fender Rhodes twinkle. (Its restrained melancholy and vintage-styled craftsmanship also call to mind Beck's Sea Change.) But it's hardly an accurate indication of what's to come, at least musically: although several songs feature a similar instrumental palette, and the moody, subdued tone persists throughout, nothing else here is nearly as warm or winningly melodic. Lyrically, "County Line"'s tale of loss and rueful homecoming (seemingly about a hometown transformed by new development, rather than a doomed romantic relationship, though it could be both) is just a taste of the darkness and desperation that, as the album's title hints at, pervade these eight songs. Elsewhere, we get the desolate, jilted lover of the maudlin "Saturday Song," the chilling "Buried Alive" (whose title is evidently not metaphorical), and the wracked "Hermit's Cave," which plays like a gloomier variation on the Beach Boys' "That's Not Me" with an added dose of mysticism. When McCombs' often heavily stylized, antiquarian verse is paired with a suitably intriguing arrangement (as on "Memory Stain," a forlorn piano waltz that gets some much-needed color and lift via accordion, bass clarinet, and a few well-placed castanets) or a decently forward-moving melody ("Buried Alive," which is both tender and almost delightfully macabre), the results can be effective, if not exactly inviting. On the other hand, no amount of celeste can save "The Lonely Doll," an overly precious fable set to a maddeningly harmonically static waltz -- with the title phrase repeated after every awkward couplet -- from being utterly insufferable. The album's most ambitious -- and, possibly excepting the incongruous "County Line," most successful -- moment comes with nine-minute closer "A Knock Upon the Door," a rambling narrative ballad and yet another waltz, this time with a rustic, old world lilt spiced up with a coolly sinister backing combo of banjo, bass clarinet, organ, chalumeau (a Baroque relative of the recorder), and found-sound percussion. It's the most potent and captivating expression of the gothic sensibility that runs through Wit's End, and one of a few potentially promising directions suggested by this odd, somewhat bewildering, and perhaps hopefully transitional effort. AMG.

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Madshoe's Musicology

Madshoe's Musicology was closed one more time you can find me here MADSHOE'S MUSICOLOGY and in the future you can always ask my blogs address thru my mail!!! Enjoy.

The Groundhogs - Hogs In Wolf's Clothing 1998

The Groundhogs were not British blues at their most creative; nor were they British blues at their most generic. They were emblematic of some of the genre's most visible strengths and weaknesses. They were prone to jam too long on basic riffs, they couldn't hold a candle to American blues singers in terms of vocal presence, and their songwriting wasn't so hot. On the other hand, they did sometimes stretch the form in unexpected ways, usually at the hands of their creative force, guitarist/songwriter/vocalist T.S. (Tony) McPhee. For a while they were also extremely popular in Britain, landing three albums in that country's Top Ten in the early '70s.

The Groundhogs' roots actually stretch back to the mid-'60s, when McPhee helped form the group, naming it after a John Lee Hooker song (the band was also known briefly as John Lee's Groundhogs). In fact, The Groundhogs would back Hooker himself on some of the blues singer's mid-'60s British shows, and also on an obscure LP. They also recorded a few of their very own obscure singles with a much more prominent R&B/soul influence than their later work.

In 1966, The Groundhogs evolved into Herbal Mixture, which (as if you couldn't guess from the name) had more of a psychedelic flavor than a blues one. Their sole single, "Machines," would actually appear on psychedelic rarity compilations decades later. The Groundhogs/Herbal Mixture singles, along with some unreleased material, has been compiled on a reissue CD on Distortions.

McPhee was always at the very least an impressive guitarist, and a very versatile one, accomplished in electric, acoustic, and slide styles. Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs! (1972), their last Top Ten entry, saw McPhee straying further from blues territory into somewhat progressive realms, even adding some Mellotron and harmonium (though the results were not wholly unsuccessful). The Groundhogs never became well-known in the U.S., where somewhat similar groups like Ten Years After were much bigger. Although McPhee and the band have meant little in commercial or critical terms in their native country since the early '70s, they've remained active as a touring and recording unit since then, playing to a small following in the U.K. and EuropeThe Groundhogs' power trio setup, as well as McPhee's vaguely Jack Bruce-like vocals, bore a passing resemblance to the sound pioneered by Cream. They were blunter and less inventive than Cream, but often strained against the limitations of conventional 12-bar blues with twisting riffs and unexpected grinding chord changes. McPhee's lyrics, particularly on Thank Christ for the Bomb, were murky, sullen anti-establishment statements that were often difficult to decipher, both in meaning and actual content. They played it straighter on the less sophisticated follow-up, Split, which succumbed to some of the period's blues-hard rock indulgences, favoring riffs and flash over substance.After Herbal Mixture folded, McPhee had a stint with the John Dummer Blues Band before re-forming The Groundhogs in the late '60s at the instigation of United Artists A&R man Andrew Lauder. Initially a quartet (bassist Pete Cruickshank also remained from the original Groundhogs lineup), they'd stripped down to a trio by the time of their commercial breakthrough, Thank Christ for the Bomb, which made the U.K. Top Ten in 1970. AMG.

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