Thursday, April 16, 2020

4/17/2020 Releases of Note

Another week and more music releases tonight at 9:00 pm PDT/Midnight EDT.  There are three I can confirm I know about right now I'm interested in and can give some information on.

Rina Sawayama-SAWAYAMA: The biggest new artist I've heard about this year, Sawayama was going to play the Crocodile Café in Seattle this month before COVID hit (I didn't have tickets anyway, but I thought it was cool a local city was going to be one of her first performance venues after her first full-length album).  Like her name suggests, she was born in Japan, however, she was raised in London.  Amazon.com classifies her album as Alternative Rock, but it comes across as a blend of Modern Pop and Hard Rock, with Sawayama citing Evanescence as an inspiration.

Shelby Lynne-Shelby Lynne: Though the album is self-titled, Lynne is not a new artist, she has had a career over the last two decades and ended up on my radar by dueting with Billy Ray Cyrus on the Thin Line album.  She's a good country singer with a real honest-sounding voice and I look forward to hearing what she does on her own.

Various-Ain't Nothing But The Blues: A themed MP3 album Warner Music has pieced together as they do from time to time (a few years ago they released a hard rock album that featured Deep Purple's "Stormbringer" and Dokken's "Kiss of Death"), this one focusing on blues music and rock music influenced by blues music.  Tracks from Johnny (brother of Edgar) Winter, Taj Mahal, James Gang, Foghat, the Blues Brothers, Albert Collins, Blackfoot, Black Stone Cherry, Leon Russell and The Yardbirds are all here.  For a brief rundown of each;

Johnny Winter is Edgar Winter's brother and the two performed at Woodstock.  Edgar is famous for "Free Ride" and the instrumental "Frankenstein" while Johnny focused on Blues music.

Taj Mahal is a long-running Blues Musician who even dueted with Sammy Hagar on his "Sammy Hagar and Friends" album.

James Gang was a 1970s Cleveland-based rock band that created the career of Joe Walsh and this track is from when Tommy Bolin, who would later work for Deep Purple, was their guitarist.

Foghat is a British Blues-Rock band most famous for "Slow Ride."

The Blues Brothers are characters from a movie of the same name who perform several oldies through the film while trying to save the orphanage they grew up in.  "[They're] on a mission from God."

Albert Collins is a blues musician from Texas, he, Johnny Winter and ZZ Top created the "Lone Star Blues" sound.

Blackfoot is a rock band from Jacksonville, Florida, whose lead singer/guitarist Rickey Medlocke would later join Lynyrd Skynyrd and worked on their early demos as their drummer.

Black Stone Cherry is a hard rock band from Kentucky who has worked with Billy Ray Cyrus, Warren Haynes of Gov't Mule and Lzzy Hale of Halestorm.  They produce some of the best original rock and roll these days.

Leon Russell was a multi-instrumentalist who gained fame by playing the piano and singing a medley of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Young Blood" at the Concert for Bangladesh.  He also sang a verse of "Beware of Darkness" at the same show and has released Gospel albums and albums featuring covers of George Harrison and Bob Dylan.

Last but not least, The Yardbirds were a British psychedelic blues-rock band who had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page all play for them throughout their career.  In fact, the first name of Led Zeppelin was simply "The New Yardbirds," and Page learned his "reverse echo" and "bowed guitar" techniques while working with them.

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