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Guitar heroes? Everybody has a different concept of them. People used to say that “Clapton is God,” which I never really got (and I’m a fan). It’ll probably come as no surprise to you that my idea of a guitar hero is an oddball one, so I’ll save that for another day.

This review got off the ground because I happened to stumble upon some footage of a guitar hero from the 70’s, Ritchie Blackmore. Of course, Knopfler’s music is nothing like Deep Purple’s.

Read the full review at BlogCritics.

Yeah, I was pretty much non-committal about The Beatles reissues, especially the stereo remasters. Unless they we’re going to go back and fix that awful left/right extreme panning thing, I was uninterested.

Mono, on the other hand…that had me intrigued. I read a whole bunch of stuff about it and decided to have a listen. Now I have to admit that the sound is pretty incredible.

Read all about it here.

OK, this really isn’t film music but I didn’t figure that Dave Rivello would mind me namechecking Lalo Schifrin in his review.

This track really does tell a story, and Rivello’s wonderful big-ish band cranks it out. Reminds me a little of Boston’s Either Orchestra.

Follow the link to read my review of Beyond The Fall.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell what’s more fun, listening to a piece of music or writing about it. With Eric Vloeimans, the answer might be ‘both’. Plus, is that a cool song title or what?!

Follow the link to read my review of March of the Carpenter Ants.

Civility? What civility? Yeah, that’s what I’ve been wondering…where has it all gone?

So I sat around thinking about it, and what Bob Dylan would say about it.

Read all about it here.

I tend to refer to Barrett Martin as a “musical polymath” because while his footprint is a recognizable one, the music he’s helped to create over the years is quite diverse. His new recording Zenga was released this week as is worth seeking out if you’re interested in stretching your own sonic pallette.

Follow the link to read my review of the track Shapeshifter.

What do Mahalia Jackson, bassist Michael Olatuja, and my back porch have in common?

Found out by reading this review of Michael and Alicia Olatuja’s fine take on the gospel classic Walk With Me.

There’s a danger in bringing together jazz and ‘funk’. You know it, I know it, we all know it…and it all boils down to two words: smooth jazz. Notice the quotes around the word ‘funk’? That’s because smooth jazz that trys to funk usually fails.

Greg Gelb does not fail. He also doesn’t make smooth jazz.

So check out Gelb’s Funk It!

OK, so The Beatles’ ramasters are out and everybody is talking about them. Boy, seems kind of amazing to me that it’s taken so long for this to happen, especially considering how huge The Beatles were…and still are, to many people.

But I have a confession to make.

Read all about it here.

It’s the freaking end of summer already. How did that happen?

Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter how it happened. We know that. The clock just kept on spinning. This year it seemed to be spinning both faster AND slower than normal.

But that’s won’t stop us from our traditional celebration of summer’s end.

Happy Labor Day everybody!