YES are one of those germinal bands that has lasted over 40 years in our national, musical, consciousness. YES have a new album that dropped today — Fly From Here — and it is a keen return to that classic YES soundsphere and innovate YES vibe.
One of my coworkers told me about the brilliant musician Justin Vernon who took a number of months while recovering from illness in a cabin in Wisconsin to record a full album on his own employing some basic equipment and would have sold the album entirely on his own but decided to sign to fantastic record label Jagjaguwar, home of such other luminaries as Dinosaur Jr. and Black Mountain.
Derek Trucks is a guitar player in the Allman Brothers Band with Warren Haynes. Derek is also the nephew of Allman Brothers Band drummer Butch Trucks. Derek Trucks is a SuperGenius musician. Hey may not have an effervescent facial expression on stage, but his magnificent fingers prove the magic and the methodology of his work. Derek is married to singer Susan Tedeschi and, together, they have formed the Tedeschi Trucks Band and their first album released dropped yesterday: Revelator.
John Oates’ new solo album — Mississippi Mile — dropped today, and it is a welcome addition to the brackwater Blues oeuvre we have come to appreciate from established greats like Eric Clapton and Tom Jones, but not Cyndi Lauper. John Oates is the other, guitar playing, half of Hall and Oates and it is so great to see John strike out on his own to sing and play the kind of music that branded him growing up:
One year ago today, we published the first BolesBlues.com article called, rightly enough — “What is BolesBlues.com?” — and that article was quickly followed by, “From Old Cooter to Boles Blues” to help explain the provenance of who we are and what we hoped to become in time.
There was a period of time in my childhood when I listened to Led Zeppelin IV just about once every two weeks — every time I mowed the lawn. There was something compelling about the album that got me really moving, and of which I never tired. A great album is like that — you can listen to it multiple times and not get bored with it. For me, that album now is the brilliant “The Aeroplane Over The Sea,” by the now disbanded Neutral Milk Hotel. For the last few months or so I have been listening to this brilliant record just about every day, whether on the way to my office or on my way home from the office. I stopped listening to it at the office because one of my co-workers had told me that he found it to be too depressing to hear in the morning.
Buddy Guy is 74-years-old and his latest album — Living Proof — dropped today and that collection of gut and grit is, without a doubt, spectacular. Buddy Guy is one of our greatest American Blues Heroes. He has transformed his talent into something bright, white-hot, and unbending.
I would like to take you on a journey of the ear, as it were — come along and listen with your imagination. Think about the following scenarios as they occur to me in life and imagine living through them yourself.
Peter Case is your classic Bluesman. He has sorrow in his gut and yearning in his heart and he’s touched death and lived to sing about it all in — Wig! — his latest release.
We’re in the high season for new Blues album releases from the old music guard. This week we have new Blues albums from Steve Miller and Tom Petty. On Tuesday, Cyndi Lauper will drop “Memphis Blues” for our listening pleasure. What is is about the Blues that brings us back to the center of our shared experiences? How does music bind us into contextual places that have memeingful resonances? With the release of — Mojo — Tom Petty endeavors to answer those ethereal musical conundrums.
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