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Friday 7/08/05
Thinking about 2 PBS Specials I caught last night, one was Brian Wilson Presents Pet Sounds and the other was John Mayer with a special appearance by Buddy Guy. Two ends of the musical timeline and yet both very engaging. Kind of a look at the Past and the Future in a 3 hour window. By the way, PBS will repeat the Brian Wilson special on Saturday. I'm impressed with John Mayers respect of the Music that has preceded him and it's good to see that there is still an audience for people writing good songs. Speaking of writing good songs, Brian Wilson is difficult to listen to when speaking yet the magic seems to return when he sings. Watching this special reminds me to listen to Smile in the very near future. If you haven't bought the CD of Smile (35 years in the making) you should, it will bring a "Smile" to your face.
Morning Drive On The Five
Driving to the office on the 5 freeway I've selected a mix CD that I recorded a few weeks ago. The songs that played during the 55 minute trip were
Perfection - Badfinger
Tell Me All The Things That You Do - Fleetwood Mac
Dreams of Milk & Honey - Leslie West
Let Me Love You - Jeff Beck Group
Hooked on Love - Grand Funk Railroad
The Ostrich - Steppenwolf
Them Changes - Buddy Miles Express
My Mirage - Iron Butterfly
As you can see I was in a 60's State of Mind but no one, not even satellite radio, plays any of the aforementioned cuts anymore. These are beyond Deep Tracks these are Buried Tracks.
The Blip On The Radar Screen 
Try the track "Fuzzy" it's a winner.
Saturday / Sunday 7/8 7/9
Featured Artist on Saturdays WNT was Herbie Mann, many callers were listening to this music for the first time and expressed their approval. Caught a special on IFC "Punk: Attitude" quite a good documentary on the evolution of "Punk" music with a perspective from the people that actually made or promoted this genre of music.
Looking forward to this (Sunday) Evening, going to The Grove in Anaheim to see the Reunion of Loggins and Messina. The signifigance of this concert is it was the first date with my wife Es in March1972. We attended a special press introduction and recording session for Loggins & Messina at Columbia Records Recording Studios in NYC. This was part of the 1972 Collegiate Broadcasting Conference I was attending, as a representative of Hunter College in NYC.
The Blip On The Radar Screen
"Trilogy"
Monday 7/11/05
Last nights Loggins and Messina concert at The Grove of Anaheim was a mixed bag, kind of bittersweet. The Music was wonderful and Kenny and Jim were in vintage form but the sound was horrible, perhaps the worst I've experienced for a major act in my entire life. I'll get to that later on. Our seats were in the first tier (relatively close to the stage) but we were to the left of the stage and this limited our sightline so that supporting musicians including a very talented Fiddle player who was a major contributor to the nights music were not visible.For $100.00 per ticket plus parking I expected a better viewing angle.
From a performance perspective Loggins and Messina played for almost three hours including 2 encores and a brief 15 minute intermission. The absence of an opening act was greatly appreciated and the lights lowered precisely at 8 PM as advertised, what a concept. The backing band consisted of the aforementioned Fiddle player, Drummer, Bass Player, Keyboard / Accordion player, 2 additional musicians played Reeds and added percussion. There were quite a few magical moments including "Be Free" featuring a fabulous duet between Jim Messina on Mandolin and The Fiddle Player - Gabe Witcher who also played Dobro. Other Song Highlights were Trilogy with a soulful rendition of "Peace of Mind" by Kenny, Angry Eyes with some great Saxophone playing. All in All it was a wonderful evening of music and memories performed by very talented and passionate musicians. It was appropriate that the closing number was a very poignant "Dannys Song". 
As for the Sound, well that was another story.
My assesment of the sound problem is that the band overwhelmed the venue especially when all cylinders were firing. When the music approached crescendo levels the sound was a blur and the vocals were never quite clear. The other problem was an annoying echo throughout the whole evening and the sound reverberating off of metal fixtures was really loud. It was difficult to detemine if others were bothered by this but my wife also made a similar observation, perhaps we're spoiled but we know good sound. The Grove is probably a good venue for small acts, actually we saw Dion here about 5 years ago and we thought the sound was good but it was a small band. It's too bad because otherwise it is a pleasant place to see music with easy parking, comfortable seating and never feeling like your crowded.
The Blip On The Radar Screen 
Visions Of Johanna
Saturday 7/16/05
In studio guest was Latin Guitarist Juan Carlos Quintero who was appearing in San Juan Capistrano Regional Library for Music At The Library Series. Juan Carlos proved to be very engaging and passionate in discussing his brand of World Music. We talked and listened to some of his music for approximately 30 minutes. At 4:30 PM it was time for this weeks Whole 'Nuther Thing with featured artist - Al Kooper. I chose Al on this Saturday because it was the week of his new release -"Black Coffee". This was Al's first release of new material in over 30 years. The wait was worth it and I will have a complete review in a few days.
 At 8 PM My wife, 2 friends of ours and myself attended a much anticipated concert at The Barclay Theatre - UCI, Irvine. This was the Chicago Blues Reunion featuring Barry Goldberg on Keyboards, Nick Gravenites on Vocals, Harvey Mandel on Guitar, Corky Siegel on Harmonica, Sam Lay on Drums and Vocals and Tracy Nelson with Supporting Vocals. The rhythm section was comprised of Bassist Rick Reed and Drummer Gary Mallaber. The evenings music was close to perfection, the sound in this theatre was fabulous, the seats were comfortable and our view was excellent from Row J in the Orchestra Section. Because it was an "All Star Lineup this was not a concert of "greatest hits" but a selection of some Chicago Blues standards and some of the individual players own compositions. These guys and gal have been honing their craft for over 40 years and it shows in their technical prowess but what was really evident was their respect for each other and the lack of any
one- upmanship. Highlights included a rendition of "Wade In The Water" with everyone soloing, Harvey Mandel was particularly brilliant on this number. Overall, these guys seem to enjoy playing with each other and the unheralded Rhythm section was tight and Gary the Drummer was superb without being flashy. Nick Gravenites was in vintage form and displayed why he was Mike Bloomfields favorite vocalist. Corky Siegel was also a standout on Harmonica while Tracy Nelson showed off her vocal talents. Can't forget Barry Goldberg on keyboards and Hammond B3 who was outstanding. All in All a great evening, on a scale of 1 - 10 an 11. They are playing a few more dates in Southern California and are a don't miss evening.
The Blip On The Radar Screen
Thursday 7/21/05 Gary Bergeson, fellow on air personality from KSBR called to ask if I would be interested in seeing Bruce Hornsby that evening in San Diego at Humphreys by The Bay.
Having enjoyed Bruce's early work and not really paying attention to his recent endeavors I thought it would make for an interesting evening. We had seats in the 11th row Center and the ambience of this venue is great, located on the bay in San Diego. Bruce strode onstage and proceeded to play for well over 2 hours with a brief intermission. Bruce was very engaging and the crowd was really into it. The sound left something to be desired probably due to a decibel limit as this venue is in close proximity to residences and other places of business. Overall we enjoyed the concert but since neither my wife nor I were big fans it was not magical, Bruce did play all the familiar stuff and from what I heard from others he always changes the set list from city to city. I enjoyed the fact that he did alot of improvisation so many of the old favorites sounded fresh. Overall, I would rate this one 3.5 Speakers.
The Blip On The Radar Screen
Sunday 7/24/05
Drove down to San Diego for our much anticipated evening with Mark Knopfler at Copley Symphony Hall. My wife, Es, is a huge fan of Mark including his latest efforts Shangri La and 2001's Sailing to Philadelphia. I find his solo efforts to be less satisfying than his work with Dire Straits but have always been captivated by his guitar work. Our seats were slightly right of center in the first few rows of the balcony and gave us a good sight line of the stage. Being home to the San Diego Symphony, the acoustics were excellent. The concert featured an opening act with a powerful Van Morrisonesqe type vocalist named William Topley who did a rousing 45 minute set to warm up the typically laid back SoCal audience. After a brief intermission,  Mark and company walked onstage to a loud ovation and proceeded to keep the audience energized during the entire 90 minute plus set. Magical moments included Romeo & Juliet, Speedway at Nazareth, Telegraph Road, Sultans of Swing and Once Upon A Time In The West. A real bonus of this concert was the added dimension given to many of the new songs that I previously dismissed as rather boring, hearing them performed live caused me to rethink my opinion. My wife had an ear to ear grin for the entire evening which was worth the price of admission and validated my feelings about this concert. There was no lack of passion or even one moment that could be considered "going through the motions". I give this particular evening 5*****.
The Blip On The Radar Screen
Sunday 8/7/05
I've been neglecting this site because I'm currently in the process of ripping all my CD's to my computer, a rather daunting task considering the size of my library. I purchased an 80 GB external hard drive to store the music and share between my desktop and laptop computers. I will get back into it as soon as I'm finished probably during the week of the 22nd or so.
Sunday 8/28/05
Well it's finally done, I've ripped my 7557 favorite tunes (28GB)from my collection of CD's to my new external hard drive. I now have 8943 favorite songs available to burn CD's or load onto my Ipod Shuffle. Man, I wish I did this a long time ago. Next is my collection of hundreds of Mix Cassettes that date back to the late 1970's and then my 2500 LP's. I guess I'll never finish archivng my collection to digital. I also backed up my new hard drive of music to 7 DVD's. DIG Records sent me an advance copy of 1st new CD from Bill Champlin and Sons of Champlin in over 28 years, I will have a review in a few days. I played "I'm Not Your Lover" from the new disc. Preparing music for next weeks 3 hour special "The Best of Whole 'Nuther Thing". I will feature sets of mixed music as well as sets dedicated to one artist from the past few years shows. Tune in and give your Ipods a rest this weekend.
The Blip On The Radar Screen
New Sons CD - Hip Li'l Dreams
12/26 - 12/31
Received a Creative Zen Sleek 20GB MP3 Player with built in FM and Voice Recording for XMAS / Chanukah. This player is a tad smaller in every dimension than equivalent Ipod and was over $100.00 less. The software is just as good as Itunes for my purpose which is to manage the music in my vast collection, I rarely download music unless it's one song that I'm missing. I refuse to pay $18 for a CD that has only one song I need to complete my collection. Well it took almost a week but I now have on my player 4300 Songs that are all keepers, in other words no filler, no duplicates. Only problem with this particular player compared to Ipod is the dearth of accessories available, it seems like no one is addressing other makers it's either Ipod or nothing.
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2006 Coming Soon |
