Appearing soon at a record store near you:
- Stomping Ground by Dion DiMucci. If you’re not hip to Dion, get with it, man. Dave Edmunds produced his 1989 "comeback" album Yo Frankie, upon which appear k.d. Lang, Lou Reed (a huge fan of Dion), Paul Simon, pianist Chuck Leavell, and a great rhythm section.
Appearing on Stomping Ground are Billy Gibbons, Bruce Springsteen, Boz Scaggs, Eric Clapton, Keb’ Mo, Marcia Ball, Mark Knopfler, Patti Scialfa (a fantastic singer, and a member of Springsteen’s band as well as his wife), Rickie Lee Jones, and the fantastic slide guitarist Sonny Landreth. Nice accompaniment. ;-)
- At My Piano by Brian Wilson. Brian is given a lot of credit for The Beach Boys’ harmonies, as well as his talents at melody writing and arranging. But I have long made the case for his abilities at writing really, really great chord progressions, his use of modulation and inversion. and other sophisticated composition techniques, far above the level of almost all other Rock ’n’ Roll songwriters.
Brian’s "God Only Knows" is as always a harmony-feast, but the heavy production (employing all the members of The Wrecking Crew studio recording band) and multiple harmony vocal parts make hearing the song’s chords and their harmonic/modulated/inverted movement difficult. You have to listen "through" the dense sounds piled on top of the piano part, played by Brian. I am hoping and assuming At My Piano---Brian playing his songs alone, without instrumental accompaniment and/or vocals, both melody and harmonies--will rectify that situation. Awesome!
- All The Good Times by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. Originally released in a limited pressing available only through their website, this album will now be available everywhere good music is sold.
And for comic relief, a Christmas album from Billy Idol. Maybe he figured if Dylan could do one, so could he. I predict it sucks.
