by Pico In My Hallowed Opinion, it doesn’t matter much what kind of music it is, if it’s created and executed well, it’s worth listening to. That’s why you don’t have to like crooners to appreciate Sinatra. Or get into reggae to respect Bob Marley. That’s why even though IRead More

Alright, confession time. There are large areas of the musical landscape I listen to pretty regularly but haven’t written about and probably never will. And there’s various reasons for that. For instance, popular releases are bound to be well covered elsewhere, adding my thoughts to it just seems redundant. ThenRead More

by Pico Several years ago I read an article interviewing Robert Cray. In it he was asked about which up and coming blues artists he was listening to and he mentioned Eric Bibb and Corey Harris. Being a fan of Mr. Cray, I naturally had to check out these aspiringRead More

Much like jazz, most young people get introduced to the blues from artists who mix it with a more mainstream type of music, which usually means rock. Twenty years ago Stevie Ray Vaughan’s music was the gateway to the straight blues while the young Jonny Lang led the way thereRead More

“Lovin’ Cup” illustrated a passion for Paul Butterfield long before Robben Ford released a celebrated album in tribute to the late bluesman.

by Pico Ray Charles had been such a fixture on the American music scene for so long, it’s still hard to reconcile the fact that he’s been gone for over two years, now. True, it’s been a long time since he had a bona fide hit but his presence permeatedRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Strange as this might sound, listening to Joe Lovano’s rendition of this 1960 Coltrane original makes me think of Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing”. Hendrix’s “Wing” was a relatively brief and initially largely unnoticed track in it’s original form, but in someone else’s hands…Clapton’s…it became a moreRead More

You’ve seen it many times before and probably joined the fray a time or two. I’m talking about that never-ending debate on “Who is the greatest guitarist of all time?” Man, there’s so many outstanding ones out there with so many different styles, how can you choose? I sure asRead More

by Pico So I was listening to this tune off of Hotcakes and Outtakes the other day on the Pico ‘Pod and ohmygawd it hit me: this blog has never respresented for Little Feat before! After all, we did promise to deliver musical musings in the realm of blues, rockRead More

Al Jarreau has found a good measure of success from applying his unique weave of octave shifting singing and jazz scatting to a wide array of songs ranging from jazz standards to r&b to straight pop. And like Linda Ronstadt and Robert Palmer, he’s had a knack for finding someoneRead More