a brilliant introduction to a multi-talented, multi-faceted
artist...Americana golden boy Tim O’Brien has a great new album, Pom- padour (Howdy Skies). The title track may be one of the finest songs ever written about hair. The album is filled with great new writ- ings by O’Brien, like “Whatever Happened to Me,” and the bouncy “Gimmie Little Some- thin’, Take Her Off My Mind,” co-written with Gary Nicholson. I do so love mandolin, and Tim is one of the best mandolin players in Music City, as evident on “Ditty Boy Twang.” Of course, O’Brien is no one trick pony, his banjo and guitar work are equally good. Oh yeah, so is his fiddle work, spotlighted on his take on the traditional instrumental “Snake Basket.” One fun surprise was hearing “funk banjo,” played by O’Brien on “Get Up Offa That Thing.” Think Rick James meets Earl Scruggs. Don’t let the title fool you into think- ing this is a rockabilly record! It isn’t, but it is a fine collection of Americana music from one great American
picker....Big Time is a beach and r&b band out of Charlotte, NC that know exactly what it takes to get the crowd to shag- ging, whether they are on the Strand or in their own back yard. Their CD, Big Time (Fine Groove) , finds the 9-piece band (take THAT, Tedeschi Trucks!) hittin’ on all cylin- ders with great new beach tunes like “Cherry Grove,” and the massive horn section of “Car- olina Fine,” and “What She Wants.” One special track, the r&b laced “Four O’Clock in the Morning,” features special guest, beach legend Clifford Curry. The instrumental “Dark Clouds” is a smooth blues groove with some tasty guitar, and the Big Time cover of the Clarence Carter classic “Slip Away” is just what the doctor ordered. Put your dancin’ shoes on and put on some Big Time. Shag the night away....1980’s arena rockers For- eigner return with In Concert-Unplugged (Trigger Productions), recorded in Dearborn, Michigan on August 24, 2015 at the Ford Motor Company Conference & Event Center. I will be the first to admit that I was never a
huge fan of the “faceless” arena rock bands like Journey, Styx, REO, Foreigner... Sure, I heart the hits all the time on the radio, but never laid out a dollar for any of their records. It just never was my cup of tea. As a writer, I have been fortunate to meet and interview hundreds upon hundreds of rock stars from the ‘50’s to the current day, and I recall hav- ing a very nice chat with Mick Jones back in the early 1990’s. There’s no denying his great- ness as a guitarist, and I admire his work ethic in keeping a Foreigner out there playing these songs for the fans, even though he is the last of the original band. Hey, it happened with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Marshall Tucker too, but fans still flock to the concerts because the songs mean something to them. Kelly Hanson is a fine vocalist, but to many, he can- not ever take the place of powerhouse singer Lou Gramm. Understandable. But I would say that the majority of casual rock fans could not give a rat’s patootie who is singing and play- ing, so long as they have the brand name be- hind them and deliver the hits, and Foreigner does that very well. Most of these songs have been recorded, re-recorded, reissued and repackaged so many times that at first I didn’t even know that I wanted to listen again to “Double Vision,” “Cold As Ice,” “Juke Box Hero,” “Dirty White Boy,” or especially the over-played “Hot Blooded.” But here’s my thing. This set was recorded unplugged, acoustic. As I get older, I dearly love the stripped down acoustic thing that I first expe- rienced on MTV Unplugged with bands like KISS and Nirvana. These well worn chesnuts posess a whole new vibe when stripped down, and I like it. I still hate “classic” rock bands for the most part, only because radio started “classic rock” stations back in the ‘80’s, and I have been hearing the same 40 songs every day for thirty years. This one may not get played a lot on my sound system, but it has already received two spins, and that’s two more than any Foreigner LP so far. •
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