Bloggerhythms

Although he had a long recording career, gruff voiced Barry McGuire was technically a one-hit wonder. In 1965 he topped the charts with "Eve of Destruction," one of the most powerful pop protest songs of all time. The unlikely hit was written by highly regarded, 60s songwriter, P. F. Sloan who normally wrote lighter fare for artists like Herman's Hermits ("A Must to Avoid") and The Turtles ("You Baby"). He also composed "Secret Agent Man," a big hit for Johhny Rivers that was the theme song of a popular TV series at the time. 1965 was the year folk-rock began its reign as an influential sub-genre. It was the year The Byrds released "Mr. Tambourine Man" and Simon and Garfunkel debuted with "Sounds of Silence." If you were paying attention to the news during the mid-60s you'll understand the impact "Eve of Destruction" had in the music world. The record was far removed from the sin...

CDs are not dead yet - or even on life support - but they are definitely in intensive care. Over the last fifteen years its dominance as a musical format has declined to almost the point of no return, so it’s time for a tribute to those shiny, little discs. I was one person who immediately fell in love with the CD when it arrived on the scene in 1982. I thought I had died and gone to stereo heaven because I always obsessed over the annoying scratches, clicks, and pops that most records accumulated over time even though I took extremely good care of them. I used Discwasher regularly, and I still use it today on any records I play. As soon as I put my first CD in the player's little sliding drawer I appreciated its extra playing time - most double LPs could fit on a single disc - and the expanded sonic field. The increased clarity was apparent to me immediately on most percussion and acoustic instruments. Female vocals sounded far superior then they ever...

Way back in 1970 I bought one of the many bootlegs of the soon-to-be-released final Beatles album, so I heard most of the songs from their joint movie and LP project before many people did. It seemed like there were dozens of different, illegal versions of the soundtrack sold in record stores everywhere. I bought my copy at Jerry's Records located in a long out-of-business discount mall named Bazaar of All Nations in Horsham, PA. Like other stores selling this coveted piece of contraband, I remember that Jerry's very prominent counter display advertised the LP as Get Back . I also remember paying more for it than it was probably worth. The packaging was odd even for a bootleg because it came in a plain, white, carboard jacket with no printing, photos, liner notes, cover art, or track listing - nothing! Inside, the white record label was also totally blank. As you can see here, I had to write on it myself. When I pulled the record out r...

New Year's fireworks courtesy of Pixabay. For the third year in a row Bloggerhythms is gathering  a handful of "best of" posts published by some of the music blogs I read regularly, so just as the calendar gets ready to flip to 2026 this year's edition has arrived for your reading pleasure and musical education. Similarly to the two previous editions, some of the bloggers mentioned below have national or international followings with large readerships. Others were posted by independent, personal blogs like mine with smaller followings. They're listed here in no particular order.  Not all of the lists are specifically related to 2025. Highway Queens , the excellent blog published by Michelle Lindsay in Scotland, offers readers two lists that highlight...

Lexxi Raine is a young, talented, pop-rock, singer-songwriter originally from Buffalo, NY who now resides in Manchester, England. Raine is currently engaged to a man who proposed to her even though he's aware the love of his life wrote an entire EP about the breakup of an earlier relationship that includes a song about murdering her ex-boyfriend. Despite that, she promised the entire staff here at Bloggerhythms (me) that the ex is perfectly fine and he doesn't have to worry about taking his last breath any time soon. Here's how Raine describes her recently released EP, The Grief Case , on her Bandcamp page :  " Grieving the end of a relationship is messy and never a straight line. Some days you’re angry, other days you’re numb, and sometimes you still convince yourself he’s coming back. My new EP, The Grief Case , lives inside that turbulence. Each song is its own chapter in the 6 stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargain...

It's conceivable that many people are sick of Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" because it's played incessantly every holiday season. While it's not my favorite Christmas song I've actually grown to like it more as I got older. I guess it's because this now mature classic rock fan has mellowed. Even though few young people today know Lee outside of her Christmas classic she's among the more popular American recording artists of all time, having sold over one hundred million records around the world. Billboard named her the Top Female Artist of the 1960s. With her song "I'm Sorry" (1960) she became only the second woman to ever hit #1 on the Hot 100. (Connie Francis was first with "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" in 1960.) Her perennial Christmas chestnut is the lead track on Lee's first album of seasonal tunes, simply titled Merry Christmas . The star recorded "Rocki...

The sad, recent passing of Raul Malo encouraged me to pull out all of my Mavericks CDs. I own several of them, but not their Christmas album. I didn't even know they recorded one until a few days ago. Shame on me for not knowing that. I just burned it to CD after downloading it from iTunes. Both the title of the album and it's front and back covers tell you everything you need to know about The Mavericks' foray into Christmas music. You didn't really believe this ten-song set was going to give listeners anything but a chance to party hardy during the holidays, did you?  Hey! Merry Christmas!  may not be   intellectually stimulating but it's not supposed to be. Play it to have some fun in memory of Malo. Hey! Merry Christmas! was recorded by The Mavericks' most recent lineup featuring Malo on vocals and guitar along with axman Eddie Perez who's been with the quartet since 2012. Jerry Dale McFadden also became their permanent keyboard pla...

Sadly, Raul Malo, the leader of The Mavericks, has passed away from cancer at age 60. I knew of his ongoing battle with the disease, but I heard stories that he was doing well. Apparently not. Ten years ago, I saw him perform a solo acoustic show in New Hope, PA five days before Christmas where he played a couple of tunes from his Christmas album. Years later, he also released a holiday record with The Mavericks. I also saw the full band play a concert at Cooper River Park in New Jersey quite a few years earlier. As a tribute, I'm rerunning my review of his acoustic concert because it occurred during the holiday season.    In an almost two hour show at New Hope Winery Raul Malo proved he is a superb singer and that statement should not come as a surprise. As always, The Mavericks' leader and frontman sounded like a graduate of the Roy Orbison school of vocals and all he needed as accompaniment was the solo acoustic guitar he played quite well all evening long. Malo showe...