Suggested Listening March 30, 2018

Hi everyone, here are our five musical recommendations for the week; four streaming suggestions and one recommended album on CD.

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album you want to listen to!)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

Modern Lore (2018) by Julian Lage (Genre: Jazz, Instrumental):

Julian Lage was born on December 25, 1987 and was a child prodigy who learned to play the guitar by the age of five. As a child he played with a number of world renowned musicians including: Carlos Santana, Pat Metheny, Toots Thielemans, David Grisman and others. In 1997, he was the focus of the Academy Award Winning documentary Jules at Eight.

So we can safely say this young man can really play the guitar!

Lage’s Modern Lore LP features the following songs: The Ramble, Atlantic Limited, General Thunder, Splendor Riot, Look Book and Whatever You Say, Henry.

Hallelujah Nights (2018) by LANCO (Genre: Country, Pop, Rock):

LANCO, which is short for Lancaster & Company, is a quintet featuring Brandon Lancaster on vocals, Eric Steedly on guitar, Jared Hampton on keyboard, Chandler Baldwin on bass and Tripp Howell on drums.

The group’s music can aptly be described as feel good country-rock – which is always fun!

Hallelujah Nights is the band’s 2018 release and it features the songs: Born to Love You, Long Live Tonight, Greatest Love Story, We Do, Singin’ at the Stars and Middle of the Night.

Coming Home (2015) by Leon Bridges (Genre: Soul, R&B, Pop):

AllMusic aptly describes Bridges as a “Singer, songwriter, and guitarist who emerged on Columbia in 2015 with a rich retro-soul sound.”

I agree with that assessment 100%. This is a lovely album – if you like classic soul and R&B it is right down your street! And I can’t believe that Bridges is as young as he is! He was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1989! But, wow, listening to this album you get the impression he would have been right at home playing R&B in the 1960s.

Songs on the LP include: Coming Home, Better Man, Brown Skin Girl, Smooth Sailin’, Shine, Flowers and Twistin’ & Groovin’

100 Hits Vintage Nº1 (Genre: Vintage, Vocal, Pop):

This collection features one hundred hits from the golden age of pop! Artists featured in this collection include Doris Day, The McGuire Sisters, Paul Anka, Judy Garland, Betty Johnson, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Cleo Laine, Billie Holiday and many more.

Songs in the collection include: Que Será, Será (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) by Doris Day, Brother Bill by Bing Crosby & Louis Armstrong, Sway by Rosemary Clooney with Perez Prado and His Orchestra, Rum and Coca Cola by The Andrew Sisters, Besame Mucho by Eyde Gorme and Steve Lawrence, Frenesi by The Four Freshman and more.

Bonus Streaming Suggestion:

Snake Drive by Eric Clapton from the V/A Collection The Beginning (Genre: Blues, Blues-Rock, Rock, Classic Rock):

The Freegal Music Catalog mainly features music from SONY Records and its offshoots so there isn’t much music by Eric Clapton in the catalog.

However, since today, March 30, is Eric Clapton’s 73rd birthday, I’m going to recommend you give a listen to one of the two instrumental tunes he did early in his career that appear on this LP: Freightloader or Snake Drive. The songs are from a various artists collection with a long name: The Beginning: Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Jimmy Page. Masterpieces, Vol. 1 (Remastered). And the collection features some neat songs but a couple that have less than stellular sound quality so those that value pristine sound quality beware!

CD of the Week:

Trumpet Blues The Best of Harry James (Genre: Swing, Pop, Traditional Jazz):

Harry James was an enthusiastic trumpet player and band leader. Indeed, he ran one of the most popular bands of the Swing Era. He even hired a young and unknown singer for his band – one that in short order became a household name – Frank Sinatra.

Trumpet Blues features recordings of songs that James first recorded in the 1930s and 1940s. The sound quality of many of those early recordings wasn’t so hot so James re-recorded them with more higher end equipment in the 1950s.

Songs on the LP include: Trumpet Blues, Moten Swing, I’m Beginning To See The Light, Sleepy Lagoon, I’ve Heard That Song Before and It’s Been A Long, Long Time.

Videos of the Week:

Roger, The Dodger by Julian Lage

Greatest Love Story by LANCO

Smooth Sailin’ by Leon Bridges

Que Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be Will Be) by Doris Day

Snake Drive by Eric Clapton

Have a great weekend!

Linda, SSCL

*A library card is required to use the Freegal Music Service. If you live in the service area of the Southern Tier Library System, that contains the public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Alleghany counties in New York State, you can get a library card for free at your nearest public library – including our own Southeast Steuben County Library in Corning, New York. The Freegal Music Service is free for all library card holders to access.

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:

http://www.allmusic.com/

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and includes our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York!

Library cards are free if you live in our service area. And you can obtain a card by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features your name and your current address.

Weekly Recommended Listens: May 2017, Week 4: Sixties Rock: The First British Invasion Concluded

Hi everyone, this week we’re concluding our cliff notes look at the first British Invasion. And in June our musical theme will be the American Response to that First British Invasion!

And as it has been super, super busy in Library Land this week this will be a cliff notes posting – as I’ve just run out of week!

But we’ll hit the high notes and you’ll be able to stream or request some great music with new CDs of the artists of the week to be available shortly.

And our artists for this week are:

The Yardbirds,

The Spencer Davis Group

&

The Who.

I. Links to AllMusic Artist Bios:

The Yardbirds AllMusic Biography by Richie Unterberger
https://goo.gl/SRCVGL

The Spencer Davis Group AllMusic Biography by Bill Dahl
https://goo.gl/YXHWQB

The Who AllMusic Biography
https://goo.gl/1RdCtO

Freegal Notes:

To access Freegal Music from a desktop or laptop simply click on the following link:
http://stlsny.freegalmusic.com/

The Freegal Music Catalog homepage will display — it looks like this:

The Freegal Music app can be found in your app store and it looks like this:

II. Freegal Music Recommendations Of The Week:

The Spencer Davis Group:
The Spencer Davis Group was a blue eyed soul group consisted of Steve Winwood in his pre-Traffic, Blind Faith and solo artist days, on keyboard and vocals, his brother Muff Winwood on bass, drummer Peter York and guitarist Spencer Davis. The band played organ-centric rock and their best known songs include: Keep On Running, I’m A Man and Gimme Some Lovin’.

I’m A Man 

From the LP Soul Goes Psychedelic
The Freegal Music Catalog features many albums by The Spencer Davis group. However, most of them do not feature Steve Winwood on vocals.
I did manage to find a radio version of I’m A Man that features Steve Winwood on vocals – on a collection titled Soul Goes Psychedelic. The collection also features music by The Brothers Johnson, Santana, Blues Image, The Soul Survivors and Ike & Tina Turner.

Here’s a link to stream the Soul Goes Psychedelic album: https://goo.gl/ue4cWH

The Yardbirds: The Yardbirds are best known for three of the great rock guitarists that played in the band in the sixties: Eric Claption, Jeff Beck & Jimmy Page. The group played a mix of traditional rock and R&B; and the original band consisted of Keith Relf on vocals and harmonica, Chris Deja and Anthony Topham on guitars, Paul Samwell-Smith on bass and Jim McCartey on drums. Eric Clapton replaced Topham in 1963 and he was in turn replaced by Jeff Beck in 1965. Jimmy Page joined the band in 1966. The group disbanded in 1968 and Page formed a new group, original called the New Yardbirds, which shortly after forming changed their name to Led Zeppelin.

Five Live Yardbirds (with Eric Clapton on guitar)
https://goo.gl/HwpzRJ

Roger The Engineer (with Jeff Beck on guitar)
https://goo.gl/dTxNJf

The Yardbirds Story: This 89 song collection features every recording The Yardbirds made from 1963 – 1966. The set includes A Certain Girl, Heart Full of Soul, Shapes of Things, Five Long Years and more.
https://goo.gl/le9jhu

The Who:

The Who formed in London in the early sixties and consisted of Roger Daltrey on vocals, Pete Townshend on guitar, John Entwistle on bass and Keith Moon on drums. The band had, to say the least, a very energetic and flamboyant stage presence.

And for the purposes of this posting we’re only talking about their sixties music – I feel I should point that out in case you’re not familiar with their work –and also as they put out some great albums in the seventies.

Summer Time Blues & My Generation

From The Monterey Pop Festival album:
https://goo.gl/HZezhe

The Who Live from Discos Cada Record

The Freegal Music Catalog features only one album by The Who all on their own – titled The Who Live. The album was put out by Discos Cada Records in 2011. The recordings seems to be of the band playing live and the sound and editing quality is only average at best. However, if you’re a major Who fan you might want to check it out: https://goo.gl/XF0912

Freegal Wild Card Streaming Pick Of The Week:

Bob Dylan – The Complete Album Collection – The 60’s
Since Bob Dylan’s birthday was this week, May 24 to be exact, I’m going to recommend you stream at least part of the set The Complete Album Collection – The 60’s which does indeed feature all the songs on all of Dylan’s sixties albums. This is great music for a holiday weekend: https://goo.gl/wGVvOz

III. Compact Discs Recommendations:

The Spencer Davis Group:


Eight Gigs a Week: The Steve Winwood Years:

This collection features all of the 51 songs recorded by the band while Steve Winwood was with them! So you get the hits, including Keep On Running, I’m A Man & Gimme Some Lovin’ and many more songs.

Here’s a link to request the CD: https://goo.gl/EX31Q0

The Yardbirds:


Greatest Hits Volume 1:

This Rhino records collection features the band’s hits released between 1964 and 1966. Including the songs: For Your Love, Evil Hearted You, Shapes of Things and A Certain Girl:   https://goo.gl/DymOl2


Also coming soon is The Yardbirds Story on CD – this  the same 89 song set mentioned in the streaming section – this time in a four compact disc set.
You can’t request the set just yet – but here is the link to the request page:
https://goo.gl/MXMM1v

IV: Videos Of This Weeks’ Artists/Groups:

Spencer Davis Group:

I’m A Man

Gimme Some Lovin’

Yardbirds:

I Wish You Would (With Eric Clapton)

For Your Love (With Jeff Beck)

Heart Full of Soul (With Jimmy Page)

The Who:

Anyway Anyhow Anywhere 

I Can’t Explain

VI. General References:

The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits by Joel Whitburn (Billboard Books. New York. 2009.)

Sixties Rock: A Listener’s Guide by Robert Santelli (Contemporary Books. Chicago. 1985.)

The Spencer Davis Group AllMusic Discography by Bill Dahl
https://goo.gl/V8ob6D

The Who Discography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
https://goo.gl/1afGGS

The Yardbirds Discography by Richie Unterberger
https://goo.gl/bs90ZO

Have a great day!
Linda, SSCL

P.S. If you have any questions about how to download or stream free music through the Freegal Music service to a desktop or laptop computer or how to download and use the Freegal Music app let us know! Drop by the library or give us a call at: 607-936-3713.

*You must have a library card at a Southern Tier Library System member library to enjoy the Freegal Music Service. Your card can be from any library in the system, and the system includes all public libraries in Steuben, Chemung, Yates, Schuyler and Allegheny Counties and including our own Southeast Steuben Count Library in Corning, New York. Library cards are free and at our library you can obtain one by visiting the Circulation Desk and presenting staff with a form of ID that features both your name and your current address.