Suggested Listening December 29, 2017

Hi everyone, for your listening pleasure, here are our six suggested albums for the week; five streaming albums and one album on CD.

(Click on the photo of the album you’d like to hear or request)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

Don’t Go Baby It’s Gonna Get Weird Without You by Porter and The Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes (2017) (Genre: Country):

Porter & the Bluebonnet Rattlesnakes consisted of singer-songwriter Chris Porter, singer, mandolin player and bassist Mitchell Vandenburg and drummer Adam Nurre. The group completed this LP earlier this year; however, before it was released they were visited by tragedy. On October 19, 2017, the band was involved in an automobile accident and Porter and Vandeburg were killed. Adam Nurre was injured in the crash but survived; thus this LP is both the debut album and swansong by the group.

Songs on the LP include: Bittersweet Creek, Your Hometown, Edith, When We Were Young, November Down and East December.

At The Third Stroke by Russ Ballard (1978) (Genre: Rock):

Russ Ballard first came to prominence as the lead singer for the classic rock band Argent. While with Argent he wrote and sang one of their best known songs – God Gave Rock N’ Roll To You. And then he launched a solo career. 1978’s At The Third Stroke is his most critically acclaimed solo LP to date.

The album features the songs: Dancer, Helpless, Cast the Spirit, Look at Her Dance, What Does It Take and My Judgment Day.

Jazz on Film (Beat, Square & Cool), Vol. 1-5 by Various Artists (Genre: Jazz, Soundtracks):

This streaming collection featuring 83 songs, is just like the title says – a mixture of beat, square and cool jazz from a variety of films made during fifties and sixties.

Songs featured in the set include: The Wild One and Blues for Brando by Shorty Rogers & His Orchestra, The Crime by Los Angeles Music Festival Jazz Orchestra, Theme from I Want to Live by Gerry Mulligan’s Jazz Combo, Stakeout by Johnny Mandel & his Orchestra and Guitar Amour by Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn.

King Size! by Andre Previn’s Jazz Trio (1958) (Genre: Jazz):

On this LP, the very talented Andre Previn is working as the leader of a Jazz trio which includes Previn on piano, Red Mitchell on bass and Frankie Capp on drums.

Songs on this classic album include: You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To, It Could Happen To you, I’ll Remember Paris and I’m Beginning To See The Light.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show – Original Soundtrack by Various Artists (1975) (Genre: Soundtracks, Humor):

The classic soundtrack from 1975, includes the songs: Dammit Janet by Barry Bostwick & Susan Sarandon, Hot Patootie – Bless My Soul by Meatloaf, I Can Make You A Man by Tim Curry and Super Heroes by Barry Bostwick, Susan Sarandon & Charles Gray.

The Suburbs by Arcade Fire (2010) (Genre: Pop, Rock):

Arcade Fire is a Montreal based indie band consisting  of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne on vocals, Richard Parry on organ, Tim Kingsbury on bass and  William Butler on synthesizer and drums.

The Suburbs is their third LP released in 2010. Songs on the LP include: The Suburbs, Suburban War, Month of May, Wasted Hours, We Used to Wait and Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains).

CD of the Week:

The Book of Secrets by Loreena McKennitt (1997) (Genre: New Age, Folk, Pop, International):

Canadian singer-songwriter Loreena McKennitt’s music is aptly described as deep, ethereal folk music. If you’re in the mood for thoughtful, reflective music than this album is for you!

This is McKennitt’s sixth LP and it includes the songs: The Mummer’s Dance, Marco Polo, The Highwayman, La Serenissima and Night Ride Across the Caucasus.

Artist Biography & Discography Information:

The AllMusic Website:

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.

 

Suggested Listens October 2017 Week 4

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

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

Losing Sleep by Chris Young (Genre: Country):

Chris Young is the grandson of Richard Yates who performed on the old time radio and TV show Louisiana Hayride which was broadcast from Shreveport, Louisiana from 1948-1960. So Young has solid country music roots. His 2017 release Losing Sleep is his seventh album and features the songs: Radio and the Rain, Where I Go When I Drink, Holiday and She’s Got a Way.

Cheap Trick by Cheap Trick (Genre: Rock):

This is Cheap Trick’s self-titled debut album original released in 1977. Cheap Trick plays a blend of classic and seventies power rock – prefect arena style rock. And if you can’t catch them in concert you can listen to their music via Freegal!

Songs on this album include: ELO Kiddies, Daddy Should Have Stayed in High School, Cry, Cry, Hot Love and Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace.

Letters Never Read by Dori Freeman (Genre: Folk/Country/Pop):

This is singer songwriter Dori Freeman’s second album. Her style has foundation layers in folk and country music. Songs on this 2017 release include: If I Could Make You My Own, Lovers on the Run, Cold Waves, Turtle Dove and That’s Alright.

An Introduction to Lightnin’ Hopkins by Lightnin’ Hopkins (Genre: Blues):

Singer and guitarist Sam “Lighnin;” Hopkins hailed from Texas and was an outstanding blues musician whose career spanned more than fifty years from the 1920s to the early 1980s. This set offers a solid introduction to Hopkins’s work and includes the songs: Mr. Charlie (Parts 1 & 2), You Got to Work to Get Your Pay, Vietnam War Blues (Parts 1 & 2) & Rock Me Mamma.

Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall by Harry Belafonte (Genre: Vocal, International, Popular):

This classic concert took place on May 2, 1960. Belafonte was joined by a number of other great musicians and singers for this show including Odetta, the Chad Mitchell Trio, Miriam Makeba & the Belafonte Folks Singers. This is a really fun album full of great music! Songs include: Jump Down, Spin Around, Suzanne, Vaichaskem, Water Boy, Ballad of Sigmund Freud and I’ve Been Driving on Bald Mountain.

Halloween Stomp: A Haunted House Party by Various Artists (Genre: Swing, Jazz, Popular):

This collection of “spooky” performances is dominated by songs dealing with ghosts and monsters, everything from “Mysterious Mose” and “Got the Jitters” to “Zombie,” “Skeleton in the Closet,” “The Ghost of Smokey Joe” and “With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm.” Most of the music is from the swing era with such bands as those led by Red Nichols, Don Redman, Glen Gray, Louis Prima, Ozzie Nelson, Cab Calloway, Tommy Dorsey and even Rudy Vallee alternating with much more obscure groups. The producers at Jass have also “enhanced” the music by inserting odd sound effects between songs. This CD certainly qualifies as the definitive (and also only) Halloween jazz album. All Music Review.

Streaming Videos of the Week:

Come Go Home With Me by Lightnin’ Hopkins

Losing Sleep by Chris Young

Suzanne by Harry Belafonte

ELO Kiddies by Cheap Trick

If I Could Make You My Own by Dori Freeman

Mr. Ghost Goes To Town by Louis Prima

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:
http://www.allmusic.com/

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

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 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.

Suggested Listens September 2017 Week 4

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

(Click on the photo to stream or request the album)

Freegal Streaming Suggestions*

1. Grant Hart & Husker Du:

Last week that Grant Hart, best known as the lead singer, songwriter and drummer for the 1980s punk group Husker Du died after a battle with cancer.

If you’re not familiar with his work it sounds like the epitome of 1980s punk rock – glossy and fresh and similar in scope to the work of R.E.M. and it is definitely worth checking out.

The Freegal Music Catalog features several albums by Husker Du and Grant Hart’s solo album debut too.

So I’m going to recommend three albums that feature Grant Hart’s music and if you like the first one, Husker Du’s 1984 release Flip Your Wig, then you’ll the other two as well – Husker Du’s 1985 album Zen Arcade and Hart’s first solo album, 1989’s Intolerance.

Flip Your Wig by Husker Du:

Songs include: Flip Your Wig, Every Everything, Makes No Sense At All & The Wit & The Wisdom.

Zen Arcade by Husker Du:

Songs include: Something I Learned Today, Never Talking To You Again, Dreams Reoccurring & What’s Going On.

Intolerance by Grant Hart:

Songs include: All of My Senses, Now That You Know Me, Fanfare in D Major and Roller-Rink.

2. Ain’t Goin’ That Way by Hokum Boys and “Banjo Joe” Gus Cannon (Genre: Blues):

The Hokum Boys were a group that played in the twenties and early thirties. The core members of the band were of pianist Alex Hill and guitarists Dan Roberts and Alex Robinson.

And a note on the word “Hokum, “Hokum” was a term from the ’20s used to describe music full of double entendres dealing with sex, drinking and drugs, and thus no respectable person from the period would be caught dead listening to it! This compilation includes 20 tracks from the Hokum Boys, Banjo Joe and Blind Blake, featuring Hokum Blues; Gambler’s Blues; Selling That Stuff; Jonestown Blues; He’s in the Jailhouse Now, and more.

3. Little Girl by Syndicate Of Sound (Genre: Classic Rock/Sixties Pop):

Syndicate of Sound was a mid-sixties band from San Jose, California and consisted of Don Basking on guitar and vocals, Bob Gonzalez on guitar, Larry Ray on lead guitar, John Sharkey on keyboards and John Ducksworth on drums.

Their music is great traditional rock that sounds like it was made in the mid-sixties; and as the LP was released in 1966 that is right on the proverbial money!

Songs in include: Big Boss Man, Almost Grown, Little Girl, Lookin’ for the Good Times and Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby.

4. You Ain’t Talkin’ To Me: Charlie Poole And The Roots Of Country Music by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers (Genre: Country/Folk):

This set includes 45 songs recorded by Poole between 1925 and 1931. Today we’d call this music old time country or perhaps Americana – but whatever designation we use – it is great early country music with banjos and fiddles front and center.

Songs include: Shootin’ Creek, There’ll Come a Time, White House Blues, Hungry Hash House, & Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down Blues.

5. Open Book by Fred Hersch:

This album is a brand new release by jazz pianist, composer, educator and activist Fred Hersh and includes the songs: The Orb, Whisper Not, Zingaro, Plainsong, Eronel and more.

CD Recommendation of the Week:

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron:

This collection features some of poet, activist and rap progenitor Gil Scott-Heron’s best music from the early seventies.

Songs include: The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, The Get Out of the Ghetto Blues, Lady Day and John Coltrane and Whitey on the Moon.

Videos of the Week: 

Makes No Sense At All by Husker Du:

The Hokum Blues by The Hokum Boys:

Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down by Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers:

Little Girl by the Syndicate of Sound:

Open Book by Fred Hersch:

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised by Gil Scott-Heron:

References:

Artist Biography & Discography Information:
http://www.allmusic.com/

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

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 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.