Turning the big 6-0 today is a man who got his start in a rockabilly band called Safety Last before joining forces with Mark Olson, Marc Perlman, and Norm Rogers to form a four-piece called the Jayhawks: Gary Louris.
Although he was born in Toledo, Ohio, it was in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Louris found his fellow Jayhawks: the band came together in 1985, and they released their self-titled debut the following year. Unfortunately, a car accident sidelined Louris for a period, forcing him to leave the band, but he soon returned, and after spending a few years putting together demos in hopes of securing a major-label record deal, the Jayhawks used some of the material to create their sophomore effort, 1989’s Blue Earth. By ’92, the band had been signed to Def American and begun to earn mainstream notice for their gorgeous harmonies, releasing the Hollywood Town Hall album and finding some airplay with its single, “Waiting for the Sun,” and 1995’s Tomorrow the Green Grass did even better, thanks to the song “Blue.”
An integral part of two of the world's most beloved progressive rock bands (that would be Yes and Asia), it is no surprise that guitar great Steve Howe also has 19 solo efforts under his belt. On the release of Howe's ANTHOLOGY, a 2-disc collection featuring 33 handpicked tracks from this vast and varied solo career, we thought we'd find out what the acclaimed musician listens to when he is not busy making music of his own. (And just to round things out, we've got a full interview with the man himself here.)
1)
FROM BALTIMORE TO PARIS by GO WEST
I liked the whole thing about this band, once I'd hear Bangs & Crashes, a remix of their hugely successful first album. One The Couch was their second, containing this song. It maybe about Alan Murphy, their guitarist who we sadly lost. We'd become friends, and I admired his playing so very much.
2)
CHESTNUT MARE by THE BYRDS
Eight Miles High and dozens of other great recordings, then The Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, what a catalogue! The imagery used here is great, they were so adventurous!
Over the years, you’ve come to know him as a member of The Syndicats, Tomorrow, Yes, Asia, GTR, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, and Explorers Club, but it should never be forgotten that Steve Howe also has a formidable career as a solo artist. If you have forgotten, however, or if you somehow never knew this to be the case, now’s the perfect time to correct that situation, as Rhino has just released a two-disc anthology which provides a 33-track summary of Howe’s work as a solo artist. In conjunction with the anthology’s release, Howe took some time to chat about the origins of this collection, some key albums in his solo discography, and the chances of seeing a new Steve Howe album in the future.
Rhino: So whose idea was this anthology? Did Rhino approach you with the suggestion, or did you say, “I want to do something comprehensive to cover my entire solo career”?
Steve Howe: Well, that, yeah. I had the idea at a few stages in the last 10 years, say, but when I got to 12 albums, I suddenly thought, “You know, it might be good to do that now.” So I got together with Virgil (Howe, Steve’s son), we got a rough idea of what was happening, and then we talked to the people at Rhino, and it started to move forward. It was a bit slow. Last year we kept bouncing the idea around, and then we suddenly got a green light. [Laughs.]
Rhino: How was the experience of trolling through the back catalog and revisiting all of the material again?
SH: Well, you know, I haven’t totally lost touch with any of it. Periodically I like to review my music and see it’s nonsense or if it’s any good. [Laughs.] To see how I feel about it now, because your feelings kind of change. So I just waded through it. It’s a lot to do – Virgil and I sat down for three different sessions, and they were about three or four hours each – but we took every album on board and discussed it and just kind of generally reveled in it a little.
Today’s the 67th birthday of a gentleman who, even though he’s had a hand in several hit singles over the years, is probably best known for having fronted Manfred Mann’s Earth Band for their lone #1 single, “Blinded by the Light.”
Although born in Kent, England in 1948, Chris Thompson was raised in New Zealand, which is where he first began his career in music, playing in local bands like The Paragons, Dynasty, and Mandrake. It took a 1973 return to the UK, however, for Thompson to find himself in a position which would ultimately lead him to join the ranks of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band in 1976.
Thompson’s initial stint with the Earth Band ended in 1979, when he departed to form the group Night, based in Los Angeles. Although they found a bit of success during the course of their pair of albums, including the singles “Hot Summer Nights” and “If You Remember Me,” Night broke up in 1982, leading Thompson to rejoin Mr. Mann and the gang, remaining with them through 1986’s Criminal Tango album and then returning to the fold in 1996 when the band surprised more than a few people by releasing a new album, Soft Vengeance, their last studio effort to date.
34 years ago today, Robert Plant finally began to shake off some of the depression he’d been feeling in the wake of John Bonham’s death and Led Zeppelin’s dissolution by returning to live performing as the frontman of The Honeydrippers.
Yes, that’s right: the band that brought you the cover of Phil Phillips’ big hit, “Sea of Love.”
The Honeydrippers tend to be remembered predominantly for either “Sea of Love,” which hit #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, or the follow-up, “Rockin’ at Midnight,” which made it to #25, but what’s often forgotten across the mists of time is just how important the band was to bringing Plant back from the abyss. In the wake of Bonham’s death, the former Led Zeppelin frontman was seriously contemplating setting his rock ‘n’ roll career aside and becoming a teacher....and when we say he was seriously contemplating it, we mean that he’d gone so far as to apply for – and was actually accepted! – into a teacher-training program.
"While there is time
Let's go out and feel everything
If you hold me
I will let you into my dream"
Steve Winwood was a star in the Spencer Davis Group when he was still underage and referred to as "Stevie," frontman for the first supergroup Blind Faith, a cutting edge band leader in Traffic and then a solo star in 1981 with "While You See A Chance." It wasn't completely uninterrupted, there were some slow days in the seventies, but nothing like the dry spell after "Arc Of A Diver" (yes, there was a mild hit on "Talking Back Through The Night," but the album was nowhere near as big as "Arc Of A Diver"), and then came 1986's "Back In The High Life."
69 years ago today, a guy was born in Cambridge, England who went on to become one of the most distinctive guitarist in rock history: David Gilmour of Pink Floyd.
Mind you, to simply say that Gilmour is “of Pink Floyd” somewhat undercuts not only the fact that he’s had a solo career – albeit a sporadic one – since 1978, when he released his self-titled debut, but that he’s also carved himself a solid reputation as a producer and a guest guitarist. His work behind the console began when he helped Syd Barrett shamble through his two studio albums, The Madcap Laughs and Barrett, but he’s also twiddled the knobs for Kate Bush and the Dream Academy. Meanwhile, you can hear Gilmour’s playing on material by a rather remarkable variety of artists, including – but not limited to – Arcadia, Grace Jones, Kirsty MacColl, Jimmy Nail, Bryan Ferry, Roy Harper, Peter Cetera, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney, both with and without Wings.
Today would’ve been Andy Gibb’s 57th birthday, and the fact that it isn’t – he died in 1988 at only 30 years of age – makes it a highly bittersweet celebration, indeed. We shouldn’t forget, however, that the youngest of the Gibb brothers released quite a few great pop songs during the course of his all-too-brief career, which is why we’ve spotlighted a number of them in the playlist below.
