Dave James

Liz in Puerto Vallarta:

Lenticular cloud formation:

Speaking of Neil, one of the better (IMO) songs he ever did never appeared on any album and was only performed once. If you've never heard "After To Berlin" you're in for a treat. And, yes, that's Bruce Palmer on bass.

One of the better Neil Young recordings I've heard in awhile is "Live At The Blue Note Cafe", performances originally recorded between November of 1987 and August of 1988, but not released until 2015. It's a 2 CD set with 23 different songs, some familiar and some not. Recommended.

Let's just say that the in-car LP's had a life span of five plays and you had to clean out the vinyl shavings after every rotation.

Kevin - Word ! Years ago, I returned six warped copies of an RCA recording of Brian Auger & The Trinity to Music Millennium in Portland, Oregon. It was one of RCA's new "skinny" LP's. The guy at MM finally said, "Why don't you just pick out some other album and we'll call it even."

Would someone please explain what Dave Roberts was thinking when he pulled Rich Hill? Just to clarify, that's the same Rich Hill who had just thrown 6+ innings of one hit ball with seven strikeouts when he got the hook.

Thanks for the recs. I'll check them out.

I'm a bit of a WWII history geek...mostly non-fiction, but some fiction as well. In the latter category, I found Kristen Hannah's book "The Nightingale" to be pretty special. It's focused on the French resistance during the Nazi occupation of France that began in 1940. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it better than two other recent WWII books that moved a lot of needles, "Beneath A Scarlet Sky" and "All The Light We Cannot See".

I remember the first two CD's I ever bought. One was by Stan Getz and the other, Lyle Lovett. I still have the Getz. The Lovett is long gone.. I also recall, as does my bank account, when I first noticed that Tower Records was carrying Japanese CD's.

It's T the K. He just looks small because the collection is so big.

What he said.

MLB must be hitting its knees. A bi-coastal World Series between old school teams with huge fan bases is just what the doctor ordered. The only thing that could have pleased Rob Manfred more would have been a Yankee Dodger Series. I won't be rooting for either team. Not a Sox fan and my twin brother loves the Dodgers.

If you look up the origin of the phrase, "marches to his own drummer", it will be accompanied by a picture of Tim Buckley. For more reasons than just music, I always thought that he and Laura Nyro were cut from the same cloth.

Speaking of shot voices, I saw a video of a recent Paul McCartney concert and to say he's not sounding so good would be understating the case. I suppose he could had an off night, but whatever the reason, it wasn't pretty. On the upside, I saw Boz Scaggs live a couple of weeks ago. He's 74 years old and still bringing his A game.

David Murray's "Ballads For Bass Clarinet" released in 1993 on the DIW label is worth looking into. In addition to Murray, it features John Hicks, Ray Drummond and Idris Muhammad.

I second your nomination. B.B. King once said that Peter Green was the only guitarist who "made him sweat". I'd call that high praise indeed. Green was a tone monster.

I'm a Clapton fan, but I don't start drooling on myself thinking about him. IMO, Jeff Beck is a much better and a far more nuanced player. Having said that,I don't think you can underestimate the effect he had on British rock and on the reemergence of the blues. I also don't think you an give him too much credit for his charitable work via his Crossroads Foundation. I can't think of anyone else in the music biz who's given back as much he has.

And here I'd been led to believe that Eric had kicked drugs. What's next? "Slowhand On Broadway - Clapton Does Show Tunes."

A 1969 double LP release but with only three sides:

Interesting take on this from YouTube contributor Rick Beato.

An appellate court has overturned an earlier finding that "Stairway To Heaven" was not plagiarized from the Spirit song "Taurus". All parties will be heading back to court shortly re-examine the copyright infringement claim. Frankly, I was surprised at the first outcome. There are just too many similarities between the two songs and when you consider this with the fact that Zep had been touring with Spirit when the song was included in the latter's repertoire, it struck me as an open and shut case. Not to mention that Zep has something of a reputation for "borrowing" other people's songs and claiming them as their own. As you might imagine, many millions in royalties are at stake.

Along with the sets devoted to Grant Green & Sonny Clark and to Herbie Nichols. All four of those boxes were Blue Note at its best.

5 x 5 by Monk.