The last quarter of the year is a tale of many stories. There were vacations, tons of work. lots of albums, and more work! There were a few months with almost no new discoveries and then an onslaught of artists at the tail-end.
Let’s see what we can get into and add to our queue.
Leon Russell
As I went through the many (and many) Elton John albums, I came across The Union with Leon Russell. The album was released in 2010 and Elton was having some hit or miss songs in the ’00s. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of some of the songs on the album. Turns out Leon Russell was pretty prevalent in his day and is worth searching out some additional work.
Boz Skaggs
The problem with writing a blog in January but referencing content from October is my lack of memory. I just jotted down the name Boz Skaggs. I’ve heard the name before, but not sure why the name came up during my listening of Elton John, Bon Jovi, or America. Not sure and couldn’t find a clear answer, but I will add him to the list.
Gerry Bentley
I didn’t have the same problem with Gerry as I did with Boz. Gerry is a singer in the group America. He released some solo albums, so its good practice to list his name for future reference.
Mott the Hoople
This is not the first time I have ever heard about Mott the Hoople. In fact, I have a CD from my father for the group. I even remember when he purchased the CD (from a Phar-mor in Saint Clairsville, Ohio). The name came up when doing some research on Bad Company and Mick Ralphs.
Free
This was another group that I knew of but didn’t know the association with Bad Company. The drummer and singer of Free went on to be the drummer and singer of Bad Company (Simon Kirke and Paul Rodgers). I was first introduced to Free by their song “All Right Now” when the local Ohio Valley Band Driver sang the song at a Martins Ferry Betty Zane Day Carnival.
King Crimson
It’s nice when supergroups are formed (Bad Company/CSNY) because I get to explore the bands they came from. King Crimson is a group I heard about but couldn’t name the song they were famous for. Obviously a Google search fixes that (okay, maybe not). Turns out they might just be a name that was dropped because of influence.
The Firm
Paul Rodgers and Jimmy Page formed a group. They were called The Firm. I had no idea. I do know the song “Radioactive“. Learn something new each day.
The Law
We had The Firm and now we have The Law. Next, Paul Rodgers will have The Attorneys. Joking aside, it was a group Paul referenced in a podcast that I will check out when it is all said and done.
Giant
Giant was another group that was referenced in one sentence of an interview with Paul Rodgers. From what I can tell, it was a group managed or lead by a replaced ‘Paul’ when Bad Company split.
Greta Van Fleet
To finalize my list for 2019, I was excited when I first heard a Greta Van Fleet song. The host of a podcast asked about modern music and specifically asked about this group. He referenced that they sounded like a modern Led Zeppelin – so I was intrigued. The song on YouTube did them justice because it sure did sound like Zeppelin. Hooray for good modern music.
