December top 40, The Best Albums of 2024, #1 Defiance Part 2 ian hunter, lou reed, Dylan Tribute, Chicago, The Rolling Stones, Kitty Wells, Mama Cass and more!

Album of the Year:  Ian Hunter's Defiance Part 2 

Listen to the EPK with Ian talking about the disc

https://youtu.be/sV0Bh8Ub_-s

        Those of us who followed Mott the Hoople on Island and Atlantic Records, the brilliant music that the rest of the world failed to hear until the Columbia album produced by Bowie/Ronson, have become historians over half a century later, studying the work of Ian Hunter and those who participated in Mott and its offshoots.

      Defiance Part 2 is an extraordinary work.  The song "Fiction" has much to offer.  First, it's just a terrific tune.  You want to play it over and over, the smooth vocal, the band simply delivering the goods.  

     "The 3rd Rail" - the last track Jeff Beck recorded

Here's a Rod Stewart / Jeff Beck request. Someone sent me a Facebook text: I was looking up "I've Been Drinking" and a nice review of that song by you came up. What a great number, with Rod at the peak of his powers. Happy Holidays!! Stephen Zanichkowsky https://youtu.be/QQm9fRLYLwU I've Been Drinking Review by Joe Viglione

Doris Tauber and Johnny Mercer's classic "I've Been Drinking" appeared on the British import Best Of Jeff Beck and was also the "B" side of Columbia 45 RPM DB 8359 in 1968. Produced by Mickie Most, it was not released on an album in America until 1989's Storyteller: The Complete Anthology Rod Stewart, rumor has it, because of a flaw on the master tape. Well on 1991sBeckology it sure sounds wonderful, Rod Stewart's ghost-echo voice behind his main vocal (which comes in after the guitar break, maybe that was the alleged tape flaw?) has a haunting effect next to Jeff Beck's fuzztone leads. In fact, Beck's guitar comes off like Python Lee-Jackson's "In A Broken Dream", a regional 1972 hit with Stewart on lead vocal. "I'm drinkin' again/ Thinkin' of when/You left me" sums it up. Rod's making the rounds, and is totally believable here, knowing that "there's no second time around", the broken-hearted vocal a total turn around from the explosive singer on "I Ain't Superstitious". The great Madeline Bell shows up on backing vocals, the Blue Mink singer an ever present voice during this explosion of rock/blues that happened towards the end of the 60s. But "I've Been Drinking" relies as much on Nicky Hopkins' pop piano as it does Rod Stewart's vocal, Beck's guitar more restrained here than perhaps at any time on work where he's the marquee name and not playing the role of session man. His fuzztone waits almost half a song before the guitar break, and only comes back before the fade out. The guitar playing is, of course, exquisite, but its quiet presence through most of the tune allows Rod Stewart the opportunity to stand front in center. https://www.allmusic.com/song/ive-been-drinking-mt0011918839 The interplay with Madeline Bell is great and the three minutes and sixteen seconds of this once-rare (in America) Mickie Most 1968 recording from London's EMI Studios has always been a favorite of this writers and really deserved a chance to be a hit on its own.

Country Hit Parade Review by Joe Viglione

Kitty Wells – Kitty Wells' Country Hit Parade – Vinyl (LP, Mono), 1956 [r1602257] | Discogs

Kitty Wells was a major influence on Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris and so many other women who crossed over from country to pop. "Too many times married men think they are single" is the sentiment displayed in "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" -- which is 1950s male bashing, and Wells' perfect vocal cuts through the violin and accompaniment. It's pure country music that is far removed from the slick pop Nashville began manufacturing decades after this groundbreaking disc. "Paying for That Back Street Affair" is one of three Billy Wallace titles, featuring the lyrics "you gambled and I lost/now I must pay with hours of despair." The songs are full of someone having done someone wrong, and though there is a sameness throughout, vocally and instrumentally, the purity of Wells' performance and sincerity makes the 12 short stories very appealing. "I don't claim to be an angel, my life's been full of sin" is her statement, and she's sticking to it. Wells covers Roy Acuff, Zeke Clements, and J.B. Miller, and the work is consistently high. The passion in the opening track, Jimmy Work's "Making Believe," is powerful stuff, but it's her performance on the Eddie Miller/Dube Williams/Robert Yount classic "Release Me" which is the album's high point, as influential as the hit "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels." This track may have helped establish Engelbert Humperdinck's career as he took the song to the Top Five in 1967. Jimmy Heap had a country hit with the "Release Me" in 1955, and Esther Phillips took it to the top of the R&B charts in 1962 (as well as Top Ten on the Top 40), but Kitty Wells adds something extra to it here, and her performance of the tune is timeless. Release Me doesn't have "your lips are sweet as honey" lines, but "There's Poison in Your Heart" lines, and maybe that's what makes it so effective. Still, Kitty Wells can take corny country lyrics and deliver them with total sincerity. Kitty Wells Country Hit Parade is a classic of the genre and gave inspiration to decades of male and female vocalists who went on to inspire others. It is entertaining beyond its historical importance.  https://www.allmusic.com/album/country-hit-parade-mw0000872637#review