The members of Cheating Alethia, Cole Tryer, drums; Matt Boothby, bass and vocals and Zack Baker, guitar. The opening track to Cheating Alethia’s album “Spare Room Panic” might give you the wrong impression. That is, unless, “Intro” didn’t already. The short, brooding instrumental erupts into “Shaky Pancakes” and the rock and roll party is underway. Brash and bombastic with big guitars and bigger vocals, fans of the blues-based rock genre would be content for an album’s worth just that. Then the next song, “The Office,” begins. The buzz of the guitar is exchanged for something more jangly, the vocals are a bit more subdued and you’re left wondering who put on a mid-career REM record when you weren’t looking and is this from Document or Fables? Alas, you realize you can make out the words and it’s not the legendary Athens quartet, it’s still Cheating Alethia. A moody interlude follows, almost a reprise of the intro, and as the
By Michele Michaels
Mar 16, 2021
I can remember when each of these albums came on the scene, and how cool it was when each of these artists finally found a way to crack thru to superstardom, or, in a few cases, jumped back into superstar status after sliding into irrelevance, because of drugs, changing times, or in the case of John Fogerty, a long battle, personally and legally, with his ex-band Creedence Clearwater Revival. relive the stories of Bob Seger s Night Moves, Aerosmith s Permanent Vacation, Ozzy s No More Tears, and three more, here.
Creedence or
CCR, was an American rock band active in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The band consisted of lead vocalist, lead guitarist, and primary songwriter John Fogerty, his brother rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty, bassist Stu Cook and drummer Doug Clifford. Their musical style encompassed the roots rock, swamp rock, and blues rock genres. Despite their San Francisco Bay Area origins, they played in a Southern rock style, with lyrics about bayous, catfish, the Mississippi River, and other popular elements of Southern United States iconography, as well as political and socially-conscious lyrics about topics including the Vietnam War. The band performed at 1969 s famed Woodstock Festival.
Singer-composer-guitarist Joel Jerome has no problem being told that his music is all over the place because, in his case, that’s a compliment. Even a cursory listen to his newest album “Chasing” reveals that he’s adept at writing and performing different styles of songs.
The easygoing, Neil Young-ish “Our Love” is a straight-ahead folkie love song. “Peaks and Valleys,” a poppy, driving tune that would have fit into the soundtrack of the ’60s, addresses the joys and difficulties of living life. “Next High” is a downbeat, very personal piece that looks at the drug abuse problems he saw going on around him in his hometown of Raymond, Maine. “Answering the Call” is a good, old-fashioned story song about the sinking of the aircraft carrier USS Wasp in World War II, with Jerome’s grandfather, who survived the attack, at the center of the tale.
The weeks following the big holiday rush are usually the slowest of the year. That s pretty much been the case over the past couple months, as you ll see in the below Reissue Roundup of recent winter sets.
There s a mix of box sets, deluxe reissues, archival recordings and vinyl remasters included. And artists include everyone from Bob Dylan (not a new entry in his popular Bootleg Series but a copyright-extension set), the Black Crowes and Creedence Clearwater Revival to Neil Young (an archive-sourced live set with Crazy Horse) and Dylan s onetime backing group the Band.
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