Bob Woodruff - Alright

It's a shame country singer/songwriter Bob Woodruff never got the success that he deserved upon the qualities of his two records to date, Dreams And Saturday Night and Desire Road, released in 1994 and 1997 respectively. He was unlucky with record labels, followed bad advice and had to take care of a sick mother while nurturing an escalating heroin habit, overdosing several times but luckily not dying. In a recent interview with Houston Chronicle you can read his story, where the journalist references a blogger that recently likened Woodruff's career to that of Bad Blake, the fictional character that Jeff Bridges portrays in the movie Crazy Heart. As he concludes, "it's not a bad comparison, though Blake's commercial highs were higher than Woodruff's and Woodruff's chemical highs were higher than Blake's." The good news now is that Woodruff is recording again. Whether he will release some of the stuff remains to be seen, but I wish him all the best - from the bottom of my heart. The song "Alright" was a single off Dreams And Saturday Night. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

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Queen - Spread Your Wings

Queen singer Freddie Mercury - most flamboyant pop star of all time - would have been 65 today but sadly died in 1991, a mere 45 years old. His legacy remains though, and although the surviving band members have tried to replace him it's proved impossible. Nobody replaces Freddie. It's as futile and/or stupid as trying to wake a sleeping bear or something. The musical We Will Rock You has on the other hand become mindbogglingly successful, but what we crave is the real thing. Here's Freddie and Queen in a 1978 clip, with the great ballad "Spread Your Wings" off the previous year's News Of The World album. It only reached 34 on the UK charts upon its release and is therefore not featured on Queen's Greatest Hits album, one of the best selling albums of all time. It does however, remain one of my favourite Queen tracks.

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Heaven 17 - Let Me Go

When Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh left Human League in 1980, Philip Oakley took them to superstardom with the Dare album the following year, whereas Ware and Marsh recruited singer Glenn Gregory and formed Heaven 17. They recorded two fine albums before the steam left them. "Let Me Go" (1982) preceded the second of these, the sublime The Luxury Gap, and is one of their most well-known and best songs.

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The Beach Boys' Smile Sessions finally due in November

Smile, the album that should have been The Beach Boys' follow-up to their masterpiece Pet Sounds (1966), will finally be released in a somewhat complete form this November, under the title The Smile Sessions. It was scrapped due to Brian Wilson's fragile mental state, and the reclusive auteur actually released a reassembled and rerecorded version of what the album should have sounded like in 2004. Now the actual thing is due, compiled and sequenced by the surviving band members from the old master tapes. It will be released in several formats, and if you follow the link below you'll see the full track list.

Track list and more info

Hilde Heltberg & Kari Iveland - Hvem er jeg når musikken har stanset

Today we got the sad news that Norwegian singer/songwriter Hilde Heltberg died, 51 years old. She was an eclectic artist, although not everything she touched was golden. She was especially a great collaborator and her voice fitted well with others, making her a great duet partner to people like Trond Granlund, Jonas Fjeld, Henning Kvitnes and others. Here's a snippet of a song she wrote and recorded with her friend Kari Iveland for the Norwegian national broadcasting station NRK, for a 2008 project called Postkort fra livet (Postcards from life) where people wrote poems for different artists to put music to. "Hvem er jeg når musikken har stanset?" (Who am I when the music has stopped?) is indeed a valid question today. You may also buy the song by following the link underneath. R.I.P. Hilde Heltberg.

Listen to 30 seconds and/or buy the song.

Listen to the new Wilco album in its entirety

The Whole Love, Wilco's eighth studio album and first on their own label dBpm Records is in stores on September 26th, but you can already stream the entire record on the band's webpage. Jeff Tweedy and his pals have made what sounds like yet another brilliant album consisting of 12 new songs, spearheaded by the single "I Might". Go here to listen.

Toad The Wet Sprocket - All I Want

Lifting your band name from a Monty Python sketch isn't necessarily the world's brightest idea, but somehow it worked for Toad The Wet Sprocket, an American outfit that enjoyed a bit of success in the 90's. They struck gold with their third album Fear that was released in 1991, and had a hit single with what to me is a timeless pop masterpiece, "All I Want". In Norway however, the inferior "Walk On The Water" was the band's only hit, and although it's a good song it's nowhere near "All I Want" that sounds like a cross between The Byrds and Crowded House. On what is probably their earliest ever performance, a mini-showcase at the now closed Oslo club Smuget at about 9 a.m., I swapped lightbulb jokes with singer Glen Phillips which was a bit of fun. "So, do you know how many music journalists it takes to change a light bulb? About 25. One to change the light bulb and 24 on the guest list". The band is now back together and have just released an album of re-recorded versions of their biggest hits, and hopefully will release new music in 2012.

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The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary

Let's head back to 1985, when The Cult - formerly known as the goth band Southern Death Cult and Death Cult - decided to become rock stars. They did it with their second album Love that was preceded by the super catchy single "She Sells Sanctuary". This is still a great song that rocks the house pretty good on a Saturday night.

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Mew - Special

Danish prog rockers Mew is one of the country's finest bands, and "Special" is probably their most accessible song ever. It was a moderately big hit, deservedy so, upon its 2005 release, lifted from the album And The Glass Handed Kites. The ingredients we know and love are all in place, an intricate melody and structure, loud guitars and Jonas Bjerre's fascinating voice, but also a steady beat that makes it a bit more... user-friendly, to put it simply. There's a world of great Mew music to be heard, and this is an excellent introduction.

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Sam Cooke - Another Saturday Night

One of the greatest voices ever to burst into song - and be recorded - Sam Cooke died under dubious circumstances in December 1964, but that's another story. In 1963 he was at his peak, a successful and immensely talented performer, and released "Another Saturday Night" in February of that year. It has become one of the true staples of his catalogue, and hey - it's Saturday night, so why don't we enjoy it for the umpteenth time. If for some reason you haven't heard it and listened to it countless times, all the better for you, because you really have something great in store!

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