Frank Gutch Jr: These Are People I’ve Known (But Who Try to Keep It a Secret); Plus Notes

The past week I have been revisiting some of my earlier DBAWIS columns and am shocked at how few people (as far as I can tell) know about them, even now.  When I write about musicians, it is usually personal, both the person or people and the music, and I feel that sometimes they are more water under the bridge than anything.  No one sends notes asking about someone I wrote about in 2012 unless something has happened since and there are so many truly talented people who deserve recognition.  So this week, I am going to point toward artists you may have missed whom I think are above the norm in terms of talent and/or personality.  And maybe I owe a few of them money, but that is neither here nor there.

Frank Gutch Jr: The Saga of Jim Colegrove, Chapter Six: Plus Notes…..

Having given you five chances to look behind the curtains of a life of a rock ‘n’ roller of more stature than most people these days could possibly know— that of Fort Worth’s Jim Colegrove— I have decided to give you a sixth.  Call I a bonus, if you will— a chance to experience second-hand an era of music most of you could not possibly know.  A chance to see the machinations of an industry, for that is what it became, in its growth stages.  So far it has involved a string of names many would recognize— Felix Pappalardi and Gene Pitney and Lou Adler and so many more.  Let us add a few more as the band he is in at this point of his career, Bo Grumpus, prepares to spark a major label career.

Frank Gutch Jr: 2014 – A Look Back…..

One hell of a year for music.  Not so much for musicians— at least the musicians no longer with us.  Hard to balance a year like that, pluses and minuses popping up like ads from a virus, canceling one another out or piling one on top of the other ad infinitum until the system collapses from the weight.  We all felt the weight whether we all know it or not.  So many musicians now on the other side but, lucky for us, so many new musicians taking their places.  Jesus.  My head spins.

Frank Gutch Jr: The Grammys: The Decline of the Major Labels (and Civilization) Continues; When Three Bands (Don’t) Collide; Michael Fennelly— On Vinyl; For the Tots at Christmas— Goodnight Songs; Plus N-n-n-notes…..

Every year I get my hopes up and every year the so called experts behind the Grammy’s dash them against the rocks like fishkill, blood and brain cells covering the entire music industry with fresh stench in the form of what they claim to be “the best”—  their words, not mine.