From the acoustic duo known as Hapa. The original version of “Olinda Road” appeared on their 1995 debut album. This slightly reworked version is from a Putumayo compilation of a couple years later.
These guys play an interesting mix of contemporary and traditional Hawaiian music alongside covers of artists such as John Lennon, U2, Santana and Santo & Johnny, as well as instrumentals that stretch the Hawaiian guitar pop sound a dozen different, appealing ways.
(I bet you can guess which Santo & Johnny song they covered)
Just thought you may have missed the Gin Blossoms’ last stab at the pop charts, since it only peaked at #75 in 1996. They broke up in ’97, then reunited in 2002 and have released two albums since.
Funny how you can love a song and totally not get it. Sometimes a lyric is everything. And other times it’s the music that has more to say to you than the words. This one is in the latter category for me.
Over to Amazon.com‘s Editorial Review for this one:
Mick Jagger has teamed up with Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart, soul singer Joss Stone, Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack composer A.R.Rahman and reggae star Damian Marley to form a band cooperative project called SuperHeavy. This diverse and eclectic line up who share eleven Grammy Awards between them, have been recording together in various studios around the world, with the majority of the tracks on the project laid down over three weeks in Los Angeles earlier this year (2011).
It’s little wonder that Stewart refers to SuperHeavy as, “A mad alchemist type experiment”. Fusing the talents of one of the greatest front-men of all time, a two time Academy award winning Indian composer, a soul vocal prodigy, a three time Grammy winning reggae star, and one of the most sought after producers in the world, you would expect the explosive results to defy categorisation.
SuperHeavy came together after Jagger and Stewart considered what a band comprising of musicians from different genres would sound like. Jagger explains, “Dave really wanted to make a record with a different group of musicians, in other words, with different backgrounds of music. Instead of everyone being a rock musician, or basically a blues musician, or some other genre, he wanted to get as many genres together that would fit. I said it sounds like a good idea, I never thought it would actually happen.”
SuperHeavy is a new and spontaneous way of working for all the collaborators as Jagger explains, “I said to Dave, normally [with the Stones] we’d always have written songs before we go into the studio, but the jam sessions resulted in some great work believes Stone, “It felt better when we were just jamming, that way we made it up as we went along and it was easy.”
As I’ve mentioned previously, the thread of melodic pop that seemed to leave off where 80’s new wave and synth pop took over merely detoured into other formats, like 80’s country. No coincidence that artists who had a pop hit or two in the 70’s such as the Bellamy Brothers, Exile, Michael Johnson and Michael (Martin) Murphey went on to even greater success in the 80’s as so-called “country” artists.
And don’t forget Dan Seals who (in addition to being the younger brother of Jim Seals of Seals & Crofts) was half of 70’s soft rock giants England Dan & John Ford Coley. Melodic pop made with real instruments by people without strange haircuts found sanctuary on country radio after being banished from Top 40.
It’s interesting to wonder how huge the Little River Band could’ve been as “country” artists had they too positioned themselves as such when their pop career began to fizzle.
Country radio in the late 80’s bore little resemblance to its current incarnation, where every third song is a tribute to “cold beer on a Friday night/A pair of jeans that fit just right…” and similar banal clichés. 80’s country was where exciting new artists like Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Alison Krauss and k.d. lang were breaking out–and breaking ground.
And some holdovers from pop yesteryear had roots still further back than the 70’s, like Chris Hillman’s Desert Rose Band. That’s former Byrd and Flying Burrito Brother Chris fronting a trio that also included versatile guitar ace John Jorgenson and superb harmonist Herb Pederson–and sounding younger than yesterday. (But of course, he was so much older then…)
Irresistible flamenco rumba from Spain. These guys aren’t trying for that passionate, overwraught flamenco thing. I mean…look at them.
Their music is a lot of fun though. Cheesy covers of Sinatra’s “Strangers in the Night” and the Beatles’ “All My Loving” are outstanding. But “Que Te Quiero” is one of the most addicting things they ever did. Often songs of this genre give you a double chorus and that’s what the guys do here–if it sounds nice, sing it twice. Sounds better loud too!
Australian-born singer-songwriter Shane Nicholson is probably less famous than his wife, roots country singer Kasey Chambers–at least Chambers is pretty famous in Australia. The two have recorded two acclaimed albums together, 2008’s Rattlin’ Bones and this year’s Wreck and Ruin.
Shane’s solo stuff stays more to the pop side of things. “Safe and Sound” sounds to me like one or both of the Finn Brothers.
Every Moment Has A Song 