When a band is a collaboration between members of non-mainstream bands, when their debut is also their swan song, when the band name they choose is also the album title, and a one-word first name at that, it makes it a bit of a challenge to gather info about…Jonny.
Norman Blake of Scottish band Teenage Fanclub and Euros Childs of Welsh act Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci join forces here to form this two-man, uh, supergroup.
But the results are tasty and will evoke the sounds of both bands–provided you’ve heard either.
Jimmy Dean’s story is nearly as amazing as that of some of his songs’ heroes.
The country star-turned sausage mogul whose 1961 hit “Big Bad John” hit number one on the Country, Pop and Adult Contemporary charts and earned him a Gold Record and a Grammy came from a family so poor that he wore shirts made from sugar sacks and worked in cotton fields at age 6.
In addition to a successful country music career, Jimmy hosted a radio show on a Washington, D.C. station, then a nationally syndicated eponymous TV show on CBS.
Then it was on to other TV programs, including Daniel Boone, Fantasy Island and J.J. Starbuck and even a role in the James Bond movie Diamonds Are Forever.
While eating breakfast at a diner with his brother Don, a large piece of gristle in his mouth inspired his next venture:
“I reached in my mouth and pulled out a piece of gristle about the size of the tip of your little finger. I said to Don, ‘You know, there’s got to be room in this country for a good quality sausage.’”
Dean’s company, formed with said brother, became the number one seller of breakfast sausage in the country, with Dean himself playing the role of folksy TV ad spokesman.
He eventually sold his business to Consolidated Foods for $80 million, and remained philosophical about his success, quoting his mother’s advice: “It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.”
Jimmy Dean’s country career was a mix of memorable story songs, profiles of heroic figures real and fictional, heart-tugging sentimentality, and pure folksy fun.
“Little Black Book” is exemplary of the latter category, with lyrics that match the sass of the harmonica-led arrangement and are sung in a cadence perfectly compatible with the chugging of the song’s backbeat.
A simple country song it may be, but it’s also a perfectly cut jewel of the genre.
On “Born Runnin’ Outta Time”, Lukas Nelson, who’s been making records with his band Promise of the Real and/or performing in his dad Willie’s band for about a decade and a half, wonders if his best years were given to the road life of a musician.
It’s about the inescapable sacrifices made in the pursuit of one’s ambitions. Indeed, a listener might hear Lukas’ song as the inevitable, somewhat penitential sequel to his dad’s “On the Road Again”.
Songwriters talk about a lyric that “sings well”. This song’s syllables roll along like a smooth ride on a newly paved highway. It “sings” extremely well.
Described by AllMusic as “an album that’s ridiculously big, overblown, and super fun”, the self-titled debut by international power pop band Hey! Hello! went to number 1 on the UK rock chart, and the hooky “Swimwear” is a prime example of why.
The album was a collaboration across the Atlantic, with English singer-songwriter Ginger Wildheart recording guitar, bass and drum parts and sending them to New York for Victoria Liedtke to add her vocals.
“Musicians’ musicians” the Empty Pockets have toured or performed as backing band for Al Stewart, Gary Wright, Richie Furay and Kenny Loggins among others.
But the Chicago band have topped the U.S. Billboard Blues chart twice in their own right, including with 2022’s Outside Spectrum.
The sound here is relatively stripped down, effects-free, and reliant on virtuosic performance, which the Pockets can cetrtainly deliver.
In the live performance below, they unassumingly demonstrate the commonality the song’s chord sequence shares with other better-known songs.
Whatever the leanings of your playlist, Laufey’s bossa nova-inflected “Lover Girl” will leap off it as it did from the collection of rather mundane mainstream pop on which I first came across it.
Is the American pop music scene of 2025 broad enough to encompass an Icelandic-Chinese jazz-influenced cellist who sings like Peggy Lee?
Seems unlikely.
But if her accomplishments in her brief career’s span are any indication, Laufey (pronounced LAY-vay) isn’t someone to doubt or dismiss. To wit:
She was a cello soloist in the Iceland Symphony Orchestra at age 15.
She was a finalist on Iceland’s Got Talent in 2014.
Appearing on The Voice Iceland the following year, she was the youngest contestant in the history of that show.
She graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
(NME.com)
In 2020 her debut single “Street by Street” charted at number one in Iceland.
Her debut album Everything I know About Love led to a sold-out headlining North American tour.
Her second album Bewitched won the Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album Grammy Award in 2024.
In addition to her ability to render lushly arranged Chet Baker- and Billie Holiday-inspired jazz pop with a pitch-perfect, technically flawless voice; Laufey is effortlessly adept on cello, piano and guitar.
Her goals? “Bringing jazz back to my generation” and “doing for jazz music what Taylor Swift did for country music”.
Is it possible? Stay tuned. She’s not off to a bad start.
Every Moment Has A Song 