For the uninitiated, The Roches are not a cheekily-named rock band but rather a trio of folk-singing sisters with the last name Roche who arose from the Greenwich Village scene in the late ’70’s.
Their third album, Keep On Doing, was produced (as was their second) by Robert Fripp, and features cameos from Fripp and fellow King Crimson band mates Tony Levin and Bill Bruford. “Losing True” highlights both the exquisite harmonies of the siblings and Fripp’s Guitar solo.
John Dawson Read: “A Friend of Mind is Going Blind” (1975)
This song and I have a history. I wasn’t originally going to post it here because generally if a song is a hit single it doesn’t qualify as a “song you may have missed”. And I always thought this song was a hit–mainly because I heard it on the radio in ’75 and walked up to my local record store (probably Rags ‘n Records) and bought it. I still remember the green Chrysalis label and everything. I assumed everything I heard on the radio and purchased was a top 40 hit.
But no one else seems to remember this one which, it turns out, only peaked at #72.
The CD is either long out of print or was never in print. I had to write to Mr. Read himself through his website. He graciously sent along a personalized note with a CD-R copy of his 1975 album, mentioning my city (Pittsburgh) with affection.
An English gentleman is Mr. John Dawson Read. And still presumably singing to small audiences somewhere in England. This quiet little song was his four minutes of near-fame in America. I think it’s worthy of four minutes of your attention.
From the UK prog band’s 2007 debut. While this poppy song doesn’t flex a lot of prog muscles, it nicely shows off The Reasoning’s three-vocalist attack (two male, one female) which gives them an added dimension, and the ability to create harmonies that might recall Anderson, Howe and Squire of Yes.
The Ditty Bops kick it old tyme, but with a thoroughly modern quirkiness.
The duo of Amanda Barrett and Abby DeWald borrow musically from half a dozen genres of music, most archaic to one degree or another, including jazz, folk, vaudeville, ragtime and western swing. But their adventurous, whimsical lyrics are atypical of any era.
The session musicians backing the girls are some of the hottest to be found (Pete Thomas on drums, for example) and the frenzied pace of the songs brings their dazzling talents to the fore. Fun stuff.
The Wailin’ Jennys are a harmonizing female folk trio from Canada whose format invites comparison to The Dixie Chicks, but the comparison falters. First, it must be said the Jennys don’t possess the vocal strength of the Chicks. As for their sound, it’s less country hoedown and more coffeehouse folk. And they’re far more likely to cover a centuries-old English traditional ballad than a Fleetwood Mac tune.
All three women are songwriters, and their strength is in writing honest, reflective songs, rendered with pretty harmonies.
The making of the Permalight album was, for Zach Rogue, a story of his own personal triumph over physical infirmity. Quoting from Amazon.com’s editorial review:
In September 2008, after the band returned to Oakland following a summer tour, Rogue played a solo show opening for Nada Surf. Two days later, the singer woke up and couldn’t move. There was some concern that he might be having an aneurysm or heart attack, so doctors wheeled an X-ray machine into his living room to check his heart and lungs. It turns out Rogue had slipped two discs in his neck, which were pressing on his spinal cord.
“It was the worst pain I had experienced,” he says.
Over the next few months, his condition grew worse until he eventually lost feeling in his right hand. Confined to his bed, there was nothing doctors could do for him, no medications that could relieve his pain. “I just felt like I was being tortured,” Rogue says. “I felt like I was dying.” In January, the pain began to gradually lift, giving him just enough sensation to pick up the guitar and strum it. He celebrated the recovery the best way he knew, by pouring his relief into new material. “When I started writing I wanted to make a record that was a little more up, a record you could move your body to because I couldn’t move for so long,” Rogue says. “I told Pat I wanted to make a total dance album.”
It’s also a joyful and uplifting one, full of cheerful tunes like “Good Morning (The Future)”.
Every Moment Has A Song 