A Good Year for the Outlaw

I stumbled upon an area radio station’s website the other day, as I sometimes do, just checking around to see what everybody else is doing. Our own radio station’s websites are scheduled for a relaunch with brand new graphics and styles within the next month, so I’m well aware how ugly ours currently are.
But I [...]

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I was scheduling a couple of music logs here this morning, and I come across “Frankenstein” by the Edgar Winter Group and “Jessica” from the Allman Brothers Band, and I’m thinking to myself: Does any radio station that specializes in current music play any instrumentals anymore. And further, does anybody MAKE instrumental records anymore that [...]

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“He can sing,” Diane correctly stated as we walked to the car last night. She’s right, as always, and she was talking about Craig Morgan, the country singer who performed in Carver Arena after Friday night’s Rivermen game. And Craig Morgan is about to go from “decent singer with a nice following” to “country superstar” thanks in no [...]

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Ozzy, Heart, ZZ Top, and Genesis.
All were honored on VH1 tonight, all performed, in Genesis’ case it was their first appearance together in 15 years, and all had tributes payed to them.
In a recent post, I lamented today’s so-called music masquerading as rock and tonight was a perfect example of what I spoke of. All [...]

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While traversing Eastern Iowa today on the way to pick up my son for a visit, I heard The Who’s “Long Live Rock” and AC/DC’s “Rock and Roll Ain’t Noise Pollution” within a few minutes of each other, and I’d like to respond to both claims.
Regarding Pete Townshend’s words “Long Live Rock, be it dead [...]

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Have you seen this Hover-round commercial with the Beach Boys “I Get Around” playing underneath the whole thing? It’s not the actual Beach Boys recording (just a poorly done cover), but it really is embarrassing. Do Brian Wilson and Mike Love and Al Jardine need money that bad?
Over the years, many songs from many artists [...]

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So, basically, it took me a week, but I finally got my “All-Underrated” list complete. If I had to rank ‘em, here’s how it would look, with #1 being most underrated.
BJ’s All Underrated List, Music Category

1. Jeffrey Steele
2. Kentucky Headhunters
3. Mavericks
4. Charlie Robison
5. Jack Ingram
6. Bachman  Turner Overdrive
7. Derailers
8. Dwight Yoakam
9. Three Dog Night
10. BoDeans

Now, [...]

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As you read this list, raise your hand each time you recognize one of these country songs:

Chrome – Trace Adkins
My Town – Montgomery Gentry
Speed – Montgomery Gentry
Unbelievable – Diamond Rio
The Cowboy In Me – Tim McGraw
Couldn’t Last A Moment – Collin Raye
Something To Be Proud Of – Montgomery Gentry
These Days – Rascal Flatts
Help Somebody – [...]

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Two more underrated acts today
Dwight Yoakam
Big country star in the late 80’s and early 90’s, driving women wild with his tight fittin’, full of holes jeans and his sexy little dance steps, Dwight Yoakam was big. But now, like so many other great artists who are still putting out viable country music (Hank, Jr. and [...]

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Today’s underrated bands and acts, just gonna list ‘em without going to much into detail:
The Derailers
These guys should’ve gotten a bunch of airplay outside of Texas these past few years, but haven’t. It’s a band that can channel Buck Owens, the Everly Brothers, the Beach Boys, and the Beatles, and make it all sound so very [...]

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These are getting too long, this one and future critiques will be shorter. I hope.
Underrated: Bachman-Turner Overdrive
When I was voice tracking a shift for The Eagle about a year and a half ago, it was a running joke between Scott Robbins, Rick Hirschmann and me that BTO was the “Greatest Band of all time!” I [...]

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The Mavericks
The genius of Raul Malo and The Mavericks has long been underappreciated by some and totally unappreciated by idiotic country radio consultants.
This band, like the Kentucky Headhunters, can do anything, but the stuff I like the best is their retro-sounding straight ahead country, particularly on their masterpiece CD “What A Crying Shame” (1994). 
That CD featured the [...]

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Over the next few days, I’m going to post my list of the 10 most underrated bands/singers, not in any particular order. At the end, I might rank ‘em, but I’m just going to post them for now.
The Kentucky Headhunters
These guys burst onto the scene in 1989 with “Pickin’ On Nashville”, a collection of originals [...]

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Thank you, Tony Dungy (Minnesota ‘77)! Thanks to Tony, I can actually have a normal next couple of weeks instead of listening to non-stop talk about how wonderful the Bears are.
Note to Bears fans: Your team got throttled. Your team got the chance to be throttled by playing in the lamest NFC ever assembled. The [...]

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This blog is named after a song written by my favorite songwriter and performer, Jeffrey Steele.
My buddy Dan Dermody called me tonight to tell me that Jeffrey and Stephanie’s son Alex, only 13-years old, was killed Sunday in a 4-wheeler accident. I never got the pleasure to meet Alex, but if he was anything like [...]

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