My brother dips a toe back into rock music


He gave up rock in the early '70's and eventually became an opera fanatic. About a month ago (now age 58)he asked me -out of the blue (pun intended) - about Joni Mitchell and Buffalo Springfield. Yesterday he asked an interesting question:

Recommend 5 albums by people he hasn't heard of.

Bearing in mind that

A)Anyone who isn't either a household name from the sixties or famous at the Michael Jackson/Madonna level qualifies as "not heard of"

B)The Joni/Buffalo Springield starting point and "art song" inclination likely to appeal to an opera guy

and

C)The desire to sprinkle a little bit of the rock reductionist esthetic

Who would you point him to?

I gave him 4 on the spot, but I'll share those later if the interest in this thread warrants.

Marty
martykl

Showing 1 response by kjweisner

I'm running a special today--one free recommendation with any request for five!

Here's my contribution--I enjoy just about the entire catalog of all these artists and have made some recommendations for specific albums. Although all don't tend to be considered "rock" first, they either have rock roots, or on these albums lean into rock/pop vs. their traditional niche (jazz, blues, folk, etc). In other words, there's some diversity of style on each album, song to song and the do a nice job of showcasing each artist's range.

1. Holly Cole--Romantically Helpless or Don't Smoke in Bed
2. Keb' Mo--Just Like You
3. Mark Knopfler--Shangri La
4. Steve Forbert--The American in Me
5. George Harrison--Brainwashed (last album--posthumous release)
6. Shawn Mullins--Beneath the Velvet Sun

Great idea for a thread, by the way!