More of my capsule commentaries.<\/p>\n
Crash Test Dummies<\/b>
\nBrad Roberts\u2019 distinctive and inimitable vocals helped propel Crash Test Dummies\u2019 \u201cMmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm\u201d to to the very top of singles charts in nine countries worldwide in 1993. Oddly enough, the song only made it to #14 in the band\u2019s native Canada. But the Manitoba, Winnipeg group earned Platinum or better for three of its albums in the Great White North. They also landed more than a dozen of their singles on the Canadian charts. Nominated for three Grammys and 11 Junos (the Canadian equivalent), the Dummies won one of the latter. Combining good-natured melodic sense with thoughtful and introspective lyrics, the Crash Test Dummies have earned a loyal following, one that has followed the band from its 1988 beginnings, through two hiatuses and into current day. Since 2017 the band has toured with its original lineup \u2013 Roberts plus keyboardist Ellen Reid, bassist Dan Roberts and drummer Mitch Dorge \u2013 and released a single, \u201cSacred Alphabet\u201d in 2023<\/p>\n
Arrival From Sweden<\/b>
\nWith an acronymical name based on its four members (Agnetha, Benny, Bj\u00f6rn and Anna-Frid), ABBA was one of the most successful groups in pop history. Winners of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest (for their eighth single \u201cWaterloo\u201d), ABBA scored more than a dozen Top 40 singles in the U.S.; in the UK and their native Sweden, the group was even more successful. ABBA songs like \u201cDancing Queen,\u201d \u201cSOS,\u201d \u201cFernando\u201d and \u201cKnowing Me, Knowing You\u201d remain popular the world over. Though the group\u2019s initial run ended in 1982, the music and leacy endures. There\u2019s a popular ABBA museum in Stockholm; the group has been the subject of numerous documentaries; ABBA\u2019s music was adapted into a successful Broadway and West End musical, Mamma Mia!,<\/i> later a successful motion picture. So it should come as no surprise that an ABBA tribute group \u2013 from Sweden, no less \u2013 would be a popular touring enterprise. Founded in 1995 by Gothenburg\u2019s Vicky Zetterberg-Norb\u00e4ck and Rutger Gunnarsson, Arrival From Sweden features 10 or more musicians playing live (in other words, no backing tapes), delivering the sounds and sights of ABBA for modern-day audiences.<\/p>\n
Ronnie Baker Brooks<\/b>
\nAcclaimed blues guitarist and soul singer Lonnie Brooks had a stellar career, working in Chicago\u2019s West Side and releasing scattered singles throughout the \u201860s. In 1969 he landed an album deal. By the late 1970s he would be featured on an Alligator Records compilation, and soon thereafter he joined the label. Between 1978 and 1999 he would release nine albums for Alligator. He passed away in 2017, but his legacy has been carried on by son Ronnie Baker Brooks. Born \u2013 like his father before him \u2013 in the Windy City, the younger Brooks launched his recording career in 1998, recording for Watchdog and Provogue. In a sense he has come home with his latest: Blues in my DNA<\/i> finds him on Alligator Records. The album is an unabashed nod to Brooks\u2019 father. With a variety of songs that touch on Chicago blues, Memphis soul and more, Ronnie Baker Brooks demonstrates that melodic guitar artistry runs in the family. A regular performer at the Odyssey East Lounge in Chicago\u2019s South Side, Brooks is currently on a tour that takes him throughout the Western U.S. before a run of festival dates. Dad would have been proud.<\/p>\n
Dream Theater<\/b> Heart<\/b> More of my capsule commentaries. Crash Test Dummies Brad Roberts\u2019 distinctive and inimitable vocals helped propel Crash Test Dummies\u2019 \u201cMmm, Mmm, Mmm, Mmm\u201d to to the very top of singles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay","cat-27-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29044,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29043\/revisions\/29044"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nOne of prog-metal\u2019s most acclaimed groups has returned to its roots \u2013 and its most celebrated lineup \u2013 for a new album and tour. Dream Theater\u2019s Parasomnia<\/i> was released February 7. The group began in 1985 and hit its stride when vocalist James LaBrie joined a few years later. The band\u2019s fifth LP, 1999\u2019s conceptually-based Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory<\/i> marked the recorded debut of Dream Theater\u2019s classic lineup: LaBrie plus guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, drummer Mike Portnoy and keyboardist Jordan Rudess. That prolific and creatively fertile lineup would yield six studio albums and four live albums. Following the release of 2009\u2019s Black Clouds & Silver Linings<\/i>, Portnoy left the band; he would go on to take part in myriad other projects including the progressive supergroup Transatlantic. After more than 12 years away from the group he had co-founded, Portnoy rejoined Dream Theater in 2023. With the classic lineup back together, the band began work on its 16th<\/sup> studio album. Parasomnia\u2019<\/i>s loosely conceptual nature has been earning critical praise, and within days of release the album shot to the top spot on metal album charts.<\/p>\n
\nWhen Heart came on the scene in 1973, the band led by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson earned a lot of notice; fans and reviewers often couldn\u2019t get past noting that a rock band with women in it \u2013 much less one led by them \u2013 was quite unusual. True as that was at the time, the reality could have threatened to overshadow the quality of Heart\u2019s music. But the band \u2013 often described at the time as a female Led Zeppelin \u2013 was too accomplished to let that happen. Heart delivered the goods with style: well-written tunes, sharp hooks and the arena-worthy vocals. The group\u2019s self-penned \u201870s hits (\u201cMagic Man,\u201d \u201cCrazy On You\u201d and \u201cBarracuda\u201d) all rocked hard, with as much swagger as one would have heard from contemporaries like Aerosmith and Cheap Trick. Heart\u2019s fortunes began to flag a bit in the early \u201880s, but they roared back with their self-titled 1985 hit LP. Today, the band\u2019s days as a creative unit are long over; Heart\u2019s most recent studio release \u2013 itself a collection of re-recorded songs from the group’s catalog \u2013 is nearly a decade old. But as a live band, Heart remains as rocking and entertaining as ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"