Today, November 17th 2009, is when I started the journey towards being a Vinyl DJ and a more serious music blogger. So in a measure of thanks, I’m speeding up my normal as of the past year trying to post a new mix and accompanying blog as we head into Thanksgiving week so you’ll have…
Tag: Della Reese
Season Of The Bliss: An Almost Top Forty Of Swoonful Tunes
People really fucking love Fall. It’s interesting because I commented a few weeks ago to someone that all of the celebration of beauty of this particular season is also a celebration of death. As September folds into Oct to Nov to December vibrant trees and flowers react to the waning sunlight and shorter days in…
What’s New for ’62? Forty Femme Gems For Cosmopolitan Consumption
In terms of Pop Culture, 1962 is an interesting year. In a lot of ways, it’s the first full fledged year of “The Sixties” as we currently conceptualize it. Out were tailfins on cars, up were beehives. Lucille Ball returned to television minus Desi Arnaz. And, as a little nugget, two Aries superstars battled it…
Let Me Tell You About A Gemini Genius From Chicago Named Curtis
Let’s be honest these days, the sign of Gemini gets a real bad wrap. From the person stinking up the oval office and some of his support staff to whatever the hell Kanye West is tripping on, it’s not a kind period of history for the sign of the twins. How can I, a Gemini…
The Weight for ’68: 50 Tunes from The Tumultuous Year 50 previous
When one takes into account how ridiculous the past year has been, it’s hard to put into reference or frame of mind that the world has always been a bit bent out of shape. One of the preferred ways of coping is turning one’s stress about strife to the songs and singers that keep us…
Ingenue, You Too? 33 Femme Fatale Fineries From The Late 50’s
One of my favorite styles of mixes to create is to jump around throughout sub-genres and eras of female singers. Probably the majority balance of the things I’ve uploaded to Mixcloud are in this bag. Since 2015, I’ve jumped from the swinging soul of 1965, through the Mid 1970’s and then back as far as…
Civil Discourse – Civil Disobedience: Your Civil Rights Mixtape 1962-1971
When it comes to politically themed soul music, many jump to make reference to either “A Change Is Gonna Come” or the extensive performative politics of Nina Simone. One could say that’s a pretty cursory and surface look at how the politics during a period of social change showed up in a variety of ways…
So an Aries, a Gemini and a Sagittarius contemplate Holiday Songs (A Playlist)
Once upon a time, around the warm glow of our collective computer screens around the world, Me, John Hamilton of Chart Rigger and Jens Keller of Beat Frauleins came up with an epic Facebook Thread of Christmas songs you might know, but are more likely not to know. The amazing thing about that thread is that…
Della Reese “Solitary Woman” (ABC 10841-B, 1966)
Della Reese “Solitary Woman” (ABC 10841-B, 1966) In between the days of Dinah Washington and Dionne Warwick, there spans the remarkable career of Delloreese Early, someone that you definitely know better as Della Reese. In age she’s the perfect generation gap between two transition periods of African American Femme Fatales of song, and today, we…
Della Reese “Ninety Nine and a Half Won’t Do” (RCA 47-7996, 1962)
Della Reese “Ninety Nine and a Half Won’t Do” (RCA 47-7996, 1962) Della Reese didn’t need Roma Downey to get in touch with the angels. Cutting her teeth in Gospel before she crossed over to pop and jazz, she quite often found herself having to get her sanctified on in song. This wonderful take on…