Author: ernopepper

741. The Kingston Trio

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(August 2026) Episode 741 is the KINGSTON TRIO. If parody is the highest form of flattery, then it explains why I can’t help but think of the Folksmen from the mockumentary A Mighty Wind when I hear the Kingston Trio. All the elements are there – the railroad song, the vagabond song, the Spanish ballad, the shanty, the kinda racist Caribbean song. Indeed, the Kingston Trio played a major role in popularizing folk music in its revival, with all due credit. That said, I get the sense that they were sort of the Coldplay or Nickelback or their time – they sold a ton a records but were also looked down on by snobs and purists. I appreciate it, but it’s not the kind of folk music I return to.

Favorite album: Here We Go Again!

Favorite song: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: A greatest hits collection is enough; the first five albums provide their core output.

740. Louis Jordan

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(August 2026) Episode 740 of the “opus project” is LOUIS JORDAN. With his band the Tympany Five, the ebullient singer and sax player delivered an energetic blend of jazz and jump blues that bridged the swing and R&B eras, helping lead the way for the explosion of R&B and rock & roll in the 1950s. But his fame was experienced in real time with numerous hits from the late 1930s to early 1950s. It’s sad that he’s not more known today. The music is lively and gets you off your seat; you can tell the performers are having fun.

Favorite song: Choo Choo Ch’Boogie

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: The “Let the Good Times Roll” 2-disc anthology is a good offering.

739. Olivia Rodrigo

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(August 2026) Episode 739 is OLIVIA RODRIGO (or olivia rodrigo, iykyk). Disney child actors-turned-pop stars are not my thing, so this is probably the first and last here. But a few years ago I heard one of her songs and thought it was …. not bad. She writes or co-writes all her songs, so that’s something. And they come with enough diversity in style to keep it interesting, although it’s still in pop packaging. Not unafraid to deploy the f-word. I can see how her lyrics appeal to teenagers, but it doesn’t come off as melodramatic or self-indulgent.

Favorite album: SOUR

Favorite song: bad idea right?

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: I would not have minded my kids playing this music in the car (they were of an earlier Disney (Miley Cyrus) generation.

738. Memphis Minnie

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(August 2026) Episode 738 is MEMPHIS MINNIE (Lizzie Douglas), a singer and guitarist in the Southern country blues tradition who recorded in the 1930s and 1940s. She is known for being one of the few female guitarists to record under her name in that era, starting on acoustic and moving to electric. She co-wrote (with her then-husband Kansas Joe McCoy) “When the Levee Breaks” later made famous (and significantly altered) by Led Zeppelin.

Favorite song: Me and My Chauffeur Blues

Favorite guitar work: Joliet Bound

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Worth a listen if you like country blues

737. Ella Fitzgerald

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(August 2026) Episode 737 is ELLA FITZGERALD. On a Mt. Rushmore of American voices, she’s on it. “The First Lady of Song,” perhaps the most famous female jazz vocalist of all time. I appreciate her art, as I do for all the jazz giants she collaborated with: Gillespie, Armstrong, Basie, Peterson. But … I don’t really like this music. I’m just not into the Great American Songbook. And I can’t stand scat singing, perhaps the form Fitzgerald is best known for. All due respect, of course.

Favorite album: Take Love Easy

Favorite song: Dream a Little Dream of Me (with Louis Armstrong)

Most unorthodox song: Sunshine of Your Love (not quite as far out as Dolly Parton’s Stairway to Heaven, but close)

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: I liked best the albums with jazz guitarist Joe Pass, simple affairs stripped of the chrome and glitz of her more iconic big band recordings

736. Grouper

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(August 2026) Episode 736 is GROUPER, the alias of Liz Harris. She makes soundscape recordings categorized as ambient or ‘psychedelic folk.’ She employs field recordings, tape, voice, and soft guitar and piano to create free-flowing atmospheric music unburdened by emotive assertions – meaning, that it doesn’t come off as trying to force the listener to be wistful or anxious or contemplative or spiritual. It just is. The echo-y, distant sound of the guitars and her voice sometimes remind me of some of Yo La Tengo’s songs featuring Georgia Hubley.

Favorite album: Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

Favorite song: When We Fall

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: If you like genuinely earthy ambient (not the schlocky stuff) please try Grouper out.

735. Wolfmother

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(August 2026) Episode 735 is WOLFMOTHER. At times it’s nutritious to return to the soul food of guitar rock, which 21st Century revivalists Wolfmother provide in abundance. In this they remind me of fellow Australians and contemporaries Jet. Their best feature is the delicious tone of the Kyuss-like fuzz guitar which propels things with kickin’ hooks. The weakest part is Andrew Stockdale’s vocals, a combination of Jack White and Greta Van Fleet’s Josh Kiszka, which grate after a while. You may recognize “Joker and the Thief” from multiple uses in other media.

Favourite album: Wolfmother

Favourite song: Joker and the Thief

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: If you grew up on guitar rock, try this. Each album has its satisfaction; the best is the first and they gradually lose quality after that.

734. Drake

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(July 2024) Episode 734 is DRAKE. Through the depth and breadth of this Project, I strive to appreciate forms of music I don’t like. In the case of Drake, though, I unequivocally HATE this kind of music. Makes my ears bleed. So why did I do this? For one, I was recently in Toronto, and decided to do an artist from that city. Second, Drake is a favorite of my son. I had reviewed my daughters’ then-favorites, Taylor Swift and NCT-127, and it felt only fair that I give him the same consideration. And now I have. And those are multiple hours of my life I will never get back.

Favorite album: none

Favorite song: none

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: none

733. The New Pornographers

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(July 2026) Episode 733 is THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS. I had been meaning to get to them for a while, and took the opportunity when I was recently in Canada (they are from Vancouver). The New Pornographers have been critically acclaimed, so I was hoping to be wowed. But something was off. I discovered what it was when an album I was listening to went into repeat and I had not realized it. It left nothing imprinted my brain to tell me I had just listened to these songs 40 minutes ago. Lacking choruses, hooks and tension-and-release, the songcraft is just words and harmonies laid flat on a piece of paper. Their first couple albums, however, deceive of what comes later by having some catchy components, albeit in its indie-typical tweeness.

Favorite album: Mass Romantic

Favorite song: Mass Romantic

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The first three albums are ok.

732. War

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(July 2026) Episode 732 is WAR. They had a good run of eclectic funk and R&B recordings in the mid-1970s. The prevalence of Latino rhythms is apparent in their hits “Low Rider” and “The Cisco Kid.” “Why Can’t We Be Friends” was also a hit. War started with Eric Burdon, late of the Animals. He fronted them for a year with a couple disjointed albums (and the song “Spill the Wine”) before they set out on their own.

Favorite album: The World is a Ghetto

Favorite song: The Cisco Kid

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: None of the albums give a wow.  The four albums from 1971-75 are the best.