Category: Episodes

693. Sonny Boy Williamson II

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(November 2025) Episode 693 of the “opus project” is SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON II, a harmonica-playing blues musician in the Chicago Blues mode whose career included playing with both Robert Johnson and Jimmy Page. Born as Alex Ford but at the urging of his sponsor he performed under the name of an older bluesman Sonny Boy Williamson and (perjuriously IMO) kept it, so is thus identified in the literature as SBW II. Based on his recordings in the 1950s-60s, this is what many people will hear as standard blues, historicism aside. He toured Europe several times, helping popularize the genre there.

Favorite album: The Real Folk Blues

Favorite song: Bring It On Home

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The Essential Sonny Boy Williamson is a good two-disc compilation.

692. Charlie Parker

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(November 2025) Episode 692 is CHARLIE PARKER. I’ll use this occasion to commit heresy. First, I admit I don’t like bebop, to the shame of all the jazz people I grew up with (including my father). To me it comes off as noodling for noodling’s sake, in the same way I react to jam bands. It doesn’t provide the emotional response I seek in melodic lines, hooks, or sonic textures and mood. Second, I’ve never really liked Charlie Parker; there’s a reason he slipped all the way to episode 692. This goes way back as part of a trumpet player’s reflexive aversion to the saxophone. I appreciate his legendary skill and immense influence on jazz music. But what I hear is music that makes virtuosity an end in itself rather than a means to a musical whole (not entirely unlike an Al Di Meola or Yngwie Malmsteen) which has limited appeal to me. I know I border on sacrilege here, but just being honest.

Favourite album: Bird and Diz*

Favourite song: A Night in Tunisia

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Jazz aficionados will point you to his most sublime live performances but I can’t.

* Did you notice that? My favorite album is half trumpet.

691. The Fratellis

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(November 2025) Episode 691 is The FRATELLIS. This Scottish indie rock’s first two albums from the 00s offer poppy, peppy songs full of melodic hooks. You may recognize “Chelsea Dagger” from its get-the-crowd-singing use by sports teams, including as the goal song for the Chicago Blackhawks. But thereafter, each successive album gets less interesting, devolving into typical 2010s shiny pop-rock where over-production substitutes for creativity.

Favourite album: Here We Stand

Favourite song: Babydoll

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The first two albums Costello Songs and Here We Stand are a fun listen

690. Deftones

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Episode 690 is DEFTONES. I make a habit of launching an episode when I visit an artist’s city or country. And so I started Deftones while in Sacramento (our mutual hometown). I was disappointed. They are rooted in metal, as their first groove/nu-ish album showed. But the emo-vocal alt-metal style they settled into is not to my taste. It’s like Coldplay with distorted guitars. I saw someone describe them as “the Radiohead of metal.” Well, invoking the old Simpsons gag – I like nuts and I like gum, but I do not like them together.

Favorite album: Adrenaline

Favorite song: Minus Blindfold

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: Mmm, not much of one. Maybe the first album.

689. The Manhattans

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(October 2025) Episode 689 is THE MANHATTANS. An R&B outfit distinguished more by its longevity than by its creative contribution, IMO. Their career followed a common path from 60s doo wop-style R&B to 70s smooth soul, some funk and a bit of disco, then 80s synth soul, through to the current decade. To my ear, The Manhattans offer mostly basic and formulaic soul, although I found some enjoyable funky songs in their mid-70s peak. Their biggest hits were “Kiss and Say Goodbye” (1976) and “Shining Star” (1980).

Favorite album: That’s How Much I Love You

Favorite song: Nursery Rhymes

Compared to expectations: ↓

Recommendation: The four albums from 1972-76 are the best.

688. Iggy Pop

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(October 2025) Episode 688 is IGGY POP. This provides a case study (as with Lou Reed) into whether an extended solo career derives from evolving musical creativity or riding on the fumes of fame earned as frontman with an iconic and seminal group (and image cultivation). With Iggy Pop it’s both. Arguably the strongest are the first two albums done with David Bowie on retreat in Berlin. But that’s followed by a decade and a half of weak offerings including an attempt at new wave. But 1993’s American Caesar was a return to raw power (!) sound that continued through the Stooges reunion in the 2000s. The 21st Century saw experimentation with spoken word and European pop. Overall I’ll say Iggy Pop has proven his stature.

Favorite album: The Idiot

Favorite song: Lust for Life

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The Idiot and Lust for Life (Bowie years) and most of the 90s albums

687. Lamb of God

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(October 2025) Episode 687 is LAMB OF GOD. They are considered among the vanguard of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal of the late 1990s and 2000s. As such, their music is an amalgam of thrash, death and hardcore metal that transcends efforts to confine them to a category. Throat-screamed vocals (with relative lyrical clarity), speed and groove are prominent features, with the technical precision of an expert clockmaker. Always powerful, never boring. This episode includes the two albums released as BURN THE PRIEST.

Favorite album: Wrath

Favorite song: Sepsis

Compared to expectations: ↑

Recommendation: There’s not a bad album in the lot. Their first album, the eponymously-named Burn the Priest, is a good place to start.

686. Miriam Makeba

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(October 2025) Episode 686 is MIRIAM MAKEBA. For years the only reason I knew her was from ads for her records printed on the sleeves of used LPs I used to buy. Turns out, she was a big deal, nicknamed “Mama Africa” for being among first African singers to achieve global fame. She got famous in the U.S. under the tutelage of Harry Belafonte (with whom she duo’d on a good album). She sang in English as well as her native Xhosa, bringing a click language to wider attention. Makeba was not shy about raising rights and justice in her songs, including against apartheid in her native country. For that she was persecuted and exiled twice, stripped of her passport by the South African government and having her visa revoked by the U.S. government for marrying civil rights activist Stokely Carmichael.

Favorite album: Sangoma

Favorite song: Novema

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: Sangoma was a comeback album of traditional South African songs stripped of the chrome and strings added to her 60s albums although those are peak period (including the one with Harry Belafonte).

685. The Chieftans

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Episode 685 is THE CHIEFTANS, important promoters of traditional Irish folk music to a global audience. Getting their start in the 1960s, they put out a series of albums through the 1970s that, to my ear, sound genuinely authentic, augmented by the high musicianship of all the players. I’ve always loved uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes) and leader Paddy Moloney is a master (also of the tin whistle). The Chieftans are a good study of the tension between authenticity and popularity. As they moved into the 1980s and after, to keep people buying records and expand beyond the orthodox confines of traditional music, they brought in other folk music (including Chinese), and collaborated with rock, country and classical artists. The result is a departure from “authenticity” and entry into realms that evoke the cheesiness of New Age “Celtic” stuff. I admit that my choice of favorite song comes from its prominent use in the great film Barry Lyndon.

Favourite album: Chieftans 4

Favourite song: Mná Na hÉireann

Favourite song (with lyrics): Molly Bán (Bawn) (with Alison Krauss)

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: The albums labelled Chieftans 1-8 all offer consistently good “traditional” music. For a greatest hits I recommend The Essential Chieftans

684. Biohazard

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(October 2025) Episode 684 is BIOHAZARD. A good example of a crossover mix of metal and punk with a healthy dose of rap metal (especially early in their recording career). The attitude and lyrics are more to the punk side, full of anger and defiance. It’s aggressive and intense stuff.

Fun fact: Joining Tame Impala, Biohazard becomes the second artist for which I completed the episode on the same day their most recent album was released.

Favorite album: Means to an End

Favorite song: A Lot to Learn

Compared to expectations: same

Recommendation: I’m not a big fan of metal/punk fusion, but they’re better than others. Urban Discipline was their breakthrough album and is probably a good place to start.