Jerry Riopelle is a local Arizona musical hero-he was enough of an institution here that a couple of friends seemed amazed that I was unfamiliar with him when I went with them to a New Year's Eve show a few years ago. He's had songs covered by Leon Russell, Meat Loaf, Kenny Loggins and Rita Coolidge, and worked as an A&M Records producer, but to my knowledge never really made a splash outside Arizona.
His New Year's Eve shows at the Celebrity Theatre in Phoenix were an institution, and he was such a large local draw that after opening for Dr. John in 1974, national acts opened for HIM-he never opened a show for anyone in Arizona again. I thought I'd feature Riopelle's work this week to give you non-AZ natives a glimpse...
For those of you who do not have the key to the Vault, the video above was all I could find...
Philadelphia's Garret Dutton (aka G. Love) has had a 18 year career in the biz with a sound that combines hip-hop elements with blues elements over the course of 16 albums. As odd as that sounds, it works!
Sugar is G. Love's most recent album (2014), and is this week's treasure in the Vault!
Tom Waits signed to Asylum Records in 1972 and released a string of albums that are considered by many to be classics. In the eighties, he seemed to start believing his own press, and after the stellar soundtrack to One From The Heart, his Swordfishtrombones release saw a change in musical direction in both songwriting style and arrangement, as Waits began to feature less commonly used instruments. Sadly for me, this rendered most of his post 1982 output unlistenable.
Until 2011's Bad As Me. The songs actually had....(gasp)....melody! Calling it a return to form might be a stretch, but it's the first Waits' album I genuinely like in 29 years. That's something.
