Happy Birthday, Tori Amos

    Ms. Amos turned 49 today.  Wow.

    I confess I have not listened to her a lot.  What little I have heard was more or less meh.  But over the weekend I got to hear the above double-LP for the first time.  And it is absolutely stunning.   Methinks I'm going to have to spend more time with her albums.

Hang Cool Teddy Bear - Meat Loaf

Artist : Meat Loaf (that's two words, not one)

Title : Hang Cool Teddy Bear

CD Release Date : 11 May 2010

Genre : Rock & Roll, Baby!

Overall Rating : 9*/10

. The latest album from Meat Loaf, and an excellent effort. 12 tracks of good, old-fashioned Rock & Roll. The liner notes say it's a concept album, based loosely on a story by Kilian Kerwin. I don't see it, but what-evuh. . There are no songs written by Jim Steinman, but don't worry. The lyrics more than hold their own. There's even one penned by Bon Jovi. Jack Black joins in on vocals on one of the tracks. It's not as bad as most people say, but it's not the high point of the CD either. Stevie Vai guests on a couple of the tracks. Patti Russo is dynamic as always. . If you like Meat Loaf's Dead Ringer and Bad Attitude albums, you'll love Hang Cool Teddy Bear. The arrangements aren't as lavish as Steinmanic numbers, so the emphasis is more on good old Rock & Roll - the kind Springsteen used to put out before he decided he was a folk singer. Mr. Loaf's voice holds up quite well for a 62-year-old, thank you very much. . Complete track listing (my favorites in pink) :

01. Peace On Earth

02. Living On The Outside

03. Los Angeloser

04. If I Can't Have You

05. Love Is Not Real

06. Like A Rose

07. Did You Ever Love Somebody

08. Song Of Madness

09. Running Away From Me

10. Let's Be In Love

11. If It Rains

12. Elvis In Vegas

. It's nice to see an artist putting out an album that's good from start to finish, instead on one decent track and 11 chunks of filler. Meat Loaf did the first three tracks at his recent concert here in Phoenix. Buy this album. Play it. Over and over again. Sing along with him on Los Angeloser. 9 Stars.

The Kingston Trio - Make Way

Genre : Folk

Year : 1961, Monophonic

Record Label : Capitol

Overall Rating : ***** *** (out of 10*)

. I picked this LP up and posted its cover a couple weeks ago, which is reproduced above, except I photoshopped out its "Full Dimensional Stereo" header, as my copy is monaural. I converted it over the last couple afternoons; partly cuz I'm nuts about The Kingston Trio; partly cuz I wanted to make sure I hadn't forgotten how to do this. . Track Listing :

01. En El Agua (2:21)

02. Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies (2:56)

03. The Jug of Punch (3:40)

04. Bonny Hielan Laddie (2:50)

05. Utawena (1:43)

06. Hard Travelin' (2:36)

07. Hangman (2:54)

08. Speckled Roan (3:08)

09. The River is Wide (3:43)

10. Oh, Yes, Oh (2:45)

11. Blow the Candle Out (2:41)

12. Blue Eyed Girl (2:16)

. The album is in decent shape for being almost 50 years old - a few major scratches and no skips. Mostly, it just suffers from being monaural, which has a sucky sound quality. Stereo albums really were a quantum leap forward in technology. . Make Way doesn't have any hit singles, but it did make it to #2 on the Billboard Albums chart. It has a nice blend of ballads (The River is Wide), humor (Oh, Yes, Oh), a Spanish track (En El Agua), a Cowboy one (Hangman), a Scottish one (Bonny Hielan Laddie), and even a Yiddish (or African? or Spanish?) one (Utawena). . In the late 50's and early 60's, TK3 were putting out 3 albums per year; 12 tracks per album. That's a heckuva lot of songs, most of which are now forgotten. Which is a shame really, cuz there's some nice stuff here. In the early 90's, Capitol released a lot of CD's containing two TK3 albums per disc. You can buy one of these with Make Way on it at Amazon.com; other than that, your only option is vinyl. . We'll give Make Way an "8-Star" rating, because all of their stuff from the early 60's is great. The only deductions are for it being Monaural, and not having any radio-play tracks on it.