Other Business To Discuss

Some house-cleaning items:

1) Just like my compadre Richard Nelson does on his blog, Highway 290 Revisited, I'm going to use the side column keep track of all the 2006 albums I buy. That way you can witness just how ridiculous my CD purchasing habits really are.

2) Also joining the side column is what I like to call The 3:49 Club (which is nearly half of The 700 Club). It currently has 20 members, songs that actually ARE 3 minutes and 49 seconds long. If you come across songs of this length, feel free to alert me!

3) Since it's 2006 and one of my goals is to write more, I'm going to embark on a project where I review ten albums from 10 years ago, 1996. I was a freshman/sophomore in college at this time, and that's when my CD collection began to grow exponentially. A heady time. The first review will be up tomorrow.

4) Finally, beacuase there's no search function on this site, I'm going to create a Review Index under the Offshoots heading. There you'll be able to see what has been reviewed and where to find it. That'll be helpful for me more than anyone.

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Honoring the Legacy of REO Speedwagon

I suppose I should have known the saga of REO Speedwagon couldn't end with a whimper. Before I get into the latest developments, here's a brief review of what's happened so far: In September 2024 came the announcement that the band was effectively breaking up at the end of the year. Apparently, frontman Kevin Cronin ruled that bassist Bruce Hall was no longer fit to continue touring following back surgery in summer 2024. Hall felt otherwise. Here we learned that REO had essentially become a three-way partnership between Cronin, Hall, and Doughty (who retired from touring in January 2023) following the departure of original members Alan Gratzer and Gary Richrath in 1988. Doughty sided with Hall, so Cronin was outvoted 2-1. No Bruce Hall, no REO Speedwagon. In December 2024 Cronin revealed he would continue performing REO Speedwagon songs with the two musicians who replaced Doughty and Hall, as well as Brian Hitt and Dave Amato (who replaced Gratzer and Richrath), with the on...

The Unlikely Musical Life of Tom Kelly

You may not know the name Tom Kelly, but I guarantee that you've sung along to songs he wrote. Born in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1952, Tom moved to Effingham, Illinois when he was 11 years old, just in time to witness the Beatles' debut on Ed Sullivan. Bit by the rock music bug, he joined a local band called the Trifaris, singing and playing bass. His family moved back to Indiana in '66. When Tom finished high school, he decided to go to college in Illinois, but his choice was made based on extracurricular factors, not academic ones. "I started at Eastern [Illinois University] because there was a band,” he told the Effingham Daily News in 2011, “Then I transferred to Southern [Illinois University] because there was another band.” Champaign, Illinois Continuing his college hopping, Tom headed closer to home to attend Purdue, and there he had a group called The Gaping Huggers, comprised of former fellow Trifari JC Marshall on drums, and University of Illino...

12 More by Collective Soul

Sometimes an artist just needs 12 more songs to summarize their career. Case in point... Collective Soul released a pretty decent best of compilation - 7even Year Itch: 1994-2001 - nearly a quarter of a century ago, but there's been nothing to summarize their output since then. Considering that output consists of seven albums and a couple of EPs, we've got our work cut out for us. (Since the band stopped having "hits" in 2009, most of these are just my personal preference, though I did give the singles first consideration). 1. "Better Now" (from Youth , 2004) "Better Now" is buzzy burst of optimism that has stood the test of time/\. 2. "There's a Way" (from Youth , 2004) Great riff, great chorus, great bridge, great song. 3. "What Can I Give You" (from Afterwords , 2007) Fascinating structure on this one: It starts out somewhat pedestrian, then goes into a soaring chorus followed by an even more melodic post-chorus, the...

3 Minutes, 49 Seconds

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