Posts From Sam Sutherland
The Dusty Springfield Pop-Soul Pinnacle: ‘Dusty in Memphis’
Nearing 30, the British vocal great was intimidated by the soul power at Atlantic Records, her new home. She overcame it and turned out a masterpiece.
Read MoreThe Poco Country-Rock Legacy: “Deliverin’,” With a Gallop
With its stellar vocal harmonies and instrumental dexterity, the album established Poco for decades to come and drew a blueprint for country-rock’s future.
Read More‘Let It Bleed’: The Rolling Stones’ Turbulent Masterpiece
The album captures the band at its creative apogee through a dark masterpiece that mirrors the violent ’60s milieu in which it was created.
Read MoreThe Van Morrison Masterpiece: ‘Astral Weeks’
A “feverish poetic intensity persists” throughout the cycle of songs that comprise his 1968 work, even as those songs shift in pace and tone.
Read MoreTraffic ‘The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys’: Rock on the Fusion Frontier
What had begun as post-‘Sgt. Pepper’ psychedelia turned toward a darker, more idiosyncratic synthesis of jazz, blues, world music and English folk elements.
Read More‘Desperado’—Eagles’ Sagebrush Country-Rock Opera
With its sophomore effort, the band tethered its polished country-rock to a concept album driven by a Wild West narrative.
Read More‘Disraeli Gears’: When Cream Rose to the Top
On their second album, the trio honed their virtuosic interplay to a sharper edge and added a more modern sensibility spiked with psychedelia.
Read More‘Wildflowers’: Tom Petty’s Heartbroken Solo Masterpiece
Petty called it his favorite album. Its generous song list only hinted at the virtual torrent of material he was creating during this period.
Read MoreThe Byrds’ ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’: Cornerstone of Country-Rock
Their most consequential stylistic stroke since their pioneering folk-rock debut three years earlier, it ushered in country-rock and Americana.
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