Dave Cope and the Sass and Ronnie D’Addario
Dave Cope and the Sass “Killer Mods From Inner Space”
The follow-up to last year’s highly rated Julee, Dave Cope and the Sass have mastered the sound of the British Invasion, and other genres (and eras) while creatively delivering original gems. The album begins with “A Good Idea At The Time,” a sweet example of 1970s vintage rock a la The Guess Who.
“She Don’t Care About That” and “More” have a terrific glammy pop vibe, and Mod-era Who/Small Faces are mined with the excellent “In Circles.” He doesn’t always hit the target, as “Butterfly Heart” didn’t really hook me, and “Start” felt like a poor man’s Stephen Sondheim musical. But it’s okay that Dave goes outside his comfort zones, and occasionally the shift in style works out, like on the smooth easy listening pop of “Season of Love.” That said, Cope has just enough goodies on tap to make this album Highly Recommended.
Ronnie D’Addario “All Gathered In One Room”
Ronnie D’Addario (Papa Twig) is back and continues to charm like last year’s Egg Yolks And Artichokes. Similar in style to Paul McCartney or Gilbert O’Sullivan, Ronnie does light rock and music hall pop throughout All Gathered In One Room. “A Shot in The Dark” is a bouncy haiku set to a catchy melody and while the scenarios spun in his tunes can get excessively sentimental, D’Addario skillfully pulls it off.
Taking a different twist, the title track “All Gathered In One Room” is a Gilbert & Sullivan-styled opera number. His Beatles-lite “Come One, Come All” and “The Journey” are meticulously produced, but merely okay. Ronnie’s creative composition really comes out on the dance hall ballad of “Belle of the Ball” and the creative process turned into a baroque waltz on “Dwight Makes Right.” The Lemon Twigs contribute instrumentally, but this is a “Papa Twig” production all the way through. Check it out.
Please lend a hand to Jesse Malin.
Your gift can alleviate him of the additional burdens brought on by the significant cost of his immediate and long-term care. Power Popaholic interviewed Jesse a few years ago and wants to spread the word and hopefully, fans like you will answer the call.
Power Popaholic Interview: Mike Peters of The Alarm
Mike Peters (The Alarm)
Interview with Mike Peters, lead singer and songwriter of The Alarm. The new album “Forwards” was reviewed recently🎸 Visit this link to get the album: Amazon
Jack Lee gone – but not forgotten
Jack Lee passed away last week at 71 years old. The band the Nerves, which included Lee as one of three singer-songwriters, was known to almost every rock and roll enthusiast in Los Angeles at the time, even though relatively few ever saw them perform during their brief tenure together. The trio, which was made up of Lee on guitar, Peter Case on bass, and Paul Collins on drums, began in San Francisco in 1974 before relocating to Los Angeles at the start of 1977. They were without a doubt an early part of the power-pop revival. After the Nerves split up, the latter two became more well-known, with Case going on to found the Plimsouls and Collins leading the group that went by the names of the Beat and Paul Collins’ Beat.
Blondie recorded an extremely faithful cover of the Nerves’ “Hanging on the Telephone” in 1978 that remains one of the group’s most instantly identifiable signature songs to this day. Paul Collins wrote on his Facebook page “We went to hell and back together, he shared all his incredible wealth of knowledge about music with me. I was more than proud to be by his side, through thick and thin…for me there will never be a guy quite like Jack Lee.”