Abraham Laboriel - LA session bassist. He’s one of Paul McCartney’s favorite bassists and his son plays drums in McCartney’s band.
Michael Hedges - brilliant guitarist who left us way too soon.
Danny Gatton - Once billed as the worlds greatest unknown guitarist. Another gone too soon.
Michael Hedges is pretty well known, but I agree that there are likely large swaths of the public who don’t know him.
A long time ago I would have said Warren Zevon, but by now I’m guessing most people know who he is.
How about Waddy Wachtel? Barely known to the public, but he’s a great session musician/songwriter. He’s co-written a few hits and played smokin’ guitar on many albums you’d know. He’s played with the Rolling Stones, Warren Zevon (Waddy co-wrote “Werewolves of London”), Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Stevie Nicks, Bon Jovi, James Taylor, and a whole lot of other people. He has also worked on a bunch of movie soundtracks.
People don’t think of those as JJ Cale songs, by and large. You gotta pretty in the weeds to know who wrote them.
Seriously, people think of those as Clapton and Skynyrd songs.
The Residents. I’m not sure how to describe them. Very minimalistic. Very melodic, with simple melodies interplaying with other melodies, all the while following simple “rules.” They have a long, fascinating history.
After listening to them for 30 years, here’s my synopsis: it’s true, pure, unadulterated horror, in the most purest sense.
Figures, coming from someone with an avatar like yours.
I nominate the Candy Skins’ “Fun?” as the best album of 1993, and one that very few people have heard. It got extensive airplay on my local campus radio station, and rightfully so, because it’s just terrific power-pop.
Oh, cool…I skipped around and listened to a few tracks on the album, and “Wembley” caught my ear. Nice power pop track. I’ll have to throw it into a playlist now. Definitely reminds me of early 90s poper pop. Kinda puts me in the mind of someone like Redd Kross or (even more obscurely) Flop from Seattle.
But that is only because a drummer, by definition, is someone that hangs around with musicians.
Mitch Ryder he recorded in the 1960’s and retired in 73.
He returned in 83 with Never Kick a Sleeping Dog produced by John Cougar.
Very talented. I’ve heard he had drug problems and a troubled life that effected his career.
You like both Ravel and Strauss, and wish there had been a composer who combined French impressionism with a Germanic sense of structure? Check out Florent Schmitt’s music. He was highly successful during his lifetime, being notably name-checked by Stravinsky, but fell out of favour due to some very questionable choices during World War II (Germany - but not Nazi - sympathizer). His music has been undergoing a revival since the late 90s, especially his orchestral and solo piano works.
Alexander Mosolov was one of the most successful modernist composers in the very early days of the Soviet Union. However, in the mid-20s, he was dismissed as a “formalist” and found it increasingly difficult to have his music played. He wrote a letter to Stalin to be allowed to emigrate, which was denied. Surprisingly, this didn’t also result in him mysteriously “disappearing”, but his later works strictly adhere to official Soviet aesthetics. They’re still quite good, but hardly groundbreaking. His harp concerto has gotten some attention recently, with two recordings in the 2020s. His much more innovative early piano works have also been picked up by several musicians recently.
Big fan of The Residents, and rather sad I’m busy on the nights they’re performing in town this year. Mind you, I’m not sure what live performances by them are like…
Emitt Rhodes. A great writer of pop songs, but screwed over by his record company.
Oh, and he played all the instruments himself.
Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels! Remember him and them well. I found out that Mitch Ryder is still playing. If you want to go to Germany, he’s got 15 dates coming up. I wonder if/assume he currently lives there. He also last released an album in 2012, so, like many/most musicians, never really retired.
Sarah Joyce AKA Rumer, a British Pakistani-born singer who sounds remarkably like Karen Carpenter. Covering the theme song to Welcome Back, Kotter:
not sure how well known SOHN is already … he seems to be breaking into mainstream for quite some time …
best described as Electrónic/synth Soul … and truely formidable
He may be more popular than I realize, but John Tropea plays some nifty jazz guitar.
I’ll bet none of you have ever heard of John Parrendo. He plays “fiddle” (as well as classical violin). He has played as a session musician mostly for country bands. For years any time Charlie Daniels performed in Pittsburgh he’d contact John and give him some tickets and passes and John would play a song or two with the band.
You’ve certainly heard of Phil Collins as lead singer of Genesis and as a solo artist, but how the jazz fusion group he played with, Brand X?
I don’t know if he currently lives here, but he’s got his biggest fanbase in Germany since his legendary Rockpalast concert in 1979 (at the Grugahalle in Essen, of course, and broadcast live in much of Europe).
