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The Sept. 25 edition of Greasy Tracks featured a spotlight on the legendary drummer Billy Cobham.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

Perhaps best known for his work with Miles Davies — beginning with the groundbreaking Bitches Brew — and Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham has played with dozens of other artists and bands and has a massive catalog of solo releases.

Not to slight the importance of Alexis Korner or Gram Bond when it came to having an eye for talent on the burgeoning British jazz and blues scene of the early1960s, but there was ultimately no better proving ground than John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

The Sept. 11 edition of Greasy Tracks spotlighted many of the incredible musicians who did time in one of Mayall’s line-ups.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

Forget the obvious Mayall alums Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor, but consider such fantastic players as Harvey Mandell, Gerry McGee, Ansley Dunbar, Keef Hartley, John Almond, Jon Mark, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Freddy Robinson, Larry Taylor, Don “Sugarcane” Harris, Blue Mitchell and Clifford Solomon to name but a few.

It’s quiz time.

In the grand scheme of things, what one individual — directly or indirectly and through no fault of his own — proved to be a unique catalyst for David Bowie, John Mellencamp and Lou Reed reaching stardom?

Only the very savvy would answer, and likely rather quickly, “Mick Ronson” without a second thought and they’d be correct.

Music from across Ronson’s career was featured on the Sept. 4 edition of Greasy Tracks.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

Bowie, Mellencamp and Reed remain the best examples — although there are many the talented guitarist and producer worked with over the years — but the remarkable notoriety and commercial success that trio attained due to their work with Ronson is incredible.

Things starting bubbling for Bowie following Ronson’s collaborating on his The Man Who Sold The World and Hunky Dory releases, but when Bowie put out The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars in 1972, the impact proved to usher the turning point of Bowie’s career as a recording and touring artist.

It was Ronson’s rearrangement and adding of some lyrics and vocals to Mellencamp’s “Jack & Diane” — a track that probably would have never seen the light of day if not for Ronson getting ahold of it. Mellencamp would make it a late addition to his American Fool album in 1982. It was the second single released from it and would spend four weeks at No. 1 in the Billboard Hot 100, while American Fool would eventually reach platinum status five times. The Recording Industry Association of America named “Jack & Diane” one of the songs of the century and it remains Mellencamp’s most successful single.

Similar to Bowie, Reed had released several albums and singles and made no lasting impression as a solo artist following his taking leave of the Velvet Underground in 1970. It should be noted that Bowie and Reed were admirers of each other’s work and it was when Bowie and Ronson co-produced Reed’s Transformer. Ronson also played lead guitar on the album. Bowie and Ronson were fans of the Velvet Underground.

Transfomer and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars are regarded as go-to albums when it comes to glam or glitter rock. Minus the distinctive vocals of Bowie and Reed, the other “voice” that was on each of those releases and is also easily identified was the guitarwork of Ronson.

Affectionately known as “Ronno” to most and the “Jeff Beck of Hull” to others, Ronson was a native of Kingston upon Hull, England, where he got his start playing in the early 1960s.

Classically trained as a child, Ronson became proficient on piano, violin and recorder as well as the harmonium — Ian Hunter said Ronson was an excellent keyboard player. He initially wanted to be a cellist, but moved to guitar upon discovering the music of Duane Eddy — there’s no denying that tell-tale twang — and then there was no looking back.

Ronson played with a slew of primarily Hull-based groups before being recruited to join The Hype, a in-the-works backing band for David Bowie in 1970. The band was short-lived, but Ronson made an important musical connection with Bowie. A series of albums and tours later, Bowie was a household name and Ronson was an in-demand guitarist.

While hardly as theatrical as his on-stage relationship with Bowie, his time spent working with Ian Hunter produced a solid body of work and some of the tightest rock and roll line-ups around on stage.

His touring, session and production work ran the gamut as he was associated with such artists/groups as Bob Dylan, Roger McGuinn, Pure Prairie League, Mott The Hoople, Elton John, Morrissey, among others, including Connecticut’s own, Roger C. Reale.

Sadly for Ronson, his label wanted to make him into a star, a role that the guitarist was never truly comfortable in. He only released two solo albums before his death in 1993 at the age of 46.

The Aug. 28 edition of Greasy Tracks featured the music of and interviews with Sam Morrow and Peter Parcek.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

Parcek is out supporting the release of Mississippi Suitcase (Lightnin’ Records), while Morrow is on the road following the release of Gettin’ By On Gettin’ Down (Forty Below Records).

A decidedly different sound than his country-tinged Concrete and Mud in 2018, Morrow, who says he prefers to write music first before dealing with lyrics, opted for a more-swampy/grooving feel for his all-original Gettin’ By On Gettin’ Down, giving a big nod to Lowell George of Little Feat fame. Morrow will include a Little Feat set at Arch Street Tavern.

Parcek’s Mississippi Suitcase — a mix of originals and some interesting covers — followed his 2017 release, Everybody Wants to Go to Heaven and was gained a nomination for best blues rock album in the 2021 Blues Music Awards (the former W.C. Handy Awards).

A native of Portland, Conn., Parcek is currently based in the metro-Boston area. He has released four albums and has had some interesting concert experiences.

In the 1960s, a London-based band he was briefly in played at a party that the Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd was involved with. Closer to home, on May 3, 1970, a band he was in was one of a handful of local groups that opened for the debut appearance of the Grateful Dead in Connecticut when they played Wesleyan University along with New Riders of The Purple Sage. Parcek remembers Jerry Garcia being very complimentary of his (Parcek’s) playing, but warned him not to drink anything in the backstage area.

The Aug. 21 edition of Greasy Tracks spotlighted the music of King Crimson and Frank Zappa ahead of Crimson’s appearance at the Westville Music Bowl in New Haven on Sept. 5 with The Zappa Band supporting.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

The extended feature included interviews with King Crimson vocalist/guitarist Jakko Jakszyk and bassist Tony Levin as well as guitarist Mike Kenneally and guitarist/vocalist Ray White from The Zappa Band whose members include a number of Zappa alumni.

King Crimson, led by guitarist Robert Fripp, continues to feature an unconventional, yet very innovative line-up of three drummers (Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison and Jeremy Stacey) at the front of the stage with Fripp, Mel Collins (saxophone, flute), Levin and Jakszyk on a raised platform behind them.

On its current North American jaunt dubbed the “Music Is Our Friend Tour” — it was rescheduled from 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic put a kibosh on concerts — the band is going deep into a catalogue that encompasses 50-plus years of recordings. King Crimson is the first British band to play the United States following the COVID-19 shutdown.

In addition to Keneally, who was part of Frank Zappa’s final touring band — arguably one of his best line-ups — and White who first played with Zappa in 1976 and would continue to work with him through the 1984 tour, The Zappa Band line-up includes long-time sidemen Scott Thunes (bass) and Robert Martin (keyboards/sax/vocals) as well as Zappa Plays Zappa alums Jamie Kime (guitar) and Joe Travers (drums/vocals).

According to Keneally, a good portion of The Zappa Band set will include tracks featured on the just-released Zappa ’88 The Last U.S. Show.

The July 31 edition of Greasy Tracks featured a three-hour special on JJ Grey & Mofro ahead of their return to Connecticut as they play the Outdoor Stage at Ridgefield Playhouse on Aug. 8.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Grey and his band formed in the 1990s, released their debut in 2001 and have since put out six studio albums and one live collection spotlighting their mix of horn-laden, soulful rock and heartfelt ballads.

Mofro will be the lone band at the Ridgefield date, a change from the co-headlining status they’ve shared with Blues Traveler on a 11-date tour that runs through August, having been rescheduled from 2020 due to the pandemic.

The band last played the state in 2019 when they made stops at Infinity Hall in Hartford and two days later at The Katherine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook. The concert was filmed for the CPTV series The Kate. This marks their first Ridgefield appearance since 2017.

The July 17 edition of Greasy Tracks focused on the oft-overlooked harmonica with nothing but music featuring some of the best harp players of all time.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

Included in the program was an interview with harmonica enthusiast Nic Clark who discussed his just-released Love Your Life: Songs For The Whole Family (Little Village Foundation).

Traditionally associated with blues and folk music, the versatile harmonica – also known as the French harp or mouth organ — often is found in rock, jazz, country and classical music.

The July 10 edition of Greasy Tracks featured Alligator Records which celebrates 50 years of “genuine houserockin’ music” in 2021. Included in the program was an interview with Alligator founder Bruce Iglauer and music from across the 350-plus albums the label has released.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

The iconic label — born at a perfect time when “underground”, “freeform” and “progressive” F.M. radio was on the rise — was in the thick of things as selling vinyl soon included analogue tape and in time, compact discs and then . . . streaming — has managed to prevail.

A native of Ann Arbor, Mich., Iglauer grew interested in what would become a lifetime passion: blues music. While a student at Lawrence Universirty in Appleton, Wisc., he attended a concert by Mississippi Fred McDowell at the 1966 University of Chicago Folk Festival which provided a personal revelation: he had to be involved with blues music.

Following a move to Chicago in 1970, Iglauer met  Delmark Records’ founder Bob Koester and signed on for $30 a week as a shipping clerk at the independent, primarily jazz-focused label that would increase its’ blues roster over the years. At the same time, he was one of the founding writers of the then-quarterly  Living Blues magazine in Chicago which was the nation’s first blues-specific publication.

Immersed in one of the nation’s traditional blue’s hotbeds, Iglauer now had the ability to see big-name players literally within blocks of singers and musicians who were either starting to gain attention or were completely unknown.

Hound Dog Taylor was one of those players who wasn’t that widely known and the person who would be the catalyst for Iglauer becoming the founder of a record label.

For nearly a year Iglauer tried to convince Koester to sign and record Taylor and his band, The HouseRockers, but each time, Koester said he wasn’t interested and suggested that Iglauer record Taylor.

Dedicated to making good on his goal to get Taylor recorded — at that time he and his group had released but two singles — Iglauer scraped together $2,700, got studio time and recorded the band on two-track and printed about 1,000 copies of what would become the debut release by Alligator Records: Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers.

Juggling his work at Delmark and trying to shepherd his new label were massive challenges for Iglauer who was sleeping on a mattress on the floor of an efficiency apartment, using was two sawhorses and a slab of wood as a shipping table and often subsisting daily on an order of fries and a Quarter Pounder with cheese — a new sandwich introduced by McDonalds in 1971.

At one point, Iglauer was driving around major parts of the country, stopping at every freeform commercial and college radio stations he could manage to personally introduce Hound Dog Taylor and the Alligator label to on-air hosts.

In many cases, the reaction was immediate and positive as the album often went right on the air and got regular airplay. Iglauer signed on with distributors and left stacks of albums with them, ultimately forcing him to return home to get more printed. In the first year, Hound Dog Taylor and the HouseRockers would sell 9,000 copies, a substantial amount considering the independent status of Alligator. The album would also catapult Taylor out of tiny taverns and onto larger stages across the country and as word spread, performing as far away as Australia.

As business started growing at Alligator, Koester presented Iglauer with a decision his protégé would eventually have to make: was Iglauer going to remain working at Delmark or was he going to work for himself at Alligator?

Iglauer made the choice each man knew was inevitable — Iglauer was going to strike out on his own. Ever the supportive mentor, Koester would keep Iglauer on the payroll for the next eight months even though he was focusing on Alligator on a full-time basis and was technically “competing” with Koester.

It should be noted that Koester would run Delmark — the nation’s oldest jazz and blues independent label — until 2018 when he retired and sold it. Following his moving the label to Chicago from St. Louis in 1958, Koester opened the Jazz Record Mart, a destination for hardcore jazz and blues aficionados. The shop would have several locations around Chicago before Koester shuttered it in 2016. He would go on to open Bob’s Blues & Jazz Mart which he ran until his death in May at the age of 88.

When he went solo, Iglauer knew he had to put out a successful release each time if he was going to be able to fund a follow-up album. Acting at times as manager, roadie and publicist for Taylor, Iglauer went back to the role of producer and returned the band to Chicago’s Sound where they would record Natural Boogie, which would ultimately be Taylor’s final studio release as he passed away in 1975 at the age of 60.

Since he has since Day 1 at the label, Iglauer continues to be hands on. He has produced nearly one third of the 350 or so of Alligator’s releases. He is always looking for potential signings and to this day, rues his overlooking the opportunity to sign Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray.

“I heard the young Stevie Ray Vaughan. I thought, ‘Wow, he’s the world’s loudest Albert King imitator.’ I got it later; I didn’t get it then.”

–Alligator Founder Bob Inglauer

“I heard the young Robert Cray, too,” he continued. I thought, ‘Wow, he’s really good, but he wants to do all this R&B stuff. I wish he would do more blues.’”

Despite the ones he’s missed, the Alligator stable over the years has included some household names: Buddy Guy, Albert Collins, Charlie Musselwhite, James Cotton, Koko Taylor, Lonnie Brooks, Johnny Winter, Elvin Bishop, Roy Buchcanan and Shemekia Copeland to name but a few.

Alligator won its first Grammy Award in 1981 for I’m Here by zydeco legend Clifton Chenier. In 1985, Showdown! by Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland and Robert Cray would pave the way for a second Grammy Award for the label and the release remains Alligator’s most successful release.

One of Iglauer’s younger signings, Mississippi-based guitarist  Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, represents one of the “future’s” of the blues, according to Iglauer who has known the guitarist since his early teens when he started generating interest based on his immense talent.

Heavily influenced by Muddy Waters, Ingram, 22, releases his second Alligator album, 662 on July 23. He debut, Kingfish, went to the top of the charts following its release in 2019.

In June, to mark the 50th anniversary, Iglauer released  Alligator Records — 50 Years Of Genuine Houserockin’ Music, a three-CD, 57-track collection.

The July 8 edition of Radio Kaos featured the second installation of an in-depth focus on the music of  Van Morrison.

While only scraping the surface of Morrison’s career — he not only sings but is a multi-instrumentalist — the primary goal is to provide an aural account of the development and maturity of his writing and musical style over the course of nearly 60 years as well as the philosophical and artistic interests he had at different points in his life.

In retrospective style, the multi-part program is a chronological overview of the career of the Belfast Cowboy, tracing his studio and on-stage efforts following his departure from Them in 1966.

Based on the success of such Them singles as “Gloria” and “Mystic Eyes,” there was no questioning Morrison’s ability as a writer and singer, but the extent of his future chart success and longevity as a solo artist couldn’t be estimated based on his infamous combative personality and history of drink-fueled social misbehavior.

Since the first part of the spotlight covered Morrison from his 1967 solo debut, Blowin’ Your Mind through Into The Music in 1979, the second edition will pick up with his 1980 release, Common One and feature at least one track from each of his subsequent albums.

The June 26 edition of Greasy Tracks took a decidedly bluesy focus via interviews with and new material from Chris Cain, Curtis Salgado and Gary Vogensen.

Click here to check out an archive of the program, while a playlist is here. 

Cain and Salgado are label mates at Alligator Records which just marked its 50th year since it was founded. Veteran guitarist Cain recently released Raisin’ Cain, his label debut for Alligator, while Salgado, a well-traveled singer and harp player, just put out Damage Control.

A protege of Michael Bloomfield, Vogensen has done just about everything in the music business over the last half century from touring sideman to session player and guitar instructor while taking time out to record his own albums from time to time. His just out Shot of Hope (Little Village Foundation) captures his chops with a solid collection of originals and interesting covers.

Their passion for playing music is obvious, but each have some interesting back stories when it comes to how they innocently enough got into the business.

Cain, who grew up in San Jose, Calif., had access to his father’s collection of records and was lucky enough to be going to concerts at a very young age. Thanks in part to his father, Cain took a particular liking to BB King and Albert King as a youth. That was where it all started and his passion grew along with his ability as a musician as he was adept at playing piano and saxophone along with guitar. Listening to records and copping licks as a youth just encouraged him to pursue music as a profession.

Based in Portland, Ore., Salgado played in a number of local bands before linking up with a group of musicians who would, in time, become the Robert Cray Band. Salgado appeared on the band’s debut, Who’s Been Talkin’ in 1980.

His path would also cross with John Belushi when Belushi was filming Animal House in Eugene, Ore. In no time, the two became friends and Salgado would end up influencing Belushi’s creation of The Blues Brothers. The band’s live debut, the chart-topping Briefcase Full of Blues in 1978, was dedicated to Salgado.

Following his departure from Cray’s band in 1982, Salgado linked up with Rhode Island’s Roomful of Blues and would front them for three years.

Vogensen officially got bitten by the music bug as a high school senior on Nov. 1, 1968, when he went to the Avalon Ballroom in San Francisco to catch Genesis, Taj Mahal and The Byrds. Openers Genesis did nothing for him as they “didn’t have a guitarist,” but Taj Mahal had a hot Telecaster player with him, Jesse Edwin Davis, who, according to Vogensen, got under his skin and heart and left him saying: “I just have to do that.” By the time the headlining Byrds took the stage with an equally brilliant Tele player in Clarence White, Vogensen was already committed to becoming a musician.

A few years later, Vogensen was hanging out in the control room of Marin Recorders where Michael Bloomfield was involved with producing and playing on sessions that would end up on the one and only album by Melton, Levy & the Dey Bros. featuring ex-Country Joe & The Fish guitarist, Barry Melton.

At the urging of some friends, Vogensen asked if he could sit in on a jam the musicians were doing during a break from recording. Bloomfield, as the story went, eagerly encouraged Vogensen and ended up suggesting to Melton that Vogensen join the band as a rhythm guitarist for their tour.

This led to Vogensen playing as a touring sideman for a handful of bands before reconnecting with Bloomfield several years later which led to work with Maria Malduar, a tryout for Frank Zappa’s band, road work with Elvin Bishop who one night opened for Etta James. James’ guitarist had sprained a wrist and Vogensen was called in to handle guitar work for the night.

In the 1980s he was part of Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, the following decade found him with New Riders of the Purple Sage and session and live work with Steve Miller, Boz Scaggs and Rick Danko to name but a few.