Underrated and Underplayed

[DLR Bridge]

A companion to Mushroom's thread.

I'm basing my selections on acts, dead or alive, that have had little or no air play during their careers and usually get a "who the fuck izzat?" when I bring them up in conversation.

For starters...

Big Star
Jeff Buckley
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Ours
Pete Yorn
Ben Harper
Tommy Bolin
Robin Trower
King's X
Ryan Adams

(Ok Kristy, light me up. )

[Mushroom]

Ben Harper is a true artist!

[Mushroom]

Tab Benoit

[FORD]

Phil Keaggy. One of the greatest guitarists on Earth who has been recording and touring since the early 70s and most people have never heard of him. As he's getting older, he probably does more solo acoustic shows than anything else now days, but still incredible. And he manages to use a couple of electronic toys on stage to make himself not sound so alone.... but it's still all him.

But first, here's one of his older classics with his first band, Glass Harp.....

[FORD]

And here's Phil playing around with the Moog Guitar a few years back at a NAMM conference when it was the hot new toy....

[cadaverdog]

This guy.

[FORD]

And here he talks about some of the "tricks" he uses to not sound so alone in his acoustic shows.......

[FORD]

And I'll throw this one in so I can segue into the next underrated musician on my list, Mike Roe & the 77s.......

[FORD]

OK, so as I was saying, the 77s are the best band you never heard of (unless you have read my prior posts about them in threads like this one, because I will ALWAYS mention them). Been around for over 30 years, have seen thousands of inferior bands come and go in that time, and most of them got record deals on far less talent.

Here's their first single. Sound-wise, influenced by Tom Petty. Video-wise, pure early 80s cheesy effects.....

[FORD]

So two years, a different drummer, and a distribution deal with A&M later, they finally get a video on MTV. Who might have actually played it once at about 4:00 in the morning......

The Stray Cats WISH they wrote this song........

[FORD]

But this being the mid 80s, even the best bands had to have their synth pop hit. Well, not so much a hit, though it SHOULD have been.....

Sure as fuck is a better song than "I'll Wait", for fucks sake.

[cadaverdog]

Where's the jews harp and the Rodger Daltrey vocals?

[FORD]

Even though the record didn't sell millions, it did attract the attention of Island Records, who signed the band and released their third album. Unfortunately the record shared a release date with a little record called "The Joshua Tree". Guess which one got the promotional budget.

People in the industry were taking notice though. When Mike wanted to make a song that sounded like The Byrds, he actually managed to get Chris Hillman to play bass on it and make it a little more authentic.....

[cadaverdog]

Sure as fuck is a better song than "I'll Wait", for fucks sake.

You know what they say about opinions. A few more minutes and I'd have a migraine. I'm not totally closed minded to other styles of music. There's one song by The Cure that I don't mind. I'm sure it's one of their most popular songs but I have no idea what the title is.

[FORD]

Where's the jews harp and the Rodger Daltrey vocals?

Yeah.. the music does share some similarities with The Who of that era. Might have helped them get signed at Decca Records, for that matter. BTW, that album was recorded at Jimi's Electric Lady Land studio.