What are you listening to right now?

Justin Townes Earle was singer-songwriter and musician. He began using drugs at the age of 12 & it would eventually cost him his life. He died in 2020, at the age of 38, from an accidental overdose of fentanyl-laced cocaine.

He grew up in South Nashville, with his mother, Carol Ann Hunter Earle. His father, Steve Earle, gave him his middle name in honor of his own mentor, singer and songwriter Townes Van Zandt.

Justin was recognized with an Americana Music Award for Emerging Artist of the Year in 2009.

During his career he released 8 studio albums. This was the title song to his 3rd album, it was released in 2010. The album got to 47 on the Top 200, 18 on the Rock albums chart, #9 on the Indie albums charts & #3 on the Folk albums chart.

He won the Americana Music Award for Song Of The Year in 2011 for the song linked to here.

Bobbi Humphrey is a jazz flautist and singer from Marlin, Texas.

She plays jazz fusion, funk, and soul-jazz. In 1971, she was the first female instrumentalist signed by Blue Note.

Dizzy Gillespie saw her play at a talent contest at Southern Methodist University and inspired her to pursue a music career in New York City. She followed his advice, moving to New York in June 1971 and getting her first break performing at the Apollo Theater on Amateur Night. Within weeks of arriving in New York, she was signed by George Butler to the Blue Note label. She had already begun playing regularly throughout the city, including joining Herbie Mann on stage in Central Park and an impromptu performance on The Tonight Show.

She has recorded 12 albums and founded the jazz label Paradise Sounds Records. This song comes from her 1973 album called Blacks & Blues. It was her 3rd studio album.

Duke Ellington, maybe more than any other artist we have seen, had song after song dedicated to New York City in general & Harlem in particular. Here is one that was recorded in December, 1927.

At this point in his career, he had just been named the house band for the Cotton Club in Harlem & increased the size of the group from 6 to 11 players. At the Cotton Club, the group performed all the music for the revues, which mixed comedy, dance numbers, vaudeville, burlesque, music, and illicit alcohol.

This was released on a 78rpm record with the “B” side being a song called Washington Wabble. He charted with his 1st single in 1927 with a song called East St. Louis Toodle Loo, but I don’t see any evidence that the song linked to here made the charts.

Don Gardner was a rhythm and blues singer, songwriter, and drummer from Philadelphia. He died in 2018 at age 87.

He formed the Sonotones in 1953 in which he played drums and sang. They band toured on the Chitlin' Circuit. The group included keyboardist Richard "Groove" Holmes who left in early 1960, and was replaced by Dee Dee Ford. She had lived in Newark, New Jersey and sang and played organ in church. Other than that, she seems to have fallen into obscurity.

The two of them together had 1 top 40 hit & 2 top 10 hits on the R&B chart. This song was not one of them. It was released as the “B” side to a song called Last Dance in 1965 but neither side had any luck on the charts.

Jan and Dean were a rock duo consisting of Jan Berry and Dean Torrence.

The two met while both were students at Emerson Junior High School in Westwood, Los Angeles. In the early 1960s, they were pioneers of the California Sound and vocal surf music styles popularized by the Beach Boys.

In a bit of non musical family history, Jan's dad worked for Howard Hughes as a project manager of the "Spruce Goose" and flew on its only flight with Hughes.

This was the title song to their 1964 album. This song was released as a single in 1964 & got to #8 on the Hot 100. The song was written and composed by Brian Wilson, Artie Kornfeld, Roger Christian, and Jan Berry at Brian's mother's house in Santa Monica. It was part of the teenage tragedy song phenomenon of that period, and one of the most popular such selections of all time.

The song was installed into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.

There is debate on the actual location of the curve. According to the song, the race starts at Sunset and Vine, traveling westbound on West Sunset Blvd., passing North La Brea Ave., North Crescent Heights Blvd., and North Doheny Dr. The original Schwab's Pharmacy was located just east of Crescent Heights on Sunset. The North Whittier Drive curve, a nearly 90° right turn traveling west on Sunset Boulevard just past North Whittier Drive, may have been the "dead man's curve" in the song.

Coincidentally, Jan would himself later be involved in a near-fatal incident in 1966, when he crashed his own Sting Ray into a parked truck on North Whittier Drive near (but not on) Dead Man's Curve. The wreck affected him for the rest of his life. He had limited use of his right arm, and had to learn to write with his left hand as well as learn to walk again.

Do-Ré-Mi was an Australian pop rock band formed in Sydney in 1981 by Deborah Conway (lead vocals), Dorland Bray (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Helen Carter (bass, backing vocals) and Stephen Philip (guitar).

They were one of Australia's most respected and successful post-punk groups.

The Countdown Awards were a combination of Australia popular-voted and peer-voted awards. The group was nominated for & won Best Debut Album, Best Debut Single & Most Promising Talent all in 1985. They seemed to be popular only in their native country & from what I can tell they charted no where other than Australia.

They released just 2 full albums & 2 EP’s during their career. This song comes from the 2nd of those EP’s. It was a 6 song record called The Waiting Room & came out in 1982.

Five Americans was a rock band, most famous for their song "Western Union", which reached number five in the U.S. Billboard chart and was their only single to chart in the Top 20.

The group formed in Durant, Oklahoma (Southeastern State College) in 1962 & included members Mike Rabon, John Durrill, Norman Ezell, Jim Grant & Jimmy Wright.

When they broke up in 1969, Mike Rabon went on to have a short lived solo career, but eventually got his master's degree in public school administration, and worked in the Oklahoma school systems for 28 years.

John Durrill, the keyboardist, wrote "Dark Lady" for Cher and "Misery and Gin" for Merle Haggard and was also a member of the band The Ventures.

Bassist Jim Grant died from a heart attack on November 29, 2004, at the age of 61.

Norman Ezell (guitar and harmonica) became a teacher and minister in Northern California. He died of cancer on May 8, 2010, at the age of 68.

Drummer Jimmy Wright left the music industry to become a freelance photographer. He died at Texoma Medical Center on January 30, 2012, at the age of 64.

Paul Evans is a singer and songwriter from Queens. He is still alive & living in New York at the age of 85.

He was most prominent in the 1950s and 1960s. As a performer, he had hits with the songs "Seven Little Girls Sitting in the Backseat" (his biggest hit, recorded with The Curls), reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1959), "Midnight Special" and "Happy-Go-Lucky Me".

As a songwriter his songs have been performed by numerous artists including Elvis Presley, Jimmy Dean and Pat Boone. His most successful songs were "Roses Are Red (My Love)", which was a number one hit for Bobby Vinton in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100; and by Ronnie Carroll in the UK reaching no. 3 in 1962; and "When" a chart topper in the UK Singles Chart and #5 in the U.S. for The Kalin Twins. His songs have also been recorded by Jackie Wilson, Frankie Lymon, Fabian, the Coasters, and more recently by Reba McEntire.

This song was released as a single & hit #81 on the Country chart in 1979. He had just 1 follow up hit & it also stalled out in the 80’s over on Country. He had not charted on the Hot 100 since way back in 1960 when The Brigade Of Broken Hearts landed at 81.

Dionne Warwick is a singer, actress, and television host from East Orange, N.J.

She is the sister of Dee Dee Warwick, the niece of Cissy Houston, & the cousin of Whitney Houston, Gary Garland, Bobbi Kristina Brown & Leontyne Price. To bad there were no talented vocalists in her family.

She is the 2nd most charted female vocalist during the rock era (1955–1999). She is also one of the most-charted vocalists of all time, with 56 Hot 100 hits including 12 Top 10's and 80 singles in total – either solo or collaboratively – making the Hot 100, R&B, or adult contemporary charts. She also ranks number 74 on the Billboard Hot 100's "Greatest Artists of all time".

During her career, she has sold more than 100 million records worldwide and she has won 6 Grammy Awards. She has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, the R&B Music Hall of Fame, and the Apollo Theater Walk of Fame. In 2019, she won the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Three of her songs ("Walk On By", "Alfie", and "Don't Make Me Over") have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

I don’t know if there was ever a closer relationship between a singer & her song writers than there was between her & Burt Bacharach & Hal David. They wrote this one & it got to #10 in 1968. It was her biggest hit single so far, sold millions of copies worldwide & earned her her 1st Grammy.

Shalamar is a R&B and soul group from LA.

They were active in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Their original line-up consisted of Howard Hewett, Jody Watley, and Jeffrey Daniel, together with dancer Jermaine Stewart.

During their career they released 10 studio albums with the most recent one coming in 1990. They also released multiple singles, but charted for the final time on the Pop chart in 1984. The song linked to here landed at 79 on the R&B charts in 1985, but they would go on to have 2 bigger hits over there in 1987, neither one crossed over to the pop chart.

This song comes from their Heart Break album that came out in 1984. It was their 8th album. At this point in their career they had a new line-up of Delisa Davis, Micki Free and Howard Hewett (Davis and Free having replaced Jeffrey Daniel and Jody Watley who had both left the group after the release of the previous album The Look).

Even though the song charted, it did not do so until 1985 when it became a part of the Soundtrack to the movie Beverly Hills Cop.

Kelly Marie is a Scottish singer from Paisley, Renfrewshire, Scotland. She will turn 66 in October. Her real name is Jacqueline McKinnon.

She began appearing in singing competitions at age 12 and made her television debut at age 15.

She had her biggest hit with a song called "Feels Like I'm in Love". She stumbled on it in a music publishing office: Ray Dorset had written it in 1977 in hopes of having Elvis Presley record it: No one knows if Elvis ever heard the song before he died later that year. Dorset's group Mungo Jerry did record the song but their version was relegated to the B-side of a Belgian single "Sur Le Pont D'Avignon" (A-side).

Mungo Jerry, everyone remembers In The Summertime? The song hit #3 in 1970 & was their only US hit single.

During her career she released just 4 studio albums with the most recent one happening in 1981. But she did continue releasing singles as late as 2001. The song linked to here came out as a single in 1982. I don’t see any evidence of it ever being on an album.

Andy Summers is an English guitarist who was the guitar player for the Police. He is from Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, England. He will be 81 on New Years Eve.

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a band member in 2003. He has recorded solo albums, collaborated with other musicians, composed film scores, and exhibited his photography in galleries.

He is credited on 6 different Soundtrack albums including Weekend At Bernies. This was the theme song to the 1986 movie starring Nick Nolte, Richard Dreyfus & Bette Midler. Andy wrote most of the soundtrack including this song but the soundtrack also included songs from Little Richard, Randy Newman, & David Lee Roth.

Ry Cooder is a musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer from LA. He turned 76 in March.

He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.

He has played with John Lee Hooker, Captain Beefheart, Taj Mahal, Gordon Lightfoot, Ali Farka Touré, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Randy Newman, Linda Ronstadt, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, David Lindley, The Chieftains, Warren Zevon, Manuel Galbán, The Doobie Brothers, and Carla Olson and The Textones (on record and film).

He formed the band Little Village, and produced the album Buena Vista Social Club (1997), which became a worldwide hit; Wim Wenders directed the documentary film of the same name (1999), which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2000.

During his career he has released 16 solo albums, but his list of guest appearances is one of the more lengthy there is. It seems as though he has played with everybody at one time or another. He even began his career in a bluegrass trio with Bill Monroe and Doc Watson in which he played banjo.

This song was included on his 8th solo album. It was called Bop Till You Drop & was released in 1979. The album hit the top 30 in multiple countries but peaked at #62 here in the states.

He had a lot of musicians helping out on the album & that is Chaka Khan adding vocals on this song.