Carissa's Wierd Brooke Daniels' Tiny Broken Fingers

"If you don't have your own plan, you'll damn sure be a part of someone else's." That quote kicks off the first of multiple story lines, in the crime ensemble "Bubblegum & Broken Fingers." This character-driven collage of sex, violence and survival is equal parts western, gangster and love stories. We follow the journey of a mysterious silver briefcase and witness the havoc it brings each new owner. The seemingly unrelated stories continuously collide throughout for multiple plot twists.

Whiskey is a 1977 LP re-issue of the 1974 album Way Down Yonder. Presumably, the album was re-named and marketed in 1977 to capitalize on the popularity of the country rock and outlaw country genres. Whiskey, however, quickly disappeared into obscurity only to re-surface as a long overdue CD reissue on the outstanding Wounded Bird Records in 2008. Because of these circumstances and its long absence from print, Whiskey is somewhat of a "lost" Charle Daniels Band album.

On this, Charlie Daniels' second release, there are obvious signs of a bright future for the guitar- and fiddle-playing hillbilly rocker. Along for the ride is Joel "Taz" DiGregoria, Charlie's longtime bandmate and keyboard wizard. Taz even takes lead vocal duties on one song, "Billy Joe Young," and his ivory tickling is a highlight of this historical Southern rock document. Daniels rocks with the intensity of a downbound train on "Great Big Bunches of Love," and on his cover of the Jerry Lee Lewis chestnut "Drinkin' Wine, Spo-Dee-O-Dee." A true Southern poet, Charlie Daniels is seen here in the infancy of his artistic development, but even at this early stage, the poet is alive and well.

Originally titled HONEY IN THE ROCK and later renamed for its hit song (Daniels's first chart entry), UNEASY RIDER is the third Charlie Daniels album, but the first to put his name on the map. In addition to his previous southern-rock-meets-Western-swing sound, the album includes a significant R&B influence, making for an intriguing country-funk style. The title track's talking blues is particularly significant for espousing a hippie/counterculture perspective on the part of a man who'd later become known for championing more conservative values.

The Sweetwater Sessions started out as a recording workshop at the gorgeous Sweetwater Studios in Fort Wayne, Indiana. But after a couple of preparatory conversations with co-producer Mark Hornsby,, we had an idea: - If we’re gonna have a musical dream team assembled and hanging out in a world class studio, why not tack on a couple extra days and see if we can record a retrospective of JBro tunes for a visceral “live, in the studio” record. And that’s what we did. Back together with the team from Midnight. Hallelujah., plus Sean Driscoll, who’s been touring with me for about 6 years we had a really great organic revisiting of some beloved music.

Multi-instrumentalist Eddie Daniels first came to prominence with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Big Band. His swinging tenor sax won many admirers but gradually other aspects of his playing came to the fore and in the '70s his maturing clarinet work became his most pesonal voice. This beautiful interwoven collaboration (originally released in 1973) with guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli shows off the intimate side of Eddie, featuring him on clarinet, bass clarinet, flute and alto flute. It is an intriguing set with a broad range of material and styles, producing endless flow of creative musical ideas.