Music Connection May 2021

Jeff Buckley recorded the ten tracks that comprise the 2016 compilation You and I in February 1993, roughly four months after he signed to Columbia Records. He'd start recording Grace, his lone completed studio album, with producer Andy Wallace a few months after he laid down these sketches, but despite containing a solo demo of "Grace," the closest connection to the music on You and I is the coffeehouse crooner showcased on Live at Sin-e, the EP released as a teaser toward the conclusion of 1993…

Does George Benson have Irish ancestors? Is there a connection between Belfast’s melancholy ballads and the exciting vocal jazz of today? 25 year-old guitar-wunderkind Torsten Goods and his release Irish Heart call out an enthusiastic yes to these questions. Friends of Irish folk music and infectious reels are in for a surprise, and so are fans of Wes Montgomery, Django Reinhardt or Harry Connick Jr. There is more repertoire out there than the Great American Songbook and Goods’ choices give his twenty-something-quartet a chance to shine.
Whether it’s Van Morrison’s soul-blues (Morrison, like Goods’ mother originally came from Belfast), whether it’s Irish folk or the rhythmic fervour of the “Riverdance” show theme, all the material becomes a wonderful vehicle for Goods talent on his strings and vocal chords alike to shine…

The chances are that, had ABBA never come along making Benny Andersson (and his three partners in the group) into an international pop/rock star, no one outside of Sweden would ever have heard of the Hep Stars. They were the hottest rock band of the mid-to late '60s in Sweden, however, considered by some to be that country's answer to the Beatles. The Hep Stars also charted 20 singles in their own country and had hits in the Netherlands, as well as building a following in Germany - and their CDs are exported around the world as a result of the ABBA connection. It also turns out that they were a pretty good band, too…