The Mighty Storm
Al Kooper strikes again.
Peter Bradley Adams was one half of a duo entitled eastmountainsouth signed to DreamWorks whose album was so overmassaged and spent upon that it sunk under its own weight and the act broke up. Times were a’ changin’, we were hitting the indie era, it was more about constantly producing and being in the marketplace than perfection and now almost no one knows the act, never mind their exquisite calling card, “You Dance.”
But Peter Bradley Adams has soldiered on, in obscurity.
Yes, the wheel has turned again, indie is fading and it’s all about the promotion that only a rich, connected label of experienced players can provide.
So Peter Bradley Adams releases a new track that you should hear and you won’t.
Did you see that report wherein it was stated that country radio eclipses CHR? I’m not sure whether to believe it, because it was promulgated by the radio industry, which has enough ignorance and agendas to fuel a conspiracy team, but it rings true. Because despite all the hype about pop, it’s got the nutrition of a Twinkie and most people are looking for something with a little meat on its bones, which no one on Top Forty has got, come on, being skinny is one of the PREREQUISITES!
And there’s no way in hell Peter Bradley Adams’s “The Mighty Storm” is gonna get airplay on either format, could get some traction on Triple A, but the problem with that format is that its PDs can’t distinguish between good and new. In other words, just because it’s new that does not mean…IT’S GOOD!
Which is why so many of us are listening to the same old stuff. Literally. Because we’re lost in the wilderness with no direction home.
Algorithms will never triumph. If BeatsMusic succeeds, it will have nothing to do with curation and everything to do with marketing. Because the truth is we all want to be led by the hand, together, to the promised land of great tracks. And even though he’s an irascible old coot, Al Kooper is doing God’s work.
Oh, I’ve got a bone to pick. I wish he listed fewer than ten tracks a week. I wish even more were great. I wish he wouldn’t employ the copyright-infringing Grooveshark. But every playlist features a nugget.
Especially this week. I was wondering if it was my mood. Because the David Crosby track has got an incredible feel. And Kooper swooped down and made sense of Bastille. But having played all the cuts, I came back to Peter Bradley Adams’s “The Mighty Storm” and realized it was heads-above, because of the sound, because of the FEEL!
Take off your Clive Davis hat. Songs are everything, but not everybody can write a classic. “The Mighty Storm” is not A+ material, but that does not mean it won’t reach you, that it won’t set your mind free.
It’s the HBO of music. Not what you want, but what you need.
So Peter Bradley Adams puts out albums, keeping them off streaming services either through ineptitude or a delusional belief he’s standing up for artists and money, which 19 is doing via its suit against Sony, there’s plenty of money in streaming, it’s just that the labels are keeping most of it, so unless I wrote this you’d never hear “The Mighty Storm.”
And it’s not groundbreaking, but…
Imagine yourself driving alone through the delta. Cleaning the house. Needing company late at night. This music is PERFECT!
So I don’t know how we rescue this music business, how we connect the great mass of people with great music, how everybody can get their head out of their ass and stop thinking about money but soul and humanity.
The only way out is us. Not our machines. Music is the ANTI-MACHINE! Even when it’s made by Kraftwerk, that’s the joke, the machines are harnessed by us!
So once again we need a deejay to save our life.
Someone who knows great from not good enough.
Who sifts through the detritus and delivers the gems we want but cannot find.
Al Kooper’s looking for a needle in a haystack, I don’t have the time, the patience or the desire. But oh do I want to listen to what he comes up with!
