Hello everyone! Craziest weather here in the Midwest, here in very central Illinois for business, back to St Louis most weekends, and everywhere in between! You know when Old McDonald here in the corn belt complains about too much rain, enough is enough! Been downloading some music on my MP3 lately, and discovering a lot of great music that I grew up with! St Louis is home to the world's oldest continually formatted rock AOR stations, KSHE 95 FM. Most people around my age literally were "raised on the radio" in the 70's and 80's. I remember going into the now shuttered Street Side records when I was a kid with friends, and often we would spend our hard earned allowance and lawn mowing money purchasing many 33 1/3 LP's (remember those?!:aktion033 by bands we never heard of, based on the album cover! Southern rock, Skynnard, Molly Hatchet, The Outlaws, and The Marshall Tucker band, just to name a few of many rock acts from the south to gain both national and international notoriety, kick ass blue eyed soul. In my beloved home state of Missouri, 3 bands completely underrated, IMHO never gained the same level of fame, but the music was just as good, sometimes better 'regional homegrown' rock. Starting from east to west, here are 3 bands that I still love and listen to often: 1) Mama's Pride From the Dogtown area of the city, which I owned a home in for many years. Their most well known tune, if you will from their incredible self titled album, here is "Blue Mist" Rhythm guitarist Danny Liston, my old neighbor in DT, great guy, born again Christian, who has also since moved from the old neighborhood, and did a fund raising video for Katrina victims. His brother Pat, and lead singer, didn't have their dad around when they were kids, and along with brother Michael (who isn't in the band), truly exemplify what it is to have that fantastic bond that many brothers don't have. 2) The Ozark Mountain Daredevils Their most commercially successful hit was "Jackie Blue", but here is my fav: I saw them at the Washington Missouri Fair in the late 80's, back when it was a real country fair, hot August day, over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, also remember a literally scorching country fiddle'n contest under one of the tents, many tin buckets of cold draught beer, and the first date with my ex wife. Nuff said...... 3) Shooting Star Although not considered southern rock, originally from the Kansas City MO area, at one time they could pack venues from 25000 to 50000 stadium gigs, including the Super Jams in the mid 70's to early 80's at the 'old' Busch Stadium (I SILL miss that ballpark!) Here is their signature tune, 'Last Chance" Unfortunately they just don't make music like this anymore. A lil' trip down memory lane!:aktion069:
