The Year 2023 in Music

Continuing with our year in review, Matt Lynn Digital invites you to look back at the last year in reviews of books, movies, music and television. We look at these with individual categories, one per day through Sunday. Today we share music reviews offered by Matt Lynn Digital in 2023.

(Cover art for the Weathervanes album by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit).

Beginning with our most recent review with a guest review of the Weathervanes album by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit, as reviewed by friend of the blog Cobra. The 2023 album presented alternative country-rock that mixed in with roots rock and southern rock to entertain their fans. Our review of the Rick Rubin book The Creative Act: A Way of Being also represented 2023 with a top notch look into how creativity works in music production and other fields as well.

(Cover art for the 2011 Tedeschi Trucks Band album Revelator).

The 2011 release of the album Revelator by the Tedeschi Trucks Band offers the first of two albums from the 2010s in our annual review. Offering a taste of American traditional rock, blues rock and roots rock from a guitar virtuoso opens an album that I can and do listen to over and over again. The 2010 A Christmas Cornucopia album by Annie Lennox also presented a more contemporary music mix.

(The biopic Walk the Line depicted aspects of the lives of Johnny Cash and June Carter).

The movie Walk the Line (2005) provided a mostly autobiographical portrayal of the musical life of country musician Johnny Cash and his second wife, June Carter. Music from both performers were featured throughout the movie, which offered a compelling movie experience of the respective lives of the couple up to the point of their marriage.

(Cover art for the R.L. Burnside album Mr. Wizard).

A modern sound for the delta blues comes to us with the 1997 album Mr. Wizard by R.L. Burnside. The music tends to more of a jam format than some of Burnside‘s earlier work with influences on musicians making music into the current day.

(Cover art for the Van Halen album OU812).

The 1988 album OU812 (Oh, you ate one too!) by Van Halen incorporates the most hard rock or pop metal sound for the three albums we reviewed for the 1980s. Both the 1986 album The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range and the 1985 No Jacket Required album by Phil Collins delve more into the so-called adult contemporary genre with a focus on message and sound this still hit for a somewhat different audience.

(Cover art for the Christopher Cross album Christopher Cross).

We’ve taken the 1970s decade seriously with a review of nine separate albums. The self-titled 1979 album Christopher Cross by Christopher Cross continues the adult contemporary appeal before the 1974 soft rock appeal of the Jackson Browne album Late for the Sky. Second Helping by Lynyrd Skynyrd gave 1974 a more southern rock or boogie rock sound with their second album.

(Cover art for the Dr. John album In the Right Place).

The 1973 Dr. John funk and piano blues album In the Right Place gives way to the more progressive rock sounds of Pink Floyd‘s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon and Yes‘ 1972 album Fragile.

(Cover art for the Chuck Mangione Quartet album Alive!).

The contemporary jazz and easy listening album Alive! by Chuck Mangione Quartet from 1972 introduces the final three albums with a largely instrumental sound. The soft rock album Teaser and the Firecat by Cat Stevens stands next to the blues rock, hard rock and heavy metal sound of Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin for the music of 1971.

(Cover art for the Miles Davis album Sketches of Spain).

Jazz and rock and roll provide our 2023 soundtrack for the 1960s. Holiday music for 1968 leads us to Christmas Album by Herb Alpert & Tijuana Brass. The seventh album for The Beatles gave us the rock and roll in the form of 1966’s Revolver. The John Coltrane album Giant Steps and the album Sketches of Spain by Miles Davis round out 1960 with jazz performances that warm our heart.

Matt Lynn Digital appreciates your continued interest in the content we offer. Should you have albums that you’d like us to review, please be sure to let us know.

Matt – Friday, December 29, 2023

Lynyrd Skynyrd and the album ‘Second Helping’

The band Lynyrd Skynyrd debuted their second album on April 15th, 1974. With four members of the band writing for the album with J.J. Cale of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma writing the final song for the album, a truly remarkable album came out of the sessions resulting in Second Helping.

(The cover art for the second album by Lynyrd Skynyrd, which is named Second Helping).

The core band of Lynyrd Skynyrd for Second Helping included Ronnie Van Zant of Jacksonville, Florida on lead vocals, Gary Rossington of Jacksonville, Florida on guitar, Allen Collins of Jacksonville, Florida on guitar, Ed King of Glendale, California on guitar, backing vocals and bass, Leon Wilkeson of Jacksonville, Florida on bass, Bob Burns of Jacksonville, Florida on drums and Billy Powell of Corpus Christi, Texas on keyboards.

Sweet Home Alabama would rank 21st in the United Kingdom and 8th in the United States. Lynyrd Skynyrd “wrote this song about their impressions of Alabama and as a tribute to the studio musicians at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios, where they recorded from 1970-1972.” Producer Denny Cordell of Dublin, Ireland is credited with calling the musicians at Muscle Shoals “the Swampers,” which is referenced in the song.

(Sweet Home Alabama was released as a single in support of Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s 1974 album named Second Helping).

I Need You presents a heaviness driven by the loneliness of being on the road and away from the person missed the most.

Don’t Ask Me No Questions makes me giggle for being so direct with the ways of the music business. As quoted here, this song “was a message to the people who wanted a piece of the band when they became famous. They were largely ignored for about 6 years while they were struggling, but when their first album was a hit in 1973, they faced huge demands on their time.”

As quoted here, “MCA was Lynyrd Skynyrd‘s record company. This song is based on how they were signed. The “Yankee Slicker” is Al Kooper. They actually were signed for $9,000.” The quote adds that Workin’ for MCA was written specifically for a press party and attracted the attention of many executives for what had been at that time an unknown band.

The Ballad of Curtis Loew is one of my all time favorite songs. As quoted from here in getting into the underpinning story of the song, “Curtis Loew is not the name of an actual person from Ronnie Van Zant‘s life. Rather, Curtis Loew is a composite of different people, including Skynyrd lead guitarist Rickey Medlocke‘s grandfather, Shorty Medlocke. Contrary to the song’s lyrics, Shorty was not black.”

Swamp Music offers as playful a musical feeling as any song on Second Helping. Getting into descriptions of a bayou lifestyle with a hound dog out in the sun, I feel the leisure of a way of life.

The Needle and the Spoon, as quoted here, “was [a] warning about the dangers of hardcore drugs, which the band was just learning about.” The opening guitar riff is a serious attention getter. The song offers a foretelling of music that would follow for Lynyrd Skynyrd on subsequent albums.

Call Me the Breeze, as quoted here, “was written and originally recorded by the Oklahoma guitarist J.J. Cale. The song is about a guy who can go where the weather takes him, unburdened by the weight of the world. It was a fitting statement for Cale, who went out of his way to keep things simple and stay out of the spotlight (his photo didn’t appear on his first seven albums). The concept of savoring simplicity and going where the wind takes you is also a theme of many Skynyrd songs.” The upbeat quality lends an air of ease that balances some of the more complex, sad feelings present with the Second Helping album, in particular.

Additional musicians on the album included Mike Porter on drums, Merry Clayton of New Orleans, Louisiana, Clydie King of Dallas, Texas, and Sherlie Matthews of Los Angeles, California on backing vocals, Bobby Keys of Slaton, Texas, Steve Madaio of Brooklyn, New York and Trevor Lawrence on horns, and Al Kooper of Brooklyn, New York on backing vocals and piano.

Matt – Saturday, April 15, 2023