Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Tennessee Studs (Foggy Mountain Breakthrough)

Within the sphere of popular music in Nixonian-era 1972, there’s an interesting hybrid of commercial acts. Teen idols, hard rockers, proggers, female belters, country crooners, soulsters — nothing is...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Royal Orleans

Photos Courtesy of Lance Hoppen In 1976, the group Orleans came within reach of superstardom. With two tender Top Five singles under its belt — “Dance with Me” and “Still the...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: “Touch The Sun And Run” ~ The Association Go To...

Photos courtesy of Russ Giguere Every Sunday night when I was growing up meant movie night with my father. Usually my sister and I would pick from a round robin...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: When Pride First Mattered

Photos courtesy of Charles Valentino and Chris Spierer It took four individuals to propel the first — and, to date, most impactful — gay anthem into public consciousness. Direct in its...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: “AHORA!” (Carmen’s Celestial Masterwork)

Photo Courtesy of David Randall-Goddard Carmen Fandangos In Space A few years back, Rolling Stone published its list of the Top 50 prog rock albums of all-time, spanning multiple regions, degrees of...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Highly Strung ~ Hackett Revisited

Photos by Tina Korhonen Steve Hackett’s fingers should be in the Smithsonian — given all they’ve created since the opening lines of “The Musical Box” came wafting in to introduce Genesis’...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Big Bad Jim

Photo of A.J. and Jim Croce together courtesy of Joshua Black Wilkins and Paul Wilson   September 20, 1973 marked the day the music died a second time. Jim Croce, the tender singer,...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Discovering Japan

Late in 2021, revered Japanese label Nippon Columbia released a compilation album entitled TOKYO GLOW, which explores city pop, funk, and soul from Japanese artists recorded in the late...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Think Of Laura (“G-L-O-R-I-A!”)

Photos Courtesy of Other Half Entertainment Archive One thing our society will never tire of — be it via sports, arts, or other mediums – is Cinderella stories. One of the...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: White Punks With Hope – The Tubes ~ What Do...

Photo Courtesy of John Staley Photography The Tubes What Do You Want From Live On their second album, they sang about the glories of being “young and rich,” but by 1977, the...