Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: America’s Second Coming (“Yes, I’m Back To Stay”)

America photo courtesy of MSO PR Gerry Beckley photo courtesy of Joe Beckley Ten years after taking home the Grammy for Best New Artist, perennial folk-rock group America found itself at a...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: ‘I’m Mississippi, Got The New York Blues’ (Forbert Comes Alive)

Photos courtesy of Steve Forbert Between 1977 and 1978, at the height of the Bowery punk movement, a fresh-faced 22/23-year-old singing-songwriting Mississippian named Steve Forbert strove to make New York...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Magic Is Afoot; Magic Never Died

Photos courtesy of Eric Alper “Illuminations by Buffy Sainte-Marie is one of my favorite albums. When she sings at her best, it’s the soul laid bare.” – Steve Hackett (2020) “I...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: As I Sit In My Four Cornered Room…

Fifty years ago, one of music’s greatest melting pot collectives released their masterpiece. The World Is A Ghetto by War is a seminal six-track work that told it like it...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Call It ‘Misbehaviour’ (Call It What You Like)

On their sixth album in seven years, Canadian powerhouse Saga reached an artistic crossroads. After scoring major American success with their seminal Top 40, 1981 track “On the Loose,” and...

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: A Place For My Stuff Albums

Photos courtesy of Chris Parker Often throughout music history, we herald bands that showcase an enigmatic or dynamic frontman (or frontwoman) or put flash and pomp before substance. While this,...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Bird On A Desire Wire

There’s a notable omission from the acclaimed documentary 20 Feet from Stardom. Cidny Bullens should qualify for cast inclusion simply based on the fact he launched his career backing up...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: Still Alive ~ Baby, Just Take Another Look (At Clover)

Photos courtesy of Alex Call In 1977, right before punk becomes the zeitgeist musical movement in the UK and the states, a Bay Area-based six-piece band took one last mighty...

Ira Kantor’s Vinyl Confessions: I Want Candi!

Photos courtesy of Bill Carpenter and Mario Casselli It goes without question that one of music’s most seminal anthems depicting necessary assertion and cathartic independence is Gloria Gaynor’s 1979 classic “I...