Book No. 8 of 2014 – Wallace Stroby’s Cold Shot to the Heart (Crissa Stone #1)

Oh Boy! I finally read a book quickly and increased this years book’s read total all the way to eight!! (He says with a sarcastic sneer on his face and tone in his voice). The book was Cold Shot to the Heart and is book #1 in the Crissa Stone series from Long Branch, New Jersey native Wallace Stroby. They always say that you should write about what you know and what would a former writer for the Newark Star-Ledger know better mob related crime! (typed with Jon Stewart’s mob voice ringing in my ears!)

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The Best Mystery Authors – Part One – The Ranker List – What Do You Think??

Ok so I have visited the Ranker site before, but today and yesterday I spent some time on the site looking at various list that would pertain to this blog. The following list is one of them. I am in total agreement that Agatha Christie is the greatest mystery writer of all time, but many of the writers that I have read over the years are not even on the list!! and if they are they are well below where they would be on my personal list of the best mystery writers of all time. So I will break this post down into two posts, this is the first, duh! and in it I am presenting the Ranker listing and would ask for your thoughts or comments! The second list will be the Me, Myself and Mysteries list. But you will have to wait until after my 6 and 1/2 hour break! So for now the question is What Do You Think??? No James Lee Burke??

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This Day in Music – May 19, 1953 – Blues Guitarist Jimmy Thackery was born!!

I first discovered Jimmy Thackery &the Drivers in the late 90s, in the period where my sons and I visited Tunes Used CD store in Marlton every week. My introduction to his music was  his 1994 release Trouble Man that I picked up on cassette. I’m listening to it now remembering what a great album it is! Check it out!! I loved the album since then several of his albums are in my music library. I must say that over the last several years I’ve lost track of his career, hum, maybe his birthday is a good day to start…

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Where the Characters in My Favorite Mystery Series Live and Work!!

This year so far has been a slow year for reading. I have spent much more time over the last several months listening to music than reading. I think that I will make it a goal to read at least two books, that are part of a series that I read, per month for the rest of the year. Maybe one can be new one from a series that I am current with, and the other an older book in a series that I am trying t catch up on! One of the aspects of reading all the mystery series…

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Book 7 of 2014 – Light of the World – James Lee Burke

I read the first of James Lee Burke’s twenty novels featuring Dave Robicheaux The Neon Rain in July of 1990. I loved it and I have read almost every books since. I actually finished reading the latest book Light of the World back on the 14th of April, but I am just getting around to writing about it now and for most of those 16 days I’ve asked myself why am I avoiding writing about the book. The truth of the matter is that I really don’t know why except that I just thought that there was just something amiss with…

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Life’s Soundtrack – Another Good Run this time with Lisa Mann’s New Album – Move On (video)

So back on September 4th of last year I ran the same course that I ran tonight. Back then I was coming off a couple of months of inactivity (June and July too hot!) and starting to get back into shape. On that night I there was improvement, as I ran the third and fourth miles faster than I had run them. Now tonight while I’ve run a few times in April – January, February and March were too snowy and cold for me to run much – my old body likes the fair weather! Anyway tonight is like the…

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Blues from Britain’s Matt Schofield!!

  Yesterday I listened to Matt Schofield’s new album Far As I Can See and if you’re like me and enjoy blues with some great guitar and some Hammond B3 added to the mix, then you’ll like the album – now I will write more about the album later, but now I have to go watch and episode of The BlackList so that I can catch up to where the season is by next Monday night, so here is the post I wrote back when I first discovered Matt’s music……. So the other night I was reading the album reviews…

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It’s Monday – Here’s a Blues Playlist to Ease Us into the Week!!

So welcome to Monday it’s that day of the week that we all dread, the day that it’s back to work and the whole wonderful week lays before us! It’s enough to give anyone the blues. So here’s a lunch or anytime blues hour that I put together this morning!! It features some of my favorites! Tab Benoit kicks it off with that “Night Train” rollin’ 500 miles….. “Albert’s Shuffle” comes next with some great guitar by Mike Bloomfield and equally great organ from Al Kooper. They did some great stuff together, didn’t they…Gary Moore’s “Still Go the Blues” don’t…

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Life’s Blues Soundtrack (a few days late) – Albert Castiglia’s Solid Ground (Video)

So last Thursday was the first day that I ran since back in January. It was a good run and you can read more about it here. The soundtrack for the run was the new release from Albert Castiglia Solid Ground. Solid Ground is seventh release from Castiglia (pronounced ka-steel-ya) and his first on Ruf Records. I caught up with Castiglia’s career back in 2010 when I started this blog.In that year he released Keepin’ On. While writing the post, I listened to not only that album but also his 2008 release  These are the Days, which earned him a Blues Music Award nomination for…

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The Date in Music – March 27, 1937 -Texas Blues Guitarist Johnny Copeland was born!!!

On this date, March 27, 1937 Texas blues guitarist and singer and father of Shemekia – Johnny Copeland was born. in Haynesville, Louisiana, about 15 miles south of Magnolia, Arkansas (formerly Texarkana) After his father died, his remaining family moved to Houston.  As a teenager he played at two of the biggest blues venues in Houston – Shay’s Playhouse, where his band The Dukes of Rhythm (formed with Joe “Guitar” Hughes) and the El Dorado ballroom. His recording career started at Mercury Records in 1958 and he recorded and toured around the Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, area until he moved to New…

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