The Sharp Notes with Evan Toth

Sure, there’s Detroit’s Motown, Los Angeles' famed music scene and we know all about the great records that were recorded and produced in New York City. However, during a certain, special period of time in the 1970s, Philadelphia reigned supreme. Philadelphia International Records was founded in 1971 by songwriting and production team Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff and their partner, Thom Bell....

Corey Feldman is an icon: he represents a certain time and place for a generation of moviegoers who existed just prior to the internet’s big bang, before wi-fi conquered civilization. In the 1980s, one didn’t begin watching a film without assuming Feldman might pop up somewhere ; he appeared in an astounding batch of pop culture blockbusters; many of which still roundly resonate today: Gremlins (1...

We begin the new year by trying something a little different. This week, we focus our radar’s attention on food. And we talk about it with the “highest paid professional restaurant server on the planet.” Meet Eric Valdivieso, he’s a longtime food service industry insider who has a new book out called, “The Valdivieso Method” which explores the idea of applying the tools he learned in the service i...

Sometimes, it’s the smallest instruments that make the biggest impact. If you’re of a certain age, you can remember tuning into this new thing called YouTube to watch a young man absolutely shred on a version of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. What made this musician stand out, however, was that he did it on ukulele.  Over the last two decades, Jake Shimabukuro has not only continued...

Any good collection has a great number of different niches and subcategories: music and record collecting is no different. Some of us focus on rare soundtracks or hard-to-find instrumental music from Europe and the US that was released in the 1960s and 70s. One could scour record stores for years and spend a great deal of money trying to chase down these revered sounds, or you could just pick up s...

Vinyl gets plenty of love in the 21st century even though streaming offers plenty of convenience and stability, while the venerable CD quietly sits waiting for someone to rediscover it. But what’s left for the cassette? In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Iain Taylor who joins us all the way from Birmingham City University in the UK. Taylor is a Lecturer in Music Industries, and a researcher with...

As you know, this program typically finds me exploring the work of others, but for this episode, I hope you’ll allow me to turn the attention over to myself. The last few years have found me compiling a special project: it’s my new album, it’s called “The Show” and there is an interesting story attached to it that I think you’ll enjoy hearing.   Like many folks growing up in the 80s and 90s, I bec...

It’s hard to look back at the British Invasion and not be amazed at the level of skill and talent that came across the pond to impact and influence the revolutionary pop music that was being made worldwide at the time. One of the major bands to break out of the UK was The Zombies who hit it big in 1964 with, “She’s Not There” and continued to have hits throughout the 1960s. The wonderfully romanti...

As a music lover, sometimes it’s hard for us to differentiate between being fans of music vs. being collectors. What part of our listening is really about enjoying the sounds of our favorite artist and what part of it is merely fulfilling a nostalgic desire? Since 1979, brothers Wayne and Gary Johnson have owned Rockaway Records in Los Angeles, California. Over the last 40 plus years, a mind-boggl...

Andrew Gold was a sort of Zelig figure in popular music during his career. If you fell in love with his music in any place, you’d probably be surprised to see him pop up somewhere else. Gold was a talented singer-songwriter with his own string of excellent and underrated solo albums and a Top 10 hit “Lonely Boy”, but there was much more. He was also Linda Ronstadt’s arranger and a multi-instrument...

Whenever the mailman delivers a package that looks like a record, there’s no doubt that I become excited. Such was the case when I received something from Ted Riederer and Never Records. Except, something was off...while the package’s dimensions were correct, the weight was wrong, “this is light,” I thought. The packaging inside was that of a fully designed record sleeve, but - as I was to soon le...

David Duchovny is one of those rare entertainment birds who has managed to craft a career in show business utilizing his many passions. Everyone is familiar with his portrayal of Agent Fox Mulder in the X-Files and his successful run with Californication both of which afforded Duchovny Golden Globe awards. But there are other artistic outlets that he continues to explore. An English major and grad...

It’s not hyperbole to say that musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer Van Dyke Parks is a legendary or mythical creature in pop music folklore. Sure, you know how Brian Wilson recruited him to join his creative process on what was to be the Beach Boys’ penultimate masterpiece, Smile . But there’s so much more to his career: aside from his critically acclaimed solo albums - Parks has hi...

Much of the music we listen to today comes from different generations. It may be an old favorite like Led Zeppelin, or it might be a group that was under the radar for many years before finally having their hey-day long after they’d ceased to exist as a group, like Big Star. Behind the contemporary music scenes, there is a full-blown industry involved in keeping popular records in print and releas...

Gregory Porter embodies the best of what a popular singer should be: he’s a suave and stylish songbird with the heart of a poet, painting the lyrics he’s reciting onto his canvas while letting his soul lead the way. With six albums under his belt, he’s had the opportunity to do a little bit of everything, and do it well: from traditional interpretations from the Great American Songbook to more con...

For some folks, New York City is a place they’ve only seen in movies or read about in books; a mysterious, mystical place full of danger and excitement where fame or fortune - or failure - might be lurking around any corner. For those of us familiar with the Big Apple, we know that description is mostly true. No one, however, has characterized New York City in a song quite like Suzanne Vega. Vega...

It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when troubadours would travail the twilight streets of New York City with a guitar strapped to their back and scribbled lyrics written in coffee shops crammed into the pockets of their Levis. These minstrels would then perform those tunes to audiences who went out specifically to see something new, to learn about new voices and musical directions. Wil...

Elroy is the son of Crowded House’s Neil Finn and, just like much of his musical family, he is a unique artist all his own. While he is currently playing drums in dad’s band, Elroy also has a brand new album out and it is simply titled, Elroy on Grand Phony Records. Written, produced, recorded, and mixed by Elroy himself, the album is a moody and mellow slice of modern day psychedelia.  Elroy join...

Robby Takac can tell you some stories! A founding member of the Goo Goo Dolls in the 1980s: he was there in those rough and tumble hard rock early days and evolved with the band to produce some of the most heard alternative rock numbers of the 1990s. In fact, the band’s song “Iris” was ranked #1 on Billboard 's "Top 100 Pop Songs 1992–2012" chart.  While Robby and longtime Goo Goo D...

It’s unusual to discuss an album that doesn’t fully yet exist yet, but that’s what’s happening here with soul and R&B singer-songwriter, Rozzi who joins me this week to discuss her new song, “I Can’t Go to the Party” which encapsulates the age-old and awkward experience of navigating a social setting with an old paramour, and I won’t say more, just tune in to hear Rozzi explain how the scenari...

Gary Kemp cut his teeth as a band member of the immensely popular 1980’s New Romantic, synth-pop band, Spandau Ballet. As their chief composer, his participation in the group was fundamental to its success; Kemp is responsible for writing a song that you’ve heard many times - in fact, BMI has awarded it one of the most played songs in American history with 5 million airplays, and counting: the 198...

The work of certain musical artists occasionally transcend the initial audience and genre they were intended for. Waylon Jennings, best known as a cornerstone of country music’s “Outlaw Movement”, produced a body of work during his lifetime that encapsulated a certain place and time in American musical history. But the music he composed, and the recordings he made, are now being re-contextualized...

Every so often, there is a member of a well-known band who truly blooms after stepping into the spotlight on their own terms. Such is the case for Eric Slick who is also the drummer from that fabulous band from Philadelphia, Dr. Dog.  In 2020, Eric released his second solo recording - <i> Wiseacre</i> - via Bandcamp which - given the current state of the the rabid vinyl buying communit...

Laura Benack and Steven Mertens are a duo that go by the name Bass Race. They may have created a 21st century fusion of music on their new release Tender Vittles, but something about them feels comfortably old fashioned. You can feel their familial connections to music and the arts, the respect they have for old-school Los Angeles, and the way they nurture their own relationship in a respectful an...

It’s an understatement to say that Kenny Loggins has achieved massive success in the entertainment industry. He’s been on the Billboard Top Ten charts over 20 times and sold over 25 million records. Many of the songs he’s created have become an important part of the musical fabric of a certain time and place in American history. All that aside, Kenny Loggins has had one of the most successful runs...