Their names are legendary. The Funk Brothers. The Swampers. The Wrecking Crew.  These were the house bands of the great studios, from Motown in Detroit to Stax in Memphis, from FAME in Muscle Shoals to the myriad studios that dotted NEw York and Los Angeles.  The musicians went into the studio every day and made magic happen.  We detail fifteen times the magic went above and beyond.

The brain trust responds to the list of nominees for the country/hip-hop/pop/and sometimes rock hall of fame.

It was 50 years ago today...and the first post-Beatles year in rock history.  Some of our favorite albums came out in 1971, and we tell you why starting right now.

Anything going on in the political world these last couple of weeks?  Turns out, yeah.  The good fellows (not goodfellas) analyze and pontificate their way through a look at what's what in the realm of politics.

"Every day, every day I have the blues." so sang BB King in his performance of the Maxwell Davis arrangement of Memphis Slim's version of Pinetop Sparks' seminal blues song.  That one isn't in this countdown, as BB recorded it in '54, Davis arranged it a year earlier, Memphis Slim covered it in '48, and Pinetop laid down the original version in 1935.

Our panel of experts agrees that the blues is the most significant contribution made to music by the culture and the country of America.  What we disagree on is which five albums best represent the blues from 1960 on.  Here are our top five blues albums after 1959..

They're not sidemen.  They're not studio cats. They're special.  Special guests that came in, laid it down, and elevated a track to new heights.  The experts weigh in on the very best, the top, the most important times this happened.

Through the ages, musicians from all genres, with varying levels of skill have attempted to cover the songs of the Bard of Duluth, Robert Allen Zimmerman. Shabtai Zisel ben Avraham has often proven a challenge as a songwriter, and only occasionally does someone rise to the occasion, doing  Elston Gunnn proud. Some artists, like The Band, wrote songs with Blind Boy Grunt, recording Bob Landy's songs before he did. Others covered Robert Milkwood Thomas's songs long after the fact. We've picked some Tedham Porterhouse covers that we think rival the best work by Lucky and Boo Wilbury.  So if you're in the mood to hear the best Jack Frost covers by some of the biggest stars to tackle the songs of Sergei Petrov, give this one a listen.

As the season - and the globe - warmed up in the summer of 2021, the Democratic party...did what it tends to do.  The boys of summer (not those ones) put on their pontificatin' caps and got to pontificatin', solving the problem in just over an hour.

Some albums tell a story. That story is usually not very good.  But every once in a great while, a concept album is released that doesn't totally blow.  Our scholars have labored to create a list of just over 20 concept albums that we guarantee will please your receptors, or your money back.

Some films rock and others capture the essence of rock.  The crew ranks and discusses the very best rock and roll films that aren't documentaries or concert films, coming up with a few unexpected cinematic moments that we believe define rock.