The Carpet Frogs - Pretending To Fly

Anyone who doesn't know who The Carpet Frogs are, should read this. You will thank me later! Having been a Goddo fan for 30 years or so, I would check in the Goddo section of the CD racks regularly looking for Goddo releases. I was in Sam's one day in 1994 and written on the plastic divider in the rack in red marker was "*see Carpet Frogs". So I went over to the C's and thumbed through and there they were. A Carpet Frogs album called Frog Curry with Greg Godovitz as a member. Sold! I took it home and popped it in the CD player not knowing what to expect. It was great! Some very well done covers of songs like Shakin' All Over and Lovin' You Ain't Easy and some original Beatle-ish tunes. By the 3rd or 4th time I played it I was hooked. In the many years since, I bet that this CD has been in my CD player more times than any other single CD.

I had been to the CD racks many times since, hoping for more, but was always disappointed. Until one day in 2007. I did a web search and came up with their website and saw an announcement of a new CD, 13 years after the first. I look at the list of members and ... oh oh .... no Greg! Hmmm...I ordered it anyway but was expecting to be disappointed. Wrong! A great album probably better than the first one. I figured without Greg Godovitz, that certain "edge" would be missing but this album really rocks! Every song is great. The first song is so good I figured it would be all down hill after that but each song is good right to the last.I like that there is more original material this time. All but one song which is a near perfect knock-off of The Beatles "Rain". The first couple of times through it was like listening to the latest Rembrants album. Not a bad thing as I thought the Rembrants were great! But the more you listen the more you forget about the Rembrants or The Beatles or Badfinger and just hear The Carpet Frogs.

Great going Froggies! I never would have believed you could live up to the first (especially sans Godovitz) let alone top it.

Do yourselves a favour and go get this one!

Frank Ludwig - It's About Time

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Frank Ludwig answers the question why he has returned from a self imposed exile from the music business in the first song on his new CD. "Cuz I Feel Like It!" Best known for his role as keyboardist on Trooper's four most successfull studio albums, Frank has also been in other bands like Brutus and Body Electric, as well as two different bands with Randy Bachman, Union and Ironhorse.

The new CD from Frank is a two disc set but can be divided into three distinct parts. First is ten new songs. The second part is four songs from a solo demo recorded in the early 80's. These songs are mixed in with the new songs on the first disc but are easily identified in the CD's liner notes. The third part is a bonus CD of four songs previously recorded in other bands but re-done here as "unplugged" versions.

I have always been a fan, and always saw Frank's songs as an important dimension of the bands he played in, but this album lets him show his stuff without the the confines and pressures of a band situation. There is a wide variety of styles here from beautiful ballads like "Forever Ended Yesterday" to rockers like "Cuz I Feel Like it!" and "Don't Come Cryin'".

Overall this is a great package for fans like me, but Frank's great songwriting skills and unique vocals will be a breath of fresh air for anyone looking for something different in a time where everything on the radio seems to sound like Nickelback.

Yes, It's About Time!

The CD is available through Franks website http://www.frankludwig.ca/

Canadian Classic Rock

I have always been a big fan of Canadian music and in my memory bands like Max Webster and Moxy rank right up there with Led Zeppelin and ACDC. In fact, the first lead singer for Moxy was asked to join ACDC when Bon Scott died and the second singer for Moxy went on to front Loverboy. There are a lot of great stories and lots of great music in the history of Canadian rock. Much of which the world has never heard. Much of which many Canadians haven't heard for that matter. So that is the main reason for this blog. Not so much to write about widely known bands like the Guess Who or BTO (although I might) but to let people know about the great music they might have missed because they weren't living in Canada or even the region of Canada where the bands were popular. I invite everyone who loves this music to join in and comment or add info of their own. You can also join my newly formed Canadian music discussion group at canrock.proboards.com
Canada Rocks!!