BEST HARD MUSIC 2013

"BLUE" JIMMY:  HARD MAN

BLIND DOG OZZY: NEUROTIC CHIHUAHUA

"BLUE" JIMMY:  We're a month into the new year and after watching the 56th Grammy Awards, I got to thinking what was some of the best hard music that I liked last year.

BD OZZY:  BOM BOM BOM!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Starting with the Heavy Metal category, I don't think anything came close to matching Black Sabbath's "13".

BD OZZY:  YEAHHH!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  And it's about time peoples!  The last time this lineup of Sabbath recorded, I had hair down to my chest, bell bottoms and a shirt with wizard sleeves.

BD OZZY:  And you should have seen the shoes!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Song after song of molten, headbanging metal with not a weak one in the bunch.  The song "God Is Dead?" even won the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.  And I loved how at the awards, you couldn't understand a thing Ozzy Osbourne was saying.  This is the first album I've bought in a long time that I could play all the way through over and over with the volume on 10.

BD OZZY:  Now the neighbor's cat can't have babies.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Best Live Show of the year also goes to Black Sabbath.  Their show at the L.A. Sports Arena last year was, I'm pretty sure, one of the signs of the Apocalypse and their haunted-looking stage show with multi-screens was downright... scary.

BD OZZY:  I came out of there feeling EVIL.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Best Hard Rock album of the year was a surprise.  I picked Black Star Riders' "All Hell Breaks Loose" over all the other great hard rock that came out last year.  The band is basically Thin Lizzy going under another name and they're not afraid to sound like it.  Highlights:  "All Hell Breaks Loose" is the best ass-kicking album opener I've heard in a decade; "Kingdom of the Lost" sounds like it was accidentally left off of the "Jailbreak" LP complete with Irish Folk Festival intro and dueling guitars by Scott Gorham and Damon Johnson; "Hey Judas" and "Someday Salvation" would've been hard rocking hit singles if they were released in 1975 and "Valley of the Stones" strays dangerously into heavy metal territory.

BD OZZY:  The bottom line is that this is basically the Great Lost Album that Thin Lizzy never made and if it had come out in their Phil Lynott heyday, they would be even more legendary than they are now due to some spotty albums in the past.  This one rips!!!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  On to some Heavy Guitar Blues!  Best Blues albums for me were Popa Chubby's "Universal Breakdown Blues" and Lurrie Bell's "Blues In My Soul".  Popa Chubby's career was almost over before it began because due to some horrible album cover art on his debut, many people thought he was a rapper and his album even got put into the rap/hip hop bins in the record stores.  Since then, he has put out an amazingly long string of albums that show him to be one of the most scorching modern blues guitarists on the planet and "Universal Breakdown Blues" continues the tradition with songs like "I Don't Want Nobody", "69 Dollars" and "Mindbender" which showcase not only his blistering guitar work but also a huge, hurricane of a voice which many so-called Blues guitarists lack.  Add to this a sizzling instrumental version of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" and you got the whole package.  Lurrie Bell, the son of Blues legend Carey Bell, is becoming a legend in his own right, with "Blues In My Soul" putting his raspy Blues voice and silky smooth and piercing guitar right up front where they belong.  When you hear the agony of songs like  "Blues In My Soul" the roadhouse funk of  "Southside to Riverside" and the Down in the Delta intro  to "My Little Machine",  you just get the feeling you're hearing the Real Deal.  

BD OZZY:  You won't hear this kind of Blues in no Guitar Center hotshot competition where the players never had a beer bottle and ashtray thrown at their head in some mean ass bar.

"BLUE" JIMMY:  So put on the Lurrie Bell album when you want the sound and feel of walking into a smokey, Southside juke joint.

BD OZZY:  And put on the Popa Chubby album when you just want to hear some fat f**ker choking the s**t out of a Stratocaster!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Special mention goes to Rory Block in the Acoustic Blues category for her album, "Avalon:  A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt" just for the fact that she actually studied with brother Hurt and other original Bluesmen and there ain't nobody can play this way anymore.

BD OZZY:  Go ahead, try it!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  The Blues/ Rock category is for those who ain't quite pure Blues but not quite Rolling Stones/ Zeppelin classic rock either.  My hands down favorite is The Russ Tippens Electric Band for their album, "Combustion" which makes me want to go practice every time I hear it.  Tippens' virtuoso guitar  and classy singing style remind me of Robben Ford on hard rocking steroids with a bass and drums rhythm section that can step out and solo whenever they want.  Add to this the fact that they are British and Tippins plays part time in Satan, an early 80's New Wave of British Heavy Metal band that plays muddy, beer-soaked Metal Festivals in Europe and I don't know what to think.  But I haven't heard a new band this good in a long time so check 'em out.

BD OZZY:  And be prepared to practice more!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  Well, there's other types of hard music but other people are more qualified to  comment on those bands  than me.  I just picked some of my favorites of the past year.  So pick up some magazines, listen to some radio stations and check out some websites.  The hard music you love is out there...

BD OZZY:  You're just not going to see and hear it on prime time TV!

"BLUE" JIMMY:  "Sake's Alive!"

BD OZZY:  "Wow!  Wow!"