Friday, April 01, 2022

At Daryl’s House to Hear the Live Music

 

About ten years ago I discovered that Daryl Hall (of Hall and Oates) had a cool idea for a TV show: invite musician friends, old and new, to play music at his home just for fun. 

“Live From Daryl’s House” was born in 2007 as internet-only but moved to cable in 2011 where I discovered it soon after. The best places to watch it now are YouTube (of course) and the episode archive at the show’s website (click above link).  

Lots of great music on this show: Daryl Hall’s band is top notch and can play any style you can think of, and so they mesh well with the guests who range from the O’Jays and Cee Lo Green to Joe Walsh and Jason Mraz to the Neon Trees and Elle King and Fitz and the Tantrums. 

A little bit of everything, and the inevitable result is that you hear some musicians you’ve never heard before, always a good thing.

Joe Walsh, “Life’s Been Good”



One of the all-time great guitar intros, and then funny lyrics making fun of certain rock ‘n roll musicians whose lifestyle choices could have been better.

I’ve got a mansion
Forget the price
Never been there
They tell me it’s nice
I live in hotels
Tear out the walls
I have accountants
Pay for it all
They say I’m crazy
But it takes all my time
I’m just looking for clues
At the scene of the crime

Here’s a tune with Kevin and Michael Bacon of “The Bacon Brothers”.



I literally knew nothing about this band before — but they’ve done 10 albums over 23 years and Michael is a composer who made a name for himself as a singwriter in Nashville in the 70s. 

Here’s Cee Lo Green doing “One on One” sounding like he was born to sing this song.


 

Kenny Loggins, "This Is It".

 

 

With John Oates and G.E. Smith, “The Weight”



Fitz and the Tantrums, “Breakin’ the Chains of Love”.



Here’s another tune from that show, “Picking Up the Pieces”. I like this band.



There’s so much more but you get the idea: have some fun making music and creating something new and fresh in a relaxed setting. Highly recommended, obviously.