Robert Baird

There’s a recent recording project that I have to say exemplifies that hard as it is to believe, there are still human hearts beating in the biz.

If you want to complain that young rock bands have no sense of the past; no melodies; no hooks; no hope then what do you call a young band with the sense and taste to take a freaky masterpiece like Zep III as a model for their debut? Weak? Lazy? Unworthy of a listen?

After the death of the label’s biggest star Otis Redding in December 1967 (damn those small planes!)...

And so what really were the great Stax/Volt albums after 1968?

It’s the day after the office Christmas party and yet Bloodshot Records founder Rob Miller gamely agreed to have a chat.

“Our party’s been at the same Mexican restaurant for the past 19 years and I have an incredible superstition that if the bar tab is not bigger than the food tab then we’ve had a bad year.”

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.