Route 66 - March 28, 2019

We lost a music legend this week, when Scott Walker passed away on Monday at age 76. Best known from the 1960s group The Walker Brothers, Scott Walker had a long, prolific career writing, performing and producing. He was an avant-garde, independent icon, best known for his deep voice and imaginative lyrics. A fantastic documentary movie about him came out a few years back called "Scott Walker: 30 Century Man" that I highly recommend. Here now are couple songs by the brilliant, influential Scott Walker.

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One of the biggest bands to emerge from Seattle in the early '90s was Alice in Chains. They released several landmark albums in a brief span, and one of their most enduring is "Jar of Flies."

Released on January 25, 1994 it is a 7 song, mostly acoustic EP. It is more mellow than their previous hard-rocking grunge albums such as "Facelift" and "Dirt," and also one of their most successful. The album debuted at #1 on the charts and produced several hit songs and music videos. What makes this album most significant is it would become ultimately one of their final creative and commercial high points with their original and signature lineup.

Like their name implies, Alice in Chains is not a feel-good, happy pop band. They are the music equivalent of a horror movie, the kind of film where a serial killer chases a group of teenagers into a cabin in the woods. Alice in Chains featured the spooky guitar playing of Jerry Cantrell, and the even creepier vocals of lead singer Layne Staley.

Similar to many Seattle grunge bands of that era, and really rock musicians of any time, Alice in Chains battled many demons including drug addiction. Lead singer Layne Staley struggled for many years, and stopped recording and performing music after 1996. Sadly, he was found dead from an overdose in 2002 at the age of 35.

Alice in Chains has reunited with various people filling in, but they've never come close to the success they knew in the early '90s. They continue to record and tour to this day, but it's their early albums with Layne Staley that are all considered classics. Here now, celebrating it's 25th anniversary, is the first song from "Jar of Flies" - "Rotten Apple."

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Looking back 50 years to Woodstock, tonight's selection is a band that has grown in popularity since then, and remains very well-known and successful today. That would be the Latin Rock fusion band Santana. Lead of course by guitar virtuoso Carlos Santana, they performed on the second day of Woodstock, Saturday, August 16th, 1969.

Formed in San Francisco in 1966, Santana was a relatively unknown band at the time - especially to east coast audiences. Their debut album came out that exact month, so Woodstock was a very big deal for the band.

Santana really is legendary. The band has released over 30 albums, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame back in 1998. Carlos Santana's biggest success, however, was still to come. Two years later his album "Supernatural" sold over 20 million copies and won 9 Grammy Awards including album of the year, topping one of the biggest career resurgences in rock history.

Here now is a song which helped establish their reputation when they performed at Woodstock: the six-minute instrumental classic "Soul Sacrifice."