Duke Egbert

I’ve been writing for the Vault, on and off (mostly on), for 25 years. My 25th anniversary is sometime this month. I wanted to do something to commemorate the occasion, as frankly it was against the odds that I’d even still be here. I considered several ways to celebrate; skywriting was too expensive, a Times Square billboard has been done to death, and I don’t do tattoos. Finally, I decided to take the trope of Desert Island Discs and run with it. Below please find the 25 albums I would take into a fallout shelter, a shipwreck, or hospice. No…

“So much time to make up Everywhere you turn Time we have wasted on the way…” David Crosby died yesterday. I am not a CSN(Y) fanatic. I like their stuff well enough; I’m not likely to ever turn off the radio when their songs come on. Especially since, being almost 55, I grew up with them. There is a certain specific sadness to watching the musicians you listened to in your youth die. My first gut punch was Neil Peart. I might have actually shed a tear or two, especially when I realized I could never see Rush live. That…

Time for a history lesson. Once upon a time nice people with guitars actually wrote songs with literary content. They told stories about specific events, fictional or real, that resonated with the artists. (There was another subgenre of music that involved portraits of people. We’ll get into that later.) Nowadays, I’m not sure we have any pop stars who can spell resonated. But I know, since you are a discerning music fan who is reading the Daily Vault instead of (*gag*) Pitchfork, that you want to broaden your musical horizons. You want to grow. You want to learn. You want…

(NB: We are not critics at the Daily Vault. At least, I’m not, and I’ll fight anyone who says so. I am a lifestyles and art reviewer. So there.) I am well known at the DV for being a defender of critically unpopular – dare I say uncool? – music. I like Barry Manilow sometimes. I own every Dan Fogelberg album ever made before his untimely early death. I believe disco had its good points, and they weren’t all on Yvonne Elliman and Donna Summer. And now, armed only with my razor-sharp wit, a certain curmudgeonly charm, and an outdated…

[Natterings is a very occasional and occasionally funny look at weird bits of the music industry and recorded music itself, written by Duke Egbert, who should know better.]There have been many great country songs. “Jolene.” “He Stopped Lovin’ Her Today.” “Crazy.” “Friends In Low Places.” “Ring Of Fire.” “Get Your Tongue Out Of My Mouth (I’m Kissing You Goodbye).”Okay, maybe not that last one.Nevertheless, there have been many fine songs in the history of both types of music (country AND western). However, today I wish to contend that there is one country song that is a more perfect example of…

So, I have to admit this feature was my idea. I’m trying to figure out if I regret that or not. I happened to mention to the DV Crack Staff that I had this playlist on [a certain Streaming Service That Shall Not Be Named] -- the 131 songs that were essential to my listening pleasure. My personal happiness. My musical jones. Why 131, you ask? Well, at the time, I was going through chemotherapy and I just didn’t have the brain power or energy to get it any lower. Now, I kind of like it. The number has character.…

In which reviewer Duke Egbert, returning from a nine-year writing hiatus, breaks all the rules previously set for these collections by including a live album and mashing an artist’s group and solo career together (sort of). 16. The Secret (2019)The Paul Dukas And Lou Gramm? Really? Album. A disjointed, flat effort, despite its star-spangled guest list. The only track worthy to be on a Project CD is the soaring, heartbreaking “I Can’t Get There From Here.” Sad, but true. 15. Vulture Culture (1985) The Where’s The Orchestra? Album. The widescreen, cinematic grandeur of the early CDs is completely gone by…

It’s not very often that two of my passions intersect, so I take the moment when they do. As a music reviewer, I cheerfully and shamelessly admit I like big-screen, bombastic rock and roll, and Styx – specifically the Crystal Ball to Paradise Theater stage – is one of my favorite bands. As a men’s movement activist and a man with many, many gay and HIV+ friends, I love to support and fight for gay rights and HIV+ rights. In his new autobiography, The Grand Illusion, Chuck Panozzo allows me to share two passions at once -- and even better, he…