5 Songs to Get You Through the Week #159

5 Songs to Get You Through the Week is a feature I run on Young Ears, Fresh Perspective on Sundays/early hours of Monday morning where I pick out 5 tunes that I think are notable and tell you a bit about them. The point is to give you some rocking music to help you deal with your weekday blues. You can either listen to one each day, listen to them all at once, or any other combination that you feel. As long as you can get through the week without the man getting you down, that's all I care about. Without further ado, here are the 5 tracks I've picked out for this week:

1. Keep On Keepin' On, by Brenda Patterson

Brenda Patterson is/was a Memphis based blues singer who got her start by being a backing vocalist for bigger names like Bob Dylan and Ry Cooder. Throughout the 70's she teamed up with native American band Redbone to release some solo albums. As powerful and luscious as her voice could be, she sadly never quite made the cut to join the big time and thus over the years has fallen deep into obscurity.

2. Kingdom Come, by Sir Lord Baltimore

Sir Lord Baltimore was arguably one of the first bands to ever have the label "heavy metal" thrown upon them, as it was used to describe their sound in a review of their 1970 debut album Kingdom Come done by Creem magazine. Regardless, this band is definitely one of the godfathers of the stoner metal genre. Many of today's bands whether they realize it or not are influenced by Sir Lord Baltimore and owe them a great deal.

3. Into the Fire, by Suck

Suck was a short lived band that existed for eight months between 1970-71. They were from South Africa and were considered to be among if not the absolute first hard rock bands from the area. They released one album Time to Suck, which was primarily cover songs. This one in particular is of an obscure Deep Purple track "Into the Fire" from their In Rock LP which had come out maybe a year before this album came out.

4. Go Back, by Crabby Appleton

Crabby Appleton were a short lived pop rock band from Los Angeles. They had a sound that was somewhat similar to Kiss in terms of catchy melodies, pleasant chord progressions, and a rocking guitar sound to back it all, but they were more polished and refined in some ways. This tune of theirs from their 1970 debut record was their only Top 40 hit in 1970, and from there their 15 minutes of fame ended pretty quickly. The following year they split up after their second album Rotten to the Core flopped.

5. Come on to Town, Ned, by Blue Jug

These guys were one hell of a dandy southern rock/country band from the mid-70's. Their vocal harmonies were immaculate and blended so well that you could have almost considered them in some ways to be a hillbilly choir. They had just enough of a pop and rock vibe to them though to keep them from sounding too heehaw and appealing to a wider audience. Unfortunately though, due to lack of interest they broke up after only one album.