All posts by Rob Kimbrough

Maintains personal music blog Then Play ON

Rock Escapism and Summer Days: The Sword’s “High Country”

I’ve been away for a while. Between moving and starting a new job, I’ve had my hands full over the past couple months. Hopefully I’ll be able to reestablish a regular publishing schedule. Fortunately, I stumbled back into writing organically. After what felt like almost two months of non-stop on-the-go, I finally found myself in that old, familiar position: sitting on a Sunday with nothing to do.

It was one of those long, sunny days in late August – you know them. The weekend festivities were decidedly over, and with the sounds of sports programming somewhere in the background, I lazed in my room. In this kind of Sunday afternoon the hours drag on as the sun seems to sit on the pine trees out your window. School starts the next day, but everyone tries to suppress this knowledge just below the level of speaking awareness. It was the kind of boring Sunday ripe for escape; for The Legend of Zelda and music by The Sword. Continue reading Rock Escapism and Summer Days: The Sword’s “High Country”

Rolling Thunder: Top 15 Bassists

Welcome to my first ranked list! I plan to present many such lists in the future, as they are always a fun challenge for me and stir up interesting conversation and debate. Please keep in mind that, as with everything on this site, it is based solely on my opinion and does not reflect some universal mandate.

The inaugural listicle is going to be my top 15 bassists. The topic has been spurred on due to the unfortunate passing of Yes’ Chris Squire, who surely appears here. It got me to thinking about the roll of the bass guitar in rock music. It obviously doesn’t receive the glory of the electric guitar, and bassists are usually relegated to secondary members on stage within the collective cultural consciousness. Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth – the bass is a vital part of any ensemble. It provides the rhythm, the deep bottom end that gives music its power and inspires people to move. It can serve as a counterpoint to the main melody. Finally, there are lots of bassists that have left their unique mark on the instrument and the world of music. Here are my favorite, ranked from 15 to 1.

Note: As per the main breadth of this blog, I am going to focus only on musicians that can fit primarily into the broad spectrum of “rock” music. As such, there are some fantastic players inherently left off, such as Charles Mingus, James Jamerson, Robbie Shakespeare, Jaco Pastorious, Victor Wooten, and Aston “Family Man” Barrett. Also, this isn’t necessarily saying who is all-around “better;” rather it is my preference ranking based on their style and skill.

Continue reading Rolling Thunder: Top 15 Bassists