Harold Olson

Artist: Harold Olson

LP: Doggone Cowboy

Song: "Bad Brama Bull"
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Song: "Auctioneer"
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My fellow Washingtonian Harold Olson, from Spokane, is basically performing a musical rendition of my work week here. The first half of my week was a lot like rodeo bull-riding, and then today I've had to talk like an auctioneer in order to get everything done! You can go here to find the July 31, 2016 edition of The Lewiston Tribune from Lewiston, Idaho with news about Harold's 80th birthday celebration. I'm awfully late, but Happy Birthday, Harold! Hope you've still been auctioneering.

[ Harold Olson — then ]

[ Harold Olson — now ]

Barbara Woodhouse

Artist: Barbara Woodhouse

LP: Train Your Dog with Barbara Woodhouse

Song: "Tone of Voice"
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On the one hand, "April Fools!" But on the other, I think some people really do need this advice from British dog trainer Barbara Woodhouse. I once dated some guy for a few weeks whose entirely undisciplined dog had chewed up the covers of all of his Criterion DVDs. His place pretty much looked like this. When he brought his dog over to my apartment once, it ran all over the place peeing on everything. It peed on my piano and then jumped up on my bed and peed on my comforter too. The guy (I've forgotten his name, thank god) took the comforter to the cleaners, but then he ran out of money so I had to pay $42 to get it back. "No!" "Naughty!" "Grrrrrrgh!"

[ Barbara Woodhouse: May 9, 1910 — July 9, 1988 ]

Seventh Wave

Artist: Seventh Wave

LP: Things to Come
Song: "Old Dog Song"
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I've never had a dog of my own, but I like dogs and dogs seem to like me too. Here are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven...yes, eight adorable pictures of lovable old dogs. You can read about the short-lived mid-'70s psychedelic synth-rock band Seventh Wave here and here, sing along to "Old Dog Song" with the lyrics included below, and find one last neat old dog photo here.

Harry Simeone Chorale

Artist: Harry Simeone Chorale

LP: It's Alaska
Song: "We're On Our Way/Come See a Land"
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Song: "It's Alaska"
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Well I've packed my fishing pole, my canoe and my harpoons; I've put the cat out and left a note for the milk man because today I'm going to Alaska! I need to find a land where my children can grow. I'll be getting to Alaska via something called the Ruby Princess, which I'm worried may be a little like being trapped in the Southcenter Mall with 3,000 other shoppers for an entire week. I've posted this record before, but now it has entirely new meaning. Bon voyage!

[ The other Ruby Princess. ]

Alain Barrière

Artist: Alain Barrière

LP: Alain Barrière

Song: "Un Homme S'est Pendu"

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Born in the picturesque village of La Trinité-sur-Mer in northwest France in 1935, Alain Barrière had his first big hit with "Elle Était Si Jolie (She Was So Pretty)" when the song placed 5th out of 16 entries in the Eurovision song contest in 1963. Barrière's popularity peaked in the late 1960s, but when a collection of remastered versions of his past hits was released on CD in 1997, it put the handsome singer squarely back into the limelight. You can read more about the debonair Monsieur Barrière on Wikipedia here, visit his official website here, listen to more of his music while watching a provocative-but-inexplicable slideshow here, and see the covers for his 1961 to 1983 record releases here. Photos of the open gatefold cover of Alain Barrière's self-titled 1968 LP are included below.

Eduardo Davidson

Artist: Eduardo Davidson

LP: Le Chien—El Perro/The Dog

Song: "The Boy From G.U.S.T.O."
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I have Sñr. Mexicant and his terrific [Mexicovers] blog to thank for turning me onto this incredible and unusual record. My only complaint is that a mental image of Olympia Dukakis pops into my head whenever I look at the LP. I did a quick Google search this morning to see if I could figure out why this was happening... and the mystery was solved:

I wasn't able to find any info on Eduardo Davidson (his place of birth, his discography, his makeup artist) during my brief morning web search, so if somebody out there can fill me in, it would be much appreciated. "Le Chien" is from 1968 though, so I'm assuming Mr. Davidson is probably related to "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." and that all information about him is highly classified.