The Bongo Boy Rock n’ Roll TV show – Episode 08 Season 13 “Never Give Up” – Various Artists (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

These days, even the most discerning listener is bombarded with an endless stream of music, all clamoring for our attention…not to mention hard-earned cash. Sure, having choices is great, but who has the time to sift through it all? Not everyone can afford to spend hours figuring out which bands and tracks resonate with them. So, what’s the solution?

Enter Bongo Boy and their genius Rock ‘n’ Roll TV show. They’ve done the hard work for you, cutting through the noise (and visuals) and delivering a sharp and sure-footedly curated selection of top-notch music. No more slogging through those “if you like this, you’ll love that” recommendations, no more wasted time on tracks that go nowhere. Just flip on the TV, sit back, and let them serve the cream of the grassroots music crop straight to your senses.

As usual, this show’s been making waves, literally, airing non-stop across more than 72 TV channels nationwide, plus streaming on Bongo Boy TV’s ROKU Channel. For the full scoop, head over to bongoboytv.com. And if you’ve got what it takes to snag a spot on the lineup, drop a line to submit@bongoboyrecords.com. Now, let’s crank it up and get this show rolling.

This episode kicks off by illustrating just how far and wide Bongo Boy’s reach is, with Milan, Italy’s Artic Baba, and a nostalgic pop-rock piece called Many Years Ago. This reflective and thoughtful song looks back on those formative childhood years and does so with a beautiful blend of joy and an understanding of how our later lives are shaped by those seemingly carefree times.

Pittsburg’s Goest Ryder brings us a poignant and timely piece of understated rap in the form of Survive, a song that will resonate with so many given its tale of struggle and adversity in a world where the gap between the haves and have-nots seems to be widening at an ever-increasing pace. While the subject matter might seem less than original, the question is not why he chooses such a subject for his song but why there is still a need to keep repeating the point in the first place.

Kieler Avery’s Still Miss You takes us to another subject that never goes out of fashion: unrequited love. Over her rhythmic acoustic chords and lilting vocals, she waxes lyrical about not just the one that got away but the one who never noticed her in the first place. And if Kieler finds herself losing in love, at least Tony Anthony is offering to be a friend to someone in need. This neo-soul meets pop ballad comes in the form of a shoulder to cry on for a friend who has been through a hard time. Based on timeless soul vibes and gospel-infused vocals, Your Friend, is both a timeless sentiment and a song brimming with unabashed altruism and genuine affection.

Now, if The NEW Bardots is a name you associate with foot-on-the-monitor, heads-down, no-nonsense, fist-in-the-air rock and roll (though maybe don’t try all of those moves at once,) their latest one, Johnnie Get Your Drum sees them embrace a more roots-rock-reggae party sound. But then, reggae and rock music have always worked well, and here, there is no small echo of The Clash’s punky-reggae soundclash at work. This is both gloriously refreshing and wonderfully familiar, especially for people like me who grew up in the UK, where punk and Jamaican music found unlikely allies in each other and created the Two-Tone music scene.

Lissa Coffey and David Vito Gregoli bring us another of their trademark, beautiful world music creations; here, We Share the Moon is a blend of picked acoustica and gentle eastern beats, ethereal vocals, and hushed and heavenly ambient sonics.

Things round off more directly and powerfully with Eturnul and her song Life. Here, she muses on the lives we live, the ones that we make for ourselves and the ones that are forced upon us, the cards we are dealt and how we choose to play them, the idea of walking in someone else’s shoes, and where that journey might take you. Something to think about to round off this latest episode of incredible music and its array of exciting visuals.

That should give you plenty of new music to get your teeth into until the next episode comes around, and that is always much sooner than you think it will be.