It's time to rank the best of what went around and came around again.
BILLY JOEL
The Stranger
(Columbia/Legacy)
As punk and disco exploded, the Piano Man's deeply unhip 1978 breakthrough proved that top-shelf Broadway/Brill Building songwriting could still sell - and, occasionally, rock. "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and "Anthony's Song (Movin' Out)" remain priceless snapshots of Annie Hall-era NYC, the title track bares real teeth, and the Kenny Chesney fave "Only the Good Die Young"
A few weeks ago, I heard Tim Rakel play a plaintive folk song on his radio show. Turns out the tune was by a band called String Buzz, a local duo featuring Ann Hirschfeld on guitar and Ron Leible on drums. Music lifers might know the pair from the '90s band Plaid Cattle, although Hirschfeld writes that String Buzz plays "primarily acoustic stuff but I have plans to slowly work in some electric guitar. We are an original band but play covers as the need arises." (A list of cov
