Welcome to Overlooked Hooks!

“Drove downtown in the rain, 9:30 on a Tuesday night, just to check out the late night record shop”

Welcome to my blog on unheralded music that your ears will love hearing! Look for a new post at 9:30 on Tuesday nights (as often as I can get them out!) about a song that may have missed the mainstream, but is worth giving a listen.

Disclaimer: All songs posted are for preview purposes only. Overlooked Hooks is not here to pirate this great music, but to give it a spotlight so more folks will buy it and pass it on. If you like the song enough to keep it, please purchase through the Amazon widget provided in each post or somewhere else reputable.

January 11, 2011 – 11:22 pm | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Comments (0)

Volume 31: “Halloween Head” Ryan Adams

“Head full of tricks and treats, it leads me through the nighttime streets”     Deadheads, Parrotheads, Phishheads, Devoted Ryan Adams fans adopted “Halloween Heads” after the track of the same name from 2007’s Easy Tiger. The term seems to fit his songs to a tee. Back in 2006, Adams was recording with The Cardinals, […]

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October 31, 2011 – 8:46 pm | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Tagged | Comments (0)

Volume 30: “Missing You” Honey

Kramer: What’s today? Newman: It’s Thursday. Kramer: Really? Feels like Tuesday. Newman: Tuesday has no feel. Monday has a feel, Friday has a feel, Sunday has a feel…. Kramer: I feel Tuesday and Wednesday..   Seinfeld was a show about New York. Of course, the stories revolved around four self-centered dwellers of The City, but […]

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September 11, 2011 – 6:22 pm | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Comments (0)

Vol. 29: “Peace” Rich Mullins

“The Scriptures don’t teach us to be assertive. The Scriptures teach us—and this is remarkable—the Scriptures teach us to be submissive. This is not a popular idea.” — Rich Mullins   Sometimes it seems the best of us get the shortest lives. When Rich Mullins was thrown from his Jeep on September 19th, 1997, the […]

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September 6, 2011 – 11:10 pm | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Tagged | Comments (0)

Vol. 28: “La Cienega Just Smiled” Ryan Adams

As long as you don’t request “Summer of ’69” at one of his concerts, Ryan Adams is your typical mild-mannered genius of a singer-songwriter.   Amazon.com WidgetsBack in 2001, he was coming off a critically acclaimed debut album Heartbreaker and following that album up with Gold. The events of 9/11/01 would forever link this album […]

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September 4, 2011 – 12:52 am | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Tagged | Comments (0)

Announcing Overlooked Hooks LE (Light Edition)

In the software world, LE means you’re getting the gutted free version of an application as a trial to buy the real thing. Not so here at Overlooked Hooks! LE is here only because I’ve decided that shorter posts are better than no posts at all. So, Light Edition will feature a song I think […]

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September 4, 2011 – 12:25 am | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Comments (0)

Vol. 27: “Fourth of July” Shooter Jennings

“Where liberty dwells, there is my country.” – Benjamin Franklin Amazon.com WidgetsWelcome to a special edition of Overlooked Hooks. Instead of waiting to post tomorrow, this is a Monday post on the birthday of the USA. I looked for some patriotic songs first, and then found Shooter Jennings “4th Of July”. What I really resonate […]

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July 4, 2011 – 9:30 pm | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Tagged | Comments (0)

Volume 26: “One More Minute” Weird Al Yankovic

“Um… it’s not gonna be about food, is it?” -Kurt Cobain, asking Al about his parody of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Amazon.com Widgets It’s an event I’ve celebrated for the past 20 some odd years, the release of a new album by Weird Al Yankovic, the master of musical parody. Al has defined and then […]

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June 29, 2011 – 12:49 am | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Comments (1)

Vol. 25 “Pascifica” Los Straitjackets

“Los Straitjackets have been good friends to our show for years and years – even from way back in New York – and they need our help!” –Conan O’Brien Amazon.com Widgets Finding this song represents the end of a 15 year quest. Back in ’96 I was a big fan of Late Night with Conan […]

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June 21, 2011 – 9:30 pm | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Comments (0)

Vol. 24: “Nothing Man” Bruce Springsteen

“I can’t think of another album in which such an abundance of great songs might be said to seem the least of its achievements.” –from Kurt Loder’s review of The Rising: Rolling Stone. July 30, 2002 Amazon.com Widgets Very special thanks to The Parent Experiment host and Springsteen Super Fan Lynette Carolla for inspiration on […]

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May 31, 2011 – 9:30 pm | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Comments (0)

Vol. 23: “Sea of Heartbreak” Don Gibson

“I think he was a bit tortured, and he had somewhat of a difficult life, and all of his experience, and his longing and his own heartbreak is really apparent in his vocals.” –Rosanne Cash Amazon.com Widgets Most who consider this song a classic are either steeped in country roots tradition or have been around […]

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May 24, 2011 – 9:30 pm | By John | Posted in Overlooked Hooks | Comments (0)