Pretty Good Not Bad is a demo of a custom Wordpress theme called "Rustic Arcana", built by Ross Koeberl and designed to be used for a music blog. The theme was designed to emulate the print style and layout of a series of 1970s mail order record advertisements. The blog was named after a wonderful song by the late, great John Prine.

I cannot say enough about Billy Wallace's piano playing here. It is hard to believe he laid down a performance this good and then had roughly five more credits for the rest of his career. It's a fascinating style — his right hand is weaving unpredictably through chromatic lines just as adventurous as any horn or brass player's, and he's far more willing to allow his left hand to wander than others working in the prevailing style of the time, yet always jolts back to home base just as you question if he's wandered too far. Upon first listen, I was, briefly, genuinely disappointed by Ray Bryant taking the reins on the final track, if only for the want of more of Wallace's work. Of course, Bryant does just as good a job at evoking the playful straightforwardness I loved about Richie Powell without coming near being an impersonation.

If you don't know who Labi Siffre is, there's still a decent chance that you've heard one of his melodies. He provided the immortal keyboard lick that introduced the world to Slim Shady. Kanye took an introspective ballad from his third album and made it anthemic. He's been covered by everyone from Madness to Kenny Rogers. Still, these make for only a brief sample of Siffre's brilliant ear for hooks – he has a three decade career chock-full of them, going all the way back to his 1970 debut.