Music & More

One of the most fun listens I've found is on SiriusXM, their 70's on 7 channel, where they run Casey Kasem's American Top Forty Countdown every Sunday at 9am and midnight. I have recently made a habit of tuning in Sunday nights. Kasem hosted the nationally syndicated radio show on a weekly basis from 1970 until 2009 when he retired. Kasem played the Top 40 songs according to Billboard Magazine's Hot 100 Chart. Casey (1932-2014) may not be with us any longer, but SiriusXM has the tapes of every show he did during the 1970's. Each week they play a show from one of the years of that decade. Each week is a different year and with 10 years to choose from, any given year is played about once every 10 weeks; this gives ample time for the chart to turn over and repetitions are rare. Last night they played the countdown from the week of January 12th, 1974. One big reason why these shows are so much fun is that the first half of the 1970's was an insanely creative p

Buy at Amazon Stream on Spotify It is a rare and wonderful thing when an album contains excellent versions of familiar songs side by side with new original songs that sound as good as, if not better than, the classics. Night at the Speakeasy, the stunning debut from Svetlana and the Delancey Five, is just such an album. Treat yourself to the opening track, "All I Want", then we will resume below in about 3 minutes and 44 seconds. Svetlana and the Delancey Five - "All I Want" Everything you need to know about Svetlana and the Delancey Five is right there in this song. Start with Svetlana Shmulyian the Russian born front woman, vocalist, and songwriter. I love the vocals, I love her clear and sweet tone as well as her delivery. The level of musicianship in the Delancey Five is extraordinary. There is the sure and steady rhythm of bassist George Delancey and drummer Rob Garcia. The other instruments each answer every vocal line before a succession of

Photo Courtesy of Vanessa Carlton Something told me to go see Vanessa Carlton, even though I knew very little about her. I was familiar with her first hit "A Thousand Miles" and I knew her name, but, I don't think I even connected the two. The song was a top five Billboard hit in 2002, was used in the movies Legally Blonde and White Chicks, and the album it came from, her debut, sold platinum. I'm not normally a believer in cosmic events, but I'm also not a fan of coincidence. Here's what happened. One day in the fall of 2015, a friend just randomly happened to play me two songs by Carlton. A few hours later that same day, I read an email from World Cafe Live and their big news was a pre-sale for a Vanessa Carlton concert. The more I thought about how strange the combination of events was, the more I thought that something was directing me to go see Vanessa Carlton. So I ordered tickets. Now, I don't go to see pop star concerts very often, even thoug