Music & More

Saturday Video Fun: Gabrielle Aplin - So Young, So Talented - Home (2011) & Never Fade (2011) & On Your Knees (2010)

2012-02-09T17:11:00.015-05:00

The Power of Youtube: Gabrielle Aplin is a singer-songwriter from Bath, England who has used Youtube and her talent for music to build a following and music career without any record label in sight. She posted her first videos to Youtube at age fifteen. Most of her videos were cover songs recorded at home. By sixteen she was attracting a significant audience with covers like "The Liar and the Lighter" (You Me At Six), which now has well over 500,000 views. Her website describes her as:

At nineteen, Gabrielle Aplin is the self-taught; self promoted singing, piano and guitar playing internet sensation. With beautiful vocals and a raw talent for song writing, Gabrielle is evolving as the most in demand online music artist.

This is no overstatement. Now nineteen and in college, Gabrielle has released three EPs, all of which are available here in the US at Amazonand iTunes. She has sold out her last several tours of the UK and she was just booked to open for Gotye on his tour of Europe that begins next week.

So far, Gabrielle has posted 106 videos, her Youtube channel has 42,488 subscribers, and her videos have a combined total of 7,836,016 views. Here's one more.

Gabrielle Aplin's Website
Gabrielle Aplin's Facebook

Saturday Video Fun: Celebrating the Release of Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan (2012)

2012-02-04T08:46:00.003-05:00

Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan

This week Amnesty International released Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan, to celebrate the 50th anniversaries of both Bob Dylan's career and the Amnesty Organization. As a socially conscious crusader for human rights, Dylan was a great fit. The album is a sprawlng tribute of 73 tracks filling four CDs with artists covering Bob Dylan's songs and the proceeds go to support Amnesty International.

There are many major and well-known names as well as plenty of unknown artists but the one thing they all have in common is a love for the man, his music, and his message. Thomas E. Davis of Seattle summed up Dylan's influence nicely in his Amazon review.

As for Bob Dylan, few artists have been offered accolades to match those laid at his feet. He's among the greatest poets of our age, a transformational figure in the history of music. There's not a singer or songwriter alive who doesn't owe a debt to his wit and wisdom, and thousands cover his inspiring, compassionate songs every day.

For starters we have "Tangled Up in Blue" from what is arguably Dylan's last great album (maybe his best), Blood on the Tracks, from 1975. This live version is from the Renaldo & Clara movie, filmed on the Rolling Thunder Revue tour of 1975.

Since Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan is all about cover versions, next up is a favorite Dylan cover by Eric Clapton, also from 1975.

Next we have "Hurricane" from Desire (1976), the follow-up album to Blood on the Tracks. The song was about a boxer named Ruben "Hurricane" Carter who was believed to be not guilty of the murder he was incarcerated for. This live performance comes from 1975.

Finally, for a bonus video we go all the way back to 1965 for one of the first ever music videos, "Subterranean Homesick Blues".

Saturday Video Fun: Gotye & Whatever happened to Jem - They , Wish I, & Just a Ride (all 2004)

2012-01-28T20:57:00.012-05:00

With the video still being posted on Facebook, and with now regular airplay on WXPN, I've been hearing that Gotye single, "Somebody That I Used to Know" quite a bit. Also, that Canadian band Walk Off the Earth who does the good sounding cover version, got flown this week to Los Angeles by the Ellen show, to perform "Somebody That I Used to Know" on her daytime talk show. No matter which version you hear, the song has a riff in it that clearly reminds me of a song by Welsh singer-songwriter Jem. That song is called "They" and it's our video of the week. To get the full effect, first jump back two weeks and listen to about the first minute of the Gotye single.

In 2004, Jem (Jem Griffiths) was all over the airwaves, both radio and MTV on both sides of the Atlantic with hit singles from her album Finally Woken. "They" was the first single; it was followed in short order by "Just a Ride".

Once the Gotye song made me think of Jem, the next logical question is whatever happened to her. Jem came back with her second album, Down to Earth, in 2008. It was a solid album with a sound somewhat more evolved than the danceable riffs that her earlier songs were built on. Unfortunately, the second album didn't have any hits and is relatively unknown. According to her official website (which has apparently not been updated since last summer), she had planned to release on September 1, 2011 an album commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. That album was never released and no further information is available. Jem is a talented singer and songwriter and hopefully we will hear from her again. Meanwhile, here is the third single from Finally Woken, "Wish I".

Saturday Video Fun: RIP Kodak, Paul Simon - Kodachrome (1973) & Cyndi Lauper - True Colors (1986)

2012-01-21T08:34:00.001-05:00

The Eastman Kodak Company declared bankruptcy this week marking a sad chapter to their 100+ year history of providing photographic equipment, supplies, and services to the world. You didn't have to be a photographer to feel a trace of sadness at the news on Thursday. If you grew up before there were digital cameras, you most certainly have used either a Kodak camera, film, processing, or more likely, all three.

In my life before digital, I shot only color slides. Kodachrome 64 was my film of choice. Kodak developed my slides and I looked at them on a Kodak Carousel slide projector that I bought with money I earned one winter shoveling snow in the neighborhood when I was about twelve.

Paul Simon captured very well the love that photographers had for Kodachrome in this song from his 1973 album, There Goes Rhymin' Simon. They weren't making videos in 1973, but there are a plethora of homemade videos on YouTube, of which this one is the best.

In 1986, Cyndi Lauper had a number one hit with "True Colors", the title track to her second album. She also got a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Vocal Performance. It didn't take long for the song to be licensed to Kodak for use in television commercials that ran all through the late 80s, and forever linked this song with Kodak.

For a bonus video this week, here is one of those Kodak commercials.

Grover Washington, Jr. - Grover Live (2010), A True Gift

2012-01-18T13:50:00.016-05:00

Grover Live

Listen to "Winelight"

Yesterday I made a huge find on Amazon. As a longtime fan of Grover Washington Jr., I, like everyone else who knew and loved the man or his music, was saddened by his death in 1999 when he was just 56. Somehow news of this album's release escaped me until now. I'll let Amazon describe it.

"America's greatest R&B-funk and soul-jazz saxophonist, Grover Washington, Jr., (December 12, 1943-December 17, 1999) was one of the first musicians to successfully fuse R&B, pop, funk, blues, and jazz. "Grover Live" is a previously unreleased live recording. Captured on June 7, 1997 in Peekskill, NY, this album reveals Washington and his famous backing band blowing the roof off the sold out 1,500-seat Paramount Center for the Performing Arts."

Listen to "East River Drive"

This was not anything slapped quickly together to cash in, this was a true labor of love, a magnificent addition to his legacy, and a real gift to his fans, family and friends. Grover Liveis a live album done right, the way I wish all live albums would be done. For starters, it was recorded at one show, with all his song intros and comments to the audience included, and you can hear that Grover was the complete performer, bringing the audience along with a friendly rapport that's totally endearing.

He played a wonderful set that nicely touched on all parts of his career and included most every favorite that his fans might want to hear. Grover is known for having a fabulous band and this night was no exception, here's the personnel.

Grover Washington, Jr. - Tenor, Soprano, Alto, Baritone Sax
Donald Robinson -Keyboards & Musical Director
Adam Holzman - Keyboards
Gerald Veasley - Bass
Richard Lee Steacker - Guitars
Steven Wolf - Drums
Pablo Batista - Congas & Percussion

Listen to "Just The Two Of Us"

The production on this project is outstanding; the sound quality of the recording is superb, and the level of care that went into the package and the ten page booklet is commensurate with everything else about this album. There are two user reviews that speak to the beauty of Grover Live.Anne A "jazz woman" really nails it when she says

"He plays with such splendid intensity, deep soul, funk & groove, and passion. He's a true genius at melody and improvisation. Superb audio quality, and a feast of his biggest hits played live. It's a lot of music, about 80 minutes - and conversation. To hear the warmth of Grover's voice makes this such a special experience."

Listen to "Let It Flow (For "Dr. J")"

But the best thing I found perusing the user reviews, was this from Grover's daughter Shana.

"5.0 out of 5 stars Grover's Daughter, Shana, August 31, 2010
By Shana B. Washington "littlebeigegirl" (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Hi everyone! We are really excited about all of the feedback from all media! This was a labor of love... 10+ years in the making. We had to edit the concert down which was really hard but we feel like we got the true essence of who my father was on stage. It was a TEAM effort! Much love and respect to everyone involved.

I love it! My daughters... Grover's grandchildren, go to sleep to this cd and love it as well. Thank you to all the fans who haven't forgotten great music and an even better man! Enjoy!
-Shana"

This CD is a great bargain, even at Amazon's normal price of $16.85, but through the end of January, you can get the MP3 download for just $5.00 as part of Amazon's 1,000 albums for $5.00 promotion.

Saturday Video Fun: The First New Hit of 2012, Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know

2012-01-14T08:09:00.001-05:00

Eight days ago, I had never heard the name Gotye. A week ago yesterday, blog friend and UK correspondent Lee posted this video on his Facebook page with the comment "...An early favourite song of 2012 - already been huge in Australia, out here shortly". Over the next few days more people posted this same video to Facebook, and by mid-week the thing seemed to have gone viral. By Friday the song had been added for airplay on WXPN. Check it out.

Gotye's real name is Wouter "Wally" De Backer, and he's Belgian/Australian. In the last half of 2011, "Somebody That I Used To Know" was a huge hit, selling 6X platinum in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium and Holland. The recording also features New Zealand musician Kimbra.

Not fifteen minutes after I first saw Lee's post of the Gotye video, a Canadian friend posted the following video of an excellent cover version by the Canadian indie band Walk off the Earth featuring Sarah Blackwood from another indie band, the Creepshow.

Gotye's Website
Gotye's Facebook
Walk off the Earth's Website
Walk off the Earth's Facebook

Rosie Thomas to Release New Album, With Love, on Valentine's Day, Plus Lots of Free Music

2012-01-13T13:56:00.001-05:00

Rosie Thomas, whose last album, These Friends of Mine was one of my favorite releases of 2007, will release her next album, With Love, on February 14th. Right now you can listen and download for free, a song from the new album, "Where Was I", which sounds pretty great.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://rosiethomas.bandcamp.com/track/where-was-i"&amp;amp;amp;gt;Where Was I by Rosie Thomas&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;
Last month, Rosie also released a new Christmas song, "Remember When It Snowed". This song is still available, you can listen and download it free below.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://rosiethomas.bandcamp.com/album/remember-when-it-snowed"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Remember When It Snowed by Rosie Thomas&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;
Rosie's last effort (not counting her Christmas album) was a beautiful collection of songs exquisitely written and performed and recorded by Rosie with her friends Sufjan Stevens and Dennison Witmer called These Friends of Mine. If you don't already have it, now you can listen and download it for free right here. It's truly a special record, enjoy.

Rosie Thomas' Website
Rosie Thomas' Facebook

Saturday Video Fun: Baz Luhrman-Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) (1999) & Les Crane-Desiderata (1971) & National Lampoon-Deteriorata (1972)

2011-12-31T09:05:00.000-05:00

Since it's New Year's, that's a good time for some life advice (hang in with this, it'll all be worth it when you see the last video). Happy New Year everyone.

"Sunscreen" was written in 1997 by a columnist in the Chicago Tribune, Mary Schmich. It was not a commencement address given by Kurt Vonnegut as it is commonly miscredited. "Sunscreen" resembles the 1927 poem "Desiderata" which became popular in the late sixties, emblazoned on posters and such. In 1971 Les Crane, a radio (and later television) talk show host, made a spoken word recording of "Desiderata" which was released as a single and became a top ten hit in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. They didn't normally make videos back then, but this is a homemade video, looking good with photos of England's Lake District.

There may never have been a record more ripe for parody than "Desiderata". And there may never have been a group of comics more talented at the art of song parody than those at the National Lampoon. In the early seventies, through record albums like National Lampoon Radio Dinner and a nationality syndicated radio show in 1974, they produced a great many song parodies which were all amazing in their writing (hugely funny), and in their execution; Christopher Guest was most especially good at sounding exactly like whoever was the subject of the parody.

The names of the people who worked at the National Lampoon read like a who's who of comedy: Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Christopher Guest, Michael O'Donoghue, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Gilda Radner, Harry Shearer, Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, Richard Belzer, Tony Scheuren, and Flo & Eddie, just to name a few. When NBC first put Saturday Night Live on the air in 1975, they turned to the National Lampoon to fill their writing and air staffs; Second City TV did the same.

The parody was written by Tony Hendra and read by Norman Rose. Christopher Guest did the music and Melissa Manchester sang the backup parts. "Deteriorata" comes from the Radio Dinner album. There are lots of homemade videos of "Deteriorata" and they're all lame except for this one.

My Christmas Mixtape (2011)

2011-12-24T09:53:00.000-05:00

This is a digital update of a Christmas mixtape that has been in the works for roughly thirty years. It is a collection of MP3s, the equivalent of a double CD, 36 songs, 2 hours, 18 minutes running time. All through this article you will see references to the Capitol Christmas album that my sister and I listened to as kids. At the time that the bulk of this was written, I had yet to find that elusive LP from 1955, but only few days later, I made that momentous find. You can read all about it and hear some tracks by clicking here.

Through the annotated track list that follows, I have included some of the songs from the mix to listen to while you read. If you would like to hear the mix in it's entirety, drop me an email, wkates@hotmailcom.

The Music: Like that Capitol Christmas album from childhood, the new MP3 mix consists of traditional, popular, and novelty songs. The mix includes all genres of music covering seven decades; from the earliest songs of the 1950's right up to a song recorded this year, all the decades are represented.

This is not meant to be any sort of list of the best Christmas music; it's just a collection of tunes that I've grown attached to over the years. Even though my normal pattern of Christmas listening involves mostly albums, albums are not represented in the mix except for just a few songs. Most of the songs in the mix began life as singles, some have been released on CD, and some of them are rarities. I hope you like it.

1. Dave Cameron - Twas the Night Before Christmas (1975)

In the mid-seventies, I worked at WRHY, Starview (PA). Starview was an FM rock station broadcasting to the Harrisburg/Lancaster/York market; I did weeknights, 7pm to midnight. Dave Cameron was the morning drive-time host and he was multi-talented; in addition to the radio show, he was a singer, he worked weekends as a singing waiter at a restaurant in Valley Forge. He was also a humorist and he wrote and recorded this version of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" which was aired on the station during the Christmas season of 1975. This recording opened the funny side of my old Christmas mixtape. There are lots of pop culture references such as Telly Savalas who played a Tootsie Pop sucking police detective on the show Kojak.

Listen to Dave Cameron - "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

2. Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band - Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

"It's all cold down along the beach, wind whippin' down the boardwalk..." In the mid-seventies, Columbia Records sent out this live recording to radio stations. They did not put it on record until many years later. At the time the only way to get this, if you were a Bruce fan, was to record it off the radio. Which is exactly how this song ended up opening the rock side of my old Christmas mixtape. Now it can be found on numerous Christmas collection CDs. Bruce is not doing the traditional tune here, this is a cover of the Phil Spector version as done by The Crystals. As you can tell by listening to it, this recording captured Bruce and band at their absolute best.

3. Prelude - A Message From Prelude
Prelude was a classic one-hit wonder band. In 1974, they had a hit with a beautiful a capella version of Neil Young's "After the Goldrush". When the Christmas season rolled around, their label sent this Christmas message out to radio stations on a promo 45. Like their hit, they sang their greeting to the tune of "After the Goldrush".

4. Nat King Cole - The Christmas Song
Considered by many (including me) to be the greatest Christmas song ever recorded, this song was written by Mel Torme and Bob Wells in 1944. I consider Nat King Cole to have possessed the best male singing voice I've ever heard. Here he is graced with the perfect arrangement for a small jazz band with strings. I can only imagine what it would have been like to be in the recording studio when this was cut. I've enjoyed this song ever since hearing it on that Capitol Christmas album we listened to as kids.

5. Mindy Smith - My Holiday
In 2007, Mindy Smith released her third and best album, My Holiday. This record contained about half familiar Christmas songs and the rest were all new songs written by Mindy. The familiar songs are good but what really makes this album great is the quality of the original songs. The songwriting is exceptional and the whole recording has great vocals, instrumental performances, and production. This is my favorite Christmas album of the past twenty years. The songs from this album routinely show up on the most listened to section of my iTunes and since I only listen for one month each year, that should tell you something.

Listen to Mindy Smith - "My Holiday"

6. Chris Rea - Driving Home for Christmas
Chris Rea has had an excellent career in Britain and Europe which is now in its fourth decade. He had a minor hit in the US with a track from his first album, but some mishandling by his American label lead to his inclination not to pursue a career here. The closest his tours ever brought him was Montreal; my brother and I drove ten hours each way just to see him in concert (it was well worth it). In 1988, "Driving Home for Christmas" was the title track of his Christmas EP, released in the UK. It has great British vernacular like "top to toe in tailbacks" which means bumper to bumper traffic.

7. The Whispers - Merry Christmas Darling
"Another Christmas on the road..." This Carpenters classic has not had many cover versions, in fact it is the only one I know of and it works so well in a soul version that I had to include it even though you will hear the original later in this mix. This comes from an album called 'Tis the Season which was released in 1997. It featured a who's who of contemporary sou/jazz artists and even though each track had a different artist, the excellent production by George Duke, Russ Freeman, and Maurice White made the album sound cohesive and it is a true delight from start to finish.

8. Stan Freberg - Green Chri$tma$
"Green Chri$tma$" is a dead-on send up of Christmas advertising by one of the best at the real ad game. Stan Freberg is an author, recording artist, animation voice actor, comedian, radio personality, puppeteer, and advertising creative director. When "Green Chri$tma$" was recorded in 1958, it met with huge resistance because of feared offense to the advertising community; and it wasn't just radio that resisted, his own label, Capitol initially refused to release it. By the 1970s it started getting airplay on FM rock stations which is where I heard it and the record was a much sought after collector's item until it was included in Dr. Demento's Greatest Christmas Novelty CD of All Time.

9. John & Yoko & The Plastic Ono Band With The Harlem Community Choir - Happy Christmas
"And so this is Christmas..." This has been a perennial Christmas classic ever since it was first released in 1971. I remember getting a festive green vinyl single when it first came out. Now you can find this on many various artist Christmas CD collections.

10. Leroy Anderson / Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops Orchestra - Sleigh Ride
Leroy Anderson was one of the best songwriter/composers in his time. His forte was the super catchy melody, often adorned with sound effects. There is no better example of his work than "Sleigh Ride" which was performed and recorded in 1949 by Arthur Fiedler and his orchestra.

11. Greg Lake - I Believe in Father Christmas
"They said there'd be snow at Christmas..." Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, released this ode to innocence at Christmas back in 1975. Lake, who was never one for understatement, pulled out all the stops for this one including a signature riff by Prokofiev, full orchestra and choir. Over the next several years there were at least three different versions of this song recorded by ELP all with stripped down arrangements. Lake even did a revised version at one point. The version here is the original Greg Lake single with all the orchestral and choral bombast intact. I love this record.

12. Cheech and Chong - Santa Claus and His Old Lady
"Santa Clause is not a musician..." "I can dig, that cat didn't know any tunes..." You don't need to smoke anything to enjoy the humor of Cheech and Chong. This good-hearted look at Santa Claus and Christmas from the standpoint of a misguided musician works every time. The more years you listen to it, the more endearing it gets. This was first released as a single in 1971. Now it can be found on various Christmas collection CDs including the Dr. Demento CD.

13. Yogi Yorgesson - I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas
"Just before Christmas dinner I relax to a point, then relatives start swarming all over the joint". This dates back to that Capitol Christmas album we played as kids. This is as funny now as it was then. Yogi Yorgesson may not actually have been Swedish, but as a Norwegian born comic singer he knew his territory. Yogi Yorgesson was a stage name used by Harry Stewart (born Hans Skarbo) who had several humorous personas of different nationalities. I've been listening to this record for so long that this screwball view of Christmas has been assimilated by my brain as part of Christmas tradition. "I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas" was released by Capitol in 1949, backed with "Yingle Bells". It was his biggest selling record, earning a gold record for selling one million copies; hard to believe, Harry.

14. Billy May and His Orchestra - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Mambo
Here's another track that dates back to that Capitol Christmas album that we had as kids. The Billy May Orchestra recorded this in 1953 and it really swings. I'm sure that the players had a blast recording it. "What heck is a mambo!"

15. Yogi Yorgesson - Yingle Bells
I first heard this song in the mid-seventies when I finally found the re-released single of "I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas". Even though we already heard Yogi in this mix, the record is too funny to leave out. If you listen to the mix in your iTunes player, you will see the original 1949 picture cover as released by Capitol Records. Just looking at it cracks me up.

Listen to Yogi Yorgesson - "Yingle Bells"

16. Stan Freberg - Christmas Dragnet

Here's another Christmas classic by the great Stan Freberg, a perfect parody of a Dragnet episode. Dragnet was a police drama that began on radio and also became a popular television show in the fifties and sixties. Each episode was based on a real case from the files of the Los Angeles Police Department. Jack Webb was forever associated with his character, Joe Friday. Freberg's parody got the voices and personalities of the characters sounding as real as could be. The story is so well written that if you hear it a few times you won't get through the Christmas season without quoting it. "Love to have ya..."

17. Tom Lehrer - A Christmas Carol
"Relations sparing no expense will send some useless old utensil..." Musical satirist Tom Lehrer released this bit of Christmas cheer in 1959 on a live album, An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer.

18. David Bowie & Bing Crosby - Little Drummer Boy / Peace on Earth
This delightful duet comes from a 1977 TV special called Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas. Initially released on record only in England, I have an import 12" vinyl single that has the complete long version that includes the dialogue introduction from the show. The song minus the dialogue is now fairly common on American CD Christmas collections. For this mix we had to go with the long version. Bowie reportedly hated "Little Drummer Boy" so the producers had "Peace on Earth" written specifically for the show. Sadly, Bing Crosby died shortly after recording this show.

19. Chrissi Poland - I'll Think of You On Christmas
Back in 2006, a good four years before her wonderful debut album/EP, Chrissi Poland released a Christmas single on iTunes (where it's still available). Even though this song is somewhat different from what she is doing now, it's still a nice slice of pure pop that will surely bring you some holiday cheer. I have the Mariah Carey Christmas album and there's nothing on it any better than "I'll Think of You On Christmas".

20. Elton John - Step Into Christmas
Elton John got into the swing of Christmas with this peppy party single released in 1973. Like most Elton John songs, Elton wrote the music and Bernie Taupin wrote the words. This was on the rock side of my old mixtape.

21. Johnny Mercer - Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town
"Fat man's comin', fat man's comin'..." The forties and fifties were something of a golden age for popular singers and orchestras, and as a result this was also a golden age for Christmas music. Because Capitol Records was so dominant in this period, they wound up with a vault full of Christmas classics by the best artists of the time. This track first appeared in 1955 on that Capitol collection I listened to as a kid. One of the earliest singer-songwriters, Johnny Mercer was also a lyricist and wrote the lyrics to about fifteen hundred songs. He also co-founded Capitol Records. His "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" really swings.

Listen to Johnny Mercer - Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town"

22. Mel Blanc - Yah Das Ist Ein Christmas Tree
Mel Blanc is best known as the voice of the classic Warner Bros. Looney Tunes cartoons; he also did characters from The Flintstones and The Jetsons to name a few. He recorded this Christmas song in the fifties as a parody of a certain type of German song that was used as a teaching tool. This initially came out on a 78 rpm record. It was included on that Capitol Christmas album that molded my childhood.

23. Joe Dolce - Jingle Bell Rock
Joe Dolce is a singer/comedian who did straight music for most of his career but he had his biggest hit with a comedy record done with Italian accent and slang, called "Shaddap Up You Face" which was inspired by his Italian grandparents; the record went on to sell 6 million copies. In the wake of that success, he made a Christmas album using the same Italian persona. "Jingle Bell Rock" came out as a single in 1981 which is when John DeBella used to play it on the WMMR Morning Zoo, and it wound up on my old mixtape.

24. Billy Squier - Christmas Is the Time to Say 'I Love You'
This fun Christmas song came out as a single in 1981 and was quickly adopted by MTV for their video Christmas card. The video was shot in the MTV studios with the five original VJs and all the rest of the MTV office staff and technical crew singing along and partying with Squier. This was back in the early days of MTV when they actually played music videos and had VJs to introduce them sort of like a video version of a radio station (hence the name MTV which stood for Music Television). This one was on the rock side of my old mixtape.

25. The Royal Guardsmen - Snoopy's Christmas
"Merry Christmas, my friend..." The Royal Guardsmen first hit in 1966 with "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron", followed by "The Return of the Red Baron". "Snoopy's Christmas" was released in 1967 and is actually the best song of the three. For the mix I did not use my old 45, but instead this is a 1999 remaster for CD.

Listen to The Royal Guardsmen - "Snoopy's Christmas"

26. Larry Saklad (Alan Mann Band) - Christmas On the Block
Alan Mann was a local musician in Philadelphia who developed a following in the 1980s. In 1986 he released this poignant Christmas song as a local single. Larry tells the story behind the song on his website. "… Alan Mann was late getting home to his girlfriend, and somewhere in West Phila-Overbrook, had a vision of the wonderful lights decorating a School For The Blind, feeling both the irony and magic of how that must be for those students, that “their’s is the most beautiful Christmas On The Block”, and had the whole song written by the time he arrived." He did make a video which got some play on MTV. Mann was tragically killed in 1987. His keyboard player Larry Saklad has kept the spirit of this song alive over the years and this year to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original, he recorded a new version minus the kid chorus. The original was also part of my old mixtape.

27. National Lampoon - Kung Fu Christmas
"Kung Fu Christmas" originated on the National Lampoon Radio Hour which was a syndicated, comedy radio show in 1974. When NBC first put Saturday Night Live on the air, they used almost all the staff of the Lampoon Radio Hour for their Not Ready for Prime Time Players and also their writing staff; and those who didn't go to SNL all went on to Second City. "Kung Fu Christmas" was written, performed and produced by Bill Murray, Christopher Guest, Gilda Radner, and Brian Doyle Murray.

The NLRH produced a great many song parodies which were all amazing in their writing (hugely funny), and in their execution; Christopher Guest was most especially good at sounding exactly like whoever was the subject of the parody. The names of the people who worked on the NLRH read like a who's who of comedy: Chevy Chase, John Belushi, Christopher Guest, Michael O'Donoghue, Bill Murray, Brian Doyle-Murray, Gilda Radner, Harry Shearer, Harold Ramis, Joe Flaherty, Richard Belzer, Tony Scheuren, and Flo & Eddie, just to name a few. We carried the NLRH on my college radio station WECI. "Kung Fu Christmas" was released as a single in 1974; it also appears on a CD box set of NLRH, but that is a different version. For the mix I used the single.

28. Martin Mull - Santafly
In all that discussion of "Kung Fu Christmas", we didn't even get into the content of the parody; it was soul hit records of the time such as "Shaft", and also the prevalence of the martial arts/Blaxploitation movies that inspired Kung Fu tin many aspects of popular culture. On the other hand, Martin Mull's Christmas parody is much easier to identify; it was Curtis Mayfield's classic "Superfly" theme from the movie of the same name. Martin Mull is an actor, comedian, recording artist, and painter. At the time of "Santafly", Mull had not moved into acting in movies and television. Back then he was a comedian/singer-songwriter and he was known for his live performances where he set up the stage with living room furniture. In the seventies, Mull released a string of albums containing his songs which were all enormously funny. "Santafly" has never been released on an album or CD, this is the single from Christmas, 1973.

Listen to Martin Mull - "Santafly"

29. Robert Earl Keen - Merry Christmas From the Family
This delightfully dysfunctional Christmas song was recorded by alt-country singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keen in 1994. It's the kind of song that even if you don't like it at first, it grows on you like a fungus. This track came from Keen's Gringo Honeymoon album. C'mon down to Texas and hang out with us at the trailer park y'all.

30. Willie Nelson - Pretty Paper
Willie Nelson wrote this song in 1963 when it was recorded and became a hit for Roy Orbison. Willie recorded his own version as the title track for his Christmas album released in 1979. A classic.

31. The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping
This great record has been a perennial favorite for many people ever since it first appeared in 1981 on The Waitresses album A Christmas Record. "Christmas Wrapping" still gets to me after all these years. This was also on my old my old mixtape.

32. Leon Redbone - Christmas Island
No one takes you back to the forties like Leon Redbone who seems to have time traveled here. "Christmas Island" is the title track of his Christmas album, released in 1987. This Hawaiian Christmas song has been recorded by many, but it originated in the 1940's with the Andrews Sisters backed by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra. Redbone's version sounds at least that old, and his warm baritone sounds great for late nights at Christmastime.

33. Joe Williams - What Are You Doing New Year's Eve
There's something about the union of Christmas music and jazz that really works. Longtime jazz singer Joe Williams recorded That Holiday Feeling in 1990. His smooth voice, combines with perfect jazz ensemble arrangements to create the ultimate late night Christmas album. In fact, every year after everyone in the house went to bed on Christmas Eve, I would put this album on while arranging the presents under the tree. There are loads of versions of "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve", but I never heard any that I like better than this.

34. Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison - Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
I originally had a different version of this song at this position in the mix. Hamish Stuart actually made a lovely Christmas EP but his take on this song was a little too straightforward to follow Joe Williams. I needed something a little bit jazzier. So I sampled all of the versions in my iTunes library (49 of them), and I found this jazzy version that fit perfectly between the Joe Williams and the Mindy Smith tracks, from a most unlikely source. Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison are two country singer-songwriters who, it just so happens, are married to each other. I've followed Kelly's career for some time now, and if you don't know her, you may have heard of her sister, Shelby Lynne.

35. Mindy Smith - It Really Is (A Wonderful Life)
The original songs that Mindy Smith wrote for her Christmas album are just so good that I couldn't resist including one more. The joy in this song is reflected in the slightly jazzy arrangement, and the feeling is hard to resist, just go with it.

36. The Carpenters - Merry Christmas Darling
"Greeting cards have all been sent..." After Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song", this is my next favorite Christmas record. Many consider The Carpenters to be lightweights or a guilty pleasure, or both. I like The Carpenters (and I don't feel the slightest bit guilty about it) primarily because I can't get enough of Karen's voice which was a magic, one of a kind gift. To my ears, her voice was sort of a female counterpart to Nat King Cole. We can only guess what she might have done with her career, had her life not been tragically cut short due to complications of anorexia. As for them being lightweights, sure they had a lot of top forty hits, and they are known for covering some of the best American songwriters, but this song is a Carpenters original, written by Richard Carpenter and Frank Pooler. It was an immediate hit when it was first released as a single in 1970 and it's retained its popularity over the years. This is another one that gets to me every time.

Listen to The Carpenters - "Merry Christmas Darling"

About the Cover: The photograph at the top of this article is of an ornament that's been in my family since probably before I was born. It's a plastic cylinder with a metal fan blade suspended on a pin so that it can spin freely. By locating it on the tree above a light bulb, the heat generated by the light makes the air rise which makes the spinner turn. We have two of these ornaments and placing them on the tree is always a high priority. When I first planned the mix, I knew I would want a picture of this for the cover. This photo was taken Christmas Eve 2004.

Saturday Video Fun: Greg Lake - I Believe In Father Christmas (1975)

2011-12-24T08:10:00.000-05:00

"They said there'd be snow at Christmas..." Greg Lake of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, released this ode to innocence at Christmas back in 1975. Lake, who was never one for understatement, pulled out all the stops for this one including a signature riff by Prokofiev, full orchestra and choir. Over the next several years there were at least three different versions of this song recorded by ELP all with stripped down arrangements. Lake even did a revised version at one point. The version here is the original Greg Lake single with all the orchestral and choral bombast intact.

When it first came out, the video was the subject of some controversy; principally shot in the Sinai Desert and West Bank of Israel, it included some footage of the Vietnam war. We have two bonus videos for you this week. In the first, Greg Lake and lyricist Pete Sinfield talk about writing the song.

Since it's Christmas, we dug up a live version of Emerson Lake & Palmer playing "Nutrocker" which is based on Tchaikovski's "Nutcracker". The reason that they look so incredibly young in this video is because it was shot when ELP first started out as a band, in 1971, this concert was in Belgium.

Saturday Video Fun: A Very Calvin & Hobbes Christmas (2011)

2011-12-17T16:51:00.010-05:00

If you "like" the Calvin & Hobbes page on Facebook, you get a daily quotation from either Calvin or Hobbes posted to your news feed. Yesterday, in lieu of the usual words of wisdom came this video treat from the C&H folks.

Calvin & Hobbes was a beloved comic strip that ran in most daily newspapers from 1985 until its author, Bill Watterson retired in 1995. One of Watterson's favorite themes in the wintertime was to have Calvin create scenes with snowmen, and one was more twisted than the next. This video is credited to Jim Frommeyer, Teague Chrystie, and Bill Watterson. The music is "Winter Wonderland by Perry Como.

As a bonus video this week, we have the opening scene from the classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas, music by Vince Guaraldi.

Various Artists - Merry Christmas To You, Capitol Records (1955)

2011-12-14T21:19:00.001-05:00

This is the album that started it all for me, back when I was about six or seven years old. I've always loved the Christmas season and Christmas music has always played a major part in it. My first memory of Christmas music is sitting on the floor of our living room and with my sister, listening to our mom's Christmas albums on a hi-fi which was in a cabinet that was furniture. Even though stereo didn't exist back then, the person who put together this system must have anticipated stereo because there was a large speaker on either side of the cabinet that held the automatic turntable, the amp, and the radio tuner.

Listen to Dean Martin - The Christmas Blues

There were only a handful of albums; they were by a few of the singers or orchestras that were popular at the time (late '50s/early '60s), one may have been by the Percy Faith Orchestra, stuff like that. The album that I've always remembered is this one; even though I didn't know the title, I could picture the cover and I remembered the tracks by Nat King Cole, Mel Blanc, and Yogi Yorgessen. My sister and I used to roll on the floor laughing (even before that became an internet acronym) listening to the novelty songs on this record.

Listen to Yogi Yorgesson - I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas

I had been in search of this album for all of my adult life until now; more about how I found it later. As my record collection began to grow through high school and college years, whenever I saw Christmas records for sale, I always had my eye out for this album, to no avail. I did however start to find the songs I remembered. The Nat King Cole song was easy; as pretty much the ultimate classic Christmas song, it has never gone out of print. The next one I found was the Yogi Yorgessen, reissued by Capitol as a single in the mid '70s. I worked as a DJ on an FM rock station in the '70s and one of the guys there had the Mel Blanc song on an old 78 which I recorded.

Listen to Les Baxter - Santa Claus' Party

That was about it for songs from this album until the late 80s; with the advent of CDs, Capitol released a series of well programmed and well documented collections of Christmas music from their vault. The very first one they released was Christmas Kissesand when I first heard it I knew I had hit paydirt as it contained a bunch of songs from my childhood memory of this album.

When I finally found Merry Christmas to You, there were two different blogs that featured this album and it seems that Christmas music enthusiasts all agree that this was one of the best Christmas albums ever released. Having listened to it now, all these years later, I would have to agree. There were actually several different releases with minor cover differences and there were both 12 track and 16 track versions of it. The cover above is the one that we had, which was the 16 track release, as follows.

Side 1:
1. Nat "King" Cole - (All I Want for Christmas Is) My Two Front Teeth
2. Dean Martin - The Christmas Blues
3. Billy May - Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Mambo
4. Nat "King" Cole - The Christmas Song
5. Frank Sinatra - The Christmas Waltz
6. Margaret Whiting - Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
7. Yogi Yorgesson - I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas
8. Les Paul & Mary Ford - Jingle Bells

Side 2:
1. Johnny Mercer - Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
2. Les Baxter - Santa Claus' Party
3. Louis Castellucci - Sleigh Ride
4. Les Paul & Mary Ford - Silent Night
5. Margaret Whiting & Jimmy Wakely - Silver Bells
6. Frank Sinatra - White Christmas
7. Johnny Mercer - Winter Wonderland
8. Mel Blanc - Yah Das Ist Ein Christmas Tree

Even though I cut my teeth on The Beatles and my main musical interest starts there, I've come to appreciate much of the music that existed before 1963. Although it doesn't get a lot of press, the period of the '40s and early '50s (before rock and roll) really was a golden age of sorts for popular music and it seems like the majority of great singers, bands, and orchestras recorded for Capitol Records. Nowhere is this golden age more evident than in the Christmas music of that time; which is surveyed very nicely on Capitol's Merry Christmas to You.

Listen to Johnny Mercer - Winter Wonderland

Part of the beauty of this album is that it contains a nice mix of traditional, popular, and novelty songs. I didn't quite realize it until I found the tracklist, that this album served subconsciously as a template for every Christmas mixtape I've ever made, including the MP3 mix I am currently putting the finishing touches on. Watch this space for a post with all the details.

How I Finally Found It: I have done Google image searches from time to time, searching on "Capitol Christmas Albums 1950's and 1960's". I had done that a few times just this fall. As I was preparing my new mix, I was using the song "Yingle Bells" by Yogi Yorgessen (it was the flip side of "I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas") from a 45 rpm single because this track has never made it to CD.

When I add a track to iTunes, I always try to put the original cover on it. In this case, I wasn't expecting to find much but when I googled "Yogi Yorgessen - Yingle Bells" I lucked out and found the cardboard picture cover of the original single released by Capitol in 1951. On the same page of image results with the cover were numerous other covers of Christmas albums from the time period; these albums may have contained "Yingle Bells".

This gave me an idea. Since I knew that the album I was looking for had "I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas" I then googled "Yogi Yorgessen - I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas" and voilà! Right on the first page of image results were two of the covers of Merry Christmas to You. The cover was exactly as I had remembered it.

The Re-creation: All of the tracks contained on Merry Christmas to You have been issued on various CDs over the years. I have reassembled the album with MP3s of the tracks from CD. If you would like to hear this album in its entirety, drop me a note to wkates@hotmail.com. If you are a do-it-yourselfer and would rather assemble it from the source CDs, I have all the CDs shown below.

Listen to Nat "King" Cole - The Christmas Song (1949 Version)

For accuracy I researched and dug up the versions that were used on this 1955 release. The version of The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole that we all know and love was recorded in 1961 and that version is on most Christmas CDs. The version that was available in 1955 was Nat King Cole's original 1949 recording which I was able to find on CD (below).

Listen to Frank Sinatra - The Christmas Waltz

Frank Sinatra had not yet made a Christmas album in 1955, but he did release a single in 1954 with "White Christmas" b/w "The Christmas Waltz" with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra. These single tracks were used on Merry Christmas to You. Sinatra made his first Christmas album, Jolly Christmas, in 1957 for Capitol. Backing Sinatra on this album are the Ralph Brewster Singers and the Gordon Jenkins orchestra. I find this album to be way more enjoyable than his later Christmas records for the same reason that popular music from the 40s and 50s was so good. Fortunately, when Jolly Christmas was remastered on CD they added the 1954 single sides as bonus tracks.

More Fun: Today I just happened to find this video tribute to Mel Blanc and his Christmas song that is on this album. Apparently Larry Rapchak was just as fond of this album as a kid, as we were. During the intro he shows his copy of the album which was a 14 track version. The video he made to go with this song is a loving tribute to Mel Blanc, to this album, and is quite funny in its own right.

Christmas Kisses
CD Track 03, LP Side 1: Track 6
CD Track 07, LP Side 2: Track 1
CD Track 08, LP Side 1: Track 7
CD Track 10, LP Side 2: Track 5
CD Track 11, LP Side 1: Track 8
CD Track 12, LP Side 2: Track 8
CD Track 14, LP Side 1: Track 3
CD Track 21, LP Side 2: Track 5

Let It Snow: Cuddly Christmas Classics From Capitol
CD Track 04, LP Side 1: Track 5
CD Track 06, LP Side 1: Track 1

Merry Christmas, Baby: Romance And Reindeer From Capitol
CD Track 19, LP Side 2: Track 7

Merry Christmas At The Movies
CD Track 13, LP Side 2: Track 2

The Definitive American Songbook, Vol. 11: A Vintage Christmas
CD Track 01, LP Side 1: Track 4
CD Track 03, LP Side 2: Track 3

Frank Sinatra - Jolly Christmas
CD Track 13, LP Side 2: Track 6
CD Track 14, LP Side 1: Track 5

Saturday Video Fun: Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms & Money For Nothing (1985)

2011-12-10T17:51:00.009-05:00

Continuing our occasional series, classics of music video, this week we have two videos from Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms album which was released in 1985 and was a worldwide #1 album. It was the first rock album recorded completely in digital (DDD) and it was the first CD to outsell the vinyl version.

"Brothers in Arms" was not a single but as the signature song of the album it got a video made nonetheless. The album opened with three monster hit singles, then the rest of the album was a concept album on the subject of war and the title track concluded the album.

"Brothers in Arms" is not only a great song but it contains what many consider to be Mark Knopfler's most beautiful and emotional guitar solo. The song got a video of commensurate beauty with images of the band rotoscoped with drawings.

"Money for Nothing" featuring the voice of Sting singing "I Want My MTV" (copying an actual MTV promotion) was one of the aforementioned monster singles. The video was groundbreaking in that it was one of the very first uses of computer generated animation. Because of the MTV references in the song, it became one of the most frequently played videos on MTV.

One measure of a song or video's success is when it inspires a parody by Weird Al Yankovic. As a bonus this week, we bring you "Money for Nothing/ Beverly Hillbillies". Not only does Weird Al get the music and the vocals exactly right while substituting the lyrics from the old television show Beverly Hillbillies, but he also parodies the Dire Straits video, getting that exactly right too. Weird Al Yankovic has elevated parody to a high art.

It's a Chrissi Christmas: CPMP - In a Christmas Funk (2011)

2011-12-08T14:30:00.010-05:00

A mere three days after Chrissi Poland released "Another Lonely Christmas In New York", here comes a new Christmas song, this time a collaboration with Matt Pendergast.

If you'd like to download "In A Christmas Funk" by CPMP for just a buck, click here and may your Christmas be funky.

Chrissi Poland's Website
Chrissi Poland's Facebook

Matt Pendergast's Website
Matt Pendergast's Facebook

Chrissi Poland - Another Lonely Christmas In New York (2011)

2011-12-05T20:21:00.015-05:00

Chrissi Poland has just released (today) a new original Christmas song, "Another Lonely Christmas In New York". You can download the song here for just a buck. Before I saw the video, this song was bringing up lots of mental images of Manhattan at Christmas time, which is exactly what Chrissi went out and captured with her video cam. Have a look and a listen.

This has been a good year for Christmas music so far, with new Christmas songs by Keb Mo, The Civil Wars, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, She & Him, and Lyle Lovett. Add Chrissi to that number with this delightful tune. Yes, I said delightful even though it's technically a sad song, and that's because it has a happy feel to it (James Taylor was always the master of making sad songs sound happy). The thing I like best is the part about the wine and the fruitcake and how the backing singers react to the content of the lyrics. Delightful.

There's no chance of Chrissi being lonely this month, not with the slate of great events lined up on her performance schedule. If you're in the New York area, you owe it to yourself to get out to one or more of these shows.

December 10th - The 31st Annual John Lennon Tribute Concert, (Le) Poisson Rouge in NYC. In which Chrissi performs on the same bill with one of her heroes, Bettye Lavette along with a host of others, including Marshall Crenshaw and Steve Forbert.

December 14th - A Holiday Benefit, CD release show at Rockwood Music Hall in NYC. Chrissi donated "Another Lonely Christmas in New York" for inclusion on A Holiday Benefit Volume V, which is a four CD set containing 61 songs for A Holiday Benefit, "a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting inner city students ages 6-18 with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write."

December 18th - GIG at Highline Ballroom in NYC. "GIG is a collaborative show cycle that brings dance into unconventional venues and shines new light on new music." This is going to be a really big show and the great Martin Rivas will be opening, a show not to miss.

Chrissi Bonus Track: Many years ago, in 2006 to be exact, a good four years before her wonderful debut album/EP Songs From the Concrete, Chrissi released a Christmas single on iTunes where it's still available. Even though this song has little to do with what Chrissi is doing now, it's still a nice slice of pure pop that will surely bring you some holiday cheer. I'll go ahead and admit it, I have the Mariah Christmas album and there's nothing on it any better than "I'll Think of You On Christmas".

Listen to "I'll Think of You On Christmas"

Chrissi Poland's Website
Chrissi Poland's Facebook

Saturday Video Fun: Matraca Berg - You and Tequila (2011)

2011-12-03T15:15:00.011-05:00

We were glad to see Kenny Chesney and Grace Potter get two Grammy nominations for "You and Tequila", best country song, and best performance by a country duo or group. We featured their video a few Saturdays back.

Matraca Berg is the kind of songwriter who is best known for the hits that other artists have had with her songs, but no one does her stuff any better than she does. This year, Matraca released her own version of "You and Tequila" on her latest album, The Dreaming Fields,her fifth. We were delighted to find that she had also made a video for "You and Tequila".

Deana Carter co-wrote "You and Tequila" and recorded her own version back in 2004. Interestingly, Matraca got her first big break as a songwriter in 1997 when Deana had a major hit with Matraca's "Stawberry Wine", which went on to win song of the year from the CMA. Here is the video.

We can't stop now, for an extra bonus video this week, we found a nice live version of "Strawberry Wine" by Matraca.

The Civil Wars - Tracks In the Snow b/w O Come O Come Emmanuel (2011)

2011-11-30T20:00:00.006-05:00

The Civil Wars have a new Christmas single, released yesterday on iTunes. "Tracks In the Snow" is a new original.

Listen to "Tracks In the Snow"

"O Come O Come Emmanuel" is the traditional Christmas carol. Both tunes feature the delicate acoustic arrangements and beautifully intertwined vocals that The Civil Wars are known for.

Listen to "O Come O Come Emmanuel"

The normal price is 99¢ per track, but this week "O Come O Come Emmanuel" is the iTunes free holiday single of the week (through Monday December 5th).

Saturday Video Fun: Violette - Insomnie (2011)

2011-11-26T16:36:00.012-05:00

Violette is a talented singer-songwriter who left her native France to enroll at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. She stayed on here in the states to pursue her career and she is now based in New York City. "Insomnie" comes from Violette's third and latest album, Simple is Beautiful, and the song is as gorgeous as the video treatment they gave it. Enjoy.

On her latest, most of the songs are in English. Violette has a highly appealing voice and her music has influences of jazz, blues, soul, and rock and the result is an album that is thoroughly enjoyable. For a bonus video this week, we drop back to Violette's second album, Joie De Vivrefor "Vague À L'âme".

Violette's website
Violette's Facebook

Saturday Video Fun: Allman Brothers - In Memory of Elizabeth Reed, 9/23/1970

2011-11-19T13:17:00.000-05:00

The Allman Brothers Band set the bar pretty high when they debuted with two perfect albums: The Allman Brothers Band (1969)and Idlewild South (1970);there was not a slack track on either one of them. The term "southern rock" was coined to describe their music. Their lineup of two drummers and two guitarists was groundbreaking at the time and contributed to their live shows being a sensation; they are also one of the original jam bands.

"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" was filmed at one of the Allmans' favorite venues, the Fillmore East in New York City. Six months later, they came back to play the Fillmore again in March of 1971; those shows were recorded and became the Allman Brothers' third album, the double live The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East (1971)which was their big breakthrough to the mass audience. "Elizabeth Reed" came from Idlewild Southand when they played it live, it was always a crowd favorite.

This set was filmed for a PBS-TV special that was never shown. The videos are seeing the light of day now because they are part of Wolfgang's Vault, Bill Graham's vast collection of concerts that were recorded at his venerable venues. This was the classic original lineup of the Allman Brothers: Gregg Allman on organ and vocals, Duane Allman on guitar, Dickey Betts on guitar, Berry Oakley on bass, Butch Trucks on drums, and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson on drums. Here is one more track from the show. Enjoy.

Saturday Video Fun: Lana del Rey - Video Games & Blue Jeans (2011)

2011-11-12T16:11:00.009-05:00

Lana del Rey may be American born and raised, but her career first caught fire in Britain where tickets to her first London show (tomorrow) sold out in 30 minutes. Even though her single was just released October 10th worldwide, she was already a star across the pond based on the video for Video Games which was posted online back on July 10th.

In the month since the single's release, Video Games has reached number one on the iTunes sales charts in nine countries, and number three at U.S. iTunes. Lana made the video herself, editing together various clips with footage of her singing the song.

Lana del Rey is not her real name. Born Elizabeth Grant, her dad came up with her stage name, intended to evoke the glory days of Hollywood glamour. The single is listed on her web site as a double A-side single; the other song is Blue Jeans. A full length album is due early next year.

Saturday Video Fun: Billy Joel - Uptown Girl (1983) & Bruce Springsteen - I'm On Fire (1985)

2011-11-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

Billy Joel was a veritable hit making machine in the early eighties, as was Bruce Springsteen in the mid-eighties. This was the height of the video era, so we're pleased to present the second installment of our series, classics of music video.

Billy Joel released An Innocent Man in 1983. The album spawned six hit singles on the way to selling seven times platinum or seven million copies in the U.S. alone. "Uptown Girl" was the second single from the album and it reached #3 in the U.S., #1 in Britain. The video featured super model/actress Christie Brinkley who went on to marry Joel two years later in 1985.

Bruce Springsteen released Born in the U.S.A. in 1984. The album contained seven top ten singles, tying a record that was only ever achieved by Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson. Born in the U.S.A. was the biggest selling album of 1985 on the way to selling fifteen times platinum. Film Director John Sayles made the video for "I'm On Fire" which was the fourth single released from Born in the U.S.A.

Saturday Video Fun: Gretchen Wilson - Redneck Woman (2004)

2011-10-29T16:33:00.005-04:00

This week's video was suggested by blog friend Angela. "Redneck Woman" was the number one country single (#22 on the pop charts) that drove Gretchen Wilson's debut album Here for the Party (2004) to multi-platinum sales. About the video, we can only say, "Hell Yeah!"

Bonus Video: Elizabeth Cook - "Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be a Woman". This song comes from her fourth album, Balls (2007). Some country stations refused to play it for obvious reasons.

Saturday Video Fun: Phil Vassar - Carlene (2000)

2011-10-22T18:50:00.003-04:00

In the late 1990's Phil Vassar made his name as a country music songwriter. He was so good at it, that in 1999 ASCAP named him county songwriter of the year. In 2000 he released his first album as an artist. The album, simply titled Phil Vassar, spawned no less than four top ten country singles; his first, Carlene, achieved #5.
,

Vassar's songwriting style is somewhat recognizable, to the point that you can often tell a Phil Vassar song just by hearing it. Like this one, which became Jo Dee Messina's first number one country hit.

Shayna & The Catch - Lighthouse (2011)

2011-10-16T07:54:00.014-04:00

I've been waiting for this album ever since the night in May, 2008 when I happened into Rockwood Music Hall just as Shayna Zaid was preparing to go on. I had never heard of Shayna but it was apparent within the first couple of songs that I had wandered into something very special. The combination of Shayna's unique voice, her beautiful songwriting, and her powerful performance style had the entire room captivated.

For the last three years, Shayna and her band have worked tirelessly to improve their game. New songs have been written and added to the set, and old songs have been constantly polished and rearranged. They often use video from their shows to improve their performance and there have been personnel changes in the band with each new musician making the band better than ever before. Along the way, they recorded and self-produced two excellent EPs containing many of the songs from their live set.

All this work came to fruition late last year when Shayna and her band went into the studio with producer John Agnello (The Hold Steady, Sonic Youth) to make Lighthouse, Shayna's first full length American album. According to Shayna, the beauty of working with Agnello was that he encouraged them to be creative within the sound that they had worked so hard to perfect. Over the years, Shayna had rejected any deals that would have required them to change their sound. Staying true to their music has allowed them to make a record that sounds like no other. In the artist-friendly environment of the recording studio, their songwriting was allowed to flourish.

Of the twelve original songs (11 plus one hidden track), only three are from the live set, the rest were written specifically for Lighthouse. The music was written by Shayna and the band; the lyrics are all by Shayna. The album is almost entirely acoustic with the sound of the band being the combination of acoustic guitar and violin or acoustic guitar and mandolin. The album is a pleasure from start to finish but the first song that really jumps out at you is Big Apple Love. This is Shayna's love letter to the city of New York, unvarnished to the point that the lyrics reflect her experiences there, both good and bad. The song has one of their most haunting and memorable melodies.

Listen to Big Apple Love.

The album opens with Talk which starts with a really cool and unique rhythm part and features the shimmering acoustic guitar sound that you'll hear throughout the record. Next up is the title track which lays an awesome violin riff on top of the guitar as well as a superb violin solo. Lighthouse is about, well, a lighthouse, both actually and metaphorically; it's a beacon that will guide you through all sorts of messy emotional stuff. All that within a great melody.

Morning Sun will be familiar to anyone who's been to a live show in the last couple of years. This song is driven by the mandolin in tandem with the acoustic guitar and a melody that has single written all over it. The song is brimming with all of the energy and optimism of a full glass of fresh squeezed OJ in the morning. It has great lyrics too; I especially like the lines, "let's take this chance today, press pause and start the play and maybe we can wing a mental health day." You might also be familiar with Morning Sun if you watch network TV; it was used in a Ford commercial that ran nationally last fall. Handshake has an unstoppable violin based melody that shows just how tight this band can play.

Listen to Handshake

It's You is as simple and beautiful a love song as has ever been written; the emotions pour straight from the heart. This song has been in their set a very long time. They've done it every time I've ever seen them play. I've seen the song evolve through different arrangements but it has never sounded better than it does on Lighthouse.

Listen to It's You

Taking Chances and Open Your Heart are two strong mandolin driven tunes. Blue Waltz is the third song to come from their live set and it features a gorgeous violin part, coupled with Shayna's concertina which gives the song a feeling that it's taking you somewhere far, far away. The hidden track is a pretty and intimate little number consisting of voice and acoustic guitar. It closes the album beautifully, and although it's not listed on the cover, from the lyrics I would say that it's probably called If You Need Me.

The band breaks down like this: Shayna sang lead vocals and played the concertina. Chris Heinz is the consummate drummer; he always has just the right touch for the song. He also played percussion and did backing vocals. Cuban born violin virtuoso Yan Izquierdo was classically trained and often performs in classical orchestra concerts when his schedule permits. His artistry with the violin gives the band its signature sound and he is equally adept with the mandolin; he also did backing vocals. Chris and Yan make up the core of the band, having been with Shayna the longest.

Andrew Baird is a total pro on guitar, playing any style with ease; he is a perfect match for Yan and together they create all the sonic textures that you hear on Lighthouse. He also played ukulele and did backing vocals. Fred Gerantabee holds down the other half of the rhythm section with his bass; he also played guitars. That completes The Catch. Additional musicians contributing to Lighthouse include Israel Nash Grypka who played banjo on the title track. Stephanie Wells played piano and organ with additional keys by Alex Lipsen.

The music business has made a trend out of what they consider to be a resurgence of acoustic music fueled by the success last year of Mumford and Son, plus this year's success of The Civil Wars who seemingly came out of nowhere to sell quite well. What these two groups had in common was incredible word of mouth plus lots of airplay on AAA radio (Adult Album Alternative) as well as heavy play on the World Cafe program which is carried by over 200 radio stations across the country.

Personally, I didn't care for the Mumford and Son record and although I liked The Civil Wars' album a lot, I like Lighthouse a whole lot more. I firmly believe that with good exposure this album has the goods to find its audience and catch the wave of acoustic music popularity. This is a work of uncommon beauty; you won't find another singer that sounds anything like Shayna and you won't hear another band that sounds remotely like The Catch. This is a totally original record that is a perfect delight for the ears as well as the heart.

Postscript: Release of Lighthouse is currently mired in red tape with no timetable for resolution. I know that this development has to be a heartbreaker for Shayna and for the band. In the meantime, Shayna has made the album available for streaming in its entirety. Click here to go to the AOL site to listen to Lighthouse.

Shayna's website
Shayna's Facebook

Saturday Video Fun: A-ha - Take On Me (1985)

2011-10-15T17:41:00.005-04:00

We like a good country tune, but Saturday Video Fun is not only about country music. During the 80's and 90's before MTV gave up playing music videos, there was a golden age of sorts during which the music video flourished as an art form. At their best these videos were extremely creative and took the music to a whole new level. Saturday Video Fun will occasionally showcase some of the best ones in a series we'll call Classics of Music Video.

The Norwegian band A-ha released their single Take On Me in 1985 with a groundbreaking video directed by Steve Barron. The video uses the rotoscope technique to bring pencil drawings to life and it artfully played with the line between comic book world and the real world. With heavy airplay on MTV, Take On Me became a number one single here in the U. S.

Saturday Video Fun: Mary Chapin Carpenter - Down at the Twist and Shout (1991)

2011-10-08T15:42:00.006-04:00

Mary Chapin Carpenter's third album, Shooting Straight in the Dark (1990), produced four chart singles. Down at the Twist and Shout was the third single and it reached #2 on the country charts. Beausoleil is mentioned in the lyrics and they also are Mary's backing band on this track.

Saturday Video Fun: Steve Goodman - A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request (1983)

2011-10-01T22:24:00.009-04:00

Because today is the opening day of the Major League Baseball playoffs, we have our favorite baseball song, A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request by Steve Goodman. When looking for a video of this, we were thrilled to find a priceless video of Goodman singing the song, standing on one of the rooftop bleachers across the street from Wrigley Field. The field provides the backdrop for this video, apparently recorded late in his career.

Steve Goodman was a songwriter, singer, and humorist who died way too young; he died from leukemia in 1984 at age 36. In addition to the many humorous songs he did, he could also write serious songs. Goodman is best known for writing The City of New Orleans, which was not only Arlo Guthrie's biggest hit but it is also one of the best songs ever written.

Listen to Arlo Guthrie - The City of New Orleans

Click this link for an excellent article about Steve Goodman that was reproduced earlier in this blog. The song A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request would be a great and funny song on its own but it becomes all the more poignant when you realize that Goodman was dying of leukemia when he wrote it. His sense of humor under the circumstances is amazing.

To further show Goodman's humorous songwriting, we are pleased to present this bonus video.

Saturday Video Fun: Kenny Chesney & Grace Potter - You and Tequila (2010)

2011-09-24T08:00:00.000-04:00

Kenny Chesney sang a duet with our favorite Vermont musician/hottie, Grace Potter of Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. This track comes from Chesney's 2010 album Hemingway's Whiskey.

WXPN's 885 Countdown 2011 - Twenty Years of the World Cafe

2011-09-22T16:37:00.014-04:00

World Cafe Host David Dye (photo courtesy of WXPN)

This fall WXPN and the World Cafe program celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the show. Produced at WXPN, World Cafe is a nationally syndicated radio show that reaches over 200 radio stations on the NPR network. David Dye conceived the show and has been the on-air host for all of its twenty years. Every day the World Cafe presents two hours of eclectic music that stretches over all musical genres with a concentration on new releases and new upcoming artists. Part of every show is a guest segment lasting anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour, featuring an interview and live performance by the guest.

Every year since 2004 when WXPN moved into their current building, they have done a listener survey and played back the results in the form of a countdown of the 885 best whatever; it started with best songs and since then they've done albums, artists, musical moments, and others. Last year the countdown was the best all time road trip songs which was lots of fun. This year it's the 885 favorite World Cafe artists. Over 4,000 artists have appeared on the program in its twenty years and if you read the abridged list on the XPN website, you'll see that the array of talent is truly amazing.

Every year the listeners are asked to submit a list of their top ten. In this case, I could easily come up with a dozen different lists of favorite artists. I could just as easily come up with another dozen concepts for lists like best country artists, best female singer-songwriters, best rock bands and so forth. I decided that the artists who currently get played a lot on XPN will get plenty of votes and I have not included them in my list, with one notable exception. I decided to restrict my picks to mostly sentimental favorites who seldom or never get played on XPN. My reasons are detailed below in my annotated list. The on-air countdown of the 885 favorite World Cafe artists begins Monday.

1. Del Amitri
Del Amitri came out of Scotland with a straight ahead fresh sound of acoustic and electric guitars, great songwriting and strong vocals. Between 1985 and 2002 they made six excellent albums. Although they had lots of singles success in the U.K., they never caught on commercially in the U.S., but they did develop a small but fiercely loyal following in this country. Their album Twisted is one of my all time top ten favorites.

When their last album came out in England, it didn't sell like the record company expected (it never even came out in the U.S.) they and their record company mutually decided to part ways and the group disbanded. They still get played occasionally on XPN, you may hear Always the Last to Know or Be My Downfall which brightens up the airwaves quite nicely. World Cafe will even break out Driving With the Brakes On sometimes which is about the best love song I ever heard about a dysfunctional relationship.

2. Once Blue
The Once Blue album also resides in my all time top ten. It's a perfect album of exquisite songs, so well sung, played, and produced that it is a delight to listen to, and I still never tire of it. Once Blue was the duo of Rebecca Martin and Jesse Harris. They released their one self-titled album in 1995. They recorded a second album which was never released by their label; after which they went their separate ways.

Jesse went on to work with Norah Jones on her first album; he ultimately won the Song of the Year Grammy Award for writing Norah's breakthrough hit, I Don't Know Why. Rebecca has had an artistically successful solo career by pioneering her own style of singer-songwriter jazz. When Once Blue was first released, the song Stardust and Snow got great airplay on XPN. After that, Once Blue could occasionally be heard on Sleepy Hollow.

3. Norah Jones
Norah Jones has been an XPN favorite ever since her first album came out in 2002. So why does she find herself at number three on this list? The very first time I ever heard Norah Jones was on the World Cafe program, many months before that first album. One of the best things about the World Cafe is that it's adventurous enough to play an artist sometimes before the artist ever makes a record. As you look through the list of artists that have appeared on the World Cafe, you will see many that have rarely or never make the XPN playlist.

Discovering Norah so long before her first album was cool for a number of reasons. I was able to go to her website and order an EP which had some early tracks from her first album. Listening to it gave a nice preview of what was to come; plus it became a valuable collector's item when she hit big. The other reason is that I had the opportunity to see her play in a small New York club before her massive success lifted her up to only perform in theaters and concert halls.

4. Peter Wolf
Peter Wolf could be heard frequently on XPN during 2010 as his duet with Shelby Lynne from his seventh solo album, Midnight Souvenirs, got high rotation airplay. The entire album was consistently great and also featured duets with Neko Case and Merle Haggard. But that's not why he's on this list; it's because when he guested on the World Cafe, David spent almost the full hour talking to him and came away with one of the most fascinating interviews I've ever heard. Sure they talked about the making of his latest album and about the recording of those duets. Peter's resume starts with being the all night disc jockey at Boston's WBCN-FM back when BCN was one of the first FM stations in the country to go rock in the late sixties.

From the late sixties to the early eighties he was the lead singer for the J. Geils Band. When they broke up, he began his solo career which is still going strong. One of the coolest parts of the interview was when Peter gave David a guided tour of the jukebox that resides in Peter's living room. He keeps the juke stocked with classic and hard to find gems of old soul, country, and rock and roll. He played a few selections and explained their significance complete with anecdotes about the recordings. Like no one else I've ever heard, Peter knows almost every record from the beginning of recorded music to now; he personally knows an incredible number of artists as well as people in the radio and record businesses. You can hear this interview by following the link at the bottom of this article to the NPR World Cafe archive.

5. Ebba Forsberg
In 1998 Ebba Forsberg, a singer-songwriter from Sweden, released her debut album Been There. The album did fairly well in this country and garnered some airplay on XPN. She was also a World Cafe guest that year. My friend Dave (from Direct Current Music) and I both enjoyed that first album. Fast forward to 2006 and we were having one of those "whatever happened to" conversations when Ebba's name came up. At the time, Dave was a record executive with a major label and he decided to try to look her up in Sweden. This led to some email correspondence with both Ebba and her husband/manager.

This connection led not only to a dinner in New York but to the knowledge that her career as a singer-songwriter continued in her native Sweden with several Swedish language recordings. Most importantly we learned that she still makes an English language album sometimes and in 2006 she made a perfectly wonderful album simply titled Ebba Forsberg. That album placed number three on my list of the top ten albums of the year that year. Sadly, for American audiences no U.S. label would release the record and Ebba has not dented either the XPN playlist or the World Cafe since 1998.

6. Elizabeth Cook
I first heard Elizabeth Cook on the World Cafe in the summer of 2010. David played her song El Camino quite regularly for awhile. After a few weeks, Elizabeth appeared as a World Cafe guest. She played live versions of El Camino and other songs from her latest album, Welder. Musically she is a country singer-songwriter who is just as gifted at writing humorous tunes like El Camino as she is at deadly serious material like Heroin Addict Sister which she also played live on the Cafe. Although she didn't want to confirm it in the interview, she has let it be known that the song is based on her sister.

On the fun side, she also does songs like Yes To Booty, Times Are Tough in Rock 'N Roll, and Sometimes It Takes Balls To Be A Woman. This is clearly a girl with a sense of humor. She's also a great singer and musician. In addition to her music career, she is also a country deejay, hosting Elizabeth Cook’s Apron Strings, weekdays at 10am on Sirius-XM Satellite Radio. Once again the World Cafe came through to give exposure to a great artist that would not otherwise be heard on XPN.

7. Holly Palmer
Holly Palmer made her debut in 1996 with a self-titled album released on Warner Brothers. XPN played her that year and she guested on the World Cafe. Warners even made an MTV video for the single, Different Languages. Holly has experienced the downside of big label business; you are signed to a label, you make an album, by the time your record is finished the person who signed you is no longer with the label and your album fall into label limbo. It's a familiar story that many artists could tell; it happened to Holly more than once with Warners and its subsidiary labels.

Holly now has four terrific albums to her credit, three of them wound up being released on her own label, Bombshell Records. Holly is one of the most evocative singer-songwriters I've ever heard. Her songs can take you places you never imagined going, and she can make you feel emotions that you didn't know you had. Sadly, her last three albums have pretty much flown under the radar of most radio stations, including XPN. She lives in California now and can be seen playing the clubs of the greater Los Angeles area. She used to live in New York and play regularly in the clubs around the Lower East Side. Occasionally, she still comes back to New York to play for her cadre of loyal followers.

8. Tanita Tikaram
Tanita Tikaram has had a remarkable career. Raised in England, Tanita is the daughter of Malaysian and Fijian parents and her songwriting first brought her attention when she was just seventeen and was booked to play in some of London's clubs. She was quickly signed by Warner Brothers who released her debut album Ancient Heart in 1988. She got immediate airplay on XPN with the single, Twist In My Sobriety which became a worldwide hit. It was a lovely album full of great songs.

Over the years she has made a total of seven albums and they all are a little different from each other but all have the really personal and tuneful songs she is so good at writing. There was the second album, The Sweet Keeper, which was even better than the first with not a bad track on it. She's always maintained total artistic control. On her third album, she cut her long hair short and let loose her inner Van Morrison. By the time of her fifth and sixth albums, she was no longer being released in the U.S. Ours was the loss because she had updated her sound and made two really great records.

After The Cappuccino Songs, she was apparently in a position that she didn't need to worry about the record business and she could just live the life she wanted and only record music when the spirit moved her. I read that she had taken up residence in Italy. It was a seven year wait for Sentimental, her seventh and latest album which is the finest one yet. It's now been six more years gone by since then and word has it that a new album is done and will be released before the year is out. She just embarked on an acoustic tour of the UK marking her first live performances in over a decade. Most of her fine career has been overlooked by XPN except that every once in a while I hear Michaela play Twist In My Sobriety. Tanita is a really special artist and a longtime personal favorite.

9. Valerie Carter
Valerie Carter's three and a half albums are among the finest I have ever heard. Her talent has been drastically underutilized when you think that this was her complete recorded output over a 35+ year career. When she was a teenager, she was a member of Howdy Moon, a band that recorded one album before disbanding. That album was significant not only because her composition Cook With Honey was later a minor hit for Judy Collins, but more importantly Lowell George of Little Feat produced the record.

George went on to become Valerie's mentor until his death. He produced her first album in 1977, Just a Stone's Throw Away. That album featured the cream of the L.A. music scene including Jackson Browne, all of Little Feat, and all of Earth, Wind, and Fire. The title track stands as one of the best Little Feat songs ever, with vocals by Valerie. City Lights was one of the best ever EWF songs, again with vocals by Valerie. George wrote about half the tracks on the album, Valerie co-wrote a handful, but all the songs are universally beautiful.

In 1978, she released her second album, Wild Child, which is one of my all time top ten favorites. That album was produced and co-written by James Newton Howard long before he became the go-to composer of film soundtrack music, a position he has held for a long time now. Wild Child was pure pop/rock at its finest. Valerie sang and co-wrote half the album. When CDs replaced vinyl albums, this was my holy grail to find on CD for many years until I finally found a Japanese import one day while perusing a Montreal record shop. It was in 1978 that I got to see Valerie give a great concert performance at Philadelphia's Bijou Cafe.

After Wild Child Valerie disappeared from the music business for a long time; I remember hearing at the time that she had serious medical problems. Happily, she resurfaced in 1996 with her third album, The Way It Is, which was another great record with another serious list of top artists backing her. Mark Goldenberg produced the record which featured several songs co-written by Valerie but most of the album was cover versions of songs by the likes of Neil Young, Van Morrison, Tom Waits, Bill Withers, and Jackson Browne. Since the World Cafe did not exist at the time of her first two albums, I would think that she probably appeared as a guest on the World Cafe in 1996 to promote The Way It Is.

In 1998 an EP, Find a River, was released in Japan only. Also produced by Goldenberg, this was a beautiful record of exquisitely chosen cover songs; she sang Neil Young, Prince, two songs by the Blue Nile, and one from Little Feat. In the nineties, she also did a bit of background singing on several tours by Jackson Browne and James Taylor. There have been no more records, however, several years ago she inexplicably showed up for a month long residency at The Living Room in New York with a great backup band lead by Jerry Marotta on drums. Her voice had not changed and her live set was so good that it sparked hope for a new record. I'm still waiting.

10. The Trashcan Sinatras
I like a lot of Scottish artists. I could easily do an entire top ten list of favorite artists from Scotland. Topping the list would be Del Amitri (above), followed in short order by Texas, The Average White Band, Dougie MacLean, Eddi Reader, and The Trashcan Sinatras. I've been listening to singer-songwriter Eddi Reader for many years. In 2003 she recorded a tribute album to Robert Burns, Scottish poet and songwriter (Auld Lang Syne) who lived in the 1700's. All the songs on the tribute album were by Burns except for one. Eddi explained that the premise of including a song not written by Burns was that it represented how the spirit of Burns comes down through the generations to inspire young songwriters. This song she included was called Wild Mountainside, an incredibly beautifully song that was written by her brother, Frank Reader.

Frank is a founding member of the Trashcan Sinatras. That's how I found my way to the Sinatras. Over their 25+ year career they have produced five brilliant albums of which In The Music is the latest. With no American airplay, at least not in Philadelphia, I was happily surprised to find Philadelphia's Tin Angel completely packed, the two times I've seen them there. The main thing to know about this group is that they write great songs and their records are characterized by lush ear-friendly vocals combined with an instrumental sound that consists of nice clear guitars, both electric and acoustic, mixed with keyboards to make indie pop/rock at its finest.

Tuesday 9/27 Update: The countdown began at 6am yesterday morning. They played from #885 down to #681 and nobody from my list has been played yet. It was a great day of radio with hour after hour of interesting artists that you don't normally hear on the radio.

Wednesday 9/28 Update: On Tuesday they counted down from #680 to #481. Tanita Tikaram came in at #500, and they played I Might Be Crying, good choice. It was another great day of radio with lots of cool songs.

Thursday 9/29 Update: On Wednesday they counted down from #480 to #279. Del Amitri came in at #331 and they played a World Cafe performance of Roll to Me. Peter Wolf placed at #299 with a spin of Tragedy, the Shelby Lynne duet. It was another good day to be listening to the radio.

Friday 9/30 Update: On Thursday they counted down from #278 to #120. No one from my list made the cut but I expect we'll hear from Norah Jones today, pretty high up in the countdown.

End of Countdown Update: On Friday they counted down from #119 to #1. The end of the countdown was appropriately hosted by David Dye in the 4-7pm slot. Nora Jones came in at #53; I would have thought she'd have placed higher. She's the quintessential World Cafe guest, she's been on many times. You can view the entire list at the WXPN 885 countdown website, link below. Number one was Adele which was no surprise, considering the relentless overplay of Adele on XPN ever since 21 was released earlier this year. In fact I think that if you had a list of the ten artists who have received the most airplay on XPN over the past twelve months, it would look exactly like the countdown top ten. I won't draw the conclusion of what that says about the majority of the XPN listeners, but the playback on Friday as the countdown neared completion sounded a whole lot like XPN's normal everyday programming. We at Music and More appreciate the rest of the XPN listenership who were responsible for the last four days of eclectic and amazing radio.

World Cafe Website
World Cafe Archive on NPR Website
WXPN 885 Countdown Website

Saturday Video Fun: Bon Jovi & Jennifer Nettles - Who Says You Can't Go Home (2005)

2011-09-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

Bon Jovi originally recorded Who Says You Can't Go Home, solo for his 2005 album, Have A Nice Day. This song was released as a single and reached #23 on the Billboard Hot 100.

A second version of the song was recorded as a duet with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland. This version was sent out to country radio and it quickly soared to #1 on the country charts.

Perhaps as a result of the song's country success, Bon Jovi's next record was a country album, Lost Highway, released in 2007. Even though Bon Jovi has had a slew of successful singles and albums, Lost Highway sounded like the best Bon Jovi I had ever heard and it became the first Bon Jovi record I ever bought.

This video was filmed in Philadelphia at a Habitat for Humanity construction site. Enjoy.

Shayna & the Catch Sounded Great on WXPN

2011-09-10T16:49:00.008-04:00

Shayna & the Catch - Lighthouse

This morning I was listening to Sleepy Hollow on WXPN as I've done on the weekend for more years than I will admit. The concept of Sleepy Hollow is quiet music for weekend mornings. The hosts do an amazingly eclectic show and they draw from a musical repertoire that is wider than anyone I've ever known, myself included. So I was listening to the show and the following song came on.

Listen to Untitled #13

I was enjoying the simple arrangement of acoustic guitars and voice, when I realized that the voice I was hearing was Shayna. For as many years as I've known Shayna, I knew that one day I would hear her on the radio, but still it caught me by happy surprise. I was so excited, I knew I had to share it here. Host Chuck Elliott said it was new music by Shayna & the Catch, and that the new album had a couple of hidden tracks on it and he played Untitled Track #13.

Lighthouse is their new album which is due out in the fall. It's a beautiful piece of work, a full review is in the works. Enjoy this little preview of the bonus track. There are several more advance tracks from Lighthouse that you can listen to at their website. While you're there, check out their tour schedule; in addition to playing frequently in the New York area, they also play colleges around the country. If they ever come near you, you must go see them live. They have a great live set, Shayna is a really special singer and performer, and her band are all exceptional musicians.

Shayna & the Catch Website
Shayna & the Catch Facebook
WXPN Sleepy Hollow Website

Saturday Video Fun: Sting & Toby Keith - I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying (1997)

2011-09-10T07:00:00.002-04:00

This is Sting's country song. In 1996 Sting wrote and recorded I'm So Happy I Can't Stop Crying and included it on his Mercury Falling album. In 1997 he recorded it again as a duet with Toby Keith. This version reached #2 on the country charts. Keith also included it on his Dream Walkin' album. They never made a video for this song, but here is a live version they performed on the CMA Awards, 1997.

Sting did make a video for the original version from his album. Enjoy.

John Fogerty - The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again (2009)

2011-09-05T07:40:00.001-04:00

The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again

I've been listening to John Fogerty ever since one summer day in 1968 when I first heard Suzie-Q by Creedence Clearwater Revival on the radio. Fogerty’s run with Creedence was second only to the Beatles in terms of the number of hit singles and albums he had within a five-year period. He has slowed down somewhat in his solo career, but he is still a huge talent and an American icon. After Creedence, Fogerty's first solo project was an album called The Blue Ridge Rangers on which he did nothing but covers of some of his favorite country songs.

Now, 35 years later, Fogerty has revisited the concept and recorded The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again. This time he invited some of his favorite musicians to play with him, plus guest vocals by Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmidt of the Eagles and Bruce Springsteen. In the following video, Fogerty talks about the making of this album and how he came to have the guests appear with him.

Greg Leisz played some really amazing pedal steel guitar on nearly every track, and his excellence was matched song for song by Jason Mowery on fiddle. Fogerty more than holds his own with some nice country style guitar leads. One thing is certain, Fogerty was having the time of his life making this record, and you can partake in the fun just by listening.

John Fogerty's website
John Fogerty's Facebook

Saturday Video Fun: Larry Groce - Junk Food Junkie (1976)

2011-09-03T07:45:00.000-04:00

Larry Groce is best known as the 28 year host of the NPR radio program Mountain Stage, a weekly two hour music show that presents live performances from the mountain state of West Virginia.

Larry is also a singer, songwriter, and musician who had a top ten novelty record in 1976. Here he is performing the song Junk Food Junkie on his Mountain Stage radio program.

With Superheavy, Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scott's, and LP1, Joss Stone Gets Busy

2011-08-31T20:50:00.001-04:00

Superheavy is the new super group consisting of Joss Stone, Mick Jagger, Damian Marley, and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics. The album comes out September 20th. The first single, Miracle Worker, is out now. Check out the video, only Mick Jagger could pull off the whole pink suit thing.

In late November 2007, Jeff Beck, who had never played a small venue in his career, booked a week at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London. Beck's set was a career spanning selection of his best work all recorded in high definition for DVD that has a beautiful picture and incredible sound. Beck also had some great guests perform with him such as Eric Clapton who sang and played guitar, Imogen Heap who sang two great songs, and Joss Stone who came out and sang a show stopping version of Curtis Mayfield's People Get Ready.

Joss also found time to write and record her fifth album, LP1, released last month. She also formed her own label to release it. Here is a track from it.

Superheavy at Amazon
Jeff Beck: Performing This Week... Live at Ronnie Scott's at Amazon
Joss Stone - LP1 at Amazon

Superheavy Website
Superheavy Facebook
Joss Stone's Website
Joss Stone's Facebook

Saturday Video Fun: Jessica Andrews - Who I Am (2001)

2011-08-27T16:16:00.011-04:00

For the past six months or so, I've been posting a fun song to Facebook every Saturday. I thought it might be nice to cross post it here.

Saturday video fun is often (but not always) a country song. Creative songwriting is alive and well in country music. There's a simple reason for this. Whereas pop and rock for the last several decades have been ruled for the most part by artists who write their own material, in country music the majority of artists do not write their own songs. There are many great songwriters writing country songs and most of them are under contract to one music publisher or another. Publishers' reps in turn pitch the songs to the artists.

Most of these publishing houses are located in Nashville. This concentration of publishing serves much the same purpose as the Brill Building did in New York City for pop and rock artists prior to The Beatles (1964). The Beatles paved the way for artists to write their own material and this shift caused the music publishers of the Brill Building to lose their dominance in popular music and eventually the Brill Building became obsolete. If you haven't heard country radio lately, check it out. The songs sound more like rock than country and the lyrics run the gamut from inventive, clever, or funny to ridiculous, maudlin, or right wing reactionary.

I wanted to use the Jessica Andrews video last Saturday, but I could not think of the name of it, nor could I remember the name of the artist or the album. This gave rise to a classic Google moment this week. The only thing I had to go on was that I knew the lyrics included the word "granddaughter." I realized that even though I could picture the album cover and I could even picture the video, I didn't have much to go on for a Google search. Then on Thursday, I suddenly remembered that the artist was on Dreamworks. Here is what I googled: Female country singer on Dreamworks Records. The first result from Google was Jessica Andrews, score a big one for Google.

Who I Am by Jessica Andrews hit #1 on the country charts in 2001. Who I Am was also the title of her second album, released when she was just eighteen. She had been signed by Dreamworks Nashville and made her first album at sixteen. In 2003, she released a third album and has not been heard from since.

Mary Chapin Carpenter - Shut Up and Kiss Me (1994)

2011-08-26T20:45:00.008-04:00

I heard Shut Up and Kiss Me by Mary Chapin Carpenter on the radio this morning, and man it sounded good. When she sang It's been too long since somebody whispered... shut up and kiss me, I couldn't help thinking that it's been too long since Mary Chapin Carpenter did fun songs like this.

Jackie Bristow in the Studio, 7/19/11

2011-08-03T19:47:00.018-04:00

Jackie Bristow, SXSW, 3/18/09, Submerged, Austin

A few weeks ago, Jackie Bristow went to Shreveport, Louisiana to record at Brady Blade's studio. The next day she posted the following video of the song she recorded there.

That's Brady Blade on drums and Chris Thomas on bass providing a real nice sound. Look for this cool new song to be on Jackie's next album. Longtime readers may recall that Chris Thomas also played bass with Brady's brother Brian Blade who played drums on Chrissi Poland's sessions for Songs from the Concrete.

Jackie Bristow is a talented singer-songwriter who is originally from New Zealand. She first moved to Australia to pursue a music career and currently lives in Austin, Texas. I first heard and met her at SXSW 2009. Jackie's latest album Freedomis her third and was released earlier this year and is also quite nice.

Jackie Bristow's website.
Jackie Bristow's Facebook.

At the Half - 2011

2011-07-01T18:18:00.037-04:00

Here are my choices for the five best albums of the year so far.

1. Rosita Kèss - Northern Sky

Listen to Where Should I Go

Italy's Loss is Our Gain: Rosita Kèss is a talented singer, songwriter, and musician, originally from Venice, Italy. When she's not traveling and performing in Europe, she calls New York City home, and graces the good folks of the Lower East Side with frequent performances at Rockwood, often in tandem with singer-songwriter Richard Jullian. Rosita has a fresh voice and weaves folk, rock, jazz, Bossa Nova, and even some French cabaret into her mix. Northern Sky is a beautiful album that pairs well-written original songs with superb production that features infectious rhythms and instrumentation that varies from track to track. Richard produced the album, and also co-wrote and played on some of the songs.

There are several great guests appearing on the album including Jim Campilongo who added his electric guitar to Where Should I Go. Jim is a frequent flyer at The Living Room where it's a treat every time he takes out his guitar. Jim's guitar has just enough twang to give the song that cool country sound, and the swing in Rosita's vocal evokes the memory of Patsy Cline. It's impossible to pick just one track as representative of the record because the songs are so different from one another, but what they all have in common is that together they make up the best album I've heard so far this year.

2. Greg Brown - Freak Flag

Listen to Let the Mystery Be

A National Treasure: Greg Brown has an enormous repertoire of American music at his disposal, including folk, blues, country, gospel, soul, jazz, and rock; this is perhaps the most encyclopedic collection of songs of any working musician since Jerry Garcia. Greg's primary mode of musical expression is his live concerts. Unlike other artists who draw their concert material from their albums, Greg liberally mixes many cover songs with his own compositions, some of which may even be from his albums. His live show expresses whatever mood or point of view he wants on a given night, no two shows are ever exactly the same.

Once every few years, Greg goes into the studio to make an album and the result is usually cause for celebration among his fans. This is such a time. Freak Flag is so loaded with great songs and ear friendly production that this album should have appeal way beyond his fan base, which is likely why he chose to release it on Yep Roc instead of his own Red House label. Ten of the twelve songs are new originals by Greg, some of which he has done live during the last several years. Of the other two, one was written by his daughter Pieta Brown and the other is one of his wife Iris DeMent's most well known songs, Let the Mystery Be, which he has been doing live for some years.

Freak Flag was produced by Greg's longtime friend and collaborator Bo Ramsey who also played on the record. There are a few uptempo numbers that have a real nice interplay of two electric guitars (Bo Ramsey and Richard Bennett) along with Greg's acoustic guitar. The slower, more thoughtful songs feature Bo's trademark smouldering and moody guitar leads. Guest Mark Knopfler played a nice electric solo on Flat Stuff. The electric guitar work sounds great on all the tracks and Bo knows just the right amount to use so that they don't overwhelm Greg or the songs. Greg has done so many great albums in his career that it would be hard to say that this was his best, but it's certainly one of them.

3. The Damnwells - No One Listens to the Band Anymore

Listen to Werewolves

No One Sounds Like This Anymore: It's a simple formula really - crisp guitars, tight bass and drums, strong vocals and great songs. Bands have been using this recipe for years, from the Beatles to Del Amitri. The Damnwells have subscribed to this philosophy ever since their inception in the year 2001. They were good when I first saw them in 2005 (they had the pleasure of opening for Julianna Hatfield's tour that year) and they're even better now. Formed in Brooklyn, The Damnwells consist of a core of Alex Dezen and Ted Hudson with other players rounding out the band as needed for touring and recording. Together they produced No One Listens to the Band Anymore; Alex wrote or co-wrote all the songs.

All the tracks are solid but have a listen to Werewolves (above), it's one of the best. Last Day of the New Age has a very nice mix of electric and acoustic guitars. The Great Unknown mixes acoustic guitar and organ with some great lyrics. Let's Be Civilized is more electric and also has awesome lyrics that you'll never hear on the radio, even if you are lucky enough to have a station that plays The Damnwells. It seems like AAA radio stations (stations like WXPN in Philadelphia) and record label release schedules are all dominated by groups that have mediocre singers or vocals buried in the mix (or both). Groups like The Damnwells are few and far between, and that's a shame because albums like No One Listens to the Band Anymore would be a breath of fresh air, both on the air and on new release Tuesday.

4. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow

Listen to 20 Years

Married, But Not to Each Other: The group is named The Civil Wars to reflect the many facets that a committed relationship can have over the course of a lifetime. The lyrics of their signature song, Poison & Wine (I don't love you, I always will) make perfect sense as they refer to the dichotomous emotions that such a married couple might have. Barton Hollow is filled with songs that play like intimate and personal conversations. The magic happens when their two voices intertwine within a simple and open production style that boils down to just an acoustic guitar accompanied by either violin or piano, depending on the song.

The Civil Wars are Joy Williams and John Paul White. They met at a songwriting camp of sorts in Nashville; as soon as they played with each other they both knew instantly that there was something special between them, both for songwriting and performing together. They began to work and within two months did their first public performance, at which they met Charlie Peacock, who would go on to produce Barton Hollow. When they did their second performance ever, the recording of the show sounded so good that they put it up for free download on their website. Virtually unknown, save for one major play of Poison & Wine (uncredited) on Grey's Anatomy, and with no records out, Live at Eddie's Attic was downloaded over 100,000 times. I saw them in Nashville back in 2009 at a venue called The Basement. Even though their album was still way in the future, every square inch of the place was filled with audience; when they sang the air was electric and the audience stood there in total silence. It was about the most magical moment of the Next Big Nashville festival.

Fast forward to the release of Barton Hollow and The Civil Wars pulled the lottery ticket that saw them played on AAA radio stations across the country and they quickly garnered sales to match, routinely landing in Amazon's top ten best sellers. The production on Barton Hollow provides the perfect setting for the two voices to mesh in a beautiful and intimate way. Listening to it you might feel like you are alone in the studio with Joy and John Paul while they sing to each other. The two of them wrote all the songs except Poison & Wine which they co-wrote with a friend. All the songs have vocals except The Violet Hour which is a gorgeous instrumental. Lest anyone think that The Civil Wars only do intense relationship stuff, they saved the fun for the two bonus tracks. One is a cover of the old Jackson 5 song I Want You Back which retains the original melody while having an arrangement that makes it totally sound like a Civil Wars song. The other is a cover of Leonard Cohen's Dance Me to the End of Love; I find that I prefer this version to the well known rendition by Madeline Peyroux.

5. Elizabeth & the Catapult - The Other Side of Zero

Listen to Open Book

Beating the Odds: Every band that plays the New York City club circuit hopes to one day get discovered and be signed to a record label contract. Very few do. Of those who do get signed and make a record, only a very tiny percentage are lucky enough to hang in there with the label long enough to get to make record number two. Five years ago, Elizabeth & the Catapult was packing in the crowds at Rockwood Music Hall and the other clubs of the Lower East Side and Brooklyn. In 2008 they got signed to Verve Forecast and began working on their first full length album, Taller Children, which was finished and released in 2009. In late 2010, they went back into the studio to make their second album The Other Side of Zero. The new album contains well written and melodic songs, well played and featuring the clear voice of Elizabeth Ziman.

Prior to getting signed they self-released an excellent EP. Both the EP and Taller Children have their moments of humor and quirkiness. On the new one, the quirky tendency seems to have matured into a theatricality that makes this record sound like it might be the soundtrack to a musical movie that is running in Elizabeth's head. According to their website, As it turns out, Elizabeth read (Leonard) Cohen’s Book of Longing collection from cover to cover while working on a Lincoln Center song cycle – performed last spring for a commission from NPR’s John Schaefer – that gave The Other Side of Zero its title and a handful of tracks. I would, just based on listening, hazard a guess that the first six songs came from that song cycle because the styles vary considerably on the later tracks. Worn Out Tune has a kickin' guitar line and is anything but worn out. Open Book has simple production that exposes Elizabeth's voice and songwriting at their most appealing. This album was recorded in one month with Tony Berg (Peter Gabriel) producing.

Don't Mess With Texas: SXSW 2011 New Music Sampler, A Free Taste of SXSW

2011-03-20T20:02:00.011-04:00

For a music person, the South By Southwest Music Festival is the ultimate music immersion experience. This year's festival wrapped up last night and those of us who could not go are left with only news, reviews, and videos to describe the proceedings. Once you've gone, not going leaves you a very empty feeling this time of year.

On a routine visit to Amazon yesterday, I found that they offered the above sampler as a free download. Based on my previous experience at the festival, it is a large job to go through the thousands of bands who play there to find the ones you want to hear. Listening to this sampler today, I was very pleasantly surprised to hear twelve interesting and varied tracks that are well worth a listen.

While there's no way that any one sampler could give a complete or authoritative picture of this huge festival, this free sampler does a real nice job in giving you the quirky flavor of the event. The collection has all kinds of music but nicely avoids the sort of noisy indie bands that sometimes seem to dominate the SXSW schedule.

I expected that all of the bands on the sampler would be unknowns, and they are with the exception of Chris Bathgate, who I just happened to see at SXSW 2008. He did a good set then and he sounds equally good here. For a nice taste of the SXSW experience, this sampler is just the ticket.

Download Amazon Sampler Here.
Official SXSW Music 2011 Website.

The Best Albums of 2010

2010-12-31T20:12:00.105-05:00

Here are my picks for the ten best albums of 2010.

1.Chrissi Poland - Songs From the Concrete

Listen to "Alone With My Troubles"

An Immensely Talented Singer and Songwriter: Chrissi Poland recorded this album in 2009. When significant label interest failed to generate a suitable deal, Chrissi released it herself as a seven song EP last spring. In addition to guitarist Steve Elliot from her band, she had the services of some pretty amazing jazz musicians on this recording. John Patitucci and Chris Thomas shared bass duties, Brian Blade played drums, and Jon Coward played piano and keyboards; Chris and Jon are both members of the Brian Blade Fellowship Band, and Jon also played with Chrissi's band and co-produced the album. Chrissi did both lead and backing vocals and she also co-produced. All the songs are originals written either by Chrissi or Chrissi and Jon.

"Alone With My Troubles" (above) opens the album with a powerful slow blues, and it's the only track on the record that you could readily categorize. Chrissi has a remarkable talent for singing and writing music that has elements of rock, blues, jazz, soul, pop, country, and gospel but none of those labels can easily be applied to her songs. "Yours Is the Love" is an exuberant soul/pop mix. "Angel Weep for Me" has been a longtime staple of her live show and you might say that it's her signature song; a soulful ballad with a great gospel flavor and in this version Steve's steel guitar gives it a nice country tone. The album ends with "Next Time", a beautiful song with equally beautiful lyrics which give the album its title. Songs From the Concrete is easily the best thing I heard all year.

2.Bruce Springsteen - The Promise

Listen to "Talk to Me"

Manna from the Bruce vault: The Promise is a new two CD set, with ten songs on each disc, either of which might have been a worthy follow-up to Bruce Springsteen's classic Born to Run album instead of the album we know as Darkness On the Edge of Town. For the 30th anniversary reissue of Darkness, the good folks at Columbia/Legacy packed the deluxe boxed set with several DVDs as well as a heaping helping of studio tracks from the vault. In order to not require every Bruce fan to shell out $100+ for the box set just to get the new stuff, they very nicely released the double album separately, titled The Promise.

Due to a lawsuit with his former manager, Bruce was prevented from recording for three years following Born to Run (1975). Bruce is a prolific songwriter and when the matter was finally settled, he took the E-Street Band into the studio and recorded 72 songs. Only a handful were used for the Darkness album, the rest went into the vault. These were not outtakes or demos, they were finished tracks ready for release. Any of them could have been used for the Darkness LP but Bruce chose the songs for Darkness that conveyed the feeling he was after.

These vault tracks represent Bruce and band at the top of their powers. To finally get these songs in 2010 is truly a gift. Some of the songs are readily familiar. Bruce wrote "Because the Night" with Patti Smith and her version has become a rock standard; now we have Bruce's own version. When these songs were not released at the time, Bruce gave some of them away. "Talk to Me" (above) was given to Southside Johnny and has been a staple of the Jukes live show for the last 30 years. You'll instantly recognize "Fire" because the Pointer Sisters had a great hit with it.

Some other songs are early versions of songs that came out on Darkness. "Racing in the Street ('78)" and "Candy's Boy" (which became "Candy's Room") are very different. "Come On (Let's Go Tonight)" got all new lyrics and became "Factory" on the Darkness album. One song, "Rendezvous", has been part of Bruce's live set over the years. The rest of the tracks are being heard for the first time on The Promise.

After Born to Run, many were wondering what happened to the fun songs because they weren't on Darkness. Bruce has said in interviews that he wanted a darker, more serious tone for Darkness saying that he began a dialogue with his audience here that continued on Nebraska, The Ghost of Tom Joad, and The Rising. The question of where the fun songs went was answered by The Promise; they went into the vault. The Promise is nicely varied, and in many ways is much like The River album.

2. Peter Wolf - Midnight Souvenirs

Listen to "Tragedy" feat. Shelby Lynne

Great Duets and More: Peter Wolf was once the lead singer of the J. Geils Band, but that seems like ancient history now that he has released his seventh and best solo album. Peter produced the album himself, and he wrote or co-wrote all of the songs except for one cover of an Alan Toussaint song ("Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky"); he co-wrote most songs with Will Jennings. The calling card for this album is three dynamite duets. The album opens with the Shelby Lynne duet, "Tragedy" (above). Peter has a great story about cutting the song with Shelby which he tells on the World Cafe program; we don't have room to retell it here but click here and you will be most entertained.

There is an awesome duet with Merle Haggard which Merle jumped at the chance to record with Peter because he liked the song that much; if you didn't know better, you might think Peter has been writing great country songs all his life. There is also a really nice duet with Neko Case. The rest of the album is great, too. "Overnight Lows" is a really smooth soul song that has a little touch of Barry White. Peter is one of the most knowledgeable people in the music business, he knows just about everyone. He puts that knowledge to good use in creating an album with superb production, great performances, and totally consistent songwriting.

4. Tracy Thorn - Love and Its Opposite

Listen to "Long White Dress"

A New Perspective: Tracy Thorn was the voice of Everything But The Girl from the early 80s until the end of the 90s. In 1999, she and partner Ben Waitt put the band on hold in order to raise their family. Eventually, Ben became one of the most in-demand club D.J.s in London and started the Buzzin' Fly record label. Tracy eventually returned to music making solo albums of which Love and Its Opposite is the latest. Produced by Ewan Pearson, this is very much a singer-songwriter record as opposed to the club-friendly pop/rock that EBTG was known for.

Tracy's voice has not changed at all, but her subject matter is altogether new. The songs on Love and Its Opposite are all written from the perspective of a mother of teenage girls ("Hormones") as well as a woman looking at various aspects of love and long-term relationships ("Oh! The Divorces", "Singles Bar"). "Hormones" has a great lyric with lines such as "Yours are just kicking in, Mine are just checking out, You're at the beginning of this tunnel, And I'm just coming out." The songs are great and it's really nice to hear her familiar voice deal with such personal and mature themes. Love and Its Opposite is a pleasure to listen to from beginning to end.

5. Courtney Jaye - The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye

Listen to "Sweet Ride"

A Sweet Ride: Courtney Jaye had the good fortune to make her first album with a major label. When it came time to think about her second album, she parted ways with her label in order to take control of her music which she felt she didn't have on the first one. Courtney released a five song preview EP of this record back in 2008. Courtney's music weaves together seemingly disparate influences that reflect the places that she has lived and soaked up the local music.

There's a bit of indie rock absorbed during her time in Austin ("I Need Love"); Hawaiian folk and island rhythms ("Maru Maru", "Queen of Sabotage") permeate her music which works surprisingly well with the country/pop sensibility she picked up making her first album in Nashville ("Sweet Ride", above). "Don't Tell A Girl" sounds like a new record that you never heard in the late 50s or early 60s. Courtney's music has the unique quality of sounding retro and new at the same time, plus it's a little bit country, a little bit pop, with a touch of Hawaii (where she now lives and records); it all adds up to a sweet ride.

6. Shelby Lynne - Tears, Lies, and Alibis

Listen to "Loser Dreamer"

Calling the Shots: Ever since her Identity Crisis album (2003), Shelby Lynne has been moving further and further away from the normal relationship between artists, producers, and record label. Her desire to have creative control over her music was partially realized on Suit Yourself (2005), but it wasn't until her latest album that she gained complete and total control over her music. She wrote all the songs on Tears, Lies, and Alibis and she co-produced the record with her longtime band member Brian Harrison. Also from her band, the amazingly talented John Jackson plays guitar on this record.

All the songs seem as if they began with Shelby and her acoustic guitar. Most songs have additional instrumentation, applied sparingly; it seems that there will come a day that she will make a record like Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska, where she sings and plays her acoustic guitar into a tape recorder at home. The songs on Tears, Lies, and Alibis are all really intimate and personal. The songwriting is solid throughout but she really brings it home on the last four songs ("Loser Dreamer", above, is one) which are among the best she's ever done.

7. Raul Midon - Synthesis

Listen to "Don't Take It That Way"

A Soulful Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist: After two excellent albums for EMI, Raul Midon signed with Decca for 2010's Synthesis. Being that this record was produced by star producer Larry Klein, the way these contracts are done, it is probable that Klein was part of the deal that brought Raul to Decca. In addition to producing, Klein also played bass and keyboards. Klein brought some name musicians to the sessions, Larry Goldings played the Hammond B-3 organ and Vinnie Colaiuta played drums. The overall sound of the record is sweet and commensurate with the quality of the songs which were co-written by Raul except for Lennon-McCartney's "Blackbird".

The first time I ever heard Raul was about five years ago when he opened for Shelby Lynne at the Northstar Bar in Philadelphia. It's purely coincidence (that I just noticed) that Raul follows Shelby on this list. He was so good at the Northstar that I bought his first CD from him on the spot. He was the first performer I'd ever seen who played the mouth trumpet; he purses his lips as if playing a real trumpet and although there is no instrument he still makes the sound of the trumpet. He does that once or twice on Synthesis. A good number of the songs here are about a breakup ("Don't Take It That Way," above); someone must have worked him over pretty bad because he lets loose in a song called "About You" to the point that the lyrics earned him a parental advisory sticker on the cover. As Chrissi Poland has said, you don't break the heart of a singer-songwriter unless you are prepared to hear about it later in their songs. Synthesis is a prime example.

8. Mavis Staples - You Are Not Alone

Listen to "You Are Not Alone"

Updating the Gospel: Giving traditional gospel songs a rock treatment is nothing new, but it's never been done so well as in the last few years. Mike Farris gave some very traditional songs rock arrangements for his 2007 album Salvation in Lights. He took the record out on the road with an eleven piece band and performed one of the best sets of music I saw at SXSW 2008. Patti Griffin made a gospel record her way on Downtown Church (2010). Mavis Staples has made a gospel styled record that sounds nothing like the two aforementioned albums. Mavis has had an illustrious career as the lead singer of the Staples Singers, as well as a string of solo albums of which this is her tenth.

This time she teamed up with Jeff Tweedy (Wilco, Uncle Tupelo) who produced as well as played guitar and bass. This is not a traditional gospel record; there are a few traditional songs but the majority of songs are not. Three songs came from Roebuck "Pops" Staples, Tweedy wrote two, and there are one each by Randy Newman, Allen Toussaint, and John Fogerty. The result is a thoroughly modern album in which the old songs fit perfectly with the new, all with a common tone and message. I've never been particularly interested in Wilco, but Tweedy made all the right choices producing this record, song selection, arrangements, and I really like his guitar work, especially his fuzz guitar. You're Not Alone will lift your spirits, both musically and lyrically, and isn't that what gospel is all about?

9. Norah Jones - The Fall

Listen to "Back to Manhattan"

A First Rate Songwriter: On The Fall, Norah Jones' fourth album, she completes the move away from her interpretive past with a solid singer-songwriter album. Since her second album, she's been writing more and more, to the point that she wrote or co-wrote this entire record. Of the five songs she didn't write all alone, she utilized long time collaborator Jesse Harris on two, one of which also included her Little Willies cohort Richard Julian in the writing. These are the only familiar names from her past that show up in the credits of The Fall. Part of Norah's focus on modernizing her sound was the choice of producer Jacquire King (Modest Mouse, Kings of Leon).

Whatever you want to call her new approach, it's working for her. The sound is mostly electric guitar, bass, and drums. Her acoustic guitar is only really heard on one track, the lovely "December". There are only two piano songs, one is "Man of the Hour" which closes the album with a nice bit of Norah's humor, "It's him or me, That's what he said, But I can't choose between a vegan and a pot head, So I chose you because you're sweet, And you give me lots of loving and you eat meat, And that's how you became my only Man Of The Hour". This is not necessarily a breakup record, but some of the songs are about the fragility of relationships, songs like "Back To Manhattan" (above).

This album has a good many songs with memorable melodies that could be singles, like the above song, "Chasing Pirates", "Even Though" and "Young Blood". Some songs rock a little harder than you may be used to hearing on a Norah Jones record, particularly "It's Gonna Be" which also brings clever lyrics. "Tell Yer Mama" has that country sounding bass line that makes it sound like something she might do with The Little Willies. This year Norah also released an album that compiles many of her guest appearances on other artists' records. That album (...Featuring Norah Jones) sounds good throughout, but it does a great job of exploding expectations and stereotypes. Norah is one of the most musically adventurous artists that you are likely to hear, and all those experiences inform her own songwriting which help to make The Fall her most interesting and enjoyable record since the first one.

10. Buddy Guy - Living Proof

Listen to "Stay Around a Little Longer" feat. B.B. King

A Living Legend: Buddy Guy may not have invented electric blues/rock but his guitar style served as a blueprint for every blues/rock guitarist from Clapton and Hendrix to Stevie Ray Vaughn and beyond. Buddy is now in his sixth decade of performing and not only has he not lost a step but his albums in the last decade have been consistently good. He's made so many albums that it's hard to say how many but his latest is certainly a treat for anyone who enjoys this sort of music.

Most of the songs are autobiographical, like the opening track "74 Years Young", "Thank Me Someday" (which refers to his family), and the title track are good examples. There are lots of songs about being a musician on the road and about the women he meets. All the songs are originals co-written by the drummer, Tom Hambridge, in tandem with one or the other of two additional songwriters; Buddy collaborated on five of the tracks. These songs all feature Buddy's fiery guitar. Clearly the album's centerpiece is two duets, one with B.B. King (above) and one with Carlos Santana, "Where the Blues Begin". The rapport between B.B. and Buddy can't help but bring a smile to your face. On the duet with Carlos, they let their guitars do the talking.

The Best CDs of 2009

2009-12-31T18:48:00.124-05:00

Here are my picks for the ten best CDs of 2009.

1. Annekei - Touch

Listen to Melt

Japan Knows What We Don't; This is Annekei’s third solo album and fourth album overall, all major label releases in Japan. This fine set of mostly Annekei originals will already be familiar to those who have seen her play New York’s Lower East Side over the last few years. Songs like Melt, Chills, and Keep Playing have been real crowd-pleasers. Song for Ida Marie is an especially pretty song that Annekei wrote for her neice who lives in Denmark. Sadly, the presence of Lee Ritenour as guitarist and producer has yet to secure an American release for this beautiful piece of work. In addition to the originals there is a great cover of Van Morrison's Days Like This on which Annekei duets with Will Downing. Ritenour did a superb production job and got the most amazing sound; nice, deep bass, drums that snap, and all the other great sounding instruments leave plenty of space for Annekei's sweet voice.

2. Leslie Mendelson - Swan Feathers

Listen to I Know You Better Than That

Worth the Wait: It took Rykodisc over a year to release this second album by one of New York’s most talented singer-songwriters. This record features the best songwriting, vocals, performance and production you might hope to find. This is one of those rare albums that doesn’t have a bad track on it. Leslie's real forte is writing memorable melodies. In particular the song above, Easy Love, Hit the Spot, and Turn It Over will embed themselves in your head after just a listen or two. The closing song, Goodnight, has such a great soft melody, it sounds like Paul McCartney might have written it, and I mean that in the most complimentary sense. Leslie's longtime friend James Maddock plays the great sounding guitar on this album, Randy Brecker guests on sax. The understated production by Joel Dorn lets each song sound its best.

3. Susan Enan - Plainsong

Listen to Bring On the Wonder

From England to NYC By Way of Northern Ireland: Susan Enan is another great Rockwood find. She hails from England but more recently has called Northern Ireland and New York City home. In 2007, Susan moved back to England to make this, her first full-length album. Susan is as fine a singer-songwriter as they come, and her songs have never sounded better than they do on Plainsong. This was recorded in five different countries, according to her website, with the majority of it recorded at Susan's home studio in Brooklyn.

Susan produced the record herself with an uncluttered production style that leaves plenty of breathing room for her gorgeous voice; all the instruments were recorded with amazing sound quality. This is really a special record because all ten songs are wonderful; there's not a clinker in the bunch. The CD package has beautiful photography, graphics, and quality of materials like what you would expect a major label to use for one of their top artists. But Susan self-released Plainsong, and you can order it from her website. Do it today.

4. Trashcan Sinatras - In the Music

Listen to In the Music

Scotland's Best Export: I've been listening to Scottish singer-songwriter Eddi Reader for many years. In 2003 she recorded a tribute album to Robert Burns, Scottish poet and songwriter (Auld Lang Syne) who lived in the 1700's. All the songs on the tribute album were by Burns except for one. Eddi explained that the premise of including this song was that it represented how the spirit of Burns comes down through the generations to inspire young songwriters. This song she included was called Wild Mountainside, an incredibly beautifully song that was written by her brother, Frank Reader.

Frank is a founding member of the Trashcan Sinatras. Over their 24 year career they have produced five brilliant albums of which In The Music is the latest. That's how I found my way to the Trashcan Sinatras. With no American airplay, at least not in Philadelphia, I was happily surprised to find Philadelphia's Tin Angel completely packed, the two times I've seen them there. The main thing to know about this group is that they write great songs and their records are characterized by lush ear-friendly vocals combined with an instrumental sound that works perfectly with the material.

All the songs on In the Music were written by the Trashcan Sinatras. The song Prisons features guest vocalist Carly Simon; there is also an excellent video. The album was produced by Andy Chase who may be best known for being a singer, songwriter, and musician in the band Ivy with his wife Dominique Durand and Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne. This is an album without a bad track on it. Listening to In the Music is a total delight from start to finish. Not all of their albums have been released in the U.S., but American buyers are in for a treat this time. The U.S. release of In the Music comes with a bonus live disc; if you download, Amazon offers the whole package for $8.99. This could be the best nine bucks you spend on music this year.

5. James Maddock - Sunrise on Avenue C

Listen to When the Sun's Out

Rockin' the Rockwood: James Maddock's first music career came with the major label release in 1999 of his first album under the band name Wood. Maddock moved to New York City from his native England some years ago. He has since become a fixture at Rockwood Music Hall--either backing Leslie Mendelson with his vocals and his exquisite acoustic lead guitar, or he’s tearing the place up with his band doing the songs that you can now hear on Sunrise on Avenue C. The anthemic energy and exuberant abandon of When The Sun's Out may remind you of early Springsteen. After the break when he comes back in softly to start the next verse over piano it sounds like something off Born to Run.

The album opens with Chance which also has that anthemic quality. Maddock's softer side sounds great on When You Go Quiet and on the title track. Dumbed Down is a fun song with a memorable melody that features a nice electric piano part played by Leslie Mendelson (returning the favor), and the lyrics are about the joys of watching television. The album ends on a beautiful note with the song aptly titled Beautiful. Maddock wrote all the songs on Sunrise on Avenue C, Clark Gayton guested on trombone, and the whole affair was produced by Malcolm Burn. A listen to this record will give you an idea why the Rockwood is always packed whenever he plays.

6. John Fogerty - The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again

Listen to Garden Party feat. Don Henley & Timothy B. Schmidt

An American Icon: I've been listening to John Fogerty ever since one summer day in 1968 when I first heard Suzie-Q by Creedence Clearwater Revival on the radio. Fogerty’s run with Creedence was second only to the Beatles in terms of the number of hit singles and albums he had within a five-year period. He has slowed down somewhat in his solo career, but he is still a huge talent and an American icon. After Creedence, Fogerty's first solo project was an album called The Blue Ridge Rangers on which he did nothing but covers of some of his favorite country songs.

Now, 35 years later, Fogerty has revisited the concept and recorded The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again. This time he invited some of his favorite musicians to play with him, plus guest vocals by Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmidt of the Eagles and Bruce Springsteen. Greg Leisz played some really amazing pedal steel guitar on nearly every track, and his excellence was matched song for song by Jason Mowery on fiddle. Fogerty more than holds his own with some nice country style guitar leads. One thing is certain, Fogerty was having the time of his life making this record, and you can partake in the fun just by listening.

7. Rosanne Cash - The List

Listen to I'm Movin' On

Can't-Miss Project: When Rosanne Cash was a teenager, her dad Johnny Cash grew concerned at her lack of knowledge of country music, so he gave her a list of the 100 most essential songs. Rosanne says she was old enough at the time not to throw the list away and she saved it. The list (which Rosanne now describes as the 100 most essential songs of American music) became the basis for her latest album, with all the songs selected from the list. With a great voice like Rosanne's together with some of the best-ever American songwriting, superb production and guitar work by husband John Leventhal, plus some of New York's best musicians, you've got a can't miss project. There are even famous guests like Elvis Costello and Bruce Springsteen. Rosanne also sings "Girl from the North Country," a song her dad sang as a duet with Bob Dylan on "Nashville Skyline."

8. Kristina Train - Spilt Milk

Listen to Don't Beg For Love

An Enormous Talent: Dave from Direct Current Music and I saw Kristina Train last year at the Living Room and we were blown away by her enormous talent. Kristina was under contract to Blue Note Records at the time but it took until this fall for Spilt Milk, her debut album, to be released. This is a tremendous record; all the songs are originals, mostly written by the team of Kristina, producer Jimmy Hogarth, and arranger E G White. The arrangements are superb, simple, and open when they need to be, but White doesn't hesitate to dress up the songs with strings or break out the horn section to maximum effect.

Which brings me to the matter of Kristina's voice. At times she has a soft, sultry, and southern side to her singing, which works perfectly with the material, and reflects her Georgia upbringing. When she hits the high notes, she has a strength in her voice that is very reminiscent of Dusty Springfield, especially on It's Over Now. Actually, Dusty moments are all over this record; it sounds to me like this is an album that Dusty might have made at this point in time, had she lived. Kristina also plays the violin on Spilt Milk, and she wrote all the string arrangements. This is a solid album of great songs, well sung, played, arranged, and produced. What more could you want.

9. Anuhea - Anuhea

Listen to Here I Go Again

Cool Soul/Pop From Hawaii: It's an unusual thing when an album hits you straight out of the blue and it's actually good; it's extra special when such a record has as high a batting average as this one does. Anuhea was born Rylee Anuheake'alaokalokelani Jenkins on the island of Maui, and she wrote or co-wrote all the songs on this, her debut album. Many of the tracks are straight ahead soul/pop like the above song. She set two of them to a bumpin' reggae beat. Three more have an ear friendly mix of acoustic guitar and keyboards, like the beautifully written I Just Want You Around. There's a track called Barista by Day which might hold some clue to her day job. Her voice is appealingly soulful; the closest comparison would be Joss Stone, but I think Anuhea has better material and her vocals sound natural and effortless.

10. Ruthie Foster - The Truth According to Ruthie Foster

Listen to I Really Love You

I Didn't Know They Still Made Records Like This: Sounding like a cross between Bonnie Raitt and Shemekia Copeland (the name Aretha also comes to mind), Ruthie Foster has made a great blues album that could just as easily pass for a singer-songwriter record. In addition to writing half the songs, Ruthie played both electric and acoustic guitars, and the Wurlitzer electric piano. Robben Ford guests on electric guitar. There's some great sounding slow blues, some full-on blues, some acoustic blues, and even some blues with a reggae beat (play song above). With great songs mixing blues and rock with Ruthie’s super soulful vocals, and excellent musicianship at every position, the awesome old school production may leave you thinking 'I didn’t know they still made records like this.'

I can never stop at just ten, so here's five more.

11. Elizabeth and the Catapult - Taller Children

Listen to Right Next to You

Quirky Charm: After several years of playing New York clubs like Rockwood Music Hall, The Living Room, and Joe's Pub, and often playing to capacity crowds, Elizabeth and the Catapult got their big break and signed with Verve Forecast. Taller Children is their major label debut. The album begins with Momma's Boy which has all the quirky charm that their New York faithful have come to know and love (if you want a girl to be your mother, go find another, go find another one). All the songs on Taller Children are originals and feature the signature songwriting of Elizabeth Ziman and band, as well as Elizabeth's appealing voice. Right Next to You and Golden Ink are especially beautiful and memorable songs. Speaking of memorable, I saw these guys play Joe's Pub on Halloween last year and they all came out in costumes from the movie A Clockwork Orange; that's a performance I'll not soon forget.

12. Mindy Smith - Stupid Love

Listen to What Went Wrong

Heartbreak Hotel: Someone must have really stomped on Mindy Smith's heart. Bad. Stupid Love is Mindy's fourth album and every song on it seems to deal with the aftermath of a relationship gone bad. Mindy has a great voice that sounds extra good set against the musical arrangements that characterize all of her albums. On the first song, What Went Wrong, the vocal and the music sounds happy enough to disguise the subject matter unless you are paying attention to the lyrics. Many a great song has been inspired by heartbreak, just as Joni Mitchell. Mindy closes the album with three great songs that are universal enough to transcend her personal situation. All the rest of the tracks detail the sorrow and what comes after. Mindy wrote or co-wrote all the songs and she also produced the record.

Mindy sang a nice duet with Vince Gill on True Love of Mine; she also had guest vocal help from Susan Ashton, Amy Grant, Madi Diaz, Leigh Nash, and Kate York. Mindy's last album, My Holiday, is one of the best records I've ever heard. It's the quality of her originals that take this set way beyond the level of a great Christmas album. The breakup that fueled Stupid Love prevents the songwriting from reaching the heights of her last, but I want to mention the iTunes bonus track which lifts the mood to conclude the album very nicely; it's a super well done cover of Fleetwood Mac's Little Lies.

13. Malene Mortensen - Date With a Dream

Listen to All I Want

Quality Jazz/Pop From Denmark: Malene Mortensen is a Danish singer-songwriter who works with some of Denmark's best jazz musicians on this, her debut album. Six of the album's eleven tracks are originals, co-written by Malene and her band. The rest are covers like the Joni Mitchell song above; some are standards like At Last and Take Five in which you get to hear the lyrics to this famous instrumental. Malene has a very appealing voice; she doesn't sound like anyone else in particular but at times she reminds me of Annekei (also Danish), at other times Chrissi Poland, and at still other times, Holly Palmer. These are three singers I hold in high regard, so this is high praise indeed. The music on Date With A Dream is quality slow piano jazz with vocals. I am in debt to my friend Lee in the U.K. for sending this.

14. Melody Gardot - My One & Only Thrill

Listen to Baby I'm a Fool

Have Soundtrack, Need Movie: All the glossy glamour and elegant strings on Melody Gardot’s major label debut marks a significant change of direction from the simple, direct, and beautiful songwriting that made her first album, Worrisome Heart, so utterly compelling. There is a trace of her earlier songwriting here; the new album opens with Baby I'm a Fool which she's been doing in her live set for the past several years. Melody has a way with words: Baby I'm a fool who thinks it's cool to fall in love, and it's all wrapped up in a pretty melody. I can't think of anyone I'd rather hear sing to me in French, and Melody does so beautifully on Les Etoile.

The majority of the tracks on this record are smoky bar, clinking glass, slow jazz/pop that sounds like it might be a soundtrack for a film noir, all ready for someone to make the movie. The album ends with maybe the most unusual version of Over the Rainbow that you'll ever hear. There's a samba beat, trumpet, and Melody takes some liberties with the melody. Long-time listeners may lament that star producer Larry Klein relegated Melody’s world-class jazz band to the sidelines. Universal has spent the last two years making Melody a star in England and Europe. Melody describes herself as an expatriate living in Paris. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving Philly local.

15. Ann Courtney & the Late Bloomers - Crocodile

Listen to Don't Be a Fading Bruise

Ann Courtney is the Rockwood bartender who also fronts a really cool band. The Late Bloomers may look like your average neighborhood bar band but their musicianship is way above average. Ann writes deep multilayered songs that reveal their charms gradually as you get to know them. They rock with a fine edge. Ann plays electric guitar with a smoldering slow burn that underscores the intensity of the songs. ACLB have been around for a long time and this is their very long-awaited first full-length record, and one not to be missed.

Chrissi Poland Update - New Videos and a Really Big Show

2009-10-14T22:12:00.007-04:00

Next week Chrissi makes her debut at New York City's famed Metropolitan Room, Wednesday October 21st at 7:30pm. If you are anywhere in the NYC area, make it a point to come out to this show. Come hear Chrissi and her amazing band do songs from her forthcoming album Songs From the Concrete; Chrissi, songs, and band are all road tested and at the top of their game. This is big - advance promo copies of Songs From the Concrete will be available at the show.

Meanwhile, check out two new live videos from Chrissi's most recent show at New York's City Winery. Enjoy.

"Yours Is the Love", Live at City Winery, 9/21/09.

'Angel Weep For Me", Live at City Winery, 9/21/09.

Click here for a preview of Songs From the Concrete, Chrissi's debut album, due out soon.

Chrissi Poland's myspace.

Courtney Jaye - "Don't Tell a Girl"

2009-10-04T23:43:00.004-04:00

Here's a very cool video for Courtney Jaye's "Don't Tell a Girl" from her forthcoming full length CD, The Exotic Sounds of Courtney Jaye, due on iTunes October 13th.

I already love this song from a preview EP that Courtney released last year. I'm looking forward to catching Courtney at Next Big Nashville this week. More soon.

Courtney Jaye's myspace.
Courtney Jaye's website.

Rosanne Cash - The List (2009)

2009-10-03T14:35:00.010-04:00

Rosanne Cash has made a delightful new record that tributes her dad with a collection of songs selected from a list that Johnny gave her when she was eighteen; a list of the 100 essential country songs that he felt she needed to know. The Listcomes out Tuesday on Manhattan Records.

Listen to "I'm Movin' On"

The combination of a great voice and great songs is a can't-miss proposition, but in this case Roseanne's voice is like silk, and the songs are all gems that cover a wide range of styles, every one loaded with history and context. The production by Rosanne's husband and longtime producer/musician John Leventhal is absolutely perfect for the material start to finish, and the musicianship is likewise stellar throughout. Leventhal's guitar work especially makes a number of songs sound extra cool, like on these first two preview tracks.

Listen to "Take These Chains From My Heart"

In addition to some of New York's best session musicians, The List features some guest vocalists of note, like Bruce Springsteen who sings with Rosanne on "Sea of Heartbreak", the Don Gibson classic written by Hal David & Paul Hampton. Elvis Costello sings on Guy Mitchell's "Heartaches by the Number", written by Harlan Howard. Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Rufus Wainwright also sing with Rosanne on The List..

Rosanne describes the list as being so wide ranging stylistically and historically that it's more like the essential songs of American music, not just country. Rosanne includes the folk standard "500 Miles" here in a beautiful version. And while the list did not include songs written by her dad, it does include Bob Dylan's "Girl From the North Country" the duet that Johnny sang with Dylan on Nashville Skyline.

Listen to "Girl From the North Country"

Rosanne Cash records are usually as notable for her songwriting as for her singing and the excellent production, but as a followup to her last record Black Cadillac which was a beautiful and intense song cycle about the loss of her mother, father, and step-mother, The List could not be a more welcome or more well done next chapter in Rosanne's career.

Rosanne Cash website.

P.S. Another superbly sung and produced album of old school country covers was released by Martina McBride (who also produced it) in 2005 and stands as one of the best country records I've ever heard. And while the production styles are a little different, I'd consider both Timeless and The Listas among the best such recordings you're likely to ever hear.

Martina McBride - Timeless (2005)

Next Big Nashville - Next Week

2009-10-01T11:05:00.004-04:00

Looking forward to checking out lots of new music next week at Next Big Nashville, a festival sort of like SXSW on a slightly smaller scale, 12 venues and 140 artists over four days.

It's my first time to go to Music City and I'm excited; will post from the festival with daily photos. Here's the artist list. If you're anywhere in that part of the world, come on down!

Next Big Nashville website.

Polly & the Billets Doux - "Head of Steam"

2009-09-27T08:26:00.003-04:00

Polly & the Billets Doux is a cool new band from the UK with a cool video for this song, "Head of Steam" which is the title track from their debut EP, released in 2008 and now out of print. Enjoy.

Polly & the Billets Doux have just released their debut full length album, Fiction, Half Truths and Downright Lies in the U.K., available worldwide through Amazon UK.

Polly & the Billets Doux website.
Polly & the Billets Doux myspace.

Wallis Bird - New Video, "To My Bones"

2009-08-03T11:16:00.005-04:00

Wallis Bird is one of the happy discoveries from this year's SXSW, a singer, songwriter, and musician from Ireland who matches the musicality of her songs with an uncommon level of energy. She sang "To My Bones" in Austin and it left me feeling that I had just heard maybe the most optimistic and exuberant song ever. It's included in her new album, New Boots,which has just been released in Ireland with releases in other countries planned soon. Enjoy the video, this is an artist with enormous potential.

Wallis Bird's myspace.
Wallis Bird's website.

Doctor Rosen Rosen Remix - Lily Allen's It's Not Me, It's You (2009)

2009-07-27T23:42:00.005-04:00

....
Lily Allen - It's Not Me It's...Dr. Rosen Rosen (Remix)

Dr. Rosen Rosen, a remixer from Los Angeles, has stretched the envelope of what we know as remixing with a total remake of Lily Allen's lastest release, It's Not Me, It's You.He has taken her vocal tracks, discarded the rest of the music and written, recorded, and produced new backing tracks for Lily's vocals and accomplished the dramatic and unlikely result of producing an album that is both different from the original and totally wonderful. And his remix album is available for free download right now, right here.

Listen to "Never Gonna Happen (original version)"

Listen to "Never Gonna Happen (Dr. Rosen Rosen Rx)"

Check out the above comparison of the original and the Dr. Rosen Rosen remix of "Never Gonna Happen" while you read Dr. Rosen Rosen's own description of this project from his website.

I saw Lily Allen for the first time in 2006 while on tour in Iceland. We didn't actually meet face to face and I didn't even catch her name; my introduction was seeing her video for Smile in a crappy hotel room. A few days later I was strolling around a gigantic Virgin Record store in London, when I saw a poster of her and the name... Lily Allen. I snagged her debut record and went home to New York a fan.

Fast forward to 3 years later: Lily Allen is a bonefied pop-star and is releasing her second album "It's Not Me, It's You." I reach out to her US record label to see if they were commisioning any remixes... no dice. Lily was, however, releasing all of the parts to all of the songs on the album so anyone could remix them. Brilliant. I knew I had to remix the whole album.

One thing I really like about Lily Allen is her knack for pairing bouncy music with not-so-bouncy lyrics. My goal in remixing her entire record was to see what would happen if I placed Lily's voice and lyrics into new musical landscapes that were a complete departure from the original recordings. As most of the original album "It's Not Me, It's You" is upbeat (thanks to Greg Kurstin's awesome production) my remixed version "It's Not Me, It's Doctor Rosen Rosen" takes on a darker/dreamier tone. I mixed a lot of organic sounds (pianos, strings, glockenspiel, horns) with dreamy synths, deep basses, and big drums to create a totally new record. I produced, composed, and mixed all of the music you hear. The only original parts I used were Lily's vocal tracks.

I really enjoyed making this and I hope you enjoy listening.

Best,
Doctor Rosen Rosen

Here's another A/B comparison that really shows the vivid musical imagination that Dr. Rosen Rosen brings to this project.

Listen to "Not Fair (original version)"

Listen to "Not Fair (Dr. Rosen Rosen Rx)"

The opening riff of the "Not Fair" remix sounds a lot like Imogen Heap's "I Am In Love With You" from Speak for Yourself,a sound which totally works in this new context. The original version of "Not Fair" seemed to be a somewhat calculated retread of Lily's complaints about partners' sexual inadequacies, but in the Dr. Rosen Rosen remix, these same complaints seem to regain the cheeky appeal that made the first album a delight but might otherwise seem a bit contrived after a couple of years in the celebrity/tabloid limelight. Even more interesting is the inclusion by Dr. Rosen Rosen of an interview clip with Lily where she discusses the guy who the song is about. Now that's some inspired remixing.

Perhaps the biggest improvement in the remix is the song "Fuck You". The original struck me as more of a precious and somewhat gratuitous use of the f-word with a sing-songy chorus that seemed to undercut it's own attempt at shock value. The remix totally remakes the song and even changes the emphasis of the vocal to clearly make the point that the subject of the song is so despicable that he/she totally deserves the full measure that this song is dishing out, it totally makes the chorus seem more justified and less a lyrical gimmick.

Overall the new music in the Dr. Rosen Rosen remix is beautifully conceived and is perfectly recorded and produced. The energy level is a bit lower than the original, which is a real interesting choice. It'll take some time to really discern all the nuances of the Dr. Rosen Rosen version, but that'll be a very rewarding trip. This is a musical achievement of the highest order. Go Doctor!

Dr. Rosen Rosen's myspace.
Dr. Rosen Rosen's website.
Lily Allen's myspace.
Lily Allen's website.

Susan Enan - Plainsong, New Album Due July 30th

2009-07-21T11:21:00.012-04:00

One of the most promising Rockwood finds of the last several years, Susan Enan has readied her first full length album for release on July 30th. Previously projected for spring 2008, Plainsong is now available for mail order at Susan's website with download purchase coming soon, and based on the first several preview tracks, the record clearly sounds well worth the wait.

Listen to "Birds"

Rockwood Music Hall, 10/12/07

Have a look back to January 2008 for point of reference and first impressions of Susan and a few photos of her singing at Rockwood. Susan's songwriting skill is matched by the intensity of her performance, and now on record her songs take on a whole new dimension with some beautiful production. Here's another track.

Listen to "We All Belong Here"

"Bring on the Wonder" may be Susan's best known song, it was used in the television show Bones, and was included on that show's season two soundtrack CD, released in 2008. Sarah McLachlan sings backup.

Listen to "Bring on the Wonder"

On July 5th, Susan wrote a myspace blog entry on the making and marketing plans for Plainsong:

A note about making an album.
I arrived back in the UK on Thursday afternoon to release the album I’ve been carrying around for some time.

Making it has been quite a journey. If you have been following for a while, many thanks for sticking with it. If you’ve just joined us, you lucky things! You’ve missed out on a lot of waiting.

But now, it’s finished. I started out extremely unqualified to produce an album but did it out of necessity because I always believed in the songs. And of course, none of this would have been possible without the generosity of some very talented people along the way who were kind enough to work alongside a novice. For that I am eternally grateful.

And when the music was finished, then began the huge learning curve of what do to next. So, what is next?
Well, my fab brother has set up an online shop that will be live here at susanenan.com in a week or so, and my fab parents are going to run it just to get things going. This is as grass roots as it can get!

I must admit, I do like the simplicity of things at the moment. You have a finished record, you put it online, you make some copies, and put them in the post… job done. We’ll be shipping them out from our local village post office to anywhere in the world. It will also be available as a download before the end of the month but we are still finalising the details of that. So far as itunes, amazon etc goes, it takes indie artists a bit longer to get in with the big boys so it may take a few weeks but I’ll keep you posted.

So, as one journey ends, another begins. I have no idea what’s next (touring etc.). I’ll start to think about all that once I get back to NY in a month, but my grandmother once told me ‘life is an adventure,’ and I’m up for it.

In the meantime, I can’t wait to finally share these songs with whoever would like to listen,

s.x

(Photo source: Susan's myspace, Plainsong photoshoot)

Here is the tracklisting for Plainsong:

1. Bird
2. Bring on the Wonder
3. Monoplain
4. On Your Side
5. If You're Feelin' Low
6. We All Belong Here
7. Skin, Bone & Silicone
8. Moonlight
9. Don't Worry
10. The Grave

Watch Susan's myspace page for her tour schedule, expect some live dates not too long after she returns to the states next month. Based on the preview songs, Plainsong seems to be an auspicious debut, I'm seriously looking forward to hearing the rest of it.

Susan Enan's myspace.
Susan Enan's website.

Mindy Smith - Stupid Love, New Album Due in August

2009-07-15T23:44:00.005-04:00

Mindy Smith - Stupid Love (Vanguard, 2009)

Mindy Smith's third and most recent album, My Holiday (2007)is not just a great Christmas album, but due to the quality of the original songs, is one of my favorite records of all time. The songwriting, the vocals, the production, all add up to a listening experience that I just can't get enough of. Early notices on Mindy's new album suggest that she's on a roll, and that the excellence continues. Here's a little preview.

Listen to "What Went Wrong"

(Photo by Traci Goudie, ©2009 Vanguard Records)

From Vanguard:
Stupid Lovefinds Mindy co-producing along with Ian Fitchuk and Justin Loucks. The three explore and expand with different sounds making an impressive backdrop to the thirteen tracks on the record. Written over a two year period, each song delves into the various stages of relationships; the highs, the lows, the emotional investments made, how they can change us and move forward. For Mindy, Stupid Loveis a statement of where she is now from where she has been.

Listen to "Couldn't Stand the Rain"

Here's the tracklist:
1. What Went Wrong 3:23
2. Highs And Lows 2:54
3. If I Didn't Know Any Better 3:55
4. Love Lost 4:14
5. Telescope 3:02
6. What Love Can Do 3:09
7. Couldn't Stand The Rain 4:28
8. Bad Guy 2:18
9. Surface 4:02
10. I'm Disappointed 2:30
11. True Love Of Mine 4:28
12. Love Chases After Me 4:34
13. Take A Holiday 4:18.

Stupid Lovewill be released on August 11th.

Mindy Smith's myspace.
Mindy Smith's website.

Imogen Heap - Ellipse, Long Awaited New Album Due in August

2009-07-12T13:16:00.012-04:00

Imogen Heap's second solo album, Speak for Yourselftopped many year end best lists in 2005, including mine. Almost four years in the making, her followup album Ellipseis finally ready and will be released on August 25th on RCA. Speak for Yourselfwas created in a studio Imogen built in her London flat, and was compelling for it's combination of electronics, unusual instruments, powerful rhythms, and Imogen's highly melodic songwriting and singing. To say that expectations are high for Ellipsewould be an understatement. The first song, "First Train Home" was released this week for preview listening, a video is also available to U.K. viewers, and is due soon here in the states. After a few spins, it seems that "First Train Home" picks up right where "Goodnight and Go" left off. Listen and enjoy new music from Imogen Heap.

Listen to "First Train Home"

From Imogen's website comes the tracklisting for Ellipse:

01. First Train Home
02. Wait It Out
03. Earth
04. Little Bird
05. Swoon
06. Tidal
07. Between Sheets
08. 2 - 1 (formerly 'Pollyfilla')
09. Bad Body Double
10. Aha!
11. The Fire
12. Canvas
13. Half Life

Here's one more preview song, listen to "Canvas".

The video of "Canvas" is here.

Preorder Ellipse at Amazon.
Imogen Heap's website.
Imogen Heap's myspace.

Julian Peterson - Rockwood Music Hall, 7/10/09

2009-07-11T11:31:00.006-04:00

One of the really cool things about the Rockwood Music Hall and the Living Room, is that when you come to see someone, you often get to hear someone new, playing in the hour immediately before or after the person you came to see. Last night depsite some craziness on the Jersey turnpike on the way to Shayna Zaid's 8pm show, an early arrival at Rockwood enabled seeing a complete set by Julian Peterson in the 7pm hour. Julian has two very cool looking guitars and plays them exceptionally well. His set was good sounding, mostly original material drawn from his self-released album Get On This Train.

Listen to "Hold On"

Cover songs can tell you a lot about an artist; what they choose to play and how they choose to play it can speak volumes and give the audience a reference point from which to interpret the rest of the artist's music. Such was they case last night when Julian pulled out a cover of John Lennon's "Jealous Guy" singing it "in the style of Donny Hathaway". The last time I heard someone do the Donnie Hathaway verson of "Jealous Guy", it was Chrissi Poland on John Lennon tribute night at the Long Island City Bar last December. If Julian's respect for the elders of soul and blues wasn't immediately clear to the Rockwood audience, this gem of a cover put a nice point on it.

Listen to "Footprints"

According to his myspace, Julian's band is normally a trio, with Julian on guitar and vocals, Andrew Perusi on bass, playing the upright last night, and Nick D'Agonstino on drums. In addition to the trio, last night Cian McCarthy guested on keyboards, reprising the same role he played in the recording of Julian's record.

Buy Get On This Train at CD Baby.

Julian Peterson's website.
Julian Peterson's myspace.

John Fogerty on Independence Day, Happy 4th!

2009-07-04T12:24:00.014-04:00

(Photo source: maniadb.com)

Out on a delightful morning bicycle ride this morning, the iPod rolled into Blue Moon Swampby John Fogerty, which seems so appropriate to hear on the 4th of July. Fogerty had a run of hits with Creedence Clearwater Revival in the late sixties that was almost as prolific as the Beatles, writing, playing, and singing songs that melded so many great American musical traditions into three minute slices of rock and roll that sounded heavenly on the radio; influences from rock to country to cajun to blues to soul, and most emphatically that swamp guitar sound that is his signature.

John Fogerty - Blue Moon Swamp (1997)

Blue Moon Swamp sounded so good that I had to let the ipod roll right on into the live Premonitionalbum.

John Fogerty - Premonition (1998)

The fourth of July is a significant date in Fogerty's career. Not only is his status as an American musical icon without doubt, but for nearly twenty years after Creedence Clearwater Revival broke up, Fogerty never played his Creedence songs live, due to an enormous legal battle with his label, Fantasy Records. His history is best told by the man himself, reproduced here in an earlier blog article. But it was on July 4th, 1987, performing at the Welcome Home benefit concert for Vietnam Vets, broadcast live, that Fogerty made what is described as a spontaneous decision as he played the intro to his first song "The Old Man Down the Road", to shift gears and play "Born on the Bayou" instead and then he proceeded to play Creedence songs for the entire set, much to the delight of the veterans and everyone else in the music world, and he has never looked back. The lawsuit is long settled now, Fogerty is back on Fantasy, and his live sets now include all of his great songs, both solo and with Creedence. Check out a few tunes from Blue Moon Swamp (1997) and Premonition (1998), and have a happy Fourth of July everybody.

Listen to "Blueboy" from Blue Moon Swamp.

Listen to "Green River" live, from Premonition

Listen to "Suzie Q" live, from Premonition

Listen to "Swamp River Days" live, from Premonition,originally on Blue Moon Swamp.

John Fogerty's website.
John Fogerty's myspace.

Shayna Zaid & the Catch - The Living Room, 6/26/09, CD Release Show

2009-07-02T23:19:00.012-04:00

When we last checked in with Shayna Zaid, her band had just been named the Catch, and in the last six months, she and the band have continued working full tilt, writing, recording, and playing frequently at Rockwood Music Hall and the Living Room, as well as extending their reach beyond NYC with ever more frequent college tours. Shortly before last Friday night's show came the happy news that a new EP was finished and ready for release and that the first copies would be available at the Living Room, making the show a CD release party.

Shayna Zaid & the Catch, new EP coming soon to Amazon MP3 and iTunes, CDs available at shows.

Listen to "Closer", from the new EP.

Let's start with the new EP. Shayna and her band have been in a highly creative zone for some time now, perfecting their mix of folk, pop, rock, and soul that results in a sound that is clearly their own. Not content to keep writing in any one style, Shayna, Joel and band stretch their songwriting muscles on the new EP, simply titled Shayna Zaid and the Catch, and in so doing have come up with a set of really great new songs. The record opens with "Morning Sun" a rocking little tune will put a smile on your face every time you hear it. You don't necessarily have to be in love to feel this bright in the morning, but listening to this song might make you feel like you are.

"Fireflies" is straight ahead pop/folk with a great hook that will happily take up residence in your head, and features undoubtedly the most exuberant vocal heard yet from Shayna. This is another great love song that underscores Shayna's mastery of expressing matters of the heart in a song. Which nicely leads into track three, "Closer" which has been a staple of their live set since it's debut last summer. When Shayna plays live, "It's You" is the jaw-droppingly beautiful love song that usually ends the set, but "Closer" has had the same effect on me ever since she first wrote it, with a most gorgeous melody, beautiful lyrics, and a heartfelt vocal by Shayna that is pure magic.

Listen to "Bonita", from the new EP.

Next up is "Bonita", which is three minutes of pure pop pleasure, with the band cooking on all burners and great sounding production by guitarist/producer Joel Dean to match a super piece of songwriting; this tune is totally ready for prime time. The disc ends with "Blow" a swing rave-up in which Yan Izquierdo leads the band with a violin part that falls somewhere between western swing and gypsy folk with tons of energy and his usual melodic and expressive playing. Shayna's vocals are about the most edgy in her repertoire to date, resulting in a highly danceable tune that leaves you wanting more when it ends. So at that point the only thing to do is to spin the EP again. Or better yet, go catch Shayna and the Catch playing live.

Which is what a most enthusiastic roomful of listeners did Friday night at the Living Room. The set was loaded with all the songs on the new EP as well as a few long-term audience favorites such as "Just Because","Stay", and "It's You". "Blue Waltz" is another new tune that's not on record yet that also sounded great played live.

The set ended with a powerful performance of "It's You" that left everyone in the room entranced. Shayna's live performance always engages the crowd, but this show seemed to have an extra bit of intensity that you could really feel as they played. If you're anywhere within reach of NYC, you really need to come out and see this extraordinarly talented band before some record label sees the light and takes them big time.

In addition to celebrating the new EP, the band debuted their newest member, bassist Danny Stone; don't be fooled by his youthful appearance, he's an awesome player. And he would need to be to hold his own with such formidable musicians as Joel Dean on guitar, Yan Izquierdo on violin and mandolin, and Chris Heinz who anchors the band with his masterful drumming. In addition to her singing and songwriting, Shayna also plays the acoustic guitar and concertina on certain songs.

John Cusimano (The Cringe)

Shayna had the 9pm spot Friday night at the Living Room, and performing before her in the 8pm hour was The Cringe who thoroughly entertained a similarly packed house with a varied set of originals and great sounding cover songs such as the Who's "Baba O'Reilly" which was part of a medley, and a crowd-pleasing encore rendition of the Beatles' "I Got a Feeling". The Cringe is led by singer, songwriter, and guitarist John Cusimano. He and his wife, ABC talk show host and Food Network cutie Rachael Ray, both stayed for and seemed to really enjoy Shayna's set.

The EP's were flying fast and furious after the show and everyone left with smiles. Shayna and band head out to Milwaukee this weekend to play Summerfest, they'll be back at Rockwood on Friday July 10th, and again August 25th at the Canal Room in NYC. If you're not in the New York area, check Shayna's myspace page for the lengthy college tour schedule that will take them to every corner of Pennsylvania along with dates in Ohio, Georgia and Florida.

Before leaving for Summerfest, Shayna and the band worked up an arrangement of "Beat It" as a tribute to Michael Jackson to play at festivals this summer. Even though Shayna doesn't do cover versions very often, the rendition of "Beat It" you will hear if you come to a show this summer (including next Friday's Rockwood show) is superb. All the band contributed to the arrangement; Danny and Chris give the song a modified shuffle rhythm joined by Joel's acoustic guitar to set up the signature riff which is beautifully played by Yan on violin. Shayna does the vocal soft and sexy, singing from the standpoint of a girl dismissing an ex-lover. The happy result is that this ultra-familiar song now sounds as much like a Shayna Zaid song as it does one of Michael Jackson's gazillion selling hit records. Like I said, this band is in the zone.

Here's one more from the new EP, listen to "Fireflies"
.

Check out more photos from the Living Room show at the Music & More Flickr page. Shayna's previous EP, Au Fait is still available, if you don't already have it, you can buy it at Amazon MP3 using the link below or pick it up at iTunes.

Shayna Zaid - Au Fait EP

Shayna Zaid & the Catch on myspace.
The Cringe on myspace.

M&M Minimix #4 - Celebrating the Music of Michael Jackson

2009-07-01T22:24:00.003-04:00

(photo source: myplay.com)

Michael Jackson (8/29/58 - 6/25/09)

I just happened to hear this week a really cool cover version of the Michael Jackson/Paul McCartney hit, "Say Say Say", by Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer featuring Aaron Barrett of Reel Big Fish from a fun little EP called Duet All Night Long.

Listen to Zolof & Reel Big Fish - "Say Say Say"

This tune really celebrates the joy in MJ's music, which is what we really need now, not more chapter & verse on his well documented weirdness. The 7pm "entertainment news" shows are more disgusting now than ever, each trying to be the MJ bombshell headquarters, and all the major network prime time news shows are close behind. It seems clear to me at least, that his life was every bit as sad as his death, perhaps even more so, maybe even the root cause of his demise at such a young age.

(Source: Michael Jackson's myspace)

MJ was the ultimate victim of vast money setting someone free to indulge every whim to ridiculous proportions, and his whims seem to suggest an already damaged psyche, probably from childhood. The real shame of it is that he didn't have some really strong person in his life to be a leveling factor; someone to just say stop. I can't help but think that if such a person had existed, MJ's quality of life would have been drastically better and that he'd still be with us today. MJ sang a lot of great songs and made a lot of beloved records in his life, and that's what we need to celebrate now.

Seeing the crowds outside Philadelphia International Records this week close down part of Broad Street in Philadelphia to sell obviously bootleg t-shirts with MJ's picture on it out of the backs of cars seemed like a really cheesy way to honor the memory and achievements of Michael Jackson, not to mention $3.00 Thriller shots on the Lower East Side the day after he died, sheesh. I say let's celebrate the music and try to forget the rest of it.

For this article, I set out to pick three favorite MJ songs. This turned out to be a little harder than I thought, but here goes. Click play, and enjoy a bit of what was great about Michael Jackson.

M&M Minimix #4 - Celebrating the Music of Michael Jackson

The Jackson Five - Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 (1969)

First up, "I Want You Back", the Jackson 5's first single, released on Motown in 1969, it went to number one in the U.S. in January, 1970 and went on to sell six million copies worldwide, it was the only single from their first album, Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5.This little gem of pop/rock/soul was written by The Corporation a songwriting group led by Berry Gordy of Motown, along with Freddie Perren, Alphonzo Mizell, and Deke Richards. This was the first songwriting effort of The Corporation. Personnel on the recording are equally interesting. Joe Sample played piano, Wilton Felder played bass, Freddie Perren played keyboards, David T. Walker, Louis Shelton and Don Peake played guitars, and Gene Pello played drums.

Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982)

Thrilleris said to be the biggest selling album in recorded history, and while many of the other tracks may garner more attention and airplay, MJ never had a more beautiful melody to sing than "Human Nature" from Thriller,released in 1982. Selected by producer Quincy Jones, "Human Nature" was written by Steve Porcaro (Toto) and John Bettis. Backing MJ on this track were all the members of Toto, a group formed by the cream of Los Angeles session musicians. In 1983, "Human Nature" became the fifth single released from Thriller,and all five went top ten in the U.S.

"Human Nature" single sleeve (1983)

The Jackson 5 - Maybe Tomorrow (1971)

In April 1971 the Jackson 5 released Maybe Tomorrow,their fourth album, produced by Hal Davis, containing "Never Can Say Goodbye", one of MJ's most beautiful and timeless vocal performances. Released as a single a month before the album, "Never Can Say Goodbye" was written by Clifton Davis. Michael was twelve years old when he recorded this song; it reached number two on the U.S. charts.

(Photo source: v3.co.uk)

Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer & Reel Big Fish - Duet All Night Long

Michael Jackson's website.
Michael Jackson's myspace.
Zolof the Rock & Roll Destroyer's myspace.

Chrissi Poland - Songs From the Concrete, New Album Finished

2009-06-13T02:14:00.052-04:00

The good news out of New York this week is that Chrissi Poland's album, Songs From the Concrete is finished, with release in the works, hopefully soon; that's the promo cover shown above. The album contains eleven original songs, all recorded live in the studio, brilliantly produced by Jon Cowherd with co-production by Chrissi.

About three hours after writing it, Chrissi stunned the Living Room last fall with a performance of "Alone With My Troubles" when she opened her show with it on Election night, November 4th, 2008. I know I haven't been the same since, and this song now does likewise as track one on the album.

Listen to "Alone With My Troubles"

Steve Eliott, Chrissi & Jon in the main studio at the Carriage House in Stamford, CT.

Recording with some supremely talented musicians, Chrissi and Jon have accomplished a true labor of love on this record, allowing every track to realize it's maximum potential, "Angel Weep For Me" is a good example.

Listen to "Angel Weep For Me"

This mainstay of Chrissi's live set has changed in performance and production over the years, but the genius of the song has been right there since day one, a beautiful piece of songwriting. Live, it sounds great in any number of configurations, whether solo or with band, whether on acoustic or electric piano, but "Angel Weep for Me" has never sounded quite like it does here on the record. Accompanied by Jon on Wurlitzer, Sam Yahel on organ, Steve on guitars, John Patitucci on bass, and Brian Blade on drums, Chrissi gives the vocal her sweetest and most impassioned performance yet, and this world class band applies the most delicate and beautiful touch, with their instruments combining in an arrangement that is a total delight. If you listen closely towards the end of the song, you can hear Brian Blade singing a few lines with Chrissi. Jon and Steve add some backing vocals as well. This is just one gem, on a record that is loaded with them.

Listen to "Another Sad Song" while you check out a few photos from the recording session and the tracklist.

"Another Sad Song" was arranged by Jon & Chrissi with a Wurlitzer riff and a gorgeous guitar line that blends elements of jazz, soul and pop into this already bluesy song.

Chrissi in the vocal booth.

Here's the tracklist:
1. Alone With My Troubles
2. Another Sad Song
3. Sing
4. This Time Around
5. Yours is the Love
6. Caught Between
7. Angel Weep For Me
8. Next Time
9. No Good Guy
10. Little Bit of Loving
11. Thinking of You

John Patitucci on bass.

All the songs on the record were written either by Chrissi, or by Chrissi & Jon together. Jon did a superb arrangement on "Yours Is the Love", which lets the song really rock in a way that is both subtle and soulful at the same time. Perhaps the most dramatic departure from anything ever heard from Chrissi before is the song "Caught Between". Clearly a gifted songwriter as evidenced by all of her work to date, Chrissi pushes her own envelope here with the heaviest song she's ever done, and that's saying a lot considering the raw emotional intensity of "Alone With My Troubles". "Caught Between" has some well-said social commentary about environment and alienation, powered by some intensely burning guitar work from Steve.

Brian Blade on drums.

Jon writes for and plays some magically beautiful piano with Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, and in addition to his other hats on this record, Jon anchors all of the songs with his piano and Wurlitzer. It was fortuitous that Blade was able to take two days out from being one of the most in-demand jazz drummers on the planet to make this record; ditto for John Patitucci who added his masterful bass to six of the tracks. Steve Elliot has been flooring me with his exquisite guitar work since first seeing him play with Chrissi at that Election night show. Chris Thomas who plays bass with the Fellowship Band, and Sam Yahel, a Hammond organ specialist, also add their special skills to Songs From the Concrete.

Chris Thomas on bass.

Here's one more preview listen. If you listen closely to the words (a must) you'll hear this song give the album it's title, and if the last verse gives you chills, that's okay too.

Listen to "Next Time"

"Next Time" is another piece of extaordinary songwriting by Chrissi, and like most all of the songs on this record, it defies musical genre classification. Only "Alone With My Troubles" could really be labeled, and Chrissi writes and sings the slow blues as well as it's ever been done, "Troubles" seems almost the flip side of Al Kooper's Blood Sweat & Tears classic "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know". The other ten songs variously incorporate elements of blues, soul, jazz, rock, pop, and country, but can't be adequately described by any one of those tags.

Chrissi, Jon, and sound engineer Joe Barbaria listen to playback in the control room.

Sam Yahel at the Hammond organ.

Live Preview: If you are in the greater New York area, mark your calendar now to come see Chrissi and her band at the Metropolitan Room on Wednesday October 21st at 7:30pm; you'll hear a great live preview of Songs From the Concrete. Right now you can also listen to a few more songs from the album currently streaming on Chrissi's myspace, and watch her gig schedule there for more upcoming live shows.

Chrissi Poland's myspace.

Annekei - Touch, New Album Due June 24th

2009-05-26T23:00:00.004-04:00

Annekei - Touch (2009)

Annekei's third solo album will be released on CD in Japan and worldwide on iTunes on June 24th. The album will include many of the songs that she has written and played over the course of the past year at various NYC venues, amazing songs all. The album was produced in Los Angeles by Lee Ritenour with whom Annekei will be touring this summer. Check her myspace for the tour schedule. Here's part one of her making-of video series.

Annekei's myspace.

Coldplay's Free Live Album Released Today

2009-05-15T23:15:00.003-04:00

Coldplay released their free live album today as a big thank you to their fans. Click here to download. Here are the details from Coldplay's website.

Good morning. We're pleased to announce that Coldplay will be giving away a live CD, LeftRightLeftRightLeft, at every remaining live show in 2009 (apart from festival shows). Starting with the band's first North American tour date, at West Palm Beach in Florida on May 15th, every fan attending a show will be given a free copy of the nine-track CD, which won't be available elsewhere. Also on May 15th, LeftRightLeftRightLeft will be made available as a free download right here at Coldplay.com, for all fans (and for the same time period).

According to the band, the give-away is meant as a recession-busting mark of gratitude to everyone who's supported them: "Playing live is what we love. This album is a thank you to our fans – the people who give us a reason to do it and make it happen."

The album was recorded over the past year in various cities around the world on the Viva La Vida tour. Its tracklisting is as follows:

1. Glass of Water
2. 42
3. Clocks
4. Strawberry Swing
5. The Hardest Part/Postcards From Far Away
6. Viva La Vida
7. Death Will Never Conquer
8. Fix You
9. Death And All His Friends

Coldplay's website.
Coldplay's myspace.

M&M Minimix #3 - Missing The Unpronounceable

2009-05-10T11:03:00.008-04:00

Songs for the Long Drive Home (2007)

M&M Minimix #3 - Missing the Unpronounceable

Hard to believe it's been a year now since The Unpronounceable did their farewell show. One of their songs popped up during an iTunes random shuffle yesterday; giant "Whoaaa!" moment when I looked it up just now to see that yesterday was exactly one year to the day since that farewell show, May 9th. My iPod does stuff like this all the time and with thirty-some thousand songs on it, there's no expectation that a song by The Unpronounceable would necessarily ever turn up. Yes I know that if truly random, every song has an equal chance of coming up as any other song, but the way that the shuffle does things that seem anything but random, all the time, is a subject for another article. In any case, that was enough to warrant a fresh spin through their last release, the double live CD, Songs for the Long Drive Home. Which you can now download for free.

First up in the mix are "Andy's Oxtails" and "Stayin' Alive" both from the live album, concluding with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" the last song from their last studio album, Viva Los Beefalos!I'm sure I'm not the only one who seriously misses the countrifunked jazzabilly, the awesome musicianship, the great originals, the fabulous cover songs, the sarcastic sense of humor, the long nights of great live music with three sets lasting into the wee hours, the family drama, the band drama, the fan drama, the Funhouse in Bethlehem, the Franklin Tavern in West Orange, the bartender at the Franklin Tavern & the pizza, and most of all the shows that were more like house parties with family, friends and great music. I only came in at the end for about the last year of their run, but in that short time, the whole Gustavson extended family all made me feel like one of their own. I really miss these guys.

Viva Los Beefalos! (2005)

The Unpronounceable's myspace.
The Unpronounceable's website.