Music & More

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).

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 Vivre for "Vague À L'âme". Violette's website Violette's Facebook

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 South and when they played it live, it was always a crowd favorite. This set was filmed for a PBS-...

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.

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 fou...