Music & More

Love Is The Only Goal: The Best Of Wendy Waldman Wendy Waldman is an enormously talented songwriter, singer, and musician who started out in the early seventies and is still going strong. When her first group Bryndle (with Karla Bonoff, Andrew Gold, and Kenny Edwards) disbanded, she was signed by Warner Brothers, where she recorded her first five albums between 1973 and 1978. This extraordinarily well chosen set is drawn from those five albums, Love Has Got Me, Gypsy Symphony, Wendy Waldman, The Main Refrain, and Strange Company, except "Mad Mad Me" which was re-recorded for this collection and "Charles River Song" which is an unreleased demo. Wendy's music embodies everything that was good about the L.A. singer-songwriter movement in the seventies. Wendy first landed on the map when Maria Muldour recorded two of her songs, "Mad Mad Me" and "Vaudeville Man," on her 1972 album, Maria Muldour. Even though none of her own albums ever cha...

Saturday Video :  It's been seven years since Dido's last album, Safe Trip Home, a record that was richer and more complex than her first two, and even though it sold a more than respectable five million copies worldwide, it didn't have the glistening hooks and succession of hit singles to drive sales into the stratosphere like it's predecessors, No Angel and Life for Rent. Hits or not, Dido is such a good songwriter and performer that her music appeals not only to the singles crowd, but to the singer-songwriter audience who wouldn't be caught dead listening to hits radio. After so much time, expectations are high for Girl Who Got Away released next month, Dido's fourth album. Dido was here in the States this week to promote it with an appearance Wednesday on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Here she is with a live performance of the lead track and first single, "No Freedom". She also did "White Flag" on Kimmel. Girl Who Got Away (Delux...

Saturday Video :  In the four years since Jimmy Fallon succeeded Conan O'Brien as the host of NBC's Late Night program, it has become the most music-friendly of the late night talk shows, often featuring performances by a wide array of musically interesting artists. New artists making their television debut, and artists who don't normally do television are more likely than not to appear on Late Night . Fallon has turned out to be enormously good at musical parody, deadly funny too; his Neil Young and his Tebowie are just two examples, but that's a post for another day. One big reason for the musical excellence is the Roots, who have been the house band since Jimmy took over the show in 2009. Jessie Ware started out doing guest vocals on other people's records in her native U.K. and she attracted critical acclaim last year in London with a series of successful singles and live shows, culminating in the release of her debut album, Devotion. We've written ab...

Dispatch from Norwich :  Folk artist Jess Morgan has just released a new video for the title track of her forthcoming new EP, Richer Thinner Smarter, due March 4th. There are seven tracks on the EP, four new songs including "Richer Thinner Smarter" and three are new versions of songs from Jess' last album, Aye Me , which was one of the best albums released last year. Jess is currently in the midst of writing her third album, anticipated later this year. The new songs reflect Jess' gift for writing songs that weave a story, give advice, or otherwise whisk you away to another place and time, often with a ssnse of humor that is uniquely Jess. Or in the case of "Richer Thinner Smarter", it's a love song, just in time for Valentines Day, which, in it's own very endearing way, covers the same lyrical ground as the clssic Billy Joel love song, "Just the Way You Are". The new EP, as you can hear in the video, has a most intimate producti...

Saturday Video :  Folksinger Greg Brown may have the largest repertoire of American music since Jerry Garcia, encompassing folk, blues, gospel, jazz, rock, R&B, and country. His concerts are his primary means of self expression. No two shows are ever exactly alike and when he writes a song or constructs a set, he draws from a rich palette of musical styles, times, places, people, ideas, and moods, all informed by his own experiences. Although he has released many great albums over the years, none of his studio albums so closely approximate his live performances as his newest, Hymns To What Is Left. Greg is not the sort of artist who normally makes videos, so this "Official Video" for the new album's title track is something of a rarity. Greg accompanies his resonant baritone with his own acoustic guitar, his daughter Pieta Brown plays piano, and the evocative electric guitar was played by longtime friend and sideman Bo Ramsey. The simple but beautiful arrangement...

Saturday Video :  We totally love the new video from Polly and the Billets Doux, "Hymn Song", which is their latest single, from the Hold Fast EP . The evocative outdoor setting is pure England. Photos courtesy of Polly and the Billets Doux Bonus Video :  This is "Sycamore Ships " which was the B-side of their "Cry Cry" single. "Polly and the Billets Doux spend a bank holiday travelling the coast and visiting Swanage and Brighton for gigs." Hold Fast (EP) Polly and the Billets Doux Website Polly and the Billets Doux Facebook Polly and the Billets Doux Twitter