Music & More

Photo ©2015 Ross Trevail When you live for music discovery, somedays you wear out your delete key. But occasionally, there are days (like the one recently) that keep you getting up in the morning. On such days you might turn on your computer to find something like this Facebook post from Lewis and Leigh: "Happy 1st Birthday to this our first ever video. It was the first thing we ever posted/released as L&L and now here we are looking ahead to our third EP. Can't believe how quickly this year's flown by! We'll be unveiling our newest video very soon so stay tuned!" "Say You Miss Me" (Wilco Cover) - First video recorded live at Urchin Studios, London (June 2014) Upon hearing their two EP's my first thought was The Civil Wars. Although there are numerous parallels, Lewis and Leigh are more energetic, more electric, more country, and more Celtic. They call it Celtic folk and Americana or "Celticana". He is from London, she is fr...

Brilliant. My night was made when Joan Osborne sang "Brokedown Palace". And she was just the opening act. Oh, and what an opening act. Osborne, a confirmed headliner for many years, jumped at the chance to be the opener on this tour because of her love and respect for the music of Richard Thompson . She used this short opening set to step outside the realm of her usual concert format to perform in a duo with musician Keith Cotton, each playing a variety of instruments. This gave rise to new arrangements and new interpretations. It even allowed her to do songs that she might not ordinarily play in concert. In one such instance, she talked about a song that has long been considered a signature for Bonnie Raitt. Recently, she heard Susan Tedeschi of the Tedeschi-Trucks Band do it, so she decided to include it in her set saying, "Bonnie can have it back when I'm done with it," and she proceeded to sing a gorgeous version of John Prine's "Been Too Long ...

Photo: Beverly Kates This was my first time seeing Richard Thompson live (more on that in a moment). That I was totally blown away by his performance should have come as no surprise. I was working at my college radio station back in 1975 when I first heard Richard and Linda Thompson on their second album, Hokey Pokey. After college I moved on to Starview FM, a commercial rock station in central PA. Later that year the Thompson's released Pour Down Like Silver, with cutting edge song composition and even more cutting edge guitar work by Richard. It was clearly music unlike anything else to be heard in 1975. I played it on air often, and even more at home. Richard and Linda continued to release albums into the early 1980's. Their marriage broke up and their professional association ended soon after. Back then there was no social media, no internet. All we had to go on for music news was that which you might find in newspapers, magazines (Rolling Stone), and the album cov...