Music & More

When I started this blog in July 2004, I basically wanted to see what all the fuss was about with blogging. I was (and still am) obsessed with music so that was the obvious choice. Back then this blog had no pictures, no graphics, no audio, and no video, only text. I went to the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival that month and wrote about everyone that I saw play. As soon as I posted I was hooked. I am also a lifelong photographer and I photographed every artist that I saw play at Falcon Ridge. At the time, it was painful not to include these pictures in my post. There was no easy way to do that then, let alone post audio tracks or video. YouTube didn't exist yet in 2004, it began in 2005. As soon as it became feasible I added photos, audio, and video to the blog. Each of these elements required an outside website to host the media files. With audio, the first and best hosting site was a website called DivShare. You uploaded your files to their servers and they provided HTML code to em...

All photos by Bev Kates (exc. as noted) First encore: Give the Music Back>Nervous Night> Blood from a Stone The Hooters brought their 35th anniversary tour to the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA for two sold-out shows Friday and Saturday night, November 6th and 7th. Friday night the faithful were out in force, memories of past shows were coming through loud and clear; Ambler Cabaret, 23 East Cabaret, Chestnut Cabaret, Wissahickon High School, Ripley Music Hall, Norris Theater, Electric Factory, JFK Stadium, and World Cafe Live, just to name a few. Photo by Lindsey Mitchell I'm pretty sure that I've seen The Hooters play more times than I've seen any other band. One big reason for that is The Hooters make music to which you cannot sit down. I've seen them in all kinds of venues and give me a bar or a dance hall any day; you've just got to be able to move. I'm not necessarily talking dancing, not in the style of Elaine from Seinfeld if you know w...

I don't know how I missed this movie when it came out in 2004. How I found my way to it now is somewhat germane. I am in a long project to digitize my music collection and last week I ran across a CD of the soundtrack to I ♥ Huckabees. I gave it a listen, it sounded good. I read a thoroughly glowing AllMusic review, it was essentially a Jon Brion album; he is a pop-meister, producer, musician, and songwriter. He has worked with Fiona Apple and Amy Mann and has a number of film soundtracks to his credit. Here is a little bit of what Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote on AllMusic.com. "While there are elements of the carnival-esque sound of his Magnolia score -- after all, that is his signature -- as well as his moodier charts for Punch-Drunk Love and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Huckabees has a mischievous, impish spirit that distinguishes itself from those three other major works. There's an offhanded virtuosity in the arrangements and eclecticism that's ...

Photo courtesy of dcclothesline.com Listen to Aretha Franklin - "Respect" My thought process: When you have held a certain set of beliefs for a long time, such as we are all created equal without regard to sex, race, religion, or politics, you tend to take it for granted that issues like gender bias are basically in the past. It's sad to realize that here in 2015 we are still a long way from gender equality in the USA, and sadder still that we have not even achieved it in music. Why music? Because of all the elements of culture, music has provided the most free thinking idealism. It was music that heralded the cultural and sexual revolution and brought the Woodstock Nation to the world in the late 1960s. You would just hope that the music community would have progressed a little further by now than the society at large. But, perhaps not. Reality check: In this country, women have only had the right to vote since 1920 (this period was nicely depicted in the HBO s...