Music & More

  Gems From the Record Room You might think of Nora Ephron as an author, but she wrote film screenplays so well that when she had the opportunity to direct her own work, the result was a string of romantic comedies such as Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail . These movies were as successful at the box office as they were beloved by film audiences everywhere. In addition to (co-)writing and directing, Ephron was known to help with the song selection for the soundtracks. One of my favorite reissue labels, Real Gone Music, now offers the two LPs in special colored vinyl editions. These two soundtrack albums are perfect examples of Ephron's sensibility.  Sleepless In Seattle There are many ways to summarize the plot of this movie, but I will share a bit of the Real Gone press release for the soundtrack album. Indeed, the film re-introduced a whole new generation to the unique charms of Jimmy Durante with his renditions of “As Time Goes By” and “Make Someone Happy” over the ...

  Photos: Courtesy of the artist They say that the best music towns are Nashville, Austin and New Orleans. I wouldn't argue the point except to add Los Angelos, Chicago and New York City to the list. A case could be made for NYC as the best music town of all. I've never had the pleasure of visiting The Big Easy, but I've been to all the others and I'm here to say that New York's volume of venues, of all stripes and sizes, has a lot going for it.  Back in the mid 1990s, I fell for a little group known as Once Blue and saw them play live a couple of times. Once Blue was composed of Jesse Harris and Rebecca Martin. You may know Harris from his work with Norah Jones and his Grammy winning composition "Don't Know Why." Once Blue only released one wonderful album before breaking up, but at the time I would have gone anywhere to see singer Rebecca Martin.  I think it was 1997 when I trekked up to NYC to see her at The Living Room's original Lower East Sid...