Music & More

Mark Knopfler - Your Latest Trick, Academy of Music, Philadelphia Mark Knopfler brought his North American tour to Philadelphia on Saturday, October 17th to play a concert at the Academy of Music. By all reports, the show sold out in about fifteen minutes. Billed as "An Evening With Mark Knopfler" (there was no opening act), the two plus hour show was packed with mostly songs from Knopfler's lengthy solo career with some tasty nuggets from Dire Straits mixed in. After saying that he was glad to be here and that he had already had some Philadelphia cheesesteaks, he didn't say much to the audience preferring, I guess, to let his guitar do the talking. Even though I never got a good handle on his last release, the double album Privateering, I quite enjoyed hearing him do the title track. The show's highlight for me was an amazing "Your Latest Trick" (watch video above) from the Dire Straits' classic Brothers In Arms album. Then, he did an e...

The other night I received the following text, "Halsey is on the radio right now on 104.5. I think she's from around here. Her voice is really good, check her out!!" WRFF-FM, also known as Radio 104.5, is playing a song in heavy rotation called "New Americana" by an artist who goes by the name of Halsey. When they play it, they are also airing a station promo which says something like "This is Halsey and you're listening to Radio 104.5, the station I grew up listening to." Halsey was born Ashley Nicolette Frangipane in Washington, New Jersey. She thinks it's cool that the station she grew up on is playing her song, but this is hardly a local phenomenon. Now you have to hear "New Americana"; this chorus has a hook that's undeniable. "We are the new Americana, High on legal marijuana, Raised on Biggie and Nirvana, We are the new Americana." Halsey - New Americana The chorus is somewhat biographical. Halsey...

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead, Dead.net will release a ginormous 80 disc live box set, entitled 30 Trips Around the Sun. The set includes thirty complete concerts, one for each year that the band was active; they have selected the best show of each year (all shows previously unreleased). I may be in the minority here, but since first hearing The Dead in 1969, I have always been in it for the music. I tie-dyed my speakers after seeing The Grateful Dead's first annual dance marathon at the Manhattan Ballroom in NYC (1971). The New Riders of the Purple Sage opened, then after what seemed like an hour of tuning, the Dead started their set, around 11PM as I recall; they were still playing at 4AM when we left. In the 80's, I saw them at the Philadelphia Spectrum with my younger brother who had followed the Dead on tour, selling grilled cheese sandwiches in the parking lot, etc., etc. In 2004, I took my daughters to the Tweeter Center in Camden, NJ to se...

Kacey Musgraves - Merry Go' Round Kacey Musgraves dazzled the sold-out Trocadero in Philadelphia, Saturday night 10/03. This was a stop on her Pageant Material tour. She drew most of the 21 song set from her latest album, Pageant Material, as well as from her major label debut, Same Trailer Different Park (2013). The Trocadero became a center city burlesque house from 1940 until it closed in the late 1960's. The theater, which dates from 1870, was beautifully renovated for it's current use as a concert venue. The stage, set to look like a beauty pageant complete with backdrop of shiny red fringe, looked right at home here. She brought an excellent band with her; the pedal steel gave many of her songs the flavor of old school country. There is nothing old fashioned about Musgraves' music, save for her penchant for clever wordplay in her lyrics. "Mama's hooked on Mary Kay. Brother's hooked on Mary Jane. Daddy's hooked on Mary two doors down. Ma...

Photo Courtesy of Ari Hest Ari Hest - Less Ari Hest and Liz Longley played a superb show at the New Hope Winery on Saturday night November 22, 2014. The Winery features great sight lines and the lighting and sound are excellent. This was an inspired pairing considering that during each set the thunderous applause seemed to indicate that the sold out crowd was there just for them. The Winery books a lot of great artists, the only drawback being that sometimes tickets can get rather pricey. However on this night, the Winery crowd was treated to two immensely talented singer-songwriters for the price of one. Ari Hest did a thoroughly enjoyable set which drew liberally from his sixteen year career and featured songs from his latest album, Shouts and Whispers, his eighth. I would be hard pressed to name a favorite from that album (they all sounded great live), but if forced I would have to name "Less". Watch the video above, and several more songs from his set below. ...

Photo courtesy of Tamaryn Tamaryn Brown, the dreamy voiced purveyor of shoegaze, who records under the name Tamaryn, has just released her third album, Cranekiss. Based in New York, the New Zealand born singer has created a sound that is both soothing and bracing; on first listen it is apparent that this is something completely different. In an interview with Eve Barlow (Noisey: Music by Vice), Tamaryn says, "I believe that creativity can heal life trauma; it's a form of therapy," she says. "If you do it well you can heal other people with similar negative experiences. I want to master that art." Read the highly interesting interview . The slightly dirty guitar sound of her last album has been replaced by something more refined. Tamaryn comes out of your speakers with a psyched up, slowed down, early Madonna vibe and has a sound that at times reminds of Aimee Mann's 80's band Til Tuesday ("Voices Carry"). There are also some delicious tou...

Gems From The Record Room : If you'd like to fall in love with jazz, this is the album for you. Late in his amazing career, Stan Getz recorded this little platter of perfection, Bossas and Ballads. Getz was a tenor sax player and band leader whose career spanned the 1940's through the 1980's and Getz played with nearly all the greats. He was most well known for his huge bossa nova hit "The Girl from Ipanema" with Antonio Carlos Jobim and Astrud Gilberto. Produced by Herb Alpert, Bossas and Ballads is not only a great sax album; it's also a great piano record, by virtue of the majority of the tracks being composed by piano player Kenny Barron. This quartet also featured the brilliant rhythm section of George Mraz on bass and Victor Lewis on drums. They were not flashy, but played the most solid rhythm you could want to hear. "Sunshower" shows all the attributes of this fine album right there in the lead track. It begins with the main line ...