Lately, Fusion 45 has been treated a little bit like a young tree in the corner of the backyard. Now going on 3 years old, it’s somewhat mature and strong but not yet ready to be left alone. Unfortunately, the bushes on the other side of the yard — i.e., my new job, the kid’s [...]
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I feel a strange mix of sadness and relief at the death of Michael Jackson. It’s sad to see a man die prematurely, whether he’s an international star or the guy next door. But, much sadder is the fact Michael Jackson would never have regained the respect of popular culture had he lived 100 years.Two [...]
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For most American teenagers, turning on to Electric Light Orchestra in 1975 was just about right on time. Even though they’d put out four albums previously, it wasn’t until Face The Music that most of us has even heard of them.Of course, it was Evil Woman that caught our attention. That huge orchestral chord, Jeff [...]
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You Are So Beautiful is the first song I recall hearing by Joe Cocker.I remember visiting my sister and (future) brother-in-law when they were living in Fredonia, NY, in a trailer park across the road from Lake Erie. They had rented themselves a “doublewide,” she was just beginning her teaching career and they sometimes offered [...]
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You’ve Made Me So Very Happy was one of the first singles I remember owning. Like all the singles Columbia made through the 60’s and 70’s, the vinyl was pretty darn soft so the song turned scratchy within a few spins. (I remember doing radio in the late 70’s and early 80’s, when we still [...]
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One of the earliest concerts in my repertoire was Three Dog Night at the Chemung (N.Y.) County Fair, sometime in the neighborhood of 1975. I had yet to know cool from corny but, at 13, thought I was getting there, sitting in the stands with my parents, who had cotton in their ears. Yeah, I [...]
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I had the pleasure — and I sincerely mean, pleasure — of meeting Johnny Cougar Mellencamp back in 1983 (or thereabouts) when he was touring behind American Fool. He was just starting to be huge at the time, touring as an opener for Heart. (I got to meet Nancy Wilson, too, which was a darn [...]
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I’ve been doing a series of vignettes for CBS Radio called “1000 Things About 100 Songs You’ve Heard 1,000,000 Times”. (Yes, I’ve copyrighted that.)Cut a couple this week that have me thinking in a summer way. So here are the songs and samples of “1000 Things”.1000 Things About My GirlThe Temptations - My Girl1000 Things [...]
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Some years ago, my friend Matt Rubenstein made this comment about Santana in concert: on a good day, he’s transcendent. On a bad day, he’s simply amazing.The same can be said about Elvis Costello records. Some of his musical adventures have been groundbreaking (My Aim Is True), some have been adventurous (The Juliet Letters) and [...]
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Presuming the word “fan” to be short for “fanatic,” Dave Matthews would not qualify as one of whom I am a fan. I like his stuff well enough, don’t mind listening to him but would hardly spend my summer following him around the country. (Actually, there isn’t anyone I’d follow around the country except for [...]
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It was a terrific weekend, one of those you wish would never end. Perfect NW weather (73 degrees, pure sunshine, light breeze), the boys played in a baseball tournament (were lights-out on the game and helped the team win the championship) and all was well with the world. A job interview on my docket tomorrow [...]
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It has to be to tough to be a reggae musician and the son of Bob Marley. Imagine the expectations! How can anyone live up to that lineage? Maybe he should considered another profession, like rabbi or insurance underwriter.When I listened the first three or four times to Julian “JuJu” Marley’s new album, Awake, which [...]
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As we say ’round the table at Fusion Family 45: Life is Good, Monkey On A Skateboard.This morning, we took a combined team of a half dozen kids from two different teams to a baseball tournament about 20 minutes north of home. It was a bit of a bloodbath in our favor (no score to [...]
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My oldest son, Austin, turned 11 today. I took him out of school early, bought him some sushi for lunch, we spent some time at the bookstore, watched together as his younger brother and sister played music in a talent show (which, as you might imagine from an elementary school, was a little short of [...]
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I mature enough to accept there are a lot of records been made today that weren’t intended for me, a 46-year old music junkie with an abnormal obsession for Telecaster rhythm tracks and close harmonies.Bon Iver, in all his introspective wisdom, was not made for me.Nor was Polly Scattergood.She who claims Elton John as an [...]
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For the L.A. Times’ Margaret Wrappler, Tori Amos is the “reigning muse for mystic goth girls” and her new album, Abnormally Attracted To Sin, is “a 17-song stem trunk of an album [striking] an uncanny balance between Victorian-inspired decadence, mythical pathos and arch camp”.Over at the BBC, they say the new album is “a bit [...]
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I discovered Volebeats a few years ago after doing a needle drop on the band on eMusic.Built in Detroit in the late 1980’s as an acoustic duo, Volebeats is an ongoing project of guitarists/singers Matthew Smith and Jeff Oakes. From street corner singing through a half-dozen plus records and about as many personnel changes, they’re [...]
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Apparently Benji Hughes‘ music has been featured on a number of TV shows. I wouldn’t know: I haven’t turned on the TV in at least a year (and, save for baseball games, I don’t really miss it). His first album, A Love Extreme, is a 25-cut disc that was produced by Keefus Ciancia, whose Wiki [...]
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Jeffrey Foucault’s newest record, Shoot The Moon Right Between The Eyes, is a collection of John Prine songs, interpreted by Foucault (with the help of guitarist Peter Mulvey and vocalist Kris Delmhorst, among others). Recorded over the course of a year in a wood-paneled office of an old bank, Mojo magazine was correct in saying [...]
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For the same reason why a radio station here in Portland just changed from (blech!) oldies to (blah!), um, oldies, I guess.Instead of your “favorite” 60’s and 70’s oldies, they’re playing your favorites 80’s “oldies”. Rock 40, I call it. Whitesnake and Guns N’ Roses and more Billy Idol than anyone should be forced to [...]
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