Pete Belasco started as a piano player on the high school rock band circuit. As he became more interested in jazz, he switched to saxophone and went on to attend Rutgers University. His focus on instrumental music took an unexpected detour as a boating accident that broke both hands left him unable to play for [...]
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Back in 1995, Hollywood Records put out a sampler of their stuff called ACID/BASE. On one disc, a dozen cuts from the UK label ACID JAZZ (which was distributed at the time by Hollywood).The Brand New Heavies opened the set, artists like the James Taylor Quartet, Snowboy, Gregory Isaacs and Vibraphonic got a nod. Being [...]
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Try though I might, I just don’t get what all the fuss is about with Franz Ferdinand. To an old guy like me, they’re just another in a long line of bands that sound painfully like a 1000 bands that have come before (so many come to mind, I can’t even name one).But to the [...]
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Over at Setting The Woods On Fire, there’s been some discussion about Steve Goodman’s Steve Young’s (two) original versions of Seven Bridges Road. I’m partial to the Eagles‘ version because it’s the one I heard first and the one I’ve like for so long.Goodman’s a great songwriter, though, and I love his voice. It reminds [...]
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Neko Case And Her Boyfriends - Bowling Green
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The bigger news would be if Justin Townes Earle, son of Steve, namesake of Van Zant, wasn’t a complete stud. But, indeed, he is and he should probably spawn children with Maria McKee or Shannon McNally. Twenty-two years from now, if guys like me can still hear, we’d get to listen to Sarah Bonnie Earle.We’ve [...]
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I should like to take as great a picture as Merce Cunningham, who will debut still another piece of choreography at the Brooklyn Academy of Music this Thursday. It will be a 90 minute piece, opening on his 90th birthday entitled Nearly Ninety. The rock and roll world owes no small debt to his innovative [...]
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I respect people in the public eye who allow themselves to age gracefully rather than buying themselves a facial overhaul every other birthday. Which is to say I have more respect for Carlene Carter than I do for, say, Cher. Having said that, there’s nothing wrong with genuflecting a moment for the beautiful sight that [...]
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And as she walks the air grows warm, men stare down from roomsShe destroys the hidden line between the wise man and the foolThis one’s not bad, either:I’ve seen presidents corrupted, I’ve seen kings down on their kneesHeh, it wasn’t revolution - lust was the diseaseTom Russell - Black Pearl
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According to legend, Charlie Musselwhite came to notoriety by following the same path as many of his predecessors. He was born in Mississippi, raised in Memphis and came of age as a blues player, having followed route 51 north to Chicago like so many others. He hung out with Buddy Guy, Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy [...]
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My wife is contemplating her shows for next semester and The Music Man is on the consideration list (not in the least because my 8-year old wants to play Winthrop, though he’s a little too big for the part).Therein lays the reason why he’s wandering around the house as I write this, whistling 76 Trombones.One [...]
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It’s been a suckfest of a day…I have more but my kids read this site, so I’ll dispense with anything greater (or lesser) than that.I wrote a review of Emmylou Harris’ Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town over at Sal’s Boutique.And here’s a full album from Mose Allison…good advice for me today.Mose Allison - [...]
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I read this yesterday in an old (September 2006) copy of a magazine called The Sun. It from an interview with Sam Harris, who wrote a controversial book called The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason:The real liability of religion is that it allows perfectly sane people to believe en masse [...]
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I’m feeling quaint today. That is, I’m in a bit of an 80’s way, which doesn’t exactly compute with my standard MO. Maybe it’s because anything 80’s is now at least 20 years old and that’s my watermark for feeling nostalgic.I permed my hair, had two piercings in my left ear and wore short sleeve [...]
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Blue Mountain was born 15 years ago at the peak of the alt.country movement, the brainchild of husband and wife team Cory Hudson and Laurie Staritt. They put out 5 albums at the workman-like pace of an album ever other year and called it quits. After an eight-year hiatus, the band has been reborn behind [...]
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Terry Callier was a colleague of Curtis Mayfield who scored some regional hits back in the 60’s. When he gained custody of his daughter in 1983 he retired from music to become a computer programmer at the University of Chicago. But his five album repertoire from the 1970’s kept getting played in clubs, sampled by [...]
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I can’t tell their story better than they can…What started out as a tribute project to the late Willie P. Bennett, has evolved into one of the most entertaining Canadian roots super groups of all time, Blackie & The Rodeo Kings.After releasing the critically acclaimed High or Hurtin’ in 1996, Tom Wilson, Colin Linden, and [...]
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Starting tomorrow, I’ll be providing content that will air on over 200 CBS Radio streaming stations, as well as on AOL. Here’s a sample:1000 Things About…Ain’t No SunshineThe new darling of the Brit rock media is a soon to be 26-year old folkie from Nevada City, California named Alela Diane. The quality of her voice [...]
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I try not to play music too loudly when my kids are around. I’d prefer they not suffer the kind of hearing loss I’ve suffered for lack of guidance about things like deafness, gum disease and Carole Bayer Sager records.Low volume was likely the cause of the disinterest in Steve Earle’s Transcendental Blues, played this [...]
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Hard times with the bank account have taken their toll on my favorite hobbies: buying music magazines and scouring the thrift stores for records. But, a little extra dough this month let me splurge a wee bit, picking up Mojo, Uncut and the Oxford American music edition yesterday. (I was surprised to find the OA [...]
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