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April 18, 2012
*** All the news that's fit to be tied ***
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* THE HARDEST WORKING NEWSLETTER IN SHOW BUSINESS *
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LIVE ON THE AIRWAVES - THE ROCKABILLY ROADHOUSE WITH BIG DAVE
FOR BIG FUN, LISTEN TO "THE ROCKABILLY ROADHOUSE WITH BIG DAVE".... FRIDAY NIGHTS from 9pm-11pm (pt) and SATURDAY MORNINGS from 9am-11am (pt) for TWO BIG HOURS of amped-up, high-octane roots music....guaranteed to kick start your weekend! STREAM IT LIVE at http://www.krsh.com or listen to The Krush in Sonoma County, CA at KRSH 95.9 FM. Also available on your favorite radio app on your mobile device.
STREAMING LIVE ON iTUNES (Look for "The Krush" in the 'Eclectic Radio' category)......Tell 40 or 50 of your closest friends!
Select show archives available here: at http://www.krsh.com/Rockabilly-Roadhouse-Archive/8911085
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It's time to get down to the Main Gazane!
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The Band drummer Levon Helm in final stages of cancer
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Drummer Levon Helm, a longtime member of The Band, is in the final stages of cancer, his family said on Tuesday.
Helm, 71, who also toured with Ringo Starr's All Star band in the 1980s and won a Grammy Award for his 2011 release "Ramble at the Ryman," had canceled a series of recent gigs, raising fears about his health.
A message posted on his official website by his wife Sandy and daughter Amy, said that Helm "is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey."
"Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration... he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage," the message added.
Robbie Robertson, former frontman of The Band, sent a message of "love and prayers" to Helm during a speech at the weekend at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
Helm, who also sang vocals and plays guitar and mandolin, played with The Band until their 1976 " The Last Waltz" farewell performance, which was filmed by director Martin Scorsese.
He rejoined The Band when it reunited some years later without Robertson, and then forged a solo career.
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Tom Petty gets guitars back, security guard arrested
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The waiting might have been the hardest part, but rockers Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have gotten back the missing guitars they were seeking and police said on Tuesday a security guard has been arrested on suspicion of stealing the instruments.
The five guitars - which included Petty's 1967, 12-string Rickenbacker made of maple - were reported stolen on Thursday from a sound studio in Culver City, west of Los Angeles, and the band announced it would pay a $7,500 reward for information leading to their recovery.
Daryl Washington, a 51-year-old security guard at the studio, was arrested on Monday and booked on suspicion of grand theft, police said. Detectives got a tip one of the guitars was sold to a Hollywood pawn shop, police said.
"I am extremely grateful to the Culver City Police Department for a job well done and touched by the outpouring of good wishes and concern from our fans and friends," Petty wrote on his Facebook page.
It was not immediately clear if anyone would collect the $7,500 no-questions asked reward for the return of the guitars.
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Concert Review: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
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Thanks to Marc Blaker....
Neil Young Trademarks New Audio Format
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/neil-young-trademarks-new-audio-format-20120403
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Thanks to Cary Baker as always.....for the following great releases on the way!
CHRIS SMITHER COSMIC BLUES COMES FULL CIRCLE
ON 12th ALBUM, HUNDRED DOLLAR VALENTINE OUT JUNE 19
First long-player by fingerpicker/singer/songwriter to feature all original songs features session support
from Morphine, Groovasaurus, The Lemonheads players
BOSTON, Mass. — There are such things as the cosmic blues. Janis Joplin once recorded a song by that name — she spelled it kosmik. But Chris Smither lives them.
Smither’s cosmic blues are on full display in Hundred Dollar Valentine, a brilliant amalgam made of equal parts past, present and future. It is music that traces its roots back deep into tradition, anchors its rhythms and textures in today, and reaches forward into the future, asking the Big Questions — why am I here? Is there purpose to all of this or is it just a spinning cascade of random moments?
And he does it all with six strings, an insistent, understated groove and a sly wink — letting you know that we may all enter and leave this world alone, but that don’t mean we can’t have a good time while we’re here.
Hundred Dollar Valentine, Smither’s 12th studio disc, due out June 19, 2012 on Signature Sounds, sports the unmistakable sound he’s made his trademark: fingerpicked acoustic guitar and evocative sonic textures meshed with spare, brilliant songs, delivered in a bone-wise, hard-won voice.
From his early days as the hot New Orleans transplant in the Boston folk scene, through his wilderness years, to his reemergence in the 1990s as one of America’s most distinctive acoustic performers, Chris Smither has always been his own man. He has zigged when others have zagged, eschewing sophisticated studio tricks and staying true to his musical vision, surrounding himself with sympathetic musicians ranging from Bonnie Raitt and the late Stephen Bruton to the next-generation kindred spirits with whom he works today.
It’s easy to see that Smither’s primary touchstone is acoustic blues, once describing his guitar style as “one third Lightnin’ Hopkins, one-third Mississippi John Hurt and one-third me.” While “blues” can evoke images of beer-sodden bar bands cranking out three sets a night wondering why one’s baby left them, Smither reaches back to the primordial longing and infinite loneliness held within the form.
Sure, the album kicks off with the deceptively jaunty title track, whose good-time, ricky-tick shuffle masks the singer’s walking the creaky floorboards of doubt. But the cosmic blues come to the fore on the next cut: “On the Edge” is part conversation, part confessional and part affirmation. This is when you start to realize what extraordinary artistry — what seamless meshing of sound, subject and delivery — is going on here.
Producer David “Goody” Goodrich (credits: Peter Mulvey, Jeffrey Foucault, Rose Polenzani, The Amity Front), a true musician’s musician, is a natural partner for Smither. “He knows me and my music so well that I trust his ideas implicitly and he keeps coming back with new ones,” says Smither. “This is my fifth project with Goody and each time he raises the bar.”
The recording sessions came together during early 2012 at Signature Studios in Pomfret, Connecticut. Stopping by were the nexus of two of Boston’s most distinctive and influential acts of the recent era — Treat Her Right’s (later Morphine) drummer Billy Conway and Jimmy Fitting on harmonica, and Goodrich’s ex-Groovasaurus bandmates Anita Suhanin (vocals) and violinist Ian Kennedy (Page/Plant, Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield, Peter Wolf, Susan Tedeschi).
“I've either worked with or been around all the musicians on this record over the years so it was a very comfortable and personable situation,” says Smither. “All these folks are the best at what they do. It makes my job easy.”
While this is Smither’s twelfth studio album, this is his first-ever outing comprised entirely of self-penned songs. He’s always favored the cream of songwriters, such as Dylan, Mark Knopfler and Chuck Berry, mixed with classics from the blues canon, but this time, the credits read all-Smither. “Actually,” he laughs, “there are two covers on the record; but it’s me covering myself.”
“My producer and manager made the argument — a strong one — that songs from my earlier catalog were written by a young man. I'm not a young man any longer but they thought it would be interesting to interpret work from my youth from the perspective of having been on the planet as long as I've been now.”
While it is no surprise that several of his songs have become virtual standards, it is ironic that the assuredly masculine Smither has found favor almost exclusively with female singers: “Love You (Me) Like a Man” has been recorded countless times, with the best known versions by Bonnie Raitt and Diana Krall, “Slow Surprise” by Emmylou Harris and “I Feel the Same” by Raitt, Candi Staton and Esther Phillips among others.
“We chose ‘I Feel the Same’ because of its conciseness. I’ve been told it’s a good example of less is more,” says Smither. Indeed, in three spare verses, “I Feel the Same” is one of the most hauntingly evocative modern blues ever written. “All that nothin’ causes all that pain,” marvels the singer, as he surveys the desolate landscape of heartbreak before him.
Equally unflinching is “Every Mother’s Son.” Tracing a direct line from Cain to Billy the Kid to David Koresh and Timothy McVeigh, “Every Mother’s Son” is an indelible portrait of nihilism:
“I speak to you. I think you'll understand/You know you’ve made your son Joseph a dangerous man/He's gone to town, he's bought himself a gun . . .” “It’s a song I wish would become irrelevant,” says Smither, “But I don’t think it ever will.”
On Hundred Dollar Valentine, Chris Smither makes music that simultaneously breaks and fortifies one’s heart. It’s music that acknowledges that even as we are together, we are alone. This is music that stares into that absolute abyss and does not lie. This is music that locks its gaze with life and death and does not look away.
On Hundred Dollar Valentine, Chris Smither sings the cosmic blues.
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NEW ALBUM BY MARLEY’S GHOST, JUBILEE,
FEATURES LEDENDARY PRODUCER/SONGWRITER
COWBOY JACK CLEMENT AT THE HELM
Stellar list of guest performers include Emmylou Harris, John Prine,
Old Crow Medicine Show, Marty Stuart, Larry Campbell,
Byron House and Don Heffington.
Along with six band originals, songs include covers of Kris Kristofferson,
Levon Helm, Bobby & Shirley Womack and others.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Marley’s Ghost — a virtuoso aggregation composed of singer/multi-instrumentalists Dan Wheetman, Jon Wilcox, Mike Phelan, Ed Littlefield Jr. and Jerry Fletcher — celebrates its 25th anniversary with the scintillating roots-music tour de force Jubilee (Sage Arts, June 5).
The album, produced by legendary Nashville cat Cowboy Jack Clement and recorded at the city’s venerable Sound Emporium, which Clement built, features guest performances from Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Old Crow Medicine Show, Marty Stuart, Larry Campbell, Byron House and Don Heffington.
“One of the things that we were really clear on with this record was that we wanted it to be a Marley’s Ghost album with friends sitting in, not guest stars with us as the backing band,” Wheetman explains. “And it worked.”
Like its nine predecessors, Jubilee is wildly eclectic, its 13 tracks drawn, with unerring taste, from the songbooks of Kris Kristofferson (“This Old Road”), Levon Helm (“Growin’ Trade”), Bobby and Shirley Womack (“It’s All Over Now”), Katy Moffatt and Tom Russell (“Hank and Audrey”), John Prine (“Unwed Fathers”), Butch Hancock (“If You Were a Bluebird”) and Paul Siebel (the closing “She Made Me Lose My Blues”), along with the traditional “Diamond Joe.” These deftly interpreted tunes blend seamlessly with the six originals on the album.
Marley’s Ghost is nothing less than a national treasure, the capable inheritors of the archetypal Americana blueprint drawn up by The Band. As the L.A. Weekly aptly put it, “This West Coast [group] deftly, and frequently daffily, dashes across decades of American music to create a sound that’s steeped in tradition but never bogged down by traditionalism.” These guys can sing and play anything with spot-on feel, from reggae (hence the double-entendre moniker) to blues to stone country, which is what they’ve been doing — to the ongoing delight of a fervent cult that includes many of their fellow musicians — throughout their first quarter century as a working unit.
“The band has always been eclectic, and that’s one of the reasons we’ve stayed together for this long,” Wheetman explains. “I’ve said this before, but instead of having to be in a Delta blues band, an a cappella singing group, a country band, a reggae band, and being a singer/songwriter, I’m in one band and we just do all that. It’s very convenient.”
When they started thinking about this album project more than a year ago, the band members agreed to each bring songs to the table that they wanted Marley’s Ghost to record. “That’s the way the band has generally operated,” says Wheetman, “and then some things naturally stick.
I brought ‘The Blues Are Callin’’ for Mike because I thought it would be a good duet song, although he wound up singing it by himself — and he sang the shit out of it, by the way. And when I heard Kris Kristofferson’s last album a couple of years ago, I thought the title song would be great for Jon, so I brought that one along as well. Jon brought ‘Growin’ Trade,’ which Eddie ended up singing.”
Phelan describes “Growin’ Trade,” written by Larry Campbell and Levon Helm, as “an emblematic Band song that was never recorded by The Band. Loving The Band and being able to make something that sounds like The Band without imitating The Band is kinda tricky, and I think we pulled it off with this one, so we’re really proud of that.” Wheetman’s “South for a Change” has a Bob Wills feel, while Phelan was thinking of Buck Owens when “Lonely Night” came to him.
The new record is the band’s second straight project with Clement, who turned 81 on April 5. Clement first heard Marley’s Ghost in 2009, when a mutual friend brought him to a performance at Nashville’s Douglas Corner. “Afterwards, Cowboy came up to tell us how much he liked the band,” Phelan recalls. “He said, ‘You got a lot of bang,’ whatever that means. It was love at first sight all around. He liked that we were a real band and not a bunch of session musicians who get together for one project. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but he knows a lot of those guys; he doesn’t know a lot of real bands who play and sing together and have a sound. About a month later, he sent us a letter — not an email — saying that if we wanted to come down to his place, he’d really like to make a record with us. We thought about that for two or three seconds — ‘Let’s see, do we want to make a record with a living legend, the guy who produced Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins? Okay.’ So this was a unique opportunity for us to do something with him while he’s still at the height of his powers.”
They first worked with Clement on 2010’s Ghost Town, which in turn followed 2006’s Van Dyke Parks-produced Spooked. “Working with Van Dyke was like grad school in producing, says Phelan, “whereas Cowboy is a much more subtle guy. He’d be sitting there in the control room with these gigantic speakers cranked up listening to us do a take, and we’d hear him like the voice of God over the talkback, ‘Liked that one.’ Or he’d go, ‘That kinda sucked. You got a better one in ya.’ He guided the process, but not in any way similar to what Van Dyke had done. So it was a wildly different experience. But when you ride out the whole process, you can see why he’s got so many gold records on his walls.”
“Jack brings a state of mind, a perspective about why you’re there in the first place,” Wheetman says of Clement’s production approach. “Then he lets things happen. When he started working at Sun, everything was cut live, and it was all about feel, not precision, and that’s how he still approaches it. And as you get basic tracks done, he’s got ideas about what to add. Jack really wanted Jerry on piano for the basic tracks because he’s such a great piano player, and up to this point, he’d been playing drums and piano at the same time, believe it or not. So we asked our old friend Don Heffington, who played on Spooked, to play the drums on the album. And I generally play bass in the band, but we asked Byron House come in and play bass on the sessions.”
According to Phelan, they brought in House and Heffington to serve as the rhythm section on the album “because we wanted that feel you get when the whole band plays together. We wanted to get as much in the live session as possible and change as little as possible to the record — it just feels better that way.”
Marley’s Ghost had brought in guests on several of their previous records — “friends who happened to be in the neighborhood,” according to Wheetman — but nothing approaching the all-star cast that graces Jubilee. “That was all Jack,” says Wheetman. “As we were doing ‘Unwed Fathers,’ he said, ‘That one needs a girl’s voice —it needs an angel on there.’ So he called Emmylou. Marty Stuart used to live at Jack’s house back when he was still playing mandolin with Johnny Cash. And Jack produced a couple of records for John Prine. We had sent Prine a CD of ‘This Old Road,’ and he really did his homework — he came in ready to go. They were all incredibly wonderful to work with — really giving and friendly. With every one of them, it was, ‘Is that what you want?’
“Emmy was in the studio trying to work out the harmony part for ‘Unwed Fathers,’ and because I’ve got a low voice, she was figuring out where to put it in her range to make it work. She said, ‘I’ll be out here ’til the cows come home,’ and I got on the talkback and asked her, ‘What time do the cows come home?’ She said, ‘As soon as I get this part!’”
The lone non-Nashville guest was Woodstock-based guitarist and fiddle player Larry Campbell, a former key member of Bob Dylan’s band, Levon Helm’s producer and musical director, and the co-writer, with Levon, of “Growin’ Trade,” one of the highlights of Helm’s Grammy-winning 2009 LP Electric Dirt. “We wanted some fiddle and some electric guitar on a couple of things, so we invited Larry down,” says Dan. “He came into the studio and cranked for a whole day and just killed it. He played hellacious guitar on ‘Hank and Audrey,’ and he was great fun to work with.”
With each album, the band’s mastery of all manner of roots forms becomes more captivating, and more seamless in its variety. “When you’ve been together for 25 years, there’s an approach, and that just automatically puts a certain spin on everything you do,” Wheetman points out. “One thing that’s always been important in the band is that you do what you can to serve the song, and that creates a cohesiveness from song to song.”
“We’re five singers who don’t think genres mean much,” says Phelan. “If you connect with the song and the song connects with you, that’s what’s important, and that’s a real core belief of the band. When I go to a performance, I want to hear passion; I want to hear somebody up there doing it because they can’t not do it. That’s what we’re going for with everything we tackle. We have so many diverse feels, and we can pull them off in an authentic way — and after all this time, we’re playing the best we ever have.”
One listen to Jubilee will confirm that assertion. In every note, and every measured silence, you can hear the miles they’ve traveled together, the jaw-dropping closeness they’ve attained, and the magical place where the men of Marley’s Ghost now reside.
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SONNY LANDRETH’S 11th ALBUM ‘ELEMENTAL JOURNEY’
IS FIRST ALL-INSTRUMENTAL OUTING
May 22 release features Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani,
Robert Greenidge and Steve Conn.
BREAUX BRIDGE, La. — Sonny Landreth’s 11th album, bearing the fittingly evocative title Elemental Journey, is something very different from the Louisiana slide wizard. Released on his own Landfall label on May 22, 2012, the new CD is Landreth’s first all-instrumental effort and his most adventurous work to date.
“From day one on the guitar, many genres of music have had an impact on me” says Landreth. “For these recordings, I drew from some of those influences that I hadn’t gone to on previous albums with my vocals. Trading off the lyrics this time, I focused solely on the instrumental side and all this music poured out. Then I asked some extraordinary musicians to help me layer the tracks in hopes of inspiring a lot of imagery for the listeners.”
Like its predecessor, From the Reach (2008), Elemental Journey features guest stars, in this case handpicked by Landreth for what each could bring to a particular aural canvas. Joe Satriani delivers an astonishing, ferocious solo on the audacious opener “Gaia Tribe,” the returning virtuoso Eric Johnson casts his seductive spell on the dusky dreamscape “Passionola” and steel drum master Robert Greenidge brings his magical overtones to the balmy, swaying “Forgotten Story.”
Drummers Brian Brignac, Doug Belote and Mike Burch, each of whom Landreth has worked with in the past, lend their particular feels to various tracks, working with Sonny’s longtime band members, bass player Dave Ranson and keyboardist Steve Conn. Tony Daigle, another key member of Sonny’s team, engineered and mixed the album, while Landreth produced.
“One of the things I’ve always loved about a good instrumental song is that it can be more impressionistic and abstract,” Landreth notes. “Though melody is always important, it’s even more significant with an instrumental. So what I wanted to achieve was something more thematic with lots of melodies and with a chordal chemistry that was harmonically rich. That’s when I got the idea to treat the arrangements with more layering and to have the melodies interweave like conversations. I also wanted it to be more diverse, to not adhere to any categories. I wanted to leave it wide open to possibility.”
The album blossoms forth with unexpected yet seamless juxtapositions. For example, Spanish moss atmospherics enwrap visceral bursts of rock and jazz on “Gaia Tribe,” and Sonny’s slide swoops and soars over a Jamaican-inspired groove with Greenidge’s Trinidadian pans on “Forgotten Story,” while “Wonderide” finds zydeco romancing classical.
“On ‘Wonderide,’ you can hear some of Clifton Chenier’s Creole influences and then it morphs into a classical motif with the strings playing more complex changes,” Sonny points out. “When I started experimenting with it, I realized that the tempo for a good zydeco groove could easily transition into the fingerpicking style of phrasing found in classical guitar music. Then it was a matter of adding the strings to give it more depth with tension and release, expanding the overall sound.”
Strings play a featured role on five of the pieces. The string arrangements by Sam Broussard — moonlighting from his gig as guitarist in Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys — are played by members of Lafayette’s own Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its music director, Mariusz Smolij, a world-renowned maestro. The strings are employed in a particularly inventive way wherever they appear on Elemental Journey, frequently embellishing the tunings that Landreth uses for slide guitar — “sometimes in unison like a horn section, sometimes as a legitimate quartet or full blown orchestra,” Sonny explains.
The concept occurred to him after Smolij invited him to perform with the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra for a 2005 Christmas show for which he played Bach’s Cantata 140. “It was something I’d always wanted to do,” says Sonny. “I’d played the trumpet in school band and orchestra from grade school through college, so I was exposed to classical music and jazz, but I’d never played anything like that on slide guitar! So that really fired me up, and it became the backdrop for some of the classical influences on this album.”
There’s a particularly thrilling moment in the first track, “Gaia Tribe”, that occurs when two seemingly antithetical elements lock in an embrace. “When I first heard Joe’s solo,” Sonny recalls, “I went, ‘This is incredible! I love it but it just comes up out of nowhere — how am I gonna make it fit?’ After talking to Joe, I realized this was a great opportunity to raise the bar creatively. That’s when I got the idea to double the surprise factor and have the strings make their first appearance for the album in the middle of his solo. The next thing I know, a song that had started out as kind of a simple surf thing had become this wild ride of an epic piece and one of my favorite productions.”
Landreth’s music has always been evocative, a vibrant mixture of indigenous sounds and images informed by Delta blues and Faulkner alike. But here, by eschewing lyrics and vocals, he’s located something especially pure and unfettered. “What I’d hoped to end up creating was sonic stories without words,” he says. “And because there are no lyrics, it’s really important to connect on an emotional level. All of the titles for these songs have meaning for me — some of them are impressions from post-Katrina, Rita, the Gulf Spill, friends of mine and their experiences — so that’s part of it too. Still, I want listeners to feel something that resonates with them personally. I’ve always tried to make music that engages you on a deeper level that way.”
Prepare to be engaged . . . and transported.
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CONCORD MUSIC GROUP RELEASES
ALBERT KING’S I’LL PLAY THE BLUES FOR YOU
AS PART OF ITS STAX REMASTERS SERIES
2012 release date marks 40th anniversary of landmark blues recording.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Concord Music Group will release Albert King’s I’ll Play the Blues for You as part of its Stax Remasters series on May 22, 2012. Enhanced by 24-bit remastering by Joe Tarantino, four previously unreleased bonus tracks, and newly written liner notes by music journalist and roots music historian Bill Dahl, the reissue not only spotlights one of the most entertaining and influential blues recordings of the 1970s, but also underscores the album’s enduring nature four decades after its original release.
In addition to King’s brilliant guitar and vocal work, the album also features a rhythm section made up of members of the Bar-Kays and the Movement — the former a new lineup following the tragic Otis Redding plane crash that wiped out most of the original band, and the latter group Isaac Hayes’s funk-driven outfit, with guitarist Michael Toles, bassist and Bar-Kays co-founder James Alexander, and drummer Willie Hall members of both bands. Rounding out the backup unit is the Memphis Horns, featuring longtime Stax mainstays Wayne Jackson on trumpet and Andrew Love on tenor saxophone.
Recorded in Memphis in 1972 and released in the fall of that same year, I’ll Play the Blues for You “was a typically brilliant mixture of pile-driving blues and hot Memphis soul grooves that dented Billboard’s pop album survey at #140,” says Dahl in his liner notes. “Producers Allen Jones and Henry Bush kept King contemporary while simultaneously emphasizing his inherent strengths. The result was one of Albert’s best long-players.”
“This album was originally recorded and released in 1972, at the very end of an era when a variety of musical genres — blues, rock, pop, soul and funk, to name a few — could still coexist on a single radio station playlist or on a single tour bill,” says Chris Clough, Concord’s Manager of Catalog Development and producer of this reissue. “Albert King was versatile enough, and had a broad enough appeal in the early ’70s, to pull in audiences that were dialed into every one of these styles. He successfully walked a tightrope that connected so many different kinds of music and so many different audiences. This versatility is partly why he’s so influential four decades after this recording was originally issued.”
In addition to the LP’s eight tracks, I’ll Play the Blues for You includes four previously unreleased titles — two of which are alternate takes of songs in the main sequence. “A stripped-down ‘Don’t Burn Down the Bridge’ minus the horns crackles with excitement,” says Dahl, “while a freshly discovered alternate of ‘I’ll Play the Blues for You’ sports a contrasting horn arrangement and has no spoken interlude yet stands quite tall on its own, even with King playing right over an elegant sax solo (he really tears it up on the extended vamp out, spinning chorus after chorus of hair-raising licks”).
The other two of the four bonus tracks are “splendid additions to King’s Stax canon,” says Dahl. “It’s hard to understand why ‘I Need a Love’ laid unissued; the upbeat scorcher comes complete with full-blast horns, Albert’s smoky vocal bearing an ominous edge. ‘Albert’s Stomp’ is a funk-soaked instrumental that finds King working Lucy [his trademark flying V guitar] over fatback organ and Toles’s wah-wah.”
Dahl sums up this 1972 tour de force accurately and succinctly: “When Albert King gave us I’ll Play the Blues for You, he fulfilled his promise and then some.”
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APRIL/EARLY MAY REISSUES FROM REAL GONE MUSIC INCLUDE
LITTLE WILLIE JOHN, COWBOY COPAS, THE AD LIBS,
MEL McDANIEL AND EDDIE RABBITT
Also due are two more Grateful Dead Dicks Picks sets, Volumes 30 & 31.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Real Gone Music will issue Little Willie John’s Complete Hit Singles A’s and B’s, a definitive compilation of the influential R&B singer’s King Records sides as well as King-Starday label mate Cowboy Copas’ Complete Hit Singles A’s & B’s, featuring 30 of the country legends’ sides from 1946-63, both slated for April 17, 2012 street date. On May 1, doo-woppers the Ab Libs will be celebrated on The Complete Blue Cat Recordings. And two country hit-makers from the ’70s and ’70s, Mel McDaniel and Eddie Rabbit, will be reissued — McDaniel with Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On — His Original Capitol Hits, and Rabbitt with 13 Original #1 Hits. Finally, Real Gone continues its acclaimed Grateful Dead Dick’s Picks reissues with Volume 30 and Volume 31.
Little Willie John was a genuine architect of soul. Along with Clyde McPhatter, Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, the visionary singer stood at the forefront of fusing gospel intensity to rhythm and blues tradition. And had he not died inside a Walla Walla prison at the age of 30, his name would likely be etched in the same soul pantheon as his peers. In his short career, Willie cut a string of seminal sides for Cincinnati-based King Records from 1955-61 that rank among the finest R&B ever waxed. As Motown legend Lamont Dozier says in Bill Dahl’s notes to this collection, “Willie John was just an extraordinary talent. He knew how to touch you with a song, and he knew how to raise the hairs on the back of your neck.” Real Gone Music will offer the most comprehensive collection of this overlooked soul superstar ever assembled: two CDs, 32 tracks that include every chart hit plus its accompanying, seldom-compiled B-side. And the B-sides are where some of the real fun is: joining such landmark R&B recordings as “Fever,” “All Around the World,” “Need Your Love So Bad” and “Home at Last” on this collection are such crackling tunes as “Spasms,” “Let’s Rock While the Rockin’s Good” and “Do You Love Me” (recorded with Little Richard’s band the Upsetters).
To many, Lloyd Estel “Cowboy” Copas is just a footnote to the Patsy Cline legend, having perished in the same plane crash that claimed her life and that of Hawkshaw Hawkins; but what many folks don’t realize is that Cope had 14 hits during his lifetime while Patsy had but nine. Clearly, the intervening years have burnished and magnified Patsy’s legend; they’ve also unjustly neglected this early Grand Ole Opry stalwart. Now, with Complete Hit Singles A’s & B’s,Real Gone has assembled the most comprehensive Cowboy Copas collection to date: two CDs, 30 tracks including every hit and its accompanying, rarely‐if‐ever‐compiled B‐sides. Cope got his start in Pee Wee King’s band, and you can hear a bit of that bandleader’s freewheeling approach to country in these songs, among many other influences. In fact, as Colin Escott writes in the accompanying liner notes, “His records were so personable and so unlike any others from that day and time. Not honky tonk, not bluegrass, not Western swing, not hillbilly, not pop crossover, they could be labeled Cowboy Copas records.” This Cowboy Copas collection is the one to have — essential country spanning the years from 1946-63, the year Cope died.
On the heels of Real Gone’s well-received Red Bird Girls: Very First Time in True Stereo 1964-1966 comes another incredible find for doo-wop and girl-group fans: the first-ever legitimate album devoted to the classic Blue Cat recordings by the legendary vocal group The Ad-Libs, featuring 24 tracks taken by producers Ron Furmanek and Ash Wells straight from the original master session tapes (again, another first) including five unreleased songs and nine unreleased alternate versions! And among those unreleased alternate versions are a full three newly discovered versions of their big hit “The Boy from New York City,” highlighted by an a cappella demo version that must be heard. Most tracks make their true stereo debut, while the 12-page booklet boasts great liner notes by James Moniz that offer insights from original Ad-Lib Norman Donegan, plus a foreword from Manhattan Transfer member Tim Hauser.
The late country legend Mel McDaniel scored a string of 41 chartmakers during the ’70s and ’80s, but there’s never been a hits collection worthy of the name until now. Twenty-one original Capitol sides from McDaniel appear on Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On — His Original Capitol Hits, including such good-time anthems as “Louisiana Saturday Night,” “Big Ole Brew” (Mel preferred to drink his beer rather than cry in it), “Let It Roll (Let It Rock),” “Stand Up” and, of course one of the great girl-watching songs of all time, “Baby’s Got Her Blue Jeans On.” McDaniel was one of the real bright lights of ’80s country, and Real Gone is proud to give him his due.
13 #1 Hits compiles the chart-topping hits of Eddie Rabbitt, one of the biggest pop and country music stars of the ’70s and ’80s. In addition to the great singles Eddie recorded for Elektra and Warner — “Drivin’ My Life Away,” “I Love a Rainy Night,” “Every Which Way But Loose,” and more — Real Gone cross-licensed the hits owned by Capitol—“Someone Could Lose a Heart Tonight,” “You and I,” “Best Year of My Life,” etc.—AND the #1 hit duet he recorded with Juice Newton for RCA, “Both to Each Other (Friends and Lovers).” Liner notes and photos recount the story of one of country music’s biggest crossover artists. No other Eddie Rabbitt collection packs this hit power.
Real Gone Music continues its Grateful Dead Dick’s Picks reissues with two new titles available in stores for the first time: The four-CD set Dick’s Picks Vol. 30 — Academy of Music, New York City, NY 3/25 & 3/28/72 kicks off with five tracks featuring blues legend Bo Diddley (taken from a 3/25/72 benefit for the Hell’s Angels), which ought to be enough to get those Dead collector synapses firing. The final three discs present a complete show from March 28, 1972 that’s very Europe ’72 in its set list but with that extra edge that playing in New York always seemed to inspire in the band, all recorded by Dead sound guru Betty Cantor-Jackson. The set features HDCD sound and contain the Dead’s lone renditions of “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)” and “Are You Lonely for Me.”
The four-CD Dick’s Picks Vol. 31 — 8/4-5 Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia, PA 8/6/74, Roosevelt Stadium, Jersey City, NJ captures the Dead right in the thick of the legendary 1974 Wall of Sound tour and only two months away from leaving the road for a year-and-a-half hiatus. The Wall of Sound was, of course, the massive sound system designed by Owsley “Bear” Stanley that was so meticulously constructed that, for example, each string of Phil Lesh’s bass had its own speaker. The result was a crystal-clear sound that to this day stirs controversy among the band’s fans. It certainly complemented and even encouraged the band’s continued move away from the country-rock of Workingman’s Dead towards a jazz fusion sound best expressed by the two epic versions of “Playing in the Band” found here. Unlike most Dick’s Pickscollections, this four-disc set offers highlights from three consecutive nights of shows (again, all in HDCD sound) rather than presenting shows in their entirety.
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SETH WALKER BRINGS HIS BLUES-INFUSED AMERICANA TO NEW CD
Time Can Change, due out June 19, embraces a stripped-down approach.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In the three years since his last album, Seth Walker moved to Nashville from Austin, wrote songs with friends new and old, and played many, many shows. And just like most people, he thought about life, about love, and about the changes you experience if you move away (both geographically and philosophically) from those people and places you know so well to try your hand at something new. His latest recording, Time Can Change (out June 19, 2012 on Roe Records, distributed by RED Distribution), is a culmination of these experiences — the sound of an artist moving beyond his comfort zone and challenging himself to walk new creative ground.
“The album is a snapshot of movement in my musical journey of sorts,” states Walker. “A culmination of the continuing search for a way to write, sing and record in a new way.”
Change isn’t the order of the day when you grow up slow. Seth’s childhood in rural North Carolina was spent largely on a two-family commune, with music as the backdrop to an unrushed way of life lived outside the city limits. Both his parents were classically trained musicians: his mom a talented violinist, his father an accomplished string player. Music was an integral part of each day: the soundtrack could run from Willie Nelson to J.S. Bach and everything between. Seth was exposed to, and subsequently absorbed, a sonically rich expression of life with all its inherent joy and pain. Although he started sawing on a cello by the age of three, it was the guitar that would ultimately be his true love. A musically inclined uncle introduced Seth to the blues, and in those raw, honest songs was the inspiration to begin trusting his own voice and his desire to express himself.
Upon moving to Austin, Texas in his early 20s, Walker recorded his first album in 1997. By the time he released his eponymous fifth LP in 2008, he had developed into an accomplished guitarist and an even better singer, distilling the soul of Ray Charles, the Southern boy roots charm of Delbert McClinton, and an uptown blues turn of phrase (à la Percy Mayfield) into his own distinct voice.
Seth also began to write with other musicians, an endeavor that led to a fruitful collaboration with Gary Nicholson, a prolific songwriter and record producer based in Nashville. The two co-wrote most of the songs on Leap of Faith, with Gary also onboard as producer. Released in 2009, Leap of Faith was Seth’s most accomplished album to date, successfully weaving together a diverse blend of influences and styles. As Geoffrey Himes wrote for Nashville Scene, it was “one of the year’s more interesting Americana albums, because its notion of roots music drew not just from the country-folk tradition but from blues and R&B as well.” Leap of Faith was in the Top 10 of the Americana charts for nine weeks and received praise from No Depression and Blues Revue, among others.
Self-produced and unequivocally personal, Time Can Change is a distinct departure from its more polished predecessor. While fans will recognize the familiar rich tenor and bluesy guitar work, the new album trades the studio sophistication of Leap of Faith for a grittier sound and more intimate approach to songwriting.
“I never know what will be on the other side of a song or a session, but I sure do like what I have found in the corners of this album: a stripped down, intimate version of what I am as an artist at this point in my life,” says Walker.
Largely financed by Seth’s generous fans through a Kickstarter fundraising campaign, the album represents a rebirth of sorts, foregoing complex production techniques in order to more clearly focus on the song and performance at hand. The bluesy “Love Is Through With Me” sets the tone, featuring Steve Mackey’s supple bass playing and Derrek Phillips’ spare percussion. Along with Seth’s acoustic guitar groove, this configuration is at the core of the album’s warm, loose vibe. “Wait a Minute” captures the optimism and possibility of new love — a breezy, engaging song with Kevin McKendree’s tasteful organ work and playful background vocals courtesy of the McCrary Sisters. With all the makings of a classic soul ballad, “In the Meantime” is a plea for a temporary stay to the inevitable heartache of incompatible love. And with Nicholson back in the co-writer chair, the rollicking, light-hearted “More Days Like This,” with its catchy refrain, is an instant crowd pleaser.
“This is the purest, most honest recording I have ever done as a singer. I just sang and played,” maintains Seth. “Time can definitely change, and this album is a case in point for me.”
In addition to extensive national touring, Seth performed at last year’s Austin City Limits Music Festival and provided tour support for Raul Malo and the Wood Brothers. With a bluesman’s respect for roots and tradition, coupled with an appreciation for — and successful melding of — contemporary songwriting, Seth is one of a handful of artists who incorporate a wide range of styles with warmth and grace. Perhaps Country Standard Time said it best: “If you subscribe to the Big Tent theory of Americana, then Seth Walker — with his blend of blues, gospel, pop, R&B, rock, and a dash country — just might be your poster boy.”
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CONCORD MUSIC GROUP RELEASES THREE NEW TITLES
IN ORIGINAL JAZZ CLASSICS REMASTERS SERIES
BILL EVANS, THELONIOUS MONK, THE QUINTET
Enhanced, expanded recordings set for release on May 15, 2012
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Concord Music Group will release three new titles in its Original Jazz Classics Remasters series on May 15, 2012. Enhanced with 24-bit remastering by Joe Tarantino, bonus tracks on each release (some previously unissued), and new liner notes to provide historical context to the originally released material, the series showcases pivotal recordings of the past several decades by artists whose influence on the jazz tradition continues to reverberate among jazz musicians and audiences well into the 21st century.
The three new titles in the series are:
• The Bill Evans Trio: Moonbeams
• Thelonious Monk: Misterioso
• Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Charles Mingus: The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall
The new reissues focus on some of the best jazz recorded between the early 1950s and the early 1960s — by three of the most creative and influential figures in the history of the genre.
The Bill Evans Trio: Moonbeams
Recorded in New York City over the course of three sessions in May and June of 1962, Moonbeams is the first studio recording by the Bill Evans Trio following the sudden accidental death of bassist Scott LaFaro the year before. Chuck Israels replaces LaFaro, playing more of an accompanist’s role than was Scott’s style, and Paul Motian resumes his drumming duties with the trio. This lineup produced material for two albums that would be amongst Evans’s most popular. Moonbeams includes ballads from the ’62 sessions, which also yielded the more upbeat How My Heart Sings that same year.Moonbeams captures some of Evans’ most introspective playing, his sense of loss evident but soothed by Israels’ empathetic performances. Evans also expresses his lyricism underlaid with rhythmic firmness, even in the extraordinarily slow “Love in Vain.”
Jazz journalist and author Doug Ramsey, who wrote the new liner notes for the Moonbeams reissue, points out the tumultuous undercurrent beneath Evans’s music during the transitional period chronicled in this recording. “Crystal notes, quiet fire, flow of rhythm, depth of harmony, adoration of melody,” Ramsey says. “Evans melded all of that to create beauty in this recording, despite the distractions of grief, illness, and a powerful need for drugs that shared with music dominion over his life.”
Ramsey’s notes quote Israels himself as having taken a different approach to playing in the context of the trio from that of LaFaro. “Naturally, the trio’s music is going to be different from what it was with LaFaro,” says Nick Phillips, Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R at Concord Music Group and producer of the OJC Remasters series. “That said, Bill Evans’ brilliance shines through on this project, despite the fact that he was still trying to recover from the tragic loss of a dear friend and important collaborator.”
The reissue of Moonbeams also includes three previously unreleased tracks — alternate takes of “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” “I Fall in Love too Easily,” and “Very Early.” All are from the sessions in spring of 1962 that spawned the original album’s eight tracks.
Thelonious Monk: Misterioso
Recorded live in 1958 at the Five Spot Café in New York, Misterioso is one of two albums to emerge from the Five Spot dates — the other being Thelonious in Action — that introduced the world to the quartet format that defined the remainder of Monk’s career. Monk’s lineup throughout this recording includes tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik and drummer Roy Haynes. Art Blakey sits in on drums in one of the reissue’s three bonus tracks, a medley of “Bye-Ya” and “Epistrophy.”
The album takes its title from a composition composed by Monk in 1948, says Neil Tesser in his new liner notes. “The word itself, from the Latin, means ‘in a mysterious manner,’ you find it used most often as a musical direction in classical music scores. But by the time Monk’s quartet recorded this music in performance, a decade after its studio debut, ‘Misterioso’ had largely come to identify Monk himself.”
“This is an all-time classic live Thelonious Monk record,” says Phillips. “It includes spirited live performances of a number of his classic compositions, including ‘Nutty,’ ‘In Walked Bud’ and of course the title track. And then, with the bonus tracks, you also have some other Monk classics, with ‘Evidence,’ ‘’Round Midnight’ and ‘Epistrophy.’ It’s an indelible snapshot of Monk live in the late ‘50s.”
Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Max Roach, Charles Mingus: The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall
As the title clearly states, this album was recorded live at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, in May 1953. This summit of modern jazz titans — held in a concert hall three-quarters empty — is considered by many to be the greatest jazz concert ever. The music survives thanks to the foresight of Charles Mingus, who, along with Max Roach, taped the performance and subsequently issued it on Mingus’ own new label, Debut.
“Whether you are familiar or not with these performances, rest assured that one does not need to dig for moments that remain impressive and fresh, or that reveal the personality of each player in their prime,” says jazz journalist Ashley Khan in his new liner notes to the reissue. “It seems all worlds of music — rock, blues, R&B, soul, hip-hop and others — are able to point to impromptu get-togethers as proud moments in their timelines, encounters that were recorded and created music of lasting impression. In the jazz tradition, there are a few, but none that has been revered for as long as Jazz at Massey Hall.”
Phillips notes the importance of remembering that the Massey Hall date captured in this recording was not a rehearsed gathering, but rather a one-time-only concert event. “It’s a perfect example of what can happen when musicians of this caliber come together and just play! It’s the very definition of an all-time classic, and each and every musician on this recording is a true legend of jazz.”
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TEXAS LEGEND BILLY JOE SHAVER RELEASES
‘LIVE AT BILLY BOB’S TEXAS,’
FIRST NEWLY RECORDED PERFORMANCES
IN NEARLY TWO DECADES
Twenty-two track package features CD and DVD;
includes two new previously unreleased songs
WACO, Texas — Country songwriting icon and honky tonk hero Billy Joe Shaver and his Heart of Texas Band offer the best from his catalog of legendary songs in concert from the stage of the world’s largest honky tonk. Shaver’s Live at Billy Bob’s Texas, slated to be released July 17, 2012 on Smith Music Group is his first album in five years. The fully loaded special package includes 20 live renditions of some of his most notable compositions on an audio CD and DVD as well as two bonus tracks, and is the first set of new concert recordings since 1995 to be issued to the public. Included among Shaver classics and favorites are two new songs: “Wacko From Waco” (co-written with his longtime friend Willie Nelson) and “The Git Go,” proving that his muse remains as fertile as ever.
Born, raised and still living in the rolling plains of Central Texas, Shaver is not just the epitome of a songwriter’s songwriter, but a singer, recording artist and performer as well as actor and published author. A genuine salt of the earth natural talent whose acclaimed work is free of any artifice. The esteem he has accrued since 1973 — when he issued his first album,Old Five and Dimers Like Me, and Waylon Jennings recorded nine of Shaver’s songs on his landmark Honky Tonk Heroes LP that heralded the arrival of country music’s outlaw movement — is best measured by the fellow writers and talents who admire, perform and have recorded his compositions. Revered American novelist John Steinbeck’s favorite song was “Old Five and Dimers,” which has also been played at live shows by Bob Dylan, who mentions Shaver in his recent song “I Feel a Change Comin’ On.” Just some of the distinguished artists who have recorded Shaver’s works are Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Kris Kristofferson, The Allman Brothers, Bobby Bare, John Anderson, George Jones, Tex Ritter, Patty Loveless and Willie Nelson, who says that “Billy Joe Shaver may be the best songwriter alive today.”
At the same time, there’s nothing else like Shaver himself performing his songs. Live at Billy Bob’s Texas delivers all the dynamism, musical variety, emotion and personality of a Shaver show in both audio and video. The set opens with his paean to his home place, “Heart of Texas,” a Lone Star dancehall two-step with a rock kick from his band: guitarist Jeremy Woodall, drummer Jason Lynn McKenzie and bassist Matt Davis. Included are vibrant renditions of such signature Shaver numbers as “Georgia on a Fast Train,” “Honky Tonk Heroes,” “Old Chunk of Coal,” “Live Forever” and “Old Five and Dimers,” along with gems from across the range of his career. Shaver rocks numbers like “That’s What She Said Last Night,” “Black Rose,” “Hottest Thing in Town” and others. He hits an electric Western groove on “Thunderbird,” harks back to ragtime on “Good Old USA,” country-waltzes Texas style on “I Couldn’t Be Me Without You,” tenderly renders “Star in My Heart” a cappella, and wraps it all up with a rousing “You Can’t Beat Jesus Christ.” His recent legal troubles are wittily recounted on “Wacko From Waco” while the hauntingly bluesy “The Git Go” deftly summarizes the facts of life since the dawn of history. The double-disc set is the ultimate Shaver live experience as well as a de facto greatest hits collection, and finds Shaver as potent as ever in front of an enthusiastic audience.
The Live at Billy Bob’s Texas series includes more than two hundred #1 Billboard hits. Billy Joe Shaver is the 42nd artist to record for the series, joining Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Gary Stewart, David Allan Coe, Pat Green, Randy Rogers Band, Stoney LaRue, Wade Bowen and many others as a member of the Live at Billy Bob’s Texas family.
Hailing from Corsicana, Texas, Shaver’s Lone Star State roots run deep: His great-great-great grandfather, Revolutionary War veteran Evan Thomas Watson, was one of the founders of the Republic. Also descended from Native American legend Crazy Horse, Shaver was raised in hardscrabble circumstances by his grandmother, working on farms and selling newspapers on the street in his youth. He sang and made up songs “since I could talk,” and was inspired in his childhood to keep at it after sneaking out of home one night to catch a country music show where he heard Hank Williams early in his career. At the same time he also was steeped in the blues from an uncle’s record collection and the music of neighboring African-American farm workers. “Country music is really close to being the blues, and rock ’n’ roll ain't nothing but the blues with a beat. That’s about it," he says of the origins of his fluent Texan roots music sound.Shaver was given a Gene Autry guitar by his grandmother at age 11 and began playing until his stepfather gave it away a few years later as payment for yard work. Following a brief stint in the Navy at age 16, a stab at professional rodeo, and losing parts of three fingers on his right hand in an accident while working at a sawmill, Shaver took up playing guitar again and devoted himself to songwriting.
He hitchhiked to Nashville in 1965 and eventually won a $50 a week writer’s deal with Bobby Bare’s publishing company. Shaver finally made his secure mark by writing all but one song on Jennings’ Honk Tonk Heroes. As the Washington Post notes, “When the country outlaws were collecting their holy writings, Billy Joe Shaver was carving out Exodus.” He followed his debut on the Monument label with three albums on Capricorn Records and two on Columbia through 1987, seeing little commercial success with his recordings but winning rave reviews and the admiration of his musical peers. In 1993, he broke through with new generations and broader audiences just as the currently booming Americana and Texas roots music and singer-songwriter scenes were gathering steam with the acclaimed Tramp On Your Street, united with his late guitar-playing son Eddy as simply Shaver. He has since issued 11 more independent albums, was honored with the first Americana Music Award for Lifetime Achievement in Songwriting in 2002, and inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004.
His life is the stuff of legend, having lived through times tough, tragic and wild, faced serious health problems over the last decade or so and rebounded, and was acquitted of charges from a 2007 shooting incident outside a Texas barroom. Through it all he has continued to compose songs of plainspoken eloquence, poetic resonance, hard-won wisdom, soulful spirituality, and rich real-life imagery.
“I’m still writing as good as I always have,” says Shaver, who claims no secret behind his lauded craftsmanship. “I don’t even know it myself. It’s a gift, I swear. I never tried to hone my talents or anything like that. It’s always been like breathing in and out to me.” He does offer one basic tenet for writing good songs: “Simplicity don’t need to be greased.”
He cheekily yet still seriously confesses, “a lot of my songs are written trying to save my life, and that worked. The rest are written trying to get back into the house. Plus writing is the cheapest psychiatrist there is, and God knows I still need one. So I’m in good shape.”
As his well deserved public recognition came in the 1990s, Shaver was cast by his friend and fan Robert Duvall in his acclaimed 1996 film The Apostle, and has since played parts in three other theatrical and TV movies. He was the subject of a 2004 documentary produced by Duvall, A Portrait of Billy Joe, and published his autobiography, Honky Tonk Hero, the following year. He also sings the themes to the Adult Swim television show Squidbillies, and “Live Forever” was included in the award-winning hit movie Crazy Heart as its end-credit song.
“There’s sometimes I don’t believe I did all that but I did,” says Shaver of his many achievements. “I haven’t jumped up on tables or anything and pounded my chest and screamed about this and that, but I’ve done quite a bit.” But what he is most proud of is how many noted songwriters have also recorded his songs. “That’s kind of like my trophies. Instead of getting CMA Awards, that means a whole lot more to me.
“When you write songs, and you write good songs, people will always remember you,” he concludes. “Words will always outlive us. And if your name is attached to those words, you’re gonna live forever.”
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THE GERMS, D?ROCS, JERRY REED, MICK FLEETWOOD’S ZOO,
TERRY KNIGHT & THE PACK, CHUBBY CHECKER, THE ORLONS:
WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE BUT REAL GONE MUSIC IN MAY?
All of that plus the Grateful Dead’s Dick’s Picks, Volume 29 too.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Real Gone Music enters its first Spring with a potpourri of reissues that are definitely not garden variety, with releases ranging from hardcore punk to power pop to Motor City rock ’n’ roll, doo-wop and Summer of Love fixtures the Grateful Dead, all due in late May. The only album by seminal Los Angeles punkers The Germs, (GI), will be reissued alongside the D?rocs’ self-titled album, Jerry Reed’s The Unbelievable Guitar and Voice of Jerry Reed/Nashville Underground, I’m Not Me by Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo, plus twofers from Terry Knight & the Pack (Terry Knight & the Pack/Reflections), Chubby Checker (It’s Pony Time/Let’s Twist Again), The Orlons (The Wah-Watusi/South Street) andCameo Parkway Vocal Groups, Vol. 1. And if that’s not enough to put in one’s pipe and smoke, the Grateful Dead’s Dick’s Picks series continues with the six-CD set Dick’s Picks Vol. 29—5/19/77 Fox Theatre Atlanta, GA 5/21/77 Lakeland Civic Center Arena Lakeland, FL.
Named after a breed of hog known for being great producers with oversized ears and genitalia, the D?rocs were the brainchild of Scott Mathews and Ron Nagle. Mathews had played at the Fillmore with Elvin Bishop at the age of 15, formed a band (Ice) with future Journey lead singer Steve Perry, and, with the guidance of music industry legends Jack Nitszche and David Rubinson, was one of the music industry’s most sought-after session men and producers. Nagle, meanwhile, had been the main singer-songwriter and keyboard player in the Mystery Trend and had released a cult classic solo album produced by Nitszche, Bad Rice. Together, the two wrote songs for platinum-certified artists and in 1979 released their own LP, which received a five-star rating in Rolling Stone and scored some European hits. For the first time, with Mathews’ and Nagle’s cooperation, the legendary album will be reissued on CD with no fewer than eight unreleased “bone us” tracks, complete with liner notes by Gene Sculatti. In addition, Real Gone will manufacture a 500-unit, limited-edition vinyl pressing in an appropriately porcine shade of pink with the original track listing and album packaging intact. Power pop fans will agree it’s time to bring home the bacon.
Produced by Joan Jett, The Germs’ (GI) is a seminal album not just in West Coast punk, but in punk rock, period, wellspring of the Darby Crash legend and start of the illustrious career of Pat Smear (Nirvana, Foo Fighters). Astonishingly, this album (originally issued on Slash Records) has been out of print on CD for years. The Real Gone reissue places the platter inside a four-panel wallet featuring the original album graphics (including lyrics) with additional photos by noted punk scene photographer Jenny Lens and new liner notes by Richie Unterberger featuring fresh quotes from drummer Don Bolles.
Real Gone Music will issue two classic late-’60s albums from Jerry Reed for the first time in CD: The Unbelievable Guitar and Voice of Jerry Reed/Nashville Underground. The titles of these, his first two records, tell the tale: Jerry was an unbelievably good guitarist and singer, and songwriter can be added to the list — at least Elvis thought so, as he covered both “Guitar Man” and “U.S. Male” from Unbelievable (and hired Jerry to play guitar on both). Jerry returned the favor by writing an Elvis tribute song (“Tupelo Mississippi Flash”) on 1968’sNashville Underground, which lives up to its title by presenting a revelatory blend of country, rock ’n’ roll, folk, blue-eyed soul and even progressive pop. Though Reed was a protégé of Chet Atkins, his eclectic taste and irrepressible personality — later on full display in the Smokey and the Bandit films — ensured that this record busted out of the countrypolitan mold that held sway in Nashville at the time. Both of these albums are must-listens for any alt-country and roots music fan. Chris Morris contributes notes that place the two albums in context of Jerry’s incredible (and, to this day, underappreciated) career.
Terry Knight and the Pack hailed from the same fertile, late-’60s Michigan soil that spawned the MC5, the Stooges, the Frost, the Amboy Dukes, SRC, Bob Seger and the Last Heard and other likeminded outfits. And these two fuzz-laced albums, Terry Knight & the Pack/Reflections, originally released on the Cameo Parkway subsidiary Lucky Eleven, definitely fit right into that Midwestern mold — in fact, the band did notch several regional hits (“I [Who Have Nothing],” “You’re a Better Man Than I,” both collected here) but never quite broke through nationally. However, they remain famous among rock fans for one very important fact: this is the band where Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad got their start (and Knight went on to manage the band). Jeff Tamarkin’s liner notes chronicle the saga. Released by Real Gone Music and ABKCO Music & Records.
Though I’m Not Me, the 1983 album by Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo is commonly thought of as a Mick Fleetwood solo record, it really was the product of a band, and a helluva band at that. Aside from the drummer — who lays down the primal, bedrock rhythms for which he is famous — the denizens of this Zoo include Billy Burnette and Steve Ross on guitar and vocals, session bass player supreme Roger Hawkins and, on background vocals, none other than Christine McVie and Lindsey Buckingham (the band got its start backing Buckingham on aSaturday Night Live appearance). Though produced by Richard Dashut, producer of Rumors and Tusk, I’m Not Me was almost the anti-Tusk, a low-key affair showcasing the considerable singing and songwriting talents of Burnette, Ross and Hawkins. Given the talent assembled and the fact that it scored a hit in “I Want You Back,” it’s odd that this engaging, infectious album has never been out on CD. The Real Gone reissue includes notes by Scott Schinder.
Also on deck are two albums from the height of the Chubby Checker twist phenomenon: It’s Pony Time/Let’s Twist Again. Chubby flat-out ruled the charts in 1960 and 1961; the title cut of It’s Pony Time went to #1, his only #1 hit besides “The Twist,” while Let’s Twist Again, his fourth album, went to #11, shortly to be followed by three Top Ten albums in a row. Jim Ritz’s liner notes document the Chubby Checker phenomenon; the two albums appear here straight from the original tapes in radio-ready, primed-to-party mono, just like they were originally released. The twofer is another “twist” in the Real Gone Music/ABKCO Music & Records partnership.
Discovered by high school classmate Len Barry, The Orlons (Shirley Brickley, Marlena Davis, Rosetta Hightower and Stephen Caldwell) were probably Cameo Parkway’s most popular vocal group and certainly the label’s top girl group. This twofer presents their only two charting albums, their 1962 debut The Wah-Watusi and 1963’s South Street — each featuring Top Five title tracks — in their original, pristine mono, with notes by Gene Sculatti that include great quotes from band member Caldwell (he of that ultra-low “frog” voice). More classic, early Philly soul from Real Gone Music and ABKCO Music & Records.
The Philadelphia-based Cameo Parkway label was one of America’s great independent labels for vocal groups, home to big stars like the Dovells, Tymes and Orlons. But right alongside the big names and big hits in the label’s vaults lie untold doo-wop treasures waiting to be discovered, and that’s what this 24-track collection, Remember Me Baby: Cameo Parkway Vocal Groups, Vol. 1 really delivers. While the big names are represented, with the Dovells and Tymes each contributing one track unreleased until this collection, it’s the lesser lights on this collection that will shine the brightest for doo-wop and vocal group collectors, and with a full 23 out of the 24 tracks new to CD, and all but three from the original tapes, even the casual vocal group fan will find much to savor. Ed Osborne’s liner notes illuminate the street corners from which these artists hailed. ABKCO’s chief engineer Teri Landi produced the reissue.
Finally, Real Gone Music will issue the Grateful Dead’s Dick’s Picks Vol. 29—5/19/77 Fox Theatre Atlanta, GA 5/21/77 Lakeland Civic Center Arena Lakeland, FL. Start talking tours to any Deadhead you know and just say “Spring ’77”— chances are a big smile will steal across their face. That’s because of all the road trips in the Dead’s long history, arguably the one that saw the most consistently high level of playing was the spring ’77 tour the band undertook in support of its forthcoming Terrapin Station album. And that’s why, out of the 36 volumes in the Dick’s Picks series, only one, this one, is a six-CD set (there isn’t even a five-CD set). Inside are two complete shows minus one encore (from the Florida show), plus unlisted bonus tracks from a 10/11/77 show in Norman, Okla., all impeccably recorded by Betty Cantor-Jackson. Highest among the many highlights from the Fox Theatre show are the version of “Sugaree” and the incredible segue from “Playing in the Band” to “Uncle John’s Band” (also don’t miss the unbilled, primal version of “Not Fade Away”). But the Lakeland show just may take the cake — two medleys, a breathtaking “Scarlet Begonias/Fire on the Mountain” and a jaw-dropping “Estimated Prophet/He’s Gone/Drums/The Other One/Comes a Time/St. Stephen/Not Fade Away/St. Stephen/One More Saturday Night,” are the icing. This package, never previously available in stores, comes with original slip-cased packaging and in HDCD sound.
About Real Gone Music
Real Gone Music, formed and helmed by industry vets Gordon Anderson and Gabby Castellana, aims to establish itself as the most eclectic and prolific catalog and reissue label in the country. The label has announced distribution through by Razor & Tie. Anderson and Castellana each started businesses in 1993 — Collectors’ Choice Music and Hep Cat Records & Distribution, respectively — that became two of the most important outlets for buyers and sellers of vintage music recordings. Now, 18 years later, they have joined forces to launch Real Gone Music, a reissue label dedicated to serving both the collector community and the casual music fan with a robust release schedule combining big-name artists with esoteric cult favorites. Real Gone Music is a music company dedicated to combing the vaults for sounds that aren’t just gone — they’re REAL gone!
Street date May 22:
D?rocs: D?rocs (CD and Limited-Edition Pink Colored-Vinyl LP)
The Germs: (GI)
Jerry Reed: The Unbelievable Guitar and Voice of Jerry Reed/Nashville Underground
Mick Fleetwood’s Zoo: I’m Not Me
Terry Knight & the Pack: Terry Knight & the Pack/Reflections
Chubby Checker: Terry Knight & the Pack/Reflections
The Orlons: The Wah-Watusi/South Street
Various Artists: Remember Me Baby: Cameo Parkway Vocal Groups, Vol. 1
Street date May 29:
Grateful Dead: Dick’s Picks Vol. 29—5/19/77 Fox Theatre Atlanta, GA 5/21/77 Lakeland Civic Center Arena Lakeland, FL (6-CD Set)
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...and one more nod to Cary Baker for this Kinky concert blast.
KINKY FRIEDMAN GOES BIPOLAR
Kinky’s BiPolar Tour invades the Northeast in June.
AUSTIN, Texas — Everyone’s favorite former Texas gubernatorial candidate, political commentator and self-proclaimed “author, columnist, musician and beautician” Kinky Friedman is going bipolar, as in Kinky Friedman’s BiPolar Tour, which starts in New England on June 6 and continues through to July 1. As he has done on his recent “sojourns through America,” Kinky will be performing solo, dispensing the wisdom of the Jewish troubadour, and signing books.
The Kinkster, whose solo performance has recently been described as “Mark Twain meets Groucho Marx . . . at the corner of Johnny Cash and Lenny Bruce,” will be hitting the road fresh on the heels of the release of his brand new book, The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts, co-authored by and about the life and times of Billy Bob Thornton. With a foreword from Angelina Jolie, The Billy Bob Tapes promises “colorful tales of [Billy Bob’s] modest Southern upbringing, his bizarre phobias, his life, his loves . . . and, of course, his movie career.” And, as Kinky has often said, “the Kinkster will sign anything but bad legislation.”
Kinky Friedman rose to stardom in the ’70s, with his seminal band the Texas Jewboys. An equal-opportunity offender, Kinky, with his outrageous lyrics and crazed stage persona, may have offended some, but drew people like Don Imus, Robin Williams, Bob Dylan and John Belushi into his spiritual fan club. He toured with Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue and appeared on the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live. His infamous appearance on Austin City Limits, the only performance ever filmed by ACL and never broadcast because of content, has finally been released on DVD, to the delight of fans everywhere.
While cooling his jets from touring in the ’80s, Kinky wrote a wildly popular series of mystery novels featuring himself as the detective. In the years since, the real Kinky has branched out into children’s books, memoirs, historical reflections and editorials, all to great success, and all powered by his razor sharp wit. It should not be a surprise to anyone that he and Billy Bob Thornton hooked up. Also not surprising is the fact that Kinky and Willie Nelson have become good friends, and that they, too, are writing a book together.
Kinky’s commentaries have appeared in such diverse media as The New York Times, Texas Monthly and Playboy, and, since adding politics to his résumé, he has been a regular on cable networks of every stripe. His books are now read the world over, and his tour schedule reflects this. From Bill Clinton to Nelson Mandela, everybody loves a Kinky Friedman book.
And apparently everybody loves a good Kinky Friedman performance, as well, as reviews of his shows have been off the charts nearly everywhere. Kinky Friedman is the real deal, an amazing performer, and one of America’s brightest literary lights. The Kinkster truly is the Jewish troubadour of our times, with a show for the ages.
Kinky Friedman’s BiPolar Tour:
Wed., June 6 NORTHAMPTON, MA The Iron Horse
Thurs., June 7 FALL RIVER, MA The Narrows Center For The Arts
Fri., June 8 SOMERVILLE, MA Johnny D’s
Sat., June 9 NEW YORK, NY Highline Ballroom
Sun., June 10 RINGWOOD, NJ Live At Drew’s (House Concert)
Mon., June 11 ALEXANDRIA, VA The Birchmere
Tues., June 12 ANNAPOLIS, MD The Ram’s Head Tavern
Wed., June 13 ASHLAND, VA Ashland Coffee And Tea
Thurs., June 14 SELLERSVILLE, PA Sellersville Theater
Fri., June 15 PHILADELPHIA, PA World Live Cafe
Sat., June 16 AMAGANSETT, NY Stephen’s Talkhouse
Sun., June 17 PIERMONT, NY The Turning Point
Mon., June 18 ALBANY, NY The Linda - WAMC’s Performing Arts Studio
Tues., June 19 NEW HAVEN, CT Cafe Nine
Wed., June 20 COLLINSVILLE, CT Live@Bridge Street Live
Thurs., June 21 ASBURY PARK, NJ The Saint
Fri., June 22 STANHOPE, NJ The Stanhope House
Sat., June 23 WOODSTOCK, NY Bearsville Theater
Tues., June 26 ROCHESTER, NY Water Street Music Hall
Wed., June 27 BUFFALO, NY Sportsman’s Tavern
Thurs., June 28 TORONTO, ON Hughes Room
Fri., June 29 WATERLOO, ON Starlight Lounge
Sat., June 30 MONTREAL, QE Petit Campus
Sun., July 1 CHICAGO/EVANSTON, IL SPACE
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Thanks to Kevin Walsh
The San Leandro Strip
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/rockin-at-the-rollarena-pre-summer-of-love/
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Rock Icons Jimmy Dillon and Lorin Rowan Ready Debut CD Release From Their new Super-Group Aptly Named San Francisco Music Club
The new album “Love and Freedom” hits shelves May 5th, 2012
4/9/2012 - San Francisco, California - Veteran performers and recording artists Jimmy Dillon and Lorin Rowan have been playing music for many years, and now they rejoin forces with a group of talented singers and players to form San Francisco Music Club. Their new album, titled "Love and Freedom", is a journey through the back roads of some of the great music traditions and cultures in the US, Caribbean, and Africa. The group’s official CD release party will be held at the legendarySweetwater Music Hall in Mill Valley, California on May 5th, 2012, and will feature a myriad of guest performances by some very talented musicians.
The San Francisco Music Club, led by Dillon and Rowan (who were founding members of Marin County’s own The Edge), have now transformed their high energy rock/reggae sound into an exciting and colorful cross pollination of styles and genres; a world music experience that draws from Afro-Cuban/Hi-Life, funky New Orleans grooves, R&B, and classic Jamaican roots music reminiscent of Bob Marley & The Wailers or Toots and the Maytals. Think Paul Simon’s Graceland with an extra helping of Red Beans and Rice, a side of Gumbo, and a Red Stripe. 21st Century Americana meets Contemporary Rock!
Paul Liberatore from the Marin Independent Journal says “Dillon and Rowan are consummate singers and guitarists with a long and impressive history in Marin, but they chose to identify with San Francisco in their band name to give their ensemble a broad appeal. For this new venture, they've brought in bassist Eric McCann, drummer Matt Willis, Michael Peloquin on saxophone and harmonica, Jeff Lewis on trumpet and percussion and singer Sakai. This is a crack band comfortable in the variety of styles showcased on this sparkling San Francisco Music Club debut CD, a culturally rich, exquisitely produced and finely polished album that gives world music an accessible, fresh and fun new sound.”
The San Francisco Music Club brings to the stage an explosive rock-steady rhythm section with fiery guitar interplay, sax & trumpet wrapping around the soulful vocals of Dillon’s baritone growl and Rowan’s clear tenor, along with special female guest singer Sakai who has worked with Train, Stevie Wonder and Santana.
Dillon and Rowan are no strangers to the big stages across the world. Dillon has performed and recorded with Clarence Clemons, Bruce Springsteen, John Lee Hooker, BB King, and Sting and has toured extensively in Europe. He also wrote “Ascension of the Blues”, a critically acclaimed musical that was the original inspiration for the San Francisco Music Club concept, along with his and Rowan’s desire to take their former Marin County Rock/Reggae band The Edge into a wider international musical experience. Rowan is a Grammy award winning songwriter and longtime member of The Rowan Brothers (Peter & Chris) and has worked with Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Steve Miller, Levon Helm, Little Feat, David Grisman and Stephane Grapelli, and has toured internationally as well. Together these two and their band of monster musicians bring a fresh sound to what some would consider an “old” scene. They bring people to their feet, and get the crowd dancing from the first note.
“Love and Freedom” will be available physically on May 5th, 2012 in retail stores and online retailers everywhere. The digital version of the album will be available on iTunes and other digital retailers on May 22nd, 2012.
For more information: http://sanfranciscomusicclub.com/
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Music Legend Merrell Fankhauser Releases Definitive Collection 'The Best Of' Two-CD Set
Featuring 32 tracks – over 90 minutes of music!
4/3/2012 - London, UK – Music collectors worldwide rejoice! Legendary singer/songwriter/guitarist Merrell Fankhauser, who has led one of the most diverse careers in music, has released for the first time a new compilation 'The Best Of' two-CD set on UK's Gonzo MultiMedia. Featuring vintage tracks, hard to find gems and unreleased material, Merrell Fankhauser's 'The Best Of' is sure to please the most avid fan. Merrell Fankhauser is considered one of the main innovators of surf music and psychedelic folk rock, and is widely known as the leader of the instrumental group The Impacts who had the international hit “Wipeout”. His travels from Hollywood to his 15 year jungle experience on the island of Maui have been documented in numerous music books and magazines in the US and Europe. Merrell has gained legendary international status throughout the field of rock music; his credits include over 300 songs published and released.
“Merrell Fankhuaser 'The Best Of' is my first retrospective, a 2-CD set with songs from 1963 to now. It was a difficult task to pick a group of songs from nearly forty albums – I found a few unreleased gems along the way.” - Merrell Fankhuaser
Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' features tracks spanning the majority of the music legend's extraordinary career; featuring Merrell And The Exiles (1963-64), Fapardokly (1966), Merrell And HMS Bounty (1968), MU (1971-74), and solo (1976-2011) including several unreleased recordings. Many tracks included on this compilation are hard to find, highly sought after, collector's items that have been out of print for many years, making Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' the definitive collection.
Merrell Fankhauser has presented a number of television programs over the years including 'California Music', 'Route 66 TV Live', and in 2001 he began hosting a music show called 'Tiki Lounge' that airs on the California Central Coast, Southern California, Hawaii and parts of the East Coast. 'The Best Of The Tiki Lounge' volumes 1&2 DVDs feature highlights from Merrell's cable TV show and is also available now on Gonzo MultiMedia UK.
To purchase Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' two-cd set: http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15291/MERRELL_FANKHAUSER-The_Best_Of.html
To purchase Merrell Fankhauser 'Best Of Tiki Lounge' DVDs: www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15360
Visit the official Merrell Fankhauser website at www.merrellfankhauser.com
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>>> INSERT JOKE HERE <<<
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*** PUNMASTER'S TRIVIA CORNER ***
The trivia question from the last MusicWire was:
What's the connection?
Davy Jones (Monkees)
Eddie Brigati (Rascals)
Jack Ashford (Motown legend)
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ANSWER: TAMBOURINE!!!
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the champions are... (in order of appearance)
Jon Tiven
Cary Baker
Terry Hansen
Todd Everett
Bob Oberg
Kevin Halpin
Tim Bernett
Kenny Weissberg
Bill Stewart
Matthew Bolin
Brad Strickland
Rog (in Scotland)
Mitch RothBart
Derk Richardson
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stellar tambourine players all!
Jon Tiven
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It’s the tambourine.
Davy and Eddie weren’t even the primary lead singers yet were allowed to shake their tambourines upfront and center in their respective bands. And Jack did not sing on the songs on the most famous songs on which he shook the bottle caps.
Cary Baker
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Dave, Tambourine
Terry Hansen
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Tambourine
Todd Everett
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They all played tambourine!
Cheers,
Bob Oberg
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Maracas?
Then it's gotta be tambourine …
Kevin Halpin
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Tambourines!
Davy and Eddie were singers who played some tambourine, but Jack Ashford was a serious player, one of the drivers of the Motown sound.
-Bernett
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Jack Ashford gives it away. You could have added Gene Clark too. All were virtuosos on TAMBOURINE.
--Kenny Weissberg
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Hi again
Davy Jones was a wizz with the maracas - how about the other two also?
Oh well - one can try!
Cheers
Baz from Geordieland, UK
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Answer: the tambourine?
Bill Stewart
New Port Richey, FL
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Hi David
Wild guess on this - were they all in TV soap operas as well as musicmakers ?
BTW neat story on the Beatles offspring touring....as a coincidence we
are off to see James McCartney play The Borderline in London
tonight..his EP Collection release fascinates me as he doesn't sound
like his Dad BUT has an occasional tinge of G Harrison mysticism.
More on the CD on www.fairhearing.co.uk
BTW 2 there is a buzz here about the Hammersmith Apollo show 30 June
whereby Mr Ronnie Wood takes over the venue to clebrate the Chess
label ..' with friends'. Latter will include Mick Taylor. Who knows
who else might show...? I will report further. Spent an afternoon with
Marshall Chess a while back and he had nothing but kind words for the
Stones
Pete Sargeant
England
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No fooling, I think the answer you're looking for is TAMBOURINE.
-Matthew Bolin
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Dave, Why it's The Tambourine, of course!!!!!
Brad Strickland
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The only thing that springs to mind is that they all played tambourine.
Rog (in Scotland)
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They all play a mean tambourine!
Mitch RothBart
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I think they all played tambourine.
Derk Richardson
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*** TODAY'S EASY BAKE TRIVIA QUESTION ***
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After a tragic moment in history this individual got real pissed off and stopped being a hippie and started to develop the idea which gave him his band's name.
The first person that they met under their new name was a famous musician who asked them to be in his movie. Who are we talking about?
INCLUDE YOUR NAME WITH YOUR ANSWER OR YOU MAY SLIP THROUGH THE CRACKS!
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Only one answer in particular will be accepted...
If you want to be listed...INCLUDE YOUR NAME!
Give it your best shot...you may not get a yes/no response until the next Wire is published.
Thanks!!
The answer will appear in the next MusicWire...
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THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY - APRIL 18
Apr 18, 1906: Enrico Caruso survives the San Francisco earthquake
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/enrico-caruso-survives-the-san-francisco-earthquake
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1939 - Gene Autry recorded "Back in the Saddle Again."
1971 - The Jackson 5, Danny Thomas and Bill Cosby were guests on Diana Ross' solo TV special "diana."
1973 - The Neil Young movie "Journey Through the Past" debuted at the Dallas Film Festival.
1975 - Alice Cooper's first TV special, "Welcome To My Nightmare: The Making Of A Record Album" aired.
1981 - Yes announced its break-up after 13 years.
1984 - Michael Jackson went into surgery in Los Angeles. Doctors performed scalp surgery to repair damage done after Jackson's hair caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial on January 27.
1985 - Liberace grossed more than $2,000,000 for his engagement at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. He broke his own record of $1.6 million.
1985 - Wham! became the first Western act to release a pop album, "Make It Big," in China.
2003 - Etta James received a star (#2,223) on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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VIDEO CLIPS OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------------------
Thanks to Mike Hart
Ernie Ford and The Everly Brothers-"Rattlesnake Daddy"
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john lee hooker with the groundhogs - live ' the beat room ' - 1965
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Ry Cooder - Teardrops Will Fall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17h3ACXZz8w&feature=youtu.be
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You Can Quote Me On That...
I've been through more cold turkeys than there are freezers." - Keith Richards
"Mick needs to know what he's going to do tomorrow. Me, I'm just happy to wake up and see who's hanging around. Mick's rock, I'm roll." -Keith Richards
"I don't know anything about music, In my line you don't have to." - Elvis Presley
"I opened the door for a lot of people, and they just ran through and left me holding the knob." - Bo Diddley
"The only Maybelline I knew was the name of a cow." - Chuck Berry
"A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don't have a J.O.B." - Fats Domino
"It's not the size of the ship; it's the size of the waves." - Little Richard
"Hippies? Why, I'm the original." - Jerry Lee Lewis
"The older I get, the harder to get around....gravity's got me down." - Barry Goldberg
“I'm one of those regular weird people.” - Janis Joplin
"There are more love songs than anything else. If songs could make you do something we'd all love one another." - Frank Zappa
"I've always felt that blues, rock 'n' roll and country are just about a beat apart." - Waylon Jennings
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix
"Rock is so much fun. That's what it's all about -- filling up the chest cavities and empty kneecaps and elbows." - Jimi Hendrix
"I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know." - James Brown
"David Gross (Punmaster's MusicWire) is the Arianna Huffington of music news!" - Barry "The Fish" Melton
"The older you get, the better you were!" - Leslie West
"It's much too late to do anything about rock & roll now ..." - Jerry Garcia
"Albert King wasn't my brother in blood, but he sure was my brother in Blues" - B.B. King
"More bass." - Jerry Wexler
"I'm as country as a dozen eggs." - Elvin Bishop
"I liked the first sixties better...." - Al Kooper
"I still have all my vinyl. You can’t roll a joint on an iPod.” - Shelby Lynne
"I think I just killed somebody." - Phil Spector
"The problem with history is, the folks who were there ain't talking. And the ones who weren't there, you can't shut 'em up." - Tom Waits
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - Hunter S. Thompson
"I want my more money & I want my more fame" - Chubby Checker
"When you don't know where you're going, you have to stick together just in case someone gets there." - Ken Kesey
"I smash guitars because I like them." - Pete Townshend
"It's a good thing I had a bag of marijuana instead of a bag of spinach. I'd be dead by now." - Willie Nelson
"Rock journalism is people who can't write interviewing people who can't talk in order to provide articles for people who can't read." - Frank Zappa
"You can learn something, both good or bad, watching any guitar player. You learn what to do or what not to do. Over the years I've learned things from Carlos, Mike Bloomfield, Clapton, George, Garcia, Knopfler and let's not forget Robbie Robertson." - Bob Dylan, 2002
"There 'is' a difference between rock and rock and roll; beware of inferior imitations (avoid contact with any musician who doesn't know how to play Chuck Berry music)." - Cub Koda
"This heah is Rufus Thomas....I'm young and loose and full of juice. I got the goose, so what's the use." - Rufus Thomas
"Mike Love, not war." - Scott Mathews
"I have outlived my dick" - Willie Nelson (2008)
"Anybody with a trade can work as long as they want. A welder, a carpenter, an electrician. They don't necessarily need to retire...Every man should learn a trade. It's different than a job. My music wasn't made to take me from one place to another so I can retire early." -Bob Dylan
To see a slew of quotes check out http://www.punmaster.com
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