The News Review:
- KAREN CLLINS & THE BACKRADS BAND”Tail Light Blues”Azal…
- Food: Review – Lamberts – The Austin Chronicle
- Blues and Jazz Share Icons
- Young Man Blues
- Region’s best acts meet at Detroit Music Awards.
KAREN CLLINS & THE BACKRADS BAND”Tail Light Blues”Azal…
Washington Post – Apr 20, 2007
correction {margin-top:8px;padding-top:10px;margin-bottom:8px;border-bottom:1px solid #CCCCCC;padding-bottom:10px;font-family:arialsans-serif;font-size:11px;color:#333333;}. correction strong {color:#CC0000;text-transform:uppercase;}KAREN CLLINS & THE BACKRADS BAND “Tail Light Blues” Azalea CityFriday April 20 2007; WE10KAREN CLLINS & THE BACKRADS BAND”Tail Light Blues”Azalea CityKAREN CLLINS DAUGHTER of a southwest Virginia coal miner would need to do two things to conceal her hardscrabble country roots: Keep her mouth shut and put down her pen. Fortunately Collins the singer and the songwriter is free to display the full range of her talents on "Tail Light Blues" an album that doesn’t strive for rootsy charm so much as radiate it. For starters there is Collins’s highly distinctive voice; bright piercing and charged with girlish zest it adds plenty of tang to the twangy guitar sounds orchestrating this collection of honky-tonk tales. A case in point is a suitably raucous reprise of the classic George Jones-Melba Montgomery duet "Feudin’ and Fightin’. "More often though Collins sings her own songs and she seldom sounds better than when showing an ex-lover the door on "Highway of Love" and "Rumors. " Veteran pedal steel guitarist and Ernest Tubb sideman Buddy Charleton who embroiders the album’s title cut with blue tones is quoted in the liner notes as saying that he wishes Tubb had lived to hear Collins’s songs… "More often though Collins sings her own songs and she seldom sounds better than when showing an ex-lover the door on "Highway of Love" and "Rumors. " Veteran pedal steel guitarist and Ernest Tubb sideman Buddy Charleton who embroiders the album’s title cut with blue tones is quoted in the liner notes as saying that he wishes Tubb had lived to hear Collins’s songs. It’s not hard to understand why since Collins can convince you that Tubb and his ilk are still dominating the country music charts. Colorfully augmenting Collins’s voice fiddles and rhythm guitar in the Backroads Band are bassist-vocalist Geff King drummer Rob Howe and multi-instrumentalist Ira Gitlin who shines brightest on electric twang-laden lead guitar. — Mike JoyceAppearing Monday at St. Mark Presbyterian Church in Rockville.
Food: Review – Lamberts – The Austin Chronicle
Austin Chronicle – Apr 20, 2007
They later donated the protected property to the city of Austin. The two-story brick edifice may look somewhat incongruous now amid swanky condo projects and the angular natural stone of the new City Hall but when fragrant barbecue smoke wafts over the roof and soulful blues music emanates from the upstairs stage it’s obvious the genuine heart of Austin is still beating somewhere amid all that seemingly soulless Downtown progress. Downtown business types have joined longtime fans of chef Lou Lambert’s cooking as well as many of those urban-loft pioneers in flocking to Lamberts since it opened in late December 2006. The old building is alive with plenty of new energy now sporting whitewashed brick walls exposed pine beams and distressed hardwood floors awash in natural light. Much of the bar woodwork along with the distinctive and very comfortable sinker pine furniture is the custom work of Ambrose Taylor from East Austin’s Vintage Material Supply Co.
Blues and Jazz Share Icons
NPR – Apr 20, 2007
org June 6 2007 – It took a renegade of modern film Dennis Hopper to engineer one of the great had-to-happen musical summits of modern times. To provide the music for The Hot Spot the noirish tale of a loner (Don Johnson!) in a small town director Hopper hired two vibe-masters from different musical worlds: bluesman John Lee Hooker and jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. He put them together with a band anchored by the most dynamic drummer in New rleans Earl Palmer. The filmmaker apparently gave few specific instructions. The concept if it can be called that was to use two musicians with deeply iconic sounds — one grumble and you know it’s Hooker; ditto for Davis’ crackly muted trumpet cry — to pull the blues a step or two away from its predictable patterns and make it signify in different ways. A lofty goal perhaps but after just a few minutes it’s clear that Hopper could have a second career as a mixmaster… He put them together with a band anchored by the most dynamic drummer in New rleans Earl Palmer. The filmmaker apparently gave few specific instructions. The concept if it can be called that was to use two musicians with deeply iconic sounds — one grumble and you know it’s Hooker; ditto for Davis’ crackly muted trumpet cry — to pull the blues a step or two away from its predictable patterns and make it signify in different ways. A lofty goal perhaps but after just a few minutes it’s clear that Hopper could have a second career as a mixmaster. When the band starts to cook as on “Bank Robbery” (audio) it’s like we’re witnessing the birth of a new genre: blues that swings hard but is more delicately shaded than anything in Hooker’s sizeable discography. Davis spears perfectly locked little phrases that make the rhythm dance and then on the slower “Harry and Dolly” he and slide guitarist Roy Rogers glance off Hooker’s wordless humming — some would call it “mumbling” — at strange unlikely angles as though determined to avoid anything too juke-joint. The credits say “riginal music composed by Jack Nitzsche” but in most cases the music doesn’t seem predetermined or in any way written out.
Young Man Blues
New York Sun – Apr 20, 2007
Even when the story should become cloying the performances sustain a sense of emotional honesty. The movie needs that because in many ways its vision of Middle America is that of an overly idealized Caucasian wonderworld that could only exist on the screen big or small. The worst thing kids do to one another is throw beer and pick fights at parties and bug their parents by sneaking out at night to cruise around in hopped-up convertibles smoking cigarettes and playing loud music. “In the Land of Women” looks an awful lot like the place a Hollywood insider wishes he could go home to again. The state of Michigan should adopt this movie as its mascot.
Region’s best acts meet at Detroit Music Awards.
Free with registration – Detroit Free Press – AccessMyLibrary.com – Apr 20, 2007
(20-APR-07) Detroit Free Press (Detroit MI). 20–For 19 years the Detroit Music Awards ceremony has served as one of the most dependable gatherings for local musicians — and a chance to highlight a few of the cit.