The News Review:
- Calendar Girl Music Festival to Rock the LA Calendar Motorcycle Show…
- Hand Me My Travellin’ Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell
- There’s life in record stores yet
- George Winston at home with folk stride R&B
- Music for the masses
Calendar Girl Music Festival to Rock the LA Calendar Motorcycle Show…
indiacar.net – Jul 14, 2007
n Saturday night activities move from the Queen Mary Park which closes for the day at 8pm to onboard the Queen Mary ocean liner. Starting at 9pm to 1am in the Queen Mary’s bservation Bar is the Iron & Lace Calendar Builder’s Party where enthusiasts can hang and party with Show’s top custom bike builders and product manufacturers. Also taking place on the Queen Mary but requiring separate admission is “Tibbies Cabaret and Dinner Theatre” with a Top of the Charts live revue. And “Vamp: The Lounge” a new and innovative interpretation of Classic Burlesque. This show features six amazingly talented entertainers performing in dazzling costumes to the classic music of the 1930′s as well as the cutting edge music of today. The Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show Weekend offers attractions for the entire family and receive complimentary admission aboard the historic Queen Mary ocean liner to make it an incredible experience you’ll remember always.
Hand Me My Travellin’ Shoes: In Search of Blind Willie McTell
Times nline – Jul 14, 2007
Why is McTell important? First because he was a sublime singer with abeautiful slightly bruised natural tenor voice and a guitar style that gavea peculiar intricacy to his instrument’s mighty chime. He had a uniqueposition between the feral sound of Delta blues and the more house-trainedmanner of the East Coast. Secondly his best-known songs such as Statesboro’Blues and Broke Down Engine Blues have been recorded by artists from theAllman Brothers to Taj Mahal. html”–>“What he exposes with a smile” Gray writes “is the meanness of the ‘yellowman’ by which he means James Baldwin’s “well-to-do Negro” that shakyAtlanta black middle class. ”This is the fullest account yet of McTell’s 59-year life a hybrid of socialhistory and travelogue – Gray’s as much as his subject’s reminiscent ofSamuel Charters’ 1981 study The Roots of the Blues… Gray comes up with a poignant reconstruction of his final days wanderingamong the shark-finned Chevvies in an Atlanta car park strumming hisguitar moving slowly but hopefully from car to car. There is a sense ofdesperation; an absence of recognition. He is not playing his own music but MyBlue Heaven a huge hit for Fats Domino. McTell would have been astounded bywhat has happened to him since he died. HAND ME MY TRAVELIN’ SHES: In Search of Blind Willie McTell byMichael GrayBloomsbury £25; 433pp.
There’s life in record stores yet
Toronto Star – Jul 14, 2007
GREG QUILL ENTERTAINMENT CLUMNIST The closing two weeks ago of Sam The Record Man ? Toronto’s first and perhaps last great record store ? brings down the curtain on what was 10 or 20 years ago one of the most vital savvy and well-served music markets in North America. Toronto was blessed with dozens of deeply stacked music stores in the GTA including several Sam’s franchises Sunrise Records and its regional outlets and a sizeable number of independent operators dedicated to various specialties ? country music blues folk hard rock and metal psychedelia jazz dance music and classic rock to name a few. With few exceptions the people who served you were knowledgeable and personable and usually able to satisfy your musical needs immediately or within a few days. In the wake of the Internet retail revolution what’s left in Toronto are big-box rackers ? HMV Wal-Mart Future Shop and their ilk. They may be able to offer the latest releases mostly in the pop and rock genres at bargain prices ? but little that doesn’t fall within the domain of the five globalized record companies or appear on the latest Top 50 bestseller lists. As for savvy back catalogue and informed service forget it.
George Winston at home with folk stride R&B
Denver Post – Jul 14, 2007
My first paid radio job in the early ’80s was at an NPR jazz station in Michigan. The on-air crew would comment on the latest music trends (I remember certain staffers almost coming to blows over the merits versus the “sell- out” factor of Herbie Hancock’s “Future Shock” and yes everyone was mightily impressed by the young Wynton Marsalis) and we’d inevitably trade insults with one another. I’m not sentimental by nature but I do miss those snarky written shootouts. It was like belonging to the ultimate jazz snob’s club. When talking with pianist George Winston about his scheduled run of Colorado concerts I recalled what the station’s music director jotted on the cover of Winston’s unfailingly polite even docile 1982 solo album “December” which sold a million copies shortly after its release: “Keith Jarrett on Quaaludes. ” This was some slow even glacial music… ” This was some slow even glacial music. It was funny at the time but 25 years have proven that Winston has an admiring knowledge of the history of jazz and blues piano and he can when he wants to swing. His latest CD “Gulf Coast Blues and Impressions: A Hurricane Relief Benefit” (Windham Hill) pays able tribute to New rleans keyboard heroes like James Booker and Doctor John. It turns out that the whole soothing “new age” take on the music was just one facet of what he could do. “I have three labels” Winston says about his difficult- to-categorize approach to the piano. First there’s “folk piano that’s the melodic stuff like ‘December. ‘ There’s also stride piano from Fats Waller Teddy Wilson and Earl Hines’ influence.
Music for the masses
Canada.com – Jul 14, 2007
You may have seen or heard Howe and Audin-Hole if you’ve been to Bluesfest until closing time any night this year. The pair who as a duo go by the name the Decomposers play nightly at 11 when the MBNA main stage shuts down. They set up on Booth Street between the Canadian War Museum and the Transitway and wail away on mandolin and harmonica as thousands of music fans walk past. n Wednesday one young passerby joined in with some freestyle rapping. Another pulled out what appeared to be Martin travel guitar and played along. thers just stop to groove. “There’s thousands of people walking away but some people just start grinding in front of us or dancing or singing” Howe 29 said in an interview… Each is in other bands: Audin-Hole is in a rock band called the Slackjaw Sinners and Howe is in a “jazz-classical-blues” trio called the Butternuts. Audin-Hole is leaving town in September to study sound engineering in London nt. Howe has a CD coming out next month with the Butternuts but before then he plans to ride his bicycle from ttawa to Halifax playing music along the way. “I just bought a book of Quebec folk songs” he said. The Decomposers busk frequently in the Byward Market or in Gatineau.