The News Review:
- Remembering country music legend Porter Wagoner
- The Definitive Art: Jazz
- Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin
- Canadian songwriters’ music festival heads to the US featuring…
- Harbach concert salutes pioneer women
- ALICIA KEYS MAKES ‘MUSIC HISTRY’ AT BENEFIT: At least…
- Bridge benefit adds luster to stellar reputation
Remembering country music legend Porter Wagoner
New York Daily News – Oct 29, 2007
ne time he invited James Brown to join him on stage at the pry an invitation Brown was delighted to accept. When it caused a stir among the pry crowd Wagoner acknowledged the criticism indirectly while neatly deflecting it: “I hope none of the opposition by some members was racial but people have a problem accepting anything that’s new. He often talked about what he saw as the common roots of country and blues music both emerging from life in the rural South. ne of the albums he produced featured soul singer Joe Simon. n his syndicated TV show that ran from 1960 to 1979 Wagoner kept it country both in sound and style. While he never forgot the rhinestone suits he kept the set simple just a small stage with standup microphones where he and his guests would tell a few corny jokes and sing a lot of songs. He didn’t discover Parton but she rose to stardom during her years on his show starting in 1967.
The Definitive Art: Jazz
dailytoreador.com – Oct 29, 2007
Just stay with me jazz antagonists. Did you know that jazz music is a true American art form? When I start losing faith in my common man especially with those who refuse to use signal lights when turning I think to myself “It’s K we started jazz” and I actually begin to feel a little better. Although jazz was created from blues music which was a result of oppression in my opinion it is the most definitive type of art around. Within majority types of music there are boundaries. There are formats time signatures and certain keys that one has to reside in. But then there is jazz. Musicians – who are all very familiar of those structured forms and knowledge – completely throw it out the window and begin to really feel what they hear.
Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD’s Coffin
Wired News – Oct 29, 2007
Pressing plants that were already at capacity are staying there while others are cranking out more records than they did last year in order to keep pace with demand. Don MacInnis owner of Record Technology in Camarillo California predicts production will be up 25 percent over last year by the end of 2007. And he’s not talking about small runs of dance music for DJs but the whole gamut of music: “new albums reissues majors and indies. jazz blues classical pop and a lot of (classic) rock. Turntables are hot again as well.
Canadian songwriters’ music festival heads to the US featuring…
MediaSyndicate – MediaSyndicate (press release) – Oct 29, 2007
Pure and haunting it caresses softly insinuating itself into your heart and just won’t let go. Then the subtle strengths of her deeply confessional powerfully poetic songs emerge revealing hidden layers with every listen. It is this combination that makes Church Bell Blues MacLellan’s sophomore album a bona fide roots music gem. MacLellan’s immense vocal and songwriting talents are no secret to music lovers in the Maritimes. Her potential was first displayed in the group The New Drifts and then on her 2004 solo debut Dark Dream Midnight but Church Bell Blues ups the ante considerably. It is a sparse and intimate record one that gently fuses folk and countrystrains with graceful ease.
Harbach concert salutes pioneer women
Current – Oct 29, 2007
Louis Chancellor Thomas George. The concert was part of the Sheldon’s “Notes From Home” Series. The series features the best regional talent performing all styles of vocal and instrumental jazz classical folk blues and gospel music. “A Tribute to Pioneer Women: The Music of Barbara Harbach” featured four compositions of original music by Harbach. A variety of musical combos performed selections devoted to women who were pioneers in some sense. The program was topped off by a short jazz-inspired piece. Each musical selection was introduced by the composer Barbara Harbach.
ALICIA KEYS MAKES ‘MUSIC HISTRY’ AT BENEFIT: At least…
Eurweb.com – Oct 29, 2007
“And what they heard may go down in contemporary music history as the night Keys sang a Bono song ? ‘Ms. Sarajevo’ ? with opera star Kathleen Battle in English and Italian” wrote Friedman. “The performance I learned was Keys? idea as a tribute to Bono and the late Luciano Pavarotti. The two had recorded the song as a duet. ” Sheryl Crow and Gwen Stefani were on hand to perform with Keys to salute Bono the night’s man of honor… ” Sheryl Crow and Gwen Stefani were on hand to perform with Keys to salute Bono the night’s man of honor. “But nothing could prepare the audience for [the Kathleen Battle] moment not even the astounding new songs from Keys? forthcoming album ‘As I Am’ not even Keys and Crow?s sublime take on Bono?s ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ or Keys and Stefani on the latter?s hit ‘What You Waiting For. ‘ All of it was revelatory including the six new songs that were so well-received the packed audience was singing along to lyrics they don?t even know to songs they?d never before heard. “And the new material is extraordinary modern R&B glossed with ’70s soul from the single ‘No ne’ ? No. 1 on the charts ? to the driving rocker ‘Go Head’ the anthemic ballad ‘Superwoman’ and a pair of insanely good singles ‘That?s the Thing About Love’ and ‘Like You?ll Never See Me Again’ that should make the new CD a hit for many months. The latter already is being sent to radio stations as the album?s second single.
Bridge benefit adds luster to stellar reputation
San Francisco Chronicle – Oct 29, 2007
During the past 21 years the fall classic has become a music scene fixture not just locally but all over the world. “Bridge School shocker” said Metallica’s James Hetfield sporting a new clean-cut look “Metallica goes acoustic and funk. Young treated the enthusiastic crowd at Saturday’s first of two sold-out weekend shows to a performance with the band from his current tour composed almost entirely from songs off his new album “Chrome Dreams II” only released a week earlier along with a couple of obscure pieces from his early days “Winterlong” and his cover of Don Gibson’s “h Lonesome Me. “I’m not doing any songs you know probably” he noted amiably… Tegan and Sara Canadian identical twins followed with their robust somewhat twee folk rock backed by a three-man band. My Morning Jacket a kind of folky alt-rock band from Kentucky was a last-minute replacement for a scheduled performance by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam a regular member of Young’s Bridge concert repertory company with Flea of Red Hot Chili Peppers which was not a straight-across trade. Hollywood heartthrob John Mayer Jessica Simpson’s ex-beau took a seat on a stool flanked by two sidemen on acoustic guitars – one of them Robbie McIntosh of the Pretenders – and ran through a skillful set of hits such as “Waiting on the World to Change” and “Gravity” dropping a few blues licks into the songs on guitar and finished with a cover of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’. Waits was all twitchy arms and jerky limbs the footlights casting eerie shadows on his face as he swung his arms and kicked his heels spastically physically digging into “Way Down in the Hole” the Kronos musicians sawing and buzzing behind him with violinist David Harrington taking a couple of slicing solos. n “Cold Cold Ground” cellist Jeffrey Zeigler was cradling his instrument in his lap and strumming it like a guitar. Waits brought the sensational set to a poignant close seated at a pump organ prattling amusingly about hypnotizing chickens and singing his “Always Keep a Diamond in Your Mind. Young opened with “The Way” from his new album minus the children’s choir from the record and played a couple of long rock jams on “Spirit Road” and “Show Me the Way” bending and snapping the strings on his acoustic guitar just as if it were an electric.