I made a great musical find last night browsing at my local Barnes & Noble book store. I saw out of the corner of my eye a copy of Oxford American magazine sitting by its lonesome. It was calling me to pick it up. I noticed that my favorite music journalist, Peter Guralnick had contributed an article, “Sam Phillips‘s Greatest Discovery” to the publication. It’s a story about Howlin Wolf and its reallllllly good!
I have developed a discerning taste for music journalism over the decades. The Oxford American, thirteenth annual Southern music issue surpasses my expectations with its content. It is a treasure chest of well articulated and researched music literature. The publication adds tremendous depth to the importance of our rich American heritage, the music of the South.
One of my major bucket list items is to take an extended vacation on the Southern blues trail(s). The Oxford American is the magazine I will be taking with us on that journey.
So forgive me as I rub my hands with glee here this morning. I have this great magazine to hunker down with and learn from this weekend.
SpotOn Radio is an innovative Apple iPhone music app. SpotOn Radio is developed and supported by the dynamic duo known as Springworks and Rebel&Bird.
SpotON Radio is free, but you need a Spotify Premium membership to use it. I just so happens I have a Spotify Premium account.
SpotOn Radio provides personalized radio stations which springboard off Spotify’s streaming technology. It seamlessly integrates an online music service(Spotify) with the Echo Nest’s song recommendation and discovery engine.
What’s awesome about SpotOn Radio is that it adds value and dimension to my Spotify social music experience. I recently cancelled my Pandora One account. I had a twinge of regret breaking away from the music genome experience Pandora has patented.
My anxiety turned out to be a momentary concern. The Echo Nest Music API engine with 30 million songs in its database (and growing) gives SpotOn Radio a superior advantage over Pandora Internet Radio.
The song by Chicago comes to mind here, “Only the beginning, only just the start….”
Keep your eyes and ears on SpotOn Radio and Echo Nest. The Semantic Web, Web 3.0 is in full-scale music interaction now. I think that’s so cool
Just the best song ever, Slash‘s opening guitar coda, Axl Rose‘s compelling vocal, is there any doubt why 36+ million people have listened to and viewed Guns and Roses‘s video, “Sweet Child O’ Mine“.
Guy Davis is a venerable, hard-working blues artist. He just self-released his newest CD, The Adventures of Fishy Waters: In Bed With the Blues.
“There is no tale so tall I cannot tell it, nor song so sweet I cannot sing it.” Guy Davis
The Adventures of Fishy Waters: In Bed with the Blues features a number of Guy Davis original compositions, as well as songs by such blues icons as Robert Johnson, Reverend Gary Davis, Blind Willie McTell and Big Bill Broonzy. The album is a “road story” in the truest sense. Guy Davis performs the stories and songs in character as “Fishy Waters,” who traveled throughout the south meeting a host of vivid characters and creating a lasting impression that is at times humorous and playful, at others mysterious and sometimes intensely powerful
The Adventures Of Fishy Waters: In Bed With The Blues is a story containing several smaller stories: a mixture of stories, tall tales and music. The subjects are survivors, not victims. The culture is Black. The music is Blues. The message is human.
Order your copy and your name will go into a drawing for the Grand Prize: two tickets to see Guy do that very same show live at the Crossroad’s Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ, on a date of your choice! The show runs the last two weekends of February.
Your order must be received by midnight on January 30th in order to be entered in the drawing.
You can purchase Guy Davis’s CD, The Adventures of Fishy Waters: In Bed With the Blues here.
I just witnessed with a deep sense of pride and humility, the world première of our dear friend, trumpeter extraordinaire Bill Ortiz’s new video, “Winter In America“.
Please take a few minutes to watch why we must show more compassion towards our fellow-man. We must all help to defeat the winter of our discontent.
Bill,
Your new music video speaks for justice. Your trumpet is the voice that draws our attention to the winter of our discontent that is all around us in this nation. Poverty is the cause we must all help to end.
The vocals by Tony Lindsay and The Grouch accentuate the message that “Winter In America” is the plight of the human condition in our society we must eradicate.
I feel that Gil Scott-Heron is smiling down at how you extend his music to show the message of how we must all collectively help to defeat “Winter In America”.
I tip my hat to Ari Berger and domoarifoto for their wonderful visual abilities used in this video.
Peace, from the music of our heart,
Ed & Rosemary Jennings
I am always looking on the radar screen for new music that generates more than a blip on the screen. The radius of the signal strength emanating from Howlin Rain‘s third album, The Russians Wild is commanding my attention.
Part of this has rapt attention has to do with the midas touch of Rick Rubin. The Russians Wild will be released on Rubin’s American Recordings label. Rick Rubin is the producer of The Russians Wild.
I’ve been listening to The Russians Wild player on the Howlin Rain’s Facebook page. I especially like the sonics I am hearing. The sound is fresh, vibrant and exciting to the senses. The track that garners my interest the most is the first single, “Phantom In The Valley”. It is seasoned with intricate changes and segues that support your interest throughout. Check out the salsa coda on the end
Their tour is coming close by my door, they are playing Cafe Nine in New Haven, Ct. on February 11th. Strongly considering this show
Sometimes I am late to the party when it comes to discovering musical groups. Such is the case with Jeff Magnum and Neutral Milk Hotel. I like how lo-fi indie groups create rich textural and sonic landscapes. This genre of music helps my intellectualism. Subsequently I process this sound engaged in new-found meaning and delightful interpretation.
I was thankful to stumble upon Jon ParelesNY Timesarticle about Jeff Magnum’s concert at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. It has given me the opportunity to add Neutral Milk Hotel to my Spotify playlist today. So I sit in my home office this morning, witnessing the marvel of the snow falling across the cul-de-sac, back dropped by Neutral Milk Hotel.
Yesterday would have been Janis Joplin‘s 69th birthday. Legacy Recordings took that opportunity to announce they will be repackaging a newly curated definitive two-disc edition of Joplin’s final studio album The Pearl Sessions. It contains newly discovered studio outtakes, live performances and other sonic rarities. It is due to be available on April 17, 2012.
The Pearl Sessions brings together, for the first time in one package, the original mono versions of the album’s 45s alongside the original LP tracks as well as the revelatory newly discovered alternate versions, outtakes and vocal takes of Pearl‘s classic tracks.
Disc One of The Pearl Sessions includes the original album as well as the original mono singles from the album.
Disc Two is a collection of behind-the-scenes recordings illuminating the Pearl sessions with highlights and insights revealed in candid studio dialogue, song demos and alternate takes including nine previously unissued tracks.
Columbia/Legacy Recordings recently announced the release of Live at the Carousel Ballroom 1968, a previously unavailable live concert recording of Big Brother and the Holding Company featuring Janis Joplin, recorded June 23, 1968 by legendary sound man Owsley Stanley, a/k/a “Bear,” who supervised the mastering of this release before his fatal car accident on March 12, 2011, in his adopted homeland of Australia. Dedicated to Bear, the album will be released on March 13, 2012, marking the one-year anniversary of his passing.
The Pearl Sessions Track List:
Disc One
The Pearl Album
Move Over
Cry Baby
A Woman Left Lonely
Half Moon
Buried Alive In The Blues
My Baby Me and Bobby McGee
Mercedes Benz
Trust Me
Get It While You Can
Bonus Tracks – The Mono Single Masters
Me and Bobby McGee
Half Moon
Cry Baby
Get It While You Can
Move Over
A Woman Left Lonely
Disc 2 – The Pearl Sessions & more…
Overheard in the Studio…
Get It While You Can (Take 3) (Previously unissued)
Overheard in the Studio…
Get It While You Can (Take 5) (Previously unissued)
Overheard in the Studio…
Move Over (Take 6) (Previously unissued)
Move Over (Take 13) (Previously unissued)
Move Over (Take 17) (Previously unissued)
Me and Bobby McGee (Demo version)
Me and Bobby McGee (Take 5 – Alternate – Previously unissued)
Cry Baby (Alternate version)
A Woman Left Lonely (Alternate vocal)
Overheard in the Studio…
My Baby (Alternate take) (Previously unissued)
Overheard in the Studio…
Get It While You Can (Take 3) (Previously unissued)
My Baby (Alternate take)
Pearl (Instrumental) – Full Tilt Boogie Band
Tell Mama (Live – June 28, 1970 – Toronto)
Can you feel the energy coming from Bruce Springsteen with a renewed vengeance this morning?
The first song from Bruce Springsteen’s new album, Wrecking Ball was released this a.m. on amazon.com*, “We Take Care of Our Own.” I picked it up from the Amazon Cloud. (Its also available for direct play on Spotify too
Here is the video of “We Take Care of Our Own” with lyrics.
Said longtime manager Jon Landau in a press release posted at brucespringsteen.net, “Bruce has dug down as deep as he can to come up with this vision of modern life. The lyrics tell a story you can’t hear anywhere else and the music is his most innovative in recent years. The writing is some of the best of his career and both veteran fans and those who are new to Bruce will find much to love on ‘Wrecking Ball.’ “
There will be a special edition of Wrecking Ball available on March 6th. It has two bonus tracks and exclusive artwork and photography.
Track listing:
We Take Care of Our Own
Easy Money
Shackled and Drawn
Jack of All Trades
Death to My Hometown
This Depression
Wrecking Ball
You’ve Got It
Rocky Ground
Land of Hope and Dreams
We Are Alive
Swallowed Up
American Land
Expect information about the Bruce Springsteen North America tour dates to take place soon. We’re eager to see Bruce and the E. Street Band again.
Rosemary and I attended the last show at Giants Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey by Bruce Springsteen and the E. Street band in 2009 . The ones before the Wrecking Ball. As a matter of fact we saw two shows that week, show #2 and show #5 that week.
Here is Wrecking Ball from the first night we attended (Friday October 2, 200), brings me to tears to see him give Clarence a kiss and start the show, so miss Clarence….
Just the best song ever, 
Columbia/Legacy Recordings recently announced the release of 
