Sometime today, I don’t know when yet, the MusicOfOurHeart WordPress music blog site I publish will hit the 100,000 Web hit milestone.
I’m excited and honored that so many viewers around the world have taken the time to stop by my Internet music blog to read and enjoy what I love writing. It’s so rewarding when people leave a comment or follow this blog.
Music is a passion I love sharing. It keeps me grounded. It’s integral to my soul. It never gets old and every day I discover something new or unique about an artist and their repertoire. It’s fair to say that music is infinite and we as music listeners are its vessel.
I believe music comes from God and through his spirit we live fuller, more enriched lives.
Brian Wilson spoke what my heart truly believes when he wrote his personal thoughts about the Smile Sessions.
Many years ago I said that, “Music is God’s voice.” I’ve often felt that I was on a musical mission, to spread the gospel of love through records. Probably nothing I’ve ever done has topped the music I did with Van Dyke, my old crew in the studio and the voices of my youth-me and The Beach Boys.
Like many others music fans I have anticipated the new Leonard Cohen recording, Old Ideas. I caught his television spot this past Sunday during CBS Sunday Morning and it’s message really stayed with me.
Leonard Cohen is a renowned Canadian singer-songwriter, novelist, poet, and painter. I feel guilty I haven’t allocated enough time to listen to and appreciate his art. I know his classic standard-bearer songs such as ”Suzanne” and “Bird on the Wire”, but I truly don’t know the artist and his muse better than I should.
Granted there is so much music in this garden music and only so much time to listen appreciably to great music. I am trying to correct that mistake by starting with his latest effort, Old Ideas and working backwards in time. Wikipedia does an effective job of letting us shuttle through a musicians discography in chronological reverse order.
Wish me well as I try yet again to become better acquainted with one of the great artists of our time
Members of the Paul McCartney Fan club ( like us) can order the high-resolution deluxe digital download edition of Paul McCartney’s Kisses on the Bottom recording. This package includes two extra tracks, “Baby’s Request” and “My One and Only Love“, plus access to a free live download on February 14th, Valentine’s Day.
Paul McCartney is very meticulous in his recording methods. The high-resolution production process utilized is described by engineer Allan Rouse of Abbey Road Studios:
The audio industry has seen many technical innovations since Paul McCartney and Wings’s Band on the Run was first released on vinyl in 1973, the most notable being digital recording. However, with the introduction of CD came two advances, “de-noising” and “peak limiting” which have become increasingly unpopular within certain areas of the music industry and amongst audiophiles.
De-noising was introduced to remove the inherent sound, or hiss, associated with analogue tape. The amount of processing used to remove tape noise can be varied, but when used excessively, many believe that it also has a detrimental effect on elements of the musical sound.
Copyright 2012 Paul McCartney Website
Peak limiting is a process that increases the loudness of music. It is achieved by holding the loudest peaks down and raising the overall level of the music. Much depends on the amount of limiting applied, but at its most extreme the result can be a serious reduction in the dynamic range and often audible distortion.
The release of The Beatles’ remasters in 2009 saw a marked change in attitudes towards these issues, where both noise reduction and limiting were used sparingly with the aim of representing the master tapes more accurately. Such is the case with the newly remastered Paul McCartney and Wings CD of Band on the Run: tape noise reduction has scarcely been used and the degree of limiting is subtle. In addition digital technology has advanced with the ability now to offer recordings in 24 bit/96kHz/16 track. The high resolution version is being made available via download and is being offered in two formats: limited, which is comparable in volume to the remastered CD, and un-limited, which in comparison with the limited version will sound quieter, but retain the dynamic range of the original master recording.
Rosemary and I love most about Paul (in addition to his ability to leverage technology) is his incurable romantic personality. The timing of this new album, just a week before Valentine’s Day makes it the perfect gift for your Valentine.
Copyright 2012 Paul McCartney Website
The majority of the tracks are solo efforts with the exception of two Paul McCartney written songs, “My Valentine” and “Only Our Hearts”.
Eric Clapton plays guitar on “My Valentine”.
Stevie Wonder collaborates with Paul McCartney on “Only Our Hearts”. This marks the 30th anniversary of their classic hit, “Ebony and Ivory“.
Stevie Wonder joined Paul McCartney at LA’s Capitol Studios to record the track.
Paul McCartney spoke about working with Stevie again.
Copyright 2012 Paul McCartney Website
“Stevie came along to the studio in LA and he listened to the track for about ten minutes and he totally got it. He just went to the mic and within 20 minutes had nailed this dynamite solo. When you listen you just think, ‘How do you come up with that?’ But it’s just because he is a genius, that’s why.”
I love that Sir Paul McCartney is constantly reinventing himself. His latest ventures take us further into Web 3.0,with a rich multimedia experience accompanied by a vastly redesigned Website. The first hint I had of this new technology direction was an advertisement in the tour program booklet we picked up at the McCartney concert at Yankee Stadium this past summer.
The Website is powered by technology partner HP. The collaboration between HP and McCartney MPL Communications Ltd. is very exciting and stimulating for McCartney fans.
Sir Paul McCartney announced his brand new as yet untitled album yesterday in a press release on his blog The first of his new songs that he has recorded only using his voice as an instrument is entitled, “My Valentine.” It is available as a preview for McCartney Collection Premium Account Members ($50). It is a striking recording that will reach your heart in a new musical fashion.
The premium account membership includes access to premium content, a lithograph, a plectrum, 4 button badges, membership card and letter, a t-shirt and high quality MP3 320kbs recordings of Good Evening New York City and Live at Hyde Park.
There is a lot to explore at McCartney.com. Go reacquaint yourself with your Beatle fan self. You know you want to
Have a wonderful Christmas time. Gotta love that Abe on the drums with the bells and his Christmas cap
Yesterday’s blog post rekindled my love and interest in Laura Nyro’s music. I decided to start at the beginning of her discography with the album entitled, More Than A New Discovery. This recording was released in January of 1967 on the Verve Folkways label.
The album was later reissued, with a revised track order and with the song “Hands Off the Man” retitled to “Flim Flam Man”, in 1973 by Columbia Records as The First Songs.
In the summer of 1967 Laura Nyro performed at the infamous Monterey Pop Festival; while Nyro felt her performance had been a failure, the D.A. Pennebaker documentary footage of the concert showed to the contrary that the crowd responded enthusiastically to her set.
After her performance at Monterey, record producer David Geffen signed her to a $4 million contract with Columbia Records.
I was truly pleased to see Laura Nyro‘s name among the 2012 inductees for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. That honor has been long overdue. I wrote a blog post earlier this year about Laura Nyro. I mentioned in that post that Earthworks Films, Inc. is working on a film about Laura Nyro entitled, December’s Boudoir. It would be terrific and well-timed if that movie was ready to be released in harmony with Laura Nyro’s induction. I’d love to see some of the footage shown as part of her induction. Keeping my fingers crossed about that possibility
The induction ceremony moves to Cleveland, Ohio and will be held on April 14, 2012. It will be the culmination of a 10 day celebration starting April 5th. There will be more details of that celebration posted on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Web site going forward. I see lots of advantages moving the induction ceremony from the Waldorf Astoria in New York City to Cleveland. One can only hope that for the 10 day celebration the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame plans to use the Web more actively with live Webcasts, video of recorded events and Web page information about each day of Induction 2012. It would be wonderful to include a wider, interested audience in this celebration.
Thank God for Spotify’s extensive music cloud which offers a comprehensive choice of Laura Nyro’s catalog. Christmas and the beads of sweat is an ideal listen as we enter the twelve remaining days of Christmas 2011.
I’ve met my fair share of famous musicians these past 40+ years at concerts. One of the most unique meetings I ever had was with Tom Waits. I was writing for a free music paper in the early 80′s. I made arrangements with Tom Wait’s manager to interview Tom Waits before his appearance at Toad’s Place in New Haven. I was good friends with the owner of Toad’s Place in those days. I was allowed to interview Tom Waits in the club before his sound check.
I found Tom Waits, initially to be a foreboding figure. I subsequently learned he was charming, gruff, articulate and quite a kick to hang out with. I recall he wore rumpled clothes and smoked Chesterfield filterless cigarettes. His hands, particularly his fingernails were stained brown from chain smoking. He smoked throughout the interview but the second hand smoke didn’t bother me.
The first thing he said to me when he exhaled smoke rings was, “So, you work for one of those street rags?.”
I said proudly, “Yes. I do.”
He just growled. I don’t recall the rest of our conversation, unfortunately. He had several stage props that he used for dramatic effect that night. One song, Ol 55 was set against the backdrop of a PepsiCo gas pump. Tom Waits wore a leather bomber jacket while he leaned against the gas pump, crooning . He had this cool stage trick where someone dropped green metalic flakes from above him while he twirled an umbrella under them that sent the sparks streaming through the night. Simple props but a dimensional, dramatic result.
I noticed that Tom Waits has a a brand new recording, Bad As Me. I picked up a digital edition and have just started listening to it. Once I got past that gravel voice of his I find the songs, humorous and filled with pathos.
Give Bad As Me a listen and let me know your thoughts about one of our most prolific and revered singer/songwriters.
It’s an accomplishment when you witness a performer that you can cross off your bucket list. Lucinda Williams was that artist Tuesday night at the Ridgefield Playhouse.
The Ridgefield Playhouse is sporting a fresh appearance. The renovation that took place in August provides new hardwood flooring, new seats (be they a bit smaller, probably so they can fit more people inside the venue) and an updated sound system. The acoustics have improved dramatically over the previous sound system. Trust me I attend 30+ concerts a year and my ears discern a clearer, distinct “available” sound versus the past muddier acoustics at this venue.
I’d personally like to thank Jayne Tansey-Patron for allowing me to use her articulate photographs of the Lucinda Williams concert. She captured the evening just as we saw it unfold.
SetList
1. Drunken Angel
2. Metal Firecracker
3. Crescent City
4. People Talkin’
5. Stowaway
6. 2 Kool
7. Ventura
8. Fruits Of My Labor
9. Copenhagen
10. Born To Be Loved
11. Trying To Get To Heaven
12. I Lost It
13. Buttercup
14. Bleeding Fingers
15. Essence
16. Change The Locks
17. Joy
18. Honey Bee
Encore 19. Blessed 20. Cross To Bear 21. Get Right w/ God
We are ticketed to see Lucinda Williams tonight, November 1st and Jon Anderson & Rick Wakeman, tomorrow night, November 2nd at the Ridgefield Playhouse. Ridgefield, Connecticut got 17″ of snow on Saturday October 29th. Like much of Connecticut(790,000 customers at one point) they were out of power until last night. Here is the updated message about their status posted on the Ridgefield Playhouse Website.
As of Monday evening, power has been restored to the Ridgefield Playhouse!
All shows, beginning with Lucinda Williams on November 1st will go on as scheduled.
The box office will open Tuesday morning at 9AM.
We expect our website to be back up soon. Please click here for ticket information.
We never expected that three concerts in five days would have this swirl of excitement and anxiety surrounding the events. Heavy snow, power outages and rough traveling conditions (Saturday) have added to the nature of our live music commitment. This all began on Saturday October 29th with the Trucks Tedeschi Band, Scrapomatic concert at The Klein Memorial in Bridgeport, Ct. We drove through a hectic snow storm to witness a fantastic concert by TTB (see my post from October 30th to learn more).
Our dedication as patrons of the arts has been tested this week. So far we are coming through with flying colors, as are the artists, promoters, stage hands, ticket takers and all involved in presenting live music in our state.
Patti Smith has an incredible knack for choosing just the right gems in Bob Dylan’s treasure chest of songs.
This first became clear to me when I purchased Twelve in 2007.
The song by Bob Dylan that Patti Smith chose to cover on Twelve was “Changing of the Guards” from Street Legal (1978). The song has a depth that is at times beyond description and meaning. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve played and replayed that track try to discern what the song is about. Each time we get caught up in the imagery of knights, chivalry and England, enjoying the pageantry but never solidifying the tale. Dylan once commented: “It means something different every time I sing it. ‘Changing of the Guards’ is a thousand years old’”.[1]
I owned Street Legalon vinyl in 1978 but somehow the sands of time erased that song from my consciousness. It wasn’t until Patti Smith sang and then polished this gem with her band on Twelve that I gained the appreciation for the magnificent imagery this song portrays for the listener
Patti Smith was quoted in the December 9, 2010 Rolling Stone magazine special issue, The Playlist Issue: 50 Artists Pick Their Personal Top 10s about her favorite Bob Dylan Love songs:
In 1995, my band toured with Bob Dylan along the East Coast. He relayed, through his people, that if I chose one of his songs, we could sing it together. All night long I contemplated what I should choose, and how I might sing it. I chose “Dark Eyes,” a relatively obscure song with a lyric worthy of William Blake. Each night he would call me to the stage, and we sang it side by side, so close that at times beads of sweat dripped from his lashes to my cheek. I have tried many times, without success, to write a song to Bob Dylan, to express my gratitude for all he has given us through his work. But perhaps, having been faithful in my own way, from afar since I was 16 years old, is song enough.
Patti Smith recently recorded Bob Dylan’s “Drifter’s Escape” from John Wesley Harding for the Bob Dylan 70th Birthday and Amnesty International 50th Anniversary Dylan tribute recording. The album is titled Chimes of Freedom: Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International, the set arrives on November 22, 2011.
Again I am taken with a gem that Patti Smith hand-picked by Bob Dylan. I have listened to John Wesley Harding often yet this song escaped my grasp. I will be listening more intently now through Patti Smith when I get this recording.
Sir Paul McCartney announced his brand new as yet untitled album yesterday in a press release on his 
Yesterday’s blog post rekindled my love and interest in Laura Nyro’s music. I decided to start at the beginning of her discography with the album entitled, 
We are ticketed to see 
