|
Post by erik on Jan 27, 2019 11:31:37 GMT -8
Alice Wallace, an Americana genre singer/songwriter from here in Southern California, updates the old-school country-rock style of mentors like Linda Rosntadt and Emmylou Harris on this insightful album that is as far as one can go from post-Bro Country Nashville. Tracks like "Desert Rose" (about a Mexican migrant's experience trying to cross into America via El Paso), the Western-themed "Echo Canyon", and "Santa Ana Winds" (referring to the hot, dry winds that tend to turn Southern California's vegetation into kindling and aid in the growth of deadly firestorms) are the standouts on this early contender for Best Album of 2019.
|
|
|
Post by erik on Feb 4, 2019 7:32:47 GMT -8
After decades of calls for a live album, Linda Ronstadt, with the help of longtime manager/producer John Boylan and Rhino Records, has finally released one. This is a compilation of twelve of the twenty songs she did for a live performance special she did in 1980 for the then-burgeoning HBO cable channel. Taped at CBS Television City in Los Angeles on April 24, 1980 (and broadcast that August), this album has Linda at her most vivacious and growling (at the time, she had a fairly controversial new-wave album out, Mad Love), with such staples of her repertoire as "You're No Good" (stretched out to six and a half minutes); "It's So Easy"; her C&W/rock classic "Willing"; and, naturally, heartfelt ballads like "Faithless Love", "Blue Bayou" (last verse in Spanish) and "Desperado" for good measure. Fans really need to get this one, as it may be the only such live album she is ever able to put out.
|
|
|
Post by erik on May 5, 2019 8:40:56 GMT -8
Until he's out of office, Cinco De Mayo will also be known in my book as "F**k You Donald Trump!" Day. So....
"Lo Siento Mi Vida"--Linda Ronstadt (from her Grammy-winning 1976 album Hasten Down The Wind):
"Pablo"--Lindi Ortega (from her 2018 album Liberty):
|
|
|
Post by erik on Jul 4, 2019 6:18:26 GMT -8
There are still good reasons to feel good about America, even with the wanna-be dictator we have for a president, on this 4th Of July.
Like....
"Back In The USA"--Linda Ronstadt (from Live In Hollywood) (1980):
"An American Trilogy"--Elvis Presley (from Aloha! Live From Hawaii) (1973):
"America The Beautiful"--Brother Ray (1972):
|
|
|
Post by erik on Jul 15, 2019 5:42:10 GMT -8
In honor of her turning 73 today (July 15, 2019), here is the live six-and-a-half minute version of "You're No Good" that appears on Linda's Live In Hollywood:
|
|
|
Post by erik on Aug 12, 2019 6:29:45 GMT -8
Matt Morton's brilliant avant-garde score to the recent Todd Douglas Miller documentary APOLLO 11.
|
|
|
Post by Bingo on Sept 15, 2019 19:35:06 GMT -8
Miranda Lambert's choice of cover songs is wide ranging and often interesting. This new one differs from her more transient concert choices, in the sense that she's actively promoting it as a release, through her Vanner Records imprint and Sony Music, for sale and streaming on the major outlets. The song is a revival of "Fooled Around and Fell In Love" - an Elvin Bishop song, from the 1970s. It showcases most of the women appearing with Miranda on the latest leg of her "Pink Guitars and Roadside Bars" tour. (In rough order of them singing a featured solo part, they are Tenille Townes, Caylee Hammack, Elle King, Maren Morris, and (briefly) Ashley McBryde. (The combination of group harmonies with rotating solo parts recalls the method often used by the Pistol Annies, Miranda's girl band - who are also on the tour, but not involved in this performance) This performance illustrates the strong and abiding influence of the Blues on, especially, the female wing of contemporary Country Music. It's evident here, from the Pop end of the current Mainstream, represented by Maren Morris, through more edgy singer-songwriters and relative newcomers Tenille and Caylee, to the decidedly Outlaw Alt Country of Elle King. Miranda's comment on her choice of tour mates: "Maren Morris is a fiery fellow Texas girl that isn't afraid to take a risk and be who she is. Elle King is a brave, confident and unapologetic artist who is honest about her life and uses it for her art. My fellow Pistol Annies are not only some of my best friends and writing partners, but also make me want to be a better artist every time we take the stage together. "Tenille, Ashley and Caylee are all women who have something to say and they do it their own way. They are the next generation of fearless female artists and I'm so thrilled to share a stage with them."As a side note, another indication of Miranda's determination to go her own way, in an industry sometimes appearing too focused on conformity, was her decision to open the tour with a Hispanic flavour. The second shot shows her with her stage band leader, Alex Weedon, and the third with her acoustic accompanist since she began performing as a teenager, Scotty Wray. (credit JoJo on Twitter) tour photo
|
|
|
Post by Bingo on Sept 28, 2019 19:09:08 GMT -8
Tanya Tucker has always been one of my musical heroes, and her career has defied almost every convention Nashville had to offer, from her strongly themed youthful hits, such as "Blood Red and Going Down", "What's your Mama's name, child", and her remarkable decision to cover David Allan Coe's "Would You Lie With Me in a Field of Stone", through her flirtation with California Rock on the notorious crossover album "T n T", and her sometimes troubled personal life, to her definitive later identification with the Texas "Outlaw" Country scene.
Her new album "While I'm Living" is her first for ten years (and her first with mainly new material for seventeen years). For me, it certainly doesn't disappoint, and is likely to be rated as one of the best releases of the year. It was co-produced by Brandi Carlile (arguably the leading female figure in Alt Country today) and Shooter Jennings (son of Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter). It includes three cover songs, and seven specially written for the project by Brandi Carlile, with her long time twin guitarists, Phil and Tim Hanseroth.
I'll mention just three standout songs, from a strong overall tracklist:
"The Wheels of Laredo" (which also appears on Brandi's other current project, the Highwomen's debut album) is a timely commentary on the separations caused by the current immigration controversies. This is a live performance, with Tanya and Brandi appearing on Jimmy Fallon'd Tonight show:
"The House That Built Me" is a cover of the song made famous by Miranda Lambert, which addresses the alienation felt by many people in today's "broken" society, which they try to alleviate by revisting a cherished past home. Interestingly, Tanya changes the perspective slightly, from that of a young woman revisiting her childhood memories, to that of an older woman revisiting the house where she raised her own children.
Tanya's heartworn and emotionally wrenching delivery is probably at its peak in the pointedly reflective "Bring My Flowers Now" - the plea of an older person to be shown love now, rather than as a memorial when life is over:
|
|
|
Post by erik on Sept 28, 2019 19:33:57 GMT -8
The new album from Trisha Yearwood, whom I steadfastly won't call Mrs. Garth Brooks (LOL), Every Girl is her first entirely new album since 2007's Heaven, Heartache, And The Power Of Love, a gap of twelve years. Nevertheless, her rock-ribbed approach to country is still very much intact, with much of the material she does here having been either written or co-written by women, including "Home", written back in 1975 by Karla Bonoff and covered by Bonnie Raitt the year after, and "The Matador", written by Gretchen Peters and tinged with a hint of Mexicana (these two are likely homages to her spiritual role model Linda Ronstadt).
|
|
|
Post by DCXMMXVI on Oct 1, 2019 13:43:41 GMT -8
Tanya Tucker has always been one of my musical heroes, "The House That Built Me" is a cover of the song made famous by Miranda Lambert, I was very happy to come across this on YouTube. I used to listen to Tanya Tucker all the time. She picked a great song to cover.
|
|
|
Post by DCXMMXVI on Oct 6, 2019 8:26:09 GMT -8
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds premiered their new album "Ghosteen" a few days ago. I love the album cover, but I'm not really feeling the music. It's a shame, because I've been anticipating this album release all year. I think the instrumentals show the band at their weakest, and the lyrics lack the heart pounding, soul crushing feeling that Nick usually brings to the table. Even their last album, which was heavily influenced by Nick's son's passing, as Ghosteen is as well, was half full of gems. "Girl in Amber" and "I Need You," for example.
|
|
|
Post by Bingo on Oct 11, 2019 18:45:04 GMT -8
Several tracks have been released in advance of Miranda Lambert's forthcoming album "Wildcard". Some of these lean to progressive Rock styling, but "Tequila Does" may well prove to be the most "traditional" track of this release. In many ways it's "classic" Miranda, and she wrote it with two well known figures in Texas Country Music - Jack Ingram and Jon Randall (the latter being a childhood friend of Martie's, once sharing gigs on the North Texas Bluegrass scene).
In this song Miranda seems to be showing her characteristic defiance - most noticeably in her celebration of the mixed ethnic and cultural heritage of Texas (something that she's also been rather pointedly addressing in other ways recently) - but also in her acceptance of the image of her that the tabloids and social media like to portray, with their obsession with her sexuality and "wild girl" persona. The more traditional musical styling, with its echoes of honky-tonk influence, may also be seen as a riposte to the "Country Purists" who have regarded much of her recent work as leaning too much to the Alternative, or "Americana" wing. She even manages a sly dig at "the boys round here who are all hat and no cattle"
|
|
|
Post by Bingo on Oct 18, 2019 14:58:19 GMT -8
Erin Enderlin's latest release, "The Queen of Marina del Rey", is another example of her strong uncompromising writing, and loyalty to musical tradition:
|
|
|
Post by erik on Oct 22, 2019 16:10:45 GMT -8
Going classical for a moment here, with the Hallelujah Chorus that concludes the second part of Handel's epic oratorio "Messiah", in a 1976 recording by the English Chamber Orchestra + Choir, led by Raymond Leppard: Mr. Leppard, known for reviving once-obscure Italian operas of the Baroque period in his native England in the 1960s, passed away at his home in Indianapolis today at the age of 92. Between 1987 and 2001, he was the music director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. More on his career at this link: www.npr.org/2019/10/22/771849121/conductor-and-composer-raymond-leppard-a-champion-of-the-old-and-the-new-has-die
|
|
|
Post by Bingo on Oct 26, 2019 10:16:48 GMT -8
Fans might like to see this American Songwriter article (written by Jason Scott, whom I've known on-line for a number of years) on the classic song "Blue Bayou", giving some details on both the Roy Orbison original, and the Linda Ronstadt version (which he calls "definitive"), Blue Bayou
|
|
|
Post by erik on Oct 27, 2019 10:31:48 GMT -8
Quote by Bingo:
I think it should also be mentioned that Linda's version incorporates a unique indigenous Mexican rhythm known as the "huapango", as well as marimba and electric piano. By her own admission, she was trying to sneak in some of the Mexican music influences that she heard growing up close to the border in Arizona. I don't think too many people caught onto this back in 1977.
|
|
|
Post by Bingo on Dec 7, 2019 18:47:47 GMT -8
I've been watching the BBC's edited version of the CMA awards - it lasts 90 minutes, so does cover the bulk of the show (though some performances were dropped). In message board days gone by, I used to give fuller reactions to these annual shindigs - but that seems rather redundant now. However, one point of interest was the effort to make celebration of women performers the main theme of the night. There were two multi-artist medleys, the first celebrating some notable past performers, and the second concentrating on younger artists who are taking the genre forward. As ever, the goals of the CMA board are not always echoed in the way the 7000 members vote. There was one striking breakthrough in the fact that Jenee Fleenor won musician of the Year - she is not only the first female winner in this category, but also the first nominee in 56 years! (in that respect the CMA have lagged decades behind the more instrumentally focused IBMA, where female nominees winners have long been in evidence). However, the voters went by name and past reputation (rather, it seems, than by current performance), in giving Garth Brooks the biggest award, Entertainer of the Year - despite several pundits picking Carrie Underwood for her first win in this category (notwithstanding the long term role she plays in the Board's hosting service, she has often struggled to win favour with the award voters). But on the whole, I would rate the focus on female performers a success - artists like Tanya Tucker, Terri Clark, and Crystal Gayle were welcome additions to a show often excessively concerned with recent radio hits.
The show started off with one of my favourite song "Those Memories of You" - a song more associated today with Bluegrass bands than with the CMA. Originally from Bill Monroe's repertoire, it is best known for the version performed by Dolly, Linda and Emmylou, on the first Trio album in the late '80s. For the CMA, the three joint hosts, Reba, Carrie and Dolly stood in for that legendary Trio. In the original, Dolly took the central role, but for this version she stood to one side, and left the central role to Carrie. Carrie arguably has the more powerful voice, and has a good ear for interpreting a wide range of Country styles (more evident in her tribute and some Opry performances than in her radio singles). She has handled Mountain Music before, and can catch the punchy delivery and prolonged notes that convey the aching sorrow of the song - Dolly's delivery is more hauntingly ethereal, and they faced each other for part of this shortened extract, and I thought the blend of their voices worked well (Reba, though, while very expressive in her solo songs, did not seem to me to be so at home with Mountain Music.)
|
|
|
Post by erik on Dec 24, 2019 20:49:54 GMT -8
Christmas Greetings from the City of Angels:
"Christmas In California"--America
"Christmas Wrapping"--The Waitresses
|
|
|
Post by DCXMMXVI on Feb 23, 2020 23:40:03 GMT -8
After a nearly two year long fiasco with a violent, bipolar alcoholic that started when I was 18, I told myself I would never date again. But I tried again when I was 24. He seemed perfect those first 2-3 months, but then he changed. I was foolish enough to believe that I was the cause of the change, but over time I realized that he was wearing a mask to cover up his true identity at the start of our relationship. The man I fell in love with didn't actually exist. But that's how narcissists work, they play a part until they have you right where they want you. Though the physical violence wasn't constant, the two years I spent with him was so much worse than anything Mr. Bottoms Up put me through. I never heard the term 'gaslighting' until my therapist explained it to me, during one of our many sessions that had all the focus on him. Now I hear the term all the time. The hardest part for me was learning how to trust myself and my own thoughts and memories...learning how to trust reality and see it for what it really was. I'm proud to say that I got out of it on my own, I was the one who ended it, whereas my first relationship ended with the help of 2 police officers and some handcuffs. More than a year went by before I could get myself built back up after ending it. I'm getting there slowly but surely, and the best part is that I'm not afraid to date again. I know the warning signs, I have the power, and no one will ever take it from me again. I'll make sure of it.
I never thought I would get hooked on a Selena Gomez song. But she wrote this powerful song that totally captures the emotion of looking back on a relationship like that. It has been a slight obsession of mine the last couple weeks.
|
|
|
Post by eaglemaster on Feb 24, 2020 23:57:08 GMT -8
I wish you much power and luck going forward.
|
|
|
Post by DCXMMXVI on Feb 26, 2020 0:14:35 GMT -8
This is probably the most shocking cover I've ever heard...EVER. Snoop Dogg covering Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Red Right Hand. I hated it after my first listen, but I'm finding myself liking it more and more as time goes by. I never imagined any rapper, let alone one who is so prominent, would cover Nick Cave. He wouldn't have done it if it weren't for his love of Peaky Blinders lol
|
|
|
Post by oregonchickfan on Feb 28, 2020 0:36:36 GMT -8
After a nearly two year long fiasco with a violent, bipolar alcoholic that started when I was 18, I told myself I would never date again. But I tried again when I was 24. He seemed perfect those first 2-3 months, but then he changed. I was foolish enough to believe that I was the cause of the change, but over time I realized that he was wearing a mask to cover up his true identity at the start of our relationship. The man I fell in love with didn't actually exist. But that's how narcissists work, they play a part until they have you right where they want you. Though the physical violence wasn't constant, the two years I spent with him was so much worse than anything Mr. Bottoms Up put me through. I never heard the term 'gaslighting' until my therapist explained it to me, during one of our many sessions that had all the focus on him. Now I hear the term all the time. The hardest part for me was learning how to trust myself and my own thoughts and memories...learning how to trust reality and see it for what it really was. I'm proud to say that I got out of it on my own, I was the one who ended it, whereas my first relationship ended with the help of 2 police officers and some handcuffs. More than a year went by before I could get myself built back up after ending it. I'm getting there slowly but surely, and the best part is that I'm not afraid to date again. I know the warning signs, I have the power, and no one will ever take it from me again. I'll make sure of it. I never thought I would get hooked on a Selena Gomez song. But she wrote this powerful song that totally captures the emotion of looking back on a relationship like that. It has been a slight obsession of mine the last couple weeks. Thank you for sharing your story. As a survivor of DV myself, the line, "I needed to lose you to love me" is so spot on. So many truths in the lyrics for this song. With lots of therapy, it does get better. You will find yourself again. I was fortunate enough to volunteer at a domestic violence shelter after I felt I had healed enough & even that helped me in ways I didn't know I needed. Continue healing yourself; continue finding yourself; continue loving yourself.
|
|
|
Post by Bingo on Feb 28, 2020 15:05:41 GMT -8
I feel for both of you. I hope it helps a little to know that others admire your courage to survive, and wish you well.
|
|
|
Post by erik on Mar 5, 2020 17:25:08 GMT -8
Filed under "Age Is Just A Number": this is a recording of Leopold Stokowski's own orchestral transcription of the "Chaconne" from the Violin Partita No. 2 In D Minor (BWV 1004) by Johann Sebastian Bach, one of his many such transcriptions (some of them quite controversial in their time) for modern orchestra of Bach's works. When "Stoki" made this recording with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1974, the legendary conductor who once shared the podium with Mickey Mouse in the 1940 Walt Disney animated classic FANTASIA was an incredible 92 years old!:
|
|
|
Post by erik on Mar 16, 2020 5:52:41 GMT -8
Her first album since 2009's Amanda Leigh, this new album from the co-star of the NBC-TV drama This Is Us finds Mandy continuing in a 21st century take on the California singer/songwriter groove, sometimes evoking Linda Ronstadt in her late 1970s prime, as on the opening track "I'd Rather Lose".
|
|