Unknow School Kids: “Viva La Vida (by Coldplay)
Auto-Tune the News
Auto-Tune the News #2
Auto-Tune the News #1
“A 24-year-old Brooklyn musician named Michael Gregory has combined a number of evening news broadcast clips and turned them into a vaguely acceptable faux R&B series called Auto-Tune the News.” Claire Suddath, the Time
Bob Dylan: Together Through Life
Bob Dylan: Beyond Here Lies Nothin’
“As Dylan himself put it in an interview with Bill Flanagan, “I know my fans will like it. Other than that, I have no idea.”” PopMatters, Michael Metivier
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks: Tangled Tales
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks: Tangled Tales
“And then there’s the title song, which is a fast-paced bopper featuring Hicks and the ladies scat-singing. It’s an impressive display. That comes right before the album ender, “Let It Simmer,” which slows things down as Hicks advises listeners to slow down and take it easy. As the song winds down, a male chorus sings in the background “Where’s the money? Where’s the money?,” which hearkens back to the early days of Hicks’ career.
Hicks knows by now that there ain’t no money in the music biz for the likes of him. Thankfully, he still does it for the love.” Steve Terrell, No Depression
The Recordings Of John & Alan Lomax
Lead Belly: Blind Lemon Jefferson’s Blues (1935)
“In July (1934) they acquired a state-of-the-art, 315-pound acetate phonograph disk recorder. Installing it in the trunk of his Ford sedan, Lomax soon used it to record, at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, a twelve-string guitar player by the name of Huddie Ledbetter, better known as “Lead Belly,” whom they considered one of their most significant finds. During the next year and a half, father and son continued to make disc recordings of musicians throughout the South.” Big Road Blues
Tuomo: Reaches Out For You
Tuomo: Head Above the Water (Live at Helsinki Festival on August the 29th, 2008)
“Tuomo defies every stereotype about what soul is suppose to be. He is white, Finnish (yes, Finland!), looks a bit of a nerd, is a classically trained child prodigy, a self-defined jazz musician, has little rasp in his timbre and doesn’t appear to know his way around a gospel run. Yet, one listen of the multi-instrumentalist’s self-produced sophomore project, Reaches Out For You, no other definition but “soul” suffices. The self-penned Reaches… is certainly more soulful than his 2007 multi-award-winning debut, My Thing, which strained hard – too hard – to musically follow the soul greats. Perhaps even less than fellow male blue-eyed soul artists like Lewis Taylor, Jamie Lidell or James Morrison, Tuomo no longer audibly strives to sing like Stevie, Marvin, Curtis, or Donny. Vocally, his unassuming tenor now has more in common with Lenny Kravitz or Jason Kay, the Jamiroquai frontman, than the Stevie he attempted on My Thing. Yet, his project oozes soul, offering me new revelations of the term’s meaning.” L. Michael Gipson, Soul Tracks
Fresh Interview of Marshall Chess
Etta James: I’d Rather Go Blind
“Harvey Kubernik: What was the wildest shit you ever saw in a radio station in the 1960s?
Marshall Chess: Hmmm. I’m not gonna tell you this DJ’s name, but at a station in Boston owned by a white guy. (laughs). I walked into his office, the radio was on through the speakers, he was sitting behind his desk, and all of a sudden he was squirming around, and all of a sudden this heavy black girl comes up from underneath his desk sucking his dick while he was talking to me! (laughs). That was probably the craziest thing I ever saw.” Harvey Kubernik, Sonic Boomers
Miranda Lambert: Dead Flowers
Miranda Lambert: Dead Flowers
“n telling of a dying relationship where two lovers have somehow drifted to two very different places, Lambert brings together the edginess she’s known for with the directness and hooks that make songs memorable. “I’m living in a hurricane/All he can say is man, ain’t it such a nice day,” she sings, painting a portrait of contentment disturbed that is sad in a way that extends far beyond mood. This is a portrait of true sadness. And does it ever sting.” Jim Malec, Country Music 9513
Bob Dylan: Together Through Life
Bob Dylan: I Feel A Change Coming On
“”Some people they tell me I have the blood of the land in my voice,” sings Bob Dylan on I Feel A Change Coming On.”
“Dylan is the greatest poet songwriter of the modern era. In his 68th year (on his 33rd studio album) we continue to pay revenant attention, even though he wheezes and croaks, offers up Tin Pan Alley rhymes and oft-used melodies. Together Through Life is a beautifully played collection of antique blues pop. A warm, wheezy accordion (played by David Hidalgo of Los Lobos) lends a borderline Tex Mex flavour. The rocking Shake, Shake Mama has the gaudy spirit of some great forgotten 45 Dylan might pull out on his Theme Time Radio Hour.”
Telegraph Rating: * * * *
