Just A Spoonful of John Sebastian
At about ten after ten on Christmas Eve, I was sitting on the couch across from my oldest son, each of us engrossed in our own digital universes. Mindlessly killing time by scrolling through Facebook on my phone, an image posted by Woodstock-based musician Happy Traum caught my eye. Painted
Bluegrass Stereotypes: Where Are We?
In 1983, eminent bluegrass historian Neil V. Rosenberg wrote a piece in the scholarly journal American Music, published by the University of Illinois Press, about bluegrass stereotypes found in popular media of the time. He wrote about three offerings found on television and film in the summary available to me.
Goodbye J.C.: Fleetwood Mac Loses One of Its Own
“Ladies and gentlemen. Would you please give a warm welcome…. to Fleetwood Mac.”
It was a line repeated nightly to introduce the world’s biggest band. It was more of a declaratory set of words than a question. There was a slight pause in the phrasing before the last three
Bill Rosen, A Friend of Mine
The sounds of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” come streaming from everywhere this time of year. It’s my favorite Christmas song and in all of its Spectorian grandeur, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Christmas never sounded so transcendent or bigger ever since.
Somewhere in my basement
Bob Dylan's Nobel Prize Speech: Literature, Art, Professionalism, Shakespeare
In Stockholm today, Patti Smith sang Bob Dylan's "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" (beginning at 1:02:56), and the United States Ambassador to Sweden, Azita Raji, presented Bob Dylan's acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Literature on his behalf.
Dylan&
Would Tom Waits Win "The Voice?"
Social media has turned birthdays into the time to remember old friends. So those who might have noticed that Tom Waits turned 67 on Wednesday could have used it as a chance to refamiliarize themselves with his unique (understatement) style of music. Depending on where you start, there's