Waylon, John Prine, Kinky, Gram Parsons ... Come Together
Preface: This began as a foreword for a small collection of pictures and articles I am assembling for a book I plan to self-publish. As the memories piled on, the words accumulated into a short memoir and loose chronology of what happened in my life and on paper between
Chris O’Connell - Be Right Back
The art of feeling a song’s essence -- color, range, control, and style -- and giving it all to you is the domain of the great jazz singers, like Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan; and the great pop singers, like Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Stevie Nicks, Bonnie Raitt.
Chris Smither - Still on the Levee, A Fifty Year Retrospective
I first heard Chris Smither in 1970. Not live, unfortunately, but on vinyl when picking up his first record I'm A Stranger Here Myself on the Poppy label, unheard, for the simple reason that it was Townes' label. I figured -- rightly so -- any label that knew what
Learning Songwriting at the Feet of Steve Earle
Steve Earle has his eye on the history books. Not for himself, necessarily - though I doubt he’d object - but for his art form, “songwriting as literature.” With Camp Copperhead, Steve seemed to be trying to secure this form a place in history. “Four days of singing and songwriting,” the
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin I, II & III 2014 Remasters
Has any music reviewer ever missed the mark more than John Mendelsohn in his 1969
Rolling Stone
critique of Led Zeppelin’s scorching, finely honed debut? After calling the album self-indulgent, he labeled Jimmy Page “a very limited producer and a writer of weak, unimaginative songs” and dismissed Robert
Jenny Scheinman - The Littlest Prisoner
Renowned violinist, singer, and composer Jenny Scheinman recently released her eighth album, The Littlest Prisoner, enlisting the great Bill Frisell on guitar and drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade to keep time. My first introduction to Jenny Scheinman was while she was touring with Lucinda Williams some time back. Known mostly in