What do you get when you invite Charlie Daniels to a jam session with some of his bluegrass buddies? Well the simple answer is, you get an evening of truly delightful music. I have been a fan of Charlie Daniels for many years, his music is always memorable, you don’t have to be a country […]

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Featuring two CD’s and a DVD, this set is something that should belong in everyones collection. In a career spanning six decades there are few people, unless you live in a yak skin tent in Outer Mongolia who are not familiar with this musician. That gravely voice, and the mullet hair style make Rod Stewart […]

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“It was a good gig… quick, dirty and fun.” So say co-composers Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders on their work scoring director John Moore’s dark actioner Max Payne. The film itself is a bleak, emotionally sterile adaptation of a shoot-em-up video game, starring Mark Wahlberg as the titular Max. Backing up the film’s dreary landscapes is Beltrami […]

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With as many impressively high-profile (or at least high-brow) films as Jon Brion has to his name, it’s almost more impressive that he’s scored so few films overall. It seems that Brion, the man who composed music for I Heart Huckabees, Punch-Drunk Love, Magnolia, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, tends towards movies that are […]

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I have to admit that I had not heard of this band till their new CD turned up in my mailbox. I popped it in the player, made sure my seat was in the upright position, my tray table stowed, my seat belt firmly fastened, and hit the play button!
It turned out that I did […]

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Curved Air will be celebrating their 40th anniversary as a band in 2009. This is a group that have outlasted many a marriage. Labeled Prog Rock by some, Art Rock by others, Curved Air are what they are. They need no label, they are masters of their own genre.
The combination of Darryl Way on electric […]

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Punk is alive and well, and American Speedway are the living proof. Punk as a genre was born out of frustration at the established rock bands that in the late 70’s had distanced themselves from the fans. Punk was here and now, loud, often discordant, and very much in your face. This was a game […]

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He may not be a household name in the US yet but he certainly is making a name for himself in Europe and Japan. Air play in the US has become the holy grail. There are millions of stations, but more, is not always better. Take a look at your cable TV system for example, […]

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The music scene is a tough one, maybe the Country Music scene being the absolute hardest to make a name for yourself in. Chris ‘Abby’ Abbondanza is hardly a newcomer to the music scene, he was the front man for the Povertyneck Hillbillies. It is nevertheless still a challenge launching out on your own.
Promised Land […]

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It is getting to be that time of the year, the Christmas specials are hitting the stores.
Christmas On The Pecos was filmed against the magnificent backdrop of the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. The music is exactly what you would expect for a Christmas special. It could be argued that these annual adventures are not […]

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The music business is not for the feint at heart, It is a brutal world. So many bands and performers, yet so few opportunities to get air time on the ever diminishing radio waves.
Austin Law are a case in point, they have bags of talent, and they finally have their debut album out there. Will […]

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I have been a long time fan of Genesis, in fact recently I had the great pleasure of reviewing a DVD of Genesis Live In Rome. These guys were highly professional, and had what in my opinion was the most awesome light show I have ever seen. That is Genesis now, but what about Genesis […]

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Jock Bartley is one of the founding members of the 70’s superstar group Firefall. The original band broke up in the 1980’s but Jock has been the loyal flag bearer of the name ever since. Actively gigging and recording, Firefall are still a force to be reckoned with.
2007 saw a reunion concert, where many of […]

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Some concerts are designed to pump you up: an emcee yells into the audience, asking them if they’re ready for the main event, drums pound, and the artist interjects things like, “What’s up Chicago?!?!” between each song. Thursday, October 30th at Double Door, surfer-turned-musician Donavon Frankenreiter gave the antithesis of such a performance, strolling onto stage […]

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One of the great genres of the late 60’s and early 70’s rock music scene was the Rock Opera, an album devoted to a story or a theme. Maybe the best known example was The Who with Tommy, but to me, Tommy was an over the top theatrical disaster, I watched an early version of […]

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I am a firm believer in ‘bucking’ the conventional standards, half the time if I am asked to review a trilogy of books I will start with the last one! Actually the reason is usually more prosaic, Someone sends me the third book, and because I like it, I work back in time to understand […]

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The Chipmunks are back!  Celebrating their 50th anniversary with the release of ‘Undeniable,’ this new album was produced by Ross Bagdasarian, Janice Karman and Ali “Dee” Theodore.
 When I received this album, I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The chipmunks were a phenomenon when I was young, much loved and adored.  Many happy hours were spent […]

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Amy Redford, daughter of famed actor/director and sundance founder Robert Redford, has created her feature film debut - a relatively small independent film about a young woman (Saffron Burrows) who discovers that the tumor in her throat is cancerous and that she is terminally ill. The ensuing story is a fanciful tale of self-indulgence and […]

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Premiering at the 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, Randall Miller’s indie flick (these days even a film with Danny DeVito, Bill Pullman, Eliza Dushku, Alan Rickman and Mary Steenburgen can be considered indie) Nobel Son received a warm critical welcome, and will be hitting theatres in December of this year. Nobel Son is essentially a story of family dysfunction, centering […]

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With a business degree and a background as an offshore driller, musician Michael Fitz’s biography is anything but the standard musician story. His debut album, Never Look Back, was released in 2006 and stayed on the Billboard Top 200 chart for 14 weeks, receiving 3 Grammy nominations in 2007. This critical acclaim mixed with Fitz’s colorful past […]

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Days Between Stations is a collaboration between Los Angeles based musicians Sepand Samzadeh and Oscar Fuentes. Sepand takes the guitar work, and Oscar handles the ivories.
Their web site describes the musical style as ‘Art Rock’. Yes, I guess you could call it that. Several people have likened Days Between Stations to the early Pink Floyd […]

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Ping Pong Playa is the comedic tale of suburban slacker Christopher ‘C-Dub’ Wang who finds himself having to take over teaching his mother’s ping pong lessons and eventually taking his older brother’s position in a ping pong tournament. It’s an independent film for a niche audience to say the least, and the soundtrack reflects this […]

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Whats not to love about these bad boys of rock and roll? Set for a November 18 release this 2 DVD or Blu-Ray set is going to be a must have for every The Who fan.
The DVD set is a gold mine, comprising of two shows, the 77 Kilburn concert and a rarely seen 1969 […]

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Director Jonathan Demme (most well-known for The Silence of the Lambs) has recently been earning rave reviews for his stripped-down drama Rachel Getting Married, featuring an equally stripped-down performance from Anne Hathaway (which has been earning its own rave reviews, by the way). Demme isn’t as well known for his documentaries (most recently Jimmy Carter Man […]

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Many fans of the hit television series “Cold Case”, a drama about a female detective in Philadelphia who gets assigned to solve crimes that have never been solved (aka “cold cases”), have been waiting for several years to get their hands on some of Michael Levine’s score work (work that has won him the ASCAP Film […]

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Al Stewart has been one of my favorite musicians for many, many years. He has just released his 18th album Sparks Of Ancient Light. He is currently touring in Europe and I managed to catch up with him between gigs in Frankfurt Germany. No, I didn’t get to go there, the Blogger News travel budget […]

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Yup, this is the Firefall guys! Jock Bartley has an interesting philosophy on life, you take it day by day, and you make every day count.
Tribute albums are a much misunderstood musical vehicle. It is not a singer or a band trying to emulate another. Rather it is a tribute to a bands writing accomplishments. […]

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I have to admit that one of the major reasons that I became a reviewer was the opportunity it afforded to talk to new people. In many ways these are old friends, that we just have not yet met. Firefall were a hugely popular band in the latter half of the 1970’s. Unfortunately like so […]

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Chick Corea is one of musics most undervalued stocks. Somehow he managed to fall through the cracks, yet when it comes to keyboards he can hold his own against the likes of Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson.
This 1987 concert from Iowa State University is living proof. Yes maybe he does not quite have the finesse […]

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Lennon And McCartney 1966-1970

You may like them or hate them, regardless one cannot ignore the influences in popular music by the compositions of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Composing The Beatles Songbook takes a look at what likely are the most productive years for these two composers. It is clear though that while fellow band […]

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