I don't know about you, but the dog days of August are making me long for some levity. And what better way to bring in some hilarity than to think about the late Boots Randolph's delightful "Yakety Sax," a.k.a. "that Benny Hill Show song," a.k.a. the best way to make any YouTube clip hilarious ? Noted "Yakety Sax" enthusiast Jess Harvell and I put together a pair of lists related to the song-namely, a top 10 countdown of artists who need to cover the song soon, and a counterpoint list of 10 artists [...]
Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News , Exclusive Chris Ayer 's attempt at bringing his music to new audiences has led him from Virginia to California to New York to -- more often than not -- his own car. "When I decided I was going to just do this, I decided to move to New York," Ayer told Spinner. "And then I decided I was going to tour, and I moved into my Toyota Camry." The singer-songwriter, who's been playing live shows "pretty much non-stop this [...]
Hope no one minds an early "Sunday" post this week; I'm off to Germany in the morning, and was worried I might miss the deadline otherwise. Plus, it's the fortieth anniversary of Woodstock today . How apropos, right? Though the statistics on blog readers tell us that the majority of our readers were conceived after the summer of love, there's no denying the myriad ways in which both the Woodstock generation and the 1969 Woodstock festival have shaped our collective musical landscape. [...]
Filed under: Concerts and Tours , News Grammy week 2010 isn't for another five months and we don't know a single nominee yet, but we already have January 29 marked on the Spinner calendar as one to remember. Why the early excitement? Because Neil Young is being honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year for his incredible resume of philanthropic efforts, from his annual Bridge School benefits to his work with Farm Aid. The 63-year-old Young will join the prestigious past honorees such as Billy Joel , [...]
I have a love/hate relationship with cover songs. There are some that are as good if not better than the originals, i.e. "All Along the Watchtower" by Hendrix (Originally by Bob Dylan), but then again there are those that fall flat, i.e. "Downtown Train" by Rod Stewart (Originally by Tom Waits). So it's kind of a crap shoot on what you're gonna get. There are a million covers that everyone has heard so I decided to compile a list of songs that, while well known, are not always covered. It is quite something for an artist to do [...]
Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive If anybody has the right to emulate the style of icon James Taylor it's Ben Taylor , the son of "Sweet Baby" James and fellow singer-songwriter royalty, Carly Simon . The younger Taylor tells Spinner that his new single, the infectious 'Wicked Ways,' the video for which we recently debuted , harkens back to his famous parents. "With regards to my folks, I think stylistically this song is way more of a throwback to something they may have [...]
Filed under: News , New Music , Exclusive If anybody has the right to emulate the style of icon James Taylor it's Ben Taylor , the son of "Sweet Baby" James and fellow singer-songwriter royalty, Carly Simon . The younger Taylor tells Spinner that his new single, the infectious 'Wicked Ways,' the video for which we recently debuted , harkens back to his famous parents. "With regards to my folks, I think stylistically this song is way more of a throwback to something they may have [...]
Filed under: Twisted Tales For generations, the music of James Taylor has been the sound of serenity. But before the singer could become an institution, first he had to be institutionalized. One of five children born to a well-off family whose father would become dean of the University of North Carolina's School of Medicine, Taylor played cello as a child before picking up the guitar. By the age of 15, the prep-school kid was playing summer coffeehouse gigs around Martha's Vineyard with his buddy, future session guitarist Danny Kortchmar. [...]
I recently ate dinner at couple's house with them and their son, Wallace. Wallace is three years old. Three. Does anyone remember anything from when they were three years old? Well Wallace better because I gave him some of the best advice, ever. "Whenever you start listening to music that doesn't involve reciting the alphabet, take your stages slowly and fully." This, along with an encounter with Georgina who said I was very versatile in my musik choice, inspired me to do a series of blog posts on musical stages as they coincided with [...]
Filed under: News , R.I.P. Singer and guitarist Gordon Waller , of '60s British Invasion duo Peter and Gordon, died Friday after going into cardiac arrest at a hospital in Norwich, Connecticut, near his home. The 64-year-old contributed lead vocals on the 1964 Paul McCartney -penned chart topper 'A World Without Love,' which he recorded with his musical partner Peter Asher. Waller and Asher met in 1959, when they were students at London's Westminster school. The two began playing together within a few years, and often performed at [...]
MUSIC NEWS - A rare John Lennon acoustic demo of " Watching the Wheels ," (listen below) the 1981 single released after his death, is one of the highlights from the original motion picture soundtrack to Universal Pictures' upcoming Funny People comedy, from writer/director Judd Apatow's (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up). The soundtrack, out via Concord Records, on July 28 (order below thru MNN ) features two exclusive new live tracks: James Taylor's on-camera performance of " Carolina in My Mind " in the film, and Wilco 's [...]
New Collection is NEA Jazz Master's Follow-Up to 2006's Grammy Winning 'Giving It Up' National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master and 10X Grammy-winning, legendary musician George Benson will release his new album on August 25, 2009 entitled 'Songs and Stories' , his second for Concord Records / Monster Music. The album is a collection of tunes penned by some of the most prolific and enduring songwriters of the last half-century. Some were written specifically for this new recording, such as Bill Withers (who came out of [...]
On a scale of 1-to-stoked, Girl Talk definitely gets me stoked. I actually wasn't completely sold on the experimental/mashup artist until the first time I heard today's song. Hold Up can be found on Girl Talk's third full-length album Night Ripper , released in May of 2006. Among the many songs sampled on this track, some of the stand-outs are Your Smiling Face from James Taylor , Where Is My Mind? from the Pixies and Say It Ain't So from Weezer . For a full list of all [...]
I can't believe it was 1970 when Sweet Baby James was released. The songs are so familiar, as if it were yesterday. MP3 File
Moore's frequent aw-shucks shoulder-shrugs accompanied gentle apologies for her earlier work, and admissions that she's still something of an apprentice to Viola and other musical veterans and friends. When asked about influences, the mentions of Wings-era McCartney and Bette Midler somehow sounded perfectly sensible coming from her, but in retrospect, it's impossible to imagine those two names in any similar context, other than the most exciting potential cage-match the world has ever known. And if anyone can coax them into it, it's Mandy Leigh Moore. Daaaamn. Girl could charm the jaws off a shark.
Moore's frequent aw-shucks shoulder-shrugs accompanied gentle apologies for her earlier work, and admissions that she's still something of an apprentice to Viola and other musical veterans and friends. When asked about influences, the mentions of Wings-era McCartney and Bette Midler somehow sounded perfectly sensible coming from her, but in retrospect, it's impossible to imagine those two names in any similar context, other than the most exciting potential cage-match the world has ever known. And if anyone can coax them into it, it's Mandy Leigh Moore. Daaaamn. Girl could charm the jaws off a shark.
I only went to one rock show, the Centro-matic/Monahans/Theodore gig at Off Broadway on Saturday night, but boy, it was a doozy. Just a fantastic night of live music. So, where else did... Continue reading "What Did People Do This Weekend?" >
From Sweet Baby James, his second album. It was released in 1970. MP3 File yousendit
In the early 1970's, the term "singer/songwriter" became synonymous with artists like Joni Mitchell , James Taylor , Jackson Browne and Carly Simon , among others, all of whom just happened to reside in Southern California's Laurel Canyon. Along with soft-rockers like The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac , these artists were writing intensely personal and lyrically strong pop containing shades of folk, rock, and sometimes jazz and country. Their records were meticulously produced to sound very polished, listener friendly, earthy, and acoustic, and the musicianship was always top [...]
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