In the Spotlight showcases a cross-section of an artist's cover work. View past installments, then post suggestions for future picks in the comments! When Lyle Lovett first arrived, the country music scene was proud to call the tall Texan one of their own. As his career developed, though, the top-twenty hits dried up, and the establishment took a wary step back. Lovett's songs may have had a southern feel, but they were also infused with folk, jazz, blues, and big band (make that "large band"), and there was nothing formulaic about his lyrics, which never met a cliche they couldn't [...]
"Hello, gorgeous." With that greeting, the first words uttered by 26-year-old Barbra Streisand in her film debut in the 1968 musical Funny Girl , the ingénue from Brooklyn, New York, with the crooked, over-sized nose and the flawless singing voice entered the annals of popular culture. Next step: winning the Best Actress Oscar (tying with The Lion in Winter 's Katharine Hepburn) for her silver-screen reprisal of her Broadway portrayal of Fanny Brice, another legendary Jewish actress and singer from New York City. The rest is history-making stardom, one of the most [...]
Tammy Wynette was a beautician-turned-singer and twice-divorced mother of three. George Jones was a country superstar who, upon witnessing a fight between Tammy and her second husband, urged her and
By Kristen Bialik Movie - Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975) Watch more on Network Awesome Nashville Tennessee has earned a star on the map for many things: state capital, "Music City," "Athens of the South," and for Robert Altman fans, the site of the 1975 classic Nashville. Befitting a place known for twangy tunes and an imitation Parthenon, Altman's two and half hour long [...]
Dave Audé is a name synonymous with all things dance. From Coldplay to Britney Spears , Madonna to U2 , Rihanna to George Michael -Audé has written, remixed and produced with the best of 'em over the past 20 years, resulting in a formidable discography of literally hundreds of remixes and original releases. His work can be found included in nearly every pop remix package of the day (recent releases include re-rubs of Beyoncé 's "Run The World (Girls)," Lady Gaga 's "Judas" [...]
In the late 1950s and early '60s country was in a good shape. The likes of Johnny Cash, George Jones, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline (who like Reeves would die in a plane crash), Don Gibson, Kitty Wells, Marty Robbins, Skeeter Davis, Ray Price, Faron Young, Ernest Tubb, ex-boxer Lefty Frizzell and Wanda Jackson were recording prodigious success, even in rivalry with its progeny, rock & roll.These were the comfort years before the social upheaval of the 1960s put into question old certainties, even in the world of country music. By now, country was no longer confined to the [...]
The singer/songwriter will play the Casbah on June 12. Follow Owl and Bear on Facebook and Twitter for contests, MP3s, and links that don't make it onto the blog.
Enchantment never sounded so sweet.
Photo courtesy of Valarie Allyn Bienas, http://sugarlandmusic.com If you're a fan of strong women in country, this is the weekend for you.
7:00 am: Driving to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl flea market, we listen to our favorite radio show, Chuck Cecil's The Swingin' Years —a show that has been on the air in one place or another for the last fifty-five years. Anyone who lives in L.A. and isn't listening to this show every Saturday and Sunday morning (on 88.1), you're missing out. 8:52am: Sitting at the Rose Bowl food court feeding Coop yogurt while my brilliant wife scopes more [...]
I found a neat YT channel with a bunch of classic country artists shot on film in the mid-seventies. Take a look: Rest In Peace James O'Gwynn mp3 Jug Brown - mp3 [...]
We had a lot of fun a few weeks ago with the duet album featuring Gregg Allman and his wife at the time, Cher. So much fun, in fact, that I've dug up a few more duet LPs from my sister's record collection, and we'll be spinning those in the next few weeks. Today we have a duet album from two artists who also happened to be husband and wife: George Jones and Tammy Wynette. So we have Golden Ring , from 1976, which is one of about 10 albums recorded by the two country icons but [...]
Welcome to Wild Weekend #44, the all-women edition. Why, I dunno. Just is. Just enjoy. On this week´s menu: soul, lofi, more soul, country, folk, and flamenco. Have a wild one. First we´ll visit The Scene Of The Crime , soul veteran Bettye LaVette´s red hot ´07 collaboration with the Drive-By Truckers. Exhibit A: the Lavette/Patterson Hood composition Before The Money Came , a fingerlickin´ good autobiographical barroom stomper. "I was singing R&B back in '62, before you were born and your mama too..." And to ring in [...]
The Denver Post Underground Music Showcase has made it through a decade! We're gearing up for a huge summer festival July 22-25th and there will be more bands than you can shake your SXSWangs at. Donnybrook will help get you up to speed. Bad Weather California Cinquain of Bad Weather California This sort of Bad Weather will make you happy, Embrace the moment, embody the spirit [...]
![[Listen] – #MusicMonday – 20 Songs Of The Week – June 21st](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2669799_lg.jpg)
If you're unaware of what Music Monday is, it's a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too. Using the hashtag (#) followed by "MusicMonday" you can easily find new music posted by the thousands of people making recommendations each week. Every #MusicMonday I upload a playlist of 20 songs that I've been listening to (new and old) over the past week [...]
![[Listen] – #MusicMonday – 20 Songs Of The Week – June 21st](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/2633800_lg.jpg)
If you're unaware of what Music Monday is, it's a Twitter recommendation system where users of Twitter share their favourite music, artists, genres, etc in order to not only find new music themselves but help others find new music too. Using the hashtag (#) followed by "MusicMonday" you can easily find new music posted by the thousands of people making recommendations each week. Every #MusicMonday I upload a playlist of 20 songs that I've been listening to (new and old) over the past week [...]
One of my friends found this article on Fark today and sent it to me as "blog fodder." It boggled my mind. From a May 2006 issue of National Review , the top 50 conservative rock songs of all time . Most of these are great, great rock songs, but calling them "conservative" songs is more than a reach. To start with, most of the below artists were young and doing hard drugs when they wrote the songs. The list is below with my jackass comments under various songs. My info source for all comments [...]
Filed under: The Hit List Let's face it: Spelling bee champs aren't likely to become rock stars. Yet every now and then a rock star will try to prove he or she is an ace speller. While the US' annual National Spelling Bee finals in Washington, D.C. this week reminds us that it's "i" before "e" except after, ah . . . whatever that was, we figured this was a good time to look at some of the more memorable songs with spelling in them. [...]
"In those years, there weren't more than a half-dozen women headlining their own shows in country music. Every time one of us stood up for our rights she made a point for us all. We had our own 'liberation movement' going, but I don't think any of us were aware of it. I know I wasn't. All I wanted was the right to work in my chosen field and be treated with as much respect as the men who did the same job." -- Tammy Wynette , from the marvelous Mary Bufwack/Robert Oermann tome, [...]
Much as there are songs about the sweetness of being in love, as we saw last week, the shards of a broken relationship glisten on the corridors of popular music. This lot of ten songs has a fair share of numbers dealing with break-ups and divorce; happily not an action I am contemplating. * * * P.P. Arnold - Letter To Bill (1968).mp3 Poor Bill. This morning he left his [...]
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