Happy Birthday, Stephen Stills!
“I’m one of the laziest people I know,” declares Stephen Stills. “But when I catch on fire, I get obsessive.” That obsessiveness shows up in his intense passion and restless curiosity about the creation of music, helping sustain a career that now stretches back more than four decades. The Texas native made his name in [...]
Performing Songwriter’s 10 Favorite CDs of 2011
Looking back, 2011 was a stellar year for music. No matter what your tastes—from Americana to Rap, R&B to Country—artists were delivering some of their best work, and independents led the pack. With their originality, direct-to-fan marketing and good old hard work, they’ve found a fertile place to flourish while enjoying devoted fan bases. The [...]
Happy Birthday, Patti Smith!
Looking back over the past 35 years, it’s hard to imagine what the rock ’n’ roll landscape would look like were it not for the impact of Patti Smith. Her most obvious contribution has been to blaze a path for other powerful female voices, but in truth her influence cuts across gender, genre and generations. [...]
Frank Sinatra: The Stories Behind His Songs
When Francis Albert Sinatra was born on December 12, 1915, the world was given the greatest friend a song and songwriter would ever know. Starting out as a saloon singer in musty little dives (he carried his own P.A. system), he eventually got work as a band singer, first with The Hoboken Four then [...]
Tom Waits’ Quotes & Quips
Tom Waits is as much of a character as any of the hundreds of freaks, carnies and people waiting for salvation at the bottom of a glass that he creates in his songs. It was in 1973 that Waits launched his whiskey-soaked persona with the release of Closing Time, an album of bluesy ballads of [...]
Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” Video Turns 28
On December 2, 1983, Michael Jackson’s 14-minute video, “Thriller,” was released and became what the National Film Registry has called “most famous music video of all time.” The film was directed by John Landis (Animal House, Blues Brothers, Beverly Hills Cop among his credits) and co-starred Jackson and 1980 Playboy centerfold Ola Ray. It also [...]
Revival: A Folk Music Novel
One of the first rules for a novelist is to write what you know, and Scott Alarik knows folk music better than anyone. For the past 25 years he has been the most influential folk writer in the country as a music critic for the Boston Globe, the editor of the New England Folk Almanac, [...]
Randy Newman’s Songs and Characters
Dancing bears, racist rednecks, junkies in love, prodigal sons, chauvinists, homophobes, theologians, politicians, little criminals, good old boys and God. These are just of few of the fascinating characters in Randy Newman’s richly populated musical world. His songs can be frightening or funny, absurd or heartfelt. But his characters always present some flash of surprising, [...]
Paul Simon’s ‘René and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War’
Belgian painter René Magritte’s was born Nov. 21, 1898, and went on to become a part of the surrealist movement along with André Breton, Salvador Dali and other artists and writers. He married his creative muse, Georgette Berger, in 1923 and reveled in the ire his art drew from the critics and conservative art crowd. [...]
Happy Birthday, Neil Young!
Neil Young was born in Toronto, Canada on November 12, 1945. By the time he settled in Los Angeles in 1966 he had been performed as both an acoustic folkie and a grungy guitar rocker, so he was primed and ready for his roles as a solo artist as well as the pioneering Buffalo Springfield, [...]
Bonnie Raitt’s Life of Giving Back to the Blues
When Bonnie Raitt was 14 years old, she heard the album Blues at Newport and it lit her flame for slide guitar, blues music and the legendary masters who played it. By the time she was in her 20s she was the opening act for these legends, soaking up music lessons as well as life [...]
Happy birthday, Joni Mitchell!
November 7, 1943 gave the world one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 20th Century when Roberta Joan Anderson was born in Alberta, Canada. A few years later her family moved to the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where she attended public schools and lucked out in having what she called “one radical teacher who drew out [...]
Just Rattle Your Jewelry, Queen Mum
On November 4, 1963 the Beatles performed at the Royal Variety Performance in London attended by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. And the Fab Four’s arrival drew more attention than the arrival of the Royal Family. The Beatles, who were seventh on the bill of 19 acts, wowed the upscale crowd with [...]
Tom Paxton, Our Favorite Ramblin’ Boy
When the times were a-changin’, Tom Paxton was there. A true pioneer of the 1960s folk movement, Tom sang regularly at Greenwich Village’s infamous Gaslight Club, and helped blaze the trail for a whole generation of singer-songwriters while penning his own standards like “Ramblin’ Boy,” “Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound,” “The Last Thing On My Mind,” and “Bottle of Wine”
Happy Birthday, Tom Petty!
Years ago when his friend Bob Dylan told him he was a poet, Petty was flustered. “I couldn’t help feel it was like being told you’re an archer,” he said, “and you know you don’t even own a bow.” His reluctance to consider himself a poet is probably one of the reasons he endures as such an extraordinary and prolific songwriter.
On What Would Be Laura Nyro’s 64th Birthday
“And When I Die,” “Stoned Soul Picnic,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Save The Country,” “Sweet Blindness,” “Eli’s Comin’,” “Stoney End.” These are just a handful of the gems Laura Nyro gave us. Songs that start playing in our heads just by reading their names. Songs that bring back memories of a certain day or person or [...]
Happy Birthday, Paul Simon!
In celebration of Paul Simon’s birthday today, I thought you’d enjoy a few of his most memorable quotes from the last three decades. Happy birthday, Paul! “I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called ‘Mother and Child Reunion.’ It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, ‘Oh, I love that title. [...]
Behind the Songs of John Prine
“I guess I always loved to write, but I never had anything to really encourage it. I never thought I could be a journalist or novelist or anything, I just had a wild imagination and songwriting gave me enough rope to run with it.” From that imagination has sprung some of the most beloved characters, [...]
Happy Birthday, Ray Charles—We Miss You!
It seems the word “genius” is bandied about far too often, but when you’re talking about Ray Charles, no other word will do. As a pianist, singer, songwriter, arranger and band leader, Charles almost single-handedly invented modern R&B music. Born Ray Charles Robinson on Sept. 23, 1930, he climbed up on a piano bench at [...]
In Tribute to Jerry Leiber
“Mr. Disorderly Conduct.” That’s what Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler dubbed the lovably verbose lyricist who made up half of the legendary songwriting team of Leiber and Stoller. Jerry Leiber passed away on August 22 after suffering cardiopulmonary failure at the age of 78, but left us with a cache of classics penned with his [...]
Elton John’s American Debut: August 25, 1970
On August 25, 1970, Elton John made his U.S. debut in a legendary six-night sold-out run at West Hollywood’s Troubadour. John’s eponymous first album—which was released in the states on July 22—had landed on the Troubadour owner Doug Weston’s desk with a request for the undiscovered pianist to play a date as his club. Weston, [...]
Happy Birthday, Elvis Costello
A little Elvis Costello history: He was born Declan Patrick Aloysius McManus on August 25, 1954, in Paddington, England. He comes from a musical family: his grandfather a traveling musician, his dad a big band leader, and his mom a record store manager. At 18, Declan left school and started to write the songs that [...]
Farewell, Nick Ashford
On May 5, 2005 I was in New York for the SESAC Pop Awards, and at 10:00 p.m. announced that someone had to take me out so I could celebrate my May 6 birthday when the clock struck midnight. Jim Bessman from Billboard said I was going with him to The Sugar Bar, a venue [...]
Woodees Inner-Ear Earphone: Lydia’s New Fave
I’ve found a product that I absolutely love, so I wanted to pass along my praises to anyone out there looking for an incredible pair of inner-ear earphones. They’re called Woodees, and they’re awesome. To be absolutely honest, I have never found inner-ear earphones that I could bear—I’ve been through pretty much all of them including [...]
