My song (and video) "Jesus Loves You - Everyone Else Thinks you're an a**hole", was featured on Jody Whitesides "Single of the day" Blog page.
Here is a brief excerpt:
"Leave it to a rockin’ blues player to come up with a fun little ditty to express what so many people can think but won’t stand up and wipe out. I think it would be wise to do multiple versions of the song. TJR could pick out specific politicians or other people or groups to pinpoint the whole thing about being an asshole".
Read the entire post here: http://www.singleoftheday.com/2008/07/28/r-u-loved/
If you want to discover new music. The Single of the day is a must bookmark. Each day features a new song (along with Mr Whiteside's commentary on the song) with links to show your support by purchasing the song on line.
Thanks Jody!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Music Worth Buying for the Week of 07/28/08
Los Lonely Boys / Forgiven
Album: Forgiven
Artist: Los Lonely Boys
You will be interested in buying this album if you are a fan of: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santanna, Blues, Rock, Tejano, and Country
Worth Buying: YES, The entire album
If you’ve never heard these three brothers before, the best way I can describe them is to say Stevie Ray Vaughan meets Santanna with great vocal harmonies. Los Lonely Boys don’t really venture into any new territory with their 3rd release, (more songs about love lost, and love gained), but as long as they can keep creating songs as good as this, it doesn’t matter. I think what I most admire about this trio is how effortless they make it all sound. Amazing musicianship, great vocal harmonies, and great songwriting. Be sure you get the 14 track version and not the 12 track version (Guero in the Barrio is one of the best songs they have ever done and it’s only on the 14 track version).
Listen to samples and buy in mp3 format here
click here to buy in CD format
LP
What if I am not ready to buy the entire CD? Try Guero in the Barrio
Album: ForgivenArtist: Los Lonely Boys
You will be interested in buying this album if you are a fan of: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Santanna, Blues, Rock, Tejano, and Country
Worth Buying: YES, The entire album
If you’ve never heard these three brothers before, the best way I can describe them is to say Stevie Ray Vaughan meets Santanna with great vocal harmonies. Los Lonely Boys don’t really venture into any new territory with their 3rd release, (more songs about love lost, and love gained), but as long as they can keep creating songs as good as this, it doesn’t matter. I think what I most admire about this trio is how effortless they make it all sound. Amazing musicianship, great vocal harmonies, and great songwriting. Be sure you get the 14 track version and not the 12 track version (Guero in the Barrio is one of the best songs they have ever done and it’s only on the 14 track version).
Listen to samples and buy in mp3 format here
click here to buy in CD format
LP
What if I am not ready to buy the entire CD? Try Guero in the Barrio
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Music Worth Buying for the Week of 07/21/08
Drive By Truckers Brighter Than Creations Dark
Album: Brighter Than Creations Dark
Artist: Drive By Truckers
You will be interested in this music if you are a fan of: Neil Young, Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Southern Rock in general, & Old
School Country Worth Buying?: YES The Entire Album.
Tell me more: The best way I can describe this band is to call them the “Thinking man’s Lynard Skynard”. This band has already received huge critical acclaim for their massive 2 CD concept album Southern Rock Opera.But I think newcomers would be better served by checking out this album first. I feel that this is their best to date and their most accessible. The songs jump between rough rockers, authentic old school country, humorous musing, and dark haunting introspection (and sometimes within the same song). Clocking in at a whopping 19 tracks on 1 CD, the album credits splits it’s songs into 4 album sides (Like the glory days of Vinyl). The CD comes beautifully packaged as a digipak with excellent artwork and a large lyric booklet too which is a good thing because you will want to sit with the lyrics and read them as you listen.
Click here to listen and buy in mp3 format
click here to buy in CD format
What if I am not ready to buy the whole CD?: Try just downloading Bob A humorous character study performed in an old school country music style or That Man I Shot A dark rocker, about an American soldier in Iraq who ponders about the enemy he had to shoot in self defense
Album: Brighter Than Creations Dark
Artist: Drive By Truckers
You will be interested in this music if you are a fan of: Neil Young, Rolling Stones, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Southern Rock in general, & Old
School Country Worth Buying?: YES The Entire Album.Tell me more: The best way I can describe this band is to call them the “Thinking man’s Lynard Skynard”. This band has already received huge critical acclaim for their massive 2 CD concept album Southern Rock Opera.
But I think newcomers would be better served by checking out this album first. I feel that this is their best to date and their most accessible. The songs jump between rough rockers, authentic old school country, humorous musing, and dark haunting introspection (and sometimes within the same song). Clocking in at a whopping 19 tracks on 1 CD, the album credits splits it’s songs into 4 album sides (Like the glory days of Vinyl). The CD comes beautifully packaged as a digipak with excellent artwork and a large lyric booklet too which is a good thing because you will want to sit with the lyrics and read them as you listen. Click here to listen and buy in mp3 format
click here to buy in CD format
What if I am not ready to buy the whole CD?: Try just downloading Bob
A humorous character study performed in an old school country music style or That Man I Shot A dark rocker, about an American soldier in Iraq who ponders about the enemy he had to shoot in self defense
A WORLD WITHOUT THE BEATLES PART II
A woman (who is on my email list) wrote me and said that she enjoyed my "World without the Beatles" post. She mentioned that it seemed to beg for a screenplay or novel.
And then I remembered that back in early 90's I had this idea for a science fiction story about a time traveler in the present day who accidentally messes up recent history and then can't reverse what he's done.
His interference with time doesn't create any earth shattering catastrophes, like say the Nazi's win WWII, etc.
But one thing that does happen is the Beatles break up before they ever get big.
In the story, I envisioned this scene where he goes and visits Paul Mccartney in the present day (This is after he has changed time). Paul works on a farm, is married to a different woman and has a bunch of kids. The main character knocks on Paul's door and tells him that he used to see him play back when he was a kid.
Paul is surprised that anyone remembers his days of playing music since he gave that up long ago.
Our main character notices the little spinnet piano in Paul's living room and mentions it.
Paul smiles and says that he does still mess around a bit on the piano when he gets the chance.
He then sits down and plays a few opening bars of "Hey Jude" (with no vocal). "It's a little melody I sometimes play around with" he says. Then Paul just dismisses it as being of no real consequence.
The time travel leaves very sad at the loss that he has created, and that only he will remember the music of the Beatles.
And then I remembered that back in early 90's I had this idea for a science fiction story about a time traveler in the present day who accidentally messes up recent history and then can't reverse what he's done.
His interference with time doesn't create any earth shattering catastrophes, like say the Nazi's win WWII, etc.
But one thing that does happen is the Beatles break up before they ever get big.
In the story, I envisioned this scene where he goes and visits Paul Mccartney in the present day (This is after he has changed time). Paul works on a farm, is married to a different woman and has a bunch of kids. The main character knocks on Paul's door and tells him that he used to see him play back when he was a kid.
Paul is surprised that anyone remembers his days of playing music since he gave that up long ago.
Our main character notices the little spinnet piano in Paul's living room and mentions it.
Paul smiles and says that he does still mess around a bit on the piano when he gets the chance.
He then sits down and plays a few opening bars of "Hey Jude" (with no vocal). "It's a little melody I sometimes play around with" he says. Then Paul just dismisses it as being of no real consequence.
The time travel leaves very sad at the loss that he has created, and that only he will remember the music of the Beatles.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
A World Without The Beatles - A World Without Elvis
Last weekend I attended a special event hosted by the Grammy Foundation entitled: “An Evening with Sir George Martin – The Making of Sgt Pepper”.
It was an amazing evening to be sure and there where a number of celebrities in the audience (I Remember spotting Slash and Nancy Sinatra). But of course we where all waiting for the man who is often referred to as the 5th Beatle.
At 81 years old, Sir George is pretty spry, a great speaker, and very funny.
Before getting into the making of the most influential album in pop music history, he took a moment to tell us how he got started in record business, he told humorous stories about the crude technology used to record music in England during the 50's. Tape was still too noisy so they would record on wax disc. Also electricity was too erratic in England at the time to record sound consistently (It would fluctuate), so they would use gravity to power their recording equipment with a series gears and heavy ball (Quite amazing really).
But by the time he was introduced to the Beatles, recording tape was now the standard. It was at this point during his talk, that I came away with (what I felt) was the most significant bit of information.
I was certainly aware that the Beatles had already been turned down by some of the other record labels in England before being signed to Parlaphone records. But according to Sir George Martin (and he should know): By the time he was first introduced to John, Paul, George, and Ringo they had already been turned down by EVERY record label. Including the Parlaphone label that Sir George Martin was now in charge of running......He wasn't aware of this when he first sat down with their manager Brian Epstein and heard their demo. He didn't think the demo was very good either, but he said Brian Epstein pleaded with him, so he grudgingly said to go ahead and bring them to the studio and he would see if there something to them that the didn't hear on the demo......He added, that had he been award that everyone else had turned them down, he would have never agreed to give them a 2nd try.
But he didn't know so, he meet with them, and he felt that they had something......The rest as they say, "is history".
Now as I heard this, there is of course the obvious lesson to be learned about having faith in yourself, even after everyone has rejected you.
But even more astonishing to me is to consider, what if he had known?
What if he had known that every other label had already rejected them? He would have probably said "No thank you".
The Beatles had a strong loyal following in their hometown. It was the sight of kids lining up to see them play at the Cavern Club that first brought enabled their manager Brian Epstein to discover them. They had reached a level of buzz in their hometown and needed something to propel them to a higher level. And in those days there was no way to record an album without record label contract.
But if every label has already said no, what are you going to do?
Maybe things might have worked out in the end, but maybe that might have been it. The Beatles might have remained a local cover band playing at their local club until they and their audience got older and got busy with responsibilities like marriage, kids, etc
There is a similar story about Elvis. The owner of Sun records discovered Elvis as one of his customers (back in those days you could pay about 20 bucks and they would record a one off record of you singing. It was novelty item). Sam Phillips thought Elvis had an interesting voice and thought he might hook him up with some musicians that where looking for a singer. But it almost didn't happen. Sam invited Bill Black and Scotty Moore to jam with Elvis and after taking a number of stabs at traditional country western songs, nothing seemed to jell. They took a break and it seemed like nothing was going to come of it. Then Elvis picked up the guitar and started playing the blues song "That's All Right Mamma". The Band joined in and suddenly the magic happened.
But what if he hadn't picked up that guitar?
And what if Sir George had said “no thank you”?
A world with The Beatles?
A world without Elvis?
It boggles the mind.
It was an amazing evening to be sure and there where a number of celebrities in the audience (I Remember spotting Slash and Nancy Sinatra). But of course we where all waiting for the man who is often referred to as the 5th Beatle.
At 81 years old, Sir George is pretty spry, a great speaker, and very funny.
Before getting into the making of the most influential album in pop music history, he took a moment to tell us how he got started in record business, he told humorous stories about the crude technology used to record music in England during the 50's. Tape was still too noisy so they would record on wax disc. Also electricity was too erratic in England at the time to record sound consistently (It would fluctuate), so they would use gravity to power their recording equipment with a series gears and heavy ball (Quite amazing really).
But by the time he was introduced to the Beatles, recording tape was now the standard. It was at this point during his talk, that I came away with (what I felt) was the most significant bit of information.
I was certainly aware that the Beatles had already been turned down by some of the other record labels in England before being signed to Parlaphone records. But according to Sir George Martin (and he should know): By the time he was first introduced to John, Paul, George, and Ringo they had already been turned down by EVERY record label. Including the Parlaphone label that Sir George Martin was now in charge of running......He wasn't aware of this when he first sat down with their manager Brian Epstein and heard their demo. He didn't think the demo was very good either, but he said Brian Epstein pleaded with him, so he grudgingly said to go ahead and bring them to the studio and he would see if there something to them that the didn't hear on the demo......He added, that had he been award that everyone else had turned them down, he would have never agreed to give them a 2nd try.
But he didn't know so, he meet with them, and he felt that they had something......The rest as they say, "is history".
Now as I heard this, there is of course the obvious lesson to be learned about having faith in yourself, even after everyone has rejected you.
But even more astonishing to me is to consider, what if he had known?
What if he had known that every other label had already rejected them? He would have probably said "No thank you".
The Beatles had a strong loyal following in their hometown. It was the sight of kids lining up to see them play at the Cavern Club that first brought enabled their manager Brian Epstein to discover them. They had reached a level of buzz in their hometown and needed something to propel them to a higher level. And in those days there was no way to record an album without record label contract.
But if every label has already said no, what are you going to do?
Maybe things might have worked out in the end, but maybe that might have been it. The Beatles might have remained a local cover band playing at their local club until they and their audience got older and got busy with responsibilities like marriage, kids, etc
There is a similar story about Elvis. The owner of Sun records discovered Elvis as one of his customers (back in those days you could pay about 20 bucks and they would record a one off record of you singing. It was novelty item). Sam Phillips thought Elvis had an interesting voice and thought he might hook him up with some musicians that where looking for a singer. But it almost didn't happen. Sam invited Bill Black and Scotty Moore to jam with Elvis and after taking a number of stabs at traditional country western songs, nothing seemed to jell. They took a break and it seemed like nothing was going to come of it. Then Elvis picked up the guitar and started playing the blues song "That's All Right Mamma". The Band joined in and suddenly the magic happened.
But what if he hadn't picked up that guitar?
And what if Sir George had said “no thank you”?
A world with The Beatles?
A world without Elvis?
It boggles the mind.
I Dreamed of Madonna
I could probably create a whole separate blog of just the crazy absurdist dreams that I have, but that's for another time. Sometimes my dreams are music related (I even once heard a melody in a dream, woke up, and very quickly recorded it). Anyhow, last night I dreamed I was on tour with Madonna. I was backstage with her. She had this large rack of outfits and she was trying to get my opinion on what she should wear for tonight’s show. Being a guy, I didn't care what she wore. I told her that they all looked fine and that she should just pick one.
Madonna was not happy with my answer and continued to press me for an opinion. Being a guy, I just simply picked one out at random and said, "This is the best one".
"You really think that this is the best one"? She replied.
I got really fed up at this point and said to her, "Look, Madonna. What does it matter what I think? You don't need me to approve of what you wear. Just pick something that you like and go with it".
Then I woke up.
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