Harps And Angels

I saw it in a National Geographic Report on American Education: “Half or fewer of young men and women 18-24 can identify the states of New York or Ohio on a map (50% and 43% respectively).”
I’m guessing a fair percentage of them don’t get irony either. So, what kind of chance does a new [...]

Easy Fever

When I was a kid, there always seemed to be music on television. But shows like ‘Sing Along With Mitch’ where families were encouraged to join in (“follow the bouncing ball”) did nothing to nurture my interest in Pop. Some of the local music programs were similarly, wretched. Remember ‘The Bobby Limb Show’? ‘The Reg [...]

B.B. King

 
Rarely do Pop singers get better with age. After a while (like in the videos from the last Madonna album, for example), it just gets a little sad and embarrassing. Sorry, but watching a woman only a few years younger than myself writhing around in a leotard is not about to excite anybody. A couple [...]

Joan and Sia

 

Following my brief flirtation with the mainstream, I felt the urge to get back to music less predictable. Appealing more to the head than to the feet. 
I’d recently heard ‘To Survive’, the new album by Joan As Police Woman, after seeing several glowing reviews in print. First thing I noted was the company she kept. [...]

Jessie Baylin

 
 
Flirting with the mainstream #2:
 
I like female singers. Year-in, year-out, we’re presented with an endless stream of them, most of who are soon eclipsed and fall by the wayside. For the female artist, it’s always been a tough gig. 
In the past few years, I’ve lost count of the new female performers who have been sold [...]

Jackson Browne

 
Flirting with the mainstream #1:
 
“A time comes, when everything you ever thought you knew,
Comes crashin’ down in flames, right up in front of you”.
                                                                 [...]

Bob Brozman Orchestra

 
I can’t really say when I first became aware of Bob Brozman, it can’t be too much more than a decade ago, but it’s a name that stuck. It came up when my fascination with the Jug Bands and Country Blues of the ‘20s and ‘30s was commanding most of my attention.
A trajectory for this [...]

Take Me To The River

I’ve been watching Dexter. We just saw the second season of this amazing show on DVD and the first season is still showing on free to air television. That’s what you get, living in a digital world.
And that’s just what I love about the 21st century: Accessibility. I’m not talking about the chance to [...]