Back in 1968, Phil Ochs wrote these words about the Vietnam War, in what may be his most popular song “The War is Over” ……
Silent soldiers on a silver screen
Framed in fantasies and dragged in dream
Unpaid actors of the mystery
The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free
And what’s this got to do with me
Back in 1968, Phil Ochs wrote these words about the Vietnam War, in what may be his most popular song “The War is Over” ……
Silent soldiers on a silver screen
Framed in fantasies and dragged in dream
Unpaid actors of the mystery
The mad director knows that freedom will not make you free
And what’s this got to do with me
So on Wednesday night, my son Nicholas and I went bargain-hunting at the Princeton Record Exchange, armed with our Christmas Gift Cards. I had a $25.00 gift card from my birthday back in October,plus my $25.00 Christmas gift card. I came home with 13 CDs and my $25.00 Christmas gift card! Six of the thirteen albums were from the Cheap Jazz album shelves and you can read about them here. Of the remaining seven, four are Alt-Country/Folk albums, two blues albums and one New Age album. Here they are:
I must say that what first attracted me to Riders of the Universe new album was the cover. But it only took listening to a few minutes of the opening track “We AreRiders Pt 1 & 2” For me to know that I was going to like this album. I had it on in the background the other night as I was reading and when the title track “Amen Road” came on my ears perked up, and I thought I have to pay more attention to these guys! I did just that , yesterday, and again in morning, which only reinforced the fact that I really like this album!!
So this afternoon I made a run to the library, which was closed because of the massive storm that luckily missed our area, sorry Massachusetts. . The soundtrack for the trip was the new live blues album from Brandon Santini, Live and Extended, which is a really great and I will probably write about it tomorrow. As I listened to the album, I started thinking about my favorite live albums. Several albums like Happy Trails from Quicksilver Messenger Service, Absolutely Live from The Doors and Ten Years After’s Undead quickly came to mind. But then I thought of several others, and then still more, until I quickly had a list of 10 plus albums! So here is a short list of my favorite all-time live albums…..
Today is the birthday of the musician whom many people call “the grandfather of the jazz violinists”Stephane Grappelli. Grappelli was born in 1908 and passed away in 1997 at the age of 89! He had performed well into his 80s! Basically, I know of Grappelli through the album Paris Encounter recorded with Gary Burton in 1969 I should now Stephane Grappelli because he founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with guitarist Django Reinhardt in 1934! The group was one of the first all-string jazz bands!
Composing music is akin to magic for me, I don’t know how it’s done nor do I care. I just enjoy the ride and the end product! With that said it is safe to say that I am in awe of Emergence the latest release from San Francisco acoustic guitarist Lawrence Blatt.
Storm Front Book #1 of Jim Butcher‘s Dresden Files series, is the fourth book that I have read in 2015.This is the first of Jim Butcher’s books that I have read. Reading Storm Front counts as a book read for several of my 2015 Reading Challenges. First Storm Front has been on my to be read (TBR) pile for several years now (don’t ask me why!!) so it fits into the TBR Pile Reading Challenge. It is a murder mystery so it count toward my goal for the 2015 Clock and Dagger Reading Challenge. And since Storm Front features Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, a wizard and the series spawned a TV show on the SciFi Network it definitely belongs in the Science Fiction/Fantasy category!
