Ok so it’s not exactly Noah’s flood, but when I went to the basement this morning to exercise I discovered that the hot water heater had sprung a leak! Which means moving boxes vacuuming up water,separating damaged from on damaged junk, and now I’m waiting on a friend to come look at it, to see what I need to do!
Yesterday, after I posted my blog article about Aztec Two-Step, I received a Tweet from The Nutopians thanking me for the Tweet and saying that they forwarded the post to Rex and Neil. They then asked if I had heard The Nutopians. I didn’t get a chance to respond, but if I had I would have said, no. Later in the afternoon I went to Spotify and found their album,Lennon Re-Imagined, which is a salute to the music of John Lennon. I listened to a little of the album and thought it sounded pretty good. Duh, the album won the Independent Music Awards Vox Pop “2010 Tribute Album of the Year” for interpretations of John Lennon’s Beatles and solo compositions! You can check it out at CDBaby!
So in 1984 across the pond in Leicester, England an eight year old Aynsley Lister was given his first guitar. By the time 1989 rolled around the 13 year-old played his first gig and had a band. When he turned 18 he opened for Buddy Guy and had self-released two albums of his own material. He also caught the eye of Thomas Ruf and he was signed to Ruf Records a union that would produce seven albums and two DVDs over the next ten years!
Today the Safari returned to Finland and explored the music of Cardiant a power metal band that was formed in the city Hämeenlinna by Antti Hänninen and Dave Alberti in 2000. Today I listened to Verge the third album from the band. The line-up of the band has changed drastically from the first album when the band didn’t have a lead singer and was forced to use a session singer. This resulted in the album Midday Moon only being released on Japan!
As I listened to Psykerion the second album from Thought Chamber, I came to the realization that maybe the best way to listen to Thought Chamber is with headphones on, because with headphones on you can catch all of the intricacies of their music!. I am listening to the track “Transcend” and the music is coming at me from each side,guitars in the left ear, drums in the center, it’s great!
So on this date February 17, 1971, James Taylor made his television début on the Johnny Cash Show, appearing with Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, and Tony Joe White.on the show Taylor sang his hit “Fire and Rain” and his cover version of Stephen Foster’s “Oh, Susanna” with Cash. Here’s a clip of the performance of “Oh,Susanna” from the show, followed by a 1970 performance of “Fire and Rain”. Man, I think it’s time to visit that great Fire and Rain album!
Tim Hegarty’s new album is titled Tribute which was released by Miles High Records on in January of 2014. the album is Tim’s way to say thanks to those who taught him and influenced his playing. Tributees include: Dexter Gordon; Frank Foster ; George Coleman; Jimmy Heath; Joe Henderson; John Coltrane; Sonny Rollins; and Thelonious Monk. After listening to the album, I’d say he done them proud. Currently, the album is lucky #13 on the JazzWeek Jazz Chart this week and rising!
XNA is a Symphonic prog/Progressive Rock band from the United States. For the last few days their debut album When We Changed You has been in my listening rotation. As I listened to the album, it was obvious that these guys were heavily influenced by Genesis and other early prog bands. On several tracks images of Jethro Tull popped into my head! My wife listened to a short portions of the album, didn’t really like the lyrics and thought that the singer was a little too theatrical. But how can music that is influenced by Genesis not be theatrical!
