Love the Way You Roll – The Alexis P. Suter Band

The Alexis P. Suter Band – You’ll Love the Way She ROLLS!!

Some voices are made for the blues among them is Alexis P. Suter, leader of the aptly titled Alexis P Suter Band!  Alexis who calls Brooklyn NY home, has IT when it comes to the blues. That  it is on display in full force in the band’s sixth release Love the Way You Roll The Blues Music Association agrees, in 2012 she was a nominee for the Soul Blues Female  Artist of the Year. I don’t think that the nomination will be her last and it won’t be too long before she wins the award!! Read More

45 Years Ago Today – August 15, 1969 – Woodstock Music and Art Fair Opens!

Woodstock_poster

So yesterday, when I wrote that the first time Crosby, Stills and Nash & Young played together was at Woodstock. Well on today’s date 45 years ago – seems not that long ago in some ways and in others it is literally a lifetime ago. In looking over the schedule of the performances CSN&Y were not scheduled to perform until Monday the 18th at 3:00 am! The acts that were scheduled for the 15th were: Read More

Son Seals – Live – Spontaneous Combustion

Son Seals – Blues  Born   Frank Seals in Osceola, Arkansas. (August 14, 1942 – December 20, 2004)
Exploring the Music of Son Seals on his Birthday….

On this date in 1942 blues guitarist and singer Frank “Son” Seals in Osceola, Arkansas. I must say that I have never been a big fan of Son Seals I have one Seals album on cassette Live and Burnin‘ and have enjoyed it whenever I play it. A birthday is always a good tine to learn more about a musician and listen to their music. Read More

Harold Schechter Masterfully Tells the Tale of "The Mad Sculptor" – The Maniac, The Model, and the Murder the Shook the Nation

So if you like true crime stories, especially ones that rocked the nation, then Harold Schecther‘s The Mad Sculptor – The Maniac, The Model and the Murder that Shook the Nation is the book for you, it was for me! The Mad Sculptor is one Robert Irwin, he is also The Maniac. The Model is VerThe Mad Sculptoronica Gedeon  and the Murder was the grisly slaying of Veronica, her mother and their English boarder on Easter Sunday morning in 1937 in a New York City apartment at  Beekman Place.
Author Schecther does not only a fine job of telling the tale of madman/artist Robert Irwin, but in also detailing the way that his crime fits into the history of Beekman Tower and Beeckman Place, where prior murders, that captured the attention had occurred.  These murders included, the shooting of Fritz Gebhardt by his long-time mistress Vera Stretz, and the murder of Nancy Titterton. Schechter  opens the book describing  these murders, their investigations and trials, setting the stage for the Gedeon murders. Read More

Harold Schechter Masterfully Tells the Tale of “The Mad Sculptor” – The Maniac, The Model, and the Murder the Shook the Nation

So if you like true crime stories, especially ones that rocked the nation, then Harold Schecther‘s The Mad Sculptor – The Maniac, The Model and the Murder that Shook the Nation is the book for you, it was for me! The Mad Sculptor is one Robert Irwin, he is also The Maniac. The Model is VerThe Mad Sculptoronica Gedeon  and the Murder was the grisly slaying of Veronica, her mother and their English boarder on Easter Sunday morning in 1937 in a New York City apartment at  Beekman Place. Read More

On this Date in History – August 11, 1942 – US Patent granted to Hedy Lamarr for "Secret Communication System"!

On August 11, 1942,  U.S. Patent 2,292,387 for  the “Secret Communications System” was granted to George Anthiel and 588px-Hedy_Lamarr-publicityhis neighbor Hedy Kiesler Markey who was better known as actress Hedy Lamarr. Lamarr was once called the  “most beautiful woman in Europe,” and often referred to as the most gorgeous and exotic of Hollywood’s leading ladies! The patent was for a device  which would use frequency-hopping to avoid jamming of a things like radio controlled torpedoes. The device used a piano roll to unpredictably chnge the signal sent between a control center and the torpedo at short bursts within a range of 88 frequencies in the radio-frequency spectrum. the specific code for the sequence of frequencies would be held identically by the controlling ship and the torpedo. It would be practically impossible for the enemy to scan and jam all 88 frequencies, as this would require too much power or complexity. The frequency-hopping sequence was controlled by a player-piano mechanism, which Anthiel had earlier used to score his Ballet Mécanique
The design of the device was considered so vital to national defense that government officials would not allow publication of its details. However, the device soon met with opposition from the Navy and was never adopted. The idea of the device was implemented though in 1962 by US military ships during the blockade of Cuba, after the patent had expired. Frequency HoppingThe frequency hopping system designed by Anthiel and Lamarr was an important step in the development of technology to maintain the security of both military communications and cellular phones. In 1997, fifty-five years after receiving their patent Lamarr and Anthiel were honored with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Award, and that same year Lamarr became the first female to receive the BULBIE™ Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award, considered “The Oscars” of inventing. From Biography.com… Read More

On this Date in History – August 11, 1942 – US Patent granted to Hedy Lamarr for “Secret Communication System”!

On August 11, 1942,  U.S. Patent 2,292,387 for  the “Secret Communications System” was granted to George Anthiel and 588px-Hedy_Lamarr-publicityhis neighbor Hedy Kiesler Markey who was better known as actress Hedy Lamarr. Lamarr was once called the  “most beautiful woman in Europe,” and often referred to as the most gorgeous and exotic of Hollywood’s leading ladies! The patent was for a device  which would use frequency-hopping to avoid jamming of a things like radio controlled torpedoes. The device used a piano roll to unpredictably chnge the signal sent between a control center and the torpedo at short bursts within a range of 88 frequencies in the radio-frequency spectrum. the specific code for the sequence of frequencies would be held identically by the controlling ship and the torpedo. It would be practically impossible for the enemy to scan and jam all 88 frequencies, as this would require too much power or complexity. The frequency-hopping sequence was controlled by a player-piano mechanism, which Anthiel had earlier used to score his Ballet Mécanique Read More

The Safari Rediscovers British Blues Music Award Nominee Aynsley Lister’s Home!

Coming up on August 24th is the British Blues Music Award Ceremony….one of the nominees for blues Album of the Year is Home from Aynsley Lister.

Here’s my post from earlier this year about the album……   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! Now the rising young guitar slinger was playing along side of Walter Trout, John Mayall and Robert Cray, not bad eh? His music appealed not just to blues fans but he also started to gain rock music fans that allowed him to play festivals with bands like Fun Lovin’ Criminals. So while firmly rooted in the blues, his branches reached the rock crowd. This led to his being the only British artist to be named in  in Classic Rock magazine’s “Top 10 Contemporary Blues Artists”, alongside John Mayer, Derek Trucks and Joe Bonamassa!! In 2008 he left Ruf and moved to Manhaton Records and released two more highly acclaimed albums Equilibrium and the Tower Sessions. The later album was  voted ‘Best Live Album’ in the 2011 Blues Matters Writers Poll!!  Now with all that said I want to know why did it take so long for me to find this guy? And yesterday when I did it took a recommendation from Spotify to point him out!! I know all the people he’s played along with, well except, for the Fun Lovin’ Criminals, but yet he has remained hidden from me! Anyway, Home is a great album. His guitar playing blends so nicely with his fine vocals. His guitar work is what I call “tasty” just a the right level, enough that you can see he’s great, but it’s not there just to be there, but there to complement the music! So check him out – As for me I have about twelve albums of his back catalog to check out because i think this is the start of a great audial friendship!! any recommendations as to where to start? Here’s Aynsley performing the title track from the album Home Read More

Toppling of the ancient tree Prometheus in 1964, leads to thoughts of Ray Culp and Phillies trades of the same era!!

The stump (lower left) and some remains of the Prometheus tree (center), in the Wheeler Bristlecone Pine Grove at Great Basin National Park near Baker, Nevada

The stump (lower left) and some remains of the Prometheus tree (center), in the Wheeler Bristlecone Pine Grove at Great Basin National Park near Baker, Nevada from Wikipedia

 August 6, 1964 – Prometheus, a bristlecone pine and the world’s oldest tree, is cut down

The other day as I looked over the events that happened on August 6th throughout history, I came across a now, that worked out real well, didn’t it” moment or maybe a “What was I thinking moment! It seems that back in 1964 Donald Currey was sampling Bristlecone Pine Trees (Pinus longaeva) near Wheeler Peak in eastern Nevada. One of the trees that Currey was evaluating was Prometheus (recorded by Currey as WPN-114) Prometheus had been named by Naturalists back in 1958 or 1961. Currey wasn’t able to get a definitive core  used for aging the tree, for whatever reason, and it was decided that the tree down would be cut down. When the tree was toppled it was discovered that the tree was the oldest known non-clonal organism, and was at east 4,862 years old, possibly more than 5000 years old!! Oops! My bad!…. Whether or not Currey and/or Forestry personnel knew the age of the tree or even if Currey had to or should have cut the tree down is up for debate. You can read the whole story here at Wikipedia! Read More