Aimee Mann: Freeway
Aimee Mann delivers deadpan songs with intelligent irony on “@#%&! Smilers”. She takes a dim view of our materialistic world: “You got a lot of money, but you can’t afford the freeway.” Bouncy, in a downbeat sort of way. Listen:
Catherine Russell sings the blues
Oh, for a Friday night out listening to the blues sung with real class! Catherine Russell grew up in New York in a musical family (her father collaborated with Louis Armstrong, her mother is a singer, too) and has been a backup vocalist for big pop and jazz acts for years. But she’s got her […]
Lhasa de Sela, Travelling
Lhasa de Sela (born 1972), better known as Lhasa, is a true nomad. She was born in Big Indian, New York, of a Mexican father of Panamanian-Polish-French-Spanish descent and an American mother of Lebanese-Scottish-Russian-Jewish descent. After being raised in Mexico and the United States, she spent several years in France – she loves Marseille – […]
Purcell: Dido’s Lament
Dear Senator Clinton, Life goes on. We will have a Madam President one day. I certainly would have liked it to be Hillary Clinton. So here is the ultimate woman’s lament. Left behind, Queen Dido cries her heart out. Sing along and have a good, angry cry. Don’t just hop onto Senator Obama’s vice-presidential ticket […]
Bo Diddley: Bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp. Bomp-bomp
The “Originator” of rock ‘n’ roll is dead. Bo Diddley (Dec 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008) was born in Mississippi, raised in Chicago, lived in Washington, D.C. for seven years (1959 to 1966) and was a key figure in that great movement that brought black roots into the mainstream. He created the driving, syncopated […]
Crosby, Stills, Nash: Suite Judy Blue Eyes
A highlight at Woodstock (1969) was the performance of “Judy Blue Eyes” by the choirboys themselves, penned by Steven Stills for beautiful Judy Collins – the classic break-up song. At the end of this live performance Stills admitted, “This is only the second time we’ve ever played in front of people, man. We’re scared shitless.” […]
Tinariwen, Justin Adams, Juldeh Camara
Tinariwen is a band from Mali whose music has become “the soundtrack for a whole generation of exiled Touareg youth, living a hand-to-mouth existence in exile in Algeria and Libya.” Their signature sound comes from transposing traditional Touareg melodies on the electric guitar and mixing in blues, rock, pop, berber and arabic sounds. They have […]
