Rock de Siempre (Now & Always Rock): blues

Showing posts with label blues. Show all posts

27 August, 2009

19 years without Stevie Ray

To complete the summer portion of the "In Step" tour, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble played two shows on August 25 & 26 at Alpine Valley Theatre in East Troy, WI, while on tour with Eric Clapton. For travel to the next venue, the tour manager reserved four helicopters to circumvent congested highway traffic. In very dense fog, the helicopters were clear for lift-off at 12:40 A.M. Just past the lift-off zone was a 300-foot hill. Vaughan's helicopter pilot was unfamiliar with the flight pattern for exiting the area, and did not climb to sufficient altitude immediately after take-off. Vaughan's helicopter veered off to one side and crashed into the hill. According to the findings as reported by the National Transportation Safety Board, the cause of the accident was determined to be inadequate planning by the pilot, and failure to attain sufficient altitude to clear an obstacle. Fog and haze, as well as the rising terrain were listed as contributing factors. All occupants including Vaughan, the pilot and three members of Eric Clapton's travel group were killed on impact. On August 31, 1990, funeral services were held for Vaughan in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas. Brother Jimmie, mother Martha, and girlfriend Janna were in attendance. Among the mourners were all three members of ZZ Top, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Wonder, and Jackson Browne. Vaughan was interred at Laurel Land Memorial Park in Oak Cliff, a part of Dallas, Texas.

* Listen to Texas Flood.

* Listen to Look at little sister.

* Listen to Love struck baby.

* Listen to The sky is crying.

02 November, 2008

Lez Zeppelin, back in the stores

+ Atlantic Records/Rhino Entertainment will release a limited-edition CD boxed set containing Japanese imports of all 10 of the quartet’s albums in mini-LP replicas with artwork from the original U.K. LP sleeves. The LED ZEPPELIN DEFINITIVE COLLECTION OF MINI-LP REPLICAS boxed set will be available on November 4 for a suggested price of $199.98 (you have to be a real fan!).

+ The mini-LP replicas CD boxed set includes Led Zeppelin (1969), Led Zeppelin II (1969), Led Zeppelin III (1970), Led Zeppelin IV (1971), Houses of the Holy (1973), Physical Graffiti (1975), Presence (1976), The Song Remains the Same (1976), In Through the Out Door (1979), and Coda (1982). The sleeves included in the boxed set feature the original LP album artwork released in the U.K., including the original printing of the group’s debut, which used turquoise ink on the cover for the band’s name and the Atlantic Records logo. Additionally, the set includes all six covers released for In Through the Out Door, Led Zeppelin’s final studio album.

+ If you are like me, a great fan that has the old records, listen to them again:

* In videos, here.

+ In music:

* Heartbreaker.
* Immigrant song.
* Whole lotta love.
* Dazed and confused.
* You shook me.

* Enjoy the best blues-rock has ever been recorded!

*

06 October, 2008

B.B. King, piece of museum (not yet!)

+ The King of the Blues is set to release a new album featuring covers of old blues songs from B.B. King’s early influences. With production by T Bone Burnett (Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Roy Orbison, Elvis Costello) the set revisits the music that influenced B.B. in the 1950s, the beginning of King’s extraordinary professional journey that, literally, changed the texture of modern blues playing. One Kind Favor is the title of the effort.

+ Recorded at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles, CA, One Kind Favor is meant to sound like an album recorded in the 50s. To get this sound Burnett and King replicated the kind of blues band King had back in the day bringing in some of the greats – Dr. John on piano, Nathan East on stand up acoustic bass and Jim Keltner on drums, to name a few. Studio conditions of the time were reproduced. The result is a vintage sounding album filled with the songs that influenced King in his early days as an artist.

+ The full track listing for One Kind Favor, along with the name of the artist who originally recorded the track, is:” See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” (Lemon Jefferson), “I Get So Weary” (T-Bone Walker), “Get These Blues Off Me” (Lee Vida Walker), “How Many More Years” (Chester Burnett), “Waiting For Your Call” (Oscar Lollie), “My Love Is Down” (Lonnie Johnson), “The World Is Gone Wrong” ( Walter Vinson, also known as Walter Jacobs, and Lonnie Chatmon>, core members of the Mississippi Sheiks), "Blues Before Sunrise” (John Lee Hooker), “Midnight Blues” (John Willie “Shifty” Henry), “Backwater Blues” (Big Bill Broonzy), “Sitting On Top Of The World” (Walter Vinson and Lonnie ChatmonTomorrow Night” (Lonnie Johnson).

+ Other B.B. news you might be interested are that on September 13^th King– one of the few musicians in the world to be so honored – presided the opening of the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in his hometown of Indianola, MS. Also in September B.B. King will began hosting his own weekly radio show on XM Radio on their newly relaunched blues channel “BB Kings Bluesville” (XM 74).

+ For more than 60 years, Riley B. King - better known as B.B. King - has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. Since he started recording in the 1940s, he has released over 50 albums, many of them classics, won 14 Grammy® Awards, been inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the National Medal of the Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors, the Grammy® Lifetime Achievement Award and the NARM >National Association of Recording Merchandisers) Chairman’s Award, among many other awards. In a special ceremony at the Library of Congress, Librarian of Congress, James H. Billington presented B.B. with a “Living Legend” medal in honor of his achievements as a musician and ambassador for the blues. B.B. King continues to bring his music to audiences around the globe spending the better part of each year on the road with his beloved guitar, “Lucille.”

05 April, 2008

It's not simple but Van just does it simple!

+ The man in the picture is serious, reflexive, it could serve as a roman emperor in an epic movie about the Roman empire. In its bourgeoning era, of course. Or the king of the spanish empire round sixteen century. Or just a blues singer. Great photo and cover!

+ Keep It Simple is Morrison’s first album of new material in two years. The man itself explain what will you find there:

“People don’t remember what you did, or what happened, or how you got here,” he says. “I didn’t get here the easy way. It’s people who don’t know me. They don’t actually look at what this guy’s actually been through. They see the big versions of what’s supposed to be me – but they don’t know my biography really. That’s what this whole record’s about.”

+ Ok, great music is what you find in any Van Morrison job. Keep it simple is no exception. Two superb blues pieces just as a start (how can a poor boy, school of hard knocks), rest (what a rest), another blues (don't go to clubs anymore), soul (lover come back), northern irish paintings, and much more, all with emotion and depth.

* You can get a good glimpse of the record by visiting his space.

* You can also listen to and watch soul.

* There is another player at the Lost Highway Records web.

* And, here, you can get a stream of “That’s Entertainment”.

21 October, 2007

The War

+ THE WAR tells the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four quintessentially American towns. The series explores the most intimate human dimensions of the greatest cataclysm in history, and demonstrates that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.

+Music is an integral element in the success of the award-winning documentary films produced and directed by Ken Burns, and three of his most recent projects have been accompanied by soundtrack albums released by Legacy Recordings: JAZZ (2001, certified multi-platinum), Mark Twain (2001), and Horatio’s Drive (2003).

+ Every musical track has been selected to underscore events or themes in the film. There is an eclectic mix of vintage era jazz (Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Nat ‘King’ Cole), popular singers (Kay Starr, Bing Crosby with guitarist Les Paul), classical works by composers Aaron Copland, Sir William Walton, and modernist Arvo Pärt, and evocative performances by Edgar Meyer (and friends) and Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble.

* Listen to The War podcasts by visiting this link.

* Listen to THE WAR Audio Streams:

“American Anthem” by Norah Jones,

http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/710203/710203_01_01_full_100.asx

http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/710203/710203_01_01_full_smil.mov

“Two Pieces For Strings: Passacaglia: The Death Of Falstaff” [Edited Performance] by Leonard Slatkin & The London Philharmonic Orchestra

http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/710203/710203_01_02_full_100.asx

http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/710203/710203_01_02_full_smil.mov

“The Wang Wang Blues” by Benny Goodman Sextet

http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/710203/710203_01_03_full_100.asx

http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/710203/710203_01_03_full_smil.mov

“Movin' Back” by Wynton Marsalis

http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/710203/710203_01_04_full_100.asx

http://www.sonymusic.com/clips/selection/fu/710203/710203_01_04_full_smil.mov