Music
April 22, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Today is the anniversary of Glen Campbell’s birth. Campbell established himself as a brilliant session guitarist with the Wrecking Crew and then proceeded to record some 65 solo albums in the course of a long career that greatly contributed to the beauty of the world. It’s hard to get a handle on his vast body of work, but perhaps most notable was his partnership with songwriter Jimmy Webb. Below is
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April 20, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
As Scott notes, “You Beat Me to the Punch,” performed by Mary Wells, was written by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles’ Ronny White. There’s a back story here fans should know. “There was a guy who lived in Detroit and had a group called the Diablos,” Smokey recalled. “His name was Nolan Strong. They were my favorite vocalists at that time.” Strong was with Fortune Records and his “Mind Over
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April 19, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
Guitarist Dickey Betts has died at 80 of cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. His departure leaves drummer Jai Johanny “Jaimoe” Johnson as the last original member of the Allman Brothers Band. Betts last played with the band in 2000, according to Fox News, “the same year he was officially kicked out of the group” reportedly for alcohol and drug use. Check him out below from back in 1969 on
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April 16, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
Angela Davis, winner of the Lenin Peace Prize, ran for vice president with the Communist Party USA in 1980 and 1984. Angela Davis is also listed as the performer of “Make Someone Happy,” beautifully rendered on alto saxophone. As it happily turns out, that is Australian altoist Angela Davis, who spent eight years in New York, recording albums, Lady Luck and Art of the Melody. Check her out on “Little
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April 7, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Merle Haggard died eight years ago yesterday at the age of 79 — to be exact, on his seventy-ninth birthday. Haggard is finally the subject of a full-scale biography — The Hag: The Life, Times, and Music of Merle Haggard (2022), by Marc Eliot. Mark Pulliam reviewed it at Law and Liberty in the excellent column “Our redneck poet.” He “expand[s] upon Eliot’s respectful (but not hagiographic) treatment of the
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April 1, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
In the spring of 1967, I got a call from British-born friend John Tregaskiss, who had just returned from the UK with Are You Experienced, first album of the Jimi Hendrix Experience. So thanks to John I got to hear Jimi, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell before most people in North America, where the album was released that summer. We were fans of Mike Bloomfield and Elvin Bishop, guitarists with
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April 1, 2024 — Scott Johnson
It’s April Fool’s Day and perhaps not inappropriate to take a straightforward frolic and detour from the news of the day. We went to see country star Pam Tillis perform at the Dakota before a full house of fans this past Saturday evening. Among other things, she made me wish that I’d been listening to country radio in the 90’s when she broke through to become a star. She is
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March 20, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
“Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most,” as Scott notes, beautifully rendered by Ella Fitzgerald, was also a favorite of instrumentalists. Check out the version by former Ray Charles sax man David Newman on “Under a Woodstock Moon.” The 1996 album includes a rendition of Freddy Hubbard’s “Up Jumped Spring” along with “Nature Boy,” by Eden Ahbez, and the classic “Skylark” by Johnny Mercer and Hoagy Carmichael. As always,
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March 20, 2024 — Scott Johnson
As a break from the news of the day I’m taking the liberty of reposting this tribute to a great song with an unusual story behind it. Since I first wrote this 18 years ago, YouTube has become a resource that allows me to fill out the story. Stretching from Ella Fitzgerald to Fran Landesman to T.S. Eliot and Geoffrey Chaucer, this is the bare-bones version of the tale: There
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March 17, 2024 — Scott Johnson
John Sebastian celebrates his 80th birthday today. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008. I had a great time compiling a set of videos in his honor last year. I can’t let Sebastian’s big 8-0 pass without inviting readers to take another look back with this revised and expanded edition. Sebastian grew up in Greenwich Village in a musical family. He is saturated in American music
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March 10, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Listening to a show on the SiriusXM Grateful Dead channel a few years ago I heard one of the announcers mention that Nicky Hopkins played with the Jerry Garcia Band. I hadn’t known that. Hopkins was a fantastic English pianist whose session work is virtually ubiquitous on great rock recordings of the ’60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Take a look, for example, at this Nicky Hopkins discography. I have been a
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February 27, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Star Tribune music reviewer Jon Bream put in a good word for Victoria Victoria last week and prompted me to buy tickets for the show this past Sunday at the Dakota. Victoria Victoria is the name of the band — Victoria Elliott on lead vocal, Charlie Hunter on guitar, Noah Elliott on electric piano and backing vocals, Carter McClean on drums, and Maia Kamil on backing vocals. Jon tagged Victoria
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February 25, 2024 — Scott Johnson
George Harrison was born in Liverpool on this date in 1943. He died on November 29, 2001, in Los Angeles. He added to the beauty of the world as a member of the Beatles and in his subsequent solo career. He also founded HandMade Films to produce Monty Python’s Life of Brian, still funny after all these years. I want to celebrate the anniversary of his birth this morning. In
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February 21, 2024 — Steven Hayward
My whole family used to watch the Academy Awards every year when I was a kid, but I never watch the entertainment awards shows any more for the obvious reason: too self-indulgent even when they aren’t being annoyingly political, which is too much of the time. So I was slow to hear about the sensation at the latest Grammy Awards of the Tracy Chapman-Luke Combs duet of Chapman’s 1988 hit
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February 13, 2024 — Lloyd Billingsley
Norman Jewison died last month, so no surprise that Turner Classic Movies was quick to run In the Heat of the Night, which Jewison directed. As Morgan Freeman might say, this 1967 film is really about American cinematic history. Jewison outlived star Sidney Poitier, suspected of a murder in a southern town, but as he explained, “I’m a police officer” and “they call me Mr. Tibbs.” Poitier considered the film
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February 6, 2024 — Scott Johnson
The video of the Tracy Chapman/Luke Combs Grammys duet performance of Chapman’s “Fast Car” that circulated on X has been removed. The video conveyed a moving performance of a moving song. I found it yesterday reposted on Tracy Chapman’s own X account. Now it’s been jacked by the copyright owner, if that’s not a contradiction in terms. It’s a sad postscript to a happy event. Tracy Chapman and Luke Combs
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February 5, 2024 — Scott Johnson
Tracy Chapman made a rare appearance on the Grammys last night to join Luke Combs in a performance of Chapman’s “Fast Car.” She hasn’t performed in public for some 15 years. Below is a video clip of the moment via X reposted by Tracy herself [see update at bottom]. Perfect duo does exist! #GRAMMYs pic.twitter.com/sOYNCjztLn — Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) February 5, 2024 Tracy commented on the fortune of
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