Play It All Night Long

New Springsteen single, "We Take Care of Our Own"

2012-01-18T22:16:00.002-06:00

"Wherever this flag is flown/We take care of our own."

Hmmm...somehow I don't see any of the Republican candidates appropriating this song for their campaign themes.

Wilco, Mavis Staples and Nick Lowe rehearse "The Weight"

2012-01-06T11:41:00.002-06:00

Does it get much better than this?

People occasionally compare Wilco to the Band, even if they're not nearly Canadian enough. But this clip makes the connection even more explicit, if you recall the Staple Singers' great turn on "The Weight" in Martin Scorsese's film of the Band's final concert, "The Last Waltz."

Today's inexplicable earworm

2012-01-04T19:10:00.001-06:00

I must have one of those suits!

The REAL top musical moment of 2011

2012-01-03T14:11:00.002-06:00

Friend Steve Carosello just reminded me that my year-end rundown neglected to highlight the real top musical moment of 2011. Let's fix that right now.

Where the hell have I been?

2012-01-02T13:20:00.006-06:00

Well, for one thing, Gary Graff and I have been putting the finishing touches on our latest book, Rock 'n' Roll Myths: The True Stories Behind the Most Infamous Legends (Voyageur Press). It'll be out in June, but you can go here if you're of a mind to order it waaaay in advance.

For another, I taught a class, History of Rock & Roll to 1965 at Webster University during the Fall 2011 semester. It was a terrific experience, and I hope to be teaching the class again next fall. Going through it for the first time, though, it was kind of all-consuming, and the blog, alas, got left behind. I'll try to do better in the new year.

2011 Top 10s

2011-12-30T12:52:00.023-06:00

Hey folks, it's been a while. Nevertheless, it's time to check in with my Top 10 lists (plus a few honorable mentions) for 2011. Here goes:

Albums
1. Ry Cooder, Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (Nonesuch)
Cooder has always made great records, but he’s seldom been the go-to guy for current events – until now. “Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down” predated Occupy Wall Street, but it should have become the movements cri de coeur. Its cast of characters includes criminal financiers, crooked politicians and other privileged white men quite literally singing the blues. They’re set against a struggling underclass, illegal immigrants searching for compassion and soldiers enmeshed in senseless wars. A belated – but “strictly copastatic” – plea for John Lee Hooker to be elected president aside, Pull Up Some Dust feels more like it was ripped right out of your Twitter feed than any other album released in 2011.

2. The Black Keys, El Camino (Nonesuch)
Let this interpretive dance (below) speak for how I feel about this album, another collaboration between the Akron, Ohio, blues-rock duo and producer Danger Mouse.

3. Paul Simon, So Beautiful or So What (Hear Music)
Earlier this year, I heard Randy Newman make the joke that you can only understand Paul Simon’s songs if you know him personally. That may be true on occasion, but there’s enough universality in this late-career masterpiece to engage anyone. Simon leavens the preponderance of deep thoughts and deep grooves with some funny notions, especially in “The Afterlife,” which imagines that even Heaven is bogged down in red tape and bureaucracy.

4. The Decemberists, The King Is Dead (Capitol)
I like Colin Meloy when he thinks big, as on concept works like 2009’s The Hazards of Love, but I like him even more when he packs all that brain power – and that vocabulary! – into smaller, pop-friendly packages, as he does here.

5. Low, C’mon (Sub Pop)
The latest from the Duluth, Minnesota, slowcore combo, C’mon is lush but low-key, featuring beautiful harmonies from principals Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker. These songs build slowly and surely, but when they peak, their impact is deeply felt. (And hey, isn’t that John Stamos in the video?)

6. Das Racist, Relax (Red General Catalog)
For those who think that the real problem with hip-hop these days is that it takes itself far too seriously (see “worst album” below), here’s the cure. Das Racist is a Brooklyn crew whose commercial debut recalls the heyday of trippy, sampledelic and, importantly, both funny and occasionally profound rap (see De La Soul’s 3 Feet High and Rising and the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique.

7. Ballake Sissoko/Vincent Segal, Chamber Music (Six Degrees)
Easily the most gorgeous album I heard this year, featuring two fine musicians playing my two favorite instruments on the planet – the kora (a African harp-like instrument made from a giant gourd) and the cello. (Sorry, bari sax.) Mali native Sissouku is known for his work with kora master Toumani Diabate and Taj Mahal, while Frenchman Segal has played with Sting, Chocolate Genius and Marianne Faithful, among others.

8. Wilco, The Whole Love (dBpm/Anti-)
Wilco is comfortable enough with its place in the universe to open the debut album for its own indie label, dBpm, with a krautrock-driven bit of skronk and end it with a long – really long -- hushed meditation. In between, the band offers more conventional, but decidedly superior fare, proving that, with its lineup seemingly stabilized at last, Wilco only keeps getting better.

9. Lykke Li, Wounded Rhymes (Atlantic)
In terms of retro-sounding female singers, Adele took most of the headlines in 2011. My preference is for this Swedish singer/songwriter, whose work recalls '60s girl-group classicism, but with contemporary twists and turns. And the songs are terrific.

10. The Roots, undun (Def Jam)
Not content to merely hold down a day job as Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s house band, the Roots released two of 2010’s best albums, How I Got Over and Wake Up! the latter a collaboration with John Legend. This short, but penetrating concept album about a doomed, crack-addled street hustler is perhaps the band's most thought-provoking and musically ambitious work – check the classically charged denouement – which, for this group, is saying something.

Honorable mention: Destroyer, Kaputt (Merge); Tom Waits, Bad As Me (Anti-); Abigail Washburn, City of Refuge (Rounder); Adele, 21; Seun Kuti & Africa 80, From Africa with Fury: Rise (Knitting Factory)

Worst Album: Jay-Z & Kanye West, Watch the Throne (Def Jam)Mo’ money, mo’ predictable records. Is there an album more out of step with the times than Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Watch the Throne?” Beats aside, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard as much as I need of that “luxury rap” bullshit from Mitt Romney and Donald Trump.

Singles/Songs
1. “Someone Like You,” Adele (XL/Columbia)

2. “The Wilhelm Scream,” James Blake (Republic/Universal)

3. “Romance,” Wild Flag (Merge)

4. “Get Away,” Yuck (Fat Possum)

5. “Ghost on a Canvas,” Glen Campbell (Surfdog)

6. “Midnight City,” M83 (Mute)

7. “Go Outside,” Cults (Columbia)

8. “Barton Hollow,” The Civil Wars (Sensibility Music)

9. “Bizness,” tUnE-yArds (4AD)

10. “I Believe,” Andrew Rannells and “The Book of Mormon” Ensemble (Ghostlight)

Concerts (St. Louis only)Most of this portion of the post was previously publisher here.

1. Elvis Costello & the Imposters at the Pageant, July 1: Costello chose the set list via his “Spectacular Spinning Songbook” game-show wheel, injecting an element of chance into a show that was otherwise a sure thing. Added bonus: a surprise appearance by Eddie Vedder. (Post-Dispatch review)

2. Paul Simon/Punch Brothers at the Fox, November 15: A stunning career retrospective in which Simon’s singular achievement in songwriting was amplified by a versatile band that handled South African mbaqanga, Brazilian batucada and a Bo Diddley cover with equal aplomb. The string wizardry of Punch Brothers was equally dazzling. (Post-Dispatch review)

3. Robert Plant and Band of Joy at the Fox, June 15: Merging his past as rock’s Golden God with his present as an avatar of Americana, Plant radically reworked a number of Led Zeppelin classics, sacrificing their heavy metal thunder, perhaps, but not their emotional intensity. (Post-Dispatch review)

4. U2 at Busch Stadium, July 17: Thanks to U2’s state-of-the-art spaceship/claw thingy, the show was a visual spectacle second to none. Musically, too, the band brought the heat…as if it wasn’t already hot enough that night.

5. Rodney Crowell at the Duck Room, February 28: Touring not in support of an album, but rather his memoir, “Chinaberry Sidewalks,” Crowell coolly donned dark glasses to read aloud a few passages by lamplight and also sang songs from his terrific catalog.

6. Marshall Crenshaw/The Bottle Rockets at Off Broadway, January 19: An inspired pairing that found the hometown BoRox knocking out a set of rootsy goodness, then backing Crenshaw in pursuit of pop perfection.

7. Chiwoniso at the Touhill, February 26: Fronting her band or simply singing over her own accompaniment on the mbira, Zimbabwe’s Chiwoniso turned in a mesmerizing performance that was seen by far too few. Where are St. Louis’ world music fans?

8. LouFest at Central Field, Forest Park, August 27-28: Despite what could have been a crippling cancelation by the Roots, the second edition of LouFest still offered an outstanding musical smorgasbord, with notably great sets from TV on the Radio, the Hold Steady, !!! and Das Racist.

9. Bon Iver/Kathleen Edwards at the Pageant, September 11: Fronting an eight-piece band, Justin Vernon turned his carefully observed, understated songs into explosive rock, chaotic skronk and moments of lushly orchestrated but carefully controlled beauty. Opener Kathleen Edwards shined as well. (Post-Dispatch review)

10. Foo Fighters at Scottrade Center, September 17: For three hours, Dave Grohl and the Foos made an impassioned case for the continued relevance of rock bands that “play their instruments without computers, get all sweaty, drink a bunch of beer and play loud music.” (Post-Dispatch review)

Honorable mention: Randy Newman at the Sheldon, February 25; Warren Haynes Band at the Pageant, May 15; Ben Folds with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at Powell Hall, November 6; Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men/the Skeletons at Off Broadway, July 8; The Bo-Keys, Wood House Concert, July 15

Worst concert: Miss Lauryn Hill at the Pageant, January 16: A sad, hot mess of a night with a once-great artist who has lost her way.

TV on the Radio Live on Letterman webcast

2011-04-20T18:03:00.002-05:00

Love these guys. I was sorry to hear today about the death of bassist Gerard Smith.

Jill Sobule Q & A

2011-04-15T11:08:00.000-05:00

Here's the full Q&A from STLtoday.com

Jill Sobule shares a Warren Zevon story

2011-04-13T16:29:00.004-05:00

Because I'm obviously sufficiently geeked out on Warren Zevon's music to have named this blog after one of his songs, I occasionally prevail upon interview subjects to share a story about WZ if I know that their lives or careers once crossed paths with his. Jill Sobule opened for Zevon on a couple of tours, and she contributed a version of "Don't Let Us Get Sick" to the "Enjoy Every Sandwich" compilation.

Sobule is in town this week, performing with John Doe at Off Broadway on Friday. My talk with her about her own music will be on STLtoday sometime soon. But here's the Zevon story...

"The thing about Warren is, I was a big fan. When the opportunity came to open up for him, I was so excited. At the same time, I heard that he could be a bear, that he could be really awful. So just the first two days on tour, I came up to him and said, you know, 'Thank you for letting me open,' and then I completely didn’t even get in his way. I went off to my own room at the club. And then he came up to me like three days later and said, 'What do I have, rabies or something?'

"After that, we ended up…it was great. He’d come out and sing on my set and I’d come out during his set. He became…I never had a mentor, and I would say that he became a mentor. He was just hysterical. He would entertain me the entire time. He was the wittiest person I knew.

"But there were some funny moments. I remember we had a bus. It seems so decadent now, but we had a big old bus, just me and him and the manager and a bus driver. We were parked outside some venue and he would be in the back of the bus, and he was watching, I think, the Playboy Channel. I got off the bus and I noticed a whole lot of people just outside, behind the bus. I was like, 'What’s going on?'

"He forgot to close the blinds. So there was like a hundred people watching porn through the window. I had to run back on the bus and scream, 'Warren! Close the blinds!' (laughs).

"When he got sick, we would have great correspondences. One day I’m going to publish them on my website. They were really kind of joyful – funny letters. As sad as the whole thing was.

"I’m always looking for a new song of his to cover. I think I’m gonna do that one that goes (sings) 'I can saw a woman in two/But you don’t wanna look in the box when I’m through/I can make love disappear/For my next trick, I’ll need a volunteer.'"

Sammy Hagar talks "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock"

2011-03-18T09:55:00.008-05:00

Earlier this week, the Post-Dispatch published my story on Sammy Hagar and his new book, "Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock." Here's the full Q&A with lots of material that wouldn't fit in the PD piece.

Sammy called from Northern California, where he's currently at work on a new Chickenfoot album with bandmates Joe Satriani, Chad Smith and Michael Anthony.

Let’s start with an obvious question: Why do a book?
There’s a couple reasons, but it just felt like it was time. I felt like enough things have happened and so many things are happening so fast from this point in my life – in the last few years – you know, everything is really rolling in completely different directions. So rather than make the damn book a thousand pages, I thought I should get the first half out of the way while I can still remember it.

It’s not an easy decision. I’ve been turning this book down for 10 years or more. [Former St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer and editor] Dick Richmond and I wrote a book 20 years ago. But by the time the book was done, something really important and new would happen. And I go, “Oh, man, I gotta put this in the book.” Dick and I, when we finished the last book, called “The Long Road to Cabo,” within a year we had to write about six more chapters. And it just kept going. So I said, “Ah, it’s just not time.” I didn’t feel good about it. This book is really in my own voice, and I’ve never had time to do that – as if I do now. I wanted to write it in my own voice.

How did you work with your co-author, Joel Selvin?
We sat down for three months, three days a week, four hours a day, chapter by chapter. Joel would say, “Let’s talk about growing up.” And then he’d go back and write it, have it transcribed, we’d read it and say, “You know, there’s a lot missing here.” So he’d go, “What was your mom doing then,” or “What were your brothers and sisters doing? What was the chemistry in the family? What were you thinking about, how were you dressing?” He just dug in deep. And then we’d do another interview and get that done. Then it’d be, “Okay, let’s talk about your first music, and then let’s talk about Montrose.” It was just chronological. We went right along and went back, read it ourselves, did our own editing and our own additions to it. And it is really – it’s my story. Right straight from my mouth.

It’s a tough decision to say, okay, I’m gonna do it. You got one shot at an autobiography, and I say, if you don’t tell it all, the good and the bad…. The shit you don’t want anybody to know – you gotta put it in there. Your fans are gonna know. In an internet world, your fans know way too much about you to not be putting it in there or to be lying about it.

In terms of tell-all memoirs, you’re not breaking any records here. But there’s plenty of dirt in there on yourself and others. Did any of that stuff make you wince having to include it?
Yeah, a little bit. I was really more upset about the sex, drugs, and rock and roll stuff that was in there because of my nine and 14 year old daughters. I just said, hey, “Either I do it or I don’t.” I chose to do it, so I did it. My wife was going, “Oh my god, you’re not going to leave this in there, are you?” I said, “Yeah, I gotta do it. The fans are too hip.” And I don’t want ‘em to dog the book and I don’t want ‘em to dog me, saying I’m not honest. I’m probably the most candid, honest rocker on the planet and I want to keep that image alive. So I chose to write it, so I wrote it.

I know Joel just a little bit. Great guy, great writer.
He’s a classic wiseass, you know?

No. "Smartass." That’s the title of his other new book.
Yeah, “Smartass.” We’ve gone up and down in our relationship over the years. But he knew a lot about me because he’s from the same town and he’s followed my career as close as anyone. Not always as a fan, either. Joel always…he’s a critic and he loves to poke fun at people when they have success. Like, he liked me when I was struggling. And the second I had a big album, he turned on me. Well, when I got my record deal, he turned on me, for God’s sake. And then, when I joined Van Halen, that was it. It was like, “Uh-oh, Sammy’s too big for this town. He’s too big for his britches.” He took that attitude, I didn’t. So we went at it a couple times from reviews he would give me and things.

You gave out his phone number from the stage!
Yes I did, and I’d do it again. I’ll give yours out, Dan! But I kinda came back around with him. Joel’s the guy who provoked me to do this book. He got involved with Chickenfoot a little bit and became a real fan and supporter. He claims Chickenfoot is his favorite band in 20 years. As it should be! (laughs) We’re hometown boys. But he made it very easy. Joel, with his music history knowledge, kept it chronologically correct. And kept my dates correct. I remember everything that happened, I just don’t remember when. So I’d be going…I would have been in Montrose after I was in Van Halen if I’d have written the book myself.

It seems like you’ve worked with, more than your share of unpleasant guys over the years: Ronnie Montrose, David Lee Roth, even Eddie when he’s under the influence.
Yeah. Well, Eddie turned on me in the end. Eddie and I had a great relationship for nine years. And I mean great. You know, every band has their little quirks where somebody gets wasted and does something stupid, or you both get wasted together and do something even stupider. We got along like brothers forever. And all of a sudden, when Ed Leffler, our manager died – it’s in the book – they pulled in Alex’s brother in law for a manager and boy, those guys turned on me. And I think they were turned on me. It was like a bad trainer came in and said, “Sic ‘em! He’s your problem.”

But my personality is unique. I’m not going to shove the blame on everybody else and say they’re the bad guys. I’m not a bad guy by any means, but everyone else has problems and I don’t. I’m ambitious, go-gettin’, pushy…not to try to get my way, but if there’s one pause in a room where someone asks a question, “What are we gonna do?” If there’s a three second pause, I’m up, sleeves rolled up, I’m going forward: “Here’s what we’re doing.” I’m a real take-charge leader kind of guy, and I can’t help that. And that rubs some people wrong. Like Ronnie Montrose was the leader and he couldn’t handle that. And I didn’t even know it. I’m innocent. I’m just going forward with blinders up.

I love that Montrose album. I’m sure you hear that all the time.
Ronnie broke up one of the greatest American rock bands certainly of that era. He broke it up completely out of ego. I was completely devastated. I would have done anything to keep that band together. We never got to our Led Zeppelin IV, you know? We never got to our fourth album, which, in any great band, is always your greatest record, it seems like. We never got there. We never got past two. I don’t even think we got to two. We made two, but it was all over by then.

Another thing that strikes me about the book is that you’re incredibly frank about some of the…let’s say some of the fun you had. The groupie adventures. The tent under the stage and all that stuff.
Yeah. Well, that was such an era. It still goes on today and every rock band had their version of it. I just told you about how into it we were. We built the damn stage around it. (laughs) It’s funny. But the fact that I actually lived through that era is very special. A lot of people, they never saw that big, 15 trucks and 10 buses going down the highway. The big rock show is coming to town. Those were very, very special years that really ain’t around anymore. There’s a few bands that are doing it. But they’re mostly all country! But even country bands are going around with 15 buses. The technology’s changed so much you can do it with less people now and you can do it with less equipment. But the truth of the matter is, we had a big friggin’ rock show. And it was awesome. You pulled into town with that, the whole town was buzzin’. We owned the radio station, we owned the newspaper, the media. And we owned the arena where we were playing for two or three days. And that was a special era. And the girls linin’ up for you. Man, I ain’t braggin’ about it, I’m just saying, “You need to KNOW about this shit. These were some awesome times.” Not that I’m looking to go back to that or anything. It doesn’t interest me in my life where I am today. But when you’re a young, rich and famous rock star…brotha!

In the equation of sex and drugs and rock and roll, it seems like you come up a little short on the drugs. You aren’t or weren’t a big drug guy?
Not at all. Well, a little bit. Playin’, dabblin’…party fun. But no, it’s never been my thing. I don’t like being out of control. And I don’t like it when I see other people that are. I just want to get so far away from them. Like Eddie on the reunion tour. He was out control completely at all times. I couldn’t stand to be around the guy. It was so freaky to see a guy that’s that out of control. And it’s scary. For him, and for me and for everybody around us. It’s embarrassing. You’re going through an airport or a hotel lobby and it’s freezing outside, snowing, and the guy’s got no shirt and a bottle of wine. If he wasn’t in Van Halen, they’d have thrown him out. I’m not down with that. I’m not down with that at all. I like to treat people the way you want to be treated. That’s always been my motto. You get out there and get wasted, you end up doing shit that, you wake up the next morning and think, “Aw, fuck. Why did I do that?” I hate that. I hate that feeling bad. So I’ve stayed away from it. I’m just not that tempted by it.

You’re bad habits have not taken you down, at least not yet. But I think if one ever does, it’s going to be driving too fast. You really can't drive 55.
No, I cannot. And it will either be that, or it also could be I might work myself to death. I’m one of those guys that can’t stop. If an idea comes, I gotta do it. It’s not for fame or fortune. I haven’t done anything for fame and fortune since I joined Van Halen. And I didn’t join Van Halen for that reason. But back then, I was thinking, “Oh yeah, this’ll work, it’ll make money, it’ll be successful.” I just like doing things. All I want to do is win. I want it to be successful. Cause that way, everybody wins. You help people, you give people jobs and I give most of my restaurant businesses and things, I give 90% of that money away. All of the Beach Bar & Grill money. Cabo Wabo, I give a lot of that money away for helpin’ kids. It feels good to do those things, but I do drive myself nuts, because I’m always on a fast track and I haven’t ever slowed down. I’m afraid when I do, I’m not going to know how.

Yeah. But watch that car stuff, though.
No! I gotta get there quick, I got things to do! That’s what happens when a cop pulls me over. He’s going, “Do you know how fast you were going?” I go, “Yeah, 96 miles an hour.” He goes, “Wow, well thanks for being honest. What’s your hurry?” I go, “I’m late!” (laughs). Straight up, man.

And that works?
Yeah. 90% of the time. 99% of the time I get let go.

Speaking of fame and fortune, I think one of the most intriguing lines in the book is when you write that “it took fame and fortune for me to become myself.” What do mean by that?
Once you’ve read the first chapter, you pretty much know that I have some pretty humble beginnings. It wasn’t like we didn’t have much money. We didn’t have ANY money. Being really poor and a kid that really wanted to be somebody, I was a good lookin’ kid, I was a good athlete, I was a good dancer. This is before I started playing music. I’d go out and work and buy cool clothes. I was a little rock star growing up. But I was so poor and my house was so bad and we never owned a house. The house we rented was in a bad neighborhood and bad furniture and my dad was an alcoholic. So there was this thing where I didn’t want people to know about my family life, who I was or where I came from. I didn’t invite a person over to my house until I knew that guy was solid. Or else I started hanging around with guys who were like me. So I was always trying to hide behind my image. When I got into rock and roll, I thought, “I can dress nice, I can sing, I can perform my ass off. I can write songs. I’m going to get up there and I’m gonna pretend to be a rock star.” I didn’t even know what one was, except for David Bowie and Mick Jagger and the people I looked up to. So it seems like I was pretending for a long time and still hiding behind that little poor kid that didn’t want anybody to know anything about me.

Jumping way forward – it’s kind of why I wrote the book, too – I want my story told. I’ve got quite the story and a lot of people don’t know it. Even my hardcore fans don’t know a lot about me because I haven’t been very public about it. I think every time I got more and more fame and more fortune, to where I could say fuck it, I don’t have to care so much – it took a long time – but that’s when I started becoming myself. I started really performing better, I started singing better. All you can be in this business or as an artist of any kind, is yourself. That’s what makes you unique. If you’re anything like anyone else, you’re not unique. A true artist, a Van Morrison or John Lennon. I like to think of myself as one of those kinds of artists.

But that’s rare. Like in sports, when athletes get the big contract, it’s rare that they actually get better.
But that’s what you’re supposed to do. How many people, after their first big album, go downhill? I mean, how many people have had one big album and big hit and become a multimillion seller and headline arenas overnight and the next album, they’re done? I don’t even want to mention names. You can find ‘em all over. They’re a dime a dozen. I don’t know what it is that makes that happen to people, but I know what it is that makes me what I am. And I’m still rolling on it. I’m just becoming so lazy about being myself now that even when I go on TV, I don’t want to get dressed up. (laughs)

But people expect you to show up in shorts and flip flops.
Well, that’s me!

As you write, you “took the lifestyle to the stage.”
I really did, and it’s awesome. I’m finally pretty much totally myself. There may be still a little showbiz in me, a little tinge in the background that makes me always want to do a great show, that fires me up when I hit that stage, and kind of elevates everything automatically. That’s about as close as you can accuse me of being fake.

The saddest parts of the book involve your ex-wife and her nervous breakdown and the separation from your sons. Did writing the book help deal with those things at all?
No, I’d already dealt with those things. My kids are fine. My sons, when I told them I was writing the book and I said, “You know, one of the chapters is on your mom and I know she’s going to be upset.” ‘Cause she’s still not comfortable with her situation. She’s still got some problems. Not bad, but still, she’s nervous all the time, to be around people. I said, “This shit’s gonna kill your mom.” My youngest son said, “Well, pop, I don’t think mom can think any less of you.” (laughs hysterically). I thought it was one of the great statements. He goes, “You know, she knows everything. She’s heard it all. She’s not over it, but nothing’s gonna shock her.” My friends that have become friends with her over the years, and her friends that knew things that they wouldn’t tell her in the old days, everybody’s come clean with her.

You did a best-of album to pay for your divorce. It’s like Marvin Gaye’s “Here My Dear” minus the court order.
(laughs) It didn’t pay for the divorce, trust me. It just paid for the legal side of it.

He actually had to do that. The court said, “Your wife gets your next album.”
Wow.

It has the great line, “Someone tell me please/Why do I have to pay attorney fees.”
Ooh, I love Marvin Gaye. I’m going to have to dig that one up. I wouldn’t want to tell you all the ugly stuff. I told a lot of it in the book. But they attorneys wanted to do that. They wanted to go into my music room where I have hundreds of hours of cassettes and go through ‘em and log it all so that every album I would make after that, if one of those ideas was on that album, she’d get paid. So I just did a buyout. The lawyers are worse than the ex-wife, lemme tell ya.

You mention in the book that St. Louis is your number one market. How and when did it become apparent to you that you had something special here?
Okay, this is a great story. Wayne Meisenholder and David Burd were the promotion and marketing guys for Capitol Records, which was my label, in St. Louis, and KSHE was the biggest radio station, practically in the country. I had already gotten pretty big there – sold out the Arena a couple times. And they wanted to do a stadium show with me, Journey…I want to say Triumph, and I want to say Head East. [It was actually Shooting Star, April Wine and Judas Priest(DD)] Anyway, I did a show at Busch Stadium, co-headlining with Journey, and Journey didn’t want to close. So I did.

I came out on stage and played my song “Red,” which wasn’t even a hit at the time. As we were kicking it off, I said, “Let’s turn this whole fuckin’ place red.” And I mean, the whole stadium turned red. I got goose bumps on my body right now telling you this many years later. This is 78-79. [Actually, 1980] I mean, I still get goose bumps telling that story. We’re talking 40,000 people. They brought sheets, they brought shirts, they brought blankets, jackets, hats. Everything was red. When I said let’s turn this place red, it…turned…red. I almost fainted onstage. I got so exhilarated, my knees almost buckled. I just thought, “Man, I own this town.” And every time I came to that town, I gave it. I cared more about playing there every time after that. I always did. I care about everything. But if I can put out a little bit more, I would always try to do that in St. Louis. I would tell people, don’t book me anywhere in a big town the night before. Or give me two days off before St. Louis. I want that. I want that every time I go there. And I got that. Even today, it’s still there for me and I’m just really impressed by that. I should have put that in the book. It may be one of the musical highlights of my career. It might the one, as a solo artist. The one where I just went, “Holy shit.” It was the first stadium I ever headlined, too.

Was this the show with the car onstage?
No, this is way before that. That came later. But I drove the car into the back of the stadium, where everyone could see it. I had a Trans-Am. I had a song called “Trans Am.” That was kinda my hit then and I started the show with it. I came around and I spun donuts, tore the damn grass up. I had to pay like 17,000 or something out of my pay. Back then I probably didn’t make much more than that. And I had a Z-28 chasing me. I jumped out of the T-top in my red jumpsuit and the band was playing, and when I got there, I was so gassed, because I ran about a quarter mile at top speed, I probably didn’t take one breath of air and then walked out to 44,000 people. And I was just – whoof – and then I got my composure back, then two or three songs later busted into “Red” and then I lost it again. It was just one of the greatest shows ever in anybody’s life.

You’ve had so much success in recent years with the tequila and everything, but it was interesting to learn in the book that you were an entrepreneur early on. Trying out different things – mountain bikes, and of all things, sprinkler heads…
That was my brother-in-law’s idea. When I was living in Fontana, we didn’t own a house. I was poor and we used to move all the time. My mom would find a cheaper house or whatever – we moved around a lot. And we always moved to these really trashy houses. When my brother-in-law and I started building apartment complexes in Fontana – it was one of the first investments I made. My brother in law was a contractor and he was an electrician. He had a plumber working for him. So we built apartment buildings as an investment. We bought my old houses. That’s the first thing I did. I said, “I want to buy my old houses, and I want to tear ‘em down and either put a nice house there or put apartment buildings there.” And we did two or three places. The city where I lived, they didn’t have fire hydrants, ‘cause I lived in bad neighborhoods. So when we started building nice things, they said, “Oh, well, you gotta put a fire hydrant within so many feet of your house.” And I thought about this and I was pissed off about it. “Why are you guys hammering me? I’m a hometown boy doing good, coming back, investing my money in my hometown, and you’re crucifying me?”

So my brother-in-law said, “We can beat it with fire sprinklers.” They’re cheaper than putting a fire hydrant in. To put a fire hydrant in, we’d have to run a giant pipe all the way down to the next biggest pipe and do all this stuff. It was really expensive. So we put the fire sprinklers in and then everybody in town wanted to do that, so we started a business. It’s really all my brother-in-law. I just financed him and I own the companies. But for me, I thought that was a great idea. When I got hip to fire sprinklers – they save lives. By the time the fire truck came there and hooked up to that fire hydrant and got to the house, it was half burned down. But with the sprinklers, a little fire in an ashtray would be put out before anything happened. You know, you ruin your furniture and your rug, but that’s a far cry from the roof caving in.

That seems to be the difference between you and most other rockers. They just want to think about music. You’ve got other things on your mind.
Well, I like doing the music, too, of course. I’m one of those guys, I wake up writing a song. I go to bed writing a song. During the day I do all kinds of stuff, then I’ll go finish the song. I really mix it up. I get bored so quick that if I didn’t do more than one thing, I wouldn’t even finish an album if it wasn’t for having other things to do. So I’ll go do a little business or make a few business decisions, and then I get so bored with that, I’m going “God, I gotta get out of here.” And then I go right back into music. It’s a nice balance for me. I don’t know if that’s a Libra thing or what. I’ve usually got to have two things on the scales going at the same time.

Okay, a Libra thing. You talk in the book about being into numerology and UFOs and that stuff, too. You seem to be into a lot of, let’s say, alternative belief systems.
When something gives you goosebumps, like I said earlier about that experience in St. Louis…I live for things that make me feel like that. I just want to feel something and feel it hard and feel it good. The good with the bad. Those things make me feel something. And they inspire me. And when you get this big rush going through your body and something like that happens, some kind of psychic phenomena or something, and it really hits you, man, that’s a great feeling. It just lifts you up. I love that shit. I used to sit up at night with my telescope on the roof of my house in the ‘70s and I would sit up there and just look at the sky and look for shit. I used to sit there and meditate and say, “Come on! Come get my ass right now.”

I don’t really feel that way now. After you read all of the books, you find out there’s some bad guys out there, too. Or certainly some – you know, they don’t have any emotions, any love in their heart for us. Just kind of like robots that are doing a job. Pick you up, cut your ass out or something. (laughs)

You know, I’ve got humans doing enough probing. I don’t really need aliens doing that.
I guess they’re really rough, too! (laughs)

They don’t take you out to dinner first.
Or give you any drugs or nothin’. They just grab you and hypnotize you and start doing their thing. There’s definitely some experimental shit going on out there. You don’t want to get tied up in that.

It’s been reported lately that you would, under the right circumstances, reunite with Van Halen. What are those circumstances?
I would take a phone call tomorrow from Eddie. And I would talk to him, and if he’s totally cool, like straight and not wasted and didn’t have that same attitude he had about me. He wouldn’t even have to say I’m sorry. I don’t give a shit about that stuff. He’d just have to say, “Dude, I miss you, I really miss what we did together. Let’s get together and play some music.” You know, forget all that shit. That’s all he’d have to say. And if I heard it in his voice and he sounded sincere, I would say, “Well, let me finish this Chickenfoot record, because it’s the most important thing in my life right now.” ‘Cause I love this band and it’s what I’m doing right now. Chickenfoot IS Van Halen for me. It means what Van Halen meant. It’s a group of musicians that are friends that I love to play with that are fantastic musicians and we have an unbelievable chemistry. That’s the same thing that Van Halen was in the good days.

So anyway, I would go down, I would walk right in the studio with them, whatever they wanted to do – go out and have some tacos, have some margaritas. I don’t care. And walk into the studio, start making music and if everything felt cool, like it used to – it don’t have to feel like it did, because everyone changes. But if we grew up and it felt honest and warm and had the same fire, I’d do it in a second. They’re the greatest rock and roll band in the world. It’s the highlight of my musical career. To be maybe one of the biggest bands in the world during maybe the biggest era of rock – fuck! If we could even go near that again, who wouldn’t do that again? Or want to do it?

I’d be happy to, but I’m not asking to, and I’m not trying to get their attention by saying those things. I just have to answer honestly. But some guy asked me the odds between zero and a hundred of it happening. And I said, “Well, when this book comes out, it’s below zero. In about three or four years, a little water under the bridge, the odds start moving up. But I’m not begging for it, I don’t expect it. But at the same time, I don’t know what to expect. Life is weird. People just wake up one morning and say, “Man, I miss that and I want to have it.” You know, Alex would be there in a second. And of course, Mikey. But really, it’s all about Ed.

Some guys are just so far ahead of their time...

2011-03-08T00:03:00.002-06:00

On "Genius," from his 2002 album "My Ride's Here," Warren Zevon gave us this priceless bon mot:

Albert Einstein was a ladies' man
While he was working on his universal plan
He was making out like Charlie Sheen
He was a genius

R.I.P., Charlie Louvin

2011-01-26T19:10:00.005-06:00

In honor of the great Charlie Louvin, who passed away today at age 83, let's revisit a phone interview I did with him in 2007. He had just released "Charlie Louvin," and album on which he duetted with a host of guest stars, including Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello, George Jones and others.

I think I had to suppress a laugh when he referred to Uncle Tupelo as "Uncle Tom." Some years before, when I interviewed Johnny Cash (who is mentioned at the end of this piece) he referred to the band as "Uncle Jethro." Now, Louvin and Cash are among the best of the best and they obviously have more on their minds than a little ol' band from Belleville, IL. But is the name Uncle Tupelo that hard to remember?

Anyway, here's to you, Charlie.

Where are you?

I’m sitting in front of the Louvin Brothers Museum. They hung these stupid no smoking signs up in Tennessee today, and I’m sitting out on a bench in front of the place.

Is that a new law?

Oh yeah. Our wonderful state senators voted it in. They didn’t ask nobody, they just voted it in.

So you’re sitting outside having a smoke?

That’s true.

Where is the museum?

It’s in a little place called Music Valley Village. It’s right across from the Opryland Hotel. Right by the Fiddler’s Inn and right by the Ernest Tubb Record Shop.

So if people come there, you’re often there, huh?

If I’m not on the road, I’m here. Today, we’ve got this show coming up Friday night at the Mercy Lounge and we’ve got a rehearsal a little later this evening with the band. We’re doing some songs that we’ve never done. Other people requested that they help on a certain song. So we’ve gotta rehearse so we sound a little bit like we know what we’re doing.

Let me ask you about this new record that you’ve made and touring around that. This is your first record in some time, isn’t it?

It’s the first record that’s had national distribution (in a long time). They said it’s the first one I’ve had in 10 years, but I just got tired of playing the game, Dan. ‘Cause I’ve cut, in the last 12 years, I’ve cut a dozen independent CDs. But they went nowhere because they had no distribution and you know how those things go. Radio stations won’t play them, either.

This one’s interesting because it bring you together with a couple other generations of singers. What was it like working with them?

All the people that helped on the record, they’re very familiar with Louvin Brothers material. And although some of it is not Louvin Brother material, they were familiar with the 1927 music of the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and the 1930s music of the Delmore Brothers and the Monroe Brothers. We threw it all in there.

Were you at all familiar with the younger artists? I mean, obviously Geroge Jones and Tom T. Hall, but what about the others?

Jeff Tweedy, I’m pretty familiar with him. Will Oldham. Uncle Tom (sic) a few years back cut “The Great Atomic Power,” which got me familiar with them. For the most part, the majority. Joy Lynn White, I’ve enjoyed her music. She can sing when she wants to. Some of them I haven’t got to meet yet because when I did my part, Mark Nevers, the producer, he just sketched in whatever he could. And he was the one that brought Lambchop back and a few of the other people. He knew these people and as he could catch them… I live 75 miles from downtown Nashville. I live out towards Chattanooga. Sometimes they would say I could come by at 11:15 and they’d say that at 10:30. They didn’t have time to get me downtown. So he took ‘em as he could catch ‘em. But I got to meet most of them since. I did some pictures with Jeff Tweedy at Bonnaroo. And I met Will in…ah shit, I believe it was Cincinnati.

Bonnaroo – what was that like?

It was the 17th of June. It was hot, Dan, and it was dusty. We’re extremely dry here. So it’s gotten real dry and dusty. But the shows themselves – we got real nice crowds. They knew what we were doing and acted like they appreciated it. So that’s all an artist can ask for.

A couple years ago, you toured with Cheap Trick. Is it strange to you that the rock audience has embraced you more than country?

Well, thanks to guys like you. I never went to one place when I was working with Cake and Cheap trick that the people didn’t know that I was going to be there. Newspapers prepared ‘em for that. It was a pleasurable trip. John – with Cake, he’s an avid Louvin Brothers fan. He and I would do a couple Louvin Brother songs and I would do one of my own. And before the tour was over I was singing “I’m a California Man” with Cheap Trick. So all the guys, regardless of the genre of music that they’re in, they’re just nice people.

The rock audience seems more accepting of your music – which is very traditional – than country is these days. It’s moved away from that.

There’s a lot of radio stations coming to alternative. If you’re going to call it that. I hate to have to change my name every time I come out with a record. Because I still do country. And I’m fixing to do something in August, I’m going to record in August, that will probably blow your hat in the creek.

What’s that?

Mark Nevers says he knows the best piano player in the world, who just happens to be black. And he wants to record me with a piano only and three black girl singers. And we’re gonna cut gospel music that they have taken out of the churches. If you go to church, all you’re gonna hear is a three word song: “praise the lord, praise the lord.” I don’t enjoy church done that way. So we’re going to record some of the old stuff like “In the Garden” and “On the Stormy Banks I Stand” and “I’ll Fly Away” and we’ll do a good number of uptempo stuff and then some serious songs. I’m hoping that it’ll work out. I don’t know. He wanted to know if I would be offended recording with blacks, and I said, shit, I’ve been working with black people since 1946. I once had a black bass player. I don’t care if you’re black green or yellow, if you play the music, I just call you a musician.

This’ll take you back to where you started in black music.

It will. I’m looking forward to that.

One of the songs on the record that you wrote that is just heartbreaking is “Ira.” Talk about him a little bit.

I had a couple friends of mine, the LeClair twins, and they’re big Louvin Brother fans and they came to my house one day and said, “Why haven’t you ever wrote a tribute song?” So this one, although it’s not a religious song, it has a religious intonation. It checks your morality. So we just sat down and wrote it together. Because I never did think of Ira and heaven in the same breath. We didn’t part on good terms. Ira was always a drinker. And people ask me what happened to the Louvin Brothers, why did we break up? I can answer that question with two words: Jack Daniels. I didn’t then know how to handle a drunk and I don’t know how to handle one today. I’m basically a non-drinker and back in Ira’s days, people just thought you were being mean. That you could quit that crap if you wanted to. Well, today they call it a disease. Drinking is a disease like so many other things. Ira didn’t get killed instantly. He was coming to your city. Half way between Kansas City and St. Louis – Kingdom City is where he got killed. People always told Ira drinking’s going to kill you, and ironically, it did. He wasn’t on the wheel, he was riding in the back seat. But a couple of people in another car, according to Missouri law, was nine times drunk. They was on the wrong side of the road and I really don’t know what happened. I’ve lost a lot of good friends, including my brother from drinking and driving. I just don’t agree with that at all.

Before that, you did have some amazing years of singing together. What is it about family harmonies that are so special?

I think mostly, Dan, it’s the fact that you were born to the same parents. If you were a singer, and you found somebody who lived five miles down the road from you, I don’t care how often you can get together and sing with this partner, it would never equal the time that you spend with a brother or sister. It was just kind of born in us. We heard a lot of great singing in our growing years and we took that and our love for other duos, like the Delmore Brothers, the Blue Sky Boys, the Monroe Brothers, which kind of was a rough duet. And we did our own style and we change parts a lot and it was almost impossible for a novice to tell when you changed. And that was the Louvin Brothers style.

On this record you got to do some songs by those other acts. The Carter family, the Delmore Brothers, Bill Monroe. Was it fun to revisit some of those songs?

It was. We grew up listening to the Carter Family. They didn’t have records, they had transcriptions. And they played on XERF in Acuna, Mexico. We could get that station in northeast Alabama when we were kids. We would listen to some of that, then we would listen to WJJD in Chicago that played good country music. Of course, we were limited on the time that we could spend on the radio because of the batteries. But there were certain shows that we would actually sit down and listen to. The same way with the Opry, back when the Opry was the Opry… you knew what time Roy Acuff was coming on, you knew what time each artist was coming on. They came on the Opry at the same time each Saturday night. So we would listen to maybe the 10 o’clock show to Roy Acuff and that might be the only show we would listen to that Saturday night. That was back in the days when there was nothing but radio and you could hang a few names on a placard and people would come out.

It’s hard to imagine that today, isn’t it?

Today, it’s hard to get the people to come out because they can sit in their living room and see any kind of show they want to see.

Johnny Cash once told me the story of you guys coming to his home town in Northeastern Arkansas. He was waiting for you when you got there and he showed you to the way to the bathroom or something.

I remember that day very well. I made a statement that I’m sure he didn’t take it that way, but thinking back, I think it was a smartass answer. I came out of the bathroom, I had a little pack of two soda crackers. I opened those and started to eatin’ one of them, and he said, “Why are you eating those crackers?” Well, he was 11 I think and I was about 18. And I gave him a smart remark like “to keep from starving to death.” He said in his “Man in Black” book that for the first three or four or five years that he was in the singing business he would always eat two soda crackers before he went onstage – which would be the worst thing you could do. Anyway, it was a great honor. I admired Mr. Cash. I think he did a super job on the tribute album, almost the last thing he ever cut was “Keep Your Eyes on Jesus.” Carl Jackson produced that. He was a man among men, John was.

Question

2011-01-10T18:24:00.002-06:00

Who named Bridgestone's Blizzak snow tires? Snoop Dogg?

Josh Nelson/Johnny Mathis

2011-01-07T19:48:00.002-06:00

My St. Louis Jewish Light preview of singer Josh Nelson's brief residency at Congregation Shaare Emeth. Also: Johnny Mathis -- mensch.

St. Louis Shape Note Singers

2011-01-07T19:45:00.003-06:00

My preview of the St. Louis Shape Note Singers' participation in Ann Hamilton's installation "stylus" at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts. They'll be singing in the Pulitzer's Cube Gallery from 7-9 p.m. next Thursday.

Justin Roberts preview

2011-01-06T13:12:00.002-06:00

Here my preview of kids' music artist Justin Roberts, who is performing Saturday afternoon at Off Broadway. ATTN parents: Roberts is that rare kids' music performer -- the kids love his music and you can listen to it, too, without feeling compelled to slam the minivan into a wall.

Scala & Kolacny Brothers

2011-01-06T12:54:00.002-06:00

I'm enjoying the stuff I'm hearing from Scala & Kolacny Brothers, a choir made up of young Belgian women -- that would be Scala -- conducted and accompanied by the Kolacny brothers, Stijn and Steven. Their sound is more "gloom" than "Glee," and a little goes a long way. But their music makes for a nice change of pace next to the usual pop/rock fare. Check it out:

The best music of 2010

2010-12-14T14:59:00.003-06:00

It’s time once again to take stock of the year gone by. Here’s a look at the albums, singles and concerts that, much to my delight, got my attention and wouldn’t let go –plus a few listening experiences I wish I could forget.

Albums
1. Janelle Monae, The ArchAndroid [Bad Boy]
The concept may be over the top – an android is sent back in time from the future to fight oppression (or something like that) – but the music is undeniable, surveying hard funk, glam rock, synth pop, hip hop, bebop, R&B, lounge jazz and even classical. It's one of the year’s most wildly ambitious albums, and thanks to Monae’s confident delivery of her complex vision, it’s also the most accomplished.

2. Afrocubism, Afrocubism [Nonesuch]
Fourteen years after Buena Vista Social Club became a landmark world music release, the original intention of those sessions – bringing together great Cuban musicians, such as guitarist/vocalist Eliades Ochoa with Malian masters Bassekou Kouyate (ngoni), Djelimady Tounkara (guitar) and Toumani Diabate (kora), among others, has been realized. Buena Vista’s American ambassador, Ry Cooder, is missing here, but the album still lives up to the project’s original promise.

3. Neil Young, Le Noise [Reprise]
Thanks to producer Daniel Lanois, this solo guitar-and-vocal effort, whose style Neil Young termed “folk-metal,” is one of the most sonically adventurous of his career. Lyrically, it’s strikingly intimate and revealing as Young sings about love, war, and details of his journey in life and music.

4. Grinderman, Grinderman 2 [Anti-]
No one in rock scares me – in a good way, that is – like Nick Cave. He’s made some of the most unsettling – no, strike that – feral music of the past decade, and I love it.

5. LCD Soundsystem, This Is Happening [DFA/Virgin]
I’ve obviously passed out of the key demographic age for dance music, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a part of my regular listening regimen. Because LCD Soundsystem auteur James Murphy delivers the grooves, but adds lyrics that are usually hilarious and often quite heartfelt, he’s a particular favorite of mine.

6. Beach House, Teen Dream [Sub Pop]
If this year produced an album of shimmering, gossamer pop music more gorgeous than Teen Dream, I’ve yet to hear it. The songs of Baltimore duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand bring on a giddy, euphoric state, but I’m strangely drawn to the woozy, almost nausea-inducing sections of “Norway” that sound like a slightly warped record on the turntable.

7. The Roots, How I Got Over [Def Jam]
Already an astoundingly versatile act, the Roots’ steady gig as house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon has expanded its frame of reference, leading to a mix of hip-hop and alt-rock on How I Got Over. Guests include Jim James, Joanna Newsom and the Dirty Projectors. Not to worry, though: the spotlight is still on Black Thought’s razor-sharp rhymes and ?uestlove’s funky drumming.

8. Mumford & Sons, Sigh No More [Glass Note]
The Grammy noms for Best New Artist and Best Rock Song (“Little Lion Man”) are justified. The British folk-rock band’s harmonies are entrancing, but the pounding rhythms that drive their songs will snap you out of your reverie pretty quickly. This is folk music you can mosh to.

9. Jamey Johnson, The Guitar Song [Mercury Nashville]
Jamey Johnson looks like a biker or maybe a pro wrestler – which is appropriate, because he is in fact a latter-day Outlaw, in the mold of Willie and Waylon and the boys. His 25-song double album is chock full of songs about life in the real world. It’s on a major label, yeah, but this set’s very existence is an indictment of Nashville’s fantasy factory.

10. Robert Plant, Band of Joy [Rounder]
Not as arresting as Raising Sand, his classic collaboration with Alison Krauss, but Band of Joy, which matches rock’s Golden God with alt-country angels Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin is still sublime, drawing on songs from sources as disparate as Los Lobos (“Angel Dance”) to slowcore stalwart Low (“Silver Rider,” “Monkey”).

Honorable mention: The Arcade Fire, The Suburbs [Merge]; The Black Keys, Brothers [Nonesuch]; The Budos Band, The Budos Band III [Daptone]; Carolina Chocolate Drops, Genuine Negro Jig [Nonesuch]; Elizabeth Cook, Welder [31 Tigers]; Frightened Rabbit, The Winter of Mixed Drinks [Fat Cat]; Tom Jones, Praise & Blame [Mercury Nashville]; Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, I Speak Fula [Next Ambience]; Jim Lauderdale, Patchwork River [Emergent/92E]; The National, High Violet [4AD]; Robyn, Body Talk [Cherry Tree]; Bruce Springsteen, The Promise[Columbia]; Mavis Staples, You Are Not Alone [Anti-]; Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate, Ali & Toumani[Nonesuch]; Trombone Shorty, Backatown [Verve Forecast].

Worst:
Santana, Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time [Arista]
That sound you hear is the bottom of the Supernatural barrel being scraped.

Best Local:
Pokey LaFarge & the South City Three, Riverboat Soul [Free Dirt]
Thanks to a star-making turn at the Newport Folk Festival and critical praise from all over, LaFarge can't really be said to be a local act anymore. But he's such an advocate for St. Louis' rich musical history and for the city itself, that we'll always be able to claim him. And believe me, we're going to want to.

Singles
1. Shamantis, “J. Biebz - U Smile 800% Slower”
The best song Sigur Ros never recorded.

2. Janelle Monae featuring Big Boi, “Tightrope”

3. Cee Lo Green, “Fuck You”

4. Robyn, “Dancing on My Own”

5. Best Coast, “Boyfriend”

6. Sade, “Soldier of Love”

7. The Black Keys, “Tighten Up”

8. Mavis Staples, “You Are Not Alone”

9. Broken Bells, “The High Road”

10. Hanson, “Thinkin’ ‘Bout Something”

Honorable mention: Frightened Rabbit, “Swim Until You Can’t See Land”; Gorillaz, featuring Mos Def and Bobby Womack, “Stylo”; LCD Soundsystem, “Dance Yrself Clean”; Mumford & Sons, “Little Lion Man”; Sleigh Bells, “Tell ‘Em.”

Concerts
1. Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, April 7, Touhill PAC
2. Jonsi, November 2, The Pageant
3. Loufest, August 28-29, Forest Park
4. Mumford & Sons, June 15, Off Broadway
5. Jeff Beck, April 29, Fox Theater
6. Mary J. Blige(Lilith), July 16, Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
7. Carolina Chocolate Drops, February 26, St. Louis Art Museum
8. Lyle Lovett, August 1, The Sheldon
9. Frightened Rabbit, May 7, Old Rock House
10. Carole King/James Taylor, July 10, Scottrade Center

Honorable mention:
David Sanborn, Jazz at the Bistro, August 17; Todd Rundgren, September 10, Roberts Orpheum Theater; Lucero, December 7, Off Broadway; John McLaughlin, November 19, The Sheldon; Steve Martin & the Steep Canyon Rangers, April 23, Roberts Orpheum Theater

Worst: Hole, July 13, The Pageant
Fans came expecting a train wreck, but what they got was something worse: a boring train wreck. Love showed up late and blathered about playing all night. In the end, she was only onstage for about 50 minutes, which was far too long.

Some more reviews of the Neil Young book

2010-12-11T09:48:00.001-06:00

I think the review/feature cycle for the book is just about over. I've been sitting on some of these for a while, so it's finally time to post 'em.

Victoria Times/Colonist

Lithium Magazine

Shepherd-Express

American Songwriter

Lancaster Online

York Press

Elsewhere (New Zealand!)

Rockerparis

London Free Press

Yeh-Yeh Girl

Psychobabble

Bob Dylan says "Stick with Mono"

2010-10-21T11:05:00.001-05:00

I'm still awaiting the arrival of my "Bob Dylan in Mono" box set. Until then, I have this odd promotional video to occupy my time.

Peter Himmelman preview

2010-10-07T13:57:00.001-05:00

Peter Himmelman is doing a "family show" -- meaning he'll be playing songs from his kids-music albums -- at Congregation Kol Am on Sunday afternoon. But he's a fascinating guy with a zillion projects in the works all at once. Here's a profile of Himmelman I wrote for the St. Louis Jewish Light.

Neil delivers "Le Noise" to YouTube

2010-10-01T14:30:00.000-05:00

And in this installment, Neil delivers the "Le Noise" video to, um, "UTube."

Neil Young -- Le Noise -- the Film

2010-09-30T15:40:00.000-05:00

Young posted this film on YouTube today. It features the material on his new album, "Le Noise," filmed while he recorded it at Daniel Lanois' house in L.A.

Neil Young/Daniel Lanois interview with CBC

2010-09-28T10:00:00.000-05:00

"Le Noise" is out today, BTW.

Springsteen fans...we've been there

2010-09-25T09:27:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of Bernie Miklasz...

And the reverse:
"Getting my elbows on the stage is on my bucket list" -- ha!

Bob Dylan appears on "Pawn Stars."

2010-09-24T00:46:00.001-05:00

I was pretty amused when Chumlee, the schlubby assistant on "Pawn Stars" -- a show I reluctantly find myself drawn to -- was sent on a mission to get a copy of Bob Dylan's "Self-Portrait" signed by the man himself. Imagine my surprise, then, when he actually does it! At first, it seemed staged: But then, why would Bob Dylan, who doesn't even sign autographs, let alone appear on weird cable reality shows, want to be on "Pawn Stars?" Turns out, as Chumlee tells Rolling Stone, the whole thing was real. He staked out Dylan's tour bus and got his prized autograph -- much to his boss' chagrin. He wanted the album signed, but not personalized to Chumlee.

Catching up on some clips

2010-09-20T12:52:00.000-05:00

I previewed Todd Rundgren's concert at Roberts Orpheum Theatre a couple weeks ago. Here's that clip from the Post-Dispatch.

I also reviewed the show.

Here's my preview of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, who performed last night at the Pageant.

At the show, Jones surprised some young fans who'd driven in to see her from Northbrook, IL. Having seen their YouTube clip of "She Ain't a Child No More," Jones turned the band loose onstage for a performance that genuinely rocked the house. Here's that YouTube clip:

Wilco hits the REALLY big time

2010-09-14T11:32:00.001-05:00

They're in the Jumble!

Arcade Fire's MSG show available on YouTube

2010-09-03T11:18:00.000-05:00

The Arcade Fire's recent show at Madison Square Garden is available for viewing on Vevo. Direction by the great Terry Gilliam!

Loufest review and photos

2010-09-02T14:40:00.000-05:00

Here's my review of last weekend's Loufest from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. I had the chance to shoot a few photos while I was there as well. Here's a sampling:

The Bottle Rockets

The Bottle Rockets

stephaniesid

So Many Dynamos

Adam Reichmann

Titus Andronicus

Lucero

Lucero

The Airborne Toxic Event

Built to Spill

Kim Massie

Magnolia Summer

Carolina Chocolate Drops

Gentleman Auction House

Corey Chisel

Fruit Bats

Alejandro Escovedo

Alejandro Escovedo

Jeff Tweedy

Jeff Tweedy

She & Him

Q&A: The Black Crowes' Rich Robinson

2010-08-25T22:56:00.001-05:00

You can find my preview of the Black Crowes' show at the Pageant Friday night here.

In the meantime, here's the (relatively) uncut transcript of my chat with guitarist Rich Robinson.

Q: So if we want to see the Black Crowes, we better do it now. Correct?
A: Yeah. We’ve been going pretty steady for the last five years and it’s just time to take a break and go do other things for a little while. It’s the first time that we – you know, we don’t have a plan. We’re just gonna go and see what happens.

Q: Ostensibly, this came about because several of you are having babies.
A: Well, three of us just had babies. I had a son four months ago. My brother’s daughter was born in December and Luther [Dickinson] had a baby in October of last year.

Q: Congratulations. Is this your first?
A: I have two with my first wife. They’re 14 and 10.

Q: Ah, so you’re starting over. The new wives, they want babies.
A: When you get divorced and you go through that whole thing, you miss your family. My guys come over and see their little brother and they love him and it’s really cool. I feel like that was – it was so important to me, and then you split up and then it’s the obligatory American way of looking at divorce where the dad is like, “Oh, it doesn’t matter. He can see ‘em every other weekend.” It’s just like this thing that you have to fight to try and see them more and more. Starting a new family and having a new baby is great. I’m real excited.

Q: The last time you guys went your own way, it wasn’t under such happy circumstances. That really was a breakup of the band, correct?
A: Yeah, that was definitely – that was 11 solid years of touring and making records and no break. I think if we’d taken a break in the middle of that, I think we all would have – it wouldn’t have happened. You know what I mean? But you know, you’re young and you just get caught up in this thing. We left in 1990 and we were basically caught up in this whirlwind that lasted for 11 solid years. You know, you just need, I think…as we get older, you get a little more perspective and kinda know…well, look, we’ve been doing this a while, let’s – I hate to say “recharge your batteries” but I guess that’s the most appropriate thing to say.

Q: Other than what you just said, did you guys learn anything from that previous split that informed the way you dealt with each other after you got back together?
A: Yeah. I think leaving on a note like that, when we split up, I think there’s a lot of hurt feelings, there’s a lot of animosity, there’s a lot of arguing. It was just like, it was something that blew up. And this time, everyone, because we’re older, and also that break really – it was hard for a lot of people to figure out what to do with yourself for 11 solid years and all of a sudden it stops. And then the world is kind of free and you can do anything, but what do you do? So for me, it kind of took a while, but it helped me find my own identity and it helped me to play with other musicians. That was amazing for me, because I’d just really been in the Black Crowes. And so to go through the process of putting a new band together and trying to play with these people and doing these sorts of things really helped. It was a really cool experience. And it also helped me in a lot of ways like that. This time, it’s planned, everyone knows what’s going to happen, so I think we can be a lot more at ease. As we get older, I think we accept everyone. I don’t think there’s any more of those anger issues that there used to be.

Q: Well, I’m no psychiatrist, but you and Chris have put an entire continent between you.
A: Yeah, exactly.

Q: That’s what it takes, huh?
A: Yeah, definitely. Sometimes, a couple of continents (laughs). No, it’s cool. First of all, yeah, he moved out to L.A. years ago. I want to say like 15 or 16. And he just kind of felt more at home there. He wanted to get away from his hometown and stuff. And that’s what he’s into. I mean, I love New York, and I live in that area. And that’s where I want to be. Like Chris and I, they’re very different places. And there’s different things to do. And we’re at a point now where it’s not like it used to be. We don’t really get in big drag-out arguments anymore. We agree to disagree. It’s like, “That’s you’re opinion, let’s move on.” It’s definitely better for us and the band. It’s really annoying for people to have to be privy to family bullshit.

Q: You’re not erasing each other’s recordings anymore?
A: No.

Q: What album was that?
A: That was on the first “Amorica.” And you wonder why we tossed it (laughs).

Q: I don’t get the whole brother dynamic. I’m an only child.
A: Oh, okay. Someone explained to me when I had my second child: The doctor said, “If your wife brought home another husband and said, ‘Okay honey, here’s this guy. I’m gonna love him as much as I love you, and everything’s gonna be cool. But he’s gonna live with us from now on.’” When she told me that, I was like, “Wow. That would be interesting.” And then that creates a whole mess of competition and stuff. But being competent parents, you know how to deal with it and you hope to grow out of it.

Q: It’s probably too soon to know this, but what will you be doing during the hiatus?
I’m hoping to be scoring some movies again. I did a movie and a play and I really loved it. I’m hoping to do some producing and writing for other people, which I’ve been doing a little of this past year. And possibly making another solo album.

Q: Is there the expectation that at some point the band will get back together?
A: I don’t know. Like I said, we just really have no plans. We’re just doing what we do. And that’s basically it.

Q: Let me ask you some things about “Croweology.” What did you want to accomplish when you set out to rework some of the hits and the favorites and so forth?
A: We were talking about what to do for 20 years and a lot of ideas popped around. We just decided to touch on 20 songs for 20 years and kind of run the gamut. We had played some acoustic shows earlier in our career. Most recently, we did these shows at Town Hall in New York as just acoustic. Which was basically this presentation and we really thought it was cool. So the idea came up, instead of forcing some kind of arrangemental change or trying to do something completely different, let’s, just by presenting it in this way is gonna change it enough, and then we’ll come up with more ideas of how to shape these songs so that they’re a little different but that they still touch on the last 20 years. Really, that’s it. We felt that, just the tonality of acoustic guitars and full drums, almost like “Led Zeppelin III.” It’s still a heavy kind of cool record, but there’s a much more organic sound to it. And to hear these songs in that element we thought would be really cool.

Q: Was it difficult to come up with the track list?
A: Steve, Chris and I just wrote a list of 20 songs and then compared ‘em, and 80% were already agreed upon. And then the others were like, “Okay, I forgot that one. Oh yeah, that would be cool. Let’s try it.” Things like that.

Q: It’s a nice way to put a bow on this era of the band without doing another live album or greatest hits set. It’s a nice alternative to that.
A: Yeah, I thought it was cool.

Q: Does the way you did this album play into the shows at all?
A: Where we can – and that means the size of the stage and the time frame, because some venues have strict curfews, we’re doing three hour sets where the first half is acoustic and the second half electric.

Q: The lineup of the band has always been pretty fluid.
A: Which sucks. Everyone kind of wishes it would say. Everyone in the band does. It’s not something that we choose, it’s just something that happens. But now we feel like everyone that’s here really fits the bill. We’re really sounding like this band and this is what we are.

Q: So, perfect, split up, then.
A: Exactly (laughs).

KDHX relocating to Grand Center

2010-08-23T13:30:00.000-05:00

I admit I'm out of the loop when it comes to KDHX, but I didn't see this coming. Best of luck to them!

From a press release:

KDHX Announces Relocation to Grand Center Arts and Entertainment District

The voice of St. Louis' creative community launches 4 million dollar capital campaign to consolidate 88.1 KDHX radio, TV and film operations into one state-of-the-art facility

ST. LOUIS, August 23, 2010 - KDHX, St. Louis' award-winning, independent, community radio and media arts organization, today announced it has received a gift of space in the Grand Center Arts and Entertainment District in mid-town St. Louis. The building is located in the heart of the district at 3524 Washington Ave.

This significant gift was given to the independent media arts organization in order to honor and commemorate the contributions of long-time operations manager Larry J. Weir, and to provide the opportunity for organizational growth to enhance the KDHX mission of building community through media.
KDHX has launched a 4 million dollar capital campaign in order to renovate the new facility specifically as a radio station, media center and 150-seat, multi-use venue. The new facility will offer vital operational efficiencies critical to enhancing the organization's mission, and its ability to serve its growing audience, volunteers and artists.

"For over 23 years, 88.1 KDHX has been broadcasting from a 100-year-old bakery building without adequate space for visiting artists and volunteers, while our media arts programs are produced in a separate facility and neighborhood," stated Beverly Hacker, co-executive director for KDHX. "A single location, built to green standards that consolidates the radio station with the media arts programs with much needed improvements to the live performance studio and production facilities, will enable us to increase our usable space, upgrade all of our equipment while reducing current operating expenses. We're thrilled to finally have the capacity to bump up the quality and quantity of our programs."

The Grand Center location of the new facility complements both KDHX's mission and the vision for the district. The area holds the highest concentration of cultural resources in the St. Louis region, offering over 1.5 million visitors each year numerous and varied arts and entertainment events. Institutions such as the Contemporary Art Museum, the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, the Fox Theater, the Sheldon Concert Hall, Powell Symphony Hall and the Kranzberg Arts Center are among the many organizations that reside in the district. As a connector of different forms of creative production and a voice for other non-profit and arts institutions, KDHX will offer a fresh, street-level vitality and sound to the city's core arts and entertainment district.

In addition to providing more than 1,000 volunteers, enhanced physical space and production facility improvements, KDHX is in partnership with a food service venue to offer a street-level cafe for the public and a venue for live performances and film events.

The building renovation will require approximately 18 months. Capital Campaign funds will pay for the necessary renovation, equipment upgrades and provide a $500,000 operating reserve to ensure the sustainability of the new facility upon completion.

About KDHX

KDHX is the award-winning, independent radio station and media arts organization in St. Louis, Missouri. 88.1 KDHX broadcasts diverse music programming from St. Louis and worldwide via the web 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. KDHX supports music, the arts and culture in St. Louis, and presents, sponsors and promotes local and national live music events. KDHX also produces and sponsors international film challenges showcased in festivals and theaters around the world and online. KDHX is publicly supported and licensed to the Double Helix Corporation, a non-profit organization, that serves to build community by fostering the production and growth of independent media. KDHX is headquartered at 625 N. Euclid, Suite 100, St. Louis, Missouri.
###

http://kdhx.org

Christopher Walken reads Lady Gaga's "Poker Face"

2010-08-23T13:22:00.000-05:00

He's no Steve Allen. But then, who is?

Cee-Lo's viral hit

2010-08-23T13:14:00.000-05:00

The last few days I got all these messages in my inbox with "Fuck You" in the subject line. I thought, "What did I do now?"

Justin Bieber slowed down 800%

2010-08-17T12:34:00.000-05:00

This is genius. Someone going by the name of Shamantis took a Justin Bieber song and slowed it down 800%. The result sounds eerily like something by the great Icelandic band Sigur Ros. Who knew?

Thanks to friend Andy Adelwitz for pointing me to it.

From the archives: David Sanborn interview

2010-08-17T10:52:00.000-05:00

In honor of David Sanborn's special appearance at Jazz at the Bistro (night two is tonight), here's a Q&A with Sanborn that I did for the St. Louis Beacon in 2008.

Famed saxophonist David Sanborn still makes it back to the St. Louis area a few times a year, to visit his mom and his old home town of Kirkwood, and to drive around looking for landmarks of his time growing up here.

“I do the old standard drive down memory lane kind of thing,” Sanborn says. “Drive to all those places where I used to hang out and wonder why they’re not there anymore. Like Gaslight Square. It’s gone.”

Sanborn is right to bemoan St. Louis’ tendency to plow under its past – as well as much of its musical legacy. But the city also provided Sanborn with pockets of culture – however hard they were to find – that launched him on a musical odyssey that’s lasted more than four decades.

While still in high school, Sanborn jammed with the likes of Albert King and Little Milton Campbell. He later moved to California and joined the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and played with them at Woodstock. He toured with Stevie Wonder and David Bowie and played numerous sessions, sitting in with the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Gil Evans, James Taylor, George Benson, Eric Clapton, and many others.

His own albums, starting with “Taking Off” in 1975, have sometimes been relegated to the smooth jazz category, but Sanborn’s distinctive playing, filled with the R&B, blues and jazz influences of his youth, have allowed his albums such as “Voyeur,” “Straight to the Heart,” “Another Hand” and “Time Again” to rise about the easy-listening limitations of the genre.

Sanborn’s latest album, “Here & Gone” brings him back to some of his early enthusiasms – the music of Ray Charles, and specifically the work of Charles’ sax players, Hank Crawford and David “Fathead” Newman. Sanborn recently spoke at length with the Beacon about the album, his life in music, and his days in the St. Louis area.

Q: This album is a return to your roots in blues and R&B music. Where exactly did a white kid from Kirkwood acquire those roots?

A: Initially it was radio and records. The time I was growing up, it was the mid-‘50s, which is kind of the beginning of the mass popularity of rhythm and blues and the early days of rock and roll. People like Fats Domino and Little Richard all had horns in their band. I think Little Richard had like five saxophones. The same with Fats Domino. In Fats Domino’s case, all the New Orleans players – people like Lee Allen, Red Prysock, Clifford Scott, who played saxophone on the Bill Doggett “Honky Tonk” record. That was a huge record for me. Just the sound of the record.

The saxophone was just such an expressive instrument for me. Before I even thought about playing it, it always kind of drew me – the sound of it. It was the pervasive solo instrument in pop music at the time. Not only in rhythm and blues and jazz, obviously, but also in mainstream pop music. People like Jimmy Dorsey were making pop records, and Earl Bostic. Billy May. So it was pretty much everywhere in the culture.

Q: Was there a certain place you bought records, or a certain radio show you listened to back then?

A: I listened to radio station KATZ. There was a deejay who really, through the years, was a major influence on me just in terms of what he played. Two guys, actually. One was a guy named Spider Burks and the other was Leo Chears. Those guys, the music they played, it was so full of life. And for a kid in the suburbs, it was like, wow, there’s something out there that’s really very interesting. I just found myself more and more drawn to it, whatever that experience was. Certainly it wasn’t anything I could articulate at the time.

Q: I’ve heard you talk before about getting to see some of your musical heroes play concerts…at St. Louis Hawks games?

A: Yeah. There was a year – I think it was just for a year, it might have been more than that – after the basketball games at Kiel Auditorium, they would have concerts by bands: people like Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Ray Charles. I remember at one of the games, Ray had the band do half an hour or 45 minutes before he came on. Hank Crawford and David “Fathead” Newman were in that band. And both of those guys, especially Hank, had such an effect on me. I think I was 11 years old. I’d been sick when I was a kid. I had polio when I was a kid, and the doctors said I should play a wind instrument for therapy. By that time, having heard all this stuff on the radio and then hearing Hank and “Fathead” play with Ray Charles – that was kind of it for me. I said, “I want to play the saxophone.”

Q: How did you encounter and then wind up playing with guys like Albert King and Little Milton Campbell?

A: There used to be these things in St. Louis called Teen Towns, which were basically dances. And there was a place not far from where I lived. It was called the Sunset something. It had a swimming pool, it was like a rec center. It was not run down, but kind of low-rent. But it was great, because they used to have local bands playing there. Guys like Bob Kuban and Jules Blattner and the Teen Tones. And they’d have regional band come through there, two of which were Little Milton and Albert King. This friend of mine I grew up with, we would go hand out at these Teen Towns and we became friendly with Little Milton’s piano player
I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but we kind of finagled our way into having Milton let me sit in with him. There was another saxophone player who was playing with Milton as well. It wasn’t like I was playing by myself. They were very gracious and they each showed me what to play. I just kind of played background stuff, but actually being up there onstage, playing with these incredible musicians at that age – I was 15 – it was just such a rush.

Q: Did this get you any street cred back at Kirkwood High, or was it something you had to kind of keep to yourself?

A: No, this wasn’t anything that garnered me any of that at all. St. Louis at that time was very racially segregated. My high school had only been integrated for a couple of years before I got there. It was a Jim Crow town, man. All the movie theaters were segregated. So when people recall, “Oh, the good old days and how great things were back in the ’50s…”, well, it really depends on your perspective. Maybe for some people, but for a lot of people, it wasn’t so great. The black community in St. Louis was very isolated.

I have to say, especially in retrospect, it was amazing that I encountered very little hostility whenever I was involved in situations that were primarily African Americans, whether it was a club or whatever musical situation. If it was there, I certainly didn’t feel it. That had a profound effect on me. It was remarkable to me that I had all these opportunities to participate in music that I genuinely loved and – I can say this now – in a real way gave me my life. Not just my living, my way of making my living. It gave me my life.

Q: One of the things that separates you from other saxophone players is your distinct voice on the instrument – the tone and the emotion of your playing. People instantly know it’s you. How did that develop?

A: It was never anything conscious on my part. I was like everybody else. I’m the product of my influences. Early on, those people that named earlier, Hank Crawford and David “Fathead” Newman were the two most influential guys for me. Just in terms of phrasing, sound. So I was trying to imitate those guys initially. Then I heard guys like Jackie McLean, Phil Woods, Cannonball Adderley. Even Paul Desmond. Paul Desmond always reminded me of Lester Young. Just in his lines and the logic of what he played. When I heard him before I heard Lester Young, and when I heard Lester Young, I said, “Oh, I get it. That’s where Paul Desmond comes from.”

My point is, I picked up bits and pieces from a lot of different people, but I always gravitated toward the bluesier, earthier guys. I think Hank and “Fathead” and Phil Woods. I love Phil’s sound. I don’t think anyone would necessarily hear a lot of Phil Woods in my playing. But those are guys that I listened to and kind of tried to imitate.

Q: You’ve been called on for session work by so many folks, from Stevie Wonder and Springsteen and the Stones and Bowie. Do you have any favorite memories out of some of those experiences?

A: I never really made my living in the studio as a session musician. I was really just a sideman and I would play sometimes for people that I wasn’t working with because it was a friend of the producer or I met them on the road or something like that. I was not one of those saxophone-for-hire guys. I never fit that profile ‘cause I wasn’t in that mix of studio musicians.

But having the opportunity to do a variety of different things was really appealing to me. It allowed me to put my particular kind of playing into different contexts. And what I realized early on was that I wasn’t playing any differently with Gil Evans, say, than I was with David Bowie. I was only reacting to whatever the harmonic rhythmic context was in a different way. But my essential approach to playing was the same – my sound, my phrasing. And fortunately for me, I’ve been very lucky that all the people who have hired me have hired me to just be myself.

Q: You presided over one of the great music TV shows of all time, “Sunday Night”/“Night Music.” What do you remember about that show?

A: I remember every week that we did it, feeling such a great sense of enthusiasm for what we were doing. For me it was like being a kid in a candy store, getting all those great people on that were heroes of mine. And the fact that we got such a wide cross-section of music on there: everybody from Sun Ra to Al Green to Conway Twitty to Miles Davis to Eric Clapton. Randy Newman, the Pixies. I had “Fathead” Newman on and Hank Crawford and Stanley Turrentine, Dizzy Gillespie. All these great musicians. Not only did we get them on to do their stuff individually, but we managed to put together some pretty interesting musical combinations, like Leonard Cohen playing with Sonny Rollins.

Q: I think my favorite was Conway Twitty with the Residents dancing behind him in their eyeball costumes.

A: Singing “Teddy Bear.” [Note: It was actually “When You’re Cool.”] That’s the one that kind of blew the sponsors out a little. I remember the guy from Michelob coming in and saying, “What was that?” I said, “No, no, it’s cutting edge, it’s art, the kids love it.” You know, whatever you have to say. But they were actually very supportive of the show for the two years that we did it.

Q: We’re never going to see that on DVD, are we?

A: I’ll tell you what the big hangup is. It’s getting clearances. Not from the artists, but from the publishers, the music publishers. We got the record company clearances, we got artist clearances, bu the people who are holding on to the publishing rights of the songs, it’s like, what are you waiting for? Half the (stuff) is on YouTube. The cat’s already totally out of the bag and you’re like, making deals for what?

The great thing for me about that show is not just the response from the general public, but from musicians. I was someplace and Eddie Vedder came over to me and started taking to me about how much he loved the show. He was taking about specific shows he’d seen. Bruce Springsteen has said stuff to me about it -- how much they loved the show and wanted to get copies of it. I said, listen, it’s like my version of ‘write your congressman.’ Let’s get a letter writing campaign together and get these (guys) off the dime. For me this is not an issue about money. Let’s just get it out there. It represents to me, a very important principal that I feel about music: that musicians of seemingly widely diverse backgrounds, have a lot more in common than most people think.

Q: Somewhat like “Night Music,” you’ve got some great guest artists playing on “Here and Gone.” How did you pull them into the project?

A: I compiled a list of people I wanted to get and these are the people I wanted to get. Eric (Clapton), because he’s a friend of mine and he’s Eric Clapton. He’s such a great singer and player. I called him up and asked him if he would consider singing on the record, and he said, “You mean you don’t want me to play, too? And I said (sarcastically), “Well, yeah, if you have to.”

I think what’s great about the tune that he played and sang on was that he really, he understands the blues. And he really was able to inhabit that song. And what he played is so interesting to me because he plays only in the middle and lower range of his instrument. There’s nothing up in the high end. So he sonically left that room for me. ‘Cause he knew that was the right thing to do. When you’re dealing with people that just instinctively know what the right thing to do is and don’t think about it as a vehicle, an ego trip, and have the humility to serve the music – these are the kind of people I want to be involved with.

The same holds true with Joss Stone, this young girl who is barely out of her 20s, from Devon, England, singing with the soul and conviction of somebody three times her age. And once again, able to claim that song as her own, which is no easy task, given that it was not only written by, but pretty much identified with Ray Charles.

Sam Moore is like the Pavarotti of soul. The power in his voice. To be able to deliver a song like that, you need somebody like Sam Moore.

Q: The song “Brother Ray” is one you’ve recorded it before, but given the theme of the album, I guess it was right to revisit it.

A: I think so. As I was putting this thing together, “Brother Ray” was a tune I’d been doing on the road. I was really fond of it and I realized it really kind of fits into the spirit of what this music is about. Because it’s really kind of a look back at some of the places where I came from musically, specifically the music of Ray Charles. Hank Crawford -- Hank’s arrangements – was kind of where I started with this whole thing.

Interview podcasts and new reviews

2010-08-05T09:27:00.000-05:00

Here's a podcast of an interview with me on WAMC radio in New York. Thanks to Ian Pickus for his great questions and some nice production work on the piece.

And here's a podcast of my interview with good friend Jon Grayson from his "Overnight America" show. Even though KMOX blasts all over the country every night, it was great to be broadcast on WCCO in my former home, Minneapolis, and on KDKA in Gary's hometown, Pittsburgh.

Meanwhile -- and I have to preface this by saying I appreciate each and every review we've gotten -- but this one from The Daily Record refers to my co-author as "Gary Grant." Really? [Edit: Hey, he fixed it!]

And here's one from the Winnipeg Free Press.

"Neil Young" does "Double Rainbow"

2010-07-30T12:30:00.000-05:00

Another round of reviews, news, etc. about the book

2010-07-29T13:55:00.000-05:00

Sorry if I've double-posted some of these. It's (happily) getting hard to keep track.

Vancouver Sun (originally from the Calgary Herald)

Winnipeg Free Press

All About Jazz

VintageRock.com

Waterloo Record

The Free Library

Reviewer magazine

Cheap Concert Tickets

Also, this is kinda cool: The Greg Kihn radio show is giving away 10 copies of the book.

RIP Ben Keith

2010-07-28T10:21:00.000-05:00

I was sad to read this week of the death of Ben Keith, the wonderful musician who played with Neil Young for the better part of the last 40 years. Keith also played on Patsy Cline's "I Fall to Pieces," as well as records by Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt and Waylon Jennings. He produced Jewel's "Pieces of You" and released his own holiday album, "Seven Gates."

Oddly, I just watched Young's film "Greendale" again last weekend. Keith figures in the film prominently, playing the role of Grandpa Green.

It's been a tough year for the Neil camp. First his longtime filmic collaborator and archivist L.A. Johnson, and now Keith.

Here's a clip of Neil and Ben from 1989.

Springsteen/Escovedo at the Stone Pony

2010-07-28T10:09:00.000-05:00

Two of my favorite artists together on one stage, playing one of my favorite Stones songs? Yeah, I'm jealous of everyone who was there.

Some recent concert reviews

2010-07-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

The heat just about took me down last weekend, as I found myself covering three outdoor concerts at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. But the music kept me going, for the most part -- at least on Friday and Sunday. Here are reviews from all three shows.

Lilith

Toby Keith/Trace Adkins

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Q&A with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell

2010-07-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

I'll be previewing Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' concert Sunday night at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Friday's Post-Dispatch. Here's the full Q&A. Campbell spoke by phone from his home studio in Woodland Hills, CA.

Judging from the last few projects – the Bogdonavich film ["Runnin' Down a Dream"], the "Live Anthology," the Mudcrutch album – is seems like Tom has been in a reflective mood lately. Those projects are about looking back, taking stock. What do you suppose put him in that state of mind, and what got him moving forward again for "Mojo?"
Well, that’s good observation. And you’re right. It kind of started around the Bogdonavich film, which required a lot of looking back and compiling old things and kind of looking at the arc of what we’ve been doing. And that carried over. After that, we did the "Anthology" album, which took us almost two years to go through all the live stuff – 30 years worth of live recordings, trying to narrow them down to the best performances of each song. So that required a lot of looking back as well. And yeah, the Mudcrutch thing was looking back to our original band. I don’t know why Tom fell into that thought process for a couple of years there, but it’s a good observation on your part.
The new album, "Mojo," is kind of, I guess a reaction to that, but also an affirmation, after listening and looking back, we kind of came to a real new appreciation of how good the band really is, from the early days right til now. I know Tom was telling me, he wanted to make "Mojo"...he said, “Let’s make an album that really does feature the band. I mean, we’ll have good songs, but let’s do something where it’s not produced and not rehearsed and we’ll have kind of a blues foundation as a direction and let the band have some room to actually play like we do sometimes on stage, we open up a little bit. And that’s kind of how the progress went.

I enjoyed all of those projects. The movie – that was a huge undertaking. It’s what, four hours long? It’s the “Berlin Alexanderplatz” of roc docs.
[laughs] I know. Well, I wasn’t involved with editing…I wasn’t involved with the film much at all. But I know that Tom and Peter were both struggling with trying to cut it down the whole time. And every time they would cut it down, it would lose something. Some momentum, or the story would suffer. So we ended up just deciding, well, you know what, it’s long, but it tells the story and we’re just going to stick our necks out and let it be long.

"Mojo" does indeed let you guys play. It must have been fun for you, because so many of the songs are very guitar-driven. They’re a showcase for your playing.
Yeah. And that, again, was Tom. I remember him sitting down and he had a twinkle in his eye. He goes, “I have a vision." (laughs) And I had just bought this ’59 Les Paul, which is the Holy Grail of guitars. He said “Let’s make that guitar the sound of this album, and let’s give you lots of room to play. And will build the album like that. That’ll be our sound and we’ll build the album around that. And we’ll write really good songs to support that sound.”
And so it was kind of his idea to take that direction. But it was a lot of fun for me and I did get to explore that guitar. I really fell in love with it.

I understand another feature of the album was that you did it live in the studio with no headphones. What was the effect of that?
You mentioned Mudcrutch before. When we did that album, it was kind of an experiment to see if we would get along and also if we would sound good. And we didn’t want to go in the studio with Mudcrutch, so we set up at a warehouse that we have that’s sort of a little rehearsal warehouse out here in the Valley, with Mudcrutch, and we started recording there and we loved it so much and the record came out sounding the way we wanted it to. With the Heartbreakers, we figured, well, let’s bring them in and do the same thing. No headphones, very few, hardly any overdubs at all. All the solos and a lot of the vocals are live on the floor. Everybody’s in the room, listening in the room, like the old days. And it really kind of opens up the grooves, it opens up the spontaneity quite a bit when you do it that way. It’s a lot of fun.

A lot of Tom’s records are highly produced, with interesting stuff going on sonically. This is just a much more clean experience.
That’s right. I like produced records as well. We’ve done a lot of records where we really worked on the arrangement and every nuance and polished ‘em up to make a really good picture. I like doing that as well. But we figured we’ve done that approach quite a bit, so why don’t we go the other way and get back to the basics and see what the band sounds like without all the polish. It was a bit of a discovery for us to see that it’s such a great band that we can just set up in a room and make a sound and we don’t really need all the bells and whistles.

In terms of musical direction, there’s an emphasis on blues and blues-rock.
That was another Tom idea. I think it just came from the idea that…it’s interesting ‘cause people say, “Oh, you made a blues record.” Well, it’s not really a blues record. It’s a blues-rock record, if you must label it. But we listen to a lot of that type of music when we’re not working. You know, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Jimmy Reed. We love that music. And a lot of times when the band is rehearsing, we’ll warm up with that kind of music. We grew up around it. Coming from Florida, we grew up around a lot of that kind of music. And we’ve put different flavors of it in our records over the years. But we’ve never really honed in on that source of inspiration. It just seemed like a good kind of direction to go in, to explore and to see what we would find.

I take your point. This isn’t exactly Blind Lemon Petty.
[laughs] Not quite. But maybe the next record will be. But I mean, we have the greatest respect and love of pure blues music. The original stuff. And Tom and I, like most people our age, we grew up discovering a lot of our own American blues music through the British Invasion, which turned us on to it. We realized all this stuff was right under our nose, but it had been missed by a lot of people. We just love that music. I hope that some of that purity and that soul was rubbing off on us.

You’ve had such a long creative and personal relationship with Tom. It’s gone on longer than most bands do – certainly longer than most marriages do. Can you put into words how you guys work together and communicate with each other?
That’s a deep question, but it’s an important question, I think. And we are proud of the fact that we’ve been able to keep our inspiration and our mutual respect together all these years. It is kind of a miracle, really. We just…Tom said something the other day that was interesting. He said, “The reason that we seem to connect, I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we have the same vocabulary.” Musical vocabulary and, you know, we both grew up in the South, obviously. We have that. But if I play something from some source of inspiration, he’ll immediately recognize that: “Oh yeah, I know what that is, I know that essence you’re drawing on.” We draw on the same essence, I think, just by nature of growing up in the same area. And I think that keeps us going. The other thing – like, a lot of bands do break up, either over money or women or ego. And over the years, we’ve had conflicts and fights over things. But with me, anyway – you’d have to ask Tom for his perspective – it always came down to, well, I could go off and do something on my own or with somebody else. But I love this too much to leave it behind. This is my love and where I feel the most fulfilled. If that ever goes away, I would move on, but right now it just seems like…also, the film and looking back and realizing how much we have dedicated ourselves to each other, it becomes almost more valuable. You realize, we’ve really invested a lot in this thing and it’s something that’s pretty rare. I just feel very at home with this band. And Tom and I have a really deep connection, obviously. And we just respect each other and love each other and wanna help each other.

You’ve been a part of his projects that weren’t even delineated as a Heartbreakers album. This is the first Heartbreakers album in many years. What’s the difference between a Tom Petty record and a Tom Petty and the Heatbreakers record? ‘Cause sometimes, the solo records still have the band on them.
A lot of times I’ve been involved if it wasn’t the whole band. I think it’s just a matter of…you know, a band, you can get stale if you only play with the same five guys for 30 years. It can get very stale and implode on itself. So it’s healthy to go out and work in different arenas, with different people. But what I’ve seen happen…I mean, I haven’t done a solo record. I don’t really want to as long as the band is together. But Tom records, there’s just been a point where he feels like, “I’m stuck in a rut and I want some fresh energy.” So he would go out and hook up with somebody and start making a record. But then I usually get the phone call, like “Come help me with this.” I think he feels like there’s something I bring to his trip that helps it. Or he might say “We really need Ben on this,” or “We really need Ron.” Or sometimes the whole band would end up coming in, even though it was a solo record per se. I don’t know. It’s just one of those things. [laughs]

It’s certainly cool to be included when Bob Dylan’s in the room or Johnny Cash. You’ve done all right for yourself.
Yeah. I feel very blessed.

A couple quick things. This is a little old news by now, but tell me about playing the Superbowl.
There was a lot of pressure and it was frightening. But it ended up being a real gas. We did a lot of work. You know, it’s scary. You’re going to go on in front of 90 million people or however many people were watching it. And you get like 12 minutes. And there’s no room for any mistakes. You’re out there. There’s a lot of pressure. We really wanted to be good and we new we could be. We worked really hard to get our shit together. On the day of the Superbowl, it was really, really great – personally, because it coincided, like a day or two around my birthday, and it was in Phoenix, so I have my family come out, and we all went to the game and I gotta tell ya, dad was looking real good that day [laughs]. It was a very proud moment for me. I was just…when we hit that first song and the lights went up, it was like, “Wow…This is bigger than life.” We just loved it.
Also, you have to figure, we have our corps of fans that have stuck with us. But that show, probably a lot of people around the world saw us that had no idea who we were or what we were. So I think it was a chance for us to make an impression on some new people.

Do you have anything in the works in terms of doing sessions or production work?
Yeah. I don’t do a lot of sessions, ‘cause I’m not real comfortable walking into a room with people that I don’t know. But I’ve done a few over the years. I have a couple of things. Mostly what I do in my off time is just write and record in my studio. Occasionally, I will step out. Like last week I had an opportunity to do something that was really fun. Dave Stewart called me up, and he’s working with Stevie Nicks. He’s doing a record with her. And over the years, I would give Stevie some music here and there. And Dave said, “She’s got a song of yours that she found and she wants to record.” And so we got together and changed a few things and made it better and went in and cut that. In the course of that, I had this other piece of music I gave her and she wrote a really great song to it. I’m really proud of it. So I did that last week. A couple of songs with them, and that was a lot of fun.
Aside from that, I have a little band, a little club band called the Dirty Knobs that is my outlet for when the Heartbreakers are on a long break. I can get together with these guys and they’re really great musicians and it’s not about the money. We just love to play together. And I can play clubs on the outskirts of L.A., little things. It’s a chance for me to keep my chops up and also I can try out new material. I can try out new songs. Like, there’s two songs on the new Heartbreakers album. One’s called “Good Enough” and another one’s called “First Flash of Freedom.” The germs of those songs actually came from the music I was trying out with the Dirty Knobs in clubs. So it’s a great outlet for me to keep playing during the breaks.

Does that band name refer to a sound board in a studio, or is it “knob” in the British sense? And if the latter, shame on you!
[laughs] It’s up to your interpretation. The truth is, we were in the studio one day and somebody turned a knob and it went [sound of static]. And someone said, “Oh, it’s a dirty knob.” And I said, “Oh, that’s a good band name.” Only later, we realized, “Uh-oh.” But you can take that interpretation if you want to.

Are you playing a lot of the new stuff in the show?
I wish we could play the whole album. But that’s another dilemma that we have. We’re playing four or five new songs on this tour and it’s working out really well. We start out the set with five or six things that people have come to hear, to try to get them on our side. Then we have a little set in the middle and say, “This is our new album, we’re going to do three or four songs from ‘Mojo.’” And then at the end of the set we go back to the hits and things. But it’s really great for us to play new material that’s rewarding as musicians. But I’m finding that the audience, now that they’ve heard some of the songs on the record, they respond to the new songs pretty well.

It would certainly be possible for you guys to be on auto-pilot at this point. You’ve certainly accomplished pretty much everything that needs to be accomplished. It’s to your credit that you don’t handle it that way.
Well, thank you. We’re really proud of this album, because it is kind of brave. I mean, we could have gone in and done a jingle-y/jangly “Free Fallin’” or “American Girl” type of record. But we don’t want to do that. We figured, “Let’s really try to stretch the envelope and find some other sources of inspiration within the group.” I think it’s been very healthy for the whole group.

Which one's Maya?

2010-07-14T13:46:00.000-05:00

Love this clip from the Late Show, with M.I.A. performing "Born Free." Also love Dave's comment, "Happy Halloween!"

Q&A with Weird Al Yankovic

2010-07-09T14:56:00.001-05:00

I recently spoke with Weird Al Yankovic, who is on tour promoting...well, nothing right now. You got a problem with that?

You can read my preview of his show at the Family Arena in [this Sunday's] St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Here's the full Q&A.

You’re in the new Hanson video [“Thinkin’ Bout Somethin’”]. How did you get involved in that?
I’ve been friends with Hanson for very many years. We’ve been involved in each other projects off and on and I just got a call from Taylor, two, maybe three days before I did it, saying, “Hey, we’re shooting this new video, I’m sure you’ve not going to be available, but if you wanna come to Tulsa and put on a crazy outfit and play a tambourine in a video…” And I said, “What, Sunday? Yeah, I can do it.” I just jumped on a plane and flew in and had a great time.

An invitation to Tulsa…
How can you turn that down, really?

You know, I love those guys. And that’s such a great song, too.
It’s a GREAT song. I wish that radio played more songs like that. I think Hanson doesn’t get the props they deserve. I don’t know if people resent them or have some kind of preconceived notions about them. But that right there is a great song and it really should be getting more attention than it has been.

Thinking 'Bout Somethin'

HANSON | MySpace Music Videos

Another thing that I saw recently was your NPR Tiny Desk Concert, which was also very cool. And correct me if I’m wrong, but the whole “unplugged” thing was something you have not really exploited.
No. We kind of missed the whole "MTV Unplugged" series. And it came about that Stephen Thompson [?], who is an old friend of mine – in fact, he wrote the liner notes for “The Essential Weird Al Yankovic,” which came out last year. But he said, we’re doing this Tiny Desk series and I noticed you’re going to be in Washington D.C. and doing a show. Why don’t you just drop by the office and we’ll knock this out? And it was a little outside of my comfort zone, because I like to have things highly produced, and basically what they were offering was one microphone, period. That’s it. Everything had to be a certain distance from the microphone so it sounded right. The tambourine player had to be like 10 feet away. (laughs) We were recording like they did in the ‘30s! But it was fun. I like sometimes to put myself in situations that are a little different and maybe a little uncomfortable. It makes me work a little harder.

Am I imagining this, or are they doing "Unplugged" again on MTV?
Are they?

I don’t know. I thought so. Maybe I’m making that up.
Well, let me know if they do. I thought it was all Snookie all the time.

You’re out on the road with a new show. What goes into preparing for that?
I had to relearn all the lyrics to my own songs, which is a challenge. The show is just a little bit bigger and better every year. But it’s the same sort of format. If you’ve seen my show at any time over the last 10 years, you kind of have a pretty good idea of what it’s like. It’s me with the same band that I’ve had forever. It’s a high energy rock and roll show. It’s got a ton of costume changes. There are a lot of video elements in the show that run sometimes behind us, sometimes between songs while we’re doing the changes. It’s a family friendly show. It’s just a good time. We try to provide as much entertainment as possible and give people their money’s worth.

The last thing you put out was “Essential.” Does that imply this is more of a greatest hits tour?
That wasn’t the intention. I didn’t tour at all last year. I took last year off from the road, and I just figured, it’s time to tour again. We have to start booking tours eight months in advance. So they ask me, are you going to have a new album out by then? And there’s no way for me to tell them. So I said, “Maybe yes, maybe no, but regardless, we’re doing a tour.” If the album had come out before then, then this would be in support of that, but instead it’s just sort of me live. It’s me playing the greatest hits, going into the back catalog and playing some deep cuts and maybe even doing a few little surprises. Maybe a few little previews of things to come.

I’m always amazed by the versatility of your band. You go out with what, three pieces, four pieces?
Not including myself, there’s four guys in the band.

I think the thing people don’t realize is that they have to credibly play every kind of music.
Yeah. It’s frustrating to me when people don’t give my band the props that they deserve. Sometimes they sniff and say, “Oh, it’s a comedy band. They do comedy music. How good could they possibly be?” But if you look at the body of work, I mean, really, they’ve nailed everything from zydeco to gangsta rap. They’re pretty adept at any genre you can throw at them. I mean really, for my money, they’re one of the best bands in the world.

Have you noticed in your audiences a span of generations? I mean, I used to listen to you on Dr. Demento with one of my college roommates. Now his son is a fan, too.
Absolutely, that exact phenomenon. The people that were into me when I first started out in the early ‘80s are still fans and now they’re bringing their kids and, in some cases, their grandkids. I see every demographic imaginable out in the audience. The cool thing is, every album that I put out, it feels like a new generation discovers me. Kids are saying, “Hey, mom, dad, have you heard of this Weird Al guy?” [sarcastically] “Oh yeah, we’ve heard of him.” It is cool. Again, it’s a family friendly show. The show appeals to different people on different levels. But it’s really gratifying to look out in the audience and see really everybody having a good time. There’s not a lot of shows where that happens.

I mentioned Dr. Demento. His show recently went off of radio, but I guess will live on online.
Well, that’s exactly it. Some people are a little overly dramatic about it. It’s not a funeral. It’s just the end of an era. It’s the end of his tenure on terrestrial radio. But he’s not retired. And he’s still, in fact, doing his show. It’s just moved to online only.

Take me back to those early days. Were you just a kid listening to him and thinking, “Yeah, I could do that?” How did you get started?
These are, of course, in the pre-YouTube days, so I was listening to the Dr. Demento show. I was a big fan of his, and a big fan of all the artists he played on the show. That’s where I was first exposed to people like Stan Freeberg and Tom Lehrer and Allen Sherman and Spike Jones and Frank Zappa. It just really inspired me, and in my own warped vision, I thought, hey, I can do this kind of stuff. And I started writing horrible songs and recording them in my bedroom on a cheesy little cassette tape recorder, on cassette tapes that my mom bought at a discount shop at like three for a dollar. I can’t stress strongly enough how bad these recordings were. But Dr. Demento saw some spark of originality in there, or saw something novel enough that he deemed them worthy for airplay. He played some of my early recordings and encouraged me to make more. And the songs got better and better, and by the time I graduated from college, I actually had a couple bona fide hits on the Dr. Demento show and in fact a couple nationally released singles.

Were there ones that predated “Another One Rides the Bus?”
Well, that wasn’t the first thing I had played on the Dr. Demento show. In fact, “My Bologna” was before that.

Ah, right.
But even before that, I had a dozen or so things that Dr. Demento had played. But they are all best forgotten. (laughs) Really. They were the ramblings and musings of a teenage kid that wasn’t particularly skilled at anything.

You’re probably THE breakout star from that show.
I would think so, yeah. Dr. Demento gave a lot of people attention, but I was, out of all the people that he plucked from obscurity, I would think that I’m the most visible.

Back then, it seemed like there was a wide world of things to parody, and even though there’s more music now and more video and more everything, I wonder if you find it harder to figure out what to take on next?
Yeah. It makes it a lot more difficult, because there isn’t the communal sense of what a hit song is anymore. You know, the pop charts are broken down into genres and subgenres. MTV’s not playing music videos, Top 40 radio doesn’t exist, really, as such anymore. It’s just hard to really define what a hit is. And even if you can define it, how widespread is it? Is it a mainstream kind of thing or is it something that only a small segment of the population is going to recognize? It’s just a little bit harder to be effective. And of course, with the proliferation of portals like YouTube, it’ll be difficult – strike that – it’s be IMPOSSIBLE for me to come up with any idea that somebody hasn’t thought up already. For any given pop song now, there’s like a thousand people that are immediately going to do their version of it.

And yet, you’re forging ahead. You mentioned that you’re recording a new album. What can you tell me about it?
Five of the songs on the album are already out there. That was last year’s “Internet Leaks.” I kind of officially leaked them to the internet myself, just so people could have an early taste of the next album. So 5/12 of the album is already out there. But other than that, I want to try to keep it a surprise and keep it fresh for when the actual album does come out.

And it’ll be done when it’s done. Is that how it stands?
That’s kind of the way it always has been. It’s a little bit frustrating, because I need to wait around til the right ideas strike and the right songs come around. And I’m down to…I’ve got three more parodies left to write. I’ve got nine songs in the can and we’re almost done. But, obviously, I’m not going to be recording while I’m on the road. So it won’t be anytime until…at the very earliest, it’ll be sometime near the end of the year. Even that I can’t guarantee, ‘cause I have to wait for the tumblers to fall into place.

As for other projects, I hear you’re working on a children’s book?
Yeah, that’s coming out I’m told in March of next year. And other than that, I have a few other irons in the fire, but I’m not allowed to talk about them yet.

Working for the CIA, are you, Al?
I feel that way sometimes. But it’s frustrating. Even the stuff that I feel like I can talk about, when I do, it seems like it jinxes it. Like I had this production deal at Cartoon Network and I had written a script for them and I was going to be directing a movie by the end of the year. And they decided a few months ago that they didn’t want to be making feature films anymore. So their whole slate of feature films got put into turnaround. I don’t like to talk about stuff until it’s really happening. But I have, as they say, irons in the fire and there are various projects that are lined up and things that I’m working on and things I’m hoping that I get to do.

Let me close with an odd question. Today is the anniversary of Michael Jackson’s death. Did his death affect in any way your playing your parodies of his songs?
In terms of the actual performance of the songs, no. We didn’t change a single thing. And enough time has gone by that I didn’t feel like it would be appropriate for me to even have any kind of solemn moment before I…(laughs). It’s a comedy show and I didn’t want to bring people down. It just always seemed appropriate to play those songs because Michael Jackson thought they were funny and he was a fan of them and I look at them as a celebration of Michael’s life and music. So I don’t think it’s a downer in any way. And I don’t think people take it that way. People have been as excited and pleased to hear those songs as they have always been in the past.

And still more reviews...

2010-07-09T14:14:00.000-05:00

Examiner.com
It is a must-have for any Young aficionado, period.

JP's Music Blog
"exceptional..."

Blogcritics
(A middling review from a guy who thinks my name is Daniel Durchhortz. Oh well...)

Seattle PI, via Blogcritics
Authors Durcholz and Graff do a brilliant job writing a biography of Neil interwoven with many interviews from the man himself, associates that worked with him, and fellow musicians impressed by his talents and drive. Also on display are a number of other interests and endeavors from Lionel trains and films he directed to his ample charity work.

Innocent Words
It’s been well documented that Neil Young is a private person, often times being called difficult to work with, so hats off to Graff and Durchholz for putting together a beautiful collection of one of the greatest muscians ever to write a song.

Curled Up with a Good Book

More reviews of the book

2010-07-02T10:03:00.000-05:00

Blurt
"a stunning accomplishment, not so much for its editorial inclinations, but rather for the fact it's a genuine fan offering, one that not only celebrates its subject, but also allows for further fascination. It can't be lauded enough."

also:

"great bathroom reading"

Paste
"almost as fun as a pop-up book"

The Pacific Sun
"electrifying...overflowing with rare photos, official discography and artifacts (posters, handbills, ticket stubs, et al) as well as first-source interviews with Young, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Steve Stills and many others."

Jambase
"This lovingly assembled tome celebrates five decades of genre-spanning work, perfectly mixing expertly researched text and many never-before-seen photos."

Illiot Gould
"Long May You Run is an interesting read, but it’s also a good coffee table book, filled with enough visual stimuli to interest even a casual Young fan like myself with its rich photographic history."

Talking "Neil Young LMYR," etc. at the Royale on Saturday

2010-06-24T16:36:00.000-05:00

A night of St Louis Uptown Blues with Miss Jubilee and the Humdingers and the debut of the cocktail the "St Louis Blue Devil", designed by Steve Smith and featuring an informal discussions with local music authors:
Daniel Durchholz author of "Neil Young: Long May You Run,"
Thomas Crone author of "Gaslight Square: An Oral History,"
Kevin Belford author of "Devil At The Confluence."
This event is FREE NO COVER

Reviews for "Neil Young - Long May You Run"

2010-06-22T22:11:00.000-05:00

I've been meaning for quite a while to collect some of the press for the Neil Young book. I have to say I'm blown away by some of the reviews. I mean, I felt like we did a good job with the book, and our publisher certainly made the thing look beautiful. But it's always nice to get a pat on the back. And we've gotten more than our share. Here are some links to the reviews and also a couple of interview pieces, radio appearances and news stories, too:

The Huffington Post
Flipping through Long May You Run: The Illustrated History -- a picture perfect documentation of Neil Young's musical story and beyond -- is the equivalent of listening to his music in an altered state. At times, it can be overwhelming. Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff's love of Young as a person and his cultural contributions is the force of nature behind LMYR's lush 224 pages, the team effectively creating one of the best coffee table books ever. You want rare and vintage photos? Check. Reproductions of classic posters and various memorabilia? Check. A precise discography that includes 41 studio and 6 live albums, plus discussions of Young's music by his contemporaries and notable connoisseurs? Of course, it's all here.

Durchholz and Graff's hard cover documentary anthologizes virtually every important moment from Neil Young's Buffalo Springfield tenure (actually, earlier) through his days with Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, his solo career, and beyond….if you've forgotten any of the reasons why he remains this important an icon, check out virtually any page of LMYR for your mandatory memory jog as you savor each visual of this perfect tutorial on more than 40 years of Young's long run.

Booklist
“Voyageur Press books always look like a million bucks, and this coffee-table career biography of enduring sixties rock star Young is no exception. Even the dullest old snap shot of kid Neil’s family or his first band lushly glows from matte pages as if printed on silk. And those pages! Seldom allowed to be merely white, they are colored and loosely patterned when not entirely filled by a photo. As rock photo books emphasizing the subject, not the photographer(s), go, this is a honey…scads will love browsing it.”

Wall Street Journal

LAist

Blogcritics

Gary Graff appears on WYNC's Sound Check

Gary and I appear on KMOX's John Carney Show

Gary on WJBK Fox 2 Detroit

Washington City Paper

Thrasher's Wheat
“Neil Young: Long May You Run: The Illustrated History by veteran rock journalists Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff is -- without a doubt -- pretty much of an essential item for the Neil Young library. The first impression one gets from leafing through the pages is the high quality of the printing and presentation by the publisher Voyageur Press. It's a coffee table type of book with 224 large pages, nice grade paper stock, and fine reproductions of photos and memorablia. It would seem that for even those Neil fans who've read everything from Jimmy McDonough's Shakey: A Neil Young Biography to the Neil Young Archives book will find something new and eye catching in The Illustrated History….the book will certainly hold a lot of surprises and revelations for the more casual fan. In fact this is the type of book you hand someone who says "I just don't get Neil Young."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

STL Beacon

Northwest Indiana Times, a story that also has a sidebar

Houston Press

Musoscribe

United Church of Christ News

Premier Guitar

Your Way to Music

MusicFixx.com

Maxim
This 224-page tome, painstakingly assembled by rock journalists Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff, compiles tons of photos (many never before seen) and detailed insights on grunge godfather Neil Young's seven-decade spanning career. From his earliest days with the Mynah Birds (a band that also featured Rick James!), to his hit-making days with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, to his genre-hopping solo works, to his current status as an activist and vital living legend (you can catch him on tour all summer long), Long May You Run leaves no stone (or riff) unturned.

Guitar Aficionado (Vol. 2, No. 2) (not online)

Muzzle of Bees

No Expiration

http://www.unclejoebenson.com/onair/update/1004.3.htm
Big Book On Neil
The first complete illustrated history published about the legendary Hall of Famer was co-written by the highly regarded duo of Daniel Durchholz and Gary Graff. As you'd expect, the 224-page volume follows Young's long-and-winding 50-year career from Buffalo Springfield through CSNY and, of course, his eclectic solo career.

About.com

Daytona Beach News Journal

ABC News Radio

Groom Radio/Rock U

St. Louis Globe Democrat

Ozomatli preview

2010-05-15T00:20:00.000-05:00

My interview with Ozomatli's Jiro Yamaguchi, to preview the band's show at the Duck room.

Frightened Rabbit preview

2010-05-06T22:34:00.001-05:00

My interview with the elusive (for me, anyway) Scott Hutchison of Frightened Rabbit.

Neil Young: Long May You Run - The Illustrated History available today

2010-05-06T16:21:00.001-05:00

Available online here and here, at finer bookstores...and some pretty ordinary bookstores.

Owl City concert review

2010-05-06T16:20:00.001-05:00

Here.

Captcha code or band name?

2010-05-03T08:03:00.000-05:00

John Carney plays his famous "prescription drug or heavy metal band?" game on Friday nights, but thanks to my friend Jim Lynch I have a new one: captcha code or band name? Over the weekend, I had to type these codes, among others, just to prove I'm not a spambot. I think I'd go with just about any of them for a band name.

Prevent Stars
The Limbers
Torched Leaders
Necrosis Basque (heavy metal only)
Tempests Union
Egyptian Mailmen

Interview with Marty Stuart

2010-04-29T17:12:00.000-05:00

This is a slightly longer version (if that's even possible) of the piece that's running on STLtoday.com. He's appearing with his band, the Fabulous Superlatives, at the Sheldon on Friday night.

----
Country singer Marty Stuart has been busy for the last couple of years with his RFT-TV show “Marty Stuart Live,” but found time recently to record a new album (due later this year), and tour with his band, the Fabulous Superlatives. We spoke to him by phone from his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

What can you tell me about the new album?
It’s called “Ghost Train (The Studio B Sessions). It’s traditional country music. That’s truly home. The RFD-TV show I’m doing kind of gives me a place to stand and do what I do best, and that’s traditional country music. It’s not about being retro, but it’s authentic. It’s totally, in my opinion, a new chapter. It honors where I come from, but it is a new chapter with new songs, for the most part. We went back to RCA Studio B and took it from being a museum back into a being a world-class recording studio. It’s a pretty cool record.

You’re an artist that is very conscious of country music history. What did it mean for you to record in Studio B?
It was the first studio that I ever worked at in Nashville, when I was with the Lester Flatts Band. I don’t remember a lot about those recording sessions other than that I knew I was in a place that was really special. It’s kind of like the Ryman to me. I used to go to the Ryman in the ‘80s, when it was a $2 tourist attraction. I’d shake my head and say, “Man, this place needs to be having shows again. This place is dying to be invited back to being part of the parade.” I got on the bandwagon and helped save that place. And the Country Music Hall of Fame offers Studio B as a tourist attraction now. I went in there recently when I [produced] Porter Wagoner’s last record, “Wagon Master.” And I thought that would be a great place to do that record, but they just weren’t quite ready to let session in at that time. I revisited the idea again before I got into the idea of this record and this time they went, “Okay, be good.” When we did it, all it took was one note: It was like putting a match on dry wood. It just took off. The room absolutely exploded. And it was incredible to work there. We did a lot of research as a band. We studied a lot of Studio B records. We went there, we walked around the room, talked to people who helped design it, called old musicians. We really tried to do our homework before we set up and started playing. And it paid off.

Over the last decade or so, you’ve gone in a lot of different musical directions, but they’ve all been roots oriented – gospel, bluegrass, and so on. And now you say you’re getting back to real country. What for you defines real country music?
To back up to the top of the decade, the first record I did this decade was called “Country Music.” That was the first record we did with the Superlatives. But I was guilty of trying to grab a hit while making traditional country music, and it really was kind of a split message. It didn’t ring as true to me as I wanted it to. I should’ve got on one side of the line or the other. And then I developed Superlatone, and I had nowhere really to drive my sword because commercial country radio didn’t need me and I didn’t have a TV show at that time. Me and the Superlatives as a band in development just started walking around the room and playing the roots of American music. We were honored guests in the Delta gospel world, we were honored guests in the bluegrass world, Americana world. And I noticed that everywhere we went, we made a difference, and maybe inspired and encouraged and put a little new fire into those genres. But I still didn’t feel like I had a place to drive my sword. And in reality, that record I did on Porter really got me thinking. I love traditional country music. I notice when I go down the road and listen to traditional country records, I still cry. I kept writing those kind of songs. And when the RFD-TV show came along, it gave me a place to stage it from. I thought, “Okay, I can go just as hardcore as I want and stage it right here.” And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past couple of years. It works.

The sounds that definite to me are traditional sounds: steel guitar, twangin’ Telecasters. The subject matter is back to the textbook, back to the template that Jimmie Rodgers laid down: cheatin’, drinkin’, redemption, murder, jail, mama, love, loss, and on and on. According to the newspaper this morning, those are all still valid topics.

Right. I’m so sick of…I mean, I live in the suburbs, but that doesn’t mean I want to hear a song about it.
Well, you know, that’s just product. That’s just good product is what it is. And country music needs that in its food chain. But down at the heart and the soul of things, it’s a whole lot different. And that’s where I feel at home.

You’ve gotta go with the heart. At the end of the day, it’s what comes out of the heart; what bubbled up and runs over the walls of your heart. That’s what you need to be doing. And if it sounds like Rascal Flatts, well, that’s what you need to be doing. But if it sounds like traditional country music, do that. But be prepared for the consequences either way.

There’s a song on your new album that you wrote with Johnny Cash right before he died. Tell me about that one.
The day after June Carter was buried, John Carter [Cash] called me and said, “Daddy wants to record.” I said, “That’s the best news I ever heard. Let’s go. We gotta keep him engaged.” We recorded songs at his cabin, we recorded songs at his house, we did sessions at my house. We did sessions at John’s mom and dad’s old home. It was just about keeping him engaged at whatever level he wanted to be. I’d just go and have a cup of coffee with him in the morning, if he felt like seeing anybody. But his health kind of dictated it all.

Four days before he passed away, I’d just come in from Folsom Prison. The governor gave me a pass to go there. I wanted to see where that record was made. I wanted to touch it and smell it and experience Folsom. So they showed me. It was made in the cafeteria. They recorded the record twice in the morning. Early in the morning. But behind the back wall of the cafeteria where they recorded was the old hanging gallery, where they used to take people’s lives. It’s now the prison band hall. The day I was there, the country band was playing, so I sat in with them and we played some songs. I went and saw Graystone Chapel, the place that Glen Shirley wrote about in that song that John sang. I got to thinking about the hanging gallows on the way home. It just kind of got to me. And I thought, wouldn’t it be an awful job to be a hangman? When you go home at night, what does your family say: “Great job, dad?” What a tortured soul you’d have to be to be a hangman. I started the song and that day I was over at John’s, we talked about Folsom. I told him what I’d done and said, “I got this song started, it’s called ‘Hangman,’” and told him why I wrote it. The words are, “I killed another man today/It’s hard to believe/I lost track at 30/Now I’ve grown too numb to grieve/The bottle helps me cope when I lay down at night/And when the dope rolls through my veins/It all fades out of sight.” And I had, “Hangman, hangman, that’s my stock in trade/Hangman, hangman, sending bad men to their graves.”

He just spoke up and said to me, “Who killed who, I asked myself time and time again/God have mercy of the souls of hangmen.”

Wow.
It’s a good one.

You asked about country music. The real country music to me is the kind that’s been lived through. Just about everything on this record, whether it’s redemption or going to jail or losing Johnny Cash or losing Porter Wagoner, you know, pick a subject I wrote about on this record. I lived through it. And that’s the best kind of music regardless – the kind you’ve lived through.

That’s great that you did that record with Porter, who is from Missouri, by the way. You’ve always been someone who respects your country music elders and helps to keep their work alive.
It’s the old Native American system, basically. It’s the oldest system in the world. In the family of country music you start out as a scout and a water boy and work your way up to being a buck and then a brave. You honor your chiefs and your queens. And somewhere along the way, if you handle it right, you might achieve that level yourself. I’ve always been referred to as a bridge between the past and the future. But I do like where I’m at right now. I’m in a position to bring young ones on and encourage that, but I’m also in a position to see the old ones home and see they get their robes on their shoulders as they go away. That’s a great place to be.

You were certainly brought along at an early age. What were you, 13, when you went on the road with Lester Flatt? Was that the right choice for you? I mean, I’m guessing that going on the road with Lester Flatt is not the same thing as going on the road with Motley Crue. Or is it?
It was very structured. It was a business deal. My folk, it was arranged. Correspondence courses, the taxes, that was all worked out. I got to keep a little money every week. The rest of it went to my mom at the bank. It was well-structured. But was it the right decision? For me, absolutely.
I doubt that my parents would have let me go out with Ozzy [Osbourne], however.

Tell me about “The Marty Stuart Show.” This is your second year?
Yes, this is our second year. My favorite TV shows down through the years…there was an old show in the ‘50s called Grand Old Opry shows. They were beautifully done, in Technicolor. They’re the most beautiful documents of that era of country music ever. They were colorful, happy, just kind of a barn dance situation, if you will. Beyond that, my favorite shows were Flatt & Scruggs, The Porter Wagoner Show, the old Johnny Cash show. And a lot of those 30 minute syndicated shows that came out in the ‘60s. And for years, I kept asking, “Why doesn’t somebody redo one of those shows? Thirty minutes with a great band, the best guests you can get, hay bales, wagon wheels, the whole bit. Costumes. Hillbilly Hollywood. And then one day I thought, “Well, why don’t I do it?”

I discovered the RFD network because they still air The Porter Wagoner Show. I called them up, we had a talk and a few months later we were in the studio. The guests have been crazy. From Emmylou Harris to John Prine to Dolly Parton to Merle Haggard to [Stuart’s wife] Connie Smith to Early Scruggs to Jimmie Dickens…on and on and on. The best of the best.

The Cash show was central to my musical education. I remember seeing Bob Dylan on that show and Joni Mitchell and Neil Young. The fact that they were with Johnny Cash told me all I needed to know.
I’m like you. When I was a kid and that show was coming on, I couldn’t sleep the night before for anticipation. And he came through Jackson, Mississippi, during that time and that’s the first time I saw him live. That’s the one that lit the fire in my heart: “I gotta do that.”

Sorry for leaning on the Cash stuff, but I’ve gotta ask you, what was it like being his son-in-law?
[pause] He introduced me onstage as his son in law one time. I went to him after the show and said to him, “I love being your son-in-law, but do me a favor: don’t ever do that again.” He has this perplexed look and I said, “That’s a looonnng shadow. I see lots of other people that are your family members, and that’s how they’re referred to for the rest of their lives. I said, “I’ve been a musician since I was 12 years old. I’ve worked hard for it.” He said, “I respect that.” So we always kept best of friends and that whole son-in-law thing was off in a different department. He was great about it.

I always thought you should have formed a band with the other ex-sons-in-law.
Well, June Carter had a pretty good idea. Before she got sick, she wanted to do a record and the band would be me, Rodney Crowell and Nick Lowe. And call it June Carter and her Ex-Son-in-Laws.

Last thing: You are a very much a preservationist of country music artifacts. Tell me a little about your efforts in that direction.
I’ve always had that knack, I guess, it started when I was a kid, whether it was collecting 8x10 glossies of artists that came through town or asking them for their guitar pick or saving copies of Country Song Roundup magazine. I just kind of leaned that way. It kinda got more serious as time went on. In the early ‘80s, when Urban Cowboy came along, it was the end of an era for lots of things around here. Those old costumes like the old guys wore, the Nudie suits; personality guitars with the people’s names down the neck. Those kinds of things. It was starting to disappear. But I noticed they started surfacing in pawn shops, thrift shops, yard sales. That felt wrong to me. Because I was a part of that new system in Nashville due to my age, but due to my experience and where I’d been, I noticed there was a breach, and that felt wrong to me.

When I was with the Cash show, we played in London, and I met the cofounder of the Hard Rock Café. He took me there and I saw treasures on the walls from the Beatles and the Stones and Otis Redding and the Who and Jimi Hendrix. And I thought, “Man, even though this is a restaurant, they treat that with a lot of respect. The Country Music Hall of Fame was about the only entity out there taking care of country artifacts. And their policy was that they didn’t pay for anything. It was always a donation. And a lot of people weren’t in a position to give it, so they were selling. On the way back home to America, I thought, I’d just bought Patsy Cline’s train case in a thrift shop in Nashville for $75. And I’d seen a famous guitar leave Nashville to go to Japan for $300. I thought, “I can’t do this.” So I started collecting all the suits, manuscripts, boots, guitars…anything to do with the treasures of that world that I could get. It started in my bedroom at my mom and dad’s house, then it became a little warehouse, then two warehouses, and now it’s about 20,000 pieces strong. It’s probably the biggest collection of country stuff out there. In the last three years, we started an exhibit called “Sparkle & Twang: Marty Stuart’s American Odyssey” which showcases all these things, and is on tour. It’s had a wonderful life. Lots of visitors. The good news is, a lot of those artifacts got saved. It is American culture that I just thought was too important to let slip away.

That’s great. Do you still have Ernest Tubb’s bus?
I didn’t own that. We just leased that years ago. We traveled in that, the old Black Hornet. Somebody out there told me that that bus is still on the road, but it had over three million miles on it when I shot it in the floor. You could never trust the fuel gauge and it t ran out of fuel on me one too many times.

Review: Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers

2010-04-24T10:43:00.001-05:00

Here.

Interview with Jeff Beck

2010-04-23T18:30:00.000-05:00

It's been that kind of week. First Steve Martin, now Jeff Beck.

I've seen Beck play a few times, but I'm always eager to see him again, and can't wait for that to happen next week.

I found him to be great fun to talk to -- very friendly and funny, though at least once unintentionally so. As we started our chat, I asked Jeff where he was, just so I could put his location in the newspaper article. And of course, he had no idea.

After a muffled conversation off the phone, he returned and informed me he was in San Francisco, where it was a beautiful day and he was just preparing to rehearse for that night's gig.

It's said that Christopher Guest based his Spinal Tap character, Nigel Tufnel, on Beck. For a few minutes, at least, I had no doubt that it was true.

Here's the rest of what transpired.

I heard you had an accident while you were recording the new album. What happened?
It was a very un-rock and roll incident. I was cooking and I cut my finger with a knife. A pretty serious cut on the first finger. I went to hospital and found out just how terrible the hospital services are in England. I nearly lost the top of the finger. I had to do some of the solos without that finger.

So this was your left hand?
Yeah, left hand, the tip of the first finger. Just the one you don’t really want to lose, you know?

Did it put you out of commission for very long?
I wasn’t able to use it at all. I just had to play with the remaining fingers. So, apologies for the dodgy solos.

You could have played slide, I guess.
Yeah!

You’re no stranger to hand injuries. I’m guessing your hobby of working on cars has probably given you some nasty things over the years with your hands, hasn’t it?
It sure has. Mostly stupidity. I’ve also had eye injuries from not wearing proper eye shields. You live and learn, don’t you? (laughs)

Conceivably, you could say the car injuries are a little more rock and roll.
Yeah, Yeah, I’m not embarrassed about that. But the carrot? The carrot incident was an embarrassment.

Let’s talk about the new record. You took on some classics from the world of opera and pop. Why did you want to record that “Nessun Dorma?”
For a start, it’s a beautiful tune. And I’ve visited Mr. Pavarotti and had the privilege of playing some overdubs on one of his last recordings. I was not sure what he thought about it, because what they’d done is to rebuild a track underneath an earlier vocal. But then I tuned into some station where he was on, and he was talking about me and he said very favorable things. That whole experience made me listen to music with bigger ears. So I listened to other things that he did, as well as other opera singers. And there’s a whole goldmine of tunes out there – the most divine melodies. So I just thought, “Well, why not do the big one and see how that feels?” I attempted that down in the birthplace of Puccini, and the whole crowd seemed to love it. So we went ahead got the orchestra there and we cut it.

I just figured that it would be a better option than to try to write something that was as good as that, which will never happen. Why not just go for the big guns and try it? And the feeling onstage with the orchestra behind me, it was just…there’s nothing quite like it.

You also take on “Over the Rainbow.” There’s some softer, more lyrical material here. Was that your intention?
Yes. Well, it just seemed to be natural to end up there. Because some of the shows we did over the last three or four years, we accented some heavy, heavy, really barbaric rock and roll. And then we played “Over the Rainbow,” and almost without exception, that song overshadowed all the other things. Because people are softies inside, really, I guess.

It’s of a piece with what you did with “A Day in the Life.” The slow part of that is very beautiful and lyrical as well.
Well, it all ended up quite satisfactory, even though I had no idea what was going to happen. When I record an album, it’s a day-to-day thing. Subject to change all the time. You never know where you’re headed until your halfway there, then you can see the picture more clearly.

The tone you use on those songs is very much like a human singing voice.
Well, when you play “Nessun Dorma,” you are playing a song and people know that song, and I tried to emulate some kind of vocal sound with a guitar, yeah. Although there is an opera singer on there, Olivia Safe.

Who I’m not familiar with, actually. I’ve got to check her stuff out.
Me, too, actually. She just happened to be recording in the next studio, and that’s how things work for me.

You’ve got her and you’ve got a couple other vocalists on there as well. But over the years, your relationship with vocalists has been pretty shaky. Is it just singers in general?
No, just one in general. (laughs). I think women are much prettier to look at and much easier to work with. They don’t have the male ego. They have other issues, but I just think because of the trends, and this incredible, revolutionary era of women singers. There are some great ones out there, and they deserve to be heard.

That was great what you did with Imelda May on the Grammys, the tribute to Les Paul.
(laughs). Yeah. She’s the most perfect substitute, or the right person to redo the vocals in place of Mary Ford. She looks and sounds a bit like the early Mary Ford.

As much as you idolize Les Paul, what did he think about your not playing one of his guitars?
Yeah, he said, “What’s that piece of shit around your neck?” Pointing to my Stratocaster. I said, listen, your guitar is [unintellibible]. They’re too heavy. I blame a shoulder injury I had on it. What he said, he was joking of course.

You used a Les Paul back in the “Blow by Blow” days, didn’t you?
I did, but that picture on the cover was just one facet of the guitar lineup that I used at the time. I used a Stratocaster, a Telecaster, and maybe another guitar. But that one was used on the photo shoot.

Let me ask you about those records. “Wired” and “Blow by Blow.” There was seismic shift in your playing at the time. What caused it?
What was going on was the complete lack of music – interesting music for me in the British scene, although I watched it with great interest, the way it changed over, like from the ‘70s to the ‘80s – glam rock and all that New Romantic thing. But there was nothing for me there. So I just delved into myself a bit and just thought, “What do I want to do? What is the closest thing?” And it was the Mahavishnu Orchestra and John McLaughlin that took me through the troubled times because of their wizardry. I thought, well, if there’s a place for them, maybe there’s a place for me. It was more experimental and dealt with some tricky time signatures – not to disregard the power as well. It enabled me to continue playing the guitar for a career without having to follow trends.

Earlier this year, you did a tour with Clapton. How was that for you?
It seemed to be a promoter’s dream, to get me and Eric on the same stage doing something other than just one of these chance encounters, like at Crossroads. It was a top drawer show that we did in Tokyo and needless to say, it got out pretty quickly that we did those shows, and without batting an eyelid, we did six more. It was a little strange, I have to say. Eric’s fans are forever Eric’s fans and mine…never the twain shall meet. But we pulled it off somehow. There were two separate shows, with a 15-minute interval, and we had a bit of a party at the end. I suppose it was a fair value. But it was strange having Eric, who – we didn’t really get on throughout the ‘60s. I found out through an interview that Eric gave with Rolling Stone that he didn’t really like me at all. Nice one, Eric! It’s all ended up all right now, though.

Because you and Clapton and Page were all in the Yardbirds, people like to compare you. Is that fair game, or would you rather that just not happen?
I would prefer that it didn’t happen, but there you go. If that’s what people want…they’re always comparing and compartmentalizing things. I’d rather they just take us for what we are and where we are rather than say he’s better than him one way or the other. It’s not a contest in any case.

If it’s a contest, I kind of think you win. But that’s just me.*
Thank you very much!

Well the thing is, the other two, they’ve both enjoyed huge success, with massive selling albums, massive concerts and all the rest of it, and I’ve had to struggle just to make a living (laughs).

In part, is that because you’ve been…I don’t want to use the word reclusive, but you haven’t been as visible. Is that part of the reason why?
Well, the thing collapsed when Rod left and joined the Faces, you know? That really… we were really onto something really good. And after all the hard work, two years, two and a half years of grinding up and down the UK, and through Europe, we were starting to make it, then he left. Partly because I had a car accident, but he could have waited a couple of months. I’d have been back on the road. But that’s the way it goes.

So you think it was set already then, that that determined your future?
Yeah, it did. That’s the way things were.

In more recent times, you’ve done things like the Ronnie Scott DVD, but it has been seven years since your previous record. Why?
Can’t really explain that, without incriminating some people. But it’s partly the disappointment with the way the previous album was dealt with. I’m not talking about the way they were received. They weren’t received because they weren’t promoted. I guess it got lost in the eather somewhere. Back then I was making more or less 20 year old music – music for 20 year olds. And they were being filed under, “I’ll see you later.” And Epic wouldn’t let me of the label. It was sort of like Catch-22. I gave them the last three albums fairly quickly and then got off the label. That took time.

It seems like your working pretty hard right now. Are you comfortable with that? Is it fun?
(laughs) Yeah, I’m mostly unaware of it all, because we’ve been whisked around from Australia to Korea to Tokyo, now we’re here. So I have to check in the morning where I am, see if I can read the writing in my hotel room.

You seem to have come through all the years doing pretty well. A lot of members of your generation have not. I’m thinking of Ron Wood, who doesn’t seem to be in such great shape. How have you kept yourself together over the years?
Just by not being in the Rolling Stones (laughs). I guess that’s the way it goes. That’s what it does to you. You can keep that gig. Let’s face it, Ronnie’s a party animal and he’s a delightful – one of the nicest, funniest guys in the world. I’ve never met anybody like Ronnie. But I guess he’s got too much now. Too much money will do that to you.

You learned early on, spend your money on cars. As long as you keep the greasy side down, you’re okay.
(laughs) Yes, sir. The auto thing, that keeps me busy and it’s something to do. Lying idle is the worst thing you can do.

But get a chef, that’s my advice.
(laughs). Or learn how to chop carrots properly.

Yeah, not lengthwise, that’s not right.
Well, you can blame all the cuisine chefs trying to get to fancy with the way they cut their carrots. Cut the fucking things acrossways!

* Seriously. Not just blowing smoke up his ass.

Concert review: Mark Knopfler

2010-04-23T13:59:00.000-05:00

Here.

Q&A with the Dead Weather

2010-04-23T13:35:00.001-05:00

Don't get all excited. It's with Jack Lawrence, not Jack White.

Interview with Steve Martin

2010-04-22T13:00:00.001-05:00

It was great fun to interview Steve Martin, an actor, comedian, writer, and, yes, musician that I’ve admired for a long time. Martin is on tour promoting his Grammy-winning bluegrass album “The Crow” and he called from New York. As we began the conversation, I mentioned that St. Louis was the home town of John Hartford, with whom Martin worked on “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” in the 1960s. “I just bought his old banjo,” Martin said. “It has his name – he inscribed his name on the inside of the pot of the banjo. I worked with him when I was a beginning comedy writer, and that’s the banjo that he had at that time. He inscribed his address on the inside, too. It was a real thrill to be able to get it.”

I also mentioned the Dillards, the bluegrass band from outstate Missouri, perhaps best known for their appearances on “The Andy Griffith Show.” “It’s funny,” Martin said, “You’re talking about two of my – well, I can’t say John Hartford really influenced me, because I was so in awe of him and I couldn’t do anything that he did. I mean, he was so great. But the Dillards certainly influenced me to get into bluegrass. Because I saw them maybe three years before I met John. Or four years, so I was already on my way. But John Hartford was a sweetheart.”

I also got a chance to tell Martin about a trip I took to Aspen, Colorado, in 1978. My friend Jerome and I drove all over the state, sleeping in the back of his beat-to-death Datsun pickup, and we eventually wound up in Aspen where we barely were able to scrape up the cash for a hotel room. Once there, I started looking through the phone book for celebrities that I knew lived there. There were several “S. Martin” listings, but I didn’t want to guess, so instead I dialed the number of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band drummer Jimmy Fadden. His girlfriend answered and was friendly as we chatted, telling me that Fadden was in Golden, where the next night he’d be playing with the Dirt Band at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Jerome and I piled back in the truck and made it to the concert, where we were lucky enough to meet Dirt Band banjo player – and Martin’s friend since high school (and producer of "The Crow"), John McEuen.

Despite my confession of stalker tendencies, Martin was very generous with his time. [Edit: The Post-Dispatch feature is here.]

It seems like you’ve always got so many projects going in various media. How did it come about that this album finally happened?
Well, it’s a little bit – it’s incremental. I’ll try to shorten it. But earl Scruggs asked me to play, about 10 years ago, play “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” on one of those, you know, bluegrass jam cuts on one of his records. And I played and I realized, “Ah, I’m a little rusty.” So I just started playing again more regularly. And you know, I had written songs years ago, about four or five songs. More than that, actually. And I started just getting back into it again. I started writing a few songs and then Tony Trischka asked me to play – he was making a double banjo record. He asked me to play and he said, “Well, what do you want to play?” I said, “You know, it doesn’t do any good just to play an Earl Scruggs tune.” They could just get Earl Scruggs and he could play it more like Scruggs than I could. I said, “I do have some songs of my own.” And he came over and I played three or four of the songs, and one of them was “The Crow.” He said, “Oh, let’s do that one.” I said, “Okay,” so we recorded it, and it was one of the cuts on his “Double Bluegrass Banjo Spectacular” album, and it became a little bit of a hit in the bluegrass world…which means it sold a hundred.

And that encouraged me. I thought, “How many songs do I have?” And I thought maybe I could do an album where I would play maybe four songs, or I could actually choose my favorite banjo tunes and do one of those kinds of albums. You know, banjo tunes from other players, even just from prerecorded things. But then I thought, “Wait, I’ve got a dozen songs here. I could actually do my own record.” And I thought, “For one thing, I’m not getting any younger. And I’d wake up in the morning and my fingers would hurt. So I just booked a date, called Tony Trischka, Pete Wernick and John McEuen, we all got together, and bingo, we started recording.

If you had done it the other way, I think it would have been viewed as a bit of a novelty. With you writing all the tunes as well, it shows the full range of what you’re about.
Well, I did think that it’s important that I do all my own songs. I can’t do bluegrass standards. There’s 50 bands who could do bluegrass standards, so the only contribution I can make is to play all my own songs. That was the premise of the record and that’s why I called it very specifically “New Songs for the Five String Banjo.” I thought, well, that at least makes it something a little different.

I was amazed at the album’s success, because here you have essentially a banjo record (laughs).

Which like you said, would sell a hundred. But in your case, it became the best-selling bluegrass album of last year and won a Grammy.
It’s incredible. It’s thrilling. And you know, what’s really thrilling is, I get the feeling that people really like the songs and they like the music. I don’t get much feedback other than the Amazon.com letters (laughs), but they say, “I liked every song on the record.” That kind of thing.

You’re not doing the fast, “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” kind of thing for the whole album. There’s some slower, more reflective stuff. And actually, I'd like to ask you to take one of the songs and take me through your writing process.
Sure. Well, first of all, I’ll preface this by saying I deeply believe the banjo is a romantic instrument. It is very evocative. To me, Irish folk music is very evocative and soulful and mournful. I think the banjo has all of that. It has joy, it has sadness, it has melancholy. And that’s the type of banjo music I grew up on. I grew up on bluegrass, but I also grew up on, sort of weird, folky banjo playing and frailing, or clawhammer. All of that – you’ll notice, it’s all on the record. There’s a little sampling of each, and that’s not because I wanted to give a sample, it’s because that’s the way I play the banjo. There’s some clawhamer – I grew up calling it frailing, that’s why I always slip into frailing. But they now call it clawhamer – and that’s the style that’s played without picks.

Like, for example, let’s take the song “The Crow.” Now, I love…the reason that songs sounds the way it does is, that’s in the tuning. They call it double c tuning. That’s an open tuning. The banjo’s usually played in open G. You strum it and you get a G chord. But when you strum it in double C you get a modal chord. And it’s already heartrending. So that’s where you begin with that tuning of the banjo. I said, I love this tuning that much, and I was influenced by another player named Tony Ellis, who plays a lot in double C, or drop C. Tony Ellis is playing very romantic-type songs on the banjo. I think “The Crow,” that particular song, because it’s in double C tuning, it automatically is evocative. That tuning is just evocative. A lot of the songs originate…I say, “Okay, I want this tune to sound like a Scruggs tune.” But it has to be original, obviously. Or I say, “I want this to sound like that song I heard 40 years ago that got me hearing the modal sound of the banjo,” blah blah blah. And I try to write from an emotion, I guess. Almost a memory of how I felt when I first heard a particular sound coming from the banjo. So I try to write the sound of it. I have a good friend Pete Wernick, who is a banjo player and he said, “One of the most common things people say about the banjo, people who don’t know anything about the banjo, they say, ‘I always liked the sound of the banjo.’” The sound. And I guess that’s true. ‘Cause I’m in love with the sound of it, too.

You mentioned a lot of the feelings that you had when you first heard the banjo. Is that what inspired you to play?
It definitely was the sound. Because I heard…there was a sort of folk music craze around the early 60s and it hit the whole nation, but it hit California really big. And you’d hear these records, like, by the Kingston Trio and it was almost like looking at something through a field of corn. You try to part the corn – meaning I was trying to part all these other instruments, and go “What is THAT sound?” It’s like there’s a banjo hidden behind the corn (laughs). You go, “What is that?” You’re focusing so hard. And it’s a banjo. And you have to understand, the only thing I had ever heard was a four string banjo. That’s that sort of Dixieland thing. But the five string, to me, in this case, it just changed everything. So I went from to four string to hearing Pete Seeger or the Kingston Trio strumming. And then on to Earl Scruggs. And that’s when the heavens just opened.

Later, the banjo became part of your comedy act. Was that simply a case of using everything you’ve got?
Yes, absolutely. You have to understand when you’re starting in comedy, the hardest thing to find is material and filling the time. If you have to do 20 minutes, you gotta do 20 minutes (laughs). Yeah, I played the banjo, I did magic, I did juggling, I read poetry, I did everything to fill up 20 minutes and the banjo got dragged along with me. But it was good practice. I learned to play the banjo onstage, really. You can’t blow it when you’re onstage. You learn to do it no matter what.

That was such a great secret weapon, too. I don’t think anybody thought you could really play.
I always think it’s important when you’re doing an act where you look like a fuckup – that you have something to show that, oh, you can actually do something.

I was astonished to find out that not only were you present for the sessions for the Dirt Band’s “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album. And I know the connection between your manager, who is John’s brother. But what was it like to be there, and even getting to record some of your own stuff during those sessions? Well, you know, if I only knew what a thrill it was THEN… I know now. But my manager Bill McEuen made it very clear to me that this was a huge thrill. It was like the last time…he kept saying, “This is the last time all these musicians will be together.” I didn’t get to meet Mother Maybelle (Carter) but I got to meet Vassar Clements and…I don’t remember who I met and who I didn’t, frankly. And Earl was there and Doc Watson. I met Earl. He’s a sweetheart. When you’re in it, you’re not outside of it, you’re just in it.

Some of those songs that you recorded back then wound up on “The Crow,” but in new versions, correct?
Yeah, re-recorded. Yes. I figured it’d be cheating if I couldn’t play them again. That would be cheating.

You haven’t been on the road in decades, doing standup or whatever. What has the experience been like and how did you prepare for going out for a full music tour?
It’s been great. First of all, not to have the pressure of performing comedy for an hour and a half – there’s music there, and music is essentially soothing –although not everyone calls banjo music soothing (laughs). I have five other guys onstage. I used to be alone. At first, I was a little nervous, but then I got relaxed and confident, and now I’m hoping to just fully and completely enjoy it. That’s why I wanted to do it again, that’s why I booked a second tour. I thought, “Gee, we worked up a pretty good show. I don’t want to just throw it away.” And now we have a dozen new songs and the only way to do that is to try ‘em out and take ‘em on the road.

Will there be another album?
Yeah, we’re going to do another album. I’m going to do it with the steep canyon rangers. And we’re going to record it in August. And I don’t know when it’ll be out. It’s called “Jubilation Day” – that’s a working title.

You’re going to be playing some huge festivals, but you’ve done standup in front of stadiums. But this time you’re doing it without an arrow through your head.
Yeah. Well, actually, when you get to this stage in your career, you really have done it all. And so to walk out in front of a hundred thousand people, you know, I’ve done that before. Walk out live on the Oscars…yeah, I’ve done it before.

Ben Folds concert review

2010-04-22T12:46:00.000-05:00

Another chatty audience takes down a good show. Sigh.

Interview with OK Go's Damian Kulash

2010-04-22T12:43:00.000-05:00

Here

Interview with Bassekou Kouyate

2010-03-31T15:34:00.001-05:00

My preview of Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba's concert will run in this Friday's Post-Dispatch. Here's the full transcript of my interview with Kouyate, which was conducted by email and translated by his kind and patient manager.

Kouyate's new album "I Speak Fula" is a stunner. Definitely check it out, as well as his upcoming concert at the Touhill.

Tell me about the music that you heard growing up and how you learned to play the ngoni.
I grew up in a griot family that practiced traditional Bamana music that had been handed down for centuries with no outside influences on our village in the country around Segou which had been the capital of a wide area, but had gradually lost its political position although the traditions remained. That does not mean music did not change because our musicians were valued for their capacity to compose both music and lyrics.

There was no school in the area, and I learned to play the ngoni with my father as teacher and he had a great reputation in the area, being invited to other villages and to Ségu to play for other communities. He had very high standards and so I was taught in the pure tradition of Bamana music.

What can you tell me about the ngoni itself?
The instrument is now recognized as being the ancestor of the banjo, and it was made out of local materials: a calabash, a wooden post, cow skin to cover the open side of the calabash, and gut strings. However, bit by bit, we began to use a hollowed wooden resonator in the place of the calabash, goat skin instead of cow skin because it is more accessible, and nylon strings.

The ngoni is very ancient: and goes back to beyond the thirteenth century. A form of the instrument is found all over West Africa and as far north as Mauritania and Morocco. In most of West Africa it is recognized as the working instrument of the djeli praise singers. If they were passing through conflict zones, the djeli had no trouble passing frontiers: people immediately recognized his role in society because of the ngoni slung on his back.

It’s my understanding that in the past the ngoni has traditionally not been a lead instrument, yet you have changed that. What gave you the idea to do that? What impact has that had on the instrument itself and people’s rediscovery of it?
The ngoni was originally the principal accompaniment of a djeli singer or a reciter of praise songs and traditional stories. Often the same jeli played all these roles, and the performance was aimed at one or a very few patrons. As performances became more elaborate, the ngoni took a role as both accompaniment and continuum during performances with several vocalists, and additional instruments, such as the kora and finally percussion.

One of the particularities of the djeli ngoni player was that he would sit on the ground at or just beneath the patron’s eye level. My innovation was to play standing up, using a strap to support the instrument. Why did I do this? Frankly it was because I felt I had as much to contribute as the other instruments in the Super Rail Band where I was playing at the time, and I thought it was possible for the ngoni to take its turn playing solos, just like the others. So I stood up and played. This was the first time the public and indeed other musicians had seen this type of playing, and it led to recognition of a more virtuoso role for the instrument.

Your music is part of a long tradition, yet you have done much to expand that tradition and make it your own. Was it important to you to update the music and connect with a new generation? Is it a struggle to do that and still respect that tradition?
It seems to me that this is just a part of what the djeli have done in Bamana music for centuries, because they are real artists who create music, and have added technical developments like using a wooden resonator, changing the types of strings, adding strings to the instruments (my father used four strings, but his father used only three). Technical changes have opened new doors to the ngoni, and to other instruments, particularly because of amplification. Just as the guitar has developed from its acoustic form to electronic ones, the ngoni has gone from its more traditional form to being produced in various sizes and ranges of sound, and to using purely technological developments, such as the wah wah pedal to give it special effects.

If you are brought up, like my family, in the tradition of how to play the ngoni, you have a very solid grounding in Bamana music and you respect it, but if you want your instrument to speak to modern audiences, particularly the new generation and those outside West Africa, then you naturally update the style of performance, but the tradition is still there as a basis.

Tell me about your meeting with Taj Mahal in 1990. Was that your first exposure to American blues?
It was an extraordinary event. I was just 19 and I was identified by an American researcher visiting Bamako as someone who showed where the roots of the banjo and its music came from. They must have told Taj and one day the American Embassy sent for me to come and collect a visa and sent me off to Tennessee for a series of concerts on the roots of American music. The journey in itself was quite an adventure with late flights, threats to send me back from France before I even got to the US, arriving in New York when nobody knew I was coming, and wandering around the airport until I found a Senegalese man who spoke French and helped me get to the festival.

Then I met Taj, on stage, for a rehearsal, without knowing who he was, or what the blues was. It just sounded like my Bamana music, so I played along and Taj thought I had learned the blues somewhere. In the end we played together and understood each other, and he declared that he is convinced he is from Kouyaté stock so he’s my brother.

You have played with some great master musicians, such as Toumani Diabate, Ali Farka Toure and Youssou N’Dour. What was it like playing with them, and did those collaborations have an impact on your own playing.
I think it was summed up by Ali Farka when we met to do a recording. The producer had allowed time for rehearsals which lasted about five minutes before Ali said “Right, we’re ready to record!” He explained to the producer that when two artists meet, their performance is not something they learn, but a matter of how they react instinctively to each other’s playing.

Toumani is a marvelous musician who is excited by new sounds, knows the kora as a master player and can go on to create music with other players. He does this with individual musicians (for instance Bjork – from a totally different background), but also with quite large numbers of instrumental players and vocalists in his own Selectic Orchestra. He is a master in the sense that the Mande Empire recognized back in the thirteenth century when they fixed the rules to run their society and told people to respect the ‘nyara’ master artists, and leave them free to create music for the rest of society.

More recently, you’ve worked with Bela Fleck. What do you see as the benefits of mixing musical cultures as you’ve done with him and others?
First, the mixing is not of totally different cultures: as I’ve already said, the banjo is the descendent of the ngoni and shares its range and some of its repertoire. The benefit of meeting up after several centuries is first that Bela is so sensitive to the ngoni: he really listens to it, and this inspires Ngoniba to listen carefully to him, as well. Between us, this leads to a fusion and creation of new kinds of music: it is as if the banjo had never left the West African tradition while the ngoni kept its original form when it arrived in America, so now they can carry on a conversation that was never interrupted.

Your new album and tour are making an impact in America. What do you hope to accomplish by being heard here?
To have American audiences get to know the ngoni and realize that traditional instruments can be just as exciting as modern ones, and that Bamana music is a force to be reckoned with. Music is one of the gifts that West Africa brings to the world: people already know the rich Mande tradition, thanks largely to Toumani Diabaté, and music from the North thanks to l Farka Touré and to Tinariwen – but we have lots of other traditions and styles waiting to be discovered, too.

A new music column for the St. Louis Jewish Light

2010-03-31T15:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Jewish Light editor Ellen Futterman, with whom I've worked for years, I'm starting a music column for the St. Louis Jewish Light. I know what you're saying -- Um, Dan's not Jewish, is he? Well, no. But it's always been my policy to use my skills as a journalist to do a credible job of writing about things I don't necessarily know about. I'm counting on readers (and Ellen) to keep me on the straight-and-narrow.

Here's my first column.

And while I'm at it, here's a preview of Matisyahu's appearance at Washington University's Graham Chapel.

Catching up on some recent clips

2010-03-31T14:32:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the long silence. Lots going on around here, including the fast-approaching publication of the Neil Young book and moving my home office from an upstairs bedroom to parts unknown. (I'll spare you the details.)

Anyway, here's some of the stuff I've published recently in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

A preview of Jason Aldean's concert at the Family Arena.

A preview of the Guthrie Family's concert at the Sheldon.

A review of the Experience Hendrix concert at the Fox.

An inteview with Ernie Isley to preview Experience Hendrix at the Fox.

A preview of David Gray's concert at the Touhill.

An interview with Junior Marvin to preview the Wailers concert at Harrah's Voodoo Lounge.

A review of Willie Nelson's concert at the Pageant.

An interview with John Ondrasik to preview Five for Fighting's concert at the Pageant.

An interview with Stephin Merritt to preview the Magnetic Fields' concert at the Pageant.

An interview with Paddy Moloney to preview the Chieftains' concert at the Touhill.

A Q&A with Paula Cole to preview her concert at the Old Rock House.

An interview with Loretta Lynn to preview her concert at Rickman Auditorium.

An interview with Dennis DeYoung to preview his concert at the Family Arena.

And still more Fishin' Musician

2010-03-03T19:44:00.000-06:00

with Joe Walsh: "the greatest thing since pliers."

More Fishin' Musician

2010-03-03T19:38:00.000-06:00

Balloon fishing with Jimmy Buffett

The Fishin' Musician!

2010-03-03T19:32:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite SCTV bits. Let's see what's going on at Gil Fisher's Scuttle Butt Lodge.

Love this clip from SNL

2010-02-11T19:26:00.001-06:00

Remember when...

2010-02-03T13:36:00.000-06:00

Remember when winning winning the Best New Artist Grammy destroyed careers? Now it's Album of the Year.

A couple of post-Grammy thoughts

2010-02-01T12:39:00.000-06:00

Is anyone else concerned that Wyclef hasn't been seen since he said there "ain't no more record companies" on national TV last night? I think it's possible that he's been sent on "a mission to Haiti" by the powers that be. Or have ceased to be. You know what I mean.

Also, I've been rethinking Beyonce's cover of Alanis Morissette's "You Oughta Know." Later in the show, when she thanked her "husband," do you think she meant Dave Coulier?

And the album of the year goes to...

2010-01-31T22:25:00.000-06:00

Taylor Swift.

After her performance, she should be glad she wasn't escorted out of the building.

Too much, too soon.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Lil Wayne, Eminem & Drake

2010-01-31T22:14:00.001-06:00

Why even broadcast this if it's all going to be bleeped?

Clark Terry Lifetime Achievement Award

2010-01-31T22:12:00.000-06:00

And he's there. So cool.

Les Paul tribute

2010-01-31T22:06:00.000-06:00

Paul is worthy of even more airtime, but any excuse to get Jeff Beck onstage is fine with me.

Jay Bennett

2010-01-31T22:02:00.000-06:00

Heartbreaking to see him in the montage of those that died this year.

Maxwell

2010-01-31T21:52:00.000-06:00

"Pretty Wings" Oh yeah. Nice.

Joined by Roberta Flack for "Where Is the Love?"

Beyonce

2010-01-31T21:47:00.000-06:00

Hmmm, reminds me. I think I overinflated my tires.

DMB

2010-01-31T21:41:00.000-06:00

Thought they were booked for the John Edwards/Rielle Hunter wedding tonight.

Tweet from Jason Mraz

2010-01-31T21:39:00.000-06:00

"Numb in whelm?"

jason_mraz Sitting in the crowd a Grammy winner. Numb in whelm. Grateful for ten years of fan support. Thank you. I'll follow up with a blog soon.

Here it comes...

2010-01-31T21:36:00.000-06:00

Portnow's complaint.

Blige/Bocelli duet

2010-01-31T21:30:00.000-06:00

"Bridge Over Troubled Water."

You can buy it tomorrow at iTunes.com/Target.

Wyclef

2010-01-31T21:24:00.000-06:00

"A loving son of Haiti"...with some accounting issues.

Another for Jay-Z

2010-01-31T21:18:00.000-06:00

With Rihanna and Kanye.

Kanye: "I'ma let you finish, but Jay-Z had...oh, wait, nevermind."

Placido Domingo and Mos Def

2010-01-31T21:16:00.000-06:00

Together again for the first time.

Bon Jovi

2010-01-31T21:10:00.000-06:00

The only way I would vote about something Bon Jovi will do later in the show is if the contest was about whether they would fight each other to the death with knives or revolvers.

Sheryl Crow's earrings

2010-01-31T21:06:00.000-06:00

I'm pretty sure Carl Palmer used to use them as gongs.

Two hours in...

2010-01-31T21:05:00.000-06:00

...and I count 10 performances and 6 awards handed out.

Jacko tribute

2010-01-31T20:52:00.000-06:00

Don't have the 3-D glasses. I'll get by somehow.

Lionel Richie -- "This Is It"..."which is out on DVD." Nice touch, Lionel.

All things considered, the song was nicely done.

Lionel: "Unbelievable!" Too bad he didn't say "Outrageous!"

And oh great: Jacko gets his Lifetime Achievement Award telecast. What about Clark Terry, bitches?

Taylor Swift performance

2010-01-31T20:46:00.000-06:00

I don't care how many Grammys you give her, the girl can't sing a lick.

Come back, Jamie Foxx, all is forgiven!

No it isn't.

Tweet from Randy Jackson

2010-01-31T20:45:00.001-06:00

Ouch!

randyjackson8 So proud, my brother being honored 2nite w/the Lifetime Achievement Award. My family would love to be there but truth is, we weren't invited

Zac Brown Band

2010-01-31T20:35:00.000-06:00

No doubt these guys can sing. Jamie Foxx, did you hear that?

Holy shit, it's Leon Russell! Wasn't he just laid low with brain surgery? Great to see him not just up and about, but onstage.

His appearance won't mean much to those who tuned in for Taylor Swift and Beyonce, but some of us out there still love Leon.

Rock Album

2010-01-31T20:32:00.000-06:00

Green Day takes this one. I'd have gone U2 myself, but it's a decent pick.

Jamie Foxx

2010-01-31T20:21:00.000-06:00

Anybody who is using vocal effects tonight is being totally exposed.

Record of the Year

2010-01-31T20:17:00.000-06:00

Kings of Leon, "Use Somebody."

"We're a little drunk, but happy drunk."

I love how Ringo pronounced Leon like the city in France.

Comedy Grammy

2010-01-31T20:10:00.000-06:00

Good lord, when was the last time the Grammys aired the Comedy category?

Stephen Colbert wins. "This is a Christmas album, so obviously I should thank Jesus Christ."

Lady Antebellum

2010-01-31T20:04:00.000-06:00

Introduced by the JoBros (who the audience probably would rather see right now), their performance was understated to a fault. Don't think it won them any fans among the clatter.

Black Eyed Peas

2010-01-31T19:55:00.000-06:00

What are the two band members that aren't Will.i.am and Fergie for, exactly?

And even then -- Fergie's singing out of tune and Will.i.am is auto-tuned.

Next.

50 minutes in

2010-01-31T19:48:00.000-06:00

And we've seen three awards handed out and four performances.

Best New Artist

2010-01-31T19:46:00.000-06:00

Zac Brown Band -- a good choice from a weak field.