I'm pleased to announce a new WCRDV heading in the "Album photo" section called: Album by the artist. The idea is to make readers discover an album by the words of the artist himself. We launched "Album by the artist" with a great AOR band from Norway, Stoneflower!
Guitarist Jon Johannessen talks about the making of "Crack a little smile", one of the best melodic rock release of 2003!!
On June 8th, Peter Friestedt will be at Blue Moon Bar (Stockholm) for the LA Project Showcase Concert featuring Bill Cantos (Voc, Keys), Stefan Gunnarsson (Voc, Keys) and Special guests.
Also featuring Jocke Bergström and The Sunday Blue Moon Bar Band with Horns & Westcoast DJ: Adam Fietz.
Shows in The States coming up for Robbie Dupree this summer include:
July 24 - Goshen, CT - Connecticut Agricultural Fair - with Mood Ring
August 12 - Brooklyn, NY - Coney Island - with Kenny Loggins
August 28-29 - Japan - Mt. Fuji Music Festival (details to come)
September 11 - Yorktown, NY - Yorktown Grange Fair - with Mood Ring.
Carole King will do a tour this summer in The U.S.A. for the first time in more than ten years. She was inspired by the intimacy and simplicity of the shows she did earlier this year in support of Presidential candidate John Kerry. "I realized I could do the same thing in larger venues and still have people feel like they're in my living room," explained King. Her enthusiasm was evident as she added, "The idea of bringing a show back to basics really appeals to me."
Dates are:
7/15 Auditorium Theater - Chicago, IL
7/16 Tower City Ampitheater - Cleveland, OH
7/18 Saratoga Performing Arts Center - Saratoga Springs, NY
7/20 Meadowbrook Musical Arts Center - Gilford, NH
7/21 Tower Theater - Upper Darby, PA
7/22 Cape Cod Melody Tent - Hyannis, MA
7/24 Westbury Music Fair - Westbury, NY
7/25 Fleet Pavilion Boston, MA
7/27 Mohegan Sun Arena - Uncasville, CT
7/30 Chastain Park - Atlanta, GA
7/31 Ryman Auditorium - Nashville, TN
8/1 Mizner Amphitheatre - Boca Raton, FL
8/3 Ruth Eckerd Hall - Clearwater, FL
8/4 Wolftrap - Vienna VA.
8/6 Pier 62/63 - Seattle, WA
In addition, Carole King performs "Will You (Still) Love Me Tomorrow" with Willie Nelson for USA Network's Memorial Day television special "Willie Nelson & Friends: Outlaws and Angels." The performance was "one of the highlights," according the Reuters.
The two hour music special, which airs on May 31st was taped May 5th at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater. It is the third consecutive year that the network has broadcast an all-star Nelson event. In addition to Carole King, this year' all-star concert, which was hosted by James Caan, includes guests Jerry Lee Lewis, Keith Richards, Kid Rock, Merle Haggard, Ben Harper, Lucinda Williams, Al Green, Shelby Lynne, Rickie Lee Jones, Toots Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals, Joe Walsh, and many more. Check your local listings for air times or go to USA Network for further updates.
In the excellent documentary the way the music died broadcasted in The States on PBS and available online on saturday 29th, there is also a impressive David Crosby interview who says exactly what he thinks about music industry and its decline:
"At the point when the overall take from the music business probably passes, let's say, a billion dollars -- now it's off the top of my head, the actual number you'd have to ascertain -- but there was a certain point at which the take got big enough to where the big boys got interested. They said, "Oh, wait a minute, that's some serious cash. I better go over there and rake off some of that."
When it all started, record companies -- and there were many of them, and this was a good thing -- were run by people who loved records, people like Ahmet Ertegun, who ran Atlantic Records, who were record collectors. They got in it because they loved music. …
Now record companies are run by lawyers and accountants. The shift from the one to the other was definitely related to when the takes started to get big. Somebody [in] a forensic accounting job could probably establish the exact moment at which it reached the level that brought in the sharks.
(...)
When was the last time you went to the record store? Ah-hah! That's, that's how it works, buddy. It's the kids go to the record store, and the kids are -- I was going to say "stupid," but they're not. They're just ignorant. And many of them will evolve, you know, from really dumb stuff, because the dumb music is sort of like a joke that's only funny once. And you can only go to a Justin Timberlake concert once. You go a second time, you see the same thing -- maybe they got new fireworks, but Justin ain't got nothing new to say, okay?
And, so, then you start to evolve up. And maybe you wind up at Bruce Hornsby, maybe you wind up at Willie Nelson, maybe you wind up at Randy Newman, maybe you wind up at Joni Mitchell, maybe wind up at James Taylor for God's sake. But somewhere in there, you wind up loving music, and you evolve up to a level where you go after somebody who can really do it -- Shawn Colvin, Mark Cohn, people who can really do it. And some of those kids are going to evolve to there, and that'll be great. But I don't see success for singer-songwriters. I don't see it."
It should be a busy summer for Bruce Hornsby. The pianist is kicking off a small U.S. tour in July to promote the August release of his new album 'Halcyon Days.'
Here is the songs list :
1. Gonna Be Some Changes Made
2. Candy Mountain Run
3. Dreamland
4. Circus On The Moon
5. Halcyon Days
6. What The Hell Happened
7. Hooray For Tom
8. Heir Gordon
9. Mirror On The Wall
10. Song F
11. Lost In The Snow
Sting make a duet with Bruce on the lead track, "Gonna Be Some Changes Made" and Elton John does the honors on "Dreamland".
Eric Clapton plays guitar on three tracks and sings on "Candy Mountain Run". Additional guests include R.S. Hornsby and the Hornsby band is in full force - J.V. Collier, Sonny Emory, Bobby Read, Doug Derryberry, and John "JT" Thomas.
Fantasia Barrino is the winner of the third edition of "American Idol". She is 19 y.o. from Highpoint, N.C. Fantasia Barrino will lead a North American tour that will feature DeGarmo and eight other third season finalists of American Idol.
"I've been through some things but I worked hard to get to where I'm at," Barrino, the third American Idol, told the crowd.
"Thank you much," she said, with tears rolling down her face. "I broke my shoe!"
Livingston Taylor has finished all the basic tracks for his new album. He recorded 14 brand new songs of mine with these amazing Nashville musicians: Shane Kiester on piano, Glenn Worf on bass, George Marinelli and Chris Rodriguez on guitar, and Chad Cromwell on drums.
In addition, Livingston leads the nationwide effort to find the next great folk singer/ song writer and give him or her the chance to perform at the 2004 Apple & Eve Newport Folk Festival scheduled for August 6-8, 2004.
She is only 16 years old but she has a golden voice : Lisa Andreas has represented Cyprus at the recent Eurovision Song Contest 2004 in Istanbul. Lisa Andreas sings beautifully with a clear and emotional voice the song "Stronger Every Minute". Look at Lisa Andreas video of "Stronger Every Minute" at this address. That's great!
The German candidate at the recent Eurovision Song Contest in Istanbul named Max had a superb Westcoastmusic song in the seventies mood with playing Wurlitzer : "Can't Wait Until Tonight". You can hear some samples of the tune at this Amazon page. You can look at his live video at the Eurovision song contest there.
"Max Mutzke is just 22-years-old and a true musician. A drummer for several years, he fronts the funk band "Project 5" and it's hard to believe he's never taken singing lessons. However his expressive voice convinced not only the jurors (who included host and composer Stefan Raab, singer Thomas Anders and Joy Flemming) but also the audience of German television show "TV-Total's" special "SSDSGPS" that he should represent Germany at Eurovision this year (...) Max is heavily influenced by funk music and his idols include: Tower of Power..."