John Hammond Jr. is a fantastic live act. To say he’s been around is an understatement. Hammond introduced The Band to Bob Dylan and had a short-lived band that included both Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. He’s one of those performers who seems to feed off the energy of a live show, and then falls …
Search Results for: Randy Rendfeld
While browsing Boing Boing (boingboing.net) last week, I ran into this blog entry: “The Dream of the 90s is Alive in Portland” — a hymn to one of America’s greatest towns — “where zines, slacking, good coffee, social consciousness, public transit and all the other sweet fantasies of the 90s are still alive.” It features …
It’s the holidays, and that means it’s time for Pink Martini. Randy Rendfeld sent me several excellent links to Pink Martini material, past and present: The Pinksters performed on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno Monday, 12/20/2010. Just two days earlier (12/18/2010), Thomas (Lauderdale), China (Forbes) and the gang brought their rollicking genre-bending orchestra to …
This 1958 Stan Freberg audio file satirizes the overcommercialism of Christmas. It begins with Mr. Scrooge calling a meeting of important “advertising people” to find new ways to tie products to Christmas. One advertiser talks of depicting a more rugged Santa smoking a preferred brand of cigarette. In the ad, Santa has “both sleeves rolled …
. Many of the songs in Tom Lehrer’s small, dark canon of work still seem relevant today, though nearly all of them were written in the 1950s and 60s. Lehrer often wrote about subjects that were in the news of the day. For example, his song “Smut” (which may be heard in the video below) …
This hymn-like anthem is about selfless, freely given love that asks nothing in return. The singer wants to dry your tears, watch your back, comfort you when you’re down, and sail behind you and keep you safe. Can you think of any other song that packaged so much beauty and emotion into a few lines …
Early medieval women were far from passive damsels waiting for a knight to rescue them. Of course, this time period is hardly an ideal time for women: childbirth so risky expectant mothers were urged to confess their sins before they went into labor, fathers choosing whom a girl would marry, age 13 considered marriageable, wife …
Apparently some of the enmity that exists among surviving members of The Band revolves around songwriting credits. Levon told Robbie about this thing he’d seen years ago — W.S. Walcott’s Medicine Show — and Robbie wrote it down. Wouldn’t it be the proper gentlemanly thing to do to record this as a collaboration and give …
By RANDY RENDFELD I love spicy hot food, but I’m not a masochist. Peppers should add flavor and not just heat. But that’s apparently not the culinary criteria for 510 reviewers of Dave’s Ghost Pepper Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce on Amazon.com. These reviewers like the near-death experiences this nuclear hell sauce delivers. As I write …
Thanks to Randy Rendfeld for finding this video: Finding Portland from Uncage the Soul Productions on Vimeo. Here’s the Vimeo page description: Finding Portland was produced, shot, and edited in 51 days during March and April at the invitation of TEDx Portland, where the video was unveiled to a sell out crowd of 650 and …
Legendary bluegrass banjo player, Earl Scruggs, died Wednesday at age 88 in a Nashville hospital. According to his sons, Scruggs died of natural causes. He was the last of the bluegrass pioneers. Scruggs’ influence on not only bluegrass and country but all of modern music is extraordinary. He pioneered three-finger, “Scruggs style” picking, an innovation …
Thanks to Randy Rendfeld for this very funny link.
Thanks to Randy Rendfeld for this pic:
http://youtu.be/_E3-_z5YP0M The preceding, historically significant, footage shows Robert Kennedy in Indianapolis on April 4, 1968 speaking to a crowd on a campaign stop shortly after learning of the death of Martin Luther King. Kennedy’s trenchant, moving comments were given very soon after King’s assassination. “[Kennedy] first heard that King had been shot while leaving Muncie, …
This question comes from an unnamed source via Daniel Housman – Just how many brilliant obscure singer-songwriters were there in the early Seventies? I’m still getting over rediscovering Emmitt Rhodes — and now here’s David Ackles. Nobody was listening to this stuff, yet “Gimme Dat Ding” went Top 40? Tom Kipp – Let us add …
Some friends of East Portland Blog recently pooled their knowledge of music sites and I’d like to share it with you: Jan Erickson: Kurt Elling – http://kurtelling.com James Bresnahan: 1) Wolfgangs Vault; King Biscuit Flower Hour live concerts were merged with Bill Graham’s live archives, www.wolfgangsvault.com. The concert list is HUGE! It now features archival …
Thanks to Randy Rendfeld for this: The NPR interview with Colin Meloy of Portland band, the Decemberists, and their new album, The King is Dead (available as of 1/18/2011) may be heard here at the NPR website. And here’s Calamity Song, a nifty homage to Reckoning-era REM on the new album:
. He wasn’t the greatest of all time, but he may have been the prettiest. Mark Knopfler’s solos, in Dire Straits and elsewhere, were/are always the most melodic, the clearest, the brightest, the kind you’d most like to take home to Mum. He had/has at least four personas, all of them entertaining: the mellifluous athleticist, …