Musicians Across the World Pay Tribute to Levon Helm – Robbie Robertson Visits One Last Time and Praises Helm

[Update 4/19/2012 – On his website, the family of Levon Helm has announced, “Levon Helm passed peacefully this afternoon. He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul.” The material below was posted earlier in the week, prior to …

Levon Helm – King Fish – Take Me to the River – A True Innovator Who Will be Missed, By Davin Michael Stedman

[Update 4/19/2012 – On his website, the family of Levon Helm has announced, “Levon Helm passed peacefully this afternoon. He was surrounded by family, friends and band mates and will be remembered by all he touched as a brilliant musician and a beautiful soul.” The material below was posted earlier in the week, prior to …

Longboat – So Gangsta

Longboat’s Igor Keller doesn’t like it when I use a certain G-word to describe him. The word is not “gangsta.” Igor’s fine with that. He’d love it if we all called him our original gangsta. The G-word Igor doesn’t like is “genius,” which is a word I keep coming back to whenever I hear tunes …

Summer Meltdown Video Debuts; Festival Lineup Announced, By Steve Stav

When it comes to music festivals, there’s nothing like a little audience participation. To stoke the fires for the 12th annual Summer Meltdown Festival in Darrington, Wash., organizers have taken grassroots involvement to the next level. Featuring fans proclaiming “I Meltdown!” in a variety of ways, an e-commercial for the August 10-12 extravaganza debuts today …

Real McKenzies – Westwinds – CD Review – “So Hard the Music Explodes Likes a Beer Keg,” By Holly Homan

[The Real McKenzies will rock the house at El Corazon in Seattle, Wa on 5/18.] Westwinds is the new release by The Real McKenzies and it’s traditional Real McKenzies. Westwinds is part traditional Scottish folk music, complete with bagpipes, with a heavy dose of drunken punk thrown in, then shaken so hard the music explodes …

The Great Controversy

I recently heard Ted N.C. Wilson on 3ABN talking about the The Great Controversy Project and it inspired me to pass along these links concerning The Great Controversy, which is free online, in text form: http://www.whiteestate.org/books/gc/gc.asp And as an audiobook: http://www.greatcontroversyonline.com/ Also, here is an article about three women whose lives were changed by Ellen …

The Style Council – My Ever Changing Moods – Long Hot Summer – Shout to the Top – Paul Weller Earned His Post-Jam Fun, By Tom Fredrickson

When Style Council came out with its first record, Bruce, the biggest Jam fan I knew, shook his head sadly. He may never have uttered the word, but hanging over his head was an acid green thought bubble containing the word, “sellout.” Bruce had a Mosaic sense of pop ethics, and when he came down …