Category Archives: Music

Best Album Name: A Ass Pocket of Whiskey

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Terry McVey recently pointed us to the Best Album (CD?) Cover Art, and now has a nominee for Best Album Name: A Ass Pocket of Whiskey (Fat Possum Records) by R. L. Burnside. Sadly, R. L. died on September 1, 2005, in a Memphis hospital.

“A Ass Pocket of Whiskey is a collaborative effort between well-known artists R.L. Burnside and Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. Recorded in a rented out hunters cabin near Holly Springs, Mississippi, both acts bring their best to the table with amps turned all the way up, drums pounding and R.L. and Jon Spencer screaming with their charismatic voices back and forth at one another.”

Based solely on track names, my favorites are: Snake Drive and Tojo Told Hitler.

Profiles in Courage: Star Spangled Banner

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I’m told it is quite common to forget the words to our national anthem when singing in public. A gold star for this young woman, singing at the Indiana State Fair last night [AUDIO]

Had I been there –and remembered the lyrics myself (“…were so gallantly streaming?” )– I’d like to think I would have leapt to my feet and led the crowd in singing along with her for the final few lines. Listen for at least 35 seconds.

Caged bird sings

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Jefferson City prison inmate Irving Berry has written a song for Missouri, entitled “Missouri, Home Sweet Home to Me,” which he calls a gift of honest reconciliation from all of Missouri’s incarcerated sons and daughters. Berry says 90 percent of the inmates he has come into contact with are remorseful. Berry, who has been in prison for nearly 30 years, wrote the song while incarcerated at the Cameron prison. When he was transferred to Jefferson City, he met with fellow inmate Mark Immekus, who wrote the music. They recorded the song with fellow inmates at the Jefferson City Prison. [Missourinet.com]

Everybody knows

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Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows the war is over
And everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor and the rich get rich
Thats how it goes
And everybody knows

— From Everybody Knows by Leonard Cohen

Mick Jagger at 61

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“That he is a sexagenarian didn’t seem to faze Mr. Jagger’s fans on nearby rooftops and around the stage as they pumped their fists in the air and watched the band perform. True to form, Mr. Jagger, 61, waved his hands in the air and jumped up and down, showing off his still rail-thin stomach. “I’ll never stop, never stop, never stop,” he sang, strutting back and forth.” [NYTimes.com]

I wouldn’t trade the sixties for an extra 10 years.

Doug Howard promoted

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“Doug Howard, senior vice president of A&R at Lyric Street Records, has been named senior vice president and general manager of the new soon-to-be-opened Disney Music Publishing/Nashville. The record label and publishing company are both part of the Buena Vista Music Group, the recorded music and music publishing division of the Walt Disney Company.” – CMT.com

Doug is a good ole boy from Kennett, MO who could actually get your lame-ass country song published.

RadioDavidByrne.com

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“A friend who relocated to California from NY said she missed hearing all the odd variety of music that was played around the office here. I miss hearing what you all are listening to,” she wrote. This “radio” is my response. It will stream for a few hours and then it will recycle. Maybe it will run longer in the future. The artists played here are respectful of one another and gunplay is forbidden.”

David Byrne explains why he started his own Internet radio station. What an interesting idea. I confess I like most of the songs I’ve heard, even though I’ve never heard of any of the artists. Other Internet radio stations to which I would listen: Radio McVey, Virettarama.

Music Choice, Sprint launching music service

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“Music Choice and Sprint are launching a music service that allows mobile phone users to view short videoclips and listen to radio-like programming on their handsets. For $5.99 per month, users can listen to a range of genres and formats, including R&B/hip-hop, pop, country and rock. Earlier this year, the company announced Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Services, which delivers streaming audio and video content from NBC, CNN, ABC News, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, Discovery, E Entertainment, and others.” (Reuters/MSNBC.com)

MSN Music Store

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I just purchased my first song online. I downloaded a few songs back in the early days of Napster and KaZaA but never really got into it and –later– hated the way KaZaA scewed with your system. While I love the look of the iPod, I don’t have one and probably won’t buy one, again, just because I’m not into walking around with ear-buds. While the new MSN Music Store might be inferior in every way to iTunes, I found it very easy to use. My Net Passport info was already on file so it took about 15 seconds to agree to let them bill me for music downloads (which will play on just about any device). Jackson Browne’s Stay was my choice for first legal download. MS made this pretty easy and I suspect I’ll buy more music online than I ever have (or would) at the music store.