Category Archives: Music Calendar

Blues, Live, Music Calendar, Video

Today: Happy birthday Buddy Guy – Two great concerts

buddy guy smile

Happy 77th Birthday, Buddy Guy!

 

“He is the best living guitar player in the world”
– Eric Clapton

We celebrate George “Buddy” Guy’s birthday with two fantastic concerts. The first from The Montreal Jazz Festival, 6th July 1997. Check out the matching guitar and shirt! …also check out the Hammond B3 playing starting at 15 minutes in, just incredible!

Buddy Guy, Montreal 1997:

 

We want also to show you a concert from 2008, from a festival in Lugano (Switzerland). We get a happy Buddy Guy, clearly enjoying himself in a tremendous concert (and the checkered shirt is still with him).

Buddy Guy, Lugano 2008:

Enjoy!

– Hallgeir

Country, Music Calendar

Today: Bobbie Gentry is 69

bobbie gentry

 Can a song be so perfect, so successful, that it eclipses its creator? It can if it’s Bobbie Gentry’s Grammy-winning 1967 chart-topper Ode to Billie Joe, one of the most elegantly powerful pieces of storytelling ever to travel the airwaves.
~Dorian Lynskey (The Guardian)

Ode to Billie Joe:

From Wikipedia:

Birth name Roberta Lee Streeter
Born July 27, 1944 (age 69)
Origin Chickasaw County, Mississippi, United States
Genres Country, pop, soul
Occupations Singer-songwriter
Instruments Vocals, guitar
Years active 1964–1978
Labels Capitol
Associated acts Glen Campbell

Roberta Lee Streeter (born July 27, 1944), professionally known as Bobbie Gentry, is an American former singer-songwriter notable as one of the first female country artists to compose and produce her own material. Her songs typically drew on her Mississippi roots to compose vignettes of the Southern United States.

Gentry shot to international fame with her intriguing Southern Gothic narrative “Ode to Billie Joe” in 1967. The track was fourth in the Billboard year-end chart of 1967 and earned her Grammy awards for Best New Artist and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1968. Gentry charted eleven singles on the Billboard Hot 100 and four singles on the United Kingdom Top 40.  Her album Fancy brought her a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. After her first albums, she had a successful run of variety shows on the Las Vegas Strip. She lost interest in performing in the late 1970s and has since lived privately in Los Angeles.

Bobbie Gentry remains one of the most interesting and underappreciated artists to emerge out of Nashville during the late ’60s. Best-known for her crossover smash “Ode to Billie Joe,” she was one of the first female country artists to write and produce much of her own material, forging an idiosyncratic, pop-inspired sound that, in tandem with her glamorous, bombshell image, anticipated the rise of latter-day superstars like Shania Twain and Faith Hill. ~Jason Alkeny (Allmusic)

Check out these fine articles:

Album of the day:

The Delta Sweete (1968)

The Delta Sweete is her second record and her masterpiece: a multi-faceted quasi-concept album about Gentry’s Mississippi delta roots.
~Dorian Lynskey (The Guardian)

bobbie gentry delta sweete

Other July-27:

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Bob Dylan, Music Calendar

Today: Masked and Anonymous was released 10 years ago

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masked_and_anonymous

“When I made the Bob Dylan movie, I wanted to make a Bob Dylan movie that was like a Bob Dylan song. One with a lot of layers, that had a lot of poetry, that had a lot of surrealism and was ambiguous and hard to figure out, like a puzzle.”

– Larry Charles

Masked and Anonymous is a 2003 comedy-drama film directed by Larry Charles, who is better known for his writing on successful TV sitcoms, Seinfeld and Mad About You and for executive producing episodes of The Tick and Dilbert. The film was written by Larry Charles and Bob Dylan, the latter under the pseudonym “Sergei Petrov”. It stars iconic rock legend Bob Dylan alongside a star-heavy cast, including John Goodman, Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz, Val Kilmer, Mickey Rourke, Jessica Lange,Luke Wilson, Angela Bassett, Bruce Dern, Cheech Marin, Ed Harris, Chris Penn, Steven Bauer, Giovanni Ribisi, and Michael Paul Chan.

The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Trailer:

It is such an underrated movie! …and with some fantastical musical numbers of course.

Bob Dylan – Drifters Escape:

Bob Dylan – Cold Irons Bound:

Bob Dylan – I Remember You:

Bob Dylan – Standing in the doorway (audio):

Bob Dylan – Diamond Joe:

2003_masked_and_anonymous_001

Seek it out, check it out, it’s a good experience!

– Hallgeir

Music Calendar

Today: Jim Armstrong is 69

From Wikipeida:

James ‘Jim’ Armstrong (born 24 July 1944, in Belfast, Co Antrim) is a guitarist from Northern Ireland.

Armstrong’s musical career started while he was still a schoolboy, when he played in Belfast’s top showband, The Melotones, who were resident in the city’s Romano’s Ballroom. Armstrong played and recorded in the mid-’60s with Van Morrison and Them, touring both Europe and America (where he lived – playing and recording – for 4 years). Of the 51 tracks recorded by Morrison and Them (1964–66), Armstrong played on over half, and while living in America met and played with Jim Morrison & The Doors, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa. During this time he was voted 3rd best guitarist in the world (after Jimi Hendrix & Frank Zappa).

Them:


Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard “Gloria” and launching singer Van Morrison’s musical career. The original five member band consisted of Morrison, Alan Henderson, Ronnie Millings, Billy Harrison and Eric Wrixon.The group was marketed in the United States as part of the British Invasion.

Them scored two UK hits in 1965 with “Baby, Please Don’t Go” (UK No.10) and “Here Comes the Night” (UK No.2; Republic of IrelandNo.2). The latter song and “Mystic Eyes”” were Top 40 hits in the US.

Them w/ Gloria:

Here is a youtube playlist with Jim Armstrong:

Other July-24:

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Music Calendar

Today: Don Henley is 66

Donald Hugh “Don” Henley (born July 22, 1947, in Gilmer, Texas) is an American singer, songwriter and drummer, best known as a founding member of the Eagles before launching a successful solo career. Henley was the drummer and lead vocalist for the Eagles from 1971–1980, when the band broke up. Henley sings lead vocals on Eagles hits such as “Witchy Woman”, “Desperado”, “Best of My Love”, “One of These Nights”, “Hotel California”, “Life in the Fast Lane”, and “The Long Run”. He and Glenn Frey formed one of the most successful songwriting partnerships in music history.

The Eagles are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1971 by Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner.

With five number one singles, six Grammys, five American Music Awards, and six number one albums, the Eagles were one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s. At the end of the 20th century, two of their albums, Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) and Hotel California, ranked among the 20 best-selling albums in the U.S. according to the Recording Industry Association of America. Hotel California is ranked 37th in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, and the band was ranked #75 on the magazine’s 2004 list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

Awards:

  • Eagles have won six Grammy Awards:
    • (1975) Best Pop Vocal Performance by a Duo, Group or Chorus: “Lyin’ Eyes”
    • (1977) Record of the Year: “Hotel California” (single)
    • (1977) Best Arrangement for Voices: “New Kid in Town”
    • (1979) Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group: “Heartache Tonight”
    • (2008) Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals: “How Long”
    • (2009) Best Pop Instrumental Performance: “I Dreamed There Was No War”
  • The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.
  • On December 7, 1999 the Recording Industry of America honored the group with the Best Selling Album of the Century for Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975).
  • Eagles were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2001.
  • The group ranked number 34 on Country Music Television’s 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003. They were one of four artists who were either a duo or a group on the list with the others being Alabama at number eleven, Flatt & Scruggs at number 24, and Brooks & Dunn at number 25.
Take it easy – central Park, NYC 1972:

Album of the day:

Other july-22:

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