Category Archives: Music Calendar

Music Calendar, Soul

Today: Joss Stone is 26

joss stone2

I didn’t write those songs, but I can relate to every one of them… I have.
~Joss Stone

I don’t like listening to music that isn’t real.
~Joss Stone

Fell in Love with a boy:

Wikipedia

Birth name Jocelyn Eve Stoker
Born 11 April 1987 (age 26)
Dover, Kent, England, UK
Genres Soul, R&B, blues, jazz, rock
Occupations Singer, songwriter, actress
Instruments Vocals
Years active 2001–present
Labels Relentless, S-Curve, Virgin, Stone’d,Surfdog
Associated acts SuperHeavy
Website www.jossstone.com

Jocelyn Eve Stoker (born 11 April 1987), better known by her stage name Joss Stone, is a British soul singer, songwriter and actress. Stone rose to fame in late 2003 with her multi-platinum debut album, The Soul Sessions, which made the 2004 Mercury Prize shortlist. Her second album, the similarly multi-platinum Mind Body & Soul, topped the UK Albums Chart for one week and spawned the top ten hit “You Had Me”, Stone’s most successful single on the UK Singles Chart to date. Both the album and single received one nomination at the 2005 Grammy Awards, while Stone herself was nominated for Best New Artist, and in an annual BBC poll of music critics, Sound of 2004 was ranked fifth as a predicted breakthrough act of 2004. She became the youngest British female singer whose debut album topped the UK Albums Chart. Stone’s third album, Introducing Joss Stone, released in March 2007, achieved gold record status by the RIAA and yielded the second-ever highest debut for a British female solo artist on the Billboard 200, and became Stone’s first Top 5 album in the United States and first non-Top 10 album in the United Kingdom.

joss stone

I’ve Fallen In Love With You:

Stone released her fourth album, Colour Me Free!, on 20 October 2009, which reached the Top 10 on Billboard. Stone released her fifth album, LP1, on 22 July 2011, which reached the Top 10 on Billboard. Throughout her career, Stone has sold 13 million albums, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time, best-selling soul artists of the 2000s and best-selling British artists of her time. Her first three albums have sold over 2,722,000 copies in the United States, while her first two albums have sold over 2,000,000 copies in United Kingdom. Stone has won two BRIT Awards and one Grammy Award. She also made her film acting debut in 2006 with the fantasy adventure film Eragon, and made her television debut portraying Anne of Cleves in the Showtimeseries The Tudors in 2009. Stone was the youngest woman on the 2006 Sunday Times Rich List —an annual list of the UK’s wealthiest people—with £6 million. In 2012, her fortune is estimated to be £10 million, making her the fifth richest British musician under 30. The Soul Sessions Vol. 2, a sequel to her debut album, was released on 23 July 2012.

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Jazz, Music Calendar

Today: Billie Holiday was born in 1915

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Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Harris April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed “Lady Day” by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo.

Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.

My two favorite songs by Billie Holiday are Strange Fruit and Speak Low.

Strange Fruit:

Strange Fruit,  the haunting song about lynching in America was first recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939.

Strange Fruit is one of the earliest examples of a protest song. It is simple, spare and effective poetry. We must remember that it was written at a time when political protest was not often expressed in music, and still a dangerous thing to do. The three short verses has an unusual and ironic tone and are all the more powerful for it. To take such wonderful scenery and mix it with the brutality of hanging, to speak of lynched men as fruit, to mix up the smell of magnolias with that of burning flesh — this is powerful stuff to this day! We can only imagine the impact of the song when it was released.

Getting the song on record was not easy. Columbia Records, Holiday’s regular label, refused release it. It was Commodore Records, a small outfit run by Milton Gabler that finally released it.

Here is a great documentary about the film that was shown on PBS, it is a must see film:

The film tells a dramatic story of America’s past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter. The saga brings us face-to-face with the terror of lynching as it spotlights the courage and heroism of those who fought for racial justice when to do so was to risk ostracism and livelihood if white – and death if black. It examines the history of lynching, and the interplay of race, labor, the Left and popular culture that would give rise to the civil rights movement.

Speak Low:

Speak low when you speak, love
Our summer day withers away too soon, too soon
Speak low when you speak, love
Our moment is swift, like ships adrift, we’re swept apart, too soon
Speak low, darling, speak low
Love is a spark, lost in the dark too soon, too soon

“Speak Low” (1943) is a popular song composed by Kurt Weill, with lyrics by Ogden Nash. It was introduced by Mary Martin and Kenny Baker in the Broadway musical One Touch of Venus (1943). The 1944 hit single was by Guy Lombardo and his orchestra, with vocal by Billy Leach. The tune is a jazz standard that has been widely recorded. The opening line is a (slight mis)quotation from William Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (1600), where it is spoken by Don Pedro.

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Country, Music Calendar

Today: Merle Haggard was born in 1937, 76 years ago

merle haggard 1

“By the time you get close to the answers, it’s nearly all over.”
– Merle Haggard

The first time we met is a favorite memory of mine.
They say time changes all it pertains to
But your memory is stronger than time.
I guess everything does change except what you choose to recall.

Wikipedia:
Merle Ronald Haggard (born April 6, 1937) is an American country music song writer, singer, guitarist, fiddler, and instrumentalist. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster and the unique mix with the traditional country steel guitar sound, new vocal harmony styles in which the words are minimal, and a rough edge not heard on the more polished Nashville Sound recordings of the same era.

My Favorite Memory:

By the 1970s, Haggard was aligned with the growing outlaw country movement, and has continued to release successful albums through the 1990s and into the 2000s.

Haggard’s guitar playing and voice gives his country a hard-edged, blues-like style in many cuts.

Merle Haggard is one of country music’s most versatile artists. His compositions ranges wide:  ballads , autobiographical reflections, political commentaries and funny drinking songs. Easy dance songs and more serious stuff.

But first of all it’s the voice, man! That voice!

Merle Haggard 2

Todays album is the great , Big City. It’s Merle Haggard’s masterpiece and one of my all-time favorite country records:

album-big-city

 Big City, both the cut and the album, revisits the seemingly eternal themes in Haggard’s best work — the plight of the honest, decent working man amid the squalor, complication, and contradiction of urban life. Besides the title cut, there are bona fide Haggard classics here — and some that aren’t but should be.
(Allmusic)

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Music Calendar, The Band

Today: The late Richard Manuel was born in 1943 – 70 years ago

richard manuel

I play patterns. I’ll make up a pattern and just play it.
~Richard Manuel

“Well, let’s see: I started [in music] at nine and quit. Then got back to it when I was twelve. Then I became a party star. In fact, I became a party!”
~Richard Manuel

For me he was the true light of the Band. The other guys were fantastic talents, of course, but there was something of the holy madman about Richard. He was raw. When he sang in that high falsetto the hair on my neck would stand on end. Not many people can do that.
~Eric Clapton

A nice tribute video – I’m just a country boy:

I Shall Be Released (The Band)

Gonna dedicate this song to Mr. Richard Manuel, who does it so well
~Bob Dylan (Introducing “I Shall Be Released” December 8, 1975)

Bob Dylan and Richard Manuel

Birth name Richard George Manuel
Born April 3, 1943
Stratford, Ontario, Canada
Died March 4, 1986 (aged 42)
Winter Park, Florida, U.S.
Genres Country rock, R&B, rock and roll, americana
Occupations Musician, songwriter
Instruments Vocals, piano, drums, keyboard,lap slide guitar, harmonica, clavinet, marimba, conga
Years active 1957–1986

Richard George Manuel (April 3, 1943 – March 4, 1986) was a Canadian composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, best known for his contributions to and membership in The Band.

richard manuel

Here is the wonderful “Georgia On My Mind” from The Last Waltz concert:

“Richard Manuel was a whole show unto himself. He was hot. He was about the best singer I’d ever heard; most people said he reminded them of Ray Charles. He’d do those ballads, and the ladies would swoon. To me that became the highlight of our show.”
~Levon Helm

The Band was a Canadian-American roots rock group that originally consisted of Rick Danko (bass guitar, double bass, fiddle, trombone, vocals), Levon Helm (drums, mandolin, guitar, vocals), Garth Hudson (keyboard instruments, saxophones, trumpet), Richard Manuel (piano, drums, baritone saxophone, vocals) and Robbie Robertson (guitar, vocals). The members of the Band first came together as they joined rockabilly singer Ronnie Hawkins’s backing group, The Hawks, one by one between 1958 and 1963.

the-band

You Dont Know Me – Tokyo 1983

“He brought a lot of powers and strengths to the group. He brought in gospel music from his church upbringing. Plus, he loved to play and just come up with new things. It was like having a force of nature in the band.”
~Rick Danko

Posthumous recognition

  • In 1994, Richard Manuel was inducted, posthumously, into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Band. 
  • In 2003, Japan’s Dreamsville Records released Whispering Pines: Live at the Getaway, which contains selections from a solo concert recorded in Saugerties, New York in October 1985.
  • Former bandmate Robbie Robertson‘s song “Fallen Angel” (1987) and The Band‘s song “Too Soon Gone” (1993) are each tributes to Manuel. 
  • On Forbes.com, Allen St. John wrote a tribute article about Richard Manuel and Rick Danko on April 19, 2012.
  • Eric Clapton’s 1986 album, August, features his tribute to Richard Manuel entitled “Holy Mother”.
  • San Francisco-area group, The Call, who had collaborated with former Band members Hudson and Robertson, dedicated the video for their 1986 single, “Everywhere I Go” to Manuel.
  • Counting Crows recorded the song “If I Could Give All My Love -or- Richard Manuel Is Dead”, released on their 2002 album Hard Candy.
  • The Drive-By Truckers’ song “Danko/Manuel” was released on their album The Dirty South in 2004.

Wikipedia, http://theband.hiof.no, +

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Music Calendar

Today: The late Ronnie Lane was born in 1946 – 67 years ago

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Ronnie Lane

As the former bassist for the Small Faces, and later the Faces, Ronnie Lane left both bands when he felt the spirit of the group had died, gaining him the reputation of an uncompromising artist, and allowing him the opportunity to release some fine solo material in the ’70s.
~Steve Kurutz (allmusic.com)

Ronnie Wood and Kenney Jones Talk The Faces on Hall of Fame Induction:

Ronnie Lane – Ooh La La (live 1974):

Birth name Ronald Frederick Lane
Also known as Plonk, Three-Piece
Born 1 April 1946
Plaistow, London, England
Died 4 June 1997 (aged 51)
Trinidad, Colorado, USA
Genres Rock, rhythm and blues, psychedelic rock, folk rock
Occupations Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments Bass, guitar, vocals
Years active 1965–1992
Labels A&M, Atlantic, Immediate, Island
Associated acts Faces, Small Faces, Slim Chance, Ronnie Lane and the 7 Samurai, Pete Townshend, Ron Wood

Ronald Frederick “Ronnie” Lane (1 April 1946 – 4 June 1997) was an English musician, songwriter, and producer who is best known as the bass guitarist and founding member of two prominent English rock and roll bands; the Small Faces where he was nicknamed “Plonk”, (1965–69) – and, after losing the band’s frontman, Faces, with two new members added to the line up, (from The Jeff Beck Group), who dubbed him “Three-Piece” (1969–73). It was for his work in both the Small Faces and the Faces that Lane was inducted posthumously into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2012.

Subsequently Lane collaborated with other musicians, leading his own bands as well as pursuing a solo career while remaining close to his former bandmates. In the late 1970s he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and, despite charity projects and financial support from friends, former bandmates and fans, Lane, after suffering from the disease for 21 years, died at 51.

Ronnie Lane 2

The Small Faces were Lane on bass guitar, Marriott as guitarist and lead vocalist, Kenney Jones as drummer, and Winston on keyboards, They made their debut in 1965, Ian McLagan replacing Winston in November 1965. Lane and Marriott began writing hit songs consistently, including “Itchycoo Park” and “All or Nothing”. At least a dozen successful songs credit Lane, and the 1968 concept album Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake features songs co-written by Lane with one exception. The album made it to #1 on the UK Albums Chartfor six weeks. The band disbanded in 1969 as Marriott left the group. The group reformed during the late 1970s but Lane did not join them.

small faces

The Small Faces – Itchycoo Park:

Lane formed The Faces with McLagan, Jones, Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart in 1969. He shared primary songwriting duties in Faces with Rod Stewart, composing, or co-composing, many of their best-loved pieces and taking a central role during the recording of their fourth and final album, Ooh La La, particularly, as the band’s front man, Rod Stewart focused on his own solo career. Unhappy due to poor reviews of the album and Stewart’s lack of commitment, Lane quit in 1973, making his last appearance at the Sundown Theatre in Edmonton, London on 4 June. He was replaced by Tetsu Yamauchi but the group split in 1975.

Faces

The Faces – ‘Stay With Me‘, BBC Theatre. 1971:

“Solo”

After leaving the Faces Lane formed his own band Slim Chance, who recorded the hit singles “How Come” (UK No. 11) and “The Poacher” (UK No. 36) and the album Anymore for Anymore, showcasing a blend of British rock music, folk and country music.

After initial success he commenced a tour called “The Passing Show”, touring the UK as a carnival complete with tents and barkers. Viv Stanshall, from the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, was a short-lived ringmaster (of sorts). Lane moved to Island Records and issued Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance and One for the Road. …. His ensuing album with Pete Townshend, Rough Mix, produced by Glyn Johns, which was released in 1977, was lauded as contender for best album of the year by many critics, but the label did not promote it and sales were lacklustre.

Wikipedia

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