Bob Dylan: Workingman’s Blues #2 & Long and Wasted Years, Munich July 1, 2014 (videos)

bob dylan Munich 2014

Here are two great videos from Dylan’s concert @ Olympiapark, Tollwood – Munchen, Germany – July 1, 2014.

Workingman’s Blues #2

  • Bob Dylan – vocal center stage
  • Tony Garnier – bass
  • George Recile – drums
  • Stu Kimball – acoustic guitar
  • Charlie Sexton on lead guitar
  • Donnie Herron – pedal steel

Continue reading Bob Dylan: Workingman’s Blues #2 & Long and Wasted Years, Munich July 1, 2014 (videos)

Beck is 44 Happy Birthday

beck 1

“I’m a loser baby, so why don’t you kill me?”

Beck Hansen (born Bek David Campbell, July 8, 1970) , singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, is known by the stage name Beck.

The four-time platinum artist rose to underground popularity with his early works, which combined social criticism with musical and lyrical experimentation. He first earned wider public attention for his breakthrough single “Loser”, a 1994 hit. Beck is known for creating musical collages of a wide range of styles.

Loser (official video):

Beck’s 1996 album Odelay was awarded Album of the Year by the American magazine Rolling Stone and by UK publications NME and MojoOdelay also received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Both Odelay and Sea Change appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

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July 7 in music history

Happy 74th Birthday Ringo Starr (read more)

Ringo was a star in his own right in Liverpool before we even met. Ringo was a professional drummer who sang and performed and was in one of the top groups in Britain, but especially in Liverpool. So Ringo’s talent would have come out one way or the other … whatever that spark is in Ringo, we all know it but can’t put our finger on it. Whether it’s acting, drumming, or singing, I don’t know. There’s something in him that is projectable and he would have surfaced as an individual … Ringo is a damn good drummer.
~John Lennon (Sept 1980)

Ringo_Starr_and_all_his_band
 Charles Elzer Loudermilk (July 7, 1927 – January 26, 2011), known professionally as Charlie Louvin, was an American country music singer and songwriter. He is best known as one of the Louvin Brothers, and was a member of the Grand Ole Opry since 1955.  charlie louvin
 Joseph William Perkins (July 7, 1913 – March 21, 2011), known by the stage name Pinetop Perkins, was an American blues musician, specializing in piano music. He played with some of the most influential blues and rock and roll performers in American history, and received numerous honors during his lifetime including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and induction into the Blues Hall of Fame.  Pinetop_Perkins
 Roger Keith “Syd” Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006), was an English singer-songwriter, guitarist and painter, best remembered as a founder member of the band Pink Floyd. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter during the band’s psychedelic years, providing major musical and stylistic direction in their early work, including their name. He left the group in 1968 amid speculations of mental illness exacerbated by drug use, and was briefly hospitalized.  Syd barret

Bruce Springsteen plays “The Roxy” – LA in 1978 (read more)

The Roxy Theatre (often just The Roxy) is a famous nightclub, on the Sunset Strip, in West Hollywood, California. The Roxy is owned by Lou Adler and Adler’s son, Nic, who operates the club.9 songs from Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band’s “Live/1975-85” album were recorded at the Roxy in the mid-late 1970’s. From the July 7 -1978 concert these songs were picked for the album: Adam Raised a Cain, Spirit in the Night, Paradise by the “C, Growin’ Up, It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City, Backstreets, Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) & Raise Your Hand.

 Roxy 8

Spotify Playlist – July 7

July 6 in music history

Nanci Griffith is 61, Happy Birthday! (read more)

Nanci Griffith, (born Nanci Caroline Griffith, July 6, 1953, Seguin, Texas) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter based in Austin, Texas.

Allmusic:  Straddling the fine line between folk and country music, Nanci Griffith has become as well-known for her brilliant, confessional songwriting as her beautiful voice. A self-styled “folkabilly” singer, Griffith began as a kindergarten teacher and occasional folksinger. The country scene took her to heart in the mid-’80s, giving her a reputation as a quality songwriter through hit covers of Griffith’s songs by Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss. Finding no luck with commercial country radio however, Griffith recorded several pop-oriented albums and then returned to her folk roots by the mid-’90s.

nanci griffith

Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana.

Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an “inventive” cornet and trumpet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the music’s focus from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognizable deep and distinctive gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also greatly skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).

louis armstrong

“(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” was recorded on July 6, 1967 at Columbia’s studios inChicago (read more)

 
Produced by Carl Davis, the session – arranged by Sonny Sanders – featured bassist 
James Jamerson, drummer Richard “Pistol” Allen, guitarist Robert White, and keyboardist Johnny Griffith; these four musicians were all members of the Motown Records house band The Funk Brothers who often moonlighted on sessions for Davis to augment the meager wages paid by Motown.

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William John Clifton “Bill” Haley (July 6, 1925 – February 9, 1981)

One of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets (inspired by Halley’s Comet) and million selling hits such as, “Rock Around the Clock“, “See You Later Alligator”, and “Shake Rattle and Roll”. He has sold over 100 million records worldwide.

bill-haley

Spotify Playlist – July 06

July 6: Nanci Griffith is 61 Happy Birthday

Nanci Griffith 1

I got to know Nanci Griffith through the seminal music paper Beat (norwegian music magazine), this music magazine has been extremely important in my musical upbringing. They made it ok to say that you loved country music. This was a big step for us rock/punk youth. Anyway, they praised Nanci Griffith very early and we listened and we agreed, this was very special indeed.

Her voice, her way of singing, especially other people’s’ songs, it was and is beautiful. My first entry into her world was John Prine’s The Speed of The Sound of Loneliness, it is still the best song in her catalogue. Hell, it would be the best song in almost anybody’s catalogue!

Speed of the sound of Loneliness (with John Prine who wrote this masterpiece):

Nanci Griffith, (born Nanci Caroline Griffith, July 6, 1953, Seguin, Texas) is an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter based in Austin, Texas.

Allmusic:  Straddling the fine line between folk and country music, Nanci Griffith has become as well-known for her brilliant, confessional songwriting as her beautiful voice. A self-styled “folkabilly” singer, Griffith began as a kindergarten teacher and occasional folksinger. The country scene took her to heart in the mid-’80s, giving her a reputation as a quality songwriter through hit covers of Griffith’s songs by Kathy Mattea and Suzy Bogguss. Finding no luck with commercial country radio however, Griffith recorded several pop-oriented albums and then returned to her folk roots by the mid-’90s.

Continue reading July 6: Nanci Griffith is 61 Happy Birthday