Tag Archives: music calendar

Norah Jones sings Bob Dylan, Happy Birthday Norah

Norah Jones 1

Happy birthday Norah Jones!

Wikipedia:

 Norah Jones is the daughter of Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and Sue Jones. She is also Anoushka Shankar’s half-sister.

In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away with Me, a fusion of jazz, pop, and country music, which was certified diamond album, selling over 26 million copies. The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including theAlbum of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist. Her subsequent studio albums, Feels Like Home, released in 2004, Not Too Late, released in 2007, the same year she made her film debut in My Blueberry Nights, and her 2009 release The Fall all gained Platinum status, selling over a million copies and were generally well received by critics. Jones’ fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts, was released on April 27, 2012.

Jones has won nine Grammy Awards and was 60th on Billboard magazine’s artists of the 2000–2009 decade chart. Throughout her career, Jones has won numerous awards and has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide. Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000–2009 decade.

We really like Norah Jones, we especially like it when she does Country music and of course when she sing the songs of our hero Bob Dylan. We have trawled the web to find some of her great cover versions.

Lets start with a duet, here she sings I Shall Be Released with the man himself, Bob Dylan:

Forever Young at a celebration of Steve Jobs
Live Apple Event, October 19, 2011:

“I know he really liked Bob Dylan”

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight done very well by the birthday woman, Norah Jones:

Norah Jones covers Just Like a Woman at Dylanfest. May 28, 2010 at the Bowery Ballroom:

Every Grain Of Sand at Dylanfest 2011:

Heart of Mine (Spotify):

– Hallgeir

Today – The Late Wilson Pickett was born in 1941

Wilson Pickett was born March 18, 1941 and he died January 19, 2006.

A major figure in the development of American soul music, Pickett recorded over 50 songs which made the US R&B charts, and frequently crossed over to the US Billboard Hot 100.

The early hit I Found A Love with The Falcons (audio only 1962):

Wilson Pickett was one of the rawest and sweatiest, singing  some of soul’s best  dancefloor grooves. He had hits a plenty:  “In the Midnight Hour,” “Land of 1000 Dances,” “Mustang Sally,” and “Funky Broadway” and more.

He is often a preferred alternative of fans who like their soul on the raw side. He also played an important part in establishing Southern soul as a vital part of the soul genre.

His hits were often written and recorded with the very best of the session musicians in Memphis and Muscle Shoals.

The impact of Pickett’s songwriting and recording led to his 1991 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Land of 1000 Dances – Live:

There are very few songs by “The Wicked” Picket on Spotify so we have included a fabulous radio documentary from BBC.  Roger Daltrey, lead singer of The Who and a Wilson Pickett fan, tells the story of the soul legend:

I have to include an audio clip of my favourite Pickett recording, Engine #9:

Fantastic song, what a groove!

Other Mar-18:

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Today: It is 3 years since the great Alex Chilton died

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Alex Chilton, power pop genius died 17. March in 2010 three years ago today.

Paul Westerberg wrote these words in The New York Times three days after Alex Chilton passed away:

It was some years back, the last time I saw Alex Chilton. We miraculously bumped into each other one autumn evening in New York, he in a Memphis Minnie T-shirt, with take-out Thai, en route to his hotel. He invited me along to watch the World Series on TV, and I immediately discarded whatever flimsy obligation I may have had. We watched baseball, talked and laughed, especially about his current residence — he was living in, get this, a tent in Tennessee.

Because we were musicians, our talk inevitably turned toward women, and Al, ever the Southern gentleman, was having a hard time between bites communicating to me the difficulty in … you see, the difficulty in (me taking my last swig that didn’t end up on the wall, as I boldly supplied the punch line) “… in asking a young lady if she’d like to come back to your tent?” We both darn near died there in a fit of laughter.

Yeah, December boys got it bad, as “September Gurls” notes. The great Alex Chilton is gone — folk troubadour, blues shouter, master singer, songwriter and guitarist. Someone should write a tune about him. Then again, nah, that would be impossible. Or just plain stupid.

He is one the all time best pop melody makers, he’s up there with Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson and Pete Townsend. When you hear his songs for the first time you’ll swear you’ve heard it before, but you have not. It is just so instantly recognizable, so familiar and so right!

The Box Tops – The Letter:

Alex Chilton was involved in great music all his life, he was like the music worlds Coen brothers, they may be making some movies that are not fantastic, but they are always good. And in most cases better and more interesting  than anything else out there. Chilton had a very consistent career and deserved so much more recognition than he got.

The Ballad of El Goodo (live, 93):

It is difficult to get across the admiration I have for Alex Chilton, let’s just say that he is one of the all time best and listen to his music.

Oh, and I think we should include that “stupid”song that Mr. Westerberg is talking about above. Alex Chilton, here in a solo Paul Westerberg live clip:

From the Guardians Obituary:

Alex Chilton defined the term cult hero. He was difficult, mercurial, endlessly self-sabotaging and, for a brief time, utterly brilliant. His 70s group Big Star remain almost unknown to the mainstream but are one of the key abiding influences in rock music of any calibre, their short life only fuelling their near-mythical status. “I never travel far without a little Big Star,” sang the Replacements on their strange love song, “Alex Chilton”. Several influential rock groups, from REM to Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub to Wilco, would echo that sentiment. REM’s Peter Buck once described Big Star as “a Rosetta stone for a whole generation”.

My (Hallgeir) list of Alex Chilton’s top 21 songs (actually 22, I had to include The Letter even if he didn’t write that one):

Continue reading Today: It is 3 years since the great Alex Chilton died

Today: Jerry Jeff Walker is 71

jerry jeff walker

“the first time I set foot in Texas, particularly in Austin, I knew I was home.”

Jerry Jeff Walker was born March 16, 1942 (in upstate New York) he is an American country music singer and songwriter. He is associated with the “outlaw” country scene that centered around Austin, TX, in the 1970s.

“Mr. Bojangles”  is perhaps his most well-known and most-often covered song, written for his debut album in 1968.

Walker was a hard drinker throughout much of his early career (his nickname was “Jacky Jack”), and this reputation became part of his identity. He’s since cleaned up his act,  in part thanks to his wife, Susan, whom he married in 1974. He has continued to record into the ’00s.

His best known album, it is also his best by the way,  is Viva Terlingua, recorded in 1973 in Luckenbach, Texas  with the Lost Gonzo Band. The album went gold, and it’s still his best-selling record. His 70s output especially are highly regarded, sadly none of these albums are available on Spotify.

Happy Birthday  Jerry Jeff Walker!

Mr. Bojangles:

Here with Guy Clark’s – “LA Freeway”:

We have chosen collection from 1988 as the album of the day, it is a very good collection the hits mixed with great lesser known songs, we present Gypsy Songman:

Other Mar-16:
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