Cracks In Sidewalks

I chose this Aimee Mann song from her “Lost in Space” CD because of her use of a Theremin (see today’s Daily Crack) in the song and today seems to be Theremin day on Cracks In Sidewalks.  Although I love Aimee Mann I would probably have chosen a more uplifting track for the blog if it were any other day but today.  But Aimee Mann is great what ever she sings!

Remembering Mann from her first successful musical venture “Til Tuesday” I’ve been a fan of both her writing and singing for some time.  Mann started “Til Tuesday” with Berklee School of Music fellow classmate Michael Hausman who in later years became her manager.  The band broke up in 1990, but is still on the all time favorite list of many.  At this point Mann started working on her solo career and I’ve enjoyed her music, her independent sensibility and artistry ever since.  She is a great songwriter/singer who has shined both as a part of a group and also as a solo artist starting with her first band, “The Young Snakes,” to the popular 80’s group “Til Tuesday,” through her first solo album “Whatever,” to this years release of “Smiler.”

Aimee Mann is married to musician/composer Michael Penn and through her husband began a friendship with Paul Thomas Anderson the film director.  Contributing 8 songs to his film “Magnolia,” including the Academy Award nominated song, “Save Me,” from which Anderson based some of his characters and situations, Mann’s demand increased and she soon found herself sought after as a soundtrack contributor as well.

Mann has also voiced her political beliefs joining the group “Artists Against Piracy,” and by founding with her husband and Hausman the independent music collective “United Musicians.” (see link below if interested.)

To hear Aimee Mann sing “Real Bad News” from her album “Lost In Space” and to hear the use of a Theremin in a present day song, either click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QldDKho0tI0

http://www.unitedmusicians.com/index.html

What I have of  Guster on my IPOD is from their first 4 albums.  I’ve got songs from “Parachute,” “Keep it Together”, “Lost and Gone Forever,” and “Goldfly.” I was going to focus on one of those songs, but then I started listening to the song “Satellite,” which is the title track from their newest CD, found myself liking it quite a bit, and thought for those who haven’t listened to Guster, or haven’t listened to Guster in awhile, there’s no time like the present for us all to get caught up.

Guster’s three main band members are Ryan, Brian, and Adam, who met during freshman orientation while attending Tufts University.  They soon became friends and started writing music together and playing together while still living in their dormitory at Tufts. Originally their band was called “Gus,” and the guys went by this name for about four years until they graduated from university, bought a van, and started to hit the road.  Around this same time they discovered that there was another artist also called “Gus,” who had recently been signed by a major label, at that point the group was forced to change their name.  That’s when they came up with and began to become known as “Guster.”

The band released their first albums “Parachute” and “Goldfly” independently.   Two years later the band was signed by Sire Records and “Goldfly” was re-released by the label.  Along with the deal came some promotion and publicity and “Guster” started to take off and was able to garner a larger fan base.  A fourth member, multi instrumentalist Joe Pisapia who also plays with his own group joined forces with “Guster” and regularly plays and tours with the band.

First known for their short infectious songs, acoustic guitars, vocal harmonies, and drummer Brian’s playing with his hands, his use of percussion, bongo’s, and cymbals; the group developed a strong grass roots following.  They played clubs and toured, and their fans were their first reps, helping them to sell their records and promote the band and it was this strong support that got the attention of the labels and got them signed.

Recently the band has also become closely associated with “Reverb,” an organization that was founded by Adam and his wife Lauren, it was set up to assist touring artists make their tours more “green” and environmentally friendly.  “Reverb” has worked with The Dave Matthews Band, Jack Johnson, Barenaked Ladies, Bonnie Raitt, John Mayer, and more.

Checking out their website besides their music one of the biggest things the group produced this past year was lots of babies, three in total.  But they swear they’ve also written 17 new songs and we can look forward to hearing them in 2009.  They also recently changed labels and are no longer with Reprise/Warner Brothers Records but have inked a new deal with Aware/Columbia Records.

To see their video to the song, “Satellite” either click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI-9VcZlhl8

For those of you who didn’t read today’s crack, I had my first facial and my esthetician was an Irish woman named Vivian and it is on her recommendation that I write about Luka Bloom today.  It so happens he’s playing at BB King’s in NYC this coming Saturday night and she swears by him!

She described him to me as an alternative Irish singer and until this past week I need to be honest, I had never heard of Luka Bloom.  He is the younger brother of famed Irish singer Christy Moore and changed his name from Kevin Barry Moore to Luka Bloom in order to distinguish himself from his older brother.   He is supposedly very forthcoming about being Christy’s younger brother but decided to go by a different name to avoid the pressure of comparisons.   Coming from a family of singers and players Luka was only 14 when he went on his first tour with his older brother.

Arriving in the U.S. in 1987 Luka says on his website that he arrived as Barry Moore and left as Luka Bloom, a developed new artist.  During his stay in the states he played clubs, festivals, dives, and arenas.  He gigged with The Pogues, the Violent Femmes, The Dixie Chicks, and The Cowboy Junkies and recorded with Warner Music his albums “Riverside,” “The Acoustic Motorbike,” and “Turf’.”  But being excited by the independent ingenuity of the likes of Ani Di Franco, Luka decided to follow her lead and set up his own way of working independently as well and in 2001 he created Big Sky Records and released “The Barry Moore Years” a retrospective of some of his older work.  In more recent years he has released, “Then Came Innocence,” “TRIBE,” a record he did with Irish musician/composer Simon O’Reilly and in February of 2008 he released a DVD of concerts that were filmed in Dublin and at his home in Kildare entitled,  “The Man is Alive.”

Having scoured both the Luka Bloom website and YouTube looking for more pieces to the Luka Bloom puzzle I came across a lot of beautiful music and feel as if I began my acquaintance with this Irish singer/songwriter/musician.  Thank you Vivian!

Below is one of my findings, a song called “Holy Ground.”  To view this YouTube video, just cut and paste the URL into your browser.  I also included below the link to Luka Bloom’s website.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsvYAwSpCNM&feature=related

http://www.lukabloom.com/

If you’re not familiar with the CD “Long Black Veil,” it’s a compilation CD of traditional Irish folk songs that was put out in the mid 90’s by the well known Irish group, The Chieftains.  The CD features The Chieftains who teamed up with a great roster of musicians to produce one of their most popular albums to date.  With collaborations with Mick Jagger, Sting, Van Morrison, Ry Cooder, Sinead O’Connor (featured below), Mark Knopfler, Marianne Faithful, and Tom Jones, the album was a big success with the Van Morrison song “Have I Told You Lately,” winning a Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.

The Chieftains, best known for making traditional Irish music popular began in 1962 but it wasn’t until 1975 that they started to play together fulltime.   Since they have performed with musicians from Elvis Costello to Ziggy Marley, Carlos Nunez to Lyle Lovett, a very wide spectrum of artists.  They have been nominated for 18 Grammy’s, have won 6, and have been honored in their own country by being officially named “Ireland’s Musical Ambassadors.”  The bands leader is Paddy Moloney who composes and arranges most of their music.

Below is the Sinead O’Connor and The Chieftains collaboration from the “Long Black Veil” CD.  It’s an Irish song called “The Foggy Dew.”  I hope you like it!

To view this video of Sinead with The Chieftains, cut and paste the link below into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13MQFCfCYdQ

Brazilian singer from Bahia, Margareth Menezes gets you moving.  Her African influenced Brazilian songs infuse a song with the best of both worlds, the beautiful sounds of the Portuguese language and Brazilian rhythms mixed carefully together with African percussion, drums, and sometimes reggae.   She is an infectious singer very popular in Bahia and Brazil, and many other parts of the world.

An awarded Brazilian pop star she came to the attention of David Byrne when he was exploring Brazilian music and singers.  She later toured with him in Europe and the U.S.  Most familiar with her “Kindala” album, which has been a favorite of mine for a number of years, I have only had the opportunity to see her perform live, once.  She played at Central Park’s SummerStage during the Brazilian film festival several years back and the audience loved her!  The second she got on stage everyone got up and started moving to her grooves and didn’t stop until the end of her encore performances.  It was truly energizing.  Her second album “Elegibo” stayed in first place on the billboard world music charts for 11 weeks when it was released, and Rolling Stone rated it one of the five best in the world under its world music category.

Below is a YouTube performance I found of Margareth Menezes singing her song “Elegibo” in Brasil in 1994.  It will give you a good feel for the love she has for her music and the love her fans have for her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VfXiRNXgM8

I was lucky.  I got to see Stevie Ray Vaughan perform before he died.  I was a big fan and had gotten tickets to a Bay area double bill concert where Stevie Ray and Bonnie Raitt performed both solo and together.  Little did anyone know that such a young talented performer would not be around for much longer.  The day I found out he had died, I cried.  The world had lost one of its most passionate and talented guitarists, and I had lost a guitar hero of my own.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was born in Dallas, Texas.  His older brother Jimmie (Fabulous Thunderbirds guitarist/vocalist), taught him how to play guitar and was one of his biggest musical influences.  Stevie Ray started performing in clubs as a teenager and dropped out of high school permanently to pursue music full time when he moved to Austin, Texas.  He never learned how to read music and played entirely by ear.

Having beaten his dependency on alcohol and drugs.  Vaughan was straight the last four years of his life.  The night of his helicopter crash he had been playing a concert in Troy, Wisconsin along side Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, and his brother Jimmie.  After the show he was offered a ride back to Chicago in a helicopter with some of Eric Clapton’s crew.  He opted for the helicopter over the two hour drive.  The copter crashed soon after take off not far from the concert site, and Clapton and Vaughan’s brother Jimmie were called the next morning to identify the bodies.  The music world was soon mourning a great musical loss, as was I.

But during his all too brief life Vaughan put out some of the most inspiring guitar work of the century.  Ranked the 7th greatest guitarist of all time by Rolling Stone, and number 3 by Classic Rock Magazine, Vaughan was highly respected by all his peers.  In the 80’s Keith Richards and Mick Jagger saw Vaughan perform and asked him to play a gig in NYC.  This began his greater exposure culminating in his bands first big break in 1982 performing at the Montreux Jazz Festival.  Soon after he met Jackson Browne who gave he and his band “Double Trouble” free studio time to record at his studio in LA.  Also around this time David Bowie asked Vaughan to play on his album, “Let’s Dance,” which became a huge hit.  In 1989 the band recorded their 4th album entitled, “In Step,” and it won the Grammy that year for “Best Contemporary Blues Album.”  It was while touring to promote “In Step,” that on August 25th 1990, Stevie Ray Vaughan died at the age of 35.

The track I chose to feature is a live performance of Vaughan and his band at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1985.  I hope you enjoy listening to one of my all time favorites and guitar heroes.  Thank you Stevie Ray for all you gave us!

To view this video simply click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU0MF8pwktg

No YouTube video or Last FM for this one.  You’ll just have to trust me and go out and buy it if you want to hear it, but it’s a CD that has brought me many hours of pleasure over the last 15 to 16 years.  Chopin is probably my favorite classical composer and I have listened to his compositions being played by many of the masters for hours on end, but it is this simple recording, and I own many others, of his music that remains my favorite.

I listen to it on Sunday mornings while sipping coffee and reading the New York Times.   I listen to it before I go to bed at night or as I’m falling asleep.  I’ll put it on when flying cross-country or across an ocean as I gaze out at the clouds or look into the night sky.  It relaxes me, calms me, and helps me to rest.  And I’ll put it on when I’m trying to create a certain mood and use it as a side dish while serving a romantic candlelit dinner.  I just love Chopin and this recording in particular.  An old French boyfriend gave it to me and I’m certain that that has added to the romance of the disc as he was a very romantic, handsome, charming guy.  But Roy Eaton’s “The Meditative Chopin” remains one of my most regularly played CD’s.

Schooled pianists I have spoken to about Chopin over the years have all recommended other recordings so I don’t know if Roy Eaton’s playing is technically brilliant.   But it’s expressive and I guess that’s what I like about it.  I’m not a classically trained musician or pianist.  I mostly go on feeling, and this CD has worked its magic on me.

A little bit about Roy Eaton, he made his American debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Chopin’s F minor Concerto under George Schick in 1951.  After a stint in the army and a much longer stint in advertising and music for commercials, he is currently on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and is scheduled to play at the 50th Anniversary concert of the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin awards that are scheduled to take place at The Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in the spring of 2009.

With Taj Mahal who helped Ben Harper get his start, on my mind, and having just finished writing a piece about Jack Johnson, whom Ben Harper helped get his start, it’s no wonder that today I find myself writing about Ben Harper.

Ben Harper seems to be a musician who is pretty much universally liked by both critics and fans alike.  At an early age he would visit his grandparent’s music store, “The Folk Music Center and Museum,” where a foundation of folk and blues was laid.  He also had the luck of being influenced by the stream of talented musicians who use to patronize his grandparent’s store including the likes of the legendary Leonard Cohen and Taj Mahal, along with the amazing string player David Lindley.  That’s some pretty heavy company for a young musician to keep.

He started performing as a teenager and trying to set himself apart, Harper took up slide guitar, and the Weissenborn (a hollow-necked lap-steel guitar) eventually became his signature instrument.  Besides his voice and playing which I find pleasing, distinctive, rhythmic and soulful, I think what I like best is the way he integrates all his different musical influences.  When he writes and performs, it’s kind of like being served a big salad in a bowl that is full of all the things you like, but it’s mixed together in a way you never thought of mixing it yourself.  It’s unique and individual.  Ben Harper combines blues and alternative folk while at other times 20’s jazz and urban music.  But folk to funk, it doesn’t matter where Harper is concerned, he puts it all together in a way that resonates with a broad fan base making him popular around the world. The man is talented and eclectic and seemingly a good soul!

Harper has had the same band, The Innocent Criminals, since about 1997 when he released his album, “The Will To Live.”  He’s toured as the opening act for The Dave Matthew’s Band, has collaborated with a number of artists such as Jack Johnson, and he even toured and recorded an album with the Blind Boys of Alabama winning a Grammy for “Best Traditional Soul Gospel.”  Now that’s diverse! He is politically active, married to Laura Dern, has four children, two from a previous marriage and two with Dern.

From his 2006 released album “Both Sides of a Gun,” comes the song “Better Way.”  It’s Monday and I want to start the week off on a positive note.  So if you want to hear Ben Harper play and sing, “Better Way,” just click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TILzJ-_4urk

I got turned on to Jack Johnson several years ago by one of my best male friends who lives in LA.  His day job is as an editor for a major television network, but 4 days a week before going to work he heads out to Malibu to catch some waves and surf, and when he finishes his day and returns home at night, if his daughter isn’t with him, most likely you will find him keeping company with his acoustic guitar playing old rock or blues.  So it should come as no surprise given that combination, he is a Jack Johnson fan and probably kindred spirit.

For those of you who don’t know anything about Jack Johnson’s background, he was born in Hawaii and his father was a famous surfer.  Jack also surfed in some major competitions until an injury got in the way when he was 17.   While recovering from his injuries Jack spent his time writing songs, and music began to play a larger role in his life.  He went on to university and graduated with a degree in film from UC Santa Barbara and started making movies about surfing before his music career took off.

Finding his music and energy very infectious I first borrowed and started listening to “Brushfire Fairytales,” graduating over the next several weeks to “In Between Dreams,” the CD on which you’ll find the cut “Better Together.”  There I was in my rental car tooling LA, driving around Venice and through the canyons cranking Jack Johnson.  It was just happy music!  I hadn’t listened to someone new to whom I had such an immediate attraction and likeability in a long time.  Since that trip any time I want my spirit lifted or I need some inspiration to clean my house, or I want to listen to something I know will make me happy, I’ll turn Jack Johnson on and sing along bouncing to his beat.  His lyrics are great, but somehow his music remains uncomplicated and at times it is just what I need.   He also wrote music, sing-a-longs and lullabies for the film “Curious George,” and I find that my 5 year old niece is a Jack Johnson fan too.

To hear the cut “Better Together,” click on the link below or cut and paste it into your browser.  For more Jack Johnson info visit his website.  The link is also below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPXU33iquDE&feature=related

http://www.jackjohnsonmusic.com/home/

I read that new British sensation singer/songwriter Duffy will be touring with Coldplay for six shows this coming fall.  If you don’t know who she is you would recognize her hit single, “Mercy.”  “I’m beggin’ you for mercy….” It’s funny because one day she was an unknown and you thought you made this wonderful discovery and then two weeks later you were hearing her and seeing her everywhere and realized that not just you but the world had all suddenly discovered her.  I think the music supervisors in LA thought this too, that they had found this well kept secret that was about to burst and licensed her song “Mercy” for their TV show.  I can’t imagine how surprised they were to hear it being played on three or four other shows including “ER”, “Smallville”, “Women’s Murder Club”, the season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy”, and also the soundtrack for the movie “Sex and the City.”  And this all happened within weeks of each other or at least it seemed that way.  I know I was shocked because I couldn’t believe the news had spread so quickly.  I too had thought I had been turned on to a new little known talent.

Duffy’s debut album, “Rockferry”, was released on 3/3/08.  Her hit single “Mercy” a week earlier in February, and by this summer the album was a multi platinum seller.  With a number of other worthy songs besides the title track of the album, such as “Warwick Avenue” and “Sleeping Stone,” I think the CD is worth a purchase.  Duffy is a singer almost reminiscent of a 60’s throwback.  She is sexy, soulful, and talented. Born in Wales as Aimee Anne Duffy, she is the first Welsh female to achieve a number one pop single in the past 25 years. She is also a twin, just in case you can’t get enough of her.

Duffy is touring and will be playing The Orpheum in LA on October 10th and Webster Hall in NYC on October 10th.  These shows are not with Coldplay.  Her tour with Coldplay includes Cleveland, Baltimore, DC, East Rutherford, Boston, and Philadelphia.  To learn more about Duffy and to see some of her videos from her debut album “Rockferry,” check out her official website.  I’ve included the link below.  I’ve also included a YouTube video to my favorite Coldplay song, “The Scientist.”  My indulgence.  ☺

http://www.iamduffy.com/index2.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3Kd7IGPyeg