Recent Music Purchases...

I've been having lots of fun lately adding to my music library. I have now been able to get that Shemekia Copeland music I wanted - it's great! Also got (some of it from some of you folks - thanks!): Angelique Kidjo; Anthony Hamilton; Aretha Franklin; the Bad Plus; Beck; Bettye Lavette; Bob Dylan's latest; Cassandra Wilson; Cat Power; Death Cab for Cutie; Conor Oberst; Gary Moore; Jamie Lidell; John Mayer; Kings of Leon; Lily Allen; Melanie Doane; Missy Higgins; Neko Case; Petula Clark; Prince; Randy Crawford; Rudder; Serena Ryder; Steve Earle; Sugarland; Susie Arioli; the-Dream; TV on the Radio; U2; Buddy Miller; Metric. I've added some hyperlinks to many of the above-noted artists, so if you want to get any info on them, click the artist's name if it's purple-coloured.

New Music

Today I got the soundtrack from "Slumdog Millionaire" very interesting stuff produced by a guy called A. R. Rahman. Also got more music from India Arie: Testimony Volume 2. Haven't yet been able to get Shemekia Copeland's new cd "Never Going Back". Saw her on Letterman the other night, and really liked her...just discovered that she's the daughter of the late great blues guitar guy, Johnny Copeland.

New music: Fall 2008 to Jan 2009

Yikes! Just looking through my iTunes/iPod music, and realized that I've added quite a bit (395 tracks!) of new stuff over the past few months from various sources including the iTunes store, plus another music site, and actually going to HMV and buying some cd's.

If you're interested in learning about these albums, just click on the hi-lited words.

Cassandra Wilson "Loverly" cd; Herbie Hancock "River"; Hiromi "Brain"; Jackie Greene (Jackie Greene is probably the most accessible and popular one of my recent acquisitions for most people) "Giving up the Ghost"; Marcus Miller "Marcus"; Orchestra Baobab "Made in Dakar"; Missy Higgins "Sound of White"; Petula Clark - just a random ten of her hits; Putumayo presents "Nuevo Latino"; Sam Phillips "Don't do anything"; Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings "100 Days"; Al Green "Lay it Down"; Molly Johnson "Lucky"; Solange Knowles "Sol Angel"; Sergio Mendes "Encanto"; Buddy Guy "Skin Deep"; Tony Grey "Chasing Shadows"; Alejandro Escovedo "Real Animal"; Kings of Leon "Only by the Night"; Bob Dylan "Bootleg Volume 8"; TV on the Radio "Dear Science"; Aretha Franklin "I Never loved a Man"; India Arie - selected tracks; Anthony Hamilton - selected tracks.

Duffy

Went to the Phoenix on August 2nd to see Duffy (http://www.iamduffy.com/index2.html) with my wife, my two daughters and my brother and his wife. Duffy came onstage without much introduction at 8:30, and pretty much blew us away with her powerful voice, a cross between Lulu ("To Sir with Love" Lulu, that is) and Dusty Springfield and maybe Petula Clark. When you're in a smaller venue like this, you really feel the bass just sort of pounding you in the chest and right down to your hips...very cool. She only has the one cd, so she sang most of it and added a couple of covers and a "b-side" song to flesh out the show. Great 60's vibe to her music. The show was an hour long, but felt way too short, 'cause we were having such fun listening to the music, and also having a few drinks (very civilized place to see a band, the Phoenix!) Duffy looked very cute in her "K-Mart-style" red & white polka-dot skort-suit thing. Can't dance worth a damn, but knows it, and jokes about it...kind of endearing herself to the crowd while doing so. She comes across as very sweet in her limited stage banter. She's new and unpolished at the moment. It'll be interesting to see how her career turns out - will she be the "Dave Clark Five or Herman's Hermits" to Amy Winehouse's Brit-export gold-standard-bearers the Beatles/Stones, or will she just turn out to be a "Freddy and the Dreamers or Peter & Gordon"? Very good show, with many of my very favourite people to share the experience! Then we went on to a bar across the street from Maple Leaf Gardens, where we met even more of my favourite people (Erin and Tracy and Jay and Luke) for some beer and snacks.

Robert Plant & Alison Kraus - new CD is Great!

You just "gotta" check out this collaboration between Led Zep's lead singer Robert Plant, and American bluegrass multi-award-winner Alison Kraus with (very well-respected but not-so-well-known-in-the-mainstream) producer/writer/arranger/singer T-Bone Burnett (he worked on the "O Brother Where Art Thou" album of the year for 2002, as well as on the fantastic "Black and White Night" concert cd and dvd with Roy Orbison and friends - Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Jackson Browne, k.d. lang, Jennifer Warnes, Bonnie Raitt J.D. Souther- a real classic itself, so go get that while you're out at the shops)! Anyway... Plant and Kraus rocks, it rolls, it's bluegrass, it's country, it's Everly's, it's...almost indescribable. "Fortune Teller" cut is just a beauty as is the opening track. Different, yet utterly familiar and comfortable all the way through.

www.robertplantalisonkrauss.com Click on "Listen to CD" top left area of the page. My favourite song so far is track#9: "Fortune Teller"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5KF4dKq-6I&feature=related

http://www.calendarlive.com/tv/radio/cl-ca-plant11nov11,0,6282113.story

Thelonious Monk

Just picked up a new cd at Starbuck's called "the Measure of Monk", by Thelonious Monk. This guy is a jazz legend, one of the best piano-players of his time. I'm only a minor jazz fan, but am always tryng new things, and feel that this is a very good sort of beginner's sampling of this guy's work. Very easy to listen to at first, then just gets better on repeated listening...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelonious_Monk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2s6LZUdYaU

Amy Winehouse in Rolling Stone

The June issue of Rolling Stone has a good piece on my favourite singer: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/amy_winehouse_back_in_black_rehab_married_soul_beehive_diva/page/1

Molly Johnson Concert

We went to the (Danforth) Music Hall last night to see one of my favourite jazz/pop singers, Molly Johnson. She is touring to support her most recent CD Messin' Around She is very ably supported by her band: piano player, stand-up bass player (and song-writing collaborator), drums, electric guitar and a multi-woodwind instrumentalist who plays three different saxes, two clarinets and a flute or two! Her music is very easy-to-listen-to, and her personality is one of a really neat artsy friend you may have known in high school or college. This is one of her best songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL699yVUSj0 and this one is from her new cd: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rd91kB9A-0&mode=related&search= and this one is for Thomas the Train fans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r67Kejw74Mw&mode=related&search=

What's on My iPod, you ask?

Since I posted this last year, I've added some more folks: Shirley Bassey; Chaka Khan; Feist; Fujiya and Miyagi; Ingrid Michaelson; KT Tunstall; Mark Ronson; Paolo Nutini; Peter Green; Ruthie Foster; Serge Gainsbourg; Sharon Jones; Thelonious Monk; Viva voce; Wilco.
Plus my previous favourite 2,500 songs by : Paul Carrack; Alicia Keys; Allman Brothers Band; America; Andrea Bocelli; Angie Stone; Antony and the Johnsons; Aretha Franklin; Arlo Guthrie; Art Garfunkel; Astrud Gilberto; Audioslave; B.B. King; the Band; Barry White; Beach Boys; the Beatles; Beck; BeeGees; Ben. E. King; Beyonce; Bill Withers; Billie Holiday; Billy Ocean; Bjork; Blue Rodeo; Bob Dylan; Bob Marley; Bobby Darin; Bobby Vee; Bonnie Raitt; Boomers; Bread; Brian McKnight; Brian Wilson; Bruce Cockburn; Bruce Hornsby and the Range; Bruce Springsteen; the Buckinghams; Buddy Guy; Buena Vista Social Club; Burton Cummings; the Byrds; Caetano Veloso; Calexico; Carole King; the Carpenters; Cars; Cassandra Wilson; the Castaways; Chet Baker; Chicago; Christopher Cross; Classics IV; Cliff Richard; Coldplay; Colin James; Colin Linden; the Committments; Corinne Bailey-Rae; Cream; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young; Dan Fogleberg; Dave Brubeck; Dave Matthews Band; David Gilmour; David Gray; David Sanborn; Dean Martin; Deep Purple; Delbert McClinton; the Dell Vikings; Derek and the Dominoes; Diana Krall; Dido; Dinah Washington; Dione Taylor; Dire Straits; Dixie Chicks; Don Henley; Donald Fagen; Donna Summer; Doobie Brothers; the Doors; the Drifters; Duke Ellington; Dusty Springfield; the Eagles; Earth Wind & Fire; Ed Harcourt; the Eels; Electric Light Orchestra; Ella Fitzgerald; Elton John; Elvis Costello; Elvis Presley; Eric Clapton; Erykah Badu; Eurythmics; Eva Cassidy; Everly Brothers; Fantasia; Fenton Robinson; Fiona Apple; Flaming Lips; Fleetwood Mac; Four Seasons; Four Tops; Frank Sinatra; Frank Zappa; Free; Gary Lewis & the Playboys; Gary Puckett & the Union Gap; Genesis; George Benson; George Harrison; Gerry & the Pacemakers; Gerry Rafferty; Gipsy Kings; Gladys Knight & the Pips; Gnarls Barkley; Gordon Lightfoot; Gorillaz; Grateful Dead; Green Day; Grover Washington; Hall & Oates; Harry Chapin; Holly cole; hootie & the Blowfish; Howard Jones; Ian Dury & the Blockheads; Il Divo; Jack Johnson; Jackson 5; Jackson Browne; James Blunt; James Carter; James Hunter; James Taylor; Janis Joplin; Jann Arden; Jay & the Americans; Jeff Beck; Jennifer Warnes; Jesse Cook; Jill Scott; Jim Croce; Jimi Hendrix; Jimmy Buffet; John Osborne; Joe Cocker; John Coltrane; John Hiatt; John Lee Hooker; John Legend; John Lennon; John Mayall; John Mayer; John Mellencamp; Johnny Cash; Johnny Rivers; Joni Mitchell; Jonny Lang; Josh Groban; k.d. lang; Keane; Keith Jarrett; Keith Richards; Kenny G.; Kenny Loggins; Kim Mitchell; the Kingsmen; the Kinks; Kyu Sakamoto; Lauryn Hill; Led Zeppelin; Lee Dorsey; Lee Michaels; Lena Horn; Leon Redbone; Leonard Cohen; Letoya; Linda Ronstadt; Lionel Ritchie; Little Anthony & the Imperials; Little Feat; Little Village; Loggins and Messina; Loreena McKennit; Los Lonely Boys; Lou Reed; Louis Armstrong; the Lovin' Spoonful; Lucinda Williams; Lulu; Macy Gray; Mamas and the Papas; Manfred Mann; Marc Anthony; Maria Muldaur; Marianne Faithful; Martha Reeves & the Vandellas; Martha Wainwright; Marvin Gaye; Mary J. Blige; Mary Wells; Michael Buble; Michael Jackson; Michael McDonald; Mike & the Mechanics; Moby; Molly Johnson; the Moody Blues; Nat King Cole; Neil Young; Nicollette Larson; Nilsson; Nina Simone; Nirvana; Norah Jones; Oscar Peterson; Otis Redding; Pat Metheny; Patsy Cline; Paul McCartney; Paul Simon; Peggy Lee; Percy Sledge; Peter & Gordon; Peter Frampton; Peter Gabriel; Peter Tosh; Phil Collins; Pink Floyd; the Platters; Poco; the Pretenders; Prince; R.E.M.; Radiohead; the Rankins; the Rascals; Ray Charles; Ray LaMontagne; Red Hot Chili Peppers; Richard Ashcroft; Richie Valens; Rickie Lee Jones; the Righteous Brothers; Rob Thomas; Robbie Robertson; Robert Cray; Robert Palmer; Rod Stewart; Rolling Stones; Ron Sexsmith; Roy Orbison; Rufus Wainwright; Rush; sam Cooke; Santana; Sarah McLachlan; Sarah Vaughan; Seals & Crofts; Sergio Mendes; Shaggy; Sheryl Crow; Skeeter Davis; Sly & the Family Stone; Smash mouth; Smokey Robinson & the Miracles; Soft Cell; Solomon Burke; the Spinners; Squeeze; Stan Getz; Steelers Wheel; Steely Dan; Stevie Nicks; Stevie Ray Vaughan; Stevie Wonder; Sting; Supremes; T-bone Burnett; Temptations; Todd Rundgren; Tom Waits; Tony Bennett; Tracy Chapman; Tracy Nelson; Traffic; Tragically Hip;U2; Van Halen; Van Morrisson; Warren Zevon; Wax Poetic; White Stripes; the Who; Wilson Pickett; Youssou N'Dour; the Zombies. *Note: some of the above artists, when you hover the cursor over the name, are hyper-linked to further info, so just click on their names to proceed...