Category Archives: Music

Jun 13 2014
Leave a comment
Music

Pop-Rockin’ Horns

Chicago still cranking out the brassy, jazzy, snazzy tunes

Chicago XXXVI NOW

Chicago XXXVI (“Now”)

Chicago

CD $14.98 (Frontiers Records)

 

The iconic pop-rock “horn band,” which first came together in 1967 as the Chicago Transit Authority and went on to climb the charts with “If You Leave Me Now,” “Saturday In The Park,” “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day” and dozens of other hits, now clicks off album number 36 (and continues the tradition of naming each release with sequential Roman numerals). Anchored by founding members Robert Lamm, Lee Lougnane, Walt Parazaider and James Pankow, they sound as classy, brassy, jazzy and snazzy as ever, giving these eleven new tunes sharp contemporary sizzle, but also a solid grounding in the group’s suave, swingin’ instantly recognizable style.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jun 03 2014
Leave a comment
DVDs, Music, Pop Culture

Hillybilly Haven

Fascinating documentary pulls back the curtain on Branson

27.5x40

We Always Lie to Strangers

DVD $19.95 (Virgil Films)

The tourism Mecca of Branson, Mo., with a visitor-to-resident ratio of nearly 900 to 1, is a conservative town with widespread traditional, patriotic, evangelical Christian values often reflected in its many “hillbilly” entertainment offerings. That’s what makes this eye-opening documentary, a film festival favorite five years in the making, so engrossing, as it peels back the curtain on a central cast of characters—performers, the city’s female mayor, and others—whose diversity (and humanity) reveal a town that defies easy local-yokel stereotypes. (And the title, if you’re wondering, comes from an age-old Ozarks expression about tall tales.)

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , , ,
May 30 2014
Leave a comment
DVDs, Music, Pop Culture

The Russians Are Humming

Billy Joel rock ‘n’ rolls back the Iron Curtain

SONY DSCA Matter of Trust: The Bridge To Russia

Billy Joel

2-CD/Blu-ray, $34.88 (Columbia Records/Legacy Recordings)

In 1987, piano-man superstar Billy Joel was invited to take his show on the road—to Russia, becoming the first American act ever to bring a full-fledged rock ’n’ roll tour to the Soviet Union. His tour, regarded as playing a major role in helping thaw once-chilly international relationships, was documented by a film crew, recorded and widely reported a worldwide news event. Now all the elements of that historic excursion have been remastered and reassembled into one dynamic package: a full-length film of one of the concerts; two live audio CDs of the music; plus the recent two-hour Showtime documentary about the tour, and a book with photos and notes from writers and journalists who were there.

 

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , ,
Mar 26 2014
Leave a comment
Music, Pop Culture

‘Road’ to Superstardom

Elton John’s 1973 breakthrough repackaged with loads of extras

EJ_Box_MockUp_c

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

Elton John

CD $55.90 (Universal Music/Island)

 

In today’s era of digital downloads, music collections “in the cloud” and audio streaming, it must seem like ancient history to reflect on a time from 1973 when this monumental double-disc breakthrough album—which catapulted the piano-pounding singer-songwriter into superstardom—sold 31 million copies on vinyl. In addition to re-mastered versions of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin classics “Candle in the Wind,” “Bennie and the Jets” and “Saturday Night’s All Right For Fighting,” this deluxe edition also includes a 100-page illustrated book, a live-in-concert CD and documentary film from 1973, and an all-new tribute CD with cover versions of nine of the album’s signature songs by artists including The Band Perry, the Zac Brown Band, Fall Out Boy and Ed Sheeran.

 —Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , , , ,
Mar 20 2014
Leave a comment
DVDs, History, Music, Pop Culture

Musical Mecca

Documentary spotlights magic of Muscle Shoals sound

Muscle Shoals

Muscle Shoals

Blu-ray $29.98 / DVD $26.98 (Magnolia Home Entertainment)

Is it something in the water? On the Tennessee River in Alabama is one of the South’s musical treasures, a near-mystical place where some of the most vital music of all time has its roots. This rousing documentary examines the “Muscle Shoals” sound and its creator, producer Rick Hall, who brought black and white musicians together at his recording studios (often with Hall’s famed staff musicians, the Swampers) to make records with Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eric Clapton, Carrie Underwood and many others singing stars.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Mar 06 2014
Leave a comment
DVDs, Movies, Music, Pop Culture

Honoring Bob Dylan

Re-release recalls all-star 1992 concert event

Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert

Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration, Deluxe Edition

Blu-ray, $24.98 / DVD $21.98 (Columbia/Legacy)

In 1992, superstar musicians of every stripe streamed into New York City’s Madison Square Garden to fête Bob Dylan on the 30th anniversary of his first album for Columbia Records and stage a concert in his honor. This music documentary, previously available only on VHS, features performances of Dylan classics by a parade of the era’s leading acts, including John Mellencamp, Johnny Cash and June Carter, Lou Reid, Johnny Winter, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, the O’Jays, The Band, Stevie Wonder, and former Beatle George Harrison. A feast for fans of one of America’s most iconic, enduring and ever-evolving singer-songwriters, now 72, it also includes 40 minutes of interviews, rehearsal footage, and other behind-the-scenes goodies.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 26 2014
Leave a comment
Music

Soul Sister

Martina McBride colors outside the country lines

Everlasting_Martina McBride

Everlasting

Martina McBride

CD $15.83 (Kobalt)

The Nashville hit-maker revisits some of her favorite R&B and soul classics of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s for this cover-song project she’s releasing on her own label, an obvious labor of love that shows the her passion for great music outside the genre for which she became famous. As McBride channels the spirit, if not necessarily the style, of Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, the Supremes, Van Morrison, Elvis Presley and other artists of those previous eras, on tunes including “Come See About Me,” “Wild Night,” “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” and “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” it’s a testament to the durability of not only these “everlasting” songs, but also to the wide-ranging vocal abilities of a world-class artist who proves she’s capable of much more than country sunshine.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Feb 05 2014
Leave a comment
Books, Music

Inside the Allman Brothers

Definitive oral history weaves ups, downs, all arounds

One Way Out

One Way Out

By Alan Paul

Hardcover, 464 pages ($29.95, St. Martin’s Press)

A sweeping, sprawling oral history of one of American rock music’s seminal acts, this definitive biography covers the Allman Brothers Band’s entire four-decade career, from its origins in 1969 to today, with exclusive interviews from more than 60 sources, including all surviving members. The author, a senior writer for Guitar World magazine and a longtime band insider, interweaves colorful anecdotes with revealing insights, covering the group’s inner workings, trials, tribulations, ups, downs and all arounds, and the legacy of songs like “Whipping Post,” “Ramblin’ Man,” “Statesboro Blues” and dozens of others. Founding group members Butch Trucks and Jaimoe, whose rock-solid dual drumming became one of the Allman’s sonic signatures, anchor the book with a foreward and afterword.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , ,
Jan 28 2014
Leave a comment
Books, History, Music, Pop Culture Gallery

Mop Top Mania

Remembering the Beatles’ invasion, 50 years ago this month

Rowlands_The Beatles_revise_8_28.indd
The Beatles Are Here!

By Penelope Rowlands
Softcover, 256 pages ($15.95,
Algonquin Books)

The author (pictured on the cover, in the middle, just above the ‘A’ and the ‘T’ of the sign), corralled essays from more than 40 musicians, fellow writers and fans to commemorate Beatlemania’s arrival on American shores 50 years ago. Singer-songwriters Billy Joel, Cyndi Lauper and Janis Ian; journalists Gay Talese, Griel Marcus, Roy Blount Jr.; and radio personality “Cousin Brucie” Morrow are among the contributors who recall and reflect on the emotional joy, musical shock waves and sheer hysteria that greeted John, Paul, George and Ringo on their first trip to the United States on Feb. 7, 1963. “How quickly the Beatles changed…everything,” writes Rowlands, noting that “She Loves You” was “two minutes and 18 seconds that seemed to render almost everything, musically, that came before it obsolete.”

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 10 2014
Leave a comment
DVDs, Music, Pop Culture

Inside Job

The riveting story of The Beatles’ loyal, longtime secretary

GoodOlFreda

Good Ol’ Freda

DVD ($29.98, Magnolia Home Entertainment)

Fans of the Fab Four will flip their Beatle wigs over this 2013 film-fest documentary hit about the shy Liverpool teenager who was hired to work for a local band with no idea that they’d go on to become legends—or that she’d remain their loyal, steadfast secretary until the end. For the first time in 50 years, Freda Kelly tells her story in director Ryan White’s riveting, revealing look at the unassuming young woman who rode out the hurricane of Beatlemania deep on the inside, the witness to a musical revolution whose job afforded her one of the most unique perspectives in all of rock and roll.

—Neil Pond, American Profile Magazine

Tagged , , ,
← Older posts
Newer posts →