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writerchickmarie · 3 years ago

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John Lloyd Young’s Solid Gold - LA Soul And Worldwide Magic

Vegas, LA, our living rooms... Wherever in the world he performs, John Lloyd Young brings the magic. And tonight, we all got to be a part of it from everywhere in the world that we are - with the latest incarnation of SOLID GOLD at Feinstein’s At Vitello’s in Los Angeles, both livestreamed and in person.

We first experienced this set in July from The Space in Las Vegas - and as amazing as it was then, it’s even better now. JLY, Tommy Faragher, and the rest of the band have taken the initial concept and improved upon it, making it sparkle and shine as much as the disco ball that Vitello’s had on display for the show.

This evening began with the band getting us all on our feet with “Boogie Wonderland” (as a tribute to JLY’s friend, songwriter Allee Willis) as the disco ball began spinning. In addition to Tommy on piano and keyboard were Marcus Watkins on guitar and sitar, Charlie Paxson on drums, Gary Wicks on bass, and the newest addition to the group, Danny Moynahan on saxophone and flute.

They segued into the next song as JLY took the stage, filling the room with his smooth, rich version of Luther Vandross’ “So Amazing”. He mentioned how this particular set is a celebration of all of us being able to gather together again to make and enjoy music in person, and how we are also able to celebrate from all around the world with the livestream. He then moved into some funk, with George Benson’s “Give Me The Night”.

JLY literally performed “Magic” for his next song - making the Olivia Newton-John classic completely his own. This own holds special meaning for so many of us over the years, and it’s wonderful to have it in the set again. He followed with “If I Can’t Have You”, made popular by Yvonne Elliman and written by the Bee Gees - using his powerful falsetto as he made us dance along.

“Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” (Stevie Wonder) took us back into smooth R & B, and featured a drum solo by Charlie Paxson. Each band member had solo moments this evening, showing how strong their individual skills are in addition to the cohesiveness of the group. Then JLY launched into his powerful and soulful rendition of “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” (The Supremes/Kim Wilde), which I really hope winds up on the new album. The strength and raw emotion of this one is second to none.

JLY took a short break while Tommy and the band performed “Disco Inferno” and the “Theme From ‘Shaft’”. I know I was up dancing in front of my computer for these, and I bet everyone else was as well.

Once back on stage, JLY took us into romantic territory with Anita Baker’s “Sweet Love”. He then told the story of how singing a particular song helped him receive the honor of working on the arts committee with President Obama, who also famously sang this song. It’s one that we have also come to enjoy - “Let’s Stay Together” by Al Green. I love the new arrangement, and JLY’s voice soars on this one. Hopefully it will stay for future sets as well.

Our next song is an original that fits perfectly with the Solid Gold theme. JLY talked about how he and Tommy were influenced by the songs of this period when they wrote the lyrics and music to “Till The Storm Is Done”, respectively. He also said that it will be on the new album, which will drop in 2022 (final mixes are done and it is being mastered). This is definitely one of those songs that the world should hear, and I have faith that it will become a hit.

JLY showed off his full vocal range on The Stylistics’ “You Are Everything”, moving easily between baritone and falsetto on this stunning ballad. He picked up the tempo with Frankie Valli’s arrangement of “Our Day Will Come”, as the disco ball continued to spin and we continued to dance. He finished the set with “Kiss And Say Goodbye” by The Manhattans, breathtakingly done in both spoken word and melody, moving all of us both at home and in person.

The Encore Room interview with JLY and Tommy after the show was insightful, informative, and intriguing - and the perfect blend of questions from both livestream and in-person audience members. We are so lucky and blessed to have them share their stories and thoughts about life, art, and music with us.

JLY also mentioned that he will be doing another livestream in December - this time a complete set of Christmas and Holiday songs. I look forward to this show, as well as many upcoming in-person performances on the horizon. Here’s to more celebrating all of us being together again, in friendship, music, and magic - that is truly Solid Gold.

#john lloyd young #solid gold #john lloyd young friends #concert review

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musiconanironingboard · 4 years ago

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29 September 2019: Rush of Blood, Geraint Watkins. (The Last Music Co., 2019)

I first consciously learned of Welsh rock-and-roll pianist and songwriter Geraint Watkins through his work as a member of Nick Lowe’s band during that artist’s early “crooning” period following his early-’90s hiatus and prior to him inexplicably taking up with surf band Los Straitjackets. Watkins has nearly a dozen solo albums under his belt, though he may be more widely known as a session man and backing pianist and keyboardist—and, sometimes, accordionist—for a prodigious list of signature artists: Van Morrison, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, and many others not quite in the musical stratosphere. Only after buying Rush of Blood did I connect the dots to realize that he sings and plays on Bill Wyman's 1985 rockabilly tribute album Willie and the Poorboys, a record I played countless times in the late '80s. Watkins's anonymous prevalence on the British musical landscape is captured by this interview comment: "Funny thing, the other day I had the radio on and a record started with organ and I thought what a great organ sound, why can’t I get a sound like that? Of course, it was me."* Watkins is truly a musician's musician, and I am happy to have learned accidentally about his brand-new solo album Rush of Blood. Lowe’s often hapless label Yep Roc promoted it on their site, even though they didn’t release it; I’m glad they did, as otherwise I wouldn’t have known about it. Rush of Blood is a fine mixture of rocking R&B and balladeering, a gentle and endearing little album that I enjoyed as last autumn turned to winter.

Above are the front and back covers, the latter showing the mood and stance I often exhibit when trying to post things to this blog; below is the opened gatefold and the CD itself.

*Taken from https://bluesmatters.com/geraint-watkins-interview/

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funeralicious · 7 years ago

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Gregg Allman Passes at 69

Gregg Allman, Soulful Trailblazer Of Southern Rock, Dies At 697 Hours Ago The Hollywood Reporter — Deborah Wilker

Gregg Allman, the soulful singer-songwriter and rock 'n' blues pioneer who founded The Allman Brothers Band with his late brother, Duane, and composed such classics as "Midnight Rider," "Melissa" and the epic concert jam "Whipping Post," has died at age 69, Billboard has learned. He was diagnosed with hepatitis C in 1999 and underwent a liver transplant in 2010.

With his long blond hair, cool facade and songs that chronicled restless, wounded lives, Allman came to personify the sexy, hard-living rock outlaw in a life marked by musical triumph and calamitous loss.

Billboard will have more information about the specifics behind Allman's death as the story develops. Allman fronted his band for 45 years, first alongside Duane and then as its sole namesake, after his older brother — regarded as one of the most influential guitarists in rock history — was killed in a motorcycle accident in November 1971, just as their trailblazing Southern rock tracks were taking hold on the charts. Soldiering on through grief and then the eerily similar death of bassist Berry Oakley just one year and 10 days after Duane died, Allman and the band became as well known for their stoic survival as they were for their freewheeling concerts. After years of tragedy, dramatic breakups and tense reconciliations, a reconstituted Allman Brothers Band engineered a renaissance starting in the mid-'90s that put their fiery brew of old-time blues, jazz and country rock squarely at the forefront of music's thriving jam scene. The Allmans' annual rite of spring — a three-week run of shows typically held every March at the historic Beacon Theatre on New York's Upper West Side — remade the band into a formidable commercial force in recent decades, long after many in the music industry had written them off. A gentle and at times fierce balladeer, Allman would spend the majority of these shows behind his Hammond organ, taking center stage only briefly, usually with his acoustic guitar for "Melissa," which would start quietly and then blossom into a freeform jam. With 238 concerts at the Beacon from 1989-2014, the Allmans had become such an important tenant that when the theater's new owner, The Madison Square Garden Co., announced plans for a renovation in 2006, Allman was consulted. His plain-spoken advice to executives: "Just don't screw it up." Gregory LeNoir Allman was born in Nashville on Dec. 8, 1947, slightly more than a year after Duane. Tragedy struck early for the brothers when their father, Willis Turner Allman, an Army captain who had just returned home, was shot and killed in 1949 while helping a hitchhiker. The family moved to Daytona Beach, Fla., but Allman returned to Nashville often to visit relatives, developing an interest in music while there, particularly after seeing a concert featuring Otis Redding, B.B. King, Jackie Wilson and Patti LaBelle on one life-changing bill. He bought his first guitar for $21.95 at Sears, but soon Duane was demanding to play it. The brothers became so consumed by their music, and so intent on continuing, that Gregg deliberately shot himself in one foot to gain a medical exemption from the Vietnam draft. (He had studied a skeletal chart to find the least damaging place to shoot.)

One of their early bands, The Escorts, evolved into the moderately successful Allman Joys. They toured the South relentlessly, endured an ill-fated label deal in California and were signed — along with Oakley, guitarist Dickey Betts and drummers Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson and Butch Trucks — as The Allman Brothers Band by Macon, Ga.-based Capricorn Records in 1969. The guys were enjoying a first rush of mainstream fame with the release of their third album, the landmark live set At Fillmore East, when Duane was killed in Macon after the motorcycle that he was piloting swerved to avoid a truck and crashed. He was 24. Still in shock, the band quickly resumed work on 1972's Eat a Peach, highlighted by its haunting opening track, "Ain't Wasting Time No More," Allman's enduring tribute to his brother. They summoned their strength once again after Oakley's death — also from a motorcycle crash just blocks from where Duane had been fatally injured — adding new members and recording 1973's Brothers and Sisters. That disc remained No. 1 on Billboard's album chart for five weeks and featured the Betts classics "Jessica" and "Ramblin' Man." The Allmans' fame grew exponentially, and in 1973 they played before a record-breaking 600,000 fans at The Summer Jam at Watkins Glen, N.Y., alongside the Grateful Dead and The Band. But in 1976, the group would endure the first of several rancorous splits, which saw Allman clashing most intensely with Betts for control. (The guitarist would be fired in 2000.) In 1975, Allman, then 27, was downing a quart of vodka a day, hooked on heroin and already on his third marriage — this time to Cher, the '60s pop icon who was then a star of CBS variety shows, first with former husband Sonny Bono and then on her own. But just nine days into the new union, Cher, distressed by Allman's drug use, walked out.

They reconciled, had a son, Elijah Blue Allman, and briefly became a recording duo, billing themselves as Allman and Woman. Their one record together, 1977's Two the Hard Way, was disparaged by critics and their divergent fan bases and was a particularly tough sell given Cher's professional reunion with Bono for a new CBS show at the time. Allman and Cher divorced in 1979.

During this era, Allman also was something of a grassroots political activist, helping put a little-known Jimmy Carter into the White House with an endless run of fundraising concerts. (When Macon's Mercer University bestowed an honorary doctorate upon Allman in May 2016, it was Carter who presented it.) In a 2015 interview with Dan Rather, Allman detailed his many failed attempts at rehab and how the stage could numb just about any kind of pain. "I've walked onstage with an abscessed tooth and as soon as you get out there, it goes away," Allman said. "Walk offstage, it comes back. It's the land of no pain." His determination to rebuild The Allman Brothers Band dovetailed with his first long stretch of sobriety, finally accomplished at age 47, soon after he saw a replay of his incoherent appearance during the group's 1995 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They received Grammy's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012.

By the time The Allman Brothers Band had added 20-year-old guitar prodigy Derek Trucks (nephew of the founding drummer) in 2000, they were finally settling into their most stable groove in three decades — a 15-year finale of sorts that lasted until the younger Trucks and fellow guitarist Warren Haynes decided to leave. The band called it day with one final Beacon run in 2014.

That same year, Allman was again linked with tragedy: The movie-set death of camera assistant Sarah Jones, who was working on the indie biopic Midnight Rider, based on Allman's 2012 autobiography, My Cross to Bear. After Jones was killed and six others injured, director Randall Miller wanted to continue with the film, but Allman begged him to drop the project. A prolific solo artist who also toured and recorded through the decades with his own Gregg Allman Band, he had his biggest solo radio hit in 1987, the catchy "I'm No Angel," which reached the top spot on Billboard's Album Rock Tracks chart. His nine solo albums included All My Friends, recorded at a 2014 tribute concert to him at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, and 2015's Live: Back to Macon, GA. A new studio album, Southern Blood, is scheduled to be released this year. Allman canceled a round of concert dates in 2016 but got back on the road briefly last fall, performing his last known shows at his own Laid Back Festivals — Sept. 25 at Red Rocks Amphitheatre outside Denver and Oct. 29 at Lakewood Amphitheatre in Atlanta. He endured yet more heartbreak in January when Butch Trucks committed suicide at age 69.

In March, Allman announced that he was canceling all shows in 2017 and offered refunds to fans. His last song on stage appears to have been "One Way Out." In addition to Elijah Blue, his survivors include his other children Michael, Devon, Delilah and Layla.

MY SINCEREST CONDOLENCES TO FAMILY

GOODBYE OLD FRIEND.....

#allman brothers band #rock n roll #Rockstar #country rock #friend #rock legend #legend #death #death notice #obituary #southern rock #music #musician #guitar #keyboards #MSG

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jamesandanthony · 7 months ago

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thanks for the tag! 🥰

gonna put some current favourites

1. dragonball - mcfly

2. now or never - sunset curve (my boys!!!)

3. the ballad of willie watkins - operation mincemeat

4. don't stop the party - pitbull

5. you make lovin' fun - fleetwood mac

gonna cheat and tag anyone who wants to 💖

tagged by @stickers-on-a-laptop

RULES: put 5 songs you actually listen to, then tag 10 people.

Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance (yes im in my emo phase now)

Whirling-In-Rags, 8 AM - Sea Power

Haunt This Place - Small Fools

Can You Tell - Ra Ra Riot

Basket Case - Green Day

tagging: @malabadspice @otterorder @transcakeoutintherain @starstrike @svnrise-parabellvm @tetrafelino @vibinwiththefrogs @1tbls @funyasm @tiredtransgal

#tag game

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markwatkinsplaylistsposts · 4 years ago

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FROM 2014

Mark Watkins Music Show – EXTENDED PLAY

Blast 1386 (Reading, UK)

LIVE : Monday 9 June 2014 : 1pm - 5pm

REPEAT: Friday 13 June 2014 : 11pm- 3am

With studio guest Jo Bartlett, co-organiser of Third Rail (1.00pm-2.30pm) and live phoners with Hank Marvin (3.10pm); Seymour Quigley (guitar/vocals) of Horse Party (3.30pm) and Christina Grogan of Open Culture, reviewing Light Night Liverpool (3.45pm).

http://www.thirdrail.co.uk/

http://horsepartyparty.wix.com/horsepartyhome/

http://culture.org.uk/

Hour one/two : with Jo Bartlett (till 2.30pm)

Jo’s choices from acts appearing at Third Rail

1 Teeth Of The Sea ~ Reaper / ALBUM: Master (2013)

2 Oliver Wilder ~ Stomach Full Of Cats (2013)

3 The Art Club ~ Let’s Start Again (2012)

4 Lakker ~ K’antu / E.P : Containing A Thousand (2014)

5 Grumbling Fur ~ The Ballad Of Roy Batty / ALBUM: Glynnaestra (2013)

6 Polar Bear ~ Be Free (2014)

7 Black Channels ~ Oracles (2014)

8 Firefly Burning ~ The Setting Sun (2013)

9 A Winged Victory For The Sullen - Requiem For The Static King Part One (2012)

10 Boxed In ~ All Your Love Is Gone (2013)

11 Crushed Beaks ~ Breakdown (2012)

12 Felt ~ Mobile Shack (1989)

13 Jesus And Mary Chain ~ Just Like Honey (1985)

14 Orange Juice ~ Falling And Laughing (1982)

15 Jo Bartlett ~ Highway Found / E.P : Highway Found (2014)

Hour two: 2.30 onwards

1 The Ambassadors Of Sorrow ~ The Centre Cannot Hold / ALBUM: There Is No Ending (2014)

2 Natalie McCool ~ Wind Blows Harder (2014)

3 The Hosts ~ In Dreams / ALBUM: Softly Softly (2014)

4 Ethan Johns ~ Among The Sugar Pines (2014)

5 Richard Thompson ~ I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight / ALBUM: Acoustic Classics (2014)

6 Willie Nelson ~ The Wall (2014)

7 Juice Newton ~ Queen Of Hearts (1981)

8 Olivia Newton-John ~ Silvery Rain / ALBUM: Physical (1981)

Hour three: with Hank Marvin, Seymour Quigley and Christina Grogan

1 The Police ~ Shadows In the Rain / ALBUM: Zenyatta Mondatta (1980)

2 Hank Marvin ~ Message In A Bottle / ALBUM: Hank (2014)

3 live phoner with Hank Marvin

4 Hank Marvin ~ Summer Guitar / ALBUM: Hank (2014)

5 The Shadows ~ Apache (1960)

6 Horse Party ~ Back To Mono / ALBUM: Cover Your Eyes (2014)

7 live phoner with Seymour Quigley

8 Horse Party ~ Clarion Call / ALBUM: Cover Your Eyes (2014)

9 Willie Watson ~ Bring It With You When You Come / ALBUM: Folk singer Vol.1 (2014)

10 Billie Jo Spears ~ What I Have In Mind (1976)

11 live phoner with Christina Grogan

12 Emily Capell ~ Bombs To the Beatles / E.P: Who Framed Winston Silcott? (2014)

13 Anna O ~ Sleepless / E.P: When The Winter Came (2014)

Hour four:

1 Hafdis Huld ~ Pop Song / ALBUM: Home (2014)

2 Carrie Newcomer ~ The Ten O’Clock Line / ALBUM: A Permeable Life (2014)

3 Rodney Crowell ~ Oh What a Beautiful World / ALBUM: Tarpaper Sky (2014) 4 Sharon Van Etten ~ Every Time The Sun Comes Up / ALBUM: Are We There (2014)

5 Ben & Ellen Harper ~ Memories Of Gold / ALBUM: Childhood Home (2014)

6 Limozine ~ Party On The Bus (2014) AA single p/w Tequila Shots

7 Howling Bells ~ Slowburn (2014)

8 Big Deal ~ Always Boys (2014)

9 Hank Marvin ~ Summer Of 42 / ALBUM: Hank (2014)

10 Hank Marvin ~ Good Day Sunshine / ALBUM: Hank (2014)

11 Hank Marvin ~ Summertime Blues / ALBUM: Hank (2014)

12 John Lennon ~ No. 9 Dream (1974)

13 OutKast ~ Hey Ya! (2003)

14 Pharrell Williams ~ Happy (2014)

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