Larry Jon Wilson passed away today, drifting off into the Big Ephemeral. Thirty-five years ago he released a country-folk record that has become very important to me. It is called New Beginnings, and at the time, it represented a new beginning for Wilson. More than that, it represents the potential in [...]
I so badly wish that I could remember who first sent me the link to the “Looking for the Magic” video. I’d love nothing more than to shake his hand and give him credit every time I play this song with friends and talk about magic (this happens a lot). I’d [...]
Pip Proud has been called the greatest Australian singer-songwriter of the ’60s. He released two weirdo folk albums for Polydor International in ‘67 and ‘69 before disappearing deep into the bush for three decades. He re-emerged in ‘98, lobbing a grenade toward the few straggling vagabonds slurping kipper snacks under the shadetree: the “Hey Gus“ single.
We were [...]
With every song (or band) we have a relationship (some we have yet to meet), and with the best there is romance. Mystery is the driving force for romance. You trade a little mystery for every sweet tidbit of insight you gain. Yet some of those insights lead to deeper mysteries. And therein lies the [...]
The members of Mad Season (members of Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam and Screaming Trees), have had their fair share of nights away at sea. “Wake Up,” the first song on their lone album Above, is a mini-epic document of their grasping into the darkness, seeking some shore. The steady-yet-woozy marimba (played by drummer Barrett [...]
We leave a canyon behind us each summer. Each year its yawn grows more massive, and the echo from the shout that we wail from its rim resounds deeper and longer. Dion knew this. By 1972, the former pop sensation had long since outgrown the narrow parameters that the pop charts afforded teen idols (heroin [...]
Portia Sabin: I think labels are caught in a cultural bind: No one really wants to know what a label does; it’s like the sausage factory. Even long-established bands have a hard time talking about what labels do.
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Mac McCaughan: I don’t know. I think that bands are into labels because bands — at least most [...]
Little substantial information exists about Caroline Crawford, but in this case I’ll use my ignorance as an advantage. The lack of a factual framework only gives me more space to mythologize as to the origin of that voice, and to co-author a context worthy of the dreamy journey on which “Riding On Your Love” takes [...]
This summer I realized that there are two kinds of people battling each other on this Earth: Van Morrison believers and Van Morrison haters. There’re plenty of folks nattering about who don’t care much either way, but there’s definitely a battle on. “Who Was That Masked Man” is a weapon I use when at battle [...]