Music musing

The “Sunday Soul Sermon”
Swapped out my usual monthly, mid-week, 150-minute show on WGXC for a Sunday evening two-hour special, flexing off my travels and research and interviews for my Wilson Pickett biography. Thoroughly enjoyed...
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December 2, 2014

James: La Petite Mort pour toujours
My favorite lyricist is indelibly associated with Manchester, though he doesn’t originally hail from there. His name is Tim Booth and time and time again, over the quarter century-plus that...
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July 17, 2014

My Date with Keef
It was early 1989, and Keith Richards was on his final day at home before flying off to the Caribbean to record with the Rolling Stones for the first time...
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May 22, 2014

The Story Of Lovers Rock
The other night, scouring the cable channels for something half-way decent to watch, I stumbled on The Story of Lovers Rock, on the Africa Channel. Any outlet for such a...
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March 6, 2014

A helmet, a Hammond and a podcast on Hunter Mountain
The scene: Hunter Ski Mountain, the express lift to the summit. It’s a Friday, a powder day too, but the mountain is not crowded: the storm has only just subsided...
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February 17, 2014

Insight of Sorts into Inside Llewyn Davis
Had me a very cultural weekend. Went to see Charles Bradley and his Extraordinaires supported by Simi Stone at the Bearsville Theater Friday night. Read David Remnick’s 17,000 word profile...
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January 27, 2014

The Damned: The Most Underrated Artist of Our Time?
IN the current issue of long-standing American indie music Bible The Big Takeover, Tim Sommer embarks on the quest for the Most Underrated Artist of Our Time. His criteria includes...
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January 13, 2014

Top Ten Singles of 2013
FWIW, my Top 10 Singles of the Year, as entered into the annual Village Voice poll. I have more fun putting together this list than the Top 10 Albums; it’s...
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January 3, 2014