Pat Blythe – Tributes, Sarah Smith, Indie Week and Robbie Robertson….

I will start by paying tribute to two remarkable artists. First a true Canadian icon and our poet laureate (in our hearts) Leonard Cohen on Monday, November 7 although the notice of death was not released until the day he was buried. Today (Sunday, Nov. 13), the news informs us of the passing of the unforgettable Leon Russell. Two legends (if I may use that term) in our lifetime that have shared a piece of themselves with all of us. Their minds and their hearts live on in the music and lyrics of our lives.

Doug Thompson: DON’T MESS WITH THE WRECKING CREW!

So, what project in your life has taken you the longest to complete?  Has anything you’ve really wanted to do ever taken you 18 years?  Most likely not, but that’s how long it took director Denny Tedesco to complete his documentary on a small group of musicians in Los Angeles who, from the late 1950’s through to the 1970’s, supplied the rhythm section (drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion, saxophone) for hundreds, if not thousands of hit records.

Roxanne Tellier: 20 Feet from Stardom

I’d been longing to see the Academy Award winning documentary film “20 Feet from Stardom” since it first came out in 2013, but it was only recently that I actually had the chance.

Roxanne Tellier: MonkeeMania!

Ramping up to the 50^th anniversary of The Beatles February 9, 1964  appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, it’s easy to forget that one of the other acts on that same show, on that same evening, featured a slight, young “Artful Dodger” – one David Jones, aged 19, belting out a song from the hit Broadway play Oliver! During that performance Jones sang “I’d Do Anything” with the entire cast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKpLngN6CPE

Doug Thompson: WHAT, IS IT NEW YEARS ALREADY?

John Lennon said it best in one of my all time favourite songs of his: “So this is Christmas and what have you done.  Another year over, a new one just begun.”  I do so wish that Lennon was still here to continue with his amazing talent.  But some self-centered asshole with a hand gun and a diseased brain (or a mind-controlled one, for all of you conspiracy buffs) silenced that legendary voice forever 33 years ago.

Roxanne Tellier: Every Day I Write The Book

Since very young, I’ve been a reader. Not just casually, as in checking out the latest Stephen King novel, or flipping through the pages of a tabloid, but a hard core, genuinely addicted, unable to live without books, reader. I’m helpless in the face of the printed word. My books surround me, on shelves reaching to the ceiling, in every room, on every subject. If I were a literary Scrooge McDuck, I’d be diving into a vault full of books, and rolling in vellum.

Justin Smallbridge: Radio, Records, and England

In 1975, my radio listening was shifting from CHLO and the AM stations. I was being influenced by the pronouncements of my peers. It never occurred to me at the time that they didn’t know anything more than I did. They seemed so sure . . . like a grammar school friend who, in 9^th grade, dismissed David Bowie and everything he’d done because his older sisters had told him Bowie was gay. Because this friend of mine was to play the saxophone, and — as was a lot more common in southwestern Ontario and other places in 1975 — he was proudly homophobic, he was outraged that Bowie was depicted with a sax on the cover of Pin-Ups. I still liked Bowie. I just didn’t mention that to the guy who hated him.

Segarini: Chick Singers and a Few Good Men you May Have Missed Part Two – Delaney and Bonnie

Part One can be found here.

Of all the artists who have made serious contributions to the advancement of popular music, Delaney and Bonnie stand out as the most overlooked, underappreciated, and sadly unheralded in all but a few tiny circles. There has never been an effort to even have them ensconced in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (except for Delaney and Bonnie’s kid’s petition after Delaney passed away in 2008), and considering some of the artists who HAVE been inducted into Jann Wenner’s Hall of Successful Musician/Celebrities Who Everybody is Aware Of, that…is a travesty. Why do I believe that? Read on….

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