With apologies to John Lennon, Joe Grushecky is a working-class hero. A special education teacher by day and musician by night, Grushecky has worked for decades in inner-city Pittsburgh to help children battling severe developmental, emotional, and physical disabilities. Determination, grit, and authenticity have long been among his trademarks as an artist. Now, Cleveland International […]
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Though born in the small town of Wall Lake, Iowa, Howard Andrew Williams always had his sight on the stars. From a young age, he sang with his older brothers Bob, Don, and Dick - first in church, then on local radio. While their father was a railroad worker, he encouraged his sons' showbiz dreams […]
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Barbara Mandrell wasn't yet 27 years old, but she had already spent a lifetime in music when she signed to ABC/Dot Records in 1975. The Houston native was born into a musical family, and was playing accordion by the age of five. By ten, the precocious talent had mastered the steel guitar, and one year […]
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Kevin Rowland of Dexys Midnight Runners released his first solo album, The Wanderer, in 1988 - three years after the band's third studio album (and final one for 27 years). But after The Wanderer, Rowland walked away from the music biz altogether. He returned in 1999 with My Beauty, but the record itself was overshadowed […]
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July 31 is sure to be a crate-digger's delight as Real Gone Music is set to release color vinyl reissues of two jazz and reggae classics: Airto's Seeds on the Ground: The Natural Sounds of Airto and Errol Dunkley's roots classic Darling Ooh! Seeds on the Ground was percussion master Airto's second album and his final […]
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On October 2, 1950, cartoonist Charles M. Schulz debuted Peanuts in seven newspapers, introducing the world in that first strip's four panels to Charlie Brown and his friends Shermy and Patty. Peanuts and its memorable cast of characters went on to inspire television specials, motion pictures, stage musicals, and countless merchandise items as well as […]
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Orange crate art was a place to start/Orange crate art was a world apart... Van Dyke Parks - composer, lyricist, arranger, producer, and all-around iconoclast - found inspiration in those familiar fruit crates painted with lovely, bucolic images of the fantasyland known as California. Having crafted a relaxed, loping melody, he was determined to set […]
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Bandcamp Friday is fast becoming as exciting a time as any other music street date. On March 20, as the COVID-19 pandemic was putting the world on pause, the indie music service waived their revenue share on all music and merch sold, allowing indie artists and labels a chance for some steadier income as concert […]
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"[It's] one of the best live recordings I've ever heard by Thelonious...I wasn't even aware of my dad playing a high school gig, but he and the band were on it." So says T.S. Monk, son of groundbreaking jazz pianist Thelonious Monk. "When I first heard the tape, from the first measure, I knew my […]
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Welcome to this week's Release Round-Up! Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks, Orange Crate Art: 25th Anniversary Edition (Omnivore) 2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore 2LP Black Vinyl: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Omnivore 2LP Colored Vinyl: Omnivore Omnivore celebrates 25 years of Brian Wilson and […]
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