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July2012
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July2012
The Resurrection of Ray Wylie Hubbard
Posted inRay Wylie Hubbard’s new album, The Grifter’s Hymnal, is like a church service held at the funkiest roadhouse bar this side of the Mississippi. He is at once a ragged prophet, a profane poet, and a lusty preacher. But these days, life for Hubbard is about spiritual awakening, not bible thumping. Unless, that is, the […]
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July2012
Someone Truthful That Way Went
Posted in“The ability to fantasize is the ability to survive,” Ray Bradbury said in 1967. Well, I’ve survived longer than I expected or deserve, and some of the credit/blame is certainly shared by my imagination. Upon Bradbury’s recent passing, I had to remind myself that he never said “…guarantee to survive” yet I was no less […]
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July2012
MARK ABEL: The Dream Gallery, Seven California Portraits
Posted inMark Abel is a Carlsbad composer who describes his approach to The Dream Gallery: Seven California Portraits as “postmodernist art song.” It’s dense, avant garde material that requires the listener’s full attention for 70 minutes. He’s mixing classical orchestrations, progressive rock chops, classically trained singers, and plenty of musical theatre exposition-song touches, all delivering smartly […]
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July2012
EUHPORIA BRASS BAND: Coast to Coast
Posted inThe Euphoria Brass Band has just hit the streets with their first CD, Coast to Coast. Bold and boisterous, with an emphasis on a funky bass line provided by a funky sousaphone, the CD is an audio essential to get that next party going and a great musical prescription for chasing the blues away. Coast […]
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July2012
A Not So Very Modest Proposal
Posted inIn 1915 was the Pan American Exposition in Balboa Park and out of that closest thing to a World’s Fair yet held in San Diego came one of the Parks great museums (Was it the Natural History Museum, I think so). With the second World’s Fair held in the late ’30s came one of the […]
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July2012
TOMCAT COURTNEY: Foot Stoompin’
Posted inThe 83-year-old Tomcat Courtney shows no sign of slowing down with this follow-up release to his 2008 national recording debut, Downsville Blues (Blue Witch Records), which was a finalist in the Independent Music Awards for Best Blues Album. If anything, Courtney is gaining momentum, having toured extensively (domestically and in Europe) in support of Downsville […]
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July2012
Performance Rights and You…
Posted inHello Troubadourians! I received an email from a reader named John, who asked what I knew about what I would define as “predatory” behavior by people claiming to be representatives of ASCAP and BMI, which John believed resulted in his being turned down for gigs at several venues. I had heard rumors of so-called “crackdowns” […]
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July2012
TRAILS & RAILS: Off the Beaten Path
Posted inThe music of the saddle-weary, hard living trail hands and miners of the last half of the 19th century who carved an impossibly inhospitable West into a rustic home, on foot and hoof, has rightly resulted in a rich musical tradition. As it should, it is intertwined with musical stories of the cast iron arteries, […]