News and Commentary

Music News, Reviews and Commentary for April 17

Here is what’s happening today, updated as often as possible: NorthJersey.com offers reviews from the Associated Press and The Philadelphia Inquirer of work from Counting Crows, Monica, Bonnie Raitt and Loudon Wainwright III…The Washington Post calls Rebecca Pigeon’s sixth album, Slighshot, “dark and enchanting”…Kevin Puts won a Pulitzer Prize for music for Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts…Woody Guthrie’s music lives on, according to a story at The Republic (of Columbus, Indiana)…Screenwriter Melissa Webster likes old fashioned record stores…Splash.FM, which this GigaOm story describes as a social networking site for music, is live…Andre Harrell, CEO of Harrell Records, says that the music business still is the place to be…I don’t know who Tracy Lawrence is, but I feel bad for him nonetheless…The first artists for the North Coast Music Festival set for Chicago over Labor Day Weekend have been announced…The Bellingham (WA) …Eighty-year-old country singer George Jones had to cancel shows in Minnesota and South Dakota due to an upper respiratory illness…According to Time magazine and last.fm, Atlanta now is the leader in oveerall music trends. Atlanta also led in hip hop and Montreal in indie trends.

Photo credit: lcg2001 from morguefile.com

Our New Things: Links to Music Sites and Info on Analog Tech and Vinyl

TDMB has focused on music and musicians. We will continue to do that, of course. We're also expanding our coverage to include vinyl and analog equipment.

More specifically, we'll look at this huge and interesting world from the perspective of music lovers who want a better experience, not committed non-audiophiles.

Check out is some of what we've written so far:

-- Assessing the Value of Vinyl Records: An Overview

-- 7 Quick Tips on Optimizing Your Turntable Cartridge

-- Why Vinyl Records Continue to Thrive

-- Finding the Best Amplifier

-- Finding the Best Phono Preamp

-- What Speakers Do I Need for My Turntable?

Check out more articles on analog equipment and vinyl.

The site also is home to The Internet Music Mapping Project, an effort to list and describe as many music-related sites as possible.

Our Music

--A Tribe Called Quest to The Dick Hyman Trio (In other words, A to H)

--Indigo Girls to Queen Ida (I to Q)

--Radiohead to ZZ Top (R to Z)

Reading Music

The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.

Here are some books to check out.

Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.

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What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.

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The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").

David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.

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