Grace Slick is one of the few rock artists who declared that they wouldn’t perform on stage past age 30—and stuck to it.
Before Frank Ocean, Trey Songz and Cee-Lo; before R. Kelly, Maxwell and Usher, and before Luther Vandross, Teddy Pendergrass, Harold Melvin and Al Green, there was Marvin Gaye. Sure, there were soulful balladeers before and with him (think Smokey, Otis and Stevie; Ray Charles and Donny Hathaway).
The weight of the passing of Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman may be unfelt to those without the passion for thrashin’. But for those with the passion, it is collectively understood that a metal legend is gone.
Think Paul McCartney’s a medical and musical phenomenon, performing at full-tilt, these days and nights, at age 71?
Summertime, and it’s easy, musically, to float over to the music of the Beach Boys, who were all about the California sun, about surfin’ and cruisin’ and being true to your school – except in summer, of course, when it’s time for fun, fun, fun.
In the early 2000’s, I had two occasions to attend South by Southwest, the music conferences that takes place in—and takes over—Austin every year. I was on a panel one year, then did an onstage interview with The Band’s Robbie Robertson a year or two later.
To play the Hollywood Bowl. For any musician, that has to be a career highlight. The Doors performed in that revered venue in 1968, and Ray Manzarek, in his interview for Qello Concerts, articulated the import of such an occasion.
I have a friend who likes Paul Simon. Check that. “I LOVE Paul Simon!” she’ll exclaim whenever we talk about music.
Simon was the genius half of Simon and Garfunkel. He wrote all those great songs, helped arrange them, and sang half of them. And it was Paul, not Art, who went on to a prolific solo career.
There are rockers, and there are rock ‘n’ rollers. John Fogerty is one of the few major musicians who can claim to be both, bridging the guitar-driven, band-based rock of the late ‘60s and ‘70s with the R&B and country-rooted rock and roll—think Little Richard and Elvis—of the ‘50s into the ‘60s.
Whether you are working from home, trying to keep the kids entertained, or need to bust a move with an at-home workout, we’ve got all the music you need.
Let’s face it, fleeing the cold weather just ain’t as easy as it used to be.
The days when you could throw a towel into a bag and hop on the next flight to Anywhere But Here are starting to feel like a dream.
The first six months of the year went by exceptionally fast for me. From walking in cold snow-covered streets to hanging out at C2 Montreal, it all felt like it happened in a blink. For those who are reading my work for the first time, I’ll keep it short, my name is Brian Holidae. I started in radio at 17, was a hip-hop music director for ten, and I’ve repped Canada on an international level as a delegate at the annual International Radio Festival. Wild thing is, as much as all of that was, the biggest part of the first six months of 2019 came down to my interview with Spike Lee for C2 Montreal on behalf of FranklinArmstong.com.