Use this link to add your email
address to the RARWRITER Publishing Group mailing list for
updates on activities associated with
the
Creative Culture and Revolution
Culture journals,
and other RARWRITER Publishing Group interests.
ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
Use this link
to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which
features excerpts from novels and other.
RARADIO
(Click here)
"On to the
Next One" by
Jacqueline Van Bierk
"I See You
Tiger" by Via Tania
"Lost the
Plot" by Amoureux"
Bright Eyes,
Black Soul" by The Lovers
Key
"Cool Thing"
by Sassparilla
"These Halls I Dwell"
by Michael Butler
"St. Francis"by
Tom Russell & Gretchen Peters, performance by Gretchen
Peters and Barry Walsh;
"Who Do You
Love?"by Elizabeth Kay;
"Rebirth"by
Caterpillars;
"Monica's
Frock" by
Signel-Z;
"Natural
Disasters" by
Corey Landis;
"1,000
Leather Tassels" by
The Blank Tapes;
"We Are All Stone" and "Those
Machines" by Outer
Minds;
"Another Dream" by MMOSS;
"Susannah" by Woolen
Kits;
Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley,
Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities / news by A
SECRET PARTY;
"I Miss the Day" by My
Secret Island,
"Carriers of Light" by Brendan
James;
"The Last Time" by Model
Stranger;
"Last Call" by Jay;
"Darkness" by Leonard
Cohen;
"Sweetbread" by Simian
Mobile Disco and
"Keep You" fromActress off
the Chronicle movie soundtrack;
"Goodbye to
Love" from October
Dawn;
Trouble in
Mind 2011 label
sampler;
Black Box
Revelation Live
on Minnesota Public Radio;
Apteka "Striking
Violet";
Mikal
Cronin's "Apathy"
and "Get Along";
Dana
deChaby's progressive
rock
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ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM. Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime. The
book features the epic poem "The
Toiler" as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel

I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
You do not need to buy a Kindle to
take advantage of this low-cost library. Use
this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you
can download for free a Kindle App for
your computer, tablet, or phone.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves atNOOK
Press (the
Barnes & Noble site), Lulu,
and others. |
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ARTIST NEWS
|
REVIEW:
Until After Then
Tommy Talton's Seamless New LP
By Bill Thames
Tommy
Talton never bores us with his live shows, and certainly not
with his recordings. Talton is constantly striving for, and inventing
new and ultimately more interesting forms of musical expression as he
moves along his melodic highway. Until After
Then is simply another summit on which Talton pauses, as he
continues his never ending pursuit.
This project was recorded for the most part
at David Keith's Gintown Studios in
Graysville, Alabama, from May through September of 2014 for
Hittin' the Note Records. "Love You a
Little,” was recorded at Rick Hirsch's Studio H2O
in Mobile, Alabama. Production is credited to both Tommy Talton and
David Keith. With this project, I believe
that David Keith has demonstrated that he is no one trick pony.
To truly understand the diversity of this
recording, you need to dust off your headphones...to surround yourself
with, and get closer to the sound, because that's what Talton is all
about. The lyrics, the music, the production, even the effects are so
superbly seamless that you need to dive in and have the sound wash over
you as these talented journeymen weave along through the pocket.
The opening cut, "Until After Then," sounds
like you've just opened the door to a smoky nightclub where a band of
well-oiled musicians is already deep into their third set of the
night--that's how tight they are. And it doesn't let up until the
project is finished. Talton's gracefully gritty guitar, and
Matt Slocum's tasty organ fills weave a
funky, mystical, almost Al Cooperish groove that seems to go on...well,
until after then. Frankie Nattola's bass
lines don't overwhelm, they fit perfectly between, and over David
Keith's always perfect 4/4.
"Real Sugar" is a testament to the world we
live in, literally and figuratively, where it is hard to tell both what
is real, and what is not; who is real, and who is not.
Billy Earheart's soulful piano,
Kelvin Holly's hypnotic wah-wah guitar, and
David Hood's solid bass lines align
perfectly with Bill Stewart's rock-solid
rhythm. The horn section of Brad Guin on
Sax, and Ken Watters on trumpet add icing
to an already sweet musical pastry. This is the real thing..."real bread
with real butter."
Talton always tucks at least one dreamy
aural adventure into each of his recordings, designed to set the mind
free. On this project, "Mr. Love" teases with the promise to take the
listener away as the spiraling intro begins. The tease stops, however,
as the lyrics jolt, and the listener is slapped with the headline news.
Talton's guitars titillate, while Kenny Head's
tasteful organ drones over Keith's perpetual percussion, and Nattola is
smooth as silk.
"Distant Light" takes the listener deep into
Talton's emotional psyche. More of a Rhythm and Blues groove here, but
as sweet and delicate as a love song has ever been sung. Earheart shines
on this track, his trademark keyboard work, both emotional and gut
wrenching. The horn section of Guin and Watters fills this track with
heartfelt emotion. Kelvin Holly, David Hood, and Bill Stewart lock
together tightly to become the almost unheard rhythm section, wrapping
around the vocals like an invisible thread of silk. Talton's lyrics are
pure magic.
"My, O, My" is a light, breezy tone poem
that walks the listener through a musical picnic on a lazy hillside in
the summer sunshine...so wistful and so right. Talton's windswept,
rhythmic acoustic rifts are pushed aside momentarily by a stabbing slide
guitar solo that is truly slinky, soulful, and trademarkable. This track
is all about the tasteful picking, the slide guitar, and the hypnotic
groove. The rhythm section of Head, Nattola, and Keith flow through this
track like the soft breeze that kisses the leaves after a summer
afternoon interlude. Warning...this track quickly became my earworm. It
is truly addictive.
"I Keep My Mind On You," could easily be
envisioned as Talton's personal chronicle set to music, complete with
clever glimpses to the future, and the lyrics resonate. When young,
especially, life is confusing, and the road has so many forks. Talton's
music and lyrics encapsulates the human spirit, and he is always there
to sooth us when we have more questions than answers. The entire band
swings through this track gently cradling Talton's subtle lyrics, and
lifting him up to the chorus.
"She Was There," written by Talton's brother, Gary
Talton, is the only track on this project not written by Tommy
Talton. Rich acoustic guitar by Talton, and Kenny Head's radiant piano
accent Gary's stunning lyrics. At 2:30, Head puts his fingers to the
keys and starts to play music so emotional and soulful that his notes
are almost too beautiful for words. Brandon
Peeples plays spot on upright bass, David Keith again keeps
perfect time, and Brad Guin's flute flies high above the intro.
"The Man From Down Near Waco" is Talton's tribute to old friend,
Billy Joe Shaver. Listening closely, you
can almost feel the dust in Talton's voice as the band tucks into this
western groove. If this doesn't bring you close to the westerns of your
youth, then you are a city kid without dreams. Lyrics like these point
to Talton's songwriting range, and genius.
Almost a bookend to "Waco" is the light
western swing, "Love U A Little." This ditty again shows Talton's
diversity, and his ability to create lighthearted lines as well as well
crafted, cinematic Libretto. It also proves that Talton is not easily
tongue-tied. "Love U A Little" features Talton on dobro, NC Thurman on
honky-tonk Piano and harmony vocals, Rick Hirsch on rhythm Guitar, and
Nattola on six-string bass. Pete Wehner
debuts here on drums.
"You Got A Friend" was originally released
on the Happy to be Alive album,
Talton, Sandlin, and Stewart. The message resonates now just as it did
then...friendship is all that matters in life. All it takes to win is
one person who will listen and wrestle the concepts with you...someone
to keep you company on your ride down, and lift you back up. Here Talton
is all about the lyrics. The vocal groove is accompanied by a simple
acoustic/electric feel which puts only the most important cuts of meat
on the plate...then comes the guitar solo, where the notes are being
squeezed out, like Talton's life depends on it. Talton's vocals, lyrics,
and guitar work shine here. Along with his wizzardly-smooth bass lines,
Frankie Nattola steps out front and adds harmony vocals that blend
perfectly with Talton's voice. As always, Keith allows every note to
rest comfortably on his shoulders.
As for the bonus track, "Surfin' the Levee,"
well...I rest my case...
This is surely some of the
most diverse music that Talton has ever written and recorded.
Order a copy of Until After Then from
Hittinthenote.com, and snuggle into this music with your headphones on
so that you can feel what it is like to be in the studio with the
artists...you won't be sorry!.
|
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BOOK REVIEW:

The enormously talented New Mexico
artist Richard W. Padilla provided cover and inside art and recreated historical
maps for the Atwood series.
ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of
Deliverance
by E.A. Kay
Rick Alan Rice’s epic novel
ATWOOD: A Toiler’s Weird Odyssey of Deliverance,
revolves around the founding of the town of Atwood, Kansas situated in
Rawlins County in the northwest corner of the state. The book weaves
together multiple stories that meander like a twisting stream through
historical fact, fictionalized events, Native American beliefs, and the
folklore and legends brought to this country by European emigrants who
homesteaded Kansas in the late 1800s. ATWOOD is an entertaining, easily
readable and incredibly informative book. You’ll find it enjoyable,
whether or not you have Kansas roots, as will people interested in the
history and folklore of the western United States. It is the first book
in a trilogy the author is currently working on.
ATWOOD: A Toiler’s Weird Odyssey of Deliverance opens
in the post-Civil War years, an age of massive European immigration to
America when western territories such as Kansas were rapidly being
explored and exploited by people bent on trapping, hunting, mining,
grazing and farming. At this time the high plains of northwestern Kansas
were being advertised as a veritable “Garden of Eden” by various moneyed
interests: bankers, chamber of commerce, state publicity departments,
railroads and real estate brokers. But the German and Czechoslovakian
farmers who arrived in 1875 by wagon train to Rawlins County to
establish homesteads soon discovered things to be quite different.
Barely enough rain fell annually to grow a profitable crop of any kind.
The homesteads had to be defended from Indian raiding parties and from
vast herds of bawling cattle driven by cowboys who didn’t know the
meaning of property lines. READ MORE... |

Richard W. Padilla
grew up the son of a painter and has spent his entire life capturing the
beauty and mystery of the "Land of Enchantment": New Mexico.
Use this link to visit his
on-line gallery and learn more about his extraordinary work. Richard
created cover and inside art for CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice's ATWOOD
series. "I feel enormously honored by Richard's
contributions to the ATWOOD books. He is probably the most intuitively
gifted artist I have ever met, a guy who brings considerable magic to
everything he does." - Rick Alan Rice

Section art developed by Richard W. Padilla for
ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance |
|
Nashville Unleashed
Nashville's Intimate Road Show Goes Big Time

Originating as a SOLD-OUT National touring show,
Nashville UNLEASHED became a web series, attracting producers to bring
it to Network TV. Multiple Networks signed on immediately, with
coverage on a collective of satellite networks reaching over 80,000,000
Households in the
US and on Country TV in New Zealand. A refreshing alternative to reality
TV, it’s an authentic show about the music and for the music, drawing
viewers into the intimate, in-the-round performance style characteristic
of the Nashville music scene. Hosted by husband and wife
singer/songwriting team, Jack and Diane Untz,
each episode profiles multiple accomplished songwriters (including
GRAMMY-award winning artists and Grand Ole Opry performers) and shares
the personal stories behind the hits and hit-worthy new songs.
Use this link to visit the
show's website to learn more, and check out the promo trailer below.
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Yes, I Believe
this is Something
Dylan McDonald
and the Avians in Full Flight
Fueled
By Dreams Of The Future is only
the second CD by Dylan McDonald and The
Avians, but is the next step in a long musical
journey. Led by Dylan McDonald (son of five-time GRAMMY
Award-winner Michael McDonald), the
band’s primary musical influences are the legendary artists of
the 60s and 70s, but they want to create their own path and make
a distinct mark on the musical landscape. Dylan McDonald and The
Avians deliver an intoxicating brand of eclectic rock
reminiscent of John Lennon and Neil Young. “That comparison is
flattering,” McDonald admits. “They are such influences to use
musically that it makes sense that people hear it in our music,
but I am humbled anyway.” McDonald is the sole songwriter on the
record. “Sometimes it is frustrating because people expect to
hear my dad’s iconic voice in me…and it’s just not there.
Musically we are very different,” McDonald says. The band
features McDonald on lead vocals and guitar,
Daniel DeMonico on lead guitar,
Will Brown on keys,
Alex Geddes on bass guitar and
Joshua Cobb on drums.
Although DeMonico and McDonald have played together for many
years, the current incarnation has come together within the last
year. Before the band “evolved” to The Avians, it was called
Dylan McDonald and the Stay Highs--
a nod to a certain segment of society that has gravitated to
McDonald’s music. He jokes, “Well, my dad was a Doobie Brother!”
“This band is different than any that I have been in,” Cobb
confides. “It’s a lot more old school because we record live.
It’s all recorded live in the studio and not many bands do that
anymore….It’s about being together. I enjoy doing these songs
that way. To me, it is like showing respect to the past.”
McDonald echoes Cobb’s enthusiasm. “Everyone is really strong in
their instrument and brings something different to the
performances,” McDonald says. “I feel like our songs are
constantly evolving. We tweak them all the time, and they change
and grow, just like we do as musicians.” Fueled By Dreams Of The
Future is available at all digital outlets and distributed by
Chronin Records.
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Jazz Donnay
Style
Prohibition Mob Band

The
San Francisco Bay Area has a long tradition of presenting some
of the best and most innovative Jazz stylings, and it seems over
the past few decades they have somehow been intertwined with
another of the Bay Area's feature attractions:
Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks.
That band features two of the finest jazz vocalists in the
nation - Roberta Donnay and
the singularly-named Daria -
as backing vocalists, which sort of puts that legendary band
into perspective. (It's a little like Beyonce Knowles singing
backup in her sister Solange's band.) These cats be fine!
Anyway, Dan Hicks and crew aside, Roberta Donnay has been
tearing it up with her own entertaining unit, the
Prohibition Mob Band, pictured
above. There is a kind of a schtick that runs through the core
of all these people; a kind of entertainment ethos that harkens
back to an earlier time, almost Vaudevillian in its nature.
Roberta and her mobsters are stepping it up a few notches of
late with the upcoming release of a new CD, Bathtub Gin,
which is expected in January 2015, and a soon to be released
video titled "What's A Girl to Do?" The theatrical video will
feature Roberta Donnay
(as Velma Parrish), Aaron Wilton as Johnny "Boom-Boom", Destiny
Muhammad as Snookie Lovelle, Dan Keller as "Buttons" McGee, and
Jared Newman as Leo "The Lip". The Bathtub Gin CD features 15
songs including 1920s-30s gems which have been buried or seldom
heard, plus some jump-swing with shout choruses and original
compositions, with horn arrangements by Sam Bevan and Wayne
Wallace. Stay tuned to the CCJ for more. Or, if you'd like to
have your data mined you can
visit Roberta's Facebook page using this link. Or, you can
just go to Roberta's website at
www.robertadonnay.com.
You can purchase the first Prohibition Mob Band CD, Here's A
Little Sugar, by
using this link to visit Amazon.com.
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Wasted Wine's
New Hypno Therapeutic LP
South
Carolina's experimental sound machine
Wasted Wine has a new LP, Wasted Wine vs. the
Hypnosis Center, scheduled for release in February 2015. The
video below is a promotional vehicle and provides some insight
into this innovative duo's approach to 21st Century music. I
took the opportunity to listen to the album, which in some
respects is
experimental in the way that Radiohead, Muse, Pink Floyd and
others have been, with a rich seasoning of recorded messages and
public service type announcements intended to immerse the
listener in the high-concept nature of the album. Listeners will
feel that they are checking into a therapeutic environment, as
if they are in acceptance of the notion that there is something
amiss in their mental processing. Musically speaking, however,
it belongs to a kind of Gypsy cabaret genre. There are
eastern modes at work, or possibly something of the Romani in
the violin strains, that are mysterious, compelling, and quite
beautiful, and in the accordion sounds that drive many of the
songs. The vocals are odd, more
theatrical than musical, and not quite up to the ambitions of
the compositions, which are low-key spectacular, if that's
possible. One imagines musical star Alan
Cumming or the great Ron Moody
doing these parts with real punch, but unfortunately neither is
in Wasted Wine. (It would be great if Moody was in the band:
he's 90 years old!) Robert Gowan
and Adam Murphy are
fantastic composers and they should really get themselves to
Broadway, where they belong, and where they could employ the
talents of more gifted vocalists. Their new LP sounds like the
soundtrack of a Broadway production.
- RAR Read More
about Wasted Wine on the Music Page.
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The Red Paintings
Is The Revolution Never
Coming? Maybe not, but The Red Paintings are. Check out this
cool video for "Wasps".
Orchestral
art-rockers The Red Paintings
are in the midst of an ambitious world tour in support of the
release of their debut album The
Revolution Is Never Coming. The band is hitting the
U.S., supporting "The Birthday Massacre".
The Revolution Is Never Coming
was five years in the making and features a 35-piece orchestra,
22-piece choir, harp players, French horn, Theremin, and more
across thirteen tracks of biting, futuristic, alternative rock.
Recorded and mixed with the late Bryan Carlstrom (Alice in
Chains, Rob Zombie) in world-class studios around the globe, the
band raised donations from fans all over the world to create
their vision and have received critical acclaim for their
creative vision and ambitious scope. The band’s heavy touring
schedule has been driven by the release of The Revolution Is
Never Coming and the album’s two singles - “You’re Not One Of
Them” and “Wasps” - both of which have spawned music videos. The
songs have charted in the UK, Europe, USA, and Australia.
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Dutch/Polish band Faith
Healer
Fiery
Dutchman Peter Bourbon Lights a Faithful Fuse
FAITH
HEALER is a modern hard rock band established in 2014
by Dutch legendary guitarist Peter
Bourbon of Picture,
Vengeance and many more. Joined by
extremely talented crew of Dennis
Geraads (drummer, producer, sound engineer and owner
of the Skillz Drums Academy), Peter
Rovers (bass), Marc Meesters
(guitarist and singer) also decided to work with young polish
hard rock & heavy metal vocalist -
Zinny Zalesky (Piotr 'Zinny' Zaleski) well known by
his expressive frontman image and great vocal range. First long
play recorded in Swalmen, the Netherlands (Double Double U
Studio) in 2014. Turn Up Sound
premiered in September 2014 along with the full band video and
it's a first official release for FAITH HEALER. The band gathers
a lot of experience, great range of inspirations, music skills
and true rock image. Hard rock fans can well expect the results
of these sessions to be truly outstanding!
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This Week in "Is This
Anything?"
Martin Folb and Paul Gorman's Primal Intent
Rising
from the club scene in Miami, Martin
Folb (PANTyRAID, MartyParty) will join Ibiza producer
Paul Gorman for a 2014
self-titled album release launching their newest project under
the moniker, Primal Intent.
Loaded to the brim with fresh progressive house and Ibiza
minimal techno the 10 track self-titled LP cleverly combines
Trap, Dubstep, Purple and Hip Hop into one tightly wound package
delivering a powerful punch. Rich in bass and emotion, Primal
Intent is a new musical foray for the South African born
producer, Martin Folb. A deep dark audio voyage using synthetic
sounds and organic tones Primal Intent takes the listener into a
new world of minimal electronic music that is both sophisticated
and psychedelic. Together with co-producer Paul Gorman, the new
project captures all of the flavor of the European techno scene
while remaining current and fluid with Miami’s signature house
music sound. All of that stuff preceding is the type of hype one
gets in the promo package for these types of productions. As the
CCJ listens to the sample track below, we can't help but pose
the timeless question that surrounds the release of any music
product - the question originated by David Letterman and Paul
Shafer for the Late Show With David Letterman, i.e., Is this
anything? We can't tell, but your comments are welcome.
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Phillip Rauls' Musical Slideshow
Here
at the CCJ at RARWRITER.com we have featured the extraordinary
photography of former Atlantic Records Artist & Reportoire guy
Phillip Rauls', who owns one of the world's greatest treasure
troves of photographs of musicians, places and things. He was
instrumental in the promotion of the great music that came out
of Stax Records in Memphis, and tons of other music as well.
Several years ago he put together this nice musical photo tour,
which he calls a "photographer's view of some long time personal
alliances that are pieced-together in the form of a brief
documentary". Phillip has tons of this stuff on his great
Photolog site (use
this link). He was there when music history was taking
place, much of it helped along by his own hand in promoting the
fortunes of so many of those acts that have enriched the lives
of whole generations of fans. This video shares some of that in
line with his notion that promoting music is promoting people.
Music fans will recognize a lot of famous faces among these
shots. Some readers of this site will also see the faces of old
friends, some now sadly departed. Either way, it's a treat. And
wasn't our boy Phil a fine looking young man?
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Lachlan Bryan and The
Wildes
Getting Through
the Night on Black Coffee
Winner
of the alt-country Album of the Year at the 2014 Australian
Country Music Awards, Lachlan Bryan &
The Wildes are releasing
Black Coffee in the U.S. "Black Coffee transcends
expectations and sets the new standard in roots and Americana
music in Australia. We knew it was going to be good, but this is
an exceptional album." - Adam Simon, Rolling Stone. Black
Coffee, the new album from Australian songwriter Lachlan
Bryan and his band The Wildes, has garnered glowing reviews,
packed houses, and a slew of awards and nominations in Bryan's
homeland this year.
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Tetherball - Spring Chicken
So does the CCJ over promote
Tetherball? Perhaps, but go
ahead and speak unkindly of us, we just love this band.
Steve Voss, like yours truly,
is a former Boulder, Colorado guy. He relocated a few years back
to Nashville to do studio work, which he describes thusly: "Atop
a hill overlooking the Nashville valley, surrounded by
industrial wasteland, sits what appears to be a paramilitary
fortress. Massive, unnameable machines rust in the fields
nearby, while a lone American flag adorns its concrete parapet.
Inside, you will find the caverns of an abandoned
steel-manufacturing multiplex, and one man: Steve Voss. In the
adjacent cavern of a warehouse, a lone drum set and studio
lights are set within 80,000 square feet of empty space. This is
how Voss operates his studio, and where he conjures the sonic
structures of his culminating project, Tetherball." Voss is a
clever guy pulling some beauty of that American wasteland.
- RAR
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Mindy Smith and
Matthew Perryman Jones
Rescuing Souls, Human and Otherwise
This is a beautiful song, wonderfully
performed, featured on Shelter Me,
the inspiring PBS series that celebrates shelter pets with
positive and uplifting stories, is more than just a TV show --
it's become a whole phenomenon, including a special album,
Songs For Shelter Me.
Use this link to visit Mindy Smith's website and purchase
her excellent musical products, and
use this link to learn
more about Shelter TV.
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Isabel
Rose
Why Not Bring on the
Holidays?
Isabel Rose is set to release a
pair of songs to radio just in time for the holidays. The
just-recorded radio single, “Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah,” along with
“Never Satisfied” (the most-requested song from her latest
album, Trouble in Paradise), will be hitting radio this month.
“Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah,” a traditional Jewish holiday song, was
produced by Julian Fleisher (who recently produced Ana Gasteyer’s new album currently occupying the #4 spot on the
iTunes jazz chart). “Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah” features a signature
Rose style: a fresh jazz-waltz mixed with a traditional
Christmas melody called “Carol of the Bells.” Players on the
recording include Clifford Carter (piano/Fender Rhodes), Arthur
Vint (drums), Thomas Hubbard (bass), and Mark Sherman
(vibraphone). “After a lifetime of Christmas carol envy, I
decided to bring a little sass to a song from my own heritage,”
says Rose. “Since there are only three Hanukkah songs in
existence (at least that I'm aware of), I chose the one that
best lent itself to my purposes. I hope you like the results as
much as I do! I think it's a swingin’ way to welcome in the
holiday season no matter what your religious identification is!”
Isabel Rose released her CD, Trouble In Paradise, on September
16, 2014. The album was produced by the legendary Bob Rock and
was inspired by a time when America was aglow with Kennedy’s
Camelot by day and lit by the lights of Rat Pack Vegas by night.
Trouble in Paradise delivers thirteen tracks that are
infectious, charming and completely refreshing. The title track
of Isabel’s CD, also called “Trouble In Paradise,” hit #31 on
the Mediabase Adult Contemporary radio chart.
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Paul Kelly – The Merri
Soul Sessions
Kelly explains the
evolution of the Sessions: “In recent years doing band shows
with Vika and Linda, Vika had been singing “Sweet Guy,” an old
song of mine, and bringing the house down each time. I was keen
to record her version and thought, naturally, that if we were
going into the studio we should try and get some other songs on
tape as well. I had a song in mind for Linda. I wrote a couple
of songs with Dan Sultan that had a soul kind of feeling. And a
couple of recent songs of mine, as yet unrecorded, came back
into view. They seemed to fit well with the others. Having half
a dozen songs now that were talking to each other helped me
write a couple more. This is how it goes. One thing leads to
another. You never quite know what’s happening ’til you’re in
the middle of it.
Following
the recent releases of his groundbreaking song cycles, Spring
and Fall and Conversations With Ghosts (the latter only in
Australia), Paul Kelly is
pleased to announce another innovative chapter in his
long-standing career. Earlier this year, he assembled his
touring band and an exciting group of singers to record a set of
new songs as well as one old classic. The tracks were performed
live in the studio by Clairy Browne,
Vika and Linda Bull, Dan
Sultan, Kira Puru and himself. Dubbed
The Merri Soul Sessions, the
music is being made available via PledgeMusic as a very “limited
edition” series of four 7” vinyl singles (double A-side). The
U.S. will see the release of an album on January 27th, 2015,
containing all of the singles and three more songs.
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Gadjo
The
club
Armando's in Martinez continues
to be one of the jewels among the San Francisco Bay Area's
intimate venues, every night bringing some of the finest musical
entertainment this side of anywhere. A case in point would be
the duo Gadjo, shown in the
video below, who do their thing in French and English. Their
repertoire includes many standards from the American Songbook,
but also some swinging Louisiana Blues featuring
Jeff Magidson on slide guitar
and Isabelle Magidson on
washboard. Jeff and Isabelle also perform with the
Hot Club of San Francisco.
Hip-Hop Superstar Search
Keep watching
www.nexthiphorsuperstar.com for details.
 |
Already Missing Craig
Ferguson
I
am already mourning the loss
of Craig Ferguson, the
Scottish comedian who for the last 10 years has been starring in
The Late Late Show, following Late
Night with David Letterman on CBS.
As much as I like Jimmy Fallon and
Seth Meyers over at NBC, and as
much as I have enjoyed Letterman over the years, it still seems
to me that Ferguson is the only thing on network television that
could truly be called anarchic. He seems to me to be the
quickest wit on the tube, a guy who is elevated by the sense one
gets that he really doesn't give a damn about doing anything
"wrong" with regard to the covenants of late night TV
entertainment. He is the Wallenda of comedy television, the dare
devil who never thinks about the consequences of falling, and I
feel inspired every time I watch him. I feel like this guy is
irreplaceable; that anyone who follows in his footsteps will be
doing some pale imitation of what it was to be Craig Ferguson.
There is going to be a hole in my life when he signs off for the
last time. He and his Green Mountain West
production banner is going on to develop shows for the Science
Channel and Discovery, and he is going to host a syndicated game
show called “Celebrity Name Game.” I'm sure he will continue to
be entertaining in whatever he does, but network television just
won't be the same without him. In fact, his departure will mark
the end of an era, even more so than the departure of Letterman,
after which it will undoubtedly all be turned over, in some
diminished form, to a younger generation that just doesn't seem
to me to be quite up to the snuff that was epitomized by the
marvelously manic Scot. I am actually depressed about the whole
thing. - RAR |
|

High on Southern Rock
Diana Olson interviews Atlanta, Georgia's
The Higher Choir. See the interview on
the Arizona Links page (use this link).
Use this link to go to the previous
edition, where you will find additional links to other archived
editions.
________________________________
Bill Thames Photography
Excellent music writer Bill Thames
has been following guitar hero Tommy Talton for a long time and has
contributed an excellent review of Tommy's new LP to this edition of the
CCJ at RARWRITER.com. Bill's talents don't stop there.
Visit his website for Bill
Thames Photography using this link and enjoy the wonderful gallery
he has posted there.
______________
Killing Scott Panetti in
Texas

Convicted
murderer Scott Panetti
is scheduled to be executed in Texas on December 3, 22 years after he
committed the double murder of his in-laws in 1992. This has been a case
that the Creative Culture Journal at RARWRITER.com has followed for
years. It was, in fact, the first major feature that ran on this site,
which revolved around the work of Scott Panetti's sister
Vikki Panetti,
who at the time of our feature was fronting a rock band in Los Angeles
called Shemonster.
Use this link to revisit that story. The
Panetti family has fought tirelessly to spare Scott Panetti's life, not
because he is innocent of his horrendous crime, but because he is a
schizophrenic who never understood his own actions, represented himself
disastrously at his trial, which was a farce, and to this day has no
idea why the State of Texas wants him to die. He believes they are
persecuting him for his Christian beliefs. The story is tragic in so
many ways, not the least of which, according to his family and his
high-profile defenders, is that he is not mentally competent to be held
accountable for his own actions. Panetti was a Navy man, part of a Naval
Intelligence group, who had continued his family's tradition of military
service, but he began to show signs of mental illness toward the end of
his teenaged years, which is when schizophrenia typically surfaces in
people prone to the disease. He started hearing voices in his head,
which instructed him to commit the violent crimes that he committed. Why
the State of Texas, which executes more criminals than any other state,
is so hell-bent on executing this deranged individual, who defenders
argue should be kept in a mental institution for the rest of his life,
is beyond comprehension for many. Certainly Scott Panetti's execution
would go down as one of the most tragic injustices against an individual
citizen ever committed by any
government institution in the history of the United States. This is a
story worth revisiting because it says so much about who we are as a
people; or more to the point, who the people of Texas are that they
would allow this heinous act against a guy who has already been
victimized by one of life's most secret and devastating assassins:
schizophrenia.
_____________
PR World News
Billboard has announced that marketing and
promotion powerhouse The Syndicate
has acquired boutique PR & Artist Development agency
Tijuana Gift Shop and is absorbing the
company's roster and staff. TGS principal Jeff Kilgour will become VP of
PR and Artist Development at The Syndicate and brings over an eclectic
roster including The Revivalists, Faded Paper
Figures, Elizabeth & The Catapult, The Dead Daisies, Mia Dyson
and more.
____________
Sean Michaels
Giller Prize for Us
Conductors

Although
Sean Michaels published his debut
novel, Us Conductors, last April, he
has been a stalwart in Canada’s music and cultural community for more
than a decade, since founding the influential music blog
Said the Gramophone in 2003. While
the blog is still going strong, his writing career is going stronger. On
Monday, November 10, he was awarded the Scotiabank
Giller Prize and the $100,000 that goes with it, becoming, at 32,
one of the youngest winners in the prize’s history and only the
second-ever debut novelist to claim the annual fiction award.
So what is
Us Conductors about? Here is the Amazon description of his work:
"In a finely woven series of flashbacks and
correspondence, Lev Termen, the Russian scientist, inventor, and spy,
tells the story of his life to his “one true love,” Clara Rockmore, the
finest theremin player in the world. In the first half of the book, we
learn of Termen’s early days as a scientist in Leningrad during the
Bolshevik Revolution, the acclaim he receives as the inventor of the
theremin, and his arrival in 1930s New York under the aegis of the
Russian state. In the United States he makes a name for himself teaching
the theremin to eager music students and marketing his inventions to
American companies. In the second half, the novel builds to a crescendo
as Termen returns to Russia, where he is imprisoned in a Siberian gulag
and later brought to Moscow, tasked with eavesdropping on Stalin
himself. Throughout all this, his love for Clara remains constant and
unflagging, traveling through the ether much like a theremin’s notes. Us
Conductors is steeped in beauty, wonder, and looping heartbreak, a
sublime debut that inhabits the idea of invention on every level."
___________
Publisher's Weekly Names Their Choices
for the Best Books of 2014
Feel free to
disagree, but this is what PW came up with.

On Immunity: An Inoculation
Eula Biss (Graywolf)
Biss, while making an unimpeachable case for childhood
vaccination, delves into the metaphors that accompany notions of purity
and invasion, and recounts the medical history of vaccine development.
It’s a touching personal story that seeks to understand why the antivax
crowd exists and why it’s such a well-meaning, if misguided, movement.

Thirteen Days in September: Carter, Begin, and
Sadat at Camp David
Lawrence Wright (Knopf)
Wright’s meticulous account of the 1978 Camp David
Accords weaves a nail-biting chronicle of the accords themselves with
the histories of the three leaders and the land that has been an
unending center of conflict since biblical times. It’s an unparalleled
work and one that deserves to be called objective.

The Corpse Exhibition
Hassan Blasim, trans. from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright (Penguin)
Powerful and disturbing, these stories of the war in
Iraq from an Iraqi perspective combine the grit of reality with the
surreal. Wise and terrifying, comic and gripping, Blasim, in exile from
his native Iraq, is an original voice whose writing is justifiably
compared to Gogol, Bolaño, and Borges.

Limonov
Emmanuel Carrère, trans. from the French by John Lambert (Farrar, Straus
and Giroux)
No run-of-the-mill biography, this witty, fascinating
portrait of the paradoxical Edward Limonov—a far-right ally of Serbian
war criminals and principled opponent of Putin; a butler in New York
City; and a literary rock star in Paris—has biographer Carrère giving
himself a supporting part in the story as he ponders his own
relationship to a confounding man who mirrors Russia’s many
transformations.

Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Elena Ferrante, trans. from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Europa)
Ferrante’s series of Neapolitan novels has cemented
its place as one of the greatest in modern fiction. This third
installment, which follows the evolving and complicated relationship
between girlhood friends Elena and Lila, is the best so far.

A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James (Riverhead)
A virtuosic performance detailing three turbulent
decades in Jamaican history, centering on the attempted assassination of
Bob Marley. The voices of government agents, gang members,
ex-girlfriends, and ghosts all contribute, and the result is shocking,
cerebral, and exhilarating.

The Empathy Exams: Essays
Leslie Jamison (Graywolf)
Jamison is ever-probing and always sensitive in her
first collection of essays, providing a heady and unsparing examination
of pain. Her observations of people, reality TV, music, film, and
literature serve as starting points for unconventional metaphysical
inquiries into poverty tourism, prison time, random acts of violence,
abortion, bad romance, and stereotypes of the damaged woman artist.

Bark
Lorrie Moore (Knopf)
In Moore’s fourth story collection, her characters
seem to have caught up to her sly, sharp voice. The young women are
gone, replaced by divorcées. The sadness may outweigh the humor, but the
balance here may be Moore’s ideal combination, authentic and wise. No
one captures what it’s like to live in today’s world quite like Lorrie
Moore.

The Dog
Joseph O’Neill (Pantheon)
The unnamed narrator of O’Neill’s novel is an American
adrift in Dubai, where he works as an “officer” for a wealthy Lebanese
family, turning a blind eye to ethically questionable activity and
knowingly pursuing his own dead end. It’s a devastating story of a man
circling the drain, lost in the last society that will have him.

Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried
in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free
Héctor Tobar (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Tobar movingly
revisits the story of the 33 miners who spent 69 days in 2010 trapped in
Chile’s San José Mine. He captures, with compassion and without
sensationalism, the experience of surviving more than 2,000 feet
underground, and of emerging above ground into a media frenzy.
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