Tag Archives: rock

RIP J.J. Cale – Songwriter, Musician and Clapton Collaborator

J.J. Cale passed away at age 74 on July 26th.  The generally reclusive artist is best known for writing songs that became hits for Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Waylon Jennings and others. His four decades of connections to Eric Clapton, though, were certainly his deepest and most successful.

Cale penned two of Clapton’s earliest solo hits, “After Midnight” from Clapton’s 1970 solo debut and the iconic “Cocaine” from Clapton’s second solo album “Slowhand”.

In 2006 Cale and Clapton recorded the Grammy winning album “The Road to Escondido”, which featured Cale’s songwriting and a Who’s Who of collaborators. This album is real gem, and “Danger” is the opening track.

Cale’s latest contribution to the long-term partnership was the tune “Angel” that appears on Clapton’s 2013 album “Old Sock”.

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Bernhoft and Kimbra Demonstrate the Art of the Live Loop

Fans of Conan O’Brien just got introduced to soul singer and one-man band, Bernhoft.  After fronting a couple of bands between 1996 and 2005, the Norwegian released his first solo album in 2008.  His performances center around recording a series of backing loops, sometimes on multiple instruments, to sing and play guitar over.  Check out  the totally entertaining “Cmon Talk” as well as the live version of “Sunday”.

Another artist who makes use of loops, more focused on vocals, is Kimbra.  She got a lot of exposure in 2012 accompanying Gotye on his Grammy Record of the Year “Somebody That I Used To Know”, but her vocal range and stylistic range are much broader.  Check out these two numbers and hang with the idiosynchratic “Settle Down”.

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Tommy Emmanuel – Guitar Legend from Down Under

Last week’s post Courtesy of Other Bloggers featured Scott McKeon, one of a half-dozen “Guitar Legends” featured on the blog  Proguitartricks.  Inspired by the guitar legend theme, for any of you not already familiar with him, meet Tommy Emmanuel.  The Australian acoustic guitar legend is known for his blistering speed but is capable of pretty much anything.

This somewhat grainy video has over 10 million YouTube views – see why.

Staples of his concert performances are Beatles medleys – no small task on solo acoustic guitar unless you’ve got Emmanuel’s chops.

Tommy can use his abilities in quiet and subtle ways too, as displayed in this performance of the jazz standard “The Nearness of You” with Martin Taylor. Emmanuel and Taylor have just released an album together featuring this tune.

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LIttle Brother Eli and Scott McKeon – Courtesy of Other Bloggers

“Read and Hear” is a music blog originating in Norway.  A recent post picks up on Little Brother Eli, a band built around the duo of compelling vocalist Alex Grew and bass player Josh Rigal.  They’ve just release a self-titled, three song EP along with a video for the first track, “Animal Fair”.

Take some time to visit Read and Hear, and definitely check out other performances on the Little Brother Eli website.

Proguitartricks is a French music blog dedicated to guitar lessons, loving photos of guitars, and a short list of “Guitar Legends”.  The most recent addition to the list is British blues player Scott McKeon.  A winner of Guitarist Magazine’s “Young Guitarist of the Year” in 1998, MeKeon has opened for superstar guitar slingers Derek Trucks and Gary Clarke, Jr. over the past year.

Visit his website Scott McKeon to learn about his surprisingly versatile career, and check out the acoustic blues track “So Much More” from the album “Trouble”  and the live electric jam “Coffee Cup” featuring a great group of musicians (things really get swinging about 2:00 minutes into the “Coffee Cup” video).

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A Host of Space Oddities

Apparently astronauts aboard the International Space Station are given a bit of time to relax and pursue their hobbies.  Canadian ISS Commander Chris Hadfield used some of his to create this rendition of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity”, complete with appropriately modified lyrics.   In case you’re not one of the 16 million people who have already seen this – enjoy.  By the way, YouTube is home to other videos by Hadfield with interesting and amusing glimpses into life on the ISS.

The first minute of dancer Franky Manzo’s video for “MJ’s Coursing” might be the only other use of space station footage in a music video. The rest of the video is, shall we say, more earthy.

Bowie originally wrote “Space Oddity” for “Love You Till Tuesday” – a film intended to introduce the once little-known British artist.  Below is a clip with the film version of the song. At about the two minute mark this clip features girls floating in outer space some 40 years before Franky.

We’ll end with the well known version of “Space Oddity”, Bowie’s first commercial hit.  It was originally released in 1969 around the time of the Apollo 11 moon landing. Looks like “tin can” might have been a metaphor for Bowie’s recording studio.