Gotta Serve Somebody

Bob Dylan, he's a poet and you know it... Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs Of Bob Dylan Coming to DVD and digital formats February 9th Features an intense performance from Bob Dylan, plus performances from Aaron Neville, Shirley Caesar, Dottie Peoples, and many others during behind-the-scenes making of the Grammy-nominated compilation "Gotta Serve Somebody" released 15 years ago "The best African-American covers of Dylan songs since Jimi Hendrix." - The New York Times

Marking the fifteenth anniversary of GRAMMY-nominated album Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan, MVD Entertainment Group will reissue the film of the same title. Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan features an intense Bob Dylan performance from 1980 of "When He Returns" as well as powerful performances and interviews with Aaron Neville, Shirley Caesar, Fairfield Four, Mighty Clouds of Joy, and Dottie Peoples, reflecting on their faith and connections to Dylan's Christian music. Now, with the November release of Columbia Records' "Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981," a further exploration of that period has taken place, which began with this album and film. "It was an honor to have made an impression on the great artist himself with these recordings," said the film's producer Jeffrey Gaskill. From 2009 to 2011, Bob Dylan opened 40 concerts around the world with Gonna Change My Way of Thinking (his Grammy-nominated new version re-written and recorded for Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan with Mavis Staples.) in concert halls in Los Angeles, New York, Hong Kong, London, Beijing, Shanghai, Adelaide and this performance in Tel Aviv (video HERE). Just a month after his recording with Staples he would kick off a new tour in Stockholm Sweden and perform Solid Rock (what many consider the theme song to his gospel era concerts) for the first time in over twenty years. Dylan would continue to perform this rousing song as well as other gospel era songs at numerous concerts across Europe and beyond. The two-time Grammy nominated compilation would be released on Sony/Columbia one year later on April 1, 2003 (video HERE). "This gospel music was Bob Dylan's ultimate rebellion, and it took much more courage than strapping on an electric guitar," said Gaskill. The film offers historical insights into this Bob Dylan era provided by Jim Keltner, Fred Tackett, Spooner Oldham, and Regina McCrary - all of whom performed and recorded with Dylan at the time. Famed record producer Jerry Wexler, who produced the records, and music journalists Paul Williams and Alan Light, also disclose insights. Pre-order at the MVD Shop or on Amazon TRACK LISTING Arlethia Lindsey - Every Grain of Sand Bob Dylan - When He Returns Sounds of Blackness - Solid Rock Shirley Caesar - Gotta Serve Somebody Dottie Peoples - I Believe in You Aaron Neville - Saving Grace Helen Baylor - What Can I Do For You' The Fairfield Four - Are You Ready Great Day Chorale - In the Garden Mighty Clouds of Joy - Saved Chicago Mass Choir featuring Regina McCrary - Pressing On Rance Allen - When He Returns

Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story

The more you know... With exclusive voice-over contributions from David Bowie, this film is a celebration of the life and works of guitar virtuoso Mick Ronson, a rock hero virtually uncelebrated despite his direct contribution and involvement in countless compositions, lyrics and recordings that changed the face of music forever.

An Emperor Media Ltd production, documentary special Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story(101:50 minutes) is from award-winning producer/director Jon Brewer. Mick Ronson's humble beginnings in Hull, England underpinned his values and modest, unpretentious personality as he worked with the city's council whilst pursuing his craft with consummate dedication.  Soon word of his talent reached David Bowie, who grabbed at the chance to work with Ronson, in what would become a career-long association, alongside collaborations with other greats such as Bob Dylan, Ian Hunter, Lulu, Lou Reed, Morrissey and John Mellencamp. The Man Who Sold the World, Aladdin Sane, Hunky Dory, The Jean Genie - all were constructed with Ronson on guitar. Sadly in 1993, while working on a solo album, Ronson passed away before receiving the recognition he so richly deserved or before taking that final bow. Now, with unprecedented access to archival backstage footage - never before released - and iconic imagery from superstar photographer Mick Rock, this fascinating and at times controversial special reveals the ultimate authentic chronicle of the career of a cornerstone of rock. Producer and director Jon Brewer commented, "Both Mick Ronson and David Bowie together were the ultimate duo. They performed and recorded like magicians and created masterpieces that will live on forever." Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story is distributed in the US by MVD Entertainment Group via Blu-ray + DVD, transactional video on demand, and download to own rights from international distributor Content Media following the Parade Deck Films theatrical release . THEATRICAL DATES September 1st: Los Angeles, CA - Laemmle Music Hall  New York, NY - Cinepolis Buffalo, NY - The Screening Room  Kansas City, MO - Screenland Arts & Crafts Film Festival Albuquerque NM - The Guild Cinema September: Portland, OR - Clinton Street Theater September 4th and 5th: San Francisco, CA - Roxy Theater  ***Angie Bowie Q&A via Skype September 6th: Philadelphia, PA - Philamoca September 8th: Phoenix, AZ - Harkins Valley Art Theater Columbus, OH - Gateway Film Center  Wayne, PA - Reel Cinema To pre-order the Blu-ray+DVD package go HERE.

"Hip & Accessible" Far In The Maples

Far in the Maples
Regina Conroy & Reshy P.

Turning the celebrated, swingin’ sound of the Jersey Shore inside out, “poetic pop” duo Far In The Maples is poised to cast a new seaside musical legacy built upon the nuances of internal emotion with unexpected soundscapes, unforgettable melodies and the sweetly understated vocals. 

They recently released their album Skywork that showcases song-oriented music that’s both honest and contemporary with a classic timelessness, from an infectious new band driven by songbird Regina Conroy and multi-instrumentalist Reshy P.

Regina Conroy is here to tell us all about it, take it away Regina!

MS: Hey Regina nice to meet you, your musical style is so sophisticated. How did coming from the Jersey Shore influence it?

RC: Living at the Jersey Shore? I grew up around music all the time with my family. my Dad was a musician and so was my older brother. So when I was younger my Dad and my brother would play shows, or we would go to concerts, there was always stuff happening on the boardwalk, all these local shows that I would get to go to. I've loved to sing since I was five years old, anything that was playing in our kitchen when my Dad would turn on the radio...of course growing up on the Jersey Shore people are like: "Ohhhhh, you know Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi?" It's like, yes of course I've seen them both at stores and places like that. Maybe their music influenced me subconsciously, but I'm not a die hard fan because they live twenty minutes away from me. (laughs)

MS: To me your music, lyrically has a Bob Dylan vibe.

RC: My Mom is obsessed with Bob Dylan we always had his CD's in the car, I love him. Writing poetry is a passion of mine, I took a poetry class as an after school type thing. My poetry instructor told my Mom at the time: "Wow, she's really good for her age." 

MS: How old were you?

RC: I was eight when I started writing poetry. As I got older I used my poetry as a means to write lyrics. When I was fifteen I got my first guitar so I started teaching myself and molding all of the scales together and started writing music. 

MS: You really started from a young age.

RC: Definitely, I really did a lot of self teaching. I listened to all different types of music, would read the lyric books that came with all of the CD's. My influence was anything I could get my hands on. Some people go to school to learn to perform music or how to play it...for me it was just having it all around me all those years and picking up on all of the different influences. 

MS: You and your band mate Reshy P. really know how to blend them well.

RC: It interesting, we both have different musical influences but we are able to find that balance of a little bit of mine, a little bit of his and make it into our own. 

MS: The fact that you guys do pop music, yet are still artistic is great, a lot of people have lost a sense of that.

RC: I know, I know, it's hard to put a name on it, boil it down when people ask us: "Who do you think you guys sound like?" I don't know.There's lots of pop on the radio, but most of it is repetitive and one line. It's very dance kind of stuff, ours is a little more poetic. It's still pop, but there is a lot to be said and thought about in it.

Regina & Reshy

MS: So do you always write the lyrics and Reshy always writes it to music?

RC: For the most part. We started writing together in November of 2013. Basically the first time that we met I brought everything I had as far as things that I was working on lyrically and musically, and some were just lyrics. So we kind of worked from some of my little pieces that I had worked on before meeting Reshy and brought them to music. Basically I bring the lyrics and we work on them together but mostly it's ninety percent my words.

MS: What inspires your poetry?

RC: To inspire myself I put myself in a different place. Go somewhere, tap into how I feel in the moment. Most of it has been putting myself outside my comfort zone for inspiration. Much of what I write about is relationships. But I think the focus of that is writing about the journey of finding yourself. It's very reflective and very personal. 

MS: You guys took the band name Far in the Maples from a Robert Frost poem. What is it you like about his work?

RC: I really haven't read a ton of poetry myself. I just kind of read stuff here and there, or people will show me something, and I'll say: "Hey I really like this!" Reshy actually showed me that poem and it stuck with us. The visualization of far in the maples...it's a beautiful poem. I'm not particularly a Robert Frost fan, but I'm not, not a fan either. (laughs) 

Go "Far in the Maples" at:
https://www.facebook.com/farinthemaples
https://instagram.com/farinthemaples/
https://twitter.com/farinthemaples

The Man Who Discovered Bob Dylan...

Folklore in the City Izzy Young "Talking Folklore Center" Coming to DVD on August 14th The man who discovered Bob Dylan returns to Greenwich Village  to revisit the Folklore Center days... Izzy Young? Find out...

Izzy Young was the guru of American folk music. In this documentary covering his legendary Folklore Center in New York Izzy meets with friends and collaborators like Pete Seeger, Allen Ginsberg, The Fugs, Mayor Ed Koch to reminisce. It includes unique archival footage and folk music from the 1960s. Young is credited with playing a crucial role in the rise of folk music in the 1960s, and with catapulting a young Bob Dylan to stardom by arranging his first proper concert, at Carnegie Chapter Hall, in 1961. He opened Izzy Young's Folklore Center on MacDougal Street in New York's Greenwich Village in 1959. It became a focal point for the American folk music scene of the time, a place where one could find such limited circulation publications as Caravan and Gardyloo. From 1959 to 1969, Young wrote a column entitled "Fret and Frails" for the folk music journal Sing Out. He served on the "editorial advisory board" for the magazine until his departure for Sweden a few years later. Young arranged concerts with folk musicians and songwriters, who often made contacts with other musicians at the Folklore Center. Bob Dylan relates in his memoirs, Chronicles, how he spent time at the Center, where Young allowed him to sit in the backroom of the store, listening to folk music records and reading books. Dylan met Dave Van Ronk in the store, and Young produced Dylan's first concert at Carnegie Chapter Hall in New York City on Saturday, November 4, 1961. "I broke my ass to get people to come," Young said in a recent interview with Tablet. "Only 52 people showed up but about 300 people remember being there. Everyone wants to say they were there. You understand?"  Dylan wrote a song about the store and Young entitled "Talking Folklore Center". DVD Pre-Order:  http://bit.ly/1LZSpLe Amazon:  http://amzn.to/1L2AOkg

KC and the Sunshine Band Will Be "Feeling You" In 2015

Features Songs by Sixties Legends Bob Dylan, Ben E. King, The Kinks, The Righteous Brothers, Jackie DeShannon, Aaron Neville & More

Face it everyone loved KC and the Sunshine band at the height of their popularity in pop music. Who could resist songs like "Shake Your Booty" & "I'm Your Boogie Man?"

Well they have a new album of 60's covers coming in 2015, yep KC and the Sunshine Band are going to be "Feeling You" in the New Year, oh yes they are!

 

KC and The Sunshine Band dominated the 1970s, ruling the airwaves with a unique meeting of Caribbean, pop, R&B and latin styles that inspired infectious grooves and the distinctive Sunshine Sound, producing such #1 hits as “Get Down Tonight,” “That’s the Way (I Like It),” “Boogie Shoes,” "Shake Your Booty,” and many more. Before he impacted the world, teaching them how to boogie, Harry Wayne “KC” Casey was, like the rest of America, being shaped by the music, conflicts, innocence, sex, social and political movements and counterculture of the 1960s. “The widespread social and political issues of the 1960s was, in part, the inspiration to do something that would make people forget about their problems and be happy,” said Casey. “People were looking for something that would divert their attention from the negative aspects of everyday life surrounding them.” KC and The Sunshine Band pays tribute to the era on March 10, 2015, with Feeling You! The 60's. The album, part one of the two-part Feeling You project, features covers of songs by sixties legends Bob Dylan, Ben E. King, The Kinks, The Righteous Brothers, Jackie DeShannon, Aaron Neville and many more (full track listing below). “I’m excited for my fans to hear this album,” said Casey. “I really went outside of the box vocally and creatively. Feeling You! The 60's is autobiographical, showing how I feel about love, life and the world through the music of that era.”  Feeling You! The 60's Track Listing: (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me (4:12) Oh How Happy (2:58) Dreams (5:29) Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu (2:51) Words (3:03) You Really Got A Hold On Me (3:12) Both Sides Now (4:03) Tell It Like It Is (3:08) Blowin’ In The Wind (5:06) Feat. The Unity On The Bay Choir You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling (4:22) Feat. Jason Scheff You Really Got Me (2:32) Sweet Soul Music (2:11) I Hear A Symphony (4:44) Stand By Me (5:31) You Keep Me Hanging On (3:35) Bring It On Home (3:50) Put A Little Love In Your Heart (3:43) KC and The Sunshine Band On Tour: 12.27.2014 Paragon Casino Resort / Marksville, LA 12.31.2014 The Venetian / Macao, China 01.22.2014 Community Arts Center / Williamsport, PA 01.23.2015 NYCB Theatre at Westbury / Westbury, NY 01.24.2015 Valley Forge Casino / King of Prussia, PA 02.25.2015 Soul Train Cruise / San Juan, PR 03.20.2015 Hard Rock Hotel and Casino / Hollywood, FL 08.08.2015 Tropicana / Atlantic City, NJ 08.29.2015 Monticello Grand Casino / Santiago, Chile 08.30.2015 Monticello Grand Casino / Santiago, Chile To learn more about KC and the Sunshine Band and to find more details about their upcoming tour dates, visit heykcsb.com.