Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Media Blitz - Dolly Parton

From L-R: Shane Carter, President, Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Inc., Dolly Parton, Danny Nozell, President / CEO, CTK Management, Simon Rayner, Director, Marketing, Sony Music Entertainment Canada, Inc., Kirt Webster, President, Webster Public Relations

If It's Pure & Simple, It's Dolly!

There’s no mistaking the fact that Dolly Parton continues to reign as one of America’s favorite entertainers of all time – and the summer of 2016 has only added to that reputation with one of the most successful tours in the music business – and her first chart-topping solo album in a quarter-century.

Her Pure & Simple tour – her first extensive concerted touring effort in the United States since 1992, has sold out arena and arena, garnering her rave reviews from the critics for her pared-down approach at telling her musical story. She has just brought the tour north of the border to Canada, as well.

At the same time, the Country Music Hall of Fame member is by no means resting on her laurels. Her newest album, also titled Pure & Simple, has proven that the public’s love affair with Dolly Parton the musician and songwriter remains as strong as ever. The disc, released on August 19, debuted atop the Billboard Country Albums chart – marking her first-ever debut in the Soundscan era. Overall,Pure and Simple has become her seventh album to top the charts – and first since Eagle When She Flies in 1991. The album also reached a similar status in Canada, as well, hitting the top of the charts.
Hello Dolly!
Dolly & Katie Couric
The disc has impressed many of the industry’s toughest critics, with USA Today’s Bob Doerschuck saying “After half a century’s worth of performance, Dolly Parton’s voice still bubbles like a freshly popped bottle of champagne,” while ABC News’ Allan Raible extorts that Pure & Simple “is just another reminder of her durability as an artist. Like Willie Nelson and Loretta Lynn, she is one of the few remaining from country’s old-guard and yet it is still amazing to think that her first albums were released fifty years ago.”

The worldwide entertainment icon has once again partnered up with Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores for a contest that will give fans a chance to win a “Dolly Parton VIP Concert Experience,” which includes airfare, hotel accommodations, 2 VIP concert tickets, a photo with Dolly, and other items. For more details, go to dolly.crackerbarrel.com.

The restaurant chain is also offering an exclusive edition of Pure & Simple that contains two bonus cuts. The association with Cracker Barrel also includes the new online “Front Porch Series,” which features Parton talking musical shop with newcomers Cam and RaeLynn. Fans can watch the clips at youtube.com/user/CrackerBarrelOCS

In addition to these performances and reviews, Dolly has also been making the media rounds with such media luminaries as Larry King (goo.gl/vEbpBd), Katie Couric (yahoo.com/katiecouric), and CNBC’s “On The Money” (cnbc.com/2016/09/05/dolly-parton-is-back-on-the-charts-and-she-means-business.html).
 
Get Pure & Simple here:
iTunes: smarturl.it/dollypartonps
Apple Music: smarturl.it/applemusicdolly
Amazon Music: smarturl.it/amzmusicdolly
Google Play: marturl.it/gpdolly
Spotify: smarturl.it/spotifydolly
Amazon Physical: smarturl.it/amazondolly 

Monday, September 12, 2016

Michael's Monday Musings

Don't Bother Me, I'm Basking
Michael Shinafelt
Today, rather than devote space to one thing I decided to give it up to many things. My impressions of this past week. Are you ready? Fasten your seat belts, because it's going to come hard and fast!

Congratulations to RuPaul on winning his first Emmy as reality TV show host. Much deserved, he is so good at what he does.

People who whistle in public places need to be silenced. It's really annoying.

My condolences to the Arquette family. I have encountered Alexis over the years he was a sweet soul. I am sorry for your loss.

I am loving the Real House Wives of New York reunion shows. Especially Bethenny Frankel for bringing bitchy back! So glad Jules Wainstein is not returning, I couldn't believe how much vagina she brought to the table.

Living in Southern California is the best! The weather of late has been so amazing.

Pretty Little Liars summer finale has only been little over a week ago and damn I miss that show already. Hurry up April 2017!

American Horror Story Season 6 premieres this Wednesday. That will fill the "Liars" void.

Nothing is better than a great spin class, luckily I have found two instructors at Gold's Gym Hollywood that fit the bill. Cheers Michelle and Jessica you are the best!

People yelling "Beat It Creep" at me when I am walking down the street wearing the T-Shirt Traci Lords gave me from her clothing line with the saying on it is always good fun.

I'm ready for the election to be over, seriously it feels like it's been going as long as I've been alive!

Follow me on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/MShinafelt

Saturday, September 10, 2016

Versailles Jerk?

Look, We're Jerking!
Ben Hanisch & Amy Schumer
"Vacation, All I ever wanted, Vacation, Had to get away" - The Go Go's

Recently whilst on vacation Amy Schumer and her boyfriend Ben Hanisch decided to clown around and took this photo which ended up on her Instagram with the caption "Jerks at Versailles"

Oh Amy I thought you were way more clever than this. Why not the caption Versailles Jerk? This way you could have pretended you made up a new dance craze or something.

Ponder that! 

It's Saturday don't forget to jerk!

Amy on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/amyschumer/?hl=en 

Friday, September 9, 2016

Serving Donna Summer Realness: Lady Gaga

Dancing Queen
Lady Gaga
"It wasn't love, it wasn't love
It was a perfect illusion (Perfect illusion)
Mistaken for love, it wasn't love
It was a perfect illusion (Perfect illusion)" - Perfect Illusion, Lady Gaga


After a powerful ballad, 'Till It Happens To You that should have won the Oscar over that anemic Bond Theme crooned by Sam Smith, and a cracker jack collaboration with Tony Bennett - Lady Gaga is back to pop music with a vengeance. Her latest single Perfect Illusion has dropped!

This is powerhouse dance, pop stuff with a twist of rock thrown in for good measure and the smartest thing our Lady has done? She took a cue from the late great Donna Summer, let me explain.

I was never a huge fan of disco/dance in the eighties, but Ms. Summer was the exception to that rule. Why you are asking? Because of really excellently produced, written and most of all sung dance music, "yes" her powerful vocals were the focal point of the music, Perfect Illusion is that kind of dance music, simply the best the genre can offer.

You go Gaga! If this is any indicator of what the rest of the album is going to be like, well count me in! Teaming up with Mark Ronson does a Lady good!!!

Listen to Perfect Illusion after the jump!



Go Gaga at:
www.ladygaga.com/

Thursday, September 8, 2016

No Pretending, The Pretenders


Have you ever seen Pretenders live? I have, If you haven't you should! 

Pretenders has announced the release of its long awaited new album. ALONE (BMG) arrives everywhere on October 21. ALONE is available for pre-order now, with all orders joined by an instant download of the album’s electrifying first single, “Holy Commotion."

ALONE was recorded with The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach at his Easy Eye Studio in Nashville and mixed by Tchad Blake (The Black Keys, Elvis Costello, Richard Thompson). The album was initially conceived as follow-up to legendary bandleader Chrissie Hynde’s acclaimed 2014 solo debut,STOCKHOLM, but as its songs and sonics took shape, the collection soon revealed itself as the first all new Pretenders LP since 2008’s BREAK UP THE CONCRETE.

ALONE sees the one and only Hynde backed by a team of what she proudly calls “real people playing real instruments,” helmed by the multi-talented Auerbach and featuring Nashville session luminaries including bassist Dave Roe (Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Sturgill Simpson), pedal steel pioneer Russ Pahl (Blake Shelton, Don Williams, Luke Bryan), and guitarist Kenny Vaughan (Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives, Lana Del Rey, Ray LaMontagne), as well as keyboardist Leon Michels and drummer Richard Swift – both charter members of Auerbach’s adventurous garage rock combo The Arcs.

Hynde and Auerbach made for ideal foils, two idiosyncratic songwriter/musicians each possessing a deep knowledge and even deeper love of rock ‘n’ roll, both of course hailing from the City of Invention itself, Akron, Ohio. Though neither remain, Akron continues to inform both artists’ work, the Rubber City’s long history of progressivism and ingenuity, hard work and musical experimentation, are all very much present in their first full-length collaboration. 

ALONE indeed bears all the trademarks of The Pretenders’ legendary canon – raw and rollicking riffs, poignant balladry, taut hooks and indelible melodies, all in service of Hynde’s heartworn, ever-unsentimental songcraft. Nearly four decades on from The Pretenders’ epochal 1980 debut album, Hynde’s instantly identifiable voice is perhaps more emotional, more aggressive than at any other time in her career as all the vocals were recorded in 48 hours. That extra bit of edge only serves to add fire to new Pretenders classics like the brutally candid “I Hate Myself” and the defiant title track, a spiky rocker that sees Hynde extolling the joys and virtues of solitude.

“We were in the studio hanging out,” Hynde says, “and the guys were talking about their families and their wives and I said, ‘Well, I do everything alone. I go to the cinema alone. I go to restaurants alone. I live alone. I pretty much do everything on my own. I don’t mind.’ Dan says, ‘Write a song about it.’

“The more I thought about it,” she continues, “I thought, I’ve heard 1,000 songs in my life, they’re all about, I am so tired of being alone. I can’t live without you. Since you’ve left my world has fallen apart. When am I going to see you again? Marry me and be with me for the rest of my life. I have never heard anyone celebrate being alone in a song. I couldn’t think of one.”

Other highlights include “Roadie Man,” a softly sung paean to the hard working touring crew that has been kicking around Hynde’s unrecorded songbook for more than 25 years, the seductive “Let’s Get Lost” (co-written with songwriting superstars Amanda Ghost and Dave McCracken), and “Never Be Together,” featuring an inimitable contribution from legendary twang bar hero Duane Eddy.

“As soon as you hear one note you know who it is,” says Hynde. ‘I don’t get real excited about vintage guitars and stuff but I do if someone else is playing them that brilliantly.”

ALONE marks Hynde’s first musical effort since her extraordinary 2015 memoir, RECKLESS: MY LIFE AS A PRETENDER, hailed by the New York Times upon its release as “honest and distinctive…first and foremost, a love letter to rock and roll.” “RECKLESS is more than a well-written, thoughtful memoir,” raved the Huffington Post. “It’s a cultural history of the rock scene in the 60s and early 70s, told by an astute observer who, perhaps unwittingly, reminds readers that improbable dreams can come true.” Hynde “(writes) with the sort of candor and humor rarely found in bookss,” declared the Boston Globe, noting, “Bad girls sometimes finish first.” “(Hynde] writes just like she lives,” wrote the Daily Beast, “and just like she makes music. She does it her way, which is an inimitable multiplicity of things: impulsive, untamed, ragged, proud.”

The Pretenders begin a North American tour with Stevie Nicks on October 25 at Phoenix, AZ’s Talking Stick Arena and ending December 18 at The Forum in Inglewood, CA. The complete tour dates are below. All tickets can be purchased via ticketmaster.com.

THE PRETENDERS NORTH AMERICAN TOUR WITH STEVE NICKS OCTOBER

25 – Phoenix AZ – Talking Stick Arena
27 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
29 – Houston, TX – Toyota Center
30 – Dallas, TX – American Airlines Center

NOVEMBER
2 – Tampa, FL – Amalie Arena
4 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – BB&T Center
6 – Atlanta, GA – Phillips Arena
7 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
10 – Charlotte, NC – Time Warner Cable Arena
12 – Columbia, SC – Colonial Life Arena
14 – Washington, DC – Verizon Center
15 – Boston, MA – TD Garden
19 – Bethlehem, PA – Sands Bethlehem Event Center
20 – Philadelphia, PA – Wells Fargo Center
23 – Grand Rapids, MI – Van Andel Arena
25 – Uncasville, CT – Mohegan Sun Arena
27 – Detroit, MI – The Palace of Auburn Hills
29 – Toronto, ONT – Air Canada Centre

DECEMBER

1 – New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
3 – Chicago, IL – United Center
5 – Lincoln, NE – Pinnacle Bank Arena
6 – St. Paul, MN – Xcel Energy Center
9 – Vancouver, BC – Pepsi Live at Rogers Center
11 – Seattle, WA – Key Arena
13 – Sacramento, CA – Golden 1 Center
14 – San Jose, CA – SAP Center
18 – Inglewood, CA – The Forum


Pretenders at:
thepretenders.com/

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

Lee "Scratch" Perry "Must Be Free"


From the man who brought you Bob Marley...

On "Must Be Free", the Grammy-winning artist, songwriter, and producer doesn't hesitate with his unexpurgated commentary on his spirituality, good and evil, the human condition, and aliens. Featured styles include reggae, dub, dubstep, acid jazz, and electronic music. Special guests include Subatomic Sound System, The Groovematist, and IAmPhloboi.

Perry was one of the pioneers in the development of dub music with his early adoption of effects and remixing to create new instrumental or vocal versions of existing reggae tracks. He has worked with Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Murvin, the Congos, Max Romeo and many others.
Perry has over 60 albums to his name, can read minds, once put a curse on the BBC for not playing his records, and was turned into Superman by Haitian zombie drugs. He's the kind of cosmic entity that has inspired everyone from the Beastie Boys, Andrew WK, Animal Collective, to Keith Richards with some of his mystic dub magic.

"Must Be Free" Track Listing
Psycho Dread
Rat Race
House of Sin
Isabel
Jungle Tongue
No Evil
No Sorrow
On Nigeria
Strip Off
Too Much Is Too Much
Therapist
Must Be Free
House of Sin (Remix)

The CD can be ordered now at the MVD Shop or on Amazon.