 |
| Me & My Mom |
The photo above is my favorite one of me and my Mom.
Enjoy your special day 💝
Sunday, May 10, 2020
Happy Mother's Day!
The photo above is my favorite one of me and my Mom.
Enjoy your special day 💝
Saturday, May 9, 2020
California Dream
 |
| Tom Sless |
NEW AMERICANA ARTIST TOM SLESS DRAWS HIGH PRAISE FOR ‘ASSURANCE, CRAFT AND CONVICTION’ ON ‘UPLIFTING’ DEBUT ALBUM, ‘CALIFORNIA DREAM’
Live Quarantine Concert Series, California Dream: Melodies and Remedies, Continues Each Wednesday to Also Help Musicians Battle Adversity
California Dream, surveys Sless’s soulful ride down the winding roads of life and love from Jersey Shore and Baltimore roots to Los Angeles with celebratory country rock, nod-and-a-wink humor, and rough-hewn folksiness.
“[California Dream’s] assurance, craft and conviction belie the fact that [Tom]’s a novice or a newcomer of any kind. … Great stuff indeed.” - American Songwriter
Critical acclaim is mounting for LA based Americana singer-songwriter-guitar slinger TOM SLESS as the media continues to discover and embrace his new debut album, California Dream.
Released just as the COVID-19 pandemic in late March forced postponement of live Album Release events at home in Los Angeles and plans to tour across the country, California Dream receives high praise in the current edition of American Songwriter as an “uplifting” work that is “Great stuff, indeed,” offering an “assurance, craft and conviction” that belie Sless’s status as “a novice or a newcomer of any kind.” The song “Astronaut,” the magazine continues, “asks the question, ‘Will anyone remember me?’ Based on the evidence offered here, the answer is an emphatic yes indeed.”
Americana Highways hailed California Dream for its “wealth of good musical touches [with] style & a commercial charm that’s not too sweet,” adding that the “superb rollicking” guitar-driven track “Gimme the Breeze” – also featured in the Los Angeles Post-Examiner and Baltimore Post-Examiner – is “worth the price of the CD” alone. That rock-fueled energy, the review continues, is beautifully countered by the “sweet and dynamic” cut “Too Much On My Mind,” a looping, Grateful Dead-like, exploration of a musical theme driven by the pedal steel of — no relation — Barry Sless (Phil Lesh, Chris Robinson) with “excellent lyrical imagery.”
Midwest Record joyously noted “it’s always a treat to stumble across a singer/songwriter that knows how to make sensitive, personal songs without stooping to bleeding gums music,” adding that Sless “captures the wanderlust” in creating an album that’s “a dandy ear opener throughout.”
Sless likewise earned high marks from New Jersey Stage (“refreshingly honest”), Short and Sweet LA/NYC (“a songwriter not to be deterred” with “an insidious way” of “getting our feet tapping while he delivers lyrics of substance”), and Exclusive Magazine (“[he] immediately gets our attention, and as we progress, his musical messages carry us along on his rich journey”). Elmore Magazine and Nashville.com are among others planning coverage.
With coronavirus consciousness for his fellow musicians and followers in mind, Sless continues his weekly live streaming quarantine concert series “California Dream: Melodies and Remedies” also designed to help battle adversity through music and discussion. The interactive series premieres new episodes every Wednesday at 7 p.m. Pacific/10 p.m. Eastern on Instagram Live at www.instagram.com/tomsless with on-demand archived episodes at www.soundcloud.com/tomsless.
“California Dream: Melodies and Remedies” includes under-the-hood discussions of the inspiration for each week's featured song from the new album, an interview with a key contributor to the song's production, and an audience-Q&A round table focused on self-help strategies applicable to the pandemic, such as dealing with anxiety, maintaining motivation, and “finding joy in the little things.”
Co-produced by the Jersey Shore native with John Bottrell (Christina Perri, Mike Posner) and recorded live in the studio at comp-ny in Glendale, CA, California Dream carries us along Sless’s soulful ride down the winding roads of life and love with a vibe that alternates between the celebratory country rock of Luke Combs, the nod-and-a-wink humor of Sturgill Simpson, and the rough-hewn folksiness of Donovan Woods. Through canny lyrics and infectious tunes, California Dream captures Sless’s love of LA, the highs and lows of his decision to move there from the Baltimore area after college, and his struggles to embrace the past and push forward. Like Steve Earle, Sless displays bracing honesty in his songwriting, and like Jason Isbell, has a knack for creating a world in which our souls struggle to define themselves. With ceaseless creativity, Sless possesses an ear for the just-right melody and lyric, and a passion for songs that evoke his disappointments, hopes, joys, and loves.
Sless still plans to host album release events on the West Coast and East Coast once the live music terrain gets more clearly defined.
“This album is a huge step toward a realization of myself as an individual and a creative artist,” he says. “It’s a jumping off point into a world in which I can fully express myself as a human being. There truly is no better feeling.”
Friday, May 8, 2020
The Best Of The Rest
PHIL OCHS
The Best Of the Rest: Rare and Unreleased Recordings
Coming to CD on May 22nd
"As much as has been written about the sixties, it's arguable that no one experienced that defining moment in American history more personally than Phil Ochs" - Steve Earle
Phil Ochs is known primarily as a songwriter; however, his oeuvre extends far beyond that - to short stories, poetry, criticism, journalism and satire
More than a torrent, less than a flood-the songs poured out of Ochs so quickly in the early days of his career that not all were able to find their place on his albums, leaving a fair few in limbo. Some of those "betwixt and between" songs would only emerge decades later and a few have hitherto languished in the archives.
The Warner/Chappell demos which make up the main portion of this new album represent a time period spanning Ochs' last two albums for Elektra: I Ain't Marching Anymore and In Concert, when Phil was finding his full strength as a songwriter and moving to include the lyrical in his repertoire, alongside the topical and satirical.
Songs such as "In the Heat of the Summer" and "Here's to the State of Mississippi" will certainly be familiar to most Phil Ochs fans. Others, like "The Confession" and "I'm Tired" (the latter with subtlety adjusted lyrics) may be known only to those who have the Farewells and Fantasies and A Toast to Those Who are Gone albums, respectively (or perhaps Shawn Phillips' rare cover of "I'm Tired" on his 1965 album for Capitol, Favorite Things).
Readers of Broadside ("the national topical song magazine") issue 69, in April 1966 would have encountered Ochs' "Take It Out of My Youth. However, if they missed that issue, or did not have the rare good fortune to hear Ochs perform it live, then they might never have even been aware of the song. Rather than paying for a drink from a five or ten ("depending upon one's station in life"), Ochs suggests a more personal, and perhaps more draining, means of payment.
"I Wish I Could Have Been Along" is even more obscure-never published in any magazine, with no known live recordings or cover versions. The song ranges from (barely) repressed wanderlust and the desire for experience on the one hand, to introspection and mournfulness on the other (there are times when one can almost hear Ochs sing, "I Wish I Could Have Been Alone," son of "As I Walk Alone" perhaps?). Another line calls to mind an even more famous Ochs song, of similar vintage, "tell me of the changes in your mind."
"Sailors and Soldiers," perhaps partially inspired by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Memorial Monument in Riverside Park in New York City-with Phil transposing the armed services, either for the sake of emphasis through unfamiliarity or, perhaps more likely for the sake of how the line would scan, lyrically. In any case, it too was completely unknown before being rescued and covered by the Long Ryder's Sid Griffin with Billy Bragg (Phil fans both) on Griffin's solo album Little Victories in 1997. The words ("far from the planners who sent them to die") cut as deeply today as they did when the song was written.
The bonus tracks delve even more deeply into the Ochs Archives. The version of "The War is Over" from a November 20, 1967 WBAI broadcast, in advance of the protest celebration five days later, features almost entirely divergent lyrics ("all the children play with Gatling guns, tattooed mothers with their tattooed sons") from those of the released version and is a wonderful example of Ochs never being satisfied with the merely clever and well-written, forever polishing to a fine poetic point.
"All Quiet on the Western Front," from 1969, was previously only known from incomplete versions recorded live in New York and Philadelphia (both missing, as though through some conspiracy, the opening verses). Ochs was more economical with his songs later in his career and this is a rare example of a lost song saved from those latter days.
In "No More Songs" we close with a familiar song, but something new-a rehearsal take, replete with comments on what instrumentation and countermelodies Phil envisioned. It is a rare glimpse behind the curtain and a fitting last word from Phil.
I'm Gonna Say It Now: the Writings of Phil Ochs (Backbeat Books, May 2020) compiles damn near all of Phil's non-song works, sourced, in part, from the Ochs Archives at the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Phil is known primarily as a songwriter; however, his oeuvre extends far beyond that - to short stories, poetry, criticism, journalism and satire, all of which are included in this tome.
Spanning foundational texts written while still in school at Staunton Military Academy and Ohio State University-to the music criticism, polemics and satire penned in New York City (appearing in such diverse magazines as Sing Out, Mainstream, The Realist and Hit Parader). Onward, with ringing calls to action, from an absurdist point of view, for the two War Is Over rallies in Los Angeles and New York City-to exploring Phil's more lyrical side, via his poetry (the majority previously unpublished) to, finally, a recapitulation of sorts, in works written in the early 1970's touching on movies, travel (from his private journal), Bruce Lee and, dare we say it... Impeachment and the fate of presidents.
|
Thursday, May 7, 2020
Michael's Musings
 |
| Say Hello To My Quarantine Friend.. Michael Shinafelt |
We have arrived at yet another episode of As The Quarantine Turns...this week there was much ado about Hollywood on Netflix. Did I binge it? "Yes." What did I think about it? That's for me to know and you to find out, on with the show Minions!!!
Demons have an awful sense of humor, can you blame them? They live in Hell...
Sorry to hear that Ashley Benson and Cara Delevingne have split, not even a sex bench could keep them together 💔
I don't wear fur but I do eat _______ that's correct Minions it's time to fill in the blank
The latest trend? After everything you say add: "I was just being sarcastic"
Given the reaction everyone's having to Adele's weight loss I assume this means the pandemic is over?!
Oh, so what did I think of Hollywood on Netflix? Did I like it or not? Computer says: NO
Who else wants to show Sutton Stracke on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills the proverbial door and hopes it hits her on the way out?
Dylan McDemott just ran naked through my mind (if only he'd done that in Hollywood, but we'll always have the first season of American Horror Story)
Woman Crush of the Week - Mira Sorvino for being one of the good things in that train wreck known as Hollywood on Netflix
Tell me who, who, who took the cookies from the cookie jar? Was it you?
Murder Hornets, because 2020 hasn't been fun enough
I miss eavesdropping
Bambi goes to the club alone...
The End
Yep, this weeks episode of As The Quarantine Turns is over, for more intrigue follow me at:
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Celebrate! It's Cinco de Mayo!
Happy Cinco de Mayo! You have now entered The Twilight Zone!
Have fun, but be safe.
Cinco de Mayo on Wikipedia -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo
Monday, May 4, 2020
Burning Down The Gym
 |
| It's Britney, Bitch! |
Despite the state of the world, pop culture keeps turning. For some reason I am completely fixated on the fact that Britney Spears burned down her home gym (something I wished I had right here, right now honestly.)
I posted the above screen shot with Ms. Spears oh so casual tale of how the fire went down. You couldn't make this stuff up I tell you what.
Basically Brit was mood lighting her workout and things went awry and the gym was on fire.
OK, personally I never mood light anything, not even for sex so I truly can't wrap my head around this. I mean, it's only a workout and really does not involve all this prep, not ever.
Thus I will continue to ruminate on this. The real take away from the incident is: "Just say no to mood lighting"
Mic drop!
Britney on IG -
https://www.instagram.com/britneyspears/?hl=en
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)