Bill Withers is a true musical icon. It's interesting, as I write this post from my Boylston Street office in Beantown, his classic "Lean on Me" comes on the radio. Irony has its way of sneaking its way into your life, and right now it's singing to me. Bill Withers is a musical genius. "Live at Carnegie Hall" is probably one of my favorite live recordings in music. It was recorded and released in 1973 in NYC, at the infamous Carnegie hall. There was still a large amount of social unrest between blacks and whites at this time, but Bill took over Carnegie Hall and put together an amazing compilation of tunes that make you think, cry, and dance; 3 things we should do often. One of his songs, "I Can't Write Left Handed," is a standout track.
It's about a Vietnam vet who lost his right arm during the war. The lyrics are autobiographical and filled with such an interesting view on the war, what happens while at war, and even about the guy who shot him.
"I aint gonna live-I don't believe I'm going to live to get much older.
Strange little man over here in Vietnam I aint never seen, bless
his heart, aint never done nothing to, he done shot me in my shoulder."
Throughout the song you start to feel for the guy. In this "spoken letter" that the solder is writing, he keeps asking his mother to ask their local reverend to pray for him, as he feels he's about to die. He asks his family lawyer to get a deferment for his little brother so he doesn't get shipped out to Vietnam to potentially get hurt as well. It's such a deep, meaningful, storytelling song that blows me away everytime I hear it. On the Carnegie Hall record, you hear the entire band of 6 humming in the background while Bill tells stories and sings the tune. It has such a huge gospel feel and one that will make the room quiet whenever you play the song. Just listen to Carnegie Hall itself. You hear a few cheers and "amens" from the crowd, as if the hall was temporarily a Baptist church and Bill Withers was the reverend. It's beautiful.
Below is a really cool version done by the legendary Roots and John Legend, which was released on their record "Wake Up" which hit stores Tuesday of this week. The whole record dives into old school classics like Bill Withers and Donny Hathaway tunes. Really good stuff. Check it out.
This guy is the future of music. Take my bet that within the next year, Ronald Jenkees will have a #1 single as a hip hop producer, a la Timbaland, Kanye, Just Blaze, and Ryan Leslie. Ronald has tons of Youtube videos out like this, of him playing tracks off his 2009 release "Disorganized Fun." The kid has talent. Absolute talent. He was two records out, both mixing a combo of electronic synth funkinees with hip hop overtones...really cool blend of sounds.
What I love most about it is that he can't read a single note of music. I can relate to that as I think learning notes takes away from the creative process. However, Ronald laps me by about 10x in talent. The kid is no joke. Watch this video and his others on Youtube. I have a link to the right with all his vids.
Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park recently blogged about Ronald, so watch out, the kid will be huge soon enough.
It's been forever, my bad, things are hectic in Beantown. Anywhoops, check out this live version of "Where I Stood" by Missy Higgins, one of Australia's finest. This is recorded from the KCRW studios out west; one of the best live music radio shows in the world.
This post is short and sweet, but I think the song speaks for itself. Listen to her piano skills while singing, let alone her vocal intonations. Beautiful.
Check this out. Howie Day is the king of the loop pedal. Watch his feet when the camera zooms out. Look at the setup. He has a loop station w/ effects pedals to his left for his guitar, and a loop station to his right for his vocals. All of the effects, drum taps, delay, is done by Howie himself...on stage, live. One of the better loopers out in music now.
Notice at the end how he goes from "Ghost" to "Beams of Light" with a simple foot tap. He hits the tempo button on the Line 6 Digital Delay Loop Pedal (button to the far right in picture to left) and it speeds up his loops to cut time (twice the speed). Awesome.
The most killer part is when Howie hits the Octave pedal at around the 7 minute marker. This pedal tunes your average guitar down a full step, making it sound like a bass guitar. Everything he does in this version is remarkable and VERY hard, since the line 6's that he uses for vocals and guitar are not synced on tempo. He needs to precisely trigger each pedal to match the tempo of each other. Also, if he pushes the far left button above, and say he messes up and misses a note....he can't erase it. Newer pedals have a delete function, but not these ones. If he hits the wrong note, the entire song is ruined since he recorded it.... Talent.
A lot of acoustic singer songwriters lose their edge and sound when they perform outside of the studio. It's simply what happens when a record is overproduced with bells and whistles and vocal filters, sometimes drowning out the actual tone of the singers voice.
This guy is different. Eric Hutchinson performing live is the same Eric Hutchinson in the studio. The vocals are DEAD on regardless of the venue. Below is a version of Eric singing his hit "Rock and Roll" off of his first record, "That Could've Gone Better" which was released in '03, and then re-released in 2008 when he started getting more press. This version is great because there are no bells and whistles. There isn't even a microphone. Eric is singing in a conference room of a radio station in Spokane. How awesome is that?
The vocals are identical to the record version. The guy rocks. Simple as that. He's got a cool soul feel mixed with a rhythmic, almost hip hop like delivery which is really cool to hear. It's like Jason Mraz had a baby with John Mayer, but the baby had a better sense of humor.
Shout out to Emerson College up here in Boston, which Eric went to. Great school and also produced one of the greater keyboard players who still jams, Page McConnell from Phish.
Having a retrospective Thursday, so here we go. "To Love Somebody." An absolutely beautiful song written and sung by the incomparable Bee Gees, covered by two of my idols, Ray LaMontagne and Damien Rice.
What an amazing tune and what a powerful performance.
Not much needs to be said about the below video. When you start watching it, you really think it's just some dude in a kitchen playing with utensils, but keep watching. Everything that David Ford, hailing from England, is doing is being recorded on the spot. From knives to guitars, poland spring water jugs to piano, he harmonizes on top of his own voice and creates a full tune, on the spot.
He did this in a really cool and infamous recording studio in Brooklyn, not far from where I lived from 2006 - 2007. The entire studio, including kitchen, hallway, living room, and musical instruments are all mic'd. Everything David does is being recorded as he plays it.
I dare you to show me someone else who can make a song from scratch simply by walking around the studio, starting with a cup of tea.
We've all been through various things in our lives that we wish never happened. "Pain" is a word in the dictionary for a reason, because it's something that we all feel at one point or another in our lives. Some of us feel more than others, some tune it out as if it doesn't exists, but it's there. Whether it's heartbreak, the loss of a loved one, or it seems like nothing ever goes your way...we've all been there and will be there again.
It's how you get past the pain that matters and brings out the true character inside you. Do you hide and hope it goes away or do you lift your head up and keep pushing along? In my life I've always had music, so this was my remedy. By deeply listening to lyrics from various artists I've been able to say "this ain't that bad" and just keep going, because there's no point in just sitting still. Ani Difranco wrote a tune called "As Is" in 1998 that appeared on her record, "Little Plastic Castles." Sometimes you think you can't win, and no matter what you do in life, you're not meant to push forward. She says:
"Cuz when I look around,
I think this, this is good enough.
And I try to laugh
At whatever life brings.
Cuz when I look down
I just miss all the good stuff.
When I look up
I just trip over things."
Why lift your head up if you're going to keep tripping over things, and why put your head down if you're going to miss all that this life has to offer? It's such a beautiful verse because we've all been there. If you're having a bad day, sometimes you just want to put your head down and say "screw it." But, if you do, you may have just missed something that could lift you up. I like when she says "when I look up, I just trip over things." Would you rather have your head down and not enjoy or learn anything from your surroundings, or would you rather stay confident, keep your head up, and have some rough patches while pushing forward? I don't know about you, but I choose the latter. Why walk if you never want to run?
Ray Lamontagne is perhaps the best lyricist when it comes to pain, suffering, feeling down. He's notoriously not a very "happy-go-lucky" person, if anyone has ever seen him live. His shows are very spiritual and emotional in a way that has people sitting and truly listening, not slamming cocktails and dancing. Therapy sessions typically cost well over $100 per session. Ray Lamontagne tickets cost about $30. You do the math. People are there for a reason.
Ray wrote a song called "Empty" which is utterly beautiful. The entire song is about how he feels empty inside, and how no matter how hard he tries, he just can't enjoy the good in life. Lines like "I never choose to count my blessings, I choose instead to dwell in my disasters" truly sum up the meaning of this song and his struggles. Sometimes we all act as martyrs with the "woe-is-me" syndrome. Woe isn't you, and woe will never be you. "Woe-is-me" only shows up to the party when you've let your guard down and completely refuse to push forward. Yet, this line in the song can still resonate inside all of us.
Ray gets to a point in the song where it sounds like there's no return; he'll never be happy. I get chills every time I hear the lyrics in the last verse because it's so real. If you watch the video below you'll see that he's not just acting this song out. He truly has this pain inside of him which is beautiful to watch and to hear, and not in a masochistic way; in a sympathetic and empathic way.
"Well I looked my demons in the eyes,
Laid bare my chest, said 'Do your best, destroy me.
You see, I've been to hell and back so many times,
I must admit you kind of bore me.'"
"You kind of bore me!" If you didn't get chills there then check your pulse. Listen, I know this post is rather dramatic and emotionally "blah," but this is a line that we all need to take into perspective. Next time you get down on yourself. Next time you feel like nothing's working out. Next time you lose someone, get your heartbroken, or just have a bad day...think of this line. If you've felt pain before, you know what it is and you know how it works. If you accept it and realize that it's inevitably going to happen then you can walk forward with your head up, even if you do trip over things on the way to wherever your life is heading.
This is a shout out to my buddy Scott Pinker in NYC who lost his Mother at the end of last year. She was an absolutely amazing mother and friend to Scott and to all that were close to the family; you always felt good when you were around her. She resonated love and her laugh and smile will forever be missed. Scott first showed me this song back when I was living in NYC, and he forwarded me a post from his buddy who wrote for a music magazine at the time. His buddy lost his mother at the time this song was released and he wrote about this exact lyric, so I wanted to give Scotty a quick shout out and say I'm thinking about you bud. You're a great friend.
