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Марк Ланеган зна добру ствар када је он то чује. У последњој деценији је око рвед репутацију као гост певач познавалац, рад са воли од Квинс од Каменог доба и његов стари пријатељ Грег Дулли од Афгхан Вхигс (заједно су Гуттер Твинс) између осталих. Али он се увек враћа свом најслађа фолије, Д емуре Исобел Цампбелл из Глазгова града, чији је после Белле & Себастиан каријеру као певачица, сонгврит ЕР и аранжер је прилично откровење.

нашао је своје вокалне муза у све што је мало, прећутна Ланеган, последњих дана Џони Кеш, који је видео више у свом животу него што би бригу да кажем. Њихов је симбиози - лепо, али релативно ограничени певачица сама, она треба његов глас да изазове пребродила земљу / Блуес Ландсц мајмун воли да насељавају уз њену музику, а он је у свом најбољем тумачења њене песме.

Њихов мање-него-романтично процеса снимања - Цампбелл перфецтионис Аутеур Т, функционише као демона месецима да оствари своју визију музичког, док је ЛАН Еган капи које за неколико дана да спусти његов глас - је противречна сама Ц хемистри резултата. Оно што је почео као роман лепота-и-звер-паирин Г је постао класик партнерства, а сада то прилично чудно албуму пар су се вратиле за треће ротације око подијуму за игру, са вероватно највише постигао својим Пас де деук још.

Њихова прва сарадња, Баллад Оф Брокен Сеас, је УН очекује допадљив земљи радост са таласе тамнијим материје кршење ТРА нкуил површине, која их је успостављен као Нанци Синатра и Лее Хазелвоод од своје генерације. Њихов следећи састанак, недељом у Ђавола прљавштине, био султриер јужно ерн аферу. Сада су једни друге суссед, соко гура ствари напред опет. Ја Т гриттиер на местима, па чак и више сигурна у своју примену различитих опсега Сониц стилове и расположења, као што су елегантне очи трансатлантске затетурати зелене, са својим гомилала виолине и борилачке бубњеви стварајући слику Данце планине амбар за мање од два минута.

Међутим, албум започиње са једним од већине замишљен дуа тренутке ви Т. Ми умрети и лепота Погледајте Владавина Ланеган је певање на танак Кембел народне складу са једва -Постоји пасторални перформансе тамне, усамљен и искрен жаљење.

Он пада назад у на својим уобичајеним виски-натопљена начина на ниским спојлером, роотси Змија Песма и нећете Лет Ме Довн који себи дозвољава препуштање и углачана Гуитар Соло (бивши разбија Џејмс Иха бундеве), док је Кембел провлс око у позадини.

Цоме Ундоне је спарном јужном душа / Блуес Шепурење, зачињен позитивно дрхти стрин ГС, од типа који Дусти Спрингфиелд би био срећан да се њено име током њеног боравка Мемфис. Време у сезони није поклопац бесмртног Зо мбиес путу, више је штета, али је шармантан, амблинг Божић земља песму, са кухињом-грех К Лирицс соундтрацкед од ниске-натопљен романтику премијера Јимми Вебб.
вокал ограничењима пар је ових Партнера само стварно изложени на бучан блуз џем од Гет Бехинд Ме, бе Ицх могла да учини са већи гласа унапред. Цампбелл и Ланеган су далеко ФР Ом блуз Схоутерс и нема компромиса у њиховој испоруци овде - он је шљунковита, она је бреатхи, како Ре упорно ниско-кључ.

Кембел добија круг питања на инструментални титулу нумеру примену наказа оут џез саксофон на месту вокалне до поремећених РО цкабилли ефекат, онда се проблем да запосли неке стварне певача јеванђеље Ли Ф албум епски ближе последње време у домену духовног. Међутим, њена О ВН деликатна, уздисање тонови су идеално погодна за своју соло укључује Тремоло Т Орцх песме Зора и млитав То Хелл и назад.

Али, шта је ово? Трећа особа у браку? Гу ЕСТ певач Вилли Масон је још једна стара земља душе у телу младе особе која даје само Т био је у праву количину гравитације на насловној Таунс Вам Зант није место за пад и једноставан, П лаинтиве говоре о "прилично очи" и сада ", брзо стари воз". Додај неке усамљен дрен и ви имате почетак потенцијално беаут ифул односа - Пази Ланеган, имате ривала, а он вероватно зна како да разговарате пурти превише.

Мејсон преузима вођство поново хладној води, лопинг акустичне земље број са хонкинг рогове аутомобила у позадини и Кембел трилинг аттентивел И на ноге. Иронија се да је она која је била блокада свих аутомобила заједно. Кембел је наговестио да би волела да поново раде са Масон - То је само да је Марк Ланеган је доказивање тешко навику да се поломи. Али, где год јој се инстинкте њен следећи, слушалац ће бити победник.

Цоринне Баилеи Рае , певају ЕР

Било је толико невероватна тренутака у мојој досадашњој каријери: долази са бине да пронађете Принц је био у публици, игра за Нелсон Мендела, који интр одуцед на Гремија од Стиви Вондер и знајући да је моја прилика да се Чуо милиони људи.

Међутим, мој омиљени тренутак је сада, зар ти Инстант је. Ја сам долази на крају шест недеља турнеје по Северној Америци са својим ЕВ Албум н море. То је невероватна и одговор је такав да нисам могао да га сањали боље. Волим гледајући публику пун људи из свих позадина, црна и бела, хипстерс и 60-година-олдс, геј и стрејт, колегијални и силеџија. Играм рекорд Заиста верујем у, стоји на сцени са пријатељима сам позната јер сам био клинац и виде с О много Северне Америке.

One day you're braving the snow in Montreal, eating sushi, the next d ay you're in Coachella in a romper suit, drinking out of a coconut. I met Björk at this great party she threw with the Dirty Projectors at a warehouse in Williamsburg, New Y ork, and played on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon with the Roots. We dance on the tour bus to Erykah Badu's new album and I pass the time playing my 1920s Washburn guitar that I picked up in a shop in Haight-Ashbury. I am experiencing happiness in my life that I didn't imagine possible two years ago, when my husband died, and that makes this momen t, now, so wonderful to me.

Sir Mark Elder, conductor

During Gorbachev's years in power, th e English National Opera did a Russian tour. I was music director at the time an d we were the first British opera company to go there. We took our production of Verdi's Macbeth. They had no idea what to expect, but somehow word got round that it was goin g to be an exciting evening. I came into the pit and a man in the front row of t he stalls lent forward, handed me a bunch of flowers and said quietly: “You are welcome.”

I couldn't start for several min utes because members of the public were trying to force themselves into boxes wh ich were ruthlessly patrolled by large Russian ladies. The performance was one o f the most exciting of my life. Everybody was on top form, and at the moment in the first act finale when the king's murder is discovered, the entire company has to sing a lo ud dramatic passage. When the music cut off, instead of the customary stunned si lence, the audience broke into wild applause. I can remember only thinking, I ho pe the singers don't lose their pitch because the next passage is unaccompanied. When I came b ack into the pit for the third act, the audience gave the orchestra an enormous ovation and a young girl skipped down the central aisle and handed me another en ormous bouquet of flowers.

Michael Rother, Neu!

It would have to be when I hear d the first Neu! album at home, after recording it with Klaus Dinger and [produc er] Conny Plank. We were playing it to family and friends, so it was a very happ y, special moment to have them all hear this recording of my ideas. Listening to Hallogallo and all the other tracks outside the studio was always a very import ant experience. It was so wonderful to hear the tunes in the living room with my mother and brother – everybody seemed to have a positive feeling. You could feel the intensity of what music does to you, the beauty of it, the magic. It su rprises me because we had to record that album in four nights without having any possibility of preparing stuff at home. In those days no one had recording gear код куће. So we had to create the music on the spot in the studio. The magic, es pecially of Hallogallo, has survived all this time.

Gary Kemp, Spandau Ballet

Д ive Aid was such a pivotal moment for my generation of groups. It was the apex o f that decade, the highest point of that golden age of British pop music. None o f us would ever be that powerful again. Let's face it, we were all trying to raise money for E thiopia, but it was also an incredible moment for us all to enjoy. There was als oa huge amount of jostling for position throughout the day, and some were more successful at dealing with that than others.

The weather helped to highlight eve rything. I remember flying in by helicopter, coming in over Wembley and seeing t he twin towers – Wembley meant more to me in iconic terms than just a place to do a show. I was sitting next to [ex-Faces and Who drummer] Kenney Jones in the 'copter. I'ma massive Who fan, so all I was interested in was that this was their first gig for eight year s.

We were on at 2pm. I would have preferred to have been on at eight in the eve ning. But having those 20 minutes was incredible, even though I don't actually remember our pe rformance, just the bits around it, like seeing Pete Townshend, David Bowie, all these extraordinary people. I thought I'd speak to Bowie, but he didn't know who the fuck I was. I got in his way at the bar. I introduced myself and he gave me one of those looks that suggested I was stepping too close to his radar.

Meanwhile, I was drooling ov er Pete Townshend. He told me to follow him up on stage to stand on the side and watch the Who – the greatest rock band in the world – doing Won't Get Fooled Again. Онда I got a tap on the shoulder. It was Paul McCartney. He said he thought we'd done a great gig a nd gave me the thumbs up. But Spandau didn't get it right. Others were better at pushing thems elves forward. Bono was no fan of anyone; he just went straight to centre stage €“ George Michael, too.

Still, I was thrilled to be part of that rock dream. I – a work ing class lad from Islington – had the feeling that, at any moment, someone wa s going to come up behind me and say, “Sorry, there's been a dreadful mistake, can you leave?”

La Roux , singer

Glastonbu ry 2009 – it was the first time I had been to Glastonbury, which is pretty lam e, really. But it was also the first time I had played a big English festival. Ја t was also the same weekend that Bulletproof went to No 1. Even though we had a No 1 and had had another hit with In for the Kill I thought no one would give a toss that we were playing. But it was an incredible experience. That's when YouTube comes in handy. There were more people there than I could have hoped for. I remember peer ing out from behind the curtain and seeing the crowd spilling out of the sides o f the tent and Tony, my manager, saying: “See, I told you. Stop pranging out!” I didn't stop being nervous for the entire gig, but I remember secretly crying a tiny bit during the drop-down in In for th e Kill. Every single person for as far as I could see had their hands up and san g every word back louder than me. I had never seen that before. It was the momen t we realised how many people knew La Roux.

Luke Steele, Sleepy Jackson and Emp ire of the Sun

It was pretty rock'n'roll – it was one of the best moments of my life. It was when I played a little show in New York with my father, who's been a musician for 40 years bu t had never been to the US. I produced his last solo record early last year and said I'd fly him over to support a set I was doing as Luke Blonde. There were these black boun cers from the future, and me on laptop and electronics. My dad was a bit shocked to see my sci-fi alter ego going straight into this Martin Luther King speech; it was pre tty full on. Then my father came on and played all this Dylan, JJ Cale, Johnny C ash and Kris Kristofferson stuff and just blew away this New York crowd at the B owery Ballroom. Jack Black was there. So was Heather Graham, who came in on roll er skates. I tried out her skates – her underpants as well. She tried out my g uitar. We did a duet, with Jack Black on the drums. It was very surreal for me, a young musician from Perth, the most isolated city in the world, where usually a gig attracts a couple of fat drunk guys. The night dissipated into a long-dist ance dream. At one point, I refused to go on stage unless I got a box of Krispy Kremes. Then we left the venue and went to find Michelle Pfeiffer.

Baaba Maal , singer

I met Nelson Mandela, then president of South Africa, for the first time in September 1996. I was performing at the Arts Alive festival in Johannesburg and was invited to meet him at his office in Pretoria. I wanted to bring him ag ift, so I decided to give him a boubou, one of the west African robes that I wea r on stage. He put it on at once, and I have a picture of him wearing it. I also had a letter to give him from the Senegalese president, Abdou Diouf, and he ask ed about all the important people in Senegal. And then he gave me advice. He sai d that I should be a voice for the people, and that I could make a difference as a musician. He said that people believed what I said even more than they believ ed politicians, and I had a role as a messenger.

Something really strange happen ed during the meeting. There was a girl in the delegation from the festival who had not met President Mandela before. Immediately he saw her he started asking a bout her grandmother. “How did you know that she's my grandmother?” asked the girl. “I just looked at you, and I knew you must come from the same family,” Mandela replied. Било је невероватно. What a memory!

Amy Macdonald, singer

It w as a gig last summer, a beautiful evening in Locarno in Switzerland. They cordon ed off the town centre, and there were 12,000 people all crammed into the market square. The Kooks were my support band, who I love. I remember being on stage a nd seeing endless amounts of people singing back to me all the words. I was over whelmed that you can travel so far from home and have so many people know your m usic. The best thing was seeing all the people at the front, smiling. It was an incredible feeling, making all those people happy just by singing my songs. I ha d to stop myself from getting a little teary-eyed.

Ellie Goulding , singer

I tho ught I was insanely lucky when I was asked last year to go on Later … with Joo ls Holland. It's an institution. I never expected to be where I am now, let alone go on shows like that. I felt pretty odd album, a bit out of place. I was on with Diana Kral l, Stereophonics, the Unthanks, Maxwell – I felt so honoured to have been ther Е. I thought, “What on earth am I going to do when Jools starts playing piano and everyone joi ns in,” so I started shuffling. It was one of the most nerve-wracking moments of my life. I'm lucky in that I don't go crazy and lose it; I'm quite grounded and laidback. But Later … was a worry. It was the start of my caree r, and suddenly I was on this incredible show with some of the most talented art ists, and I had to perform with them.

Professor Green, rapper

My greatest mome nt was when my single went in the charts at No 3 this year. Not because I'm self-absorbed, but because of the run-up to it. I was originally signed to Mike Skinner's label, and that went u nder, and it took a year to get my music back. Then I lost my father, who killed himself. That was two years ago. Then last May I got stabbed in the neck. It wa s some asshole in a club, and it was completely unprovoked. It was serious – I had three-and-a-half hours' surgery to put it right. It was close to my carotid artery. I wou ld have died if that had been nipped, or at least lost the use of my face, neck and shoulders. All in all it's been a pretty rough few years.

I threw myself into my work. Aft er the stabbing, I felt angry for quite a while. But I used the negative energy. It's nice to be on an up. Lily [Allen] had an awful lot to do with it. We did a song together , and she took me on a tour of Europe and Australia. I can't tell you how much love I've got for her. I foun d out I was No 3 on the Sunday morning. I was over the moon. I celebrated with m y first drink in seven weeks – a Jameson.

Andy Sheppard, saxophonist, compos er

It was in the late 1980s, I was playing at Ronnie Scott's and I got a call to play on a fil m session the next morning. My manager had said it was just to do a sax solo ove r an orchestra, no problem. But when I got to the studio, it was the London Phil harmonic Orchestra, and the composer and conductor was Elmer Bernstein.

He intro duced me to the orchestra as if I were some world-famous classical soloist. Онда it turned out not to be an improvisation, but 580 bars of written music, to go with a seduction scene featuring River Phoenix (from A Night in the Life of Jimm y Reardon) they were screening as we played. After five bars, I came off the rai ls. Bernstein stopped the orchestra, looked at me over his glasses, and said: “Everything OK?”. I said, giv e me five minutes to think about it, and it would be great to have a beer and a cigarette. A guy went out and came back with a cold beer, a packet of cigarettes and an ashtray. I sat in the middle of the orchestra while they stared at the c eiling, got out crosswords and newspapers – you could see them thinking: “We've got a right one here.”

I thought, I've fallen out of my safe zone – though I know the jazz world seems pretty unsafe to a lot of pe ople – and now I'm right out of my depth. But I drank the beer, smoked the cigarette, and somehow did it in one take. At about bar 500, I remember hearing that little voice at my shoulder saying: “You're going to mess this up now.” But it worked. In the end, I thought I'd played all the notes exactly as Bernstein had writt en them, but he said to me afterwards “I love the way you interpret my music.”

Kit Downes, pianist, compose r, Mercury prize nominee 2010

It was a couple of years ago when I was with Empir ical and we played the Newport Jazz festival. It was a blazing hot day, with tha t beautiful view out over the bay, and when we came off stage they announced the re was going to be a special guest appearance. It was Bill Frisell with his trio , the one that made the East/West album. I'd never heard him live before, but I was sitting th ere among all those boats, water at my feet, and he started playing Moon River a nd Heard It Through The Grapevine, stuff that was so bluesy and laidback compare d to our rather earnest modern jazz thing. It felt like the music was playing it self. It made a huge impact. He never makes what he does a product, his diversit y and constant creativity is amazing, and however different his projects are, th ey always sound like him. I've got a picture of him on my wall from the Cheltenham Jazz festiv al, with this big smile on his face at something somebody's just played. He looks like someone who's just happy to be doing what he's doing, it's a real inspiration.

Joe Perry, Aerosmith

I'd have to say when Aerosmith played wit h Jimmy Page in August 1990. I'm not sure how it came about, but it was an amazing experience because he had been one of our major influences. Jimmy played just about every s ong we knew and loved, including a lot of blues stuff and Yardbirds stuff. The s oundcheck at the Marquee was one of the most eventful couple of hours that I can think of. People call Aerosmith the American Stones, but we were always more th e American Zeppelin. We didn't get a chance to rehearse, but it was a lot of fun. He travelled with us on the bus and we hung out with him for the whole weekend. It blows my mind to think that Jimmy would think that much of the band that he'd want to spend that much t ime hanging with us, and then play with us.

I would never have thought it would have been possible, growing up in Boston in the late 60s, when the idea of being in London was like for a Catholic going to the Vatican; the holy grail. The fact that 20 years down the line I'd not only know Jimmy Page but be able to play with him, that was beyond anything I thought could ever happen. That weekend, we mostly talked about pla ces where we'd recorded in common and how hard it is to keep a family together on the road. d being a survivor. Me, Jimmy, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck – we're still doing it, and Jimi Hend rix isn't. Зашто? Luck. I think Jimi felt impervious to everything. But you can only take so muc h. And mucking around with street drugs is like playing Russian roulette, and in Jimi's case, he lost.

Stan Tracey, pianist, composer

It has to be Sonny Rollins. When I was the house pianist at Ronnie Scott's in the 1960s, the star American soloists came over without their own bands, and we all had to do the best we could. The first time I met h im was probably 1965, he arrived at the rehearsal – I think this was in his be ret phase – and asked me to name something to play. I said Prelude to a Kiss. We kicked it around for 45 minutes, then never played it again for the entire mo nth he was here, until he came back again the next year. I wasn't nervous – I might have bee n if I was another sax player – I was just concerned about whether he'd be easy to get on wi th or not. Some of the Americans could be difficult with local players back then . He was an amazingly nice, gentle guy and a massive talent back then, and he st ill is.

Meat Loaf , singer

If I'm telling you what the greatest moment of my career is, my car eer must be over! So as far as I'm concerned, I haven't had the greatest moment of my career yet. But if you want to talk about a moment that highlighted something, that moved something fo rward more than anything else, I would say January 1978, the CBS convention, whi ch we closed. I was kind of upset about being the last band on, because normally everybody starts going home in the afternoon on the last day. But they didn't in this case, a nd the room was absolutely packed with all the other bands – Elvis Costello, B illy Joel, Cheap Trick. So we did the show and I sang For Crying Out Loud. Када it was over my eyes were closed I thought everybody had left the room, because there was a moment of dead, stunned silence, and it seemed to last forever. I went, “Oh my God, what hap pened?” And I opened my eyes and when I did the room exploded. They went completely insane. Pe ople started rushing the stage – there are pictures of Billy Joel standing on a table and all these people going completely crazy. They did $40,000 worth of d amage to the room – there were broken chairs, smashed dishes, everything! That's really what made Bat Out Of Hell take off. That was the turning point. It was an amazing, e xtraordinary moment.

Rokia Traoré, singer

My greatest moment was back in June 1997, my first-ever European show. I flew from Bamako to Paris, and then travel led down to the Angoulême festival, where I was performing on a big outdoor sta ge as the opening act for Salif Keita and Ali Farka Touré. I had only performed live four times before, back in Mali. I had nothing to lose, and I was totally confident that nothing bad could happen and everything would be good – even th ough I knew that my band didn't respect me because I was young and female. They said that it w asn't possible to mix balafon and n'goni in the backing for the songs. All of this was made possible because of the French Cultural Centre in Bamako, who helped me, and sent tapes of my so ngs to Christian Mousset at Angoulême. Without that help from the Cultural Cent re, I would never have enjoyed this career as a musician.

Martin Carthy, singer

Selecting one great professional moment from 50 years on the road presents prob lems. Four and a half years of music-making with Dave Swarbrick – especially w hen we rehearsed for our first gig in a train compartment on the way there, surr ounded by Indian lads who giggled and clapped all the way? The moment on stage w ith Steeleye at Manchester University in 1970 when it was clear that the band wo rked so wonderfully? The first ever Brass Monkey gig at the Black Horse in Telha m when sensational is the only word for the sound we made? Persuading Norma to m ake her first solo CD, working on it with some of the very best musicians and a great producer called John Chelew, then seeing it miss the Mercury prize by a wh isker? Why not any one of those? The truth is that when, in Elkins, West Virgini a in August 1991, I first made music on stage with my daughter Eliza (and with N orma, of course) really does put everything else in the shade. There I experienc ed the extraordinary magic of playing – and especially singing – with a bloo d relative for the very first time. It was almost as though one didn't have to think. There wa s never a moment when she was anything other than an equal in the matter and tha t in itself was astonishing and quite liberating. Ain't nothing quite like that feeling – th at freedom.

Stephen Hough, pianist

What comes to mind is the encore I played af ter a concert at Berlin's Waldbühne with Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. It was thr ee summers ago. I'd played the Rachmaninov Rhapsody, it was a big event – in front of 23,000 people, and filmed for TV, and after I'd played this very loud tempestous work, I came back o ut and played a little piece by Mompou called Young Girls in the Garden. I play this in encores a great deal – more so than any other. Many encores can spoil the mood, but this fits after almost everything.

I came from a house without any classical music . Mompou's piece was the very first record my parents bought me, aged 5 or 6: it goes right back to my very first musical experience. The music has such innoc ence and purity; playing it at this venue, that had been built by the Nazis, in a city tha t was being bombed not so long ago – the whole thing just came together in av ery magical way, and it was an amazing moment, a meeting of childhood memories a nd a full adult's career.

Tinchy Stryder , rapper, producer

I got to chill with Jay-Z and Beyo ncé in his dressing-room! I was on my way to South Africa for the World Cup so I didn't have time to worry about what to wear. I watched the gig first, which was crazy, man – I grew up listening to him, so seeing how he put a show together was really inspiring. It was mad. Then I went backstage. It was the first time I'd met him – I'd seen all his team a lready but I was on tour the last time I was invited to meet him backstage at Ma dison Square Garden. I wasn't nervous – I don't really get nervous with things like that.

He's a cool guy. He's chilled, laidback and humble and makes you feel welcome. Beyoncé was there as well. She was real frie ndly – you see people on TV and don't know what to expect, but she's even better in person. Real down to e arth. He had words of advice for me – he told me to stay focused and not let m y ego get too big. No one from the grime scene has crossed over in the US yet, s o it's hard to say what might happen with me there, but right now everything's in place to make it happen.

Jason Yarde, saxophonist, composer, arranger, producer

The moment I remember mos t vividly is working in the British big band put together to play with pianist M cCoy Tyner at the Barbican in 2001. But it wasn't the gig, it was the first rehearsal, at thes e little studios, The Premises, in Hackney. We played McCoy's Passion Dance, that was the one that did it for me, because his playing is so passionate and so full, and that s eems perfectly to represent it.

I'd accepted the gig thinking I'd be playing on the free stage before Tyner, not actually in the band. Now I found myself playing with McCoy Tyner about fiv e feet away from me. He was really gracious about it, told us all he was more ne rvous than we were – we didn't believe it, but it made us feel better. At lunchtime he had t ime for everybody, signing vinyl, telling stories. The way he used the big band made a big impression on my writing, he wasn't afraid to change things around a bit: have four saxes and a tuba, not follow the usual big-band lineup. But more than anything it was the way he played while you were soloing, how he listens to you. You're playing, and th inking: “He's done this for John Coltrane.” It's wonderful to be in the slipstream of that legacy, and it's stayed with me ever since.

Sarah Connolly , mezzo soprano

Two moments come to mind. The first was after a performance of G uilio Cesare at Glyndebourne. David Attenborough had been in the audience, I was introduced to him afterwards. “This is a real pleasure and an honour,” I said to him. And he said to me wit h absolute sincerity: “Believe me the pleasure is all mine.” I thought: “That's it then. This great, great man believes in me and rates мене. I have no reason to ever doubt myself again.”

The other moment I choose is after a recent concert. A couple came up to me and said, “Our mother died recently. We found in her handbag a list she'd made of things to think about on her deathbed. One of these things was your perfo rmance of Dido's Lament. We wanted to tell you.” I was terribly moved by that, to think that somebody wanted to take that with them. I could have mentioned appearing on this stage, or that stage, or working with so and so, but nothing comes close to that to moving oth er people – it's why I'm in this business. To move people.

What are your most memorable musical moments? Maybe it was you r band's first gig, meeting one of your heroes, or being blown away by a live performance – you've read what the artists w e interviewed had to say, now share your own stories by posting a comment in the thread below.

To quote the effervescent Dame Edna, “Good night,
possums!” I'm heading up to Michigan for two glorious weeks of R&R, although
I will be taking a handful of CDs up to review while I'm vacationing, and those
will be the reviews you'll read when I’m back in the saddle later ово
month.

The difference, of course, is that instead of writing in the dank,
windowless cell of the Bunker, I'll be sitting by the lake, beer within reach,
cool breeze stirring the trees, water lapping at the shore, music coming in at
a gentle volume through the headphones while I scribble my thoughts in longhand
on a scrap of parchment with a goose quill dipped in ink. OK, all but the last p art. Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music would sound good in
those circumstances. Ја might take it up just to test the theory.

I'll likely be taking up a pile of CDs to check
out, over and above the things I’ll be reviewing, as well as a fe w books to
read, including George Carlin's last offering, Steve Martin’s aut obiography and
a book about Johnny Cash and the untold story of the making of hi s Bitter Tears protest album in 1964. И
I might find a couple more in my favor ite used CD/book store in Petoskey when we
hit town on the Saturday after we arr ive.

Two weeks will go pretty quickly, but
I'll be doing my level best to slo w it down to an acceptable crawl. I'm
thinking that margaritas supplied by Gar y, our cabin neighbor who we met on
last year's trip to the lake, will help co nsiderably.

Well, there's still a lot to do, including some
of the reviews yo u're going to be reading below, so before you start reading
I've got to get writing, or you'll have nothing to read and I'll still be
writing while youâ ™re trying to read what's not written. Man, this is that hot tub
Тиме Мацхине thing all over again. Spot me five seconds, then go. And see you
in a couple of weeks.

Each new triumph that Sheryl Crow has notched in her career has been s lightly more
unlikely than the last. Not many elementary school music teachers h ave
lucrative jingle singing gigs, and even fewer parlay that success into a
bac k-up vocalist slot with Michael Jackson. Crow's official 1993 debut album, Tue sday Night Music Club , barely made a
dent when it came out, but the following sp ring saw the impossible rise of “All
I Do,” leading to three 1995 Grammys, i ncluding
the often-fatal New Artist of the Year award.

Crow's eponymous and
е elf-produced 1996 follow-up was a gritty revelation and proof that she was
willi ng to shed the innocuous Pop veil of her first album to delve into darker,
више contentious lyrical territory. And while none of her subsequent six studio
album s have come close to registering Tuesday Night ’s multi-platinum numbers, Crow
has posted more than a few impressive accomplishments, recordings with Sting,
Ry an Adams, Kid Rock, Scott Weiland and Mick Jagger, a James Bond theme song, more Grammys, some acting
and movie music gigs and surviving breast cancer among the m.

For her seventh studio album, 100 Miles from Memphis , Crow takes a page
од the Shelby Lynne handbook and returns to her southern Midwest roots for an
albu m full of vintage Soul/Pop sounds. Horns, crystalline back-up singers and
slinky rhythms dominate 100 Miles ,
but Crow wisely weaves the Soul thread into her exi sting and highly successful
Roots Rock tapestry.

Without the propulsive backbeat and Soul
appointments, “Our Love Is Fading” would be an easy
fit in Crow' s previous catalog, as would the Reggae-touched “Eye to Eye” and
the Folk/Co untry bounce of “Long Ride Home.” But Crow digs deeper on 100 Miles , too; this isn't simply a
Sheryl Crow album with a Soul paint job. She writes from an authentic '60s AM
Soul/Pop perspective, particularly on the album's first single, “S ummer Day,”
and the joyous “Peaceful Feeling,” which bristle with Stax goo dness.

Francis Farewell Starlite might have a higher profile in the Hip Hop co mmunity because of his opening slots
with Jeezy and Drizzy and
his collaboration with Drake on Thank Me
Later . In his group configuration as Francis
and the Lig hts , Starlite stands at the crossroads
of '70s R&B, slick '80s synth Prog and contemporary I ndie Pop, as evidenced on a pair of
previous EPs but most prominently on the Lig hts' debut “full-length,” the
eight-song, 27-minute It'll Be Better .

Sta rlite definitely delights in
couching his songs in a sophisticated production co ntext on It'll Be Better , but thankfully that
sophistication never leaks into excessively swollen bombast. Starlite operates in the appealing vein of Peter Ga briel's
post-Genesis Pop explorations, with a similar sense of subtlety and
un derstatement, particularly on the airy “In a Limousine” and the gently
сила ful Beat Pop of “Darling, It's Alright,” featuring Starlite's
pleading v ocal. The '80s-tinged Dance Pop of “For Days” bobs and weaves and
starts a nd stops with a quiet effervescence that makes Maroon 5 seem overplayed
and hist rionic by comparison, while “Knees to the Floor” suggests a
Gabriel/Michael McDonald collaboration with a slight Gospel Pop undercurrent.
“Tap the Phone € offers shades of Randy Newman's sardonic lyrical and musical
perspective and “Get in the Car” will clearly attract any fan of Francis Dunnery's Folk/P op excursions from the '90s.

With all of the innocuous, sugary Pop that curre ntly clogs
the airwaves, the tasteful restraint and polished intelligence of Fra ncis and
the Lights would certainly make a refreshing style shift.

Jimmy Gnecco has the kind of backstory that would
sound fictional if it weren't completely тачно. A gold medal-winning gymnast and
world champion BMX rider as a New Jersey teenager, he started playing guitar at 15, joined local bands and began develop ing his
distinctive whisper-to-scream falsetto. He eventually co-founded Ours, a Н
unconventional AltRock band that existed in various
incarnations before Gnecco took a sabbatical,
befriending Jeff Buckley in the process. Buckley’s tragic death in 1997 spurred
Gnecco back to performing; he garnered a Warner
Brothers contract, r eformed Ours and released a trio of well-received albums: 2001's Distorted Lul labies , 2002's Precious and 2008's Rick
Rubin-produced Mercy .

With Gnecco' s debut
solo album, The Heart , the Ours frontman addresses directly and indirect ly some of the
tragedy that has marked his life, the most recent being the passi ng of his mother
while he was working on this album. The Heart €™s opener, “Re st Your Soul,” is his bittersweet farewell to her, a quietly
reflective acoust ic hymn that lilts and weeps and soars with the passionate
delivery that Buckley made famous on Grace .

Gnecco has endured unfair
accusations of cribbing Buckley 's style for years, and The Heart displays Gnecco's range better
than any pr evious Ours outing, particularly on the Thom Yorke-meets-Nick
Drake ache of “M ystery,†the Iggy Pop demo power of
“Bring Me Home,” the Bono-tributes-Ruf us Wainwright emotion of “Gravity†and
the Curtis Mayfield Soul splendor of “These Are My Hands.”

The Heart will likely be held up as partial evidence, but there's a
fair case to be made for parallel development. In fact, Jeff Bu ckley’s ghost is a palpable presence in Gnecco's work, but The Heart is guid ed by more than a
single spirit and they all ultimately pass through his unique creative filter.

Big
Head Tpretty odd album & the Monsters roared into the public consciousn ess with their
third album, 1993’s Sister Sweetly , a
ferocious Blues/Classic R ock masterstroke and an album that the Denver trio has
been trying to live up to for the past 17 years. They might have come as close as
they ever have on 2007â ™s All the Love You
Need , an album that the Monsters cleverly marketed by givin g away a total
of a quarter million copies, a ploy that actually drove up their attendance
numbers on their subsequent tour.

The Monsters have returned to the c oncept of
retail with their eighth studio album, Rocksteady , but the sad reality is there's only about half
an album here to sell. The first five tracks follo wa similar path, a Caribbean/Soul stew that simmers but
rarely boils up into an ything substantial. The title track opens the albums and
starts promisingly, wit h Tpretty odd album Park Mohr's guitar creating a swirling and
inviting atmosp here, but the song quickly shifts gears into a predictable and
rather pedestrian rhythm that doesn't offer much other than a decent solo and a
little more var iety at song's end. “Beautiful” is a pleasant enough attempt at
R&B, and “After Gold” has a certain quiet charm, but Mohr's tribute in
“Muhammad Ali” is all flo ating butterfly and little bee sting and “Happiness
Is” has the clichéd sou nd of someone trying to steal Maroon 5's lunch money.

Rocksteady doesn't rea lly get started in earnest until
“Back to the Garden,” which blends Caribbea n/Soul with an almost Native
American undercurrent and an infinitely more engagi ng lyrical perspective (“She
can break a sweat jumping on the dance floor/She can sell you world peace at
the mall book store”). Mohr's cover of “Smokes tack Lightning” starts off like a
period homage but launches into a contempora ry reading that swings while
retaining the gritty soul of the original and â œI Hate It When You're Gone” and
the funky €œPeople Train” seem closer to Ro cksteady ’s overall intent. The album finishes with a quiet
acoustic-shuffle co ver of the Stones' “Beast of Burden” that features an
electric solo that P eter Frampton would be proud to claim and “Fake Diamond
Kind,” which chugs a long on an Indie Blues/Funk
groove that would sound pretty good on most Modern R ock playlists.

The first half of Rocksteady might require time to
take root in t he listener's ear, but Big Head Tpretty odd album & the Monsters have
invested so much more en ergy in the second half that it makes the rest seem
forgettable by comparison.

Take her singing and songwriting off the table,
and Ruth Gerson still has an ast onishing résumé. A graduate of and former teacher at Princeton University, she founded the New & Used Songwriters Collective
while in New York City and formed San Francisco V ocal Coaching after relocating
last year. She also invented The Singingbelt, a
b iofeedback device that helps singers recognize diaphragmatic breath support.

Нема w can we talk about her musical accomplishments? Her previous albums have
been p roduced by Don Dixon and John Cale collaborator
Lance Doss and her new album, Th is Can't
Be My Life , will be followed by her next album, Deceived , which is al ready done and slated for release early next
year. Oh, and she's a producer he rself, having helmed an album of songs for
comedian Steven Wright, which is awai ting release. And as long as she avoids
kryptonite, she's good to go.

OK, Gers on's not
Superwoman, but she tries pretty hard on This
Can't Be My Life , muc h of which was written when she was going through the
pain and anxiety of a divo rce (in fact, the album was actually finished and
ready to release in 2007, but she held it back because of the upheaval in her
life). Gerson's epic Piano Pop will certainly draw
comparisons to Tori Amos, but, while she is clearly more ly rically and musically direct than Amos and not
nearly as ephemeral, there are mo ments where Gerson
drifts into Amos' dramatic presentation, as on the jazzy mu rder ballad “Black
Water” and the whisper Folk of “Take It Slow.”

Even i n her most balladic moments, Gerson maintains a forceful presence. “Does Your Срце
Weep” and “Hazel” quiver with the quiet intensity that Chrissie Hynd e brings to her lower key material. On “Fresh Air,” Gerson swaggers with the melancholy power of Paula Cole,
while the title track shows her fortitude in th e face of her impending split
(“I want you to be happy/But not with me”) and “Bulletproof” soars like a soulful
Sheryl Crow Pop hymn.

While there might not be a great deal of dynamic
range on the largely mid-tempo This Can't
Be My Life , it clearly evokes Gersonâ ™s emotional
state at the time it was written a nd recorded. Greil Marcus has already raved about Gerson’s next album, so TCBM L will have to tide us over
until her masterpiece comes along.

It's now been четири године након Здраво љубави, последњи Буди Добар Таниас албума, а током триоа ™ е наредне паузе,
Саманта Партон је задржала њена сама музички заузета, производњу јан Бел
Јефтини & Термини "Песме за љубав
Пијани грешнике, док је Триш Клајн је ставио од три албума са ПО € ™ девојка, њена
споредни пројекат са Алисон Расел, што је једнако Таниас "излаз до сада.

Фразеи Форд је неко време за
материнства Д рефлексије и доноси неке перспективе која јој деби соло
пројекта, Обад Иах. Као и њен рад у Бе Гоод Таниас,
Авдија је убедљив и леп Цом бинатион за увијање и
класицизма. Обликована Форд Гритти и дрхтање триловање , Прилично чудно албуму мешавина
Саманта Крејн, Ани ди Франко (у њој мање милита НТ
моменти), Долли Партон (у њеном мање превише емотивне тренутке) и Викторија
Хоће ли нижи регистар Иамс ', Авдија
Спорт музички ритмом који сугерише Мастерс Ли Ке Неил Иоунг ("Изгубљени заједно",
"Лаи Довн Витх Иоу"), Ван Морисон (а € ОИЕ Ф Иоу Гонна Го "," петарда "), Ал Грин (а € ОИЕ као ти боље") и Ем милоу Харис ("Хеј,
Мали мама ").

Авдија експоната Фордов страст за
ТРА дитионал фолк и Блуеграсс филтриран кроз савремени сензибилитет. Али,
Јер Д није заинтересован само ретрацинг корацима она је већ предузете у
Тан Иас и проширује у складу са њеном звучне палете, склапање
Блуес, Јеванђеље и душа у јој Соло микс. Као резултат тога, њена магија је јединствена осмишљавању духовима
Музика Ал гиганти задржавајући сопствени идентитет кроз Авдија, који полако Реве као себи да буде кандидат за једно од
Најбољи и најнеочекиванијим Ал године бумс.