Hope to see you there!!!

Stosh

I discovered his amazing talent while I was practicing my trumpet yesterday. He only sings along to music, otherwise he is pretty shy, and doesn’t make a peep.

We lost a great musical figure yesterday, Levon Helm. If you don’t know who Levon is he is most famous as the drummer from The Band. If you don’t know who The Band is then you got a lot of great music to hear for the first time.

Discovering The Band for me is such a great memory. Hanging with my college buddies. I was 19, and I heard The Weight (Typical I know). I had heard it many times before, but only in the background of my existence. Hearing it this time I listened. I remember thinking that this is the best song I have ever heard, and It definitely was one of the first songs that made me want to write a song. I eventually listened to every Band record 1000 times since then. They are Class A rock’n'roll.

Levon didn’t just play the drums. He sang his ass off. Butch Walker just tweeted “you could hear Heaven and Hell In his voice.” You sure could Butch. Levon sang while he played the drums too, not many people could do that well.

Levon Made some great solo albums. There all collections of badass musicians playing straight ahead good music.Here is a picture of the 2 that are in the collection, but the one I wanted to share seems to be missing. Maybe it was never mine to begin with.

My favorite Levon Hem album is Levon Helm & the RCO All-Stars

All top notch musicians. just take a look at this list http://www.allmusic.com/album/levon-helm-the-rco-all-stars-r40366/credits. My choice cut is “You Got Me.” I think this is a good display of Levon’s incredible phrasing and emotion. Enjoy!

Part of the reason I do this weekly album review, is to bring awareness to a ton of amazing musicians that inspired me. Not just the artists that made the album’s, but also the sidemen who created the sounds you hear.

Help be a part of making music about musician’s again. Not just singers and DJ’s.

This weeks album Willie Nelson, Red Headed Stranger.

I was first introduced to this album by my college roommate, and good friend to this day, Tim Sonnifeld. I’m not sure if I mentioned that I wasn’t really into anything but Jazz and Fusion with the exeption of two bands (Steely Dan and Earth Wind And Fire) until I was about 18 and got into the Beatles. To me Willie Nelson was a music icon, but I didn’t know his music. I never really thought of it as country music, but that’s exactly what Willie is. Real Country music in it’s purest form. Over the past 13 years I have become a true country fan, and It all started with The Red Headed Stranger

I heard Willie say in an interview that he wrote the whole album on a long car ride. You can definitely hear that in the way the music flows from song to song. It tells the classic tale of man loves woman, woman cheats on man, man kills woman and lover.

The back sleeve has an old western comic book layout. Each picture had a group of lyrics from a song on the album that fits perfectly

Choice tracks are “Blue Eyes Cring In The Rain.” This song is so very classic in it’s essence. It’s possibly a perfect song. Just the title is amazing, and beautiful. I would also like to point out “Hands on the wheel.” This song is so simple and well written. On a side note. I heard a great version of this song by Norah Jones on Austin City Limits. She kills it, and it really shows what a great song it is.

That’s my review for this week. I would usually suggest a documentary to watch at this point but I think I will do that in a separate post.

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Talk to you all soon.
-Goodfeather

http://sickydicky.tunestub.com/markmusic

I have another great album to talk about this week so I’m just gonna jump right in.

I’m not into the “who’s your favorite band?” question. I don’t believe in having one favorite band, there is just too much good music out there. I won’t shy away from an answer though. If I am in the situation that I must give an answer to the favorite band question I always mention a few. That list may shift around a little, but one band will always be on it. The Cars

The price tag says 99 cents

This album is so great. First of all, every song is a hit. You will still hear 8 out of the 10 songs on the radio today. They were considered a New Wave band, but I feel like they offered so much more musically than any other band at that time, with the exception of The Talking Heads.

All songs were written by vocalist guitarist Ric Ocasek. Ric is one of my biggest musical influences both as a songwriter and producer.

I had the amazing opportunity to meet and play music with Ric Ocasek.

The musicanship in this band is incredible. All such strong players

Ric Ocasek, Benjamin Orr, Greg Hawkes, David Robinson, Elliot Easton

The guitar playing of Elliot Easton is not something to be overlooked, yet sadly it is. Elliot Easton should be more well known. Listen to the solo on “Just what I needed” It’s so virtuosic for a rock album. You can hear jazz influences in his playing. Also check out the chicken picking part he fit into best friends girl at the end of the chorus.

Also worth mentioning is the brilliant synth work of Greg Hawkes. For that I would suggest listening to his work on “bye bye love” one of my personal favorite tracks on the Album.

Again, there is much more I can say about The Cars self titled album, but I have to stop somewhere. I have some good music that I’ll continue to put out as often as possible.

One last note. I will be performing live on May 5, 2012 at the Malibu Inn in Malibu Ca. You can contact me for tickets markmusichorns@gmail.com. I will have more info on this very soon.

-Goodfeather