Listening To I.V. Webb

I V Webb

While perusing my email, I came across a missive from Sarah T, asking if I could listen to some music from American artist I.V. Webb.  I did, and now I post.  I love listening to all music, and especially love stepping out of the mainstream and giving due to the myriad of outstanding artists in the world.  I.V. is now placed on that list.  The world of social media has indeed made the world of music a much more interesting place.

First, a bit about I.V..  This was taken from her website.

“I.V. Webb, native of New York, resident in London, a beautiful, unique and sometimes haunting voice that belongs everywhere, driven by restless, universal feelings. Deeply emotional, never sentimental, her work recalls not only the hues and shades but more importantly the pure spirit of greats such as Patti Smith, Sandy Denny and Chrissie Hynde.
Far from the formula of pop, sometimes calling on the bittersweet electric folk of underground Manhattan or windswept Celtic romance, her spiraling songs and poignant vocals are both testament to her skill and testimony of her experience.”

Lets listen to a couple of tunes.

This tune is titled “Speechless”

An interesting song, that builds as it goes.

The second song is called “In Mind”

Some Links

I.V. Webb on iTunes

I.V. Webb on Twitter

I.V. Webb on YouTube

I.V. Webb Home

Canada’s Best Music – 5 Songs At A Time – Part 29

A mix of old and new, from Gowan  to Plaskett, a good set.

1. Barenaked Ladies

“Jane”

Barenaked Ladies
Barenaked Ladies (Photo credit: Houston Marsh)

The Barenaked Ladies are a major Canadian success story.  Their cheeky style and interesting lyrics set them apart from most contemporaries.  This is their first entry on the best music list, the first of many.

2. Gowan

“Strange Animal”

Lawrence Gowan
Lawrence Gowan (Photo credit: OpalMirror)

A classic tune from a well-travelled artist.  He is the current lead singer for Styx.


3. Gandharvas

“Downtime”

Cover art for the album Sold for a Smile by Th...
Cover art for the album Sold for a Smile by The Gandharvas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Great song from the early 90’s.  Kick back and enjoy.

4. Chalk Circle

“NIMBY”

The Best of Chalk Circle
The Best of Chalk Circle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some classic 80’s rock, a bit mellow and not my favourite song by the band.

5. Joel Plaskett Emergency

“Natural Disaster”

Joel Plaskett Emergency Playing the Aliant Stage
Joel Plaskett Emergency Playing the Aliant Stage (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Love this band.  Prolific and good, a deadly combination.

Listening To Canadians – Scotty Newlands

Toronto born Canadian pop-rocker, Scotty Newlands has recently released a new disc titled “Starting Over”.  He was kind enough to send a copy of the album for me to review.  First, a bit of history behind the singer.

As noted, he was born in Toronto and has travelled a winding road to this point in his career.  His musical journey started out like many others.  The school choir and an introduction to an instrument at an early age.  In this case, he was 8 and began playing the clarinet.  In 2003 he was one of thousands to audition for Canadian Idol.  While he failed to make the final 11, he did gain valuable experience and contacts.  He released his first album, “New Roads” in 2009.

The album has a definite pop feel to it, heavily accented by a great singing voice.  Scotty shows great potential in this song.  It holds up well with comparable artists and should be be getting some airtime.  All in all, a nice listen.

The first song I have featured off the disc is titled “Don’t Wanna Get Over You”.  A nicely constructed tune, it features a strong vocal performance by the artist.

Don’t Wanna Get Over You

The second tune is called “Now That You’re Gone”.  This song features a repetitive back beat and again shows off Scotty’s range.  He advertises a 4 octave range and you can hear them in this song.  Very nice tone.

Now that You’re Gone

I’m liked the album in general and see something in Scotty that I really like.  If you want more, please hit the links.

Scotty on iTunes

Scotty’s Home Page

Scotty on Twitter

 

Canada’s Best Music – 5 Songs At A Time – Part 28

Heavy on the classic stuff again.  Canada did have a thriving cottage industry in music during the 70’s and 80’s.  There is also another trivia answer in here somewhere.

1. Five Man Electrical Band

“I’m a Stranger Here”

Five Man Electrical Band
Five Man Electrical Band (Photo credit: tab2space)

Another song from the group that brought us “Signs”.

2. Idle Eyes

“Tokyo Rose”

Another 80’s group that enjoyed moderate success in Canada, especially with this tune.  They won a Juno for most promising new group in 1985.

3. Indio

“Big Hard Sun”

[there’s a big] a big hard sun
[there’s a big] a big hard sun (Photo credit: [noone])
The trivia question.  Eddie Vedder covered this tune from Canadian singer-songwriter Indio.  Indio (Gordon Peterson) released 1 album in his career titled “Big Harvest” in 1989.  This was a hit in Canada and became worldwide after Eddie covered it.

4. Crash Vegas

Pocahontas

Red Earth (Crash Vegas album)
Red Earth (Crash Vegas album) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Kind of a depressing song from a very good band.  This song was released in 1994.


5. Ron Hynes

Sonny’s Dream

Ron Hynes at the Rose
Ron Hynes at the Rose (Photo credit: Kent Barrett)

Canadian folk singer Ron Hynes hit gold in 1976 with the Sonny’s Dream.  The song has become a standard and has been recorded by a multitude of artists around the world,  The version here is a live duet with Alan Doyle of the group Great Big Sea.

Song Of The Day – The Regulator – Clutch

Neil Fallon, lead-singer of the American Hard ...
Neil Fallon, lead-singer of the American Hard Rock band, Clutch (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Was perusing some tags on my phone and came across his one by Clutch.  This tune, “The Regulator” was used to close Season 2, Episode 8 of The Walking Dead.  If you haven’t caught this series, I highly recommend it.  I also highly recommend Clutch.  About the only negative I can come up with is that their song “Electric Worry” was used as a celebration goal song by the Vancouver Canucks, and I have an intense dislike for that hockey team.

 

The Regulator

 

 

 

 

Song Of The Day – The Raconteurs – Steady, As She Goes

 

English: Jack White of the Raconteurs performi...
English: Jack White of the Raconteurs performing at the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver B.C in April of 2008. Photo shot by Kris Krug. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Jack White, repeat after me, Jack White just can’t make a mistake.  The Raconteurs are one of his multitude of projects.  This tune comes from the vault, 2006 I believe.  Jack is the vocalist and guitarist in this song.  “Steady, As She Goes” pretty much sums up his style.  The band is still active, but, as member Brendan Benson said in a 2010 interview, they are ambiguous.  No matter, it is the music that counts and this band has a great sound.  Besides White and Benson, the other members are Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler.  All have a pedigree within the music world, all are outstanding musicians.  Time to rock.  Check out the links for more.

 

The Raconteurs Home

 

The Raconteurs on iTunes

 

The Raconteurs on Last FM

 

 

 

Music Trivia – It’s Answer Day – September 23, 2012

 

Welcome to the bestowing of the coveted “I won the Music Trivia Question for the Day, I tried  to make a speech, to shut me up they gave me this award” Award.

 

The question was:

 

Who’s real name was Frederick Bulsara?

 

The answer:

 

Freddie Mercury

 

Freddie Mercury: Queen live in Hannover, Germa...
Freddie Mercury: Queen live in Hannover, Germany 1979 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Freddie was born in 1946 as Farrokh (Frederick) Bulsara.  He was born in Zanzibar and grew up there and in India until his teens, when he moved to the UK.  The rest is history.

 

Here is vintage Queen from 1973, a live version of “Keep Yourself Alive” taken from their first album.

 

Keep Yourself Alive

 

 

I say bestowing as the answer was given in about 18 seconds to El Guapo

 

Perchance this was too easy of a question, or perhaps El Guapo is a musical genius.  This of course means that A Gripping Life had a short but, interesting reign as the goddess of music trivia.  Congratulations El G, you have a chance to consolidate your kingdom on Wednesday.

 

To the new champ, El Guapo,his first win!

 

Music Trivia Question for the Day – September 17, 2012

English: The Beatles wave to fans after arrivi...
English: The Beatles wave to fans after arriving at Kennedy Airport. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The previous question was:

Q: In the song “A Day In The Life” by the Beatles, there is a line referring to a particular place.  What is Blackburn, Lancashire and why does it have 4,000 holes in it?

The answer is:

John Lennon wrote the song and read newspapers to gather some of the snippets in the song.  The Daily Mail on January 7, 1967 had an article about the town of Blackburn, Lancashire having a plan to fill 4,000 potholes.  The Albert Hall came from his imagination and the connector in the line “Now we know how many holes it takes to FILL the Albert Hall came from his friend Terry Dornan.  Up till then he had no idea other than something ____the Albert Hall.

A Day In The Life

AND WE HAVE A WINNER

A Gripping Life answered the question first and correct.  And she is the proud recipient of the Rebecca (LadyorNot) designed award,  Display it proudly and be ready to defend your title.

A Gripping Life – 1 win

Today’s question will move off the Beatles and move towards Elvis, well Sun Records anyway.

Q: Sun Records is famous for Sam Phillips discovering and recording Elvis, among others.  What was the first song released by Sun, and by who?

Canada’s Best Music – 5 Songs At A Time – Part 27

An interesting set, heavy on the Guess Who and alumni, all classic rock with a trivia question in waiting, so pay attention.

1. Guess Who

“Shakin’ All Over”

Cover of "American Woman: The Story of th...
Cover via Amazon

This is the trivia question.  The Guess Who’s singer at the outset was not Burton Cummings, it was Chad Allan.  This cover, released in the USA and Canada in 1965, by a band called The Guess Who? (yes a question mark). This was an attempt to disguise the real band and maybe to make it look like a British Invasion band.  The band’s name at the time was Chad Allan and the Expressions.  After the success of this song and the album it was on, the band was renamed permanently as the Guess Who.  Chad had some throat issues and was replaced by Burton Cummings (a Peter Best moment) and the rest is history.  Chad actually had 2 Peter Best moments as he was also part of a band with Randy Bachman called Brave Belt.  After he left the band, it became Bachman Turner Overdrive, and the rest is, once again, history.


2. Chilliwack

“Crazy Talk”

English: Bill Henderson (lead singer and guita...
English: Bill Henderson (lead singer and guitarist for Chilliwack) taken in Merritt, BC, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A bit of gibberish from one of Canada’s best classic rock bands.

3. Harlequin

“Thinking of You”

English: Harlequin year 1671 Italiano: Arlecch...
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Continuing on a very Winnipeg based set, we have a band I used to see regularly in bars all over Winnipeg.  Come to think of it, Winnipeg in the 70’s and 80’s was a crazy great place for live music.


4. BTO

“Roll On Down the Highway”

Bachman–Turner Overdrive Gold
Bachman–Turner Overdrive Gold (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And some more Winnipeg.  The kings of classic rock with a live version of another anthem.


5. Burton Cummings

“My Own Way to Rock”

Burton Cummings of The Guess Who
Burton Cummings of The Guess Who (Photo credit: Protest Photos1)

And a final Winnipeg connection.  The smooth voice of Burton Cummings with another anthem from the 80’s.

Song of The Day – Sufjan Stevens – "Chicago"

 

 

Sufjan Stevens - The Wiltern - October 24, 2010
Sufjan Stevens – The Wiltern – October 24, 2010 (Photo credit: starbright31)

 

 

Today’s pick is a great tune by Sufjan Stevens and his song from a few years back  (2005) “Chicago” and is a track off his album “Illinois”.  Born in Detroit, his music  combines elements of spirituality (Christianity?) with electronica and a familiar folk style.  This song has a couple of good hooks and a catchy chorus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chicago