Author: Lauren Leadingham

Filming has commenced in Los Angeles, CA on the latest feature film from director Denny Tedesco. His award-winning music documentary The Wrecking Crew shone an overdue spotlight on the most iconic session musicians of the ’60s, who backed practically every major American artist of the era including The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, and Sonny & Cher. Denny is the son of Wrecking Crew guitarist Tommy Tedesco. Immediate Family is something of a sequel to The Wrecking Crew, with Tedesco exhibiting another group of recording studio masters who have been at it from the early 1970s to present day: Danny…

I am very sad to announce that Neil Peart died in California this past Tuesday, January 7, due to complications from brain cancer. He was 67. Peart made his debut with Rush on the 1975 album Fly by Night. He stayed on as a prized drummer and primary songwriter, writing songs such as “New World Man,” “Subdivisions,” “Spirit of Radio,” “Limelight,” “Freewill,” and “The Trees.” Not only did he write those philosophical lyrics, but he played consummately to the respective emotion of each song behind his colossal double drum kit. When I think of drummers who are also songwriters, I…

There’s Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. And then there’s Jolie Holland: the present day éminence grise of the jazz-folk-blues vein, whose voice so exquisitely demarcates the difference between solid gold and Pinchbeck alloy. The singer/songwriter will be reissuing her first full-length studio album, Escondida, as a limited edition vinyl-only release on January 31st to commemorate its 15th anniversary. Pressed on 140-gram vinyl for optimal audio quality, Escondida will come as two 45RPM LPs.   “It’s been really interesting just looking back. I often think about everything that’s changed in the music industry, how that record was made,” Jolie tells…

Louis Armstrong once spoke about his hit song “What a Wonderful World,” lecturing, “It ain’t the world that’s so bad but what we’re doin’ to it. And all I’m saying is, see, what a wonderful world it would be if only we’d give it a chance.” And all I’m saying is, did we heed his exhortation to give way to a more peaceful world order? Jolie Holland and Booker T. Jones collaborated back in 2007 to commemorate then 40th anniversary of “What a Wonderful World,” originally penned by Bob Thiele and George David Weiss. The song proved succor for the…

“Tommy was the closest friend I’ve ever had in my life and he was truly a wonderful, unique person who was a natural entertainer and so much fun to be with. And I miss him terribly.”

We are saddened to learn that the Mississippi John Hurt Museum (his original home) was burned down early Wednesday morning “only hours after receiving landmark status.”

Dave, like ‘King of California,’ has stood the test of time.

At 75 years of age, Jack Casady allows no grass to grow under to his feet

With a guitar tone and vocal lassitude as pristine as they have ever been, J. Mascis has released his reworking of Tom Petty’s “Don’t Do Me Like That.” While putting his own twist on it, the Dinosaur Jr. frontman was careful to preserve the pith of the song, which is in its punch. Indeed, fills stay untampered with, notes are unwasted, and the overall rhythmic pattern just as it was in the original. The release comes almost a year after someone shot a video of Mascis singing the 1979 hit to a rather empty karaoke bar in Provincetown, Massachusetts with…

“You better be somewhat flexible. I’ve played all kinds of places, 300 people to 200,000. Basically, I treat it as another show. And the rest of it, they’re just life lessons.” – Dave Mason