Author: Lauren Leadingham

Sam Cooke, the King of Soul, would have turned 89 today. Accordingly, on January 24th, ABKCO Music & Records will launch a yearlong campaign leading up to the 90th anniversary of his birth with the release of The Complete Keen Years (1957 – 1960) CD Box Set. ABKCO announces a series of eight vinyl editions, including several Tracey Limited titles back in print restored with the original artwork. This box set anthologizes Cooke’s body of work during the years he spent with John and Alex Siamas’s Keen label from 1957 to 1960. Sam had seen great success as a gospel…

For some of us, including myself, the nostalgia of the ‘90s will live on forever. One of the bands that rouse my sentiment for the decade is Spin Doctors. The 1991 album Pocket Full of Kryptonite was paradigmatic of just how musically dynamic the ‘90s could be. The Spins’ melange of pop hooks, funk, neo-hippie jam, rock, and blues, turned the alternative world on its ear. And I know my ears still perk up at the intro drum fill of “Two Princes” every time, like clockwork.  The girl in me, with sloppy braids daydreaming out the car window to a Pocket…

“It was so beautiful it went up in flames,” Robbie Robertson says of the Band’s story. From executive producers Martin Scorsese, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard and director Daniel Roher is the latest Band documentary, which touches extensively on Robertson’s own journey. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band comes to theaters on February 21. Also interviewed are Robertson’s collaborators and friends: Bruce Springsteen, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Scorsese himself, and others. “Once Were Brothers” refers to a song on Robbie’s sixth solo album, Sinematic, which features Citizen Cope and Frederic Yonnet. Magnolia Pictures trailer: https://youtu.be/ZYTpMZjZxwI

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.