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Saturday, December 5, 2009
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Gregg Allman's Fall 2009/Winter 2010 Tour
Gregg Allman: Fall 2009/Winter 2010 Tour After closing out the current and final leg of The Allman Brothers Band year-long 40th Anniversary celebratory U.S. tour, Gregg Allmanwill head back out on the road for an array of solo dates this winter. The iconic singer, songwriter, keyboardist, and guitarist begins his traditional fall tour November 11 in Salamanca, NY, followed by a select run of shows that will include a New Year's Eve show in Rhode Island. Joining Gregg on the tour will be Bruce Katz (keyboard), Jerry Jemmott (bass), Steve Potts (drums), Scott Sharrard (guitar), Jay Collins (sax) and Floyd Miles (percussion). “The Brothers had a great run this summer. I'm gonna stretch these solo shows out a bit, try some new material and just do what I do,” says Gregg. Gregg Allman Tour Dates |
Gregg Allman Sings with Tim McGraw on Jay Leno's Show
Tim McGraw gets help from Greg Allman
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 – Tim McGraw has sung with non-country singers like Nelly, and now he's done it with a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer. McGraw was joined by Greg Allman for a performance on The Jay Leno Show on Tuesday, Oct. 27. The two performed McGraw's new single Southern Voice (from his new album with the same title) in which he name-checks the Allman Brothers Band in the lyrics:
"Smooth as the hickory wind
That blows from Memphis
Down to Appalachicola
It's hi ya'll did ya eat well
Come on in I'm
Sure glad to know ya
Don't let this old gold cross
An' this Allman Brothers t-shirt throw ya
It's cicadas making noise
With the southern voice."
That blows from Memphis
Down to Appalachicola
It's hi ya'll did ya eat well
Come on in I'm
Sure glad to know ya
Don't let this old gold cross
An' this Allman Brothers t-shirt throw ya
It's cicadas making noise
With the southern voice."
'Florida Rocks Again!' Radio program, Internet podcast features 1960s acts from Northwest Florida
'Florida Rocks Again!'
Radio program, Internet podcast features 1960s acts from Northwest Florida
The Sandpipers, a Pensacola girl group from the 1960s, performs with the Allman Joys as its backing band in March 1966. Greg Allman plays the keyboards and Duane Allman is the second male from the left behind the Sandpipers. The Allman Joys would later become the Allman Brothers. The most recent edition of “Florida Rocks Again!.” Episode No. 41 features Pensacola bands and artist from the 1960s - including the Sandpipers. (News Journal file photo)
'Florida Rocks Again!' Talk about paying your dues. Long before Duane and Gregg Allman found fame with the Allman Brothers, they were playing second fiddle to three school girls from Pensacola. The brothers band, the Allman Joys, rambled into Pensacola for a two-week gig at the Sahara club in Warrington in the mid-1960s. But the club owner wanted the Sandpipers, a teen girl group from Pensacola, to play the club as well. "He had the Allman Joys back us up," said former Sandpiper Charlyne Kilpatrick, now 58 and an escrow officer for a local law firm. "They were told to practice with us. They just got here and were told we'd be in after school." The music scene of that time has gotten new life thanks to "Florida Rocks Again!" a radio program and Internet podcast. The 41st episode of the program features music from 25 rock and rhythm and blues acts from Northwest Florida in the 1960s. The program sheds light on one of the high-water marks in Pensacola's musical history, when every neighborhood had a band or two practicing in the garage, and every weekend teenagers packed places like Fireman's Hall or the National Guard Armory in Pensacola to dance to the latest sounds. Bands featured in the program include The Phatons, The Dickens, 13th Hourglass, the Laymen, Johnny Dynamite, the Kords, James & Bobby Purify, Gwen McCrae and the Sandpipers. "Back in the '60s, no matter the neighborhood, there was always a band practicing with the garage door open," said Pensacola attorney Tommy Ratchford, vocalist for the 13th Hourglass and Soul Seven during the decade. "And every weekend, there was a dance. But people didn't dance to records. They danced to bands." "Florida Rocks Again!" debuted in 2003, but this is the first episode dedicated to music from the Panhandle. "The music from the Pensacola area is right up there with any from across the state," said Jeff Lemlich, a Deltona resident, who is one of the show's producers. "I think it was one of the great undiscovered scenes in the country at that time." Soul music Some local acts, such as the Purifys and Gwen McCrae, scored minor hits. Most of the groups never made an impact outside of Northwest Florida and faded into obscurity. Their music lingers in dusty used record stores, where Lemlich picked up many of the 45 rpm records used for the show. Ratchford, 60 remembers the recording session for the 13th Hourglass' version of the Spencer Davis Group's "Keep On Running," which the Pensacola band recorded in a converted home studio in Memphis in the summer of 1967. Besides the 13th Hourglass, local acts the Dickens and Johnny Dynamite were at the same studio to record songs. "We all had to stay in the slums, because we had a black guy (Dynamite) with us and most places wouldn't permit us to stay there," Ratchford said. "It was quite an experience." Ratchford and some of his band members also provided backing vocals to the Dynamite track "Fruit From Another Man's Tree." "You had three white guys pretending to be black chicks," Ratchford said. "At the end, you hear us 'Fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit.' " But music was becoming more integrated in the 1960s. Many credit "Papa" Don Schroeder, who produced James and Bobby Purify, for introducing many white Pensacolians to music made by black artists. "We were trying to turn white people on to what we loved — soul music," said Schroeder, 68. "I wanted to get black people and white people together. That's what it was all about." Ratchford said Schoeder's musical reach was all encompassing — he was a disc jockey, producers, club owner and promoter. "Papa Don made the '60s the '60s in Pensacola," Ratchford said. "It wouldn't have been the '60s without him." Ratchford now sings vocals with the Laymen, who continue to perform locally. "Those were the best days of my life," Ratchford said. "I had no responsibility, I was making money ... How could life be any better?" The Sandpipers Kilpatrick also has warm memories of her pop-rock past, singing with her sister, Debbie Kilpatrick, and their friend, Sally Hirst. The trio formed in 1965 when they were all members of Warrington Junior High's Glee Club. The Allman Joys might have been perturbed at being asked to back the young girls, but they soon became fans as well. The Allmans invited the trio to New York City, where the Sandpipers played at the legendary Greenwich Village club Trudy Heller's. "We were doing two and three shows a night in New York, but then we had to come home and go to school," Kilpatrick said. "I failed algebra because of this. Sally did too." The trio disbanded shortly after another group calling itself the Sandpipers scored a hit with "Guantanamera" in late 1966. The Pensacola Sandpipers performed a reunion show in 2003 — without, of course, the Allman Brothers, who are now in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Duane Allman died in 1971. What was Kilpatrick's take on the Allmans? "They were skinny and ugly," she said.
November 1, 2009
Radio program, Internet podcast features 1960s acts from Northwest Florida
Troy Moon
tmoon@pnj.com
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Concert Vault: Free live recordings on your iPhone
The free ConcertVault iPhone app gives you streaming access to hundreds of live recordings.
Wolfgang's Vault is an online archive containing hundreds of high-quality concert recordings, mostly from big classic-rock artists like The Who and U2, but with a few newer artists, such as The Walkmen, thrown in as well. (Here's a complete list of performers whose recordings are available on the service.)
Last month, Wolfgang released an updated version of itsmuch-lauded free iPhone application, Concert Vault, which gives you access to these amazing shows directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch.
The update adds a couple minor features, including a list of featured concerts--helpful for keeping track of shows that have been recently added to the vault--and fixes some reported problems with stuttering and stalling.
I've been listening to the Who's 1973 performances of "Quadrophenia" over a 3G connection for the last half hour, and so far, the app--and the band--are both performing flawlessly. This is a worthy update to a must-have download for live music fans.
Musicians ditch studios for tech such as GiO for Macs
By Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Forty years ago atWoodstock, Jimi Hendrix stirred the crowd with a rocking version of the American national anthem, full of stinging feedback provided by the walls of Marshall tube amplifiers behind him.
Today, Bob Robles can get similar sounds just by plugging his guitar into an Apple laptop.
"The sound quality is amazing," says Robles, a Los Angeles studio musician. "I'm just blown away by it."
Apple has cranked up its offerings for musicians of all kinds — especially guitarists. After a January revamp of its popular GarageBand program, the music-editing software bundled into its iLife suite, guitarists can plug their instruments directly into a Mac via a guitar-to-USB cable and rock out with five simulated amp sounds.
In July, Apple released advanced software ($499 Logic Studio and $199 Logic Express) that includes even more amp and guitar combinations — 25 in all.
And this week, veteran audio gear manufacturer Apogee lets guitarists control their sound hands-free with the launch of the $395 GiO for Mac computers. It lets you tap controls with your feet, like those guitar pedals favored by guitarists going back to Hendrix and his Wah-Wah pedal.
Marrying musical instruments with computers isn't new. For years, musicians have been able to connect with a variety of interfaces, mixers and other tools for making music. But once connected, musicians had to fiddle with a computer mouse and space bar to control the recording process.
"Now you're free to play," says Sean McArthur, director of marketing for Apogee.
Peter Thorn, a Los Angeles guitarist who is currently in Eagle Don Henley's touring group, has used the GiO and says the big advantage is being able to keep his hands on the guitar and not the mouse.
"It's just really cool to be able to do it all with your feet, on the floor," he says.
Apple's GarageBand is far and away the most popular program for creating and recording music on the computer, since it's free and shipped with every new Mac. It was introduced in 2004. (If you have an older Mac and don't have GarageBand '09, you'll need to fork over $79 for the current iLife suite.)
Music software like GarageBand and higher-end programs like Logic, Avid's Pro Tools and Steinberg Media's Cubase have totally revamped how music is made. Bands no longer need to hole up in studios for days. They can record directly to laptops and hand off recorded files to their producers.
Music software sales are booming, according to the National Association of Music Merchants, which represents music shops. Revenue grew to almost $500 million in 2008, from $140 million in 1999.
(Note to guitar players: Besides the axe and software, you'll also need a USB-to-guitar interface cable, and they're not cheap, averaging around $100.)
Veteran producer Tony Berg (Bob Dylan, Squeeze, Aimee Mann) says 80% of the acts he works with now record music at home, with software such as Logic and ProTools.
As a producer, he doesn't mind if the track didn't come from his session. He just takes the tracks and adds them to his final mix later.
"It's their first vision," Berg says, "And it's that spontaneous act of recording that you could never duplicate. If it sounds good, and it grooves, and it complements the song, then nothing else matters."
Back in the 1960s, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones famously heard the opening riff to (I Can't Get No)Satisfaction in his head while sleeping, quickly awoke and sang it into a tape recorder. He then went back to sleep and worked on the song when he woke up.
Now, in country music mecca Nashville, many songwriters begin by recording demos with the internal mikes on MacBooks, says Nashville-based music producer Nathan Chapman, who has produced songs for best-selling artist Taylor Swift. "They record the first version of the song that way, and then re-record it later."
Guitarists who do session work or collaborate with others, like Robles, don't even have to bother re-recording a track later. Robles says plugging his Fender Stratocaster straight into the Mac gives him what he needs and is a huge time and money saver.
"If I get an idea, I don't have to book a studio, hire an engineer and pay an hourly fee to record it," says the guitarist, who has performed with Jackson Browne, Natalie Cole and Lyle Lovett. "Now I just record it directly into GarageBand or Logic, save the file and send it off."
Friday, October 2, 2009
TGIF - West, GaGa & Letterman
It's Friday... Does anyone really care that the Kanye West / Lady GaGa tour was cancelled? Everyone can spend their money on something else... Did 62 year old David Letterman really think that women who work for him want to sleep with him? He's 62, married and on television every night. Like no one would ever find out? Don't know his wife, but I'm sure she ain't too happy...
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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