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MONDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: blues

blues stories: 14 news summaries

(Newser) - Some complain about the explicit lyrics in rap, but modern MCs have nothing on early-20th-century blues singers. Compared to them, “the members of NWA are levelheaded concerned citizens,” says Cracked. A sampling:
  • "A to Z Blues," Blind Willie McTell, 1956: "I'm gonna cut A,
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
entertainment • music • murder • list • rap music • lyrics • blues • sexually explicit

MUSIC REVIEW

 Jack White's 
 New Band 
 Opens Strong 

Jack White's latest effort confirms his reign as king of the blues-rockers

Jul 13, 09 1:08 PM CDT
(Newser) - Jack White’s rise to stardom in the postmillennial world of the struggling blues rocker is “remarkable,” and he continues to “honor the blues’ authenticity” while also exploiting its “capacity for mythology” with his third project, writes Stuart Berman for Pitchfork. On Horehound, the Dead Weather—... More »

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entertainment • music • album release • blues • music review • White Stripes • Jack White • Jay-ZTV • The Dead Weather • Alison Mossheart • The Kills • Raconteurs • Queens of the Stone Age

 Blues Queen 
 Koko Taylor 
 Dead at 80 

Blues world mourns loss of Chicago legend

Jun 4, 09 6:34 AM CDT
(AP) - Koko Taylor, a sharecropper's daughter whose regal bearing and powerful voice earned her the sobriquet "'Queen of the Blues," has died after complications from surgery, the AP reports. She was 80. The Memphis-born singer died at a Chicago hospital about two weeks after surgery for a gastrointestinal bleed,... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Chicago • obituary • singer • blues • Koko Taylor

glossies

 Kind of Blue 
 Still the Gold 
 Standard at 50 

Topselling jazz album helped redefine American music

Jan 31, 09 5:27 PM CST
(Newser) - Fifty years to the day since its debut, Miles Davis’ signature album Kind of Blue remains beautiful and inviting—"like meeting an old friend," Malcolm Jones writes in Newsweek. The record helped jazz earn its title as America’s classical music and remains the bestselling jazz album ever.... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • jazz • musician • Miles Davis • blues

OPINION

 Best Overlooked Albums of '08 

Catfish Haven and El Perro Del Mar in top 10

Dec 26, 08 2:15 PM CST
(Newser) - Catfish Haven's Devastator tops Spin's year-end list of overlooked albums. George Hunter's "old-soul blues exposes other rock'n'roll kings as pretenders to the crown." The top 10:
  1. Catfish Haven, Devastator: Hunter's voice is "a husky amalgam of Joe Cocker's world-weary croon and Bill Medley's baritone bombast."
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • Brazil • rock and roll • blues • album • Best of 2008 • El Perro Del Mar

Glossies

 Eastwood's 
 First Love: 
 Jazz Piano 

Love, not practice, evinced in movies and performance

Dec 15, 08 3:09 PM CST
(Newser) - Growing up, Clint Eastwood had an affinity for piano but no money for lessons. He nurtured his passion for jazz throughout his life, Nick Tosches writes in Vanity Fair, and has written music for almost every picture he’s directed, including the theme for his recent Gran Torino. But, Eastwood... More »

MORE ABOUT:
Clint Eastwood • jazz • blues • movies • Carnegie Hall • rhythm and blues

(Newser) - Chicago has bid adieu to old blues music and welcomed a new legion of players, many foreign-born, who are transforming the city's low-down tradition, the Christian Science Monitor reports. Largely abandoned by blacks, the blues has moved from Chicago's shuttered South- and West-Side clubs to the friendlier, gentrified North Side—... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • Chicago • blues

 You Are Your Music: Study

Study says music reflects our personalities

Sep 6, 08 6:11 PM CDT
(Newser) - Our favorite music speaks volumes about who we are, according to a new psychological study. It turns out that Indie fans are miserable, and metal heads act a lot like classical music lovers. The Independent breaks down personalities by genre:  
  • Indie: Low self-esteem and lazy, not to
... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • classical music • list • psychology • country music • rap music • reggae • heavy metal • blues • rock music • survey • dance music • indie rock

 Guitar Whiz Has Underage Blues

Club gigs violate child labor laws, state officials say

Aug 13, 08 1:13 PM CDT
(Newser) - An 8-year-old guitar prodigy's nightclub gigs have put him on the wrong side of the law in Wisconsin. Officials were alerted to Tallan "T-Man" Latz's child-labor-law-breaking performances by an anonymous email—perhaps from a jealous older musician—and barred him from clubs, reports the AP. But Latz, who has... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • Wisconsin • guitar • child prodigies • blues • Tallan "T-Man" Latz

Rock Rolls
With Bluegrass

Plant and Krauss
make an unlikely duo but still make beautiful music on tour

Jun 19, 08 2:46 PM CDT
(Newser) - He's a howling rock god; she's a fiddlin' bluegrass queen. It sounds like an odd pairing, but Robert Plant and Alison Krauss weave haunting harmonies on tour, reports Rolling Stone. The duo admits they struggled to find the right groove while performing Led Zep covers and R&B classics... More »

MORE ABOUT:
music • Rolling Stone • Robert Plant • Alison Krauss • blues • concert tour

Appreciation

 Bo Diddley's
 Beat Sure
 to Carry 

No moment of silence possible for rock's 'Originator'

Jun 3, 08 12:21 PM CDT
(Newser) - You can’t have a moment of silence for Bo Diddley, J. Freedom du Lac writes in the Washington Post. It’s not that the music world hasn’t lost a great pioneer—it surely has. It’s that the mere mention of Diddley’s name sets your feet tapping... More »

MORE ABOUT:
death • rock and roll • musician • Mick Jagger • blues • Bo Diddley

 Bo Diddley 
 Dead at 79  

Innovator could never capitalize on his status

Jun 2, 08 1:14 PM CDT
(Newser) - Rock and roll pioneer Bo Diddley, who made his first recordings in 1955 and was still touring last year, died today at 79, the AP reports. The singer and guitarist, born Ellas Bates in Mississippi in 1928, not only pioneered distorted guitar tones; his bragging, syncopated style foreshadowed rap as... More »

MORE ABOUT:
death • heart failure • rock and roll • musician • blues • Bo Diddley

MUSIC REVIEW

 Keys' Attack Releases Old Rut 

Garage band figures out how to expand

Apr 2, 08 10:33 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Black Keys had hoped collaborating with Ike Turner would finally push the band out of its tired “garage minimalism,” writes Pitchfork’s Roque Strew. Though Ike died in December, the band already had material that expanded its sound. Attack & Release is its “most adventurous album... More »

MORE ABOUT:
minimalism • Ike Turner • blues • music review • Black Keys • Danger Mouse • Gnarls Barkley • Attack & Release

NEW RELEASE

Critics Split on Jukebox

Some love Cat Power's 2nd covers record; others dismiss it

Jan 22, 08 3:17 PM CST
(Newser) - Indie crooner Cat Power's second album of covers is dividing critics. Many agree that Jukebox is a state-of-the-career effort, but they part ways on where the musician (real name: Chan Marshall) stands. After transforming from blues folkie to soul singer and overcoming depression, the Marshall who “savored” her songs... More »

MORE ABOUT:
depression • Bob Dylan • Hank Williams • Chan Marshall • Cat Power • soul • blues • music review

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