The latest artist to challenge traditional country music is Orville Peck. Self-identified as queer and performs with his face obscured with an elaborate mask, Peck delivers a modern twist to his classic country influenced sound on his debut album, "Pony". His mug is not the only thing the singer is keeping covered as he has not publicly revealed his background beyond that "Orville Peck" is a pseudonym, he is from Canada and that he's older than twenty and younger than forty. However, in this day and age, nothing can remain secret for long. It has been uncovered that he is Daniel Pitout who was once the drummer of the Canadian punk band, Nu Sensae.
But let's keep the focus on his music. The collection of songs on "Pony" were inspired through many of his life experiences and some of the interesting folks he met along the way. Peck wants to challenge heteronormative expectations while offering a bold, alternative voice to country music. And with that, I think he has fully succeeded. The visuals are just as important to Peck as his music, as you can tell by these stylish music videos from this exciting new artist:
The identical Canadian alt-rockers, Tegan and Sara have been making music together for almost twenty-five years since they were young girls. The now thirty-nine year old musicians have just released a memoir, “High School” which looks back on their childhood and early musical beginnings. Each twin wrote alternating chapters from their own point of view.
And Tegan and Sara have also released their ninth studio album called “Hey, I’m Just Like You”. This record came together as they were writing the book when they found old cassette demo recordings they had made between the ages of fifteen to seventeen. The sisters decided to bring these unreleased songs to life. While they did do a little rewriting, Tegan and Sara kept the essence of those raw teenage emotions and re-recorded these songs with a mature production. It’s a really interesting concept and returns the duo back to their indie-rock roots. Have a listen to a couple of track I really like:
Alabama Shakes, the blues rock band, broke out in 2012 with their critically acclaimed debut, "Boys & Girls". After an extensive tour to promote that album, the group's follow-up, "Sound & Color" helped make Alabama Shakes even bigger. The album debuted in the US at number one, reached the top ten in several countries and won the band four Grammy Awards.
Following all of this success, the band's dynamic guitarist and lead vocalist, Brittany Howard decided to take a step back and put the band on hiatus so she could explore her own musical pursuits. She and her wife, Jesse Lafser hit the road, traveling around the country to experience modern-day America. This road trip lead to the Southern-based singer's first solo album, "Jamie" with the title named after her sister who passed away from a rare form of cancer as a teenager. With this record, Howard was inspired to go deeper in to her personal history and viewpoints to create her music. She also incorporates a little jazz, funk and hip-hop in to her songs. This is an exciting and bold new work from Howard. Here are a couple of tracks including the funky single, "Stay High" with the music video featuring actor Terry Crews:
For his fifth solo project, "Jimmy Lee", Saadiq has created a concept album that is deeply personal. The record is named after his brother who had contracted H.I.V. and later died from a drug overdose. The songs, inspired by other family losses in his life from addiction and tragedy, features the inventive production you expect from Saadiq yet the lyrics have a deep emotional complexity that you don't usually find in his work. Here is the clip for the single, "Something Keeps Calling" featuring Rob Bacon and a mini-documentary with Saadiq discussing the creation of his art and latest album:
Eddie Money, the working-class rocker who found chart success in the 1970's and '80's, passed away on September 13th due to complications from esophageal cancer.
He was born Edward Mahoney in Brooklyn, NY and raised on Long Island. As teenager, he performed with several rock bands but after graduating from high school, Mahoney decided to follow in the family tradition and become a police officer. He briefly worked as a trainee at the NYPD before realizing he needed to follow his true passion; music.
In 1968, Mahoney moved to Berkeley, CA., changed his name to "Eddie Money" and played the club scene in the Bay Area. He struggled for a number of years to get noticed until his first big break came when he met music promoter, Bill Graham who helped get the fledgling singer signed to Columbia Records. Money's self-titled debut album was released in 1977 and became an immediate success, selling over two million copies, thanks to the top-forty singles, "Baby Hold On" and "Two Tickets To Paradise".
He would continue to enjoy popularity until the early 1980's when Money's career began to decline due to the distraction of his increased drug abuse. The singer made a major comeback in 1986 with the single, "Take Me Home Tonight". With the label taking more creative control of his music, Money was given this demo to perform which he didn't really like. But he was intrigued by a line in the song taken from The Ronnettes' classic 1963 hit, "Be My Baby". Money managed to track down and convince the then-retired Ronnie Spector to sing on the track. That would help make this tune Money's highest charting single, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and revitalize Spector's music career.
Money made an appearance on an episode of the Netflix series, "The Kominsky Method" last year and on "Real Money", a reality show that featured him and his family on AXS TV. He had also recently recorded a new album called, "Brand New Day" which was scheduled to be released last July but it was put on hold following his stage four cancer diagnosis. Listen to two of my favorites songs from the dynamic Eddie Money:
RIC OCASEK (1944 - 2019)
The co-creator, writer, guitarist and voice behind the new-wave rock band, The Cars, Ric Ocasek passed away on September 15th. He died of natural causes at the apparent age of seventy-five since there has been some dispute over the actual year of Ocasek's birth. Ocasek and his band had been just inducted in to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last year.
Ocasek was born and raised in Baltimore, MD but his family moved to Cleveland, OH when he was sixteen. He had begun college in the state but dropped out after deciding he wanted to seriously pursue music. He met Benjamin Orr, a bass player and vocalist, and they formed a rock band together. The duo relocated to Boston and became a folk-rock group called, Milkwood which featured future Cars member, keyboardist Greg Hawkes. They did record one album but it failed to chart. The three musicians would become a part of other bands where they would meet guitarist Elliot Easton and drummer, David Robinson with them all becoming The Cars in 1976.
After signing with Elektra Records in 1977, The Cars released their self-titled debut the following year. With their unique sound that combined punk, rockabilly and power-pop, The Cars became noticed almost instantaneously and found chart success with such songs like, "Just What I Needed", "Let's Go", "You Might Think", "Magic", "My Best Friend's Girl", "Tonight She Comes" and "Good Times Roll" before the band called it quits in 1988. Each member went on to pursue individual musical endeavors with Ocasek recording seven solo albums with his most successful being his second in 1986, "This Side Of Paradise". The surviving members of The Cars (Orr passed away in 2000) would reunite in 2010 with an album, "Move Like This" and a tour.
Ocasek is survived by six sons, two from each of his three marriages and his third wife, model Paulina Porzikova who he met in 1984 during the shooting of the music video for The Cars' biggest hit single, "Drive" and they married in 1989. But after almost thirty years of marriage, the couple had separated in 2017.
For the soundtrack for the upcoming reboot of "Charlie's Angels", Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey have been impressively assembled for the first single, "Don't Call Me Angel". The ladies co-wrote this empowering track with producers, Max Martin and Ilya and this theme song is clearly inspired by Destiny's Child's "Independent Women" from the first "Charlie's Angels" film. Yet "Don't Call Me Angel" lacks a solid, cohesive sound than that tune. This was surely planned as a thrilling meeting of three of the most idiosyncratic female vocalists in pop music right now but they never seem to be working on the same page. Ms Grande is doing most of the heavy lifting by covering the hook and a verse while Ms Cyrus and Ms Del Rey essentially offer distinctive yet minor backing support. The best part of this collaboration is the music video directed by Hannah Lux Davis and look for the appearance of actress, Elizabeth Banks who directed and acts in the new "Charlie's Angels" feature:
Gloria Estefan had the number one song in the U.S. during this week back in 1989 with "Don't Wanna Lose You". This was the debut single from the album, "Cuts Both Ways" which was the first record to only feature her name after years of fronting the Latin band, Miami Sound Machine.
At this point, Estefan was one of the biggest pop artists in the world and this album (which would go on to sell over four million copies) would help keep her at the top. This classic love ballad, written by Estefan, would become one of her most popular songs, reaching the top-ten in seven countries and earning the Cuban-born singer a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Estefan even recorded a Spanish-language version of the song, "Si Voy a Perderte" which also reached number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart.
It was during the tour for "Cuts Both Ways" that would seriously alter the singer's life. While on her tour bus near Scranton, PA., a semi-truck crashed in to it during a snowstorm which left Estefan critically injured. The accident required emergency surgery and titanium rods were implanted in her to stabilize her vertebral column. It took almost a year of painful physical therapy but Estefan made a full recovery and went back on the road to finish the tour.
You may remember Natasha Bedingfield, the British singer who first appeared in 2004 and delivered the international pop hit songs like "These Words (I Love You, I Love You, I Love You)", "Love like This", "Pocket Full of Sunshine" and "Unwritten" which earned her a Grammy nomination. She was quite active until around 2012 when Bedingfield seemed to put her recording career pretty much on hold.
It turned out that she had gotten married to Matt Robinson, an American businessman in 2009 and they had their first child later that year. While Bedingfield went out on small tours in Europe, did a little acting, wrote songs for movie projects and was a guest judge on the New Zealand version of "The X Factor" over these past years, there was no new music from the singer.
That has officially ended in 2019 as Bedingfield just released her first album in eight years with "Roll With Me". The now thirty-seven year old vocalist has teamed up with producer, Linda Perry, the former member of the rock band, 4 Non Blondes and who helped guide Pink and Christina Aguilera when they were ready to change directions in their music careers. This collection certainly doesn't abandon the pop-r&b sound that first brought her fame yet it adds interesting touches like reggae and offers a slightly more mature perspective to these songs. It is a very welcome return from a great artist. Have a listen to a few of my favorite tracks from Ms Bedingfield's fourth album:
