Carbon Leaf, the Richmond, Virginia based band I’ve been a fan of since my days at the University of Richmond in the 90s, is running a Kickstarter for their next album, their first “full-length album in 7 years,” and several other projects, including an EP, a live album, and a Blu-Ray of the live performance. … Continue reading Carbon Leaf’s New Project
Category: Music
In March. when the world was shutting down in the face of COVID-19, Elbow announced two things. First, they were postponing their upcoming live shows due to the pandemic. Sad, but not unexpected, and not something that affected me directly, as the band hadn’t announced an east coast tour. Second, they were releasing a new … Continue reading Finding Beauty in Sorrow
This week, Elbow released a new live album. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 outbreak, the band has cancelled their live dates for this spring and summer, so they’ve been posting videos on YouTube of the band, separately, playing some of their songs from home, the #elbowrooms sessions. These aren’t polished, there are occasional fluffs, but … Continue reading The #elbowrooms Sessions
Last week I received an email from The Who. Roger Daltrey is releasing an album next month, a symphonic version of The Who’s seminal album, Tommy, to mark the original album’s fiftieth anniversary. Confession time. I wouldn’t characterize myself as a huge fan of The Who. Yes, I have their entire studio discography, not to … Continue reading A New Symphonic Tommy
Vince Guaraldi’s “Linus and Lucy” is a staple of Christmas radio stations this time of year. It appears memorably in A Charlie Brown Christmas, but is it actually a Christmas song? A look at the evidence. Continue reading
Last Friday, I was in Lynchburg, Virginia. What brought me from the snowy wastes of Pennsylvania — we’d had a snowstorm on Wednesday that dumped fifteen-ish inches and closed the office — and took me to south-central Virginia? I went to see Carbon Leaf on their 25th-anniversary tour. I’d seen them six days earlier at … Continue reading Carbon Leaf, Live in Lynchburg
Shamrock Fest is on Saturday in Washington, DC, on the grounds of RFK Stadium. I bought my ticket back in November, and today I saw the schedule. I already knew the line-up was a little on the thin side, with Shaggy and Sum 41 as the headliners. Looking at the schedule, I looks like I’m … Continue reading The Shamrock Fest Schedule
Sunday marked George Harrison’s 75th birthday, and in honor of his birthday I watched The Concert for George and, later in the day, Eric Idle’s The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, a satirical film based on the Beatles’ career that features Harrison in a small role as a journalist. I also shared the wonderfully … Continue reading I Have Always Thought in the Back of My Mind…
So, the headlining acts at ShamrockFest this year are Sum 41, Shaggy, and Less Than Jake. Umm, what’s the point of this festival, again? I’ll still go; Carbon Leaf, Barleyjuice, Kilmaine Saints, and Scythian will satisfy the Celtic rock itch. But jeez. Those headliners, on St. Patrick’s Day…
I love “O Holy Night.” I write that unironically. I’m not a Christian. Heck, I’m even skeptical of the historicity of Jesus, and even if he were historical I doubt there’s any truth to the Nativity story as related in Christian mythology. Yet, in the pantheon of Christmas songs, “O Holy Night,” a song explicitly … Continue reading A Christmas Song I Love
It’s hard to say that “Walls (Circus)” is a Tom Petty deep cut — it’s the lead song on an album, it’s in a movie — but it feels like a deep cut. No one seems to know it. You never hear it on the radio. I won’t say it’s my favorite Tom Petty song, … Continue reading Some Things Go On
Earlier in the year WITF, during one of their pledge drives, showed Roy Orbison: A Black & White Night, a concert film shot, obviously, in black and white, that was filmed in September 1987. Orbison’s backing band that night consisted of Elvis’ backing band, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, and Bruce Springsteen, while his backing singers … Continue reading A Night with Roy Orbison