Wednesday, August 29, 2012

JAY JESSE JOHNSON: BLUES/ROCK GUITAR/VOCALS


Nothing is more impressive than a well hung Fender/Stratocaster, the tool of choice on men like Jay Jesse Johnson,  who pounds the hell out of his instrument. He is hard and heavy on his latest Album ‘RUN WITH THE WOLF’ his 4th studio album just out August 28, 2012.  There is nothing soft about this guy; his blues/rock is gritty and his performance is hard driving.
Johnson is not widely known as a solo act. Originally from Indiana, then later moved to the East Coast, Johnson was associated with Cryer’, ‘Arch Angel’ and Deadringer’, all hard rock bands of the 1970’s-80’s.

JJJ’s vocals are as good as any blues/rock artist out there, he sometime sounds like the soulful Greg Naggy.  Playing the guitar since the age of 6, he knows how to play his Fender/ Stratocaster with such power it makes you scream for more.

A couple of highlight tracks on the album ‘Hell Train’, ‘Run with the Wolf’, and ‘Black Eldarado’. While the album is good, it does not have a lot of depth, but is worth at least a few downloads. JJJ is a blues/rock artist, and someone to keep on the radar for future releases, and hopefully he will change it up and add a little more variety to the album tracks.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpQHN4iKUEQ

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Wednesday, August 22, 2012

RODRIGUEZ: SINGER/SONGWRITER


Searching for Sugar Man’ *Original Music Picture Soundtrack.  This is an extraordinary story about a 1970’s recording artist born Sixto Diaz Rodriguez, a Detroit native (The the 6th child of Mexican immigrants whom had migrated to the USA in 1920’s), who really never had a claim to fame back in the late 1960s and early 1970’s when he recorded and released 2 albums.  He originally released 3 singles in the late 1960’s, which one was ‘I’ll Slip Away’. With not much success in the USA, he later moved to Sussex and changed his name to just Rodriguez, and released 2 albums; #1 COLD FACT, in 1970, and #2 COMING FROM REALITY in  1971.  With little success, he was dropped from his record label; Rodriguez then gave up the music business, and became a demolition worker.
Rodriguez was relatively unknown in his home country, but by the mid-'70s his albums were starting to gain popularity in  South Africa, Zimbabwe, New Zealand, and Australia. Without his knowledge, Blue Goose Music in Australia bought the rights to his catalog and in the mid-70’s they re-released his earlier albums and first singles, and it went platinum in South Africa, where he had somewhat of a cult following.
All the new hype ended up with Rodriguez touring Australia in 1979 with the Mark Gillespie Band as support. Two shows from the tour were later released on the Australian-only album Alive—the title being a play on the rumors caused by his public obscurity that he had died years ago. After the '79 tour, he returned to Australia for a final tour in 1981 with Midnight Oil before he returned to his normal life, gaining a bachelors degree in philosophy while working as a demolition man.
In 1990’s his daughter discovered a website dedicated to him by his fans, and that he had genuine Star Status in South Africa. His working class hero songs became the voice of the 90’s anti-apartheid movement. He was their Dylan, Lenard Cohen, and James Taylor all rolled into one. 
To make a long story short, and later a documentary “Searching For Sugar Man” came about because of the rumors that Rodriguez’s had died a tragic death; he set himself on fire on stage.  Two guys by the name of Stephan ‘Sugar’ Segerman and Craig Bartholomew-Strydom set out to find out how his music came to South Africa and what really did happen to their hero, which lead to the making of the documentary. Rodriguez is alive and well. He recently appeared on David Letterman (August 14,2012), and  CNN aired a feature story with interview of Rodriguez discussing his life and career resurgence. Now at the age of 70 he will benefit from his new found success some 30 years later.

Tunedin4U.blogspot.com

Thursday, August 16, 2012

ANGUS STONE: SINGER/ SONGWRITER


BROKEN BRIGHTS’ released nationwide July 2012, is the second solo album for Angus Stone, one half of the duo Angus & Julia Stone, his sister (‘Chocolate and Cigarettes’).

The folk, blues, acoustic rock, singer songwriter has the quality of storytelling, which echo’s Bob Dylan. Stone brings us clean productions with simple setups which enhance the tales of love, loss, legends and wisdom with easy phrasing, and simple melodies.

This album could be classified as easy listening, and it is, but easy to listen to again and again.  It’s laid back, but it also has elements of Dire Straits, and the hazy guitar work of Neal Young, and the phraseology of Jim Morrison and Dylan.

The Australian born Stone, has been playing music since a very young age, and played in school bands growing up. He is an accomplished musician on the guitar, harmonica, and mandolin. He and his sister have won recognition for their efforts, and most recently their song ‘Love will Take You’ earned fame in the Twilight Saga movies.

Angus and his sister Julia plan to release a duo album the end of 2012.





 Tunedin4U.blogspot.com

Friday, August 10, 2012

DJ KEMIT: EVERLASTING


DJ Kemit: The Atlantic City music disc jockey and producer has put together a contemporary R&B Soul album titled EVERLASTING out on iTunes July 31, 2012. 
This album features a bevy of soul singing artists under the creative direction and production of Kemit. Surprisingly good, you will enjoy a variety of vocals, relaxing instrumentation with the uplifting smooth sounds of soul. If you are soul music fan, you can’t listen to this album just once, because it grabs hold and pulls you into the moment. Hats off to Kemit for helping bring back the sound of soul to today’s market.

4 reasons you should buy DJ Kemit's new album, Everlasting
Posted by Carlton Hargro (CribNotes) on Tue, Jul 31, 2012 at 2:54 PM
1) The return of the word “soul”: “I really wanted to put that back into people’s vocabulary — and not only so they could talk about it, but they could feel it. This music can be played at events so people can have more soul in their world. Now, I’m not saying I’m the first one to [record new soul music]; we know the impact of Hidden Beach ... the impact of Robert Glasper ... Erykah Badu and [other artists]. So, I’m not the first to do it. But being a DJ and breaking a lot of those artists’ music in Atlanta when it came out ... I’m using what I know about breaking that music and now producing it [to let] people know that [soul] still exists.”
2) The artists: “There’s a lot of artists that I love and listen to and played at parties over the years ... and I wanted to use my musical abilities to push them out to other people that may not have been aware of them. All these artists are at the top of their game ... Carl McIntosh ... N’Dambi ... Frank McComb ... Eric Roberson ... KevChoice ... Sepsenahki [and more] ... where else can you go to get all these artists on one project?”
3) Uplifting themes: “I think where we are as a people in this world — the economic plight, the social plight, all this stuff going on with the [presidential] election, watching Africa be cut up and sold off to B.R.I.C. [Brazil, Russia, India and China] — I think people need something uplifting and something remind them of why we are here. [This is] music with a message.”
4) To prove to the establishment that this music works: “There is a market for people who need this music in their lives in these times ... I wanted to show major record labels, distributors ... that this music works. It can make money. You don’t have to pimp out our culture. I definitely have this thing against just seeing “trap music” and grills all over TV. We do some of everything: from rock to classical to country. We’re not just ... saggy jeans and a trap beat.”