tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82366426323308758462024-02-20T17:17:11.548-05:00Write on MusicIn-depth artist interviews, music criticism, and select music news and downloadsDonald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.comBlogger461125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-82497289452011318472018-11-29T04:43:00.001-05:002018-11-29T04:43:39.808-05:00Rolling Stones Raw and Rocking on Voodoo Lounge Uncut
Not for the first time in their fabled history, the Rolling Stones faced a dire moment of truth. Such was first the case in 1969 when, on the eve of an anticipated U.S. tour, the band effectively fired its drug-addled founding member, Brian Jones—he was soon found dead in his swimming pool—in favor of lead guitarist Mick Taylor, arguably the most proficient guitarist the Stones had ever heldDonald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-67914545035108802972018-02-21T20:31:00.000-05:002018-02-21T20:31:15.821-05:00Book Review: Reinventing Pink Floyd: From Syd Barrett to The Dark Side of the Moon
For more than half a century Pink Floyd produced some of the most fabled and successful albums in popular music history yet the singular British band has nevertheless remained, at least in some respects, an enigma.
Much of that enigma surrounds Syd Barrett, the Floyd’s principal songwriter and eccentric visionary behind the band’s earliest efforts. The music he created with Pink FloydDonald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-67501916559699408012017-05-07T14:16:00.000-04:002017-05-07T14:16:08.658-04:00An Interview with Tom Paxton
In a career spanning more than half a century, GRAMMY®-winning folk legend Tom Paxton has composed a veritable goldmine of American music. Instilled with an activist’s passion and a storyteller’s finesse, his songs—which have been covered by the likes of Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Willie Nelson—resonate with melodies as endearing as nursery rhymes and narratives affirming an intimate Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-21134865746726347102017-01-30T00:11:00.002-05:002017-01-30T00:11:23.371-05:00The Deep End of Pete Townshend's Genius
Pete Townshend was always too ambitious for rock ‘n’ roll.
Not so much with the early hits he wrote for The Who, songs like “Can’t Explain” and “Substitute,” which were in essence point-and-click snapshots of the lives Townshend observed around him—songs that in turn gave the band’s youthful audience a collective voice and culture of its own. More so, rather, with the emergence of TommyDonald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-26014090246252203672017-01-27T01:52:00.000-05:002017-01-28T20:21:54.881-05:00Concert Review: Don Henley with JD & The Straight Shot, Clearwater, FL
The headliner is who they all came to see, of course. In this case, it was Don Henley, fresh off his recent Kennedy Center Honors accolade as a founding member of The Eagles, touring in support of his most recent solo album Cass County. For over two hours on Tuesday night at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Henley crisscrossed the four decades and various signposts of his storied career, dusting off a few Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-1990479683021534002016-10-14T04:53:00.002-04:002018-07-02T21:24:05.563-04:00Interview: Kenny Rogers Reflects on Career, Crossover Success
At the dawn of the ‘80s, as outlaws and urban cowboys staked their turf on either side of the country and pop fence, Kenny Rogers bridged the divide.
A mere four years since he first attained mainstream solo stardom with “Lucille”—and after a string of subsequent smashes like “The Gambler” and “She Believes in Me” continued his good fortune—the former First Edition singer achieved the Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-61435556890976205182016-08-09T21:33:00.001-04:002016-08-09T21:33:30.760-04:00Interview: Onward and Upward with The Temperance Movement
When Write on Music caught up with the Temperance Movement last summer, the nascent British rock band was trudging through the States and Canada on what seemed like an interminable tour. A coveted opening slot for the Rolling Stones in Orlando only weeks before had offered a unique challenge to turn a massive (and arguably impervious) audience onto the band’s long-in-the-works, Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-9631740429725321272016-07-25T06:22:00.001-04:002016-08-15T00:02:29.036-04:00It's a Country Tradition: An Interview with Mark ChesnuttIt’s been more than a quarter century since “Too Cold at Home” introduced country music traditionalist Mark Chesnutt to the masses, and the many hits that have followed (including “Brother Jukebox,” “Bubba Shot the Jukebox,” and “Old Flames Have New Names”) have aged as well as the veteran singer’s homegrown Texas twang. For his first album of new material in eight years, Tradition Lives (Row Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-30566643233028385182016-06-23T01:26:00.001-04:002016-06-23T01:26:16.027-04:00Album Review: Kris Kristofferson - The Cedar Creek Sessions
Back when Kris Kristofferson used to take the stage alongside his comrades in the Highwaymen, he was the relative young gun of the group, his stature overshadowed by the outlaw legends of Waylon and the Red Headed Stranger and the Man in Black. Sure, he’d written songs that each of them had recorded and performed, but he hadn’t yet put in the years, the hard time and bitter tears it took to Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-91672221938851695502016-04-29T08:59:00.000-04:002016-04-29T09:16:30.057-04:00Song of the Week: Haley Reinhart - 'Better'
As American Idol veterans go, Season 10 finalist Haley Reinhart has proven among the most compelling. First, she established a retro-pop groove with her stellar 2012 debut LP, Listen Up!, as standout single “Free” demonstrated mightily. Next, Reinhart collaborated with Postmodern Jukebox for a string of sultry, jazzed-up covers (like the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and Radiohead’sDonald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-31911189513586859582016-04-20T04:43:00.002-04:002016-04-23T23:45:44.567-04:00Vulnerability is Powerful: An Interview with Kylie Odetta
Eighteen-year-old singer/songwriter Kylie Odetta emerges from the din of pop stardom to reveal a serious talent with her most recent EP, High Dreamer, having consciously pared down its production by complementing her vocals with discreet, often piano-based arrangements.
Moments like “Let Me Love You” and “I Can’t Erase It” are intoxicating, conjuring the sort of hushed intimacy that artists Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-88800162291244495252016-04-08T00:01:00.001-04:002022-04-06T11:05:12.506-04:00In Memoriam: Merle Haggard - The Lost Interview
Merle Haggard never said he was immortal. Still, the country music icon, who died this week on his 79th birthday of complications from pneumonia, knew as well as anyone that his music would endure. He’d lived not only to see so many songs he’d written be appreciated as classics, but to perceive his influence on succeeding generations of artists who, frankly, owe him everything.
In 2010, Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-7957232939616239452016-02-23T14:06:00.000-05:002016-02-25T22:40:20.900-05:00Still Swingin': An Interview with John Anderson
Country music maverick John Anderson anticipated changes in the industry long before they came to pass.
The veteran singer/songwriter recently recalled, “I told people on different boards and different committees back 20 years ago, ‘You better figure out a way to split the genres and call one of them traditional country and one of them new country or whatever, or else you’re going to run intoDonald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-25731882254423581932016-02-18T23:12:00.002-05:002016-02-18T23:12:43.200-05:00The Song is Everything: An Interview with Gene Watson
“To me,” Gene Watson says, “the songs are everything.”
For more than a half century, the country music legend has cultivated one of the most venerable catalogs in the business with such classics as “Love in the Hot Afternoon,” “This Dream’s On Me,” “Farewell Party,” and “Nothing Sure Looked Good On You,” among many others. What’s more, whether in his leanest years playing in bars and Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-30856447547075069272016-02-14T07:13:00.001-05:002016-02-18T01:15:31.059-05:00Write on Music’s Favorite Songs of 2015
Even later than last year, it’s Write on Music’s Favorite Songs (in alphabetical order) of 2015:
The 1975 – “Love Me”: Clearly these brazen British upstarts were schooled at some point on '80s Duran Duran and INXS, not to mention David Bowie’s '70s plastic soul gems like “Golden Years” and “Fame,” because this bit of slinky rock ‘n’ roll delirium boasts all such influences with the utmost of Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-40893598186510239222016-02-08T03:10:00.002-05:002023-03-23T04:18:03.290-04:00An Interview with Bobby Caldwell
Ever since “What You Won’t Do For Love” first catapulted him to stardom in 1978, Bobby Caldwell has cultivated a singular brand of sophisticated soul, culminating in more than a dozen studio albums that have as well embraced aspects of pop, jazz, and big band standards along the way.
On the recently released LP, Cool Uncle, he’s collaborated with GRAMMY®-winning producer Jack Splash (Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-64886487632310906462016-01-25T01:01:00.001-05:002016-01-25T01:01:49.852-05:00We Believe in Those Songs: Bruce Foxton, From The Jam to The Fans
More than three decades after disbanding, The Jam continue to inspire a fiercely loyal following as well as a legacy that only magnifies with each passing year.
Last year alone, the amount of archival releases and other such homages devoted to the seminal British band rivaled if not surpassed the output of most otherwise contemporary acts.
Foremost among them was The Jam: About the YoungDonald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-90256036989733083782016-01-08T08:44:00.001-05:002016-01-19T20:50:01.713-05:00Book Review: How to Write About Music: Excerpts From the 33 1/3 Series, Magazines, Books and Blogs with Advice from Industry-Leading Writers
If a book called How to Write About Music sounds like something you’ve just got to read, chances are you’re already writing about music. That said, the perspectives shared throughout this 400-page compendium from the folks behind the sensational 33 1/3 series of album dissertations (published by Bloomsbury, edited by Marc Woodworth and Ally-Jane Grossan) is both useful and, particularly to Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-38965989190730190832016-01-04T08:00:00.001-05:002016-01-04T09:31:12.877-05:00Write on Music's Dozen Covers to Love 2015
The best of people playing other people’s songs... These are Write on Music’s dozen covers to love from 2015:
“Come and Get It” – The Hollywood Vampires
Album: Hollywood Vampires (UMe)
To merit its inclusion here, this selection needs an alibi of sorts — this cover needs a “cover,” if you will: Originally a #1 US (#4 UK) hit by Badfinger as the theme to the 1969 Peter Sellers/Ringo Starr Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-21377220464065575942015-11-04T04:15:00.000-05:002015-11-04T07:28:44.713-05:00Interview: Author Warren Zanes Discusses New Tom Petty Biography
“Refugee.” “I Won’t Back Down.” “American Girl.” “The Waiting.”
The songs Tom Petty has written and recorded over the past forty years have not only spoken for themselves — they’ve largely spoken for Petty himself.
Even in the overall fantastic four-hour Peter Bogdanovich –directed 2007 documentary Runnin’ Down a Dream (or in Paul Zollo’s 2005 incisive book Conversations with Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-85546655690007201112015-10-26T12:12:00.001-04:002015-10-26T14:22:14.231-04:00Learning Curves and Musical Curiosities: An Interview with Rhiannon Giddens
Now is the time for Rhiannon Giddens.
Having followed her muse beyond the homegrown string-band tableau she’d cultivated for the last decade as a founding member of the GRAMMY® award-winning Carolina Chocolate Drops, she has of late expanded her musical palette to reveal an even richer promise.
Released back in February to become one of 2015’s most celebrated works, Tomorrow is My Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-35545779857125337322015-10-02T04:18:00.000-04:002015-10-06T05:32:51.970-04:00Album Review: Nadia Kazmi - LAMB
Singer/songwriter Nadia Kazmi incites something fierce on her third release, LAMB, but truth be told she’s been brazen from the beginning.
On her 2010 debut, Arrival, Kazmi showcased a compelling sense of craft, her lyricism in particular bearing out the poetic language and rich cadences of formative influence Leonard Cohen. The very next year she devoted her follow-up, Strange Song, Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-22127599818150650042015-09-03T03:31:00.001-04:002015-09-03T03:31:38.670-04:00The Last Goodbye's The Hardest One to Say: George Strait's Live Farewell Makes For Emotional DVD Presentation
When George Strait announced in late 2012 that he would retire from the road at the culmination of his forthcoming concert tour in 2014, the final gig on the schedule suddenly became a very big deal.
How big? Well, the concert (held on June 7, 2014 in Arlington, Texas) ultimately set a new North American indoor-concert attendance record — a distinction held by the Rolling Stones sinceDonald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-45074488925801056572015-08-30T07:13:00.000-04:002015-08-30T07:13:15.521-04:00DVD Review: 'Lost Songs: The Basement Tapes Continued'
The task at hand was enough to make even the most self-assured songwriter wither in excruciating insecurity: Set to music assorted lyrics and poetry by Bob Dylan from 1967 — a box of the music legend’s handwritten texts dating back to his infamous refuge with The Band in Saugerties, New York had at long last been unearthed — and record the songs for a new album.
Lost Songs: The Basement Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8236642632330875846.post-1962217723442913312015-08-18T13:37:00.000-04:002015-08-18T13:37:36.630-04:00The Temperance Movement: Ain't No Telling How Far They'll Go
The Temperance Movement had already opened for the Rolling Stones on a handful of dates last year, but when the nascent British-based band got the nod to do it again this past June at Orlando’s Citrus Bowl, age-old anxieties emerged. Of the sold-out audience, for starters, Australian-born drummer Damon Wilson recently told Write on Music on the phone from his UK residence, recalling his Donald Gibsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16803664423818801380noreply@blogger.com0