Our friends over at YouKnowIGotSoul caught up with Fantasia and with all of the interviews out discussing her personal life, YouKnowIGotSoul took the opportunity to really dig into the new album “Side Effects of You”, discuss her musicality and voice, decision to go with Harmony on producing the whole album, “Rock Soul” movement, and much more. Enjoy.
Legacy Recordings is honoring the High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone as the label’s February Artist of the Month and has released a new video of memorable performances moments of her singing her hit “To Be Free”.
Nina Simone, who would’ve turned 80 on February 21, was a strong and vocal civil rights advocate who carried the message of universal rights and personal empowerment, freedom, equality and dignity throughout her career. Whether it was political or emotional or personal, she never failed to tell the truth through her music.
Find out more about the celebration of Nina Simone and her legacy at www.legacyrecordings.com.
This is not another post waxing poetically about the “good ol’ days”, to the contrary this new series seeks to highlight music that exists outside of a particular era. The inspiration for this series was culled from a personal experience last week, whereby I happened to be driving and cycling through the local radio offerings when this song was spun.
I happened to remark to my traveling companion that even though I know the precise moment in time when I first heard this song and the era of its popularity, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” lives outside of those confines. I know without a shadow of a doubt what 1987 sounds like and hearing this tune the other day I didn’t get the feeling of when the expiration date has passed. No, this music sounded as fresh and alive as when I first heard it.
Artists are often forced to chase trends and while a trend may be popular for the moment, the result can be the musical equivalent of wearing bellbottoms. Some trends are for and can be easily identified with a moment in time while others… timeless.
Hendrix 70: Live At Woodstock
Legendary 1969 Woodstock Performance For Global Theatrical Release From November 26 2012
In Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s birth, for the first time ever, see Jimi Hendrix’s unforgettable August 1969 Woodstock concert in select cinemas globally.
This special edition theatrical presentation, under the auspices of Experience Hendrix, L.L.C. has been carefully reassembled from the extensive archive of film footage helmed by Academy Award winning director Michael Wadleigh and his hand picked team of skilled camera operators and support personnel under the auspices of Experience Hendrix, LLC, the Hendrix family owned company. What they captured was a Jimi Hendrix performance unlike any other. Jimi premiered a new band and his extraordinary performance on that August morning included unforgettable renditions of such signature Hendrix songs as “Voodoo Child (Slight Return),” “Fire,” “Purple Haze” and “Foxy Lady” as well as his dramatic interpretation of the “Star Spangled Banner”.
Jimi’s fascinating road to the Woodstock festival is revealed by way of never before seen footage and interviews with his band members such as Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell, engineer Eddie Kramer and Woodstock’s promoter Michael Lang. Directed by Grammy Award winner Bob Smeaton [Beatles Anthology, Band Of Gypsys, Festival Express], the documentary, which precedes the performance footage, reveals the struggle to stage the legendary festival and secure Hendrix as its headline artist.
Jimi Hendrix Woodstock performance stands as one of the finest ever in rock music history. This presentation features the original 16mm footage digitally restored together with a new 5.1 audio surround mix by legendary engineer Eddie Kramer. Kramer originally recorded the Woodstock festival and also served Jimi Hendrix as his recording engineer throughout his entire career.
Songs performed in original sequence
Message To Love
Spanish Castle Magic
Red House
Lover Man
Foxy Lady
Jam Back At The House
Izabella
Fire
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Star Spangled Banner
Purple Haze
Woodstock Improvisation
Villanova Junction
Hey Joe
Hendrix 70: Live At Woodstock will see a worldwide theatrical release by Omniverse Vision with limited screenings from November 26. Tickets for the theatrical screenings will be available at jimihendrix.com.
Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s sister and CEO of Experience Hendrix: “All of us at Experience Hendrix are thrilled with the fact that ‘Live At Woodstock’ will be shown in theaters. This film reflects a legendary event in our history as well as a true pinnacle of Jimi’s career. We celebrate his 70th birthday as we continue to celebrate his legacy”.
Yes, it has happened, family!!! Prince, lovingly known as the “Purple Yoda” here at GFM, has released a new single from his treasured vault!!! In first listening to this new cut, Rock & Roll Love Affair, I can musically sense the faint aroma of his classic Purple Rain track, Take Me With You. While this song contains the customary Minneapolis sound, it seems to have an old school blues/rock & roll feel that could easily fit within the repertoire of Chuck Berry or Etta James which I enjoy. Another thing that stands out is Prince’s classic art of lyrical storytelling. Knowing Prince’s thoughtful attraction to symbolically coloring a story at time, I wonder if the storyline is truly a theme of two people destined for each other or whether he’s portraying a personification of the “fantasy land of fame” and the “steady heart of rock & roll, jazz, blues and soul”. What’s great about Prince, as all great artists, is his ability to create conversation through the music even in its most simplistic appearance. Tell us your thoughts.
Photo Credit: Memphis Music Hall Of Fame Website
The city that has long been, and continues to, undeniably, serve as the fulcrum for music’s most original creators is Memphis, Tennessee. Social, political and economic circumstances and a preternaturally musically included population catalyzed a vast array of musical genres to interact and intersect, creating a distinctive sound that shook the world. For practitioners and devotees of blues, gospel, jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, country, rockabilly, rock and roll, hip-hop and more, Memphis has been a destination, both real and metaphysical, for those who both make and appreciate the great music with which it is so rightfully identified.
This year, almost 60 years after a teen aged Elvis Presley first walked into Sun Studios to record a keepsake for his mother and almost a century since “The Father of the Blues,” W.C. Handy, penned Beale Street Blues, Memphis pays tribute to those who put it at the center of world’s musical map with the launch of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. Under the leadership of Memphis Mayor AC Wharton and the administration of the Smithsonian-developed Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, the names of the 25 inaugural Memphis Music Hall of Fame inductees were announced at a press conference on Tuesday, October 16, 2012 . The reveal was held at The Warehouse at 36 East G.E. Patterson Avenue in downtown Memphis. As the name implies, the facility is a converted warehouse that has been the site of several national music video productions.
An iconic list of many of music’s top names reflects the fact that Memphis boasts one of the world’s richest musical legacies, and a plethora of world-famous music-related landmarks, including Sun Studios, Beale Street, Stax Records and Elvis Presley’s Graceland, the second most visited residence in the world. Mayor Wharton commented, “Everywhere I go, people know Memphis, Tennessee. Every country around the world recognizes Memphis as the epicenter of music. The establishment of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame will lend focus to this fact, and pay tribute to the musical pioneers and icons whose contributions to our culture and our heritage, both locally and globally, are unequalled.”
The inaugural inductees were selected earlier this year by a Nominating Committee of local and national music professionals, including studio owners, producers, authors, and historians who discussed and debated at length who would be tapped for induction based on a variety of criteria. Those inductees will be honored at the MMHOF’s first induction event that is set for Thursday, November 29 at PM at the Cannon Center for Performing Arts in downtown Memphis.
The Memphis Music Hall of Fame website, including tributes to each inductee, a showcase of new Memphis musicians, and education components, as well as Hall of Fame social media tools, also launched on October 16, 2012. Tickets for the November 29, 2012 Induction Ceremony will also go on sale that day, and will be available through www.ticketmaster.com.
Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum is located at the corner of Third (legendary Hwy 61, “Blues Highway”) and 191 Beale Street at FedExForum, the city of Memphis’ premier sports & entertainment complex. The museum’s exhibition, “Rock ‘n’ Soul: Social Crossroads” was developed by the world famous Smithsonian Institution as part of its 150th anniversary celebration. The museum is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Additional information is available at (901) 205-2533 or at www.memphisrocknsoul.org.
2012 Memphis Music Hall Of Fame Inductees:
B.B. King
Dewey Phillips
Elvis Presley
George Coleman
Howlin’ Wolf
Isaac Hayes
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jim Dickinson
Rufus Thomas
Willie Mitchell
Jim Stewart & Estelle Axton
Sam Phillips
Al Green
Bobby Blue Bland
Booker T. & The M.G.’s
Jimmie Lunceford
Lucie Campbell
Memphis Minnie
Nat D. Williams
Otis Redding
Professor William T. McDaniel
Staple Singers
Three 6 Mafia
W.C. Handy
Z.Z. Top
For all you like minded individuals who believe Michael Jackson was one of the greatest entertainers that walked the face of this earth, this message is for you and those who have yet to feel the power of “the force”! 
Brothers and sisters in music, the moment has arrived for the magnificent unveiling of Bad 25!! This is an occasion to celebrate and do a “big mama run” down the aisle of somebody’s Baptist church to give thanks to Jesus for this release of unreleased treasures. Now let’s give you the rundown of what to expect from the newest MJ re-release: (more…)
Filled with an abstract and whimsical tone of visual storytelling, Joss Stone’s video has an otherworldly context and slightly nods at artist, Salvador Dali from The Persistence of Memory. Originally done by the indie pop/rock group, Broken Bells, Stone’s voice brings a texture of soul that lends a nice twist of interpretation for the single, The High Road. Here are both versions for your listening pleasure. Tell us what you think of Stone’s remake. (more…)
