Bloggerhythms

Fellow blogger and cyber-buddy Perplexio, publisher of two blogs, The Review Revue and Pieces of Perplexio , asked me to participate in a blog essay challenge posted by another blogger, pattinase , to write about our favorite TV shows. It’s an interesting proposition. However, despite my varied interests that include Major League Baseball and American History (especially the Revolution and World War Two eras), I never wanted this blog to be about anything but my main passion, music. So instead of writing about my all-time favorite shows that include All In The Family , M*A*S*H , The Sopranos , and very recently, AMC’s Mad Men I’m going to write about one of the most important shows in TV history, one of the most popular of my youth, and a show that was very important in the annals of pop music, The Ed Sullivan Show . For those of you who don’t know, Sullivan’s show aired from the same theater that currently hosts The Late Show with David Letterman on Broadway in New York Cit...

While singer-songwriter Justin Levinson , a Burlington, Vermont native, is not a household name he has started to generate some heat in New England and beyond. Levinson has won songwriting awards from Boston's famed Berklee College of Music as well as the award for Best New Male Artist of 2007 from the International Acoustic Music Awards. Predetermined Fate , his third CD of original material, shows us why. Levinson's latest disc falls firmly into the country-rock genre and makes full usage of harmonicas, steel guitars, and fiddles along with the usual piano, electric rock guitar, and drums. His voice fits the material well and his arrangements are always mainstream yet eclectic. He writes intelligent lyrics without getting obscure so his eleven tunes are all highly accessible. Many of his self-written songs discuss the serious side of life and love. However, his often brisk arrangements prevent them from wallowing too deep in the quicksand of self pity that so many of his...

In April I highly praised Diane di Stasio, an opera singer with a phenomenal voice who is taking her chances with rock and pop music on Vox Eterna , her debut CD. In May di Stasio gave Bloggerhythms an online interview that revealed much about her musical goals. Her operatic influenced vocals combined with the disc's rock arrangements give it an elegant edginess that is totally captivating. Every Christmas I try to present music most people haven't heard before. So, as the holiday season approaches, let's listen to di Stasio's performance of "Silent Night" (Jimi Hendrix Mix) featuring her guitarist Brennan Smiley who plays a huge roll on both her CD and concerts. This video, originally posted as part of the interview in which she explains her thoughts about combining the two wildly different musical genres, is a unique take on this much loved Christmas carol.

I believe it's an easy assumption that lead vocals play a huge part in determining whether a listener enjoys a particular song or artist. This is particularly true of the more casual music fan. I remember a Philadelphia DJ making that same statement a few years ago while discussing 90s alt-rock band, Counting Crows. He said whether a listener is a fan of the band or not depends almost exclusively on how he or she views the voice of lead singer Adam Duritz. If you don’t find his vocals appealing the band is generally not your cup of tea regardless of whatever songwriting talent or musical chops the rest of the band may possess. I thought it ironic that Counting Crows was the band he used as an example because I've been quite opinionated about disliking Duritz's voice. I wrote the band off my list years ago for the sole reason I find his singing to be highly grating. Most conventional pop music singers from the birth of recording to the dawn of rock and roll tended ...