Bloggerhythms

Photo by Deanna Cohen courtesy of  Wallyingram.com  and predates the folk festival. A huge rock festival type crowd assembled to see Jackson Browne and David Lindley , his main sideman through most of the 70s, perform live at the famous Philadelphia Folk Festival on a hot summer Saturday afternoon. The two had just returned from a European tour and this was their only stop on the way home to California. Browne and Lindley performed an all acoustic show. The star played his usual acoustic guitar and piano while Lindley, as always, played every string instrument he could get his hands on. He even used two different violins. If they were tired and suffering from jetlag it certainly didn't show in their playing or their enthusiasm. The set list spanned Browne's entire career. Most of the first half of the show featured later material including "I'm Alive," "Too Many Angels," and "The Barricades of Heaven." He also played "The Crow and T...

Allison Moorer's latest CD, Getting Somewhere , deserves any accolades it receives. Produced by her husband, Steve Earle, it is a pleasant sounding, upbeat rock record. The arrrangements are full of strong backbeats, some with grungy rock guitar and mostly performed in mid-tempo or faster arrangements that you can dance to. However when you dig deeper and listen to the dark lyrics you’ll find that Moorer confronts her frightening adolescence and childhood head on. The ten brief songs waste no space as the whole disc is less than thirty-two minutes long. The sound of the CD is contradictory to much of its subject matter. It is hard to discuss Moorer's career, as well as the career of her older sister, Shelby Lynne, without delving into their very dark childhood. The sisters' very abusive, alcoholic father killed their mother in a murder-suicide while the girls were watching. Both the songs "New Year's Day" and "How She Does It" are about how their mot...

WXPN, 88.5 FM, public radio from the University of Pennsylvania, is asking listeners to vote for their ten favorite artists of all time. This is the third year in a row that WXPN has asked their listeners to participate in one of their fun polls. Two years ago we voted for our ten favorite all time songs for the 885 Greatest Songs Of All Time , and last year we voted for our ten favorite albums for the station's 885 Greatest Albums Of All Time , a radio event that was even more enjoyable. This year’s artist poll may not top last year’s three week countdown but I’m still looking forward to it. Here is how the voting works. Your favorite artist receives ten points, number two gets nine points, and so on down the line. This year the station has expanded the voting by allowing fans to post an additional ten entries who will all receive one point. Vote by visiting the station's Official Website . I’m sure many voters will decide how to best compile their lists using differen...

Visitors to this website who are not from the Philadelphia area, nor part of the thriving East Coast Celtic music scene, have probably never heard of Blackthorn, a perennial concert favorite in the region for the last fifteen years. Blackthorn have developed a loyal following from Philadelphia and its suburbs all the way to the Jersey shore playing bars, folk festivals, and numerous small town, outdoor, summer music venues.While they have been recording since 1994, and released five CDs, I was only introduced to their music in 2002. Since then I’ve made a point of seeing them live every summer except for last year. Because I missed them last summer July 19th was the first time I’ve seen the band live since their lineup underwent a major change. Paul Moore, who was a member of the original quartet, was their primary lead singer and their most prolific and best songwriter, left the band at the end of 2004. The vacancy left by Moore could have been a disaster of major consequence but al...