Here are two better-than-expected Rolling Stones songs "In The Stars" and "Rough and Twisted" off Foreign Tongues out July 10th.
Visit the Rolling Stones site for some live-in-studio footage.
And watch the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon for appearances by Mick Jagger tonight (Wednesday, May 6) doing a lame Real People With Fake Arrms sketch for some reason instead of discussing the new album and Ronnie Wood (Thursday, May 7) replacing Keith Richards originally scheduled to appear. Perhaps he saw how horribly Mick's attempt at comedy went and decided to stay at the hotel and watch the 'Canes take apart the Flyers in Philly instead.
Music journalist Stanley Booth, who brilliantly chronicled the Rolling Stones and Furry Lewis, has died at 82. He'll be greatly missed.
Writes music journalist Chris Morris...
Informed sources say that writer Stanley Booth has died in Memphis.
Sometimes all you need to do is leave a single book behind. Booth -- seen below pointing his shotgun in your face on the dusk jacket of his book “Rythm Oil" -- left one the size of a continent: his 1984 book originally titled “Dance With the Devil: The Rolling Stones & Their Times” and later retitled “The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones.” (Booth was annoyed that his publisher also used the title for a novel, by the actor Kirk Douglas.) It depicted, close up, the band’s fateful 1969 tour, which climaxed at Altamont, so intimately that it instantly rendered any other effort on the subject slight; it also delved deeply into the group’s history, and into Brian Jones’ sad fate. It was a work of personal journalism; the writer is as important a character as Keith Richards, whom he befriended over the course of his reporting. I bought it the week it came out, bought each succeeding edition of it, and bought used hardback copies to give to my friends. Best book on the Stones, best book on rock ’n’ roll, best book spawned by the inheritors of the New Journalism.
Booth managed to publish other books — an elongated version of his Playboy interview with Keith, "Rythm Oil" and its successor collection "Red Hot and Blue" — and the writing was invariably fine, flawless, funny. It is a marvel they appeared at all, for Booth was a reckless and hard-living man who cheated Death for decades. But he was claimed today, at the age of 82. You can talk about the others, those figures now passed like Bangs and Palmer, or the ones still living. Stanley Booth had no true peer among the observers of the music’s long dark trail. He was the pistol.
Watch Furry Lewis play "When I Lay My Burden Down." See the link below for Stanley's feature article "Furry's Blues" originally published in Playboy in April, 1970.
In celebration of Lou Reed's birthday (March 2), Keith Richards just shared his version of "I'm Waiting For The Man."
Writes Don Fleming...
Over the past year I’ve been very fortunate to work with the great team at Mindless Records who oversee the Keith Richards archive. Keith’s amazing manager Jane Rose has been documenting his work for decades and taken a treasure trove of photographs and video. It was a real pleasure to edit together her documentation of Keith, Steve Jordan, Ivan Neville with producer Dave O'Donnell at the Hit Factory recording Lou Reed’s “I'm Waiting For the Man.” It’s coming out through Light in the Attic Records on the upcoming album 'The Power of the Heart: A Tribute to Lou Reed.'
Read all about it following the video of Keith's version of "I'm Waiting For The Man"
The Power Of The Heart: A Tribute To Lou Reed
The Power Of The Heart tribute is out April 20th
Light in the Attic Records (LITA) proudly announces The Power Of The Heart: A Tribute To Lou Reed. The star-studded album celebrates the pioneering singer-songwriter’s enduring influence—as well as the timeless appeal of his songs—through performances by Reed’s closest friends and biggest fans, including Keith Richards, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, The Afghan Whigs, Bobby Rush, Maxim Ludwig & Angel Olsen, Mary Gauthier, and Automatic. Blending generation-defining hits (“I’m Waiting for the Man,” “Walk on the Wild Side,” “Perfect Day”) with lesser-known gems, the collection spans the artist’s five-decade-long career: from his earliest days with The Velvet Underground to his groundbreaking solo work.
The Power Of The Heart: A Tribute To Lou Reed will be available on silver nugget vinyl exclusively for Record Store Day (April 20) at participating independent retailers. Additionally, the album will arrive on CD and digital platforms on the same day. All physical formats include photos of Reed by Mick Rock and Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, plus extensive liner notes by the album’s producer: writer and record producer Bill Bentley, who worked closely with Reed for over 25 years. You can pre-order a copy of The Power Of The Heart: A Tribute To Lou Reed via Bandcamp right here.
"To me, Lou stood out. The real deal! Something important to American music and to ALL MUSIC! I miss him and his dog." - Keith Richards
"Lou Reed has been gone now for many years. He's one of the few people whom I miss as much now as when he left. There are so many instances where I wonder what he would say or what he would think. His general aura would always lend something really unique to the room. Thank God he left his great music and recordings. His personality is sorely missed. Love you, Lou." - Rufus Wainwright
"I bought Lou Reed's Transformer album after buying the single, “Walk on the Wild Side,” in the mid 70s, wanting to learn more about that wild side. I fell in love with Lou’s vocal style, his descriptive, poetic, real life lyrics, and his song, “I’m So Free.” And I learned something, too, as I wanted to know the meaning of St. Germaine in this context." - Joan Jett
"Lou Reed was a great artist and writer. I feel blessed to be a part of a tribute to him. I'm glad that I was able to contribute "Sally Can’t Dance," as a man that came from a dancing family and background. Most black men and women dance a lot. If Sally can't dance, let me be the one to teach her how to dance. Like the title track of my album from twenty years ago, "Undercover Lover," I want to be the undercover teacher… to teach her to dance underneath the covers. Sally will know how to dance when I get through with her." - Bobby Rush
“It was not easy to find a new way into his song. It evolved one night—an old woman at an old out-of-tune piano and turned a page of her life. The limerick passages of ‘Walk on the Wild Side.’ A nasty schoolboy’s scribble on a wall. I changed the chords, added a bar or two, emphasized the dark conclusion of each verse. That double bass line is not only the most recognizable instrument on the original track, it is the only melodic instrument, so I opted for no bass, only a faint rumor of that mesmerizing line. Mike Dillion came in to play percussion and vibes. I called upon the spirit of James Booker and I, way back in the old days—or rather the old nights—in the French Quarter of New Orleans, singing whatever we wanted, to whoever was listening until the hour we could run off and get high somewhere in solitude. In this version I hear whistles, trains, voices in the night. There is noise. Yes, there, that is where ‘Walk on the Wild Side’ lives, and can be made new, through the evolution of the spirit." - Rickie Lee Jones
"Lou Reed's music was vital to young people like me who felt stranded in the middle of nowhere. A rough urban song poet of astounding vulnerability and brutal honesty, he saw—and described—the world as it was. Pure emotion. Pure reality, immense compassion. I love "talk-singers." That was Lou—his words were raw and real. But there was always melody. And always a (heart) beat. It would be impossible to count the small town dreamers like me who followed his voice to find their own.” - Mary Gauthier
“This song is about sobriety. The same way Lou was able to describe with intense detail, the feeling of doing heroin, he does with this song about the feeling of being sober: the heightened senses, enjoying simple pleasures, experiencing new sensations. This song captures that feeling of heading out on a journey of discovery, whether you’re on drugs or sober, it’s two sides of the same coin.” - Automatic
“Lou seemed fearless to me; like he’d rather die than be a people-pleaser. I took inspiration from that.” - Rosanne Cash
Party For Joey, a Sweet Relief tribute album celebrating the work of NRBQ's Joey Spampinato, is out now via True North.
Here's the scoop from True North...
True North Records has just released Party For Joey: A Sweet Relief Tribute to Joey Spampinato, which features a lengthy list of friends and fans of the NRBQ founding member/bassist saluting him with 14 versions of their own previously unreleased versions of Spampinato-penned songs.
A Sweet Relief Tribute to Joey Spampinato is an inspired album recorded by an astounding group of musicians including Los Lobos, Bonnie Raitt, Peter Case, Ben Harper, The Minus 5, Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale, Chris Spedding, Robbie Fulks, Deer Tick, She & Him, Steve Forbert and Al Anderson who are all generously donating their proceeds from these recordings to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund to support Joey with his current health issues. The Sweet Relief Musicians Fund provides financial assistance to all types of career musicians and music industry workers who are struggling to make ends meet while facing illness, disability or age-related problems.
Joey Spampinato, a singer, songwriter and bassist, was co-founder of the legendary NRBQ, a rock quartet whose genre-defying music continues to inspire generations of music fans and fellow musicians. Many of those musicians answered the call from Joey’s wife Kami Lyle and producer Sheldon Gomberg when they contacted them about recording one of Joey’s songs for an album to help raise funds for Joey when it was revealed he was battling cancer.
Check out the contributions from Peter Case, Ben Harper (with Keith Richards, Charlie Musselwhite, Don Heffington & Benmont Tench), Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale, The Minus 5 and Al Anderson following the complete track listing below.
Party For Joey: A Sweet Relief Tribute to Joey Spampinato
Al Anderson – “You Can't Hide” - Original Release: 1980 on Tiddlywinks
Los Lobos – “Every Boy, Every Girl” - Original Release: 1987 on God Bless Us All
Deer Tick – “That I Get Back Home” - Original Release: 1980 on Tiddlywinks
Ben Harper with Keith Richards, Charlie Musselwhite, Benmont Tench, Don Was & Don Heffington – “Like a Locomotive” - Original Release: 1989 on Wild Weekend
Peter Case – “Don't Knock At My Door” - Original Release: 1972 on Scraps
She & Him – “How Can I Make You Love Me” - Original Release: 1983 on Grooves in Orbit
The Minus 5 – “Don't She Look Good” - Original Release: 1979 on Kick Me Hard
Steve Forbert – “Beverly” - Original Release: 1986 on Uncommon Denominators
Buddy Miller & Jim Lauderdale – “How Will I Know” - Original Release: 2013 on Smiles
Bonnie Raitt & NRBQ – “Green Lights” - Original Release: 1978 on At Yankee Stadium
Robbie Fulks – “Chores” - Original Release: 1979 on Kick Me Hard
Penn And Teller – “Plenty of Somethin’” - Original Release: 1997 on You’re Nice People You Are
The Nils & Chris Spedding – “That's Alright” Original Release: 1977 on All Hopped Up
Wilson Pickett chills with Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham and the rest of the FAME gang
Muscle Shoals at Hot Docs Tue, Apr 30 9:15 PM
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Fri, May 3 6:15 PM
Bloor Hot Docs Cinema Sat, May 4 9:00 PM
Isabel Bader Theatre Note:Unfortunately, tickets for all screenings are now sold out.
