Back from the dead/ Tom Waits

Hello folks I realize it's been a while since i have done a blog post. Life has been going on. I've been busy and blah blah. Moving on.

One recent development for me is that I have been learning to play the guitar! It's quite fun. I'm not even half bad! Nowhere near good of course but not half bad either.

So today I want to talk about one of my favorite musicians of all time, Tom Waits.

Now, Tom Waits isn't somebody you can clearly fit into a genre. In fact Windows Media Player labels him as "?" . The best description I have ever heard of Tom is " He sounds like a drunk carny rooting through a box of tools"
The point I'm trying to get across here is he's an acquired taste. He has a distinctive, low, rough, and raspy voice. Thuogh alot people absolutely cringe at the sound of his voice, others have been assimilated into his large cult following. 

He started his career of music in 1965, where he was payed 25$ for his first (payed) gig. And the rest, as they say, is history.

After that he released over 20 albums ,several of them being live, and even appeared in a couple films. His most recent roles being Mr. Nicks ( the devil) In The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and an engineer in The book of Eli.  
To me he sticks out as an odd, confusing, imaginative,, dark, and absolutely wonderful musician who continues to make music to this day.



Here are a couple of my favorites!

(Eggs and Sausage from the Album "NIghthawks at the diner"

(Small change from the album "Small Change"

(The Earth died screaming from the album "Bone Machine"

List

A while ago my friend Patrick suggested I release a list of my top 10 favorite bands. The problem with that is that I like to many bands! Theres also no way that I could choose them one over another in a top 10 fashion. So instead I decided to just give you a bunch of names of the bands I like in no particular order. Post a comment if you think there's a band I missed.  Here we go!

The Grateful Dead
Led Zeppelin
Janis Joplin
Jimi Hendrix
Weather Report
Herbie Hancock
Jefferson Airplane
Nirvana
Black Sabbath
Bob dylan
Paul Pena
Queen
David Bowie
U2
The White Stripes
The Allman Brothers
Lynard Skynard
Stevie Ray Vaughn
Eric Clapton
Cream
The Band
Bachman Turner Overdrive
The guess who
Steopponwolf
Curtis Mayfeild
Barry white
Aretha Franklin
The rolling stones
The Beatles
Elvis Presley
Bill Withers
The Black Crowes
Fleetwood Mac
The Black Keys
Blood Sweat and tears
Blue Oyster cult
The Meters
Buddy Holly
Bob Marley
Bruce Springsteen
Tom Waits
Buffalo Springfeild
Cage the Elephant
Cat Stevens
Chicago
The Clash
Cake
CCR
CSNY
Dave Matthews
The Doors
Easy Star All Stars
Frank Sinatra
Govt Mule
Grover Washington Jr.
Gun's n Roses
Harry Belafante
Iron Maiden
Metallica
James Brown
James Taylor
Jamiroquai
Joe Cocker
John Butler Trio
Johnny Cash
Joni Mitchell
Kansas
The Kinks
Little Feat
Marvin Gaye
Meatloaf
Modest Mouse
Morphine
Paul Simon
Pink Floyd
Stone Temple Pilots
Pearl Jam
Stevie Wonder
Talking Heads


I think thats enough.

Clarence Clemons Rest in peace.

To any of you big Springsteen fans out there, the name Clarence Clemons might sound familiar, though some of you may know him as "The big man". Clarence Clemons played saxophone with Springsteen for many years. He later had a succesful solo career, and also teamed up with several musicians like Jackson Browne and Aretha Franklin. This man holds a special place in my heart as well. 4 years ago I heard a saxaphone solo in Bruce Springsteens "Born to run" and I asked my dad who it was. He told me it was Clarence Clemons. After that I felt inspired to play music so I picked up the saxaphone and I've been playing ever since.

On June, 12, 2011 Clarence had a stroke. He had surgery and stayed at the hospital. He showed signs of recovery , but on June 18 he passed away. Musicians everywhere payed their respects.

Bruce Springsteen later said  "Clarence lived a wonderful life. He carried within him a love of people that made them love him. He created a wondrous and extended family. He loved the saxophone, loved our fans and gave everything he had every night he stepped on stage. His loss is immeasurable and we are honored and thankful to have known him and had the opportunity to stand beside him for nearly forty years. He was my great friend, my partner and with Clarence at my side, my band and I were able to tell a story far deeper than those simply contained in our music. His life, his memory, and his love will live on in that story and in our band."

 He holds a special place in my heart, and in other Musicians hearts everwhere. We'll miss you big man.

At delfest!

Hey everybody posting here from Cumberland,  Maryland at Delfest about to go backstage to see Warren Haynes! So far the festival has been great!  The bands have sounded amazing. The festival goers are pretty nice as well. 3 days of the festival have already passed but we still one more and I can't wait. To learn more about the concert go to http://www.delfest.com/. DEL YEAH!

Black Sabbath

For all of those out there who like the louder and more intense genre of rock known as metal, Black Sabbath is a band you probably know pretty well. Other's may just know who they are, or know a certain song "Oh they did Iron man right?" That about sums up most people's knowledge of black sabbath, and for a while that's all that I knew as well. Then I decided one day to delve deeper into their music, and what I discovered was pure head banging, mind blowing musical genius. Though some people thing that people like black sabbath scream mindless lyrics along to random power chords and guitar solos. It's actually different in Black Sabbath's case. Their music is creative, catchy, and downright fun to listen to.

Believe it or not Ozzy Osbourne used to be understandable! Not only understandable but an extremely good vocalist. Ozzy was later replaced with one of my favorite singers who passed away last year, Ronnie James Dio. They both sounded great. 

Truly one of greatest metal bands of all time, Black Sabbath's music has inspired many of the musicians we may know and love today.

Here is one of my favorite songs of their's called "War pigs"

One of my other favorite songs is " Sweet leaf"

Roots

Rock and Roll has developed and evolved in many ways over the years, however many people still fail to acknowledge some of the people who helped to start rock. In my opinion rock really started with old blues. With musicians like Bo Diddley, Blind Wille Johnson, and the " Jack-of-all-trades- bluesman" Charley Patton.

 If you boil down rock and roll to its roots, then you see these men come up.They inspired many more musicians, who inspired other musicians, and so on and so forth until the result is the rock we listen to today. And those musicians will inspire future musicians to keep Rock and Roll alive.

Here we have Charley Patton's "Pony Blues"

Here's Blind Willy Johnson's  " Dark was the night"

And here's Bo diddley's "Who do you love"

On the road

Going on the road in a few months to the spectacular DELFEST! Cumberland Maryland is the home of this wonderful festival. It might not be your thing if you don't like bluegrass, but even if you do, you have a reason to come. Playing 4th in the lineup is one of the greatest electric guitarists of all time, Warren Haynes. To those of you who don't know who Warren Haynes is, I will inform you. He is the singer and guitarist for Government Mule, he has played with the Allman Brothers on many occasions, and has filled in Jerry Garcia's part in The Dead. He also played with Derek Trucks, creating one of my favorite songs 'Old Friend'.                                                            

If you wanna check out DelFest heres thier website http://delfest.com/

And heres a little Warren Haynes for those of you who havn't heard him

This is him with Derek Trucks

heres Warren Haynes covering Blind Willy Johnson's 'John the revalator' with the dirty dozen brass band.