Author archive: Steven R. Rosen

07/11/2011 Marianne Faithfull Horses and High Heels (Naïve Records) www.mariannefaithfull.org.uk 7 stars from Blurt (www.blurt-online.com) 07/11/2011By Steven Rosen Marianne Faithfull’s 1979 Broken English may be as influential an album to come out of Britain’s punk revolution as any – and it isn’t even punk, technically. But when Faithfull, who had been missing in action as a relevant recording artist for more than a dozen years (at least in the U.S.), came blazing back, with a voice that replaced the sweetness and innocence of “As Tears Go By” with something as burnished and rough-edged as a worn straight razor, it seemed a metaphor for the way punk wanted to toss out pop prettiness and mannered artifice for the cutting edge. Her sound was more varied and complex than punk’s buzzing, slashing guitars, but it was as bold Continue reading →

The Buddy Holly Tribute Album Maintains a Precarious Balance By Steven Rosen www.stevenrosenwriter.com The advance buzz on tribute album Rave On Buddy Holly (Fantasy Records) is all about Paul McCartney’s contribution, in which the 69-year-old ex-Beatle rants, shouts and growls his way through a madly goosed-up version, complete with false endings, of “It’s So Easy.” Rolling Stone has described the approach as “He yowls like he popped some Viagra and then set his pants on fire.” But is that a good thing? While one appreciates the effort and the autobiographical themes of his contribution – McCartney, whose Beatles cued off Holly’s Crickets for their name, is engaged to be married for the third time, proving that indeed it is easy for him to fall in love – and while the song itself has that kind of crackling, electric arrangement (live-sounding lead guitar upfront, ever-so-slightly-weird processed backing vocals) of late-1960s Beatles, the novelty of McCartney’s vocal embellishments wears off quickly and becomes annoying. Continue reading →

By Steven Rosen http://www.stevenrosenwriter.com/ Craig Miller, curator of design arts at Indianapolis Museum of Art, has told his staff that their newly acquired Eero Saarinen-designed Miller House in Columbus, Ind., is one of America’s four greatest mid-century Modernist residences. The others are the Philip Johnson Glass House in Connecticut, Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill., and the Charles Eames House near Los Angeles – all open to the public to varying degrees. Yet, until this year, the Columbus Area Visitors Center never told tourists that the National Historic Landmark home existed – and many come to this small city just 95 miles northwest of Cincinnati because it’s a haven for contemporary architecture. Continue reading →

By Steven Rosen http://www.stevenrosenwriter.com/ Review: Garland Jeffreys The King of In Between (Luna Park) http://www.garlandjeffreys.com/ In a long career that so far has never quite jelled into all it could be, Garland Jeffreys has made some good records and one great one, 1977′s Ghost Writer. He also wrote and recorded a memorably savvy and eccentric rocker, 1973′s “Wild in the Streets,” that managed to be both ebullient and cautionary. Continue reading →

The Bryce Dessner-curated festival May 13-15 featured My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden, Megafaun and other avant-indie luminaries – plus Dessner’s own band The National to close things out. By Steven Rosen (From www.blurt-online.com; June 6, 2011) MusicNOW, the six-year-old Cincinnati festival curated by Bryce Dessner, guitarist for the National, has a reputation for being on the cusp of rock-oriented musical collaborations and experimentation. It’s a reputation more known within the alternative-rock community than the population at large, since it’s a relatively low-budget, grass-roots event held in an old auditorium that holds at most 500 people Continue reading →

After celebrated gatherings in 2009 and 2010, the adventurous, eclectic Knoxville-based event took 2011 off. By Steven Rosen www.blurt-online.com Even as AC Entertainment head Ashley Capps prepares for his company’s biggest event of the year, the massive Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., on June 9th-12th, he’s announced that the smaller, artier and cutting-edge Big Ears Festival will return next year. That will be the third edition of the festival, which mixes adventurous rock with New Music, jazz and various experimental strains of pop Continue reading →

BY STEVEN ROSEN Blurt ( http://www.blurt-online.com/ ) May 16, 2011 The singer-songwriters who came of age in the 1960s and early 1970s are the Boomers’ major contribution to the Great American Songbook, and Loudon Wainwright III ranks with the very best. Credentials? For a start, well into the fourth decade of his recording career, he wrote perhaps the finest song ever about the seductive qualities of Los Angeles – 2007′s “Grey in L.A.” That was after writing one of the finest songs ever about New York, and post-9/11 America in general, “No Sure Way.” And it’s hard to find a more poetic, achingly wry take on the loneliness of being an American living in England than 1989′s “You Don’t Want to Know.” And no bombastic, strutting heavy-metal/flamboyant-hair-and-Spandex rock band ever wrote a song about groupies as good (and as nakedly honest) as the ballad Wainwright put on his spare, acoustic guitar-driven 1971 Album II – “Motel Blues.” They are all, in different ways, classics of empathetic songwriting, emotional and psychologically astute. Continue reading →

A Sound Rotation Songs we want to see on Elvis Costello’s Spectacular Spinning Songbook By Steven Rosen Cincinnati CityBeat, 4-11-01 . . Continue reading →

Emmylou Harris “Hard Bargain” By Steven Rosen from Americansongwriter.com It’s surprising the American Association of Anesthesiologists hasn’t chosen Emmylou Harris as the best voice to hear when awakening from surgery. It’s hushed and wistful, pining and a little dreamy, expressive yet not declarative, and snakes in and out of a song’s melody, unexpectedly dropping off an occasional syllable. All in all, it’s a pretty good vocal approximation – soothing, reassuring but with an edge of anxiety and doubt – of what it’s like to slowly emerge back into consciousness after being “away” for awhile. Continue reading →

New Dylan “Brandeis” LP 04/08/2011 from www.blurt-online.com By Steven Rosen While libraries are filled with books about what’s been gained from Dylan going electric, it’s worth taking a couple minutes – maybe while listening to “Talkin’ John Birch Paranoid Blues” on Dylan’s just-released In Concert: Brandeis University 1963 – to consider what today might be like had he not changed into the great hipster rock poet/roots-Americana progenitor that he became in 1965. Had he stayed the incisive, shrewdly literate, sometimes-outraged, sometimes-amused protest singer he very much was during his two short sets at the multi-artist Brandeis’ First Annual Folk Festival. Just as he humorously but thoroughly deflates the right-wing extremism (and just-below-the-surface racism) of the John Birch Society, a pressure group of the day, could he have done it today for the similar Tea Party Republicans Continue reading →

With Much Fanfare “Fanfares” and CSO’s not-so-quiet role in shaping American culture By Steven Rosen (Cincinnati CityBeat, March 23, 2011) Without much fanfare — well, actually, with fanfare — the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has played a key role in the shaping of American popular culture as we know it. That’s the contention made — a bit indirectly — by Sean Wilentz, a Princeton University professor, in his recent book Bob Dylan in America. (He is also historian-in-residence for Dylan’s website, http://www.bobdylan.com/ .) Wilentz’s claims are based on the fact that the CSO commissioned American composer Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man” during World War II Continue reading →

Behind The Song: “Not Fade Away” By Steven Rosen (From American Songwriter, March 16th, 2011 http://www.americansongwriter.com/)At this year’s Grammys, 67-year-old Mick Jagger was out from the get-go to tell the audience how it was gonna be. He wasn’t ceding anything … Continue reading →

Waiting Market for a National Leftist (Print) Newspaper? In the new report “Why U.S. Newspapers Suffer More Than Others” from Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism’s State of the Media 2011, is a very interesting comment from David Levy, director of Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University. He says one type of print newspaper could actually prove to be a success at a time when nothing else seems to be working well. He points out that the non-ideological nature of the vast majority of major daily newspapers historically went well with their reliance on advertising for the vast majority of their revenue. But now that they can’t rely on advertising, that nature may be hurting them. The report says, “It also may inhibit their ability to raise their circulation rates with readers who might be more willing to support the partisan press with high newsstand prices,according to some experts.” And it then quotes Levy: “It’s hard to be radical with American newspapers because you don’t want to disturb the core of newspapers, but for newspapers that aspire to be national, there’s a huge potential.” He doesn’t define “radical.” Here’s a link to the whole report: www.stateofthemedia.org Continue reading →

In the new report “Why U.S. Newspapers Suffer More Than Others” from Pew Center for Excellence in Journalism’s State of the Media 2011, is a very interesting comment from David Levy, director of Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University. He says one type of print newspaper could actually prove to be a success at a time when nothing else seems to be working well. He points out that the non-ideological nature of the vast majority of major daily newspapers historically went well with their reliance on advertising for the vast majority of their revenue. But now that they can’t rely on advertising, that nature may be hurting them. The report says, “It also may inhibit their ability to raise their circulation rates with readers who might be more willing to support the partisan press with high newsstand prices,according to some experts.” And it then quotes Levy: “It’s hard to be radical with American newspapers because you don’t want to disturb the core of newspapers, but for newspapers that aspire to be national, there’s a huge potential.” He doesn’t define “radical.” Here’s a link to the whole report: www.stateofthemedia.org Continue reading →

Reissue of Willie Wright’s Telling the Truth A long-forgotten, soulful record from 1977 offers both power and poignancy. BY STEVEN ROSEN(From Blurt — www.blurt-online.com — of Feb. 22, 2011) Willie Wright’s Telling the Truth, the latest reissue/rediscovery from the archivists … Continue reading →

William “Beau Dollar” Bowman, a Hamilton-born singer/drummer who recorded at King Records in the 1960s with both The Dapps and Beau Dollar & The Coins, has died in Cincinnati after an extended illness. Until recently, he had been living in Florida. He was 69; information is available at www.webb-noonan.com. According to a Wikipedia entry, “Beau Dollar & The Dapps were formed in Cincinnati in 1965, where they often played the famous Living Room nightclub. The band consisted of Bowman, Eddie Setser, Charles Summers, Tim Hedding, Ron Geisman, Les Asch, and David Parkinson. The band found success after being discovered by James Brown the same year they were formed. Under Brown’s direction, the band produced their first single, “It’s A Gas.” However, Brown’s long-running dispute with King caused the single to be shelved. At the same time, the band also worked with Hank Ballard, who had left The Midnighters in search of solo success. In 1967, they released two singles, “Bringing Up The Guitar” and “There Was A Time” with Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis. The Dapps eventually broke up in 1969. Brown replaced the band with The Pacesetters, who eventually became the JB’s. Beau Dollar & The Coins had some success with “Soul Serenade” in 1966 (a cover of the King Curtis 1964 single). Beau Dollar’s only solo credited song was “Who Knows” (which is believed to have been backed by The Dapps) in 1970. Beau Dollar also played with Lonnie Mack in the early 60s.” However, that entry conflicts with information available on www.discogs.com, so further research is necessary to establish Bowman’s exact body of work. Discogs also points out that the Nashville guitarist/ songwriter Troy Seals also was in the Dapps for awhile, when he lived in Cincinnati. And the site www.ohiosoulrecordings.com lists Beau Dollar’s “I’m Ready, I’m Ready (I Got Me Some Soul)/ At The Dark End Of The Street” as a 1969 release as well as 1970′s “Who Knows.” Soul Serenade was included on the British multi-artist CD “A Cellarful of Soul,” which said in accompanying notes: “Beau Dollar’s single may have been produced and inspired by a white Cincinnati guitar hero, but the guys got the feel of King Curtis’ 1964 hit ‘Soul Serenade’ just right for its 1966 soul loving audience. So much so that it became the theme tune for the UK’s main black music radio show.” The record, released on Prime, was produced by Mack and is a guitar rave-up. Hear it at You Tube. As the funk/soul/King Records revival has grown, interest in Bowman, as well as the Dapps, has grown. In an interview last year with CityBeat, Neal Sugarman of Brooklyn’s Daptone Records said the Dapps were an inspiration for both the label and the name of its most successful act, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. (If you have more information, please contact srosenone@aol.com.) Continue reading →

By Steve Rosen (adapted from a Cincinnati CityBeat story Feb. 23 2010) . . . . . . . Most people would say there’s a clear distinction between a library and a museum. A library circulates books and audio/visual materials to people who want to use them; a museum collects valuable objects in order to protect and preserve them. But, as it happens, major libraries have a museum-like function — they have special collections of all sorts of unusual and offbeat material, often of a local nature. And as time marches on and those collections get older, they take on increased meaning, value and fascination. Some public libraries, like Los Angeles’, have even set up small museums and/or galleries to show off their collections. That is happening with the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, too. Through the end of February, Downtown’s Main Library had an excellent example of what can be done with these special collections. My Castle on the Nile: Illustrated Sheet Music by Black Composers 1880-1944 was on display primarily in the third floor Cincinnati Room. Now, beginning March 7, the Library dips into the prints from Cincinnati’s old Strobridge Lithography Company to show some of its late-19th/early-20th-century theater, circus and magic-show posters. Up though May 28, the exhibit is nicely timed to coincide with a similar show of Strobridge circus posters at Cincinnati Art Museum. The Library has over 1,000 Strobridge posters from that era, all donated when the company was sold in 1960. There are some oddities in the collection, such as an aerial view of Camp Dennison, reports Patricia Van Skaik, who runs the Cincinnati Room. My Castle on the Nile was curated by Theresa Leininger-Miller, an associate professor of art history at UC, and was absorbing as both art and American history/sociology. As the latter, its lessons were bittersweet. For all the accomplishments of these songwriters, they had to negotiate a racist society where they were expected to conform to stereotypes. For one person represented in the show, “Blind Tom,” that negotiation was extraordinary. The cover art, usually by white illustrators, often reflected the stereotypes. (The Library has some 10,000 song sheets in its collection, since Cincinnati was once a publishing center.) But there were some fascinating stories here. Henry Creamer and Turner Layton wrote a tune that Sophie Tucker recorded, “After You’ve Gone.” There is self-taught composer James A. Bland’s 1878 “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny,” which, in 1914, became the first recording by a classical artist (Alma Gluck) to sell a million copies. And then there is Gussie Davis, who left his native Cincinnati for New York and a solid songwriting career on Tin Pan Alley, the first African American to do so. He wrote the famous “folk” song, “Irene, Goodnight.” Of further interest were three items by/about Blind Tom. Diane Malstrom, Cincinnati research librarian, provided information: One is a brief biography article published in New York around 1868 entitled The Marvelous Musical Prodigy, Blind Tom. The other two items were sheet music: Oliver Gallop by Thomas Wiggins (Bethune) or Blind Tom (1860) and Blind Tom’s Waltz (1865). She also provided label copy from the exhibit about the fascinating Blind Tom — a musician worthy of a biopic or major biography: Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins (1849–1908), blind from birth, was an autistic savant and musical prodigy who published numerous compositions and had a lengthy performing career. He was born on the Wiley Edward Jones Plantation in Harris County, Georgia and sold with his parents to Columbus, Georgia lawyer General James Neil Bethune. Bethune renamed the child Thomas Greene Bethune, or Thomas Wiggins Bethune. Bethune’s daughters granted the boy access to their piano. By age five Wiggins reportedly had composed his first tune,“The Rain Storm.” The general then allowed him to live in a room attached to the family house, away from the slave quarters, equipped with a piano,which Wiggins played for almost twelve hours daily. While he could repeat conversations up to ten minutes in length, he communicated his own needs with mere grunts and gestures. A traveling showman, Perry Oliver, rented Wiggins at the age of eight and marketed him as a “Barnum-stylef reak,” advertising the transformation from animal to artist. The press compared Wiggins to a bear, baboon, or mastiff. Wiggins could faithfully reproduce any performance, often after a single listening. The “audience challenge” became a regular feature of his concerts. Supposedly, he learned 7,000 pieces of music, including hymns, popular songs, waltzes, and classical repertoire. He also uncannily imitated nature sounds and voices of public figures. Novelist Willa Cather, writing in the Nebraska State Journal, called Wiggins “a human phonograph, a sort of animated memory, with sound producing power.”Bethune toured Wiggins throughout the South. In 1860, as Blind Tom, he performed at the WhiteHouse before President James Buchanan. Mark Twain attended many of Wiggins’ performances over several decades. Bethune took Wiggins on a European concert tour in 1866 and, in 1875, transferred management to his son who accompanied Wiggins on tour around the U.S. for the next eight years. Each summer he lived in New York where Joseph Poznanski transcribed new compositions. Wiggins insistedthat many of them be published under such pseudonyms as Professor W.F. Raymond, J.C. Beckel, C.T.Messengale, and Francois Sexalise. In 1882, John Bethune married his landlady, Eliza Stutzbach, then went on an eight-month tour with Wiggins. Feeling abandoned, Eliza divorced John then hounded him for financial support. After John died, Tom was returned to General Bethune. Eliza sued Bethune and won custody in 1887. Under her management and that of her attorney (and later husband), Wiggins toured for years. He usually introduced himself onstage in the third person and talked about his mental state with a lack of self-awareness. A doctor diagnosed him as non compos mentis, which Wiggins thought was impressive. Unending legal challenges to Eliza’s custodianship forced her to stop touring him around 1893. In 1903, she put him on the popular vaudeville circuit, beginning with Brooklyn’s Orpheum Theater. He played for a year, then suffered a stroke in 1904, which ended his public performing career. After the death of her husband, Eliza relocated to Hoboken, New Jersey, with Wiggins. They kept out of public view, though neighbors could hear Tom’s piano playing at all hours of the day and night. There are many other special collections in the Library waiting to be explored and discovered, including one with some 250 charts and posters covering scientific and technological subjects and a huge map collection that includes 20 globes. Additionally, the Library has a collection of around 25,000 theater, dance, music and film programs. One of my favorite special collections consists of restaurant menus. You can hungrily watch Cincinnati commercial and social history — as well as dining trends and prices — change through the decades as you peruse the bills of fare from long-gone places like The Heritage, Gourmet Room, Busy Bee, Caproni’s, Central Oyster House, Cricket, InCahoots, Jack & Klu’s, Mahogany Hall, Perri’s Pancakes, The Playboy Club, Pigall’s, Shuller’s Wigwam, Warren Sublette’s Winery, Wiggins, Zimmer’s, Zinos and maybe more. It’s one really worth an exhibition — hopefully with snacks. For more information, visit www.cincinnatilibrary.org. Continue reading →

I Am Newman, Hear Me Score By Steven Rosen (From Cincinnati CityBeat,2-16-11) Randy Newman’s foray into southwest Ohio this week, performing at Miami University’s Middletown campus Saturday, is a rare treat. It’s not that he doesn’t like going on the road (“I enjoy doing that,” he says during a telephone interview), but he has so many competing interests, it’s often difficult to find the time. In addition to being a singer/songwriter (his first album came out in 1968) whose often-ironic, satirical and sometimes-character-driven compositions like “Short People,” “Sail Away” and “I Love L.A.” have become contemporary Pop classics, he’s also become a major composer for film. His first breakthrough in film music came in 1981 with the Oscar-nominated song and score for Ragtime. That field has so blossomed for Newman over the decades, especially with his involvement with Disney/Pixar movies, that he’s received an Oscar (for Best Song from Monsters, Inc.) and been nominated 19 other times. His “We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 is nominated for Best Song this year. He also had two Grammy nominations this year — for Toy Story and for “Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog. The film work makes it hard for Newman to craft his usual evocative and provocative Pop songs — some of them, like “God’s Song,” with deep philosophical dimensions — on a regular basis. His last album, Harps and Angels, came out in 2008; the previous one, Bad Love, came out in 1999. Newman has also become the subject of a new musical revue that uses his songs, also called Harps and Angels. It recently premiered in a limited run at Los Angeles’ prestigious Mark Taper Forum, produced by L.A.’s Center Theatre Group. The ensemble cast (featuring Michael McKean, Katey Segal, Storm Large and others) performs highlights from the Newman songbook in the production, conceived by Jack Viertel, who also created Smokey Joe’s Café, a revue based on the early Rock and R&B hit songs of Leiber & Stoller (“Hound Dog,” “Charlie Brown,” “Yakety Yak,” “Jailhouse Rock’). The director, Jerry Zaks, like Viertel, is a Broadway veteran. “They’re hoping to take it across the Mississippi at some point,” Newman says. One person with a say — and much at stake — in Harps and Angels’ future is Cincinnatian Rick Steiner. Although based here, he’s become a major Broadway producer and investor. Among shows he’s backed are Big River, Hairspray and Jersey Boys. Steiner is a producer/investor for Harps and Angels, and he attended the L.A. opening and hoversees the production’s merchandising. “He’s a good guy,” Newman says of Steiner. “I know he’s very committed to musical theater and seemed happy with things. So we’ll see.” Reached by phone at his Cincinnati office, Steiner was effusive speaking about Newman. He also explained that he has a long history of supporting Viertel’s projects. “When Jack did Smokey Joe’s Café in 1993 or so, he said to me, ‘I’m thinking of doing a program of Leiber & Stoller,’ and I said, ‘Count me in.’ He said, ‘You don’t even know what I’m doing.’ I said, ‘I love Leiber & Stoller’s music and have since I was very young.’ ” “This is much more of a highbrow endeavor,” Steiner explains, since Newman doesn’t have many big Top 40 hits to play off of, like Billy Joel or ABBA. “But it’s similar as a revue to what we did in Smokey Joe’s. Randy’s music is so magnificent, each song tells such a wonderful story. If we can pull it off it will be something we’re proud of. “I’m very hopeful we can keep developing it and get it to where we want it, which is Broadway,” Steiner adds. He says the goal is to have another production, probably on the East Coast, premiere before a Broadway decision is made. Newman has been the subject of musical theater revues before, but never on Broadway. In 1982, there was Maybe I’m Doing It Wrong, named after one of his wry early songs. (A production was staged at Cincinnati’s Playhouse in the Park.) And The Education of Randy Newman was debuted by Cosa Mesa, Calif., company South Coast Repertory in 2000 and later had a Seattle run. Newman says there were also earlier attempts. “There was one called Somewhere in Middle of the Night or … Middle of Nowhere,” he recalls. “And there was one done in Cincinnati a long time ago. I don’t know what the name of it was.” (The Playhouse had no record of any Newman show other than Maybe I’m Doing It Wrong.) “I thought (Harps and Angels) was executed the best,” Newman says. “Singers have gotten better about singing with a backbeat, the type of stuff I do when it’s moving a little.” Newman has tried his hand at composing for musical theater. His ambitious Randy Newman’s Faust, based on Goethe’s play about a man whose soul is the object of a struggle between God and the devil, debuted in 1995 at San Diego’s La Jolla Playhouse. Updated to modern times, Newman’s Faust was a Notre Dame University student. His work later was performed at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and, while it had fierce defenders, it was ultimately a commercial failure. “I’m proud of it — I think it’s the best thing I ever did, all in all,” Newman says. “I put everything I knew in it.” While he sometimes entertains notions of reviving it, Newman would rather work on a new idea he has for a musical (after completing songs for his next singer/songwriter album, that is). “I’ve long had an idea I haven’t done anything about, but have talked it to death,” Newman says. “Jane Fonda. Think about it. She’s a kid in a cold kind of movie-star home, becomes a movie star walking down the street, and takes a walk on the wild side. Exercise video, Ted Turner, in Vietnam sitting on a gun.” (She was famously photographed during a 1972 visit to North Vietnam, as part of her opposition to the U.S.’s pro-South Vietnam involvement in the war, seated on an antiaircraft battery.) “It’s kind of fantastic,” Newman says of her life story. “I’ve talked to her about it. I believe I have her permission. I admire her a great deal; she’s an unaffected kind of good person.” Who knows? If he’s serious, he might find an interested producer right here in Cincinnati. (www.stevenrosenwriter.com) Continue reading →

By STEVEN ROSEN, Special Contributor Dallas Morning News Published 23 January 2011 Traveling to pop music festivals is like shopping for clothes. There are the department-storelike big outdoor festivals, such as Tennessee’s Bonnaroo or southern California’s Coachella , with endless talent lineups and even longer bathroom lines. A notch down are the smaller haberdasherlike specialists, some quite tony, that have a familiar brand name (blues, jazz, bluegrass, jam bands) and stick with it year after year. But percolating up from below are smaller, boutique music festivals — sometimes funky and sometimes chic — that try to do something completely different. They can last for just a weekend, or take up semi-residencies in a city with events spread over weeks. Their purpose may be to revive some forgotten style of music such as 1950s-era rockabilly (Viva Las Vegas , to be held April 21-24 in the city that never sleeps) or to celebrate obscure “unsung heroes of rock ’n’ roll,” as is the mission of New Orleans’ Ponderosa Stomp. Sometimes, too, they veer toward the avant-garde. And sometimes their purpose is just to obsess over something weird, like bringing together worldwide Beatles tribute bands for a weekend of communal “yeah, yeah, yeahs.” Some fests even have daytime seminars or public discussions with performers. In that way, they’re like film festivals: rewarding even if you aren’t already a fan of the music they feature. Even a venerable high-end fine-arts festival such as Spoleto USA, a series of separate musical and theatrical performances in Charleston, S.C., (May 27 through June 12), now fits this “boutique” description as it modernizes with more diverse and youthful acts. Last year, for instance, two Australian comedians, impersonating a German punk-rock duo called Die Roten Punk, headlined a hilarious and rockin’ late-night show. At a boutique music festival, you never quite know what to expect. For example, MoogFest, an eclectic progressive-pop fest dedicated to the creative spirit of the late synthesizer inventor Robert Moog , is held over Halloween weekend in Asheville, N.C. (Moog lived there in his later years, and there’s an effort there to build a museum about his work.) Last year’s lineup ranged from Syrian vocalist Omar Souleyman , who sang his energetic, Middle Eastern dance music wearing a native headdress and shades, to a hip, hot British synth-pop band named Hot Chip. En route between venues on Halloween night, I turned an isolated, dark corner and before me, walking quietly and intently, were a young woman dressed in a spectacular red outfit and a man wearing a wolf mask and a tux. We acknowledged each other and moved on. Such is the spirit of Asheville — a youthful, mountain-town version of Austin — during MoogFest. At Abbey Road on the River, which brings worldwide Beatles-tribute bands to attractive downtown Louisville, Ky., over Memorial Day weekend, you can relive every phase of the Fab Four’s career. (A second Abbey Road is held Labor Day weekend in Washington, D.C.) It occurs at multiple venues both outdoors in a park along the Ohio River, and indoors at the adjacent Galt House hotel. At last year’s fest, a scruffy European band played the raucous rock ’n’ roll of the Beatles’ pre-fame Hamburg , Germany, period on one stage while a small orchestra, dressed in colorful band costumes with elaborate stage lighting, played the elaborately arranged “Sgt. Pepper”-era art rock elsewhere. Boutique music festivals can have really big stars. Nashville’s Americana Music Festival & Conference, held at historic Ryman Auditorium and smaller settings, was started for music professionals with careers in this naturalistic blend of rock, country and folk. But it now is open to outsiders. Last year, it featured unannounced sets by such stars as Robert Plant , Lucinda Williams and Dierks Bentley . It occurs this year Oct. 12-15. Bryce Dessner , a guitarist with the popular, Brooklyn-based rock band the National, curates the three-night MusicNow festival in his hometown, Cincinnati . It is tentatively set for May 14-16, with at least some shows in downtown’s Memorial Hall, a 102-year-old jewel box of an intimate auditorium. The festival mixes cutting-edge rock ( Dirty Projectors , Grizzly Bear) with jazz ( Bill Frisell ) and contemporary classical ( Kronos Quartet ). Last year, Dessner commissioned the brittle, edgy rock guitarist Annie Clark , who performs as St. Vincent, to write a classical-music piece in memory of a local murdered arts student. Vincent sat quietly in the balcony, moved, while the New York group yMusic performed her composition. Ponderosa Stomp is a two-night New Orleans party dedicated to reviving the fortunes of “unsung heroes of rock ’n’ roll” and related music. Although it’s moving to a new location this year for its Sept. 16-17 fest, it had been at the crowded, sweaty House of Blues in the French Quarter. No rock fan with a sense of history has truly lived until seeing the original ? (Question Mark) and the Mysterians hold court at 3 a.m. with an extended version of their propulsive 1966 garage-rock classic “96 Tears,” as happened at P-Stomp in 2008. The years melted away, and they were again as big as the Rolling Stones in the eyes of everyone present. Such unexpected magic can happen at boutique music festivals. Steve Rosen is a freelance writer in Ohio. Travel details Prices can vary for boutique music festivals, depending on the size, scope and demand of the event. Ponderosa Stomp, where the multiartist evening shows featuring hard-to-see-live cult artists and occur in one club, has been $50 per night. The Abbey Road on the River festivals, which have multiple stages for concerts and booths selling Beatles collectibles, music, books and souvenirs as well as food and drinks, are $199.95 for the full four-day event or $129.95 for two-day packages, with early-purchase discounts. The prestigious Americana Music Festival & Conference, with its roster of big names, is selling early registration for $350. Resources All of these festivals have Websites with information, although some may not yet be updated for 2011. Some, such as Abbey Road on the River, Spoleto USA and Ponderosa Stomp, offer travel packages with agencies or hotels. — Spoleto USA, www.spolettousa.org — MusicNow, www.musicnowfestival.org — Abbey Road on the River, www.abbeyroadon theriver.com — Americana Music Festival and Conference, www.americanamusic.org — Ponderosa Stomp, www.ponderosastomp.com — MoogFest, www.moogfest.net — Viva Las Vegas, www.vivalasvegas.net (Photo of Sugar Pie DeSanto at Ponderosa Stomp, 2010, by Joe Rosen and courtesy of the festival.) Continue reading →

(From American Songwriter,Nov./Dec. 2010) By Steven Rosen Pop stars of disparate ages and musical styles, when forced to share a stage, can be as awkward together as “strangers waiting up and down the boulevard.” They need a song to bring them together – and the one they choose, if it works, can have all the pop-culture portent of a classic TV show’s finale. There’s no better – or odder – recent example of a musical common bond than the spectacle of seeing Sting, Blondie’s Deborah Harry, hoop-skirted and gray-hair-bewigged Lady Gaga, Elton John, “Goldfinger’s” Shirley Bassey and a guitar-strapped Bruce Springsteen on stage in May at Carnegie Hall at the end of a Rainforest Fund benefit. Their unifying hymn? Journey’s 1981 power ballad, “Don’t Stop Believin.’” The song reached No. 9 on Billboard’s Hot 100 – by Journey standards, just average – and had faded from pop culture until a comeback in this century’s first decade. Lady Gaga – the youngest of the sextet and unburdened by being a “rock” legend or interpreter of older show/movie tunes (like Bassey) – seemed a natural for it. But the others? “Don’t Stop Believin’” used to be thought of, in hip rock circles, as the kind of overly emphatic Top 40 power-ballad – with Steve Perry’s grandiloquent vocals stretching out inspirational catch-phrase lyrics – that Blondie’s and The Police’s New Wave, not to mention Springsteen’s backstreets authenticity, were created to battle. And what’s with that “south Detroit” reference? But there they were, singing it and looking pretty happy. Maybe not quite as happy, however, as the cast of “Glee,” in this summer’s season finale, where their defiant, fist-pumping version brought a Journey medley to an emotional climax. “Don’t Stop Believin’” was not Journey’s biggest radio hit. “Open Arms” and “Who’s Crying Now” were bigger and the group had three other songs make the Top Ten. In the immediate decades after the release, it certainly could be heard on classic-rock radio, but it wasn’t considered one of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest anthems. But now, according to Wikipedia, it is the top downloaded pop song – almost four million – of any recorded before the 21st Century. This past summer, Journey’s version was one of iTunes Top Ten most-recorded pop songs. It’s even made Broadway – it’s a showstopper in the hit musical “Rock of Ages.” “Don’t Stop Believin’” seems to have been reborn as a heartfelt anthem, an instant evocation of youthful hope and desire for the future. But also one with a film-noir-like dark undercurrent. And both elements appeal to contemporary pop culture. Though it ends triumphantly, the song opens with Jonathan Cain’s foreboding keyboard signature and then Perry, in a voice choked with melancholy, begins “Just a small town girl/living in a lonely world…” He moves on to describe a scary urban landscape filled with “the smell of wine and cheap perfume,” “shadows searching in the night,” and those “strangers waiting up and down the boulevard.” It’s the song’s triumphal aspect, no doubt, that has spurred much of its revival – “Glee” taps into it, as did the Chicago White Sox when they made the song an anthem of their 2005 World Championship season. But “Sopranos” creator David Chase tapped into the noir quality when he had Tony Soprano choose it on the restaurant jukebox for the dark, mysterious, final episode of the series. The show stops abruptly right after Perry sings “Don’t Stop” at the fade-out. Perry, who long ago left the band – and, seemingly, being an active musician although he had a 1984 solo hit, “Oh Sherrie,” much bigger initially than “Don’t Stop Believin’” – addressed the resurgence in an interview earlier this year with Britain’s Planet Rock radio station. He recalled how, even though the song was not that big on radio, it resonated with fans at concerts. That helped him believe in it. “Personally, it’s something that means a lot to me,” he said. “…Everybody has emotional issues and problems, and the song has helped me personally to not give up, and I’m finding a lot of people feel that.” To this writer, the song’s renewal was most helped by its inclusion in 2003 indie film Monster. (Perry gets a credit as music consultant.) It’s a tough, gripping and ultimately tragic story of Ailenne Wuornos, the Florida prostitute executed in 2002 for killing her johns. The movie wasn’t widely seen, but had a strong impact on the creative community – Charlize Theron won the Oscar for transforming herself into the downtrodden, homely Wuornos. (Theron was also a producer.) Early in the film, the song plays when Ailenne roller-skates at a rink with a girl (played by Christina Ricci) who finds her attractive. They start kissing on the rink, then passionately embrace outside. For both, this constitutes a bold, public moment of coming out and finding love – and, for a while at least, hope. It makes what follows all the sadder, because we glimpse a different path. Monster gave “Don’t Stop Believin’” a newfound profundity. It was no longer just nostalgia. In 2003, I interviewed both Theron and director Patty Jenkins about the song choice. “We shot the scene listening to Journey, and it does so much for the movie because it’s such a great song for the movie when you listen to lyrics,” Theron said. “But we had no money in the budget, so I wrote (Perry) a very nice letter just very truthfully saying we had always dreamed of doing this song. We sent all the band members a tape of the movie to watch. Steve called us back. He really loved the film and said he saw what we were trying to do with the music, and that it was a very authentic moment for us in that film.” He gave approval, and helped Jenkins with other song choices. And in return, Monster helped “Don’t Stop Believin’s” path to becoming a monster hit all over again. (Photo is of Journey’s Steve Perry) Continue reading →

ROCK GETS BETTER AT 50 (AND OLDER) By Steven Rosen Cincinnati CityBeat, Dec. 22, 2010 Once not so long ago, Rock by the over-50 crowd was the stuff of Rhino Records’ Golden Throats series — Mae West doing The Beatles’ “Day Tripper,” anyone? But, like so much else, it’s gotten better with age. So much better, in fact, that some of the year’s most satisfying Rock (and related) music was made by the over-50 crowd. Here are the 10 best of 2010, in alphabetical order: Homeland by Laurie Anderson (age 63): A magnum opus by this artist who combines electronic music, minimalism, political commentary, Rock rhythms and gorgeous melodies, it takes on post-Great Recession America with insight and humanity. “Only an Expert” is a song all should hear. Lighthouse by Susan Cowsill (51): Too few people know that this member of the family Rock band The Cowsills (“Hair”) has gone on to a career as one of our sharper female singer/songwriters. This album features her clear voice and fine songs, plus a version of Jimmy Webb’s “Galveston.” King for a Day by Micky Dolenz (65): Dolenz first met Carole King when she co-wrote such songs for The Monkees as “Pleasant Valley Sunday” and “Take a Giant Step.” Here, in great voice and with wonderful arrangements and first-class production, he returns the favor by covering her compositions from the 1960s and 1970s. True Love Cast Out All Evil by Roky Erickson (63) with Okkervil River: Helped by a younger Austin Indie Rock group, the legendary, mentally troubled survivor of Texas Psychedelic Rock (13th Floor Elevators) was able to not just salvage forgotten older songs but fill them with renewed energy, relevance and glory. The Union by Elton John (63) and Leon Russell (68): You have to thank two other 60-plus artists, John’s songwriting partner Bernie Taupin and producer T Bone Burnett, for their first-rate contributions to this album. But John is emotive and schmaltz-free, and Russell also contributes several fine songs. Praise & Blame by Tom Jones (70): Jones’ forcefully energetic, dynamic voice has long been able to tackle any material — the late-career surprise has been how sensitively he handles different musical styles. On this Roots/Country album, he mixes judiciously chosen covers (a great version of Dylan’s “What Good Am I?”) with some evocative originals he co-wrote. No Better Than This by John Mellencamp (59)Always interested in populist Folk tunes about the state of America, Mellencamp has continued to strip his sound to better bare his gruff, plaintive voice. Working with producer T Bone Burnett and using one microphone and a mono tape recorder, he’s made an album that sounds new and relevant in its oldness. Band of Joy by Robert Plant (62): Too musically curious to just keep re-mining his Led Zep days, Plant and his expert Americana producer, Buddy Miller, put his love for all things Rock into a collection of atmospheric, mysterious originals and covers, like Low’s “Monkey.” You Are Not Alone by Mavis Staples (71): After recently having Ry Cooder produce a classic album for her, Staples turned to Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy for this, which stays true to her Gospel sensibilities while adding some fine new material (Tweedy’s title song, for instance) to her repertoire. My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky by Swans (led by Michael Gira, 56): Creative use of noise is one of Rock’s greatest contributions to popular music and Gira’s Swans have been in the forefront. But on their first album in 14 years, they find space for quieter, bluesy (and eerie) songs with penetrating lyrics that demand attention. (Photos of Micky Dolenz, left, and Laurie Anderson) ( srosenone@aol.com ) Continue reading →

The Spoken Songs of Jay Bolotin By Steven Rosen Cincinnati CityBeat, Dec. 8, 2010 . . . . . . . Since first showing his wood sculptures at Carl Solway Gallery in 1980, Jay Bolotin has become one of Cincinnati’s most acclaimed artists. He has gone on to make and score a film based on his narratively complex and mysterious woodcuts, Jackleg Testament, that has attracted an international following. Earlier this year, he had an ambitious exhibition at Solway, Leaves From a Cast Paper Novel, that primarily used text and drawings to establish the story for his planned Jackleg Testament: Part Two. That project could still be years away. But in the meantime, the 61-year-old Bolotin — who lives in North Fairmount and has a Brighton studio — has been devoting time to a related but somewhat separate aspect of his artistic career. He’s finding new attention as a singer/songwriter, for both his past and present work. That was evident on a recent Wednesday night at Northside Tavern, where some 100 people listened intently during a rare local performance of his strange, vividly imagistic “spoken songs.” He uses that term to refer to his material because the songs frequently contain monologues. He also plays guitar and sings in a plaintive voice with a hint of native-Kentucky drawl. (He was living on a farm in Kentucky when Solway first visited him.) In the concert, he presented such compelling and unpredictable characters as Molly and Salvador (in one song) and William Bodine, who in “Serpent Song” runs up a hill to beat the sun and is also the subject of Bolotin’s epic “Death of William Bodine.” Bolotin also shared a duet with Ali Edwards (Ruby Vileos, The Kiss Me Everlasting) on a humorous back-and-forth number called “A Strange, Strange Rule.” Some of the songs performed at Northside Tavern go back 20, even 30 years. One was new — the beautiful “The Mirror,” with its spectacularly evocative passage “The lights from the trucks on the Interstate/Got caught in the mirror in the entranceway/And danced on the ceiling in the living room.” Bolotin lately has also been thinking a lot about the music he made much earlier, beginning when he was a teenager living in Rhode Island in the late 1960s and performing more straightforwardly Folk songs. He had gone there to study at Rhode Island School of Design, but found himself more interested in music. Bolotin became friends with members of a group called Tombstone Blues Band, which indirectly led to Bolotin’s self-titled 1970 album on a label called Commonwealth United. Sparely produced in New York with subtle combo accompaniment, the songs are well written and sung in a low and direct voice that fit the ruminative singer/songwriter times. But the label collapsed shortly after release and few albums ever got to the stores. In 2007, Bolotin returned from performing music in St. Petersburg, Russia, to find a telephone message waiting for him. “It was from Rob Sevier, who I didn’t know, and he had been a fan of the record and was looking for me,” Bolotin recalls in a telephone interview after his Northside Tavern show. “I had not heard it for 40 years.” Sevier is a co-owner of Chicago’s Grammy-nominated Numero Group reissue label, one of the new breed of archivist record companies scouring for “lost” Roots material. It has been finding and re-releasing all sorts of obscure Folk, Garage Rock, Blues, Soul and Gospel music from the 1960s-1980s. Sevier subsequently interviewed Bolotin for a music Web-site called Waxidermy, and then included a cut from the 1970 album on his company’s Wayfaring Strangers: Lonesome Heroes compilation. And he also helped arrange for another small, connoisseur Chicago label, Locust Music, to reissue Bolotin’s original album in late 2009. “It’s good songwriting, singing and playing, and a bit downcast, which I like,” Sevier explains by phone. “And it’s a pretty appealing set of songs that are not bound by any specific time.” Bolotin not only doesn’t perform any of that material live today but he had already forsaken it by the time he moved to Nashville in the early 1970s. While there for several years, before moving back to Kentucky, he became friends with fellow songwriters like Kris Kristofferson, Dan Fogelberg and Mickey Newbury. No record releases came out of that period, but he won admirers. Some artists recorded his songs, including Fogelberg, who released “Go Down Easy” as a single, while Kristofferson paid for Bolotin to do some demo sessions. “It wasn’t that I was one of the boys,” Bolotin recalls. “They liked what I was doing because I was rather odd. I was telling stories from the stage back then and they loved it. But the bigger people didn’t like it. There’s an article somewhere where Kris called the people on Music Row ‘fools’ for not signing me, and next couple times when I met those people, they introduced themselves as one of those fools on Music Row. I was not part of the ‘in crowd,’ believe me.” But later in the 1970s, Merle Haggard produced six songs — using a chamber orchestra on one and including an early version of “Death of William Bodine” — for an aborted project. Because of the renewed interest in his 1970 solo album, Bolotin has tracked down and digitized tapes of his various Nashville recordings, including the Haggard sessions, as well as some 1980s New York sessions. He isn’t sure what to do with them yet, but he has his eye on releasing them. (Bolotin’s most recent album of newer material, Songs of Jay Bolotin Volume One: Shadow of a Beast, came out in 2006.) Bolotin finds this new interest in his early career surprising, since he so long ago had moved on. “Wow, it’s something one hasn’t thought about for all this time, but all these young bucks with their record labels are interested in it,” he says. ( For more on JAY BOLOTIN’s reissued 1970 solo album, visit www.locustmusic.com or find it on iTunes (along with the more recent Songs of Jay Bolotin Volume One: Shadow of a Beast). (Photo of Jay Bolotin on stage in St. Petersburg, Russia, 2007, by Maria Skorlupkina and courtesy of Pokoleniy Theatre.) Continue reading →

A Royal Revival for King Records: By Steven Rosen (This appeared in Cincinnati CityBeat, 11-17-10) . . . . . . . For years, Rock historians have said the reason Cincinnati’s King Records doesn’t have the enduring public regard that, say, Detroit’s Motown or Memphis’ Sun labels have is because it didn’t have a readily identifiable sound. King recorded too many kinds of music — even too many kinds of R&B, its greatest strength. In other words, it valued quantity over quality. For every James Brown or Hank Ballard classic, there was less distinguished stuff like “Gibble Gobble” by Willie Wright & His Sparklers or “Do the Ginger Snap” by Little Bobby Moore. But now an alternative theory is emerging — that it’s the breadth and depth of its Americana material that made King (and its affiliated family of labels, especially Federal) so great. And everywhere you look these days, people are paying tribute to King. For instance, in a recent interview Neal Sugarman — co-owner of Brooklyn’s red-hot contemporary-Soul Daptone label, home of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings — said an obscure King Records band, The Dapps, partly inspired label’s and band’s names. William (Beau Dollar) Bowman & The Dapps backed James Brown, Hank Ballard and Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis on King recordings in the late 1960s, during Funk’s formative years. “We were very well aware of The Dapps,” Sugarman said. “It’s a cool name. It means something dapper.” Nashville’s Gusto Records, keeper of the King archives, has just issued the four-disc King R&B Box Set, an updated, remastered version of a 1996 boxed set on now-defunct Highland Records. Meanwhile, reissue labels around the world keep digging through the archives to put out ever-more-obscure King material in ever-hipper packages. An excellent brand-new example comes from Spain’s Vampisoul label, R&B Hipshakers Vol. 1: Teach Me to Monkey. It goes way, way deep into King/Federal archives to come up with upbeat, danceable (and non-hit) R&B songs like “Mom, Won’t You Teach Me to Monkey” by Little Emmett Sutton, “Where You At Jack” by Little Mummy, “Mr. Astronaut” by The Drivers and the aforementioned “Gibble Gobble” and “Do the Ginger Snap.” (It also has lesser-known cuts by better-known King acts like Freddy King (“Texas Oil”), Hank Ballard (“Broadway”), Charles Brown (“Regardless”) and Johnny “Guitar” Watson (the strange modeling-as-dancing song called “Posin’ ”). While this is a Spanish release, it’s curated by one of the U.S.’s top R&B aficionados and record collectors, DJ Mr. Fine Wine of New York radio station WFMU’s “Downtown Soulsville” show. After Vampisoul contracted with Gusto, he was able to access Gusto’s King vaults in Nashville to search for obscure material. (A second volume will come out early next year; two others are in the works.) “There’s just so much of this kind of dancey R&B stuff; it’s incredible how deep King goes,” Mr. Fine Wine (Matt Weingarden) says in an interview. “Such depth and variety. I’m discovering new stuff all the time.” An even more impressive sign of the ongoing interest in King is the issuance this month of the entire Federal recordings of the still-active Chicago Blues/Soul singer/writer/guitarist Syl Johnson. They’re part of a massive four-CD/six-LP boxed set, Syl Johnson: Complete Mythology, from one of the U.S.’s premiere archival labels, The Numero Group. Johnson, whose long career includes such late-1960s/early-1970s (non-King) R&B classics as “Come On Sock It Me,” “Different Strokes,” “Dresses Too Short,” “Concrete Reservation” and “Is It Because I’m Black?” began his career with Federal, the King subsidiary run by Ralph Bass. He recorded two songs — “Teardrops” and “They Who Love” — in Chicago for Bass in 1959. He then cut 12 more tracks on three trips to Cincinnati from 1960-1962. Twelve of the 14 tracks were released as singles, but Numero has included all 14 in its box. The reissue label even went so far as to create artwork for an imaginary Johnson album on Federal, My Gift, that looks very convincing. I interviewed the 74-year-old Johnson, a colorful storyteller, recently about his King days for the current issue of Blurt magazine. “There was this (Chicago) label, Veejay, and I was there making a session with (Blues star) Jimmy Reed,” Johnson recalls. “He used to be a drunk and we’d wait on him to get his whiskey and stuff and we’d be sitting round the studio. I was showing how I could sing and somehow Vivian Carter (the label co-owner) heard me and said to (her brother) to get this young boy to sing. He told me to write a song, put it on a dub and bring it.” But as Johnson walked down South Michigan Avenue (home of Chicago’s vibrant Blues scene) with the recording, he saw a King branch office. “And there was a guy there named Ralph Bass and I gave him my dub — it was a song called ‘Teardrops,’ ” Johnson says. “And he wouldn’t let me go. He said, ‘We’re King Records, a big company. We have James Brown.’ ” So he recorded it properly for King subsidiary Federal, which released it, and a new career was born. ( srosenone@aol.com ) (Photo courtesy Vampisoul) Continue reading →

DVD Review: The Sacred Triangle (Sexy Intellectual, 2010, Not Rated) By Steven Rosen . . . . . . . Here’s a shocking discovery for Cincinnati pop-music historians: Did you know it was a legendary Iggy Pop performance here in 1970 that inspired David Bowie to create his Ziggy Stardust character and thus turn the British Glam Rock movement into a worldwide phenomenon? That’s one of many perceptive insights in this new documentary, which looks at how three fringe, cult-rock musicians — Bowie, Iggy Pop and Lou Reed — suddenly found themselves cultural avatars in the early 1970s. Bowie, who had patiently been looking for a way to incorporate avant-garde theatricality (and rock ‘n’ roll) into his singer-songwriter act, and his manager, Tony Defries, purchased footage of Iggy’s 1970 performance at Cincinnati Pop Festival. That was where Pop famously stood, bare-chested, atop the crowd’s hands, pointing to the future like Moses to the Ten Commandments. Bowie saw that and knew it was the kind of rock god he wanted to become. And as he became it — only much bigger — in 1972, he tried to help a couple of his then-down-and-out influences, Pop and Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed, make comebacks. The album he co-produced with Mick Ronson for Reed, Transformer, was a breakthrough — its single, “Walk on the Wild Side,” was one of the most striking Top 40 hits of all time. His relationship with the drug-troubled Pop was more problematic, but he did help raise his profile and critical regard (and spirits). This DVD’s releasing company, Sexy Intellectual, is affiliated with Britain’s Chrome Dreams, which has been putting out some deeply researched DVDs investigating the formative influences on major rock figures. (Apparently, without those figures’ cooperation.) This has extensive archival footage, matched with contemporary observations from biographers, employees of Defries’ flamboyant MainMan Productions and especially Bowie’s down-to-earth, no-nonsense ex-wife Angie. It’s highly interesting and illuminating about how seismic changes in oop music start underground. Grade: B (This is an adapted version of a review that ran in Cincinnati CityBeat on Nov. 17, 2010.) Continue reading →

Has anyone seen Grace Jones? You’ve missed Cincinnati, but Kehinde Wiley would still like to hear from you… By Steven Rosen From The Art Newspaper issue 218 , November 2010 Published online 16 Nov 10 ( News ) What could have been: Gainsborough and Grace CINCINNATI. The Cincinnati Art Museum, like many others, has been—in the words of director Aaron Betsky—“trying to connect our collection to the current generation.” As part of that intention, it commissioned a portrait of disco diva/actress/model Grace Jones by celebrated African-American artist Kehinde Wiley, wanting to hang it in a new show next to one of its masterpieces—Thomas Gainsborough’s 1760 portrait Ann Ford (Later Mrs. Philip Thicknesse). Alas, it did not work out. Jones didn’t respond to requests for a sitting—a requirement for Wiley, since he aimed to recreate the pose of Ann Ford, who holds a guitar while one arm rests on books and sheet music. It would have been the first traditional portrait the art museum had commissioned from an artist since it had Andy Warhol paint Cincinnati Reds baseball star Pete Rose in 1985. Cincinnati had been restoring its portrait for a show called “Thomas Gainsborough and the Modern Woman”, which opened on 18 September (until 2 January) and was organised by Benedict Leca, curator of European painting, sculpture and drawings. The show’s thesis is that the way that Gainsborough chose to portray Georgian women—and the independent-minded women he painted—was avant-garde for its time. To advance that premise, it borrowed other Gainsborough portraits from London’s National Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Britain and the Huntington Library. But it wanted something new, too—and thought of New York-based Wiley. He has developed a keen following for his depictions of contemporary black males posed in a formalist manner, and his work has been shown at numerous museums. “We’d been having discussions about wanting to work with Kehinde on something,” Betsky said. “Then someone said: ‘What about the Gainsborough show?’” Betsky said the museum thought Wiley’s traditional approach to portraiture a good fit with Gainsborough. “The other interesting thing is he had not painted a woman yet, so that made it all the more interesting to us,” he said. Leca explained his enthusiasm. “The point of the show is to restore agency and self-direction to these [Gainsborough] women, just as Kehinde Wiley himself is re-inscribing black men into this preserve of traditional white-male power,” he says. So Leca, with approval from art museum trustees, flew to New York to propose the project to Wiley. The artist thought of Jones, “because of her personal charisma and physical beauty, and because she has a history of understanding the playful interplay between popular culture and the art world”, Wiley explained. Leca says Wiley’s then dealer, Jeffrey Deitch (now director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art), even had the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen ready to create a dress just for the sitting. But nobody could get through to Jones. Leca had contacted her agent in London and wrote to Jean-Paul Goude, the French fashion photographer to whom she is close. And he wrote directly to Jones through another photographer. No response. If Jones should yet call, it’s not too late for Wiley. He said he still wants to do it. “I believe I could make one of the more meaningful statements of her physical beauty and her presence in the world that hasn’t been seen before.” Continue reading →