TS: “Seasoned rocker that she is, Pink knows how to work an arena.”
Pink: “If there are 10,000 people in an arena, I can pick out that one person that is the brother that had to drive his sister. 9,999 people are having a good time, I can pick out the one that isn’t.
~ Tracy Smith, “Pink”
Don’t miss the entire segment on CBS Sunday Morning (October 8, 2017)
Photo: Pink | Alecia Beth Moore | singer | portrait | glamor | ram2013
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in.
~ Leonard Cohen, lyrics from Anthem
Notes: Photo & Story: Vanity Fair – Leonard Cohen, Influential Singer-Songwriter and Poet, Dead at 82
Hang in there…it builds a head of steam with the cello at go and starts to cook at the 3:00 minute mark…What incredible talent!
Benjamin Sainte-Clementine, 27, in a poet, singer, pianist, composer and musician. He performs Adios live at the Burberry Menswear January 2016 show.
The decision is mine
The decision is mine
So let the lesson be mine
Let the lesson be mine
The decision was hard
The decision was hard
Cause the vision is mine
The vision is mine
Jake Isaac is a singer songwriter from London. You can find him on Facebook.
Interview excerpt from Figure8Magazine:
Q: You’ve mentioned in that past that your father is a vicar; did that religious upbringing have an effect on your song writing?
JI: My father being a minister affects me, definitely my ethics and where my head is at. But also just my father’s taste in music, at an early age he was into Paul Simon’s Graceland record, and a bit of Mozart and Ladysmith Black Mambazo and I think his taste in music has had a bigger effect on me than I realised.
Mike Rosenberg, 29, was born in Brighton, England. He is better known by his stage name Passenger, is an English folk-rock singer-songwriter. Rosenberg learned classical guitar when he was young: ” My parents were really encouraging about music so that sort of started the path. When I was about 14-15, I started to write songs, which were absolutely dreadful. But as I kept going the songs became better and better – it was just so bloody obvious that this was what I wanted to do. I never really applied myself in school and music was the only thing I wanted to spend my time doing…I’m heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Neil Young although I’m nowhere near as good as those guys!”
Song on Whispers Album on iTunes
(Source: Wiki & Vancouver Weekly: Who is Mike Rosenberg?)
From Suzannahespie.com:
Suzannah Espie is a Melbourne, Australia based singer songwriter who has been casting spells over audiences ever since she first took to the stage with her alt-country pop band, GIT, in 1997. A woman of compelling beauty — statuesque, with piercing blue eyes framed by golden curls — she has a voice to match, an intoxicating mix of country, soul, blues and pop. A gentle, sweet trill that can move grown men to tears one moment, or an Aretha-esque hellcat belt that can raise the roof the next; however she sings it though, it’s still unmistakeably Suzannah Espie. It is as a solo artist Espie has truly come into her own…
It’s hard to believe now that, despite her prodigious talent, Espie was beset by self-doubt and shyness early on in her career, which she moved to Melbourne from Fremantle at aged 18 to pursue in earnest. She tells of forcing herself to get up at Fitzroy’s Rainbow Hotel to sing once a week. “Then I’d go and have a cry in the toilets afterwards because I thought it was so horrible.”
Collard recalls the first time he went over to Suzannah’s house to play some music together. “Absolutely nothing happened,” he says with a laugh. “She was too nervous to sing a note.”
While Espie’s confidence and profile have grown over the years, she remains as earthy and honest as the music she writes and performs. “I still don’t think I’m a good songwriter. Occasionally I’ll pull a good one out of my arse,” she says in typically straight-talking Suzannah fashion.
Find her album on iTunes: Sea of Lights
LOVED THIS! Don’t pull up early on this video. Take it to the finish line. (Un Cygene La Nuit = A Swan At Night).
Yes. Yes. Yes. I agree. She stopped me in my tracks:
Every now and then a singer comes along with such an unusual approach to her voice that the Canadian folk scene stops in its tracks to make space for something they didn’t know they were missing. Darkly theatrical and deep-voiced, Toronto-raised, Montreal- and Paris-based trilingual (English, French and Spanish) singer Alejandra Ribera is such a performer. (Source: nowtoronto.com)
A bit of Edit Piaf. A bit of Tom Waits. A bit of Joan Armatrading:
Ribera was born to an Argentine waiter and a Scottish actress and raised in Toronto. Her wildly bizarre vocal range and eclectic writing style have led to comparisons stretching from Edith Piaf to Tom Waits to Joan Armatrading. Growing up, Alejandra studied violin, viola and classical choral music. As a teenager her habit of sneaking into cabaret bars and her obsession with greats such as Mercedes Sosa, Odetta and Jimmy Scott began to shape the distinctly unique vocal style she would later apply to her own compositions. After abandoning York University’s Vocal Jazz program after only four days, she headed off to Europe to study energy healing. “Yeah, I dropped out of school to study with a witch doctor in the mountains of Slovakia … it seemed like a good idea at the time… ” she chuckles, “but this is where it lead me, so I think it was an important detour.” Unable to deny the call of music she returned to Canada, this time to build her career as a gifted singer/songwriter. (Source: alejandraribera.com)
Alejandra Ribera’s new album released February 4, 2014: La boca (Canadian store). Her previous album Navigator, Navigateher can be found here.
Kathleen Edwards, 35, is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. She was born in Ottawa, Ontario to the daughter of a former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. At age 5, Edwards began classical violin studies that continued for the next 12 years. After high school she decided not to attend college, instead opting to play local clubs to pay the bills. Her musical sound has been compared to Suzanne Vega meets Neil Young. In 2012, Edwards’ fourth studio album, Voyageur, became Edwards’ first album to crack the top 100 and top 40 in the U.S., peaking at #39 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and #2 in Canada. (Source: Wiki)
Find Edwards’ Voyageur album on iTunes at this link.
Kathleen Edwards’ official web site.
Jasmine van den Bogaerde, 17, also known by her stage name Birdy, is an English musician. She won the music competition Open Mic UK in 2008, at the age of 12. Her début single, a version of Bon Iver‘s “Skinny Love“, was her breakthrough, charting all across Europe and being certified six times platinum in Australia. Her self-titled début album Birdy was released on 7 November 2011 to similar success, peaking at number 1 in Australia, Belgium and The Netherlands. Birdy’s second studio album Fire Within is expected to be released on 23 September 2013 in the UK.
Find her album Birdy on iTunes. Her website: Officialbirdy.com.
17 years old. Incredible.
Feelin’ like foot-stomping Johnny Cash. “Dale Watson, 50, grew up in poverty outside of Pasadena, Texas as one of four boys. Watson’s father (whom he is named after) and brother, Jim were both musically inclined and guided what have become his longstanding musical influences. Watson began writing his own songs at age 12, making his first recording two years later. By day he went to school and by night he played local Houston clubs and Honky Tonks with Jim in an aggregation called the Classic Country Bandin. He champions “Ameripolitan” as a new genre of original music and has positioned himself as a tattooed, stubbornly independent outsider who is interested in recording authentic country music. As a result, his record sales have been slow, but he has become a favorite of critics and alt-country fans.” (Source: Wiki)
Dale Watson Official Website. On iTunes at this link.
“Justin Timberlake, 32, is playing the long game. He’s the Kasparov of showbiz. He has survived far longer than most artists, tracing an arc from pop-culture absurd — first appearing on the Mickey Mouse Club at age 11 — to pop-culture sublime, a solo career that has triumphed at a time when entertainment, and celebrity, have become more disposable than ever…
Timberlake, it has been said, has gone far on likability, which is also a way of mildly patronizing him…But what has let him bridge over multiple iterations and now three generations of fans has been a certain kind of generationally specific decorum: gracious, polite, patient, deferential. He may have you naked by the end of this song, but he will do so using Antioch rules.”
(Timberlake) ‘Y’know, life doesn’t happen in black and white.’ The gray area is where you become an adult . . . the medium temperature, the gray area, the place between black and white. That’s the place where life happens.”
~ The New York Times Style Magazine: The Enduring, Multigenerational Appeal of Justin Timberlake
Related Entertainer Posts:
“Foy Vance, 39, was born in the North Ireland town of Bangor, but his passion for traditional music was born in the southern states of America. As a child, Foy relocated with his father, a preacher, to the American Midwest settling in Oklahoma. With his father, Foy travelled the American South, widening his horizons and absorbing the rich musical traditions he was exposed to. Returning to Ireland some years later, Foy began writing his own music, deeply shaped by the sounds of his youth. Since those days, he has spent a considerable amount of time on the road, touring with the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Michael Kiwanuka, Marcus Foster, Snow Patrol, and Ed Sheeran. Foy also scored Oscar-winning short-film The Shore with David Holmes, who collaborated with Vance on his 2012 Melrose EP. Foy’s newest album, Joy Of Nothing, will be released this year. Vance is moved by the fractions of love and sentiment, giving himself over to the quiet deluge. His is a voice that rattles you and forces you to let it in so that you may all enjoy a dark room, a modest fire and something to toast with.” (Source: FoyVance.com)
Charles Bradley, 65, was born in Gainesville, Florida. He was raised by his grandmother until the age of eight when, while meeting his mother for the first time, she told him that she wanted him to come live with her in Brooklyn, NY. In 1962, his sister took him to the Apollo Theater to see James Brown perform. Bradley was so inspired by the performance that he began to practice mimicking Brown’s style of singing and stage mannerisms at home. When he was a young teen, Bradley ran away from home and lived on the streets and in subway cars for two years. Later, he enlisted in Job Corps which eventually led him to Maine to work as a chef. One time while working, someone told him he looked like James Brown. Yet when asked if he could sing, he was too afraid to admit it. Eventually he did, however, overcome this fear and performed five or six times with a band. But after his band mates were drafted into the Vietnam War, the act never re-formed. Bradley worked in Maine as a cook for ten years until deciding to head west, hitchhiking across the country. He lived in upstate New York, Seattle, Canada and Alaska before settling in California. There, Bradley worked odd jobs and played small shows for 20 years before he was discovered by Daptone’s Gabe Roth…and then, as they say, the rest was history.
References:
Mike Rosenberg, 29, was born in Brighton, England. He is better known by his stage name Passenger, is an English folk-rock singer-songwriter. His nickname comes from the folk-rock band of which he was the founder, main vocalist and songwriter, and which released just one album. When the members of the band chose to go their own separate ways in 2009, Rosenberg opted to keep the band’s name for his solo work. His most successful single “Let Her Go” has topped the charts in 16 countries so far.
Rosenberg learned classical guitar when he was young: ” My parents were really encouraging about music so that sort of started the path. When I was about 14-15, I started to write songs, which were absolutely dreadful. But as I kept going the songs became better and better – it was just so bloody obvious that this was what I wanted to do. I never really applied myself in school and music was the only thing I wanted to spend my time doing…I’m heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, and Neil Young although I’m nowhere near as good as those guys!”
Song on All the Little Lights Album on iTunes
(Source: Wiki & Vancouver Weekly: Who is Mike Rosenberg?)
Ry Cuming, 23, is a singer-songwriter born in the small coastal Australian town of Angourie. Growing up on a beach in Australia, he spent most of his days surfing and listening to his father’s vinyl collection. He quickly developed a love for a number of different styles of music from Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder to Ben Harper and Jack Johnson. His career took shape as an 18 year-old traveler in Costa Rica. One fateful afternoon while playing in the hallway of a hotel, Ry met a young film producer who would later become his manager. Cuming won two of Australia’s Dolphin Awards in 2004 for Best Pop Song and Best New Artist. (Sources: Wiki & JamBase.com)
We saw Harry Chapin perform this song, Taxi, in one of his last live performances. This timeless ballad continues to feed my post-Zen-glow of San Francisco…
It was raining hard in ‘Frisco,
I needed one more fare to make my night…
Melissa “Missy” Morrison Higgins, 30, is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician and actress. She learned to play classical piano from age six but realized she wanted to be a singer at about 12 when she appeared in a Primary School production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s music Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Hoping for more freedom, she urged her parents to send her to a boarding school attended by her siblings. There she took up the piano again, this time playing jazz. She was introverted and found that piano practice helped her cope with living at boarding school.
Now I wouldn’t consider myself a groupie (and that would depend on the definition of groupie)…but I’m a fan. A Large One. “Running on Empty.” The Pretender.” “Stay Just a Little Bit Longer.” “Here Come Those Tears Again. “You’re A Friend.” “Rosie.” And I can go on and on, yet…Yet, somehow, I’ve never heard this song. Shaking my head in wonder. How’s that possible?
And if you’re a purist, here’s Jackson Browne’s acoustic version of the same song (and a far superior version in my opinion) to ease you into the weekend:
↓ click for audio (Jackson Browne: Sky Blue and Black)
jackson-browne-sky-blue-and-black.mp3
Music Inspiration: Thank you gene-how. Image Source: Image Credit: Rollingstone
Julia Lezhneva, 23, is a Russian soprano and opera singer. She was born on Sakhalin Island into a family of geophysicists. She has travelled the world at a young age performing at concerts, competitions and festivals at some of the world’s greatest venues. I’m not an opera fan but this young lady is inspiring. She has found her calling. She has achieved Mastery and Excellence at a very young age. The joy in her face, her words and her music lights up the room. This CBS-like “Sunday Morning” clip leaves me invigorated about the generations coming behind us. Bravo Julia. You are something special.
And if you are interested in hearing more from Julia Lezhneva, here’s a 2-minute excerpt from Handel’s “Saeviat tellus inter rigores”.
Sources: Thank you Rob @ The Hammock Papers for posting this clip and pointing me to Lezhneva. Be sure to check out his blog for similar inspiring posts. It’s a daily stop for me.
My importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my importance to myself is tremendous. I am all I have to work with, to play with, to suffer and to enjoy. It is not the eyes of others that I am wary of, but of my own. I do not intend to let myself down more than I can possibly help, and I find that the fewer illusions I have about myself or the world around me, the better company I am for myself.
~ Noël Coward
Happy Birthday, Noël Coward, who was born on this day in 1899. In his bio, he is defined as having “virtually invented the concept of Englishness for the 20th century. An astounding polymath – dramatist, actor, writer, composer, lyricist, painter, and wit — he was defined by his Englishness as much as he defined it. He was indeed the first Brit pop star, the first ambassador of ‘cool Britannia.’…Coward was on stage by the age of six, and writing his first drama ten years later…His between-the-wars celebrity reached a peak in 1930 with “Private Lives,” by which time he had become the highest earning author in the western world…Since his death in 1973, his reputation has grown. There is never a point at which his plays are not being performed, or his songs being sung. A playwright, director, actor, songwriter, filmmaker, novelist, wit . . . was there nothing this man couldn’t do?”
Noel Coward: Top 10 quotes
Live & Learn 