Danny O’Keefe
In the 1970’s, Danny O’Keefe put out a string of albums that cemented his reputation as being among the best songwriters of his generation. These days, casual fans know him best for his Top Ten hit “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues” or Jackson Browne’s version of “The Road” from the classic Running On Empty album. But the story didn’t end in the 70’s. He recorded “The Day To Day” in 1985 with the two Top Twenty Adult Contemporary songs “Along For The Ride” and “Someday”. Working with Bob Dylan’s company, Special Rider Music, he co-wrote “Well, Well, Well” with Bob and other songs successfully recorded by artists like Nickel Creek, Alison Krauss, and Alan Jackson.
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Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Mary Chapin Carpenter (born February 21, 1958 in Princeton, New Jersey) is a highly successful country music singer, guitarist, and songwriter. According to Songfacts, Carpenter had a fairly privileged upper middle class upbringing. Her father was at least partly responsible for her embarking on a musical career. The song “House of Cards” was inspired by the divorce of her parents when she was sixteen.
One of her most widely known singles is “Passionate Kisses” (written by fellow singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams), a song with a rock flavor musically and lyrics listing simple desires such as “a comfortable bed”, “food to fill me up”, and “time to think”. Another big hit was “Down at the Twist and Shout“, which she performed in January 1997 at Super Bowl XXXI in New Orleans.
A number of Mary Chapin Carpenter’s songs speak to women, urging them on through hard times or troubled relationships. In “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her“, co-composed by Carpenter and Don Schlitz, the singer makes the case for strength and self-respect. Another common theme in her music is that of taking life at your own pace, rather than rampant goal-driven materialism, such as “The Long Way Home” from her 2001 album Time*Sex*Love, which pokes fun at a man who “retire(s) at thirty to his big-ass house next to the putting green.” The album has a relatively different feel musically, incorporating elaborate orchestra melodies, but with her characteristic lyrical depth.
Her album Between Here and Gone, was released in 2004.
Carpenter’s 2007 album, The Calling, on Rounder Records’ rock/pop imprint Zoë, features commentary about contemporary politics, a reaction to the impact of Hurricane Katrina on a track entitled “Houston,” and an incendiary track entitled “On with the Song“, dedicated to the Dixie Chicks, and addressing the visceral reaction to the trio. In less than three months after its release, The Calling sold more than 100,000 copies in the US.
Carpenter has won five Grammy Awards and is the only artist to have won four consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Female Country Vocal Performance, which she received from 1992 to 1995. On October 7, 2012, Carpenter was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Carpenter is a fifth cousin of the late singer and humanitarian Harry Chapin, along with his brothers Tom Chapin and Steve Chapin.
John Jennings
Editor Note: The wonderful video of Down at the Twist and Shout was filmed at the Spanish Ballroom, Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, Md. Take note of both John Jennings and Pete Kennedy on guitar and the wonderful BeauSoleil. Also special because I was there.
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Charlie Faye & the Fayettes
Charlie Faye & the Fayettes
“Musically, the group hearkens to Motown, Spector or the Brill Building: Charlie is emerging as a budding Carole King, and the songs are good enough to rate comparison to Goffin & King or Mann & Weil.” – Huffington Post
“In a world of new soul singers who actually get what they’re talking about, enter the name of Charlie Faye and her unbeatable Fayettes to that list. They could go all the way.” – Bill Bentley, The Morton Report
“The album stretches beyond the coy boundaries of ‘60s girl groups with the opener ‘Green Light,’ and though ‘Eastside’ could usher dancers down a Soul Train line, its Stax-styled groove and horn chart service a serious look at social gentrification.” – No Depression
“It’s impossible not to be enchanted by one of this year’s freshest, most delightful and all around grooviest releases.” – American Songwriter
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James Crumley
in memorium
Crumley was the quintessential novelist for post Vietnam War America. His disillusion was equal to his romantic streak, the both of them stoked by abundant appetites and consumption of just about every substance under the sun. He was a slumming poet in the vein of his icon, Chandler, and a consummate writer’s writer, capable of more feeling and more beauty in a sentence than many authors could fit into a book. Ask your favorite crime writer for a list of their most admired books and the odds are you’ll find The Last Good Kiss or some other adventure from the C.W. Sughrue or Milo Milodragovitch series among them.
(Crimereads)
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