Local Rhythms – Movie Music

I saw Jodie Foster’s latest movie recently. Though I’m not a film critic, let me offer this piece of advice – wait for the DVD. “The Brave One” looks like the studio took a knife to Neil Jordan’s dark vision of a conflicted avenger.
The director’s cut, I’m sure, will be much different [...]

The Sophomore Class – KT Tunstall, James Blunt

Two standout singer/songwriters from across the pond have just released their second efforts:  KT Tunstall’s “Drastic Fantastic” and James Blunt’s “All the Lost Souls.”   Tunstall shifts slightly away from the percussive one-girl band tricks that marked her debut “Under the Telescope.”  Blunt sports a fuller sound than 2005’s “Back to Bedlam,” all the while channeling [...]

Rock 93.9/101.7 Flips Format – Update

The 93.9 side of the dial has, as expected, become “The Pulse” – an all-talk format station retransmitting from WTPL in Bow/Concord.
101.7 continues with rock music, announcing themselves as “WVRR 101.7,” although an old promo for 93.9/101.7 slips in occasionally. The music side is robojock-driven, I’ve yet to hear an on-the-air host speak. [...]

Local Rhythms – Autumn Brings Opera House Music

I tend to have mixed feelings as fall approaches. The sun lover in me would rather feel the air warming my back than taste it on the tip of my tongue. But everything else autumn brings – apple picking, pumpkin carving and foliage color – make the bittersweet reunion [...]

Andy Dickinson, RIP

It’s with sadness I note the passing of Andy Dickinson, the young man from Newport paralyzed last November in a motorcycle accident.   Andy died last weekend from complications associated with the accident.
He had a lot of great friends and family, and the benefit show for him at Newport’s Moose Hall last February was a memorable [...]

Local Rhythms – Will They Ever Learn?

It’s been an up-and-down week for the music business. Rhapsody recently merged with Urge, the MTV-sponsored download outlet that never did get a whole lot of traction. This week, the newly launched site began selling unprotected MP3 songs, which play on iPods, music phones – everything.
Even better, and unlike [...]

Lori McKenna – The Surreal and the Real

Lori McKenna is almost ready for her post-show interview. “But I need a few minutes,” she says in the Iron Horse Music Hall dressing room, “to help pack up the stage.”

A headliner serving as her own roadie is a far cry from just a few weeks earlier, when she toured America [...]

Local Rhythms – Rick Rubin May Save The Music Business

There might be hope yet for the record business – and I’m talking about the folks who sell the music, not the ones who create it.
As a producer, Rick Rubin has made and re-made many performers. He practically invented commercial hip-hop, launched the Red Hot Chili Peppers to stardom, and [...]

Never Again – Buffett At Gillette Stadium

I didn’t attend the show, due to a business commitment that had me out of the country.  But I know people who did, and the Jimmy Buffett show at Gillette Stadium has to go down in the annals as the biggest rip-off in history.  Not only were the tickets too expensive, all the seats sucked, [...]