Christmas came early for Phish fans on December 24, with a 2pm premiere of December, an album from guitarist Trey Anastasio and Chairman of the Boards™, Page McConnell.
The sessions from the band’s recording studio, The Barn, in Vermont, were recorded over the summer, of which two songs were shared during The Beacon Jams series this fall.
The album features six tracks, all arranged for Page and Trey, offering a more melodic treatment of a few Phish ballads. The album leads off with Hoist track “If I Could” followed by “Mountains in the Mist,” and “Wingsuit,” “Joy” and “Miss You.” A 16-minute version of “The Squirming Coil” rounds out December, making it one of the longest versions of the song to date.
December was produced and mixed by Bryce Goggin, engineered by Ben Collette and mastered by Pete Lyman at Infrasonic Mastering, Nashville, TN.
Talking Heads will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy Awards show on January 31, 2021. The award celebrates performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording.
Forming in NYC in 1975, Talking Heads had an immense career, spanning 16 years and influencing countless bands in the rock and jam scenes, extending their reach well beyond their lifetime, among them Phish, Widespread Panic, Arcade Fire, LCD Soundsystem and many more.
The accolade from the Recording Academy is particularly noteworthy, given that Talking Heads never received a Grammy Award. They were nominated twice – once in 1984 for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group for “Burning Down the House,” and again in 1988 for Best Concept Music Video, “Storytelling Giants.”
Those looking for Talking Heads to perform, pandemic aside, can recall the last official Talking Heads performance, which took place at the band’s 2002 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. It is unlikely this award will spark a reunion, one that Byrne has not been in favor of for many years (a lifetime even).
In addition to the 2021 Lifetime Achievement, Special Merit gramophones honorees include Tejano music legend Selena and female rap group Salt-N-Pepa, as well as Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, opera singer Marilyn Horne, and late jazz great Lionel Hampton.
The 2021 Grammy Awards are set to take place Sunday, January 31, 2021 with Trevor Noah of The Daily Show as host.
Revisit Talking Heads performance at Saratoga Performing Arts Center on August 5, 1983.
The group included founding members David Byrne (vocals, guitar), Chris Franz (Drums), Tina Weymouth (Bass), and Jerry Harrison (Keyboards) in addition to a number of added musicians who come and go when needed to supplement the bands theatrical performance. One of these musicians just happens to be magic keyboard man Bernie Worrell of ‘P-Funk’ fame. For those fans who love the 1984 concert film ‘Stop Making Sense’, this live recording makes a fitting addendum to that document, which also chronicles the 83 tour in support of the LP Speaking In Tongues.
Guitarist Leslie West, heavy metal pioneer and Mountain frontman, has died at age 75. With hits including “Mississippi Queen” and “Theme From An Imaginary Western,” West established an indelible voice and guitar tone that remains legendary to this day. A press release reports the cause of death to be cardiac arrest.
West was born Leslie Weinstein in Queens, and attended Forest Hills High School, which was also attended by The Ramones, Burt Bacharach and Paul Simon. West first emerged on the scene as a member of The Vagrant, and a few years later he and Felix Pappalardi formed Mountain. The iconic guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and storyteller leaves a legacy that is celebrated by peers and fans across the world.
Mountain was one of the performers at the original Woodstock in August, 1969, and later formed West, Bruce and Laing with Mountain drummer Corky Laing and Cream’s Jack Bruce. In, 1971 West contributed to The Who’s Who’s Next sessions in NYC, performances that can be heard on the album’s 1995 and 2003 reissues.
Alongside his significant contribution to pop culture as the face of Mountain, West appeared in films Family Honor (1973) and The Money Pit (1986). He was a regular guest on the Howard Stern Show, and over the course of decades remained a periodic visitor alongside enjoying a decades-long friendship with the talk show host.
photo by Rob Teller
West was inducted in to the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006, and appeared on dozens of other recordings from a vast universe of artists. Samples of his performances lived a secondary life on the masters of a who’s who of hip-hop and rap stars.
The guitarist is renowned for helping popularize the Gibson Les Paul Jr. model with P-90 pick-ups to create a tone that is undisputedly his own. More recently, he enjoyed a long relationship with Dean Guitars, releasing several signature models.
Leslie West is survived by his wife Jenni, whom he married on stage after Mountain’s performance at the Woodstock 40th Anniversary concert in Bethel, NY on August 15, 2009. He is also survived by his brother Larry and nephew Max.
From 1964 through today, few artists have left a more significant mark on music as we know it. Guitarists across the globe together will unite in sadness as the world says goodbye to a true original.
Oscar winning filmmaker Peter Jackson has collaborated with The Beatles for the upcoming documentary, The Beatles: Get Back, due out in August, 2021.
Get Back looks at the Fab Four in 1969 and 1970, when John Lennon, Paul McCartney,George Harrison and Ringo Starr were preparing for their first live show in two years, showcasing the camaraderie and spirit between them, as they wrote and rehearsed 14 new songs.
The film draws from 56 hours of previously unseen footage of the band, shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg in 1969, and includes more than 150 hours of audio. Also included in the documentary is the band’s final live performance as a group in London, England.
Paul McCartney said in a tweet:
Peter Jackson has released an exclusive sneak peek of his upcoming documentary “@TheBeatles: Get Back” for fans everywhere to enjoy.
In a video message, Jackson introduced an extended preview, noting that the film was due to be finished by now, but has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, saying “Hopefully it will put a smile on your face in these rather bleak times that we’re in at the moment.”
Jackson’s native New Zealand has COVID-19 under control, leading him to be able to resume work on the film. He stresses that the video shared is not a trailer, but a montage of scenes so far collected for the film, set to a rehearsal recording of the movie’s title track.
The Beatles: Get Back will be released with a new book of the same name, the first official book credited to the band since 2000’s The Beatles Anthology. The new book will be out on August 31, 2021, and features an introduction by Hanif Kureishi.
The Beatles: Get Back will open in theaters on August 27, 2021.
The late, great Edward Van Halen wasn’t the first musician of Indonesian descent to set the world ablaze with his fiery guitar work. That honor goes to The Tielman Brothers, a quartet of Indonesian immigrants to Van Halen’s native Holland, who helped pioneer a new musical genre in the early years of rock-n-roll. It was a fusion of exotic world and American musics – a high energy, theatrical and largely instrumental guitar-driven variety played by Indonesian immigrants to the Netherlands dubbed Indorock. Although it was big in continental Europe for a time, Indorock has remained virtually unknown in the world beyond.
Tielman’s story begins in 1945 in Surabaya, Indonesia, then a Dutch colony. That was when four brothers – Andy, Reggy, Loulou, Ponthon and their sister Jane – were inspired to start performing traditional folks songs and dances at parties by their musically-inclined father, Herman. Within a year and half, they were on tour as The Timor Rhythm Brothers, playing the music and dances of their homeland with costumes and even war-like rituals employing spears and swords. The musical style they played, kroncong, was a fusion of traditional Indonesian music with Portuguese fado and saudade, sounds that came to these islands when European explorers arrived, with their guitars, in the 16th Century.
All that changed in 1951 when the Tielman’s heard the hillbilly rock of “Guitar Boogie” by Arthur Smith. In search of a harder, more American sound like Smith’s, they moved brother Loulou over to the kit drum set. They eventually began to add covers of hits by Les Paul, Elvis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and Gene Vincent to their act – all propelled by the ferocious guitar licks and versatile vocals of Andy Tielman.
The Tielman’s joined the wave of more than 300,000 Indonesians who would emigrate to Holland. They brought spice to its culture, cuisine (the famed rice buffet, Rijsttafel) and music. In 1957, the family relocated to Breda, Netherlands where they began playing as The Four T’s. Their big break came in 1958 when they secured a gig in the Hawaiian section of the Dutch pavilion at the World’s Fair in Brussels. Hawaiian music was becoming a global sensation at that time. Naturally, it became another ingredient in their fast-expanding polyglot musical brew, along with a little country & western, rockabilly and their native folk.
The World’s Fair crowds were blown away by their frenetic brand of rock-n-roll. It was a roar of volume and energy complimented with showy antics like tossing their guitars, playing them with their teeth, their toes, behind their backs and heads, and upside down – all without missing a note or beat. It was Hendrix’s bag of tricks, minus the burning guitar, ten years before Monterey Pop. Their electrifying act quickly garnered bookings far and wide, including some in Hamburg’s notorious Reeperbaum red light district, commencing two years before the Beatles’ first stint.
A year later, they would finally be performing as The Tielman Brothers, in Holland and mostly frequently Germany. The year also saw the release their debut single, “Rock Little Baby of Mine,” widely considered the first-ever Dutch rock-n-roll record. Around the same time, brothers Andy and Reggy started playing their signature Gibson Les Pauls. It was something that would influence a host of European guitar heroes-to-be including Jan Akkerman. The blistering technician who led Holland’s most internationally successful Indorock band, Focus of “Hocus Pocus” fame, Akkerman got turned on to the Tielman’s and their Les Pauls at age 12, while watching a performance on German TV.
“Andy’s white Les Paul was cool, but seeing Reggy playing his Black Beauty, I knew that was my guitar and I would have to have one someday,” says Akkerman. “I had played a Gretsch White Falcon in a bunch of bands since my dad bought it for me in 1963. But I had wait around seven more years or so, until my days in Focus, to finally get a black Les Paul Custom. It was an instrument that became a signature of my sound and the bands through the mid-70s.”
The Tielmans stuck with Gibson guitars until the mid-60s when they moved on to Fender Jazzmasters. Lighter axes made their acrobatics easier to perform and became choice for the majority of Indorockers. Interestingly, Andy created a custom 10-string Jazzmaster in order to thicken his sound.
Much of The Tielman Brothers’ notoriety came as a result of high octane performances on Dutch and German television, ones that we can enjoy today thanks to YouTube.
On January 23, 1960, Holland was hit with an earthquake of Indorock sound and sight… when The Tielman Brothers appeared on AVRO TV’s “Weekend” show.
The slim, sharply dressed brothers kicked off their performance with “Black Eyes.” It’s a sleepy Santo & Johnny-esque ballad driven by trills and tremolo at first, which then moves onto a stop-time tango beat, and finally, a Gene Vincent/Cliff Gallup-styled rockabilly rave-up to close. Brother Andy was centerstage with his inspired riffing and cool lounge lizard presence – using bends, slides, muted strings and classical-styled tapping to ring harmonics out of his guitar.
This TV performance also included “Rollin Rock,” six-minutes of the brothers pulling out all stops on their instrumental Indorock prowess and showbiz schtick. Drummer Loulou played Andy’s guitar with his sticks and solos repeatedly. He walked around his kit as he thumped away. Ponthon alternatively runs, rides and slides his big acoustic bass across the stage. Then positioned himself beneath it as he took his solo. Andy swung for the fences as usual – playing his Les Paul with his feet, his teeth and behind his back, the latter while dancing atop Ponthon’s bass.
The Tielman’s performance also included their radical new single, “18th Century Rock.” Could it be they started the whole European classical/prog rock thing with this rockabilly’d-up version of Mozart’s “Piano Sonata No. 16 in C Major?” The stodgier segments of Dutch society were not impressed and criticized the band heavily in media. Interestingly, they would go on to enjoy greater success in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland and Sweden than Holland.
The first Indorock bands I heard in Holland were the Poetiray Brothers, Electric Johnny and his Skyrockets, The Crazy Rockers and the Tielmans with Andy at the helm, who were the best of the lot. What a great talent he was, a genius in his own right who I had the pleasure to see and play with many times. Andy and the Tielmans were more of an influence on me than the Beatles or the Rolling Stones. I put him right up there in my favorites, with Jimi, Django and Julian Bream.
Jan Akkerman
“I remember seeing them one night in the ‘60s in the Hague at a chic place called Palais de Dance,” Akkerman recalled. “What I heard and saw was unbelievable, as it always was. They played high-energy rock-n-roll, romantic ballads and even instrumental covers of tunes from West Side Story. I heard from Andy that when they played at the Star Club in Hamburg, The Beatles would come listen and watch him play his guitar with his teeth!”
The original band of brothers would stay busy, add some new members and release a steady stream of singles and albums until a serious car accident caused two to leave the band in 1964. The band, then with only Andy aboard, scored their biggest hit in The Netherlands with the Hawaiian-inspired vocal ballad, “The Little Bird,” which reached #7 in the Dutch Top 40 in 1967.
Even after a move to Australia in his later years and the dissolving of the band in 1979, Andy continued to be a popular performer, returning to Europe to play and record and sometimes re-make his hits until his death in 2011.
“After I left Focus in 1976, Andy came to visit me often and we even recorded an album, R&R, Our First Love, which sadly never got released,” adds Akkerman. “A few month before his death, I ran into him at an Indonesian marketplace in the Hague. His daughter was playing violin; she was very good and he was very proud, more proud of that than anything at that moment. Shortly after that, I got the news he was terminally ill, but he kept playing till his last breath. Andy, for me, is still numero uno.”
The Tielman Brothers combined the very best of many good things. They boasted the intricate instrumental guitar stylings of The Ventures, The Shadows, Link Wray and Dick Dale, with rockabilly/pre-punk energy, relaxing South Sea islands folk balladry, some Great American songbook croonery, primitive prog rock with their classical interpretations and much more. It was all delivered with the kind of crowdpleasing antics that may obscure the instrumental brilliance at first glance.
As Akkerman relates, The Tielman Brothers were just the tip of the Indorock spear. Some lesser known groups of Dutch/Indonesian musicians slightly preceded them like The Real Room Rockers; and many more followed, including The Crazy Rockers and The Blue Diamonds. They are all well worth the listen.
Also worth a long listen and look is Akkerman’s work on the spectacular, new 9-CD,2 DVD Focus 50 Years anthology. This elaborate boxed set collects remastered editions of the band’s seven studio albums, plus assorted b-sides, alternative mixes, unreleased outtakes, demos and live and television performances from the Indorock/prog/fusion band’s peak years, 1970 -1976.
Words flow like water as Miss Yankey breaks into the musical sphere, with her debut EP, Shadow Work in the Waters, officially released tomorrow, December 22. The independent release raises the bar for the already established UK multi-genre poet.
Shadow Work in the Waters is just being released in the UK and will be available as a NYS Music First Play, and first in the United States, via the Soundcloud link, below at 7 p.m. EST.
Miss Yankey creates the perfect chemical reaction, where music, clever word-forging and style meet, writing both free flow and traditional. Her work exposes a limitless flow under the heart’s horizon. From love and relationships, to history, politics, mental health, space travel and more, Miss Yankey offers cutting a edge breath, lopping off the bud, to watch something more beautiful bloom in its place. The London based artist explores in all forums as a performance poet, writer, musician, workshop facilitator, host and public speaker.
Her poetry guides you through your own mind from a multitude of different perspectives. While her style favours the obscure and silenced, her words speak truth as if it was your own.
Shadow Work in the Waters EP will debut tomorrow December 22 in the UK, branded as Spoken Word meets Trap Soul. All of the tracks capture you, as you chase each verse with your fingertips spread wide. You can’t keep up, lyrically. It inspires your deepest subconscious.
Opening track, “I Still Pray For You,” is limitless. Miss Yankey’s prayer ask a magnitude of questions that opens the mind for an EP to come. Ominous effects flow fluid like water and lack typical song structure.
“Return My Sun,” drags a deep low-fi beat underneath Miss Yankey as she speaks. In the likes of nobody else, Miss Yankey reflects in musical and poetic harmony. Connecting to the listener or her own self, these boarders are non-existent.
Simply put, Miss Yankey weaves a spellbinding web of lyrical storytelling over some killer beats. Be prepared to be submerged as each track takes you further into a lagoon of raw emotion. This is a whole new vibe.
Stand-out lyrical track “Karmic Dealer” shows off Miss Yankey’s draw, with a more pronounced backbeat:
I still whisper I Love You whilst you sleep
What i mean is
I visit you frequently in my dreams.
The geometry of you and I, is patterned like the flower of life.
Our physics are quantum.
Four-time international slam champion, Miss Yankey, has a mass of accomplishments. Most notably, she’s a member of the international collective, Flo Poets, who are mentored by X7 Grammy Award nominated Natalie ‘Floacist’ Stewart. Miss Yankey fused her skills with music UK Rapper Logic’s recent album release I Am King on his opening title “Black King.” She was also featured on Robbie Maddix’s “Feelings” (Music House and formerly Stone Roses) and “One Less” recently released on Local Talk Records.
Having spent much of lockdown in the studio, Miss Yankey shows off her gifted lyricism and vocals, which will appear on a steady stream of projects and collaborations as we break into the new year, 2021, and beyond. Stay Tuned.
New York Rock n’ Roots has teamed up with High Peaks Event Production and WEQX 102.7 to produce a special four-part fundraiser, Hope For the Holidays. The livestream benefit series of concerts will broadcast on YouTube and Facebook, which started on December 5, featuring Capital District artists Jocelyn & Chris, Rich Ortiz, The Wheel, Charlie Smith Blues Band, Wild Adriatic and Let’s Be Leonard.
Hope For The Holidays will benefit SaveOurStages (via NIVA) and WeAreBrewnited. The mission of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) is to preserve the ecosystem of independent live event venues and promoters throughout the United States by lobbying for government assistance. Brewnited is a brewery initiated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, whose mission is to help tipped hospitality employees whose work has been disrupted by COVID-19 through direct payments.
Both NIVA and Brewnited are very dear to NY Rock n’ Roots, High Peaks Event Production and WEQX. The venues, promoters and staff have been out of work since March 13, 2020, when all were forced to close doors to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. Rock n’ Roots then produced the Quarantine Concert Series, featuring 25 live streams that averaged 8,000 views each. Now with generous assistance from our sponsors, NY Rock N Roots is continuing to bring new live entertainment this holiday season.
All the donations collected during Hope for the Holidays livestreams will go directly to these NIVA and Brewnited. As an incentive to donate, eight amazing local restaurants and one local Inn have provided gift cards for each donation of $25 or more during the entire weekend of a concert release, not just during the stream. Donors will also be entered to win one of two restaurant gift cards designated that weekend.
If you donate $50 or more during the Hope For The Holidays series, you will automatically win an NY Rock n’ Roots t-shirt, plus a chance to win one of two overnight accommodations to the Inn At Saratoga with an accompanying gift card to dine in their exquisite restaurant.
Donations can be made via Paypal or Venmo to NYROCKROOTS.
Once a concert is released, it will remain up on the High Peaks Event Production, NY Rock n’ Roots and WEQX Facebook pages, as well as the High Peaks Event Production’s YouTube Channel. In addition to these formats, the Collaborative Studio of Proctors will also have all the concerts available on their multiple platforms via, Roku, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV apps.
Hope for the Holidays Concert Series Dates:
December 12 – Jocelyn and Chris with opening act Rich Ortiz
December 19 – The Wheel
December 26 – The Charlie Smith Blues Band
January 2 – Wild Adriatic with opening act Let’s Be Leonard
For the eighth year in a row, The Sounding Joy will present a holiday variety show to benefit The Washbourne House in Kingston, NY. Airing at 8pm ET on Monday, December 21, the stream will air from Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock.
The Sounding Joy will feature music from Amy Helm, Kate Pierson, Larry Campbell & Teresa Williams, Allison Russell, Mikaela Davis, Natalie Merchant, Gail Ann Dorsey, Mikaela Davis, Catherine Russell, Sarah Lee Guthrie, Mike & Ruthy, Simi Stone, Jay Collins, Marco Benevento, Byron Isaacs, Connor Kennedy, Storey Littleton, Sloan Wainwright, Zach Djanikian, The Restless Age, and more.
With holiday cooking with Anna Lee Amsden and Opal Merenda, fireside Christmas comedy, and amazing archival footage from past years, all to benefit our local women’s shelter.
The evening benefits The Washbourne House, a women’s shelter servicing Ulster County, providing safe shelter and comprehensive trauma informed services to survivors of domestic violence and their children.
Levon Helm Studios is the home of Levon’s legendary Midnight Rambles set on 18 acres in historic Woodstock.
The show kicks off at 8pm, with a VIP Zoom with the artists starting at 7:30pm. Webcast tickets are only $10, with VIP tickets $25. Get tickets for the stream here.
Saturday Night Live’s final episode of 2020, hosted by Kristen Wiig, featured two electric performances from musical guest Dua Lipa. The episode opened with Vice President Pence (Beck Bennett) and Vice President-Elect Harris (Maya Rudolph) receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.
One of the few artists who thrived during the pandemic, Dua Lipa’s second album Future Nostalgia cemented her status as a pop staple. It dropped in the first month of quarantine and didn’t need an accompanying tour to bolster its release, although one is coming in September 2021.
Future Nostalgia righted the wrongs of its predecessor, the 2017 self-titled debut Dua Lipa, by finding a distinct sound amid complaints of being too generic. Dua also improved her live performances, coming off more confident and energetic onstage than in the past. Future Nostalgia is ending the year on several publications’ best of 2020 lists, and is up for five Grammy Awards, including Album and Song of the Year.
Dua’s first song of the night was “Don’t Start Now.” While Future Nostalgia’s lead singlewas released on Halloween of 2019, it had major staying power throughout 2020. It reached its Billboard Hot 100 peak of #2 on its 19th week of release, and surpassed Lipa’s 2017 single “New Rules” as her biggest hit. The nu-disco bop channels “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor, as well as Daft Punk and the Bee Gees, dealing with themes of female empowerment and independence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDsyocmK3XI
Dua closed her SNL debut with “Levitating,” an album standout that became a single in August. The dance floor-ready anthem spawned remixes with Madonna, Missy Elliott, and DaBaby, although none compare to the original solo version. “Levitating” is arguably Future Nostalgia’s high point, expertly updating the Studio 54 sound for 2020. The DaBaby remix made Barack Obama’s recently unveiled list of favorite songs of 2020.
Saturday Night Live returns in January. Revisit Kristen Wiig’s memorable final episode as a cast member on SNL, where Mick Jagger dedicated “She’s A Rainbow” to Wiig and the cast gave her an emotional send-off.
Each Sunday evening from 7-9pm you’ll find EQXposure on WEQX, featuring two hours of local music from up and coming artists. Tune into WEQX.com this Sunday night to hear new music from Being Both, Girl Blue and many more!
WEQX has long been the preeminent independent station in the Capital Region of New York, broadcasting from Southern VT to an ever-expanding listening audience. NYS Music brings you a preview of artists to discover each week, just a taste of the talent waiting to be discovered by fans like you.
When EQXposure kicks off on Sunday evening, host Pearson will feature an hour of two in a row from a select group pf local artists. These two songs in a row will give a glimpse into an artist or band that reveals who they are and what they are all about, no matter how different or similar the songs are.
Next, Pearson, features the new project from Christopher Brown of Troy’s Super Dark Collective, called Being Both. The debut track “Picturing Picturing,” from the album Her Words, My Mouth, is a beautiful tune of longing, with a subtle mellotron background set next to an arpeggiated electric piano.
Also featured is a brand new song from Girl Blue, “Just a Dream”
