Was Brian Jones Murdered?

by Bob Boilen

My favorite Rolling Stones records were with Brian Jones. Jones was the band's other guitarist, but really he was so much more: Think of Jay Bennett and Wilco. Brian Jones helped take the Rolling Stones in interesting new directions. He played sitar on "Street Fighting Man," a recorder on "Ruby Tuesday," the marimba on "Under My Thumb," Mellotron on "We Love You," oboe on "Dandelion," and autoharp, dulcimer, saxophone and so much more. He's why I loved the Rolling Stones; I was so sad when he died.

Time was not on his side. (Roger Jackson / Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

There have always been rumors that Jones' drowning death in 1969 was more than a drug-fueled accident. Now, the Associated Press is reporting that police are taking another look at the evidence. The decision to re-examine the case came after an investigative journalist gave police in Sussex, England, more than 600 pages of documents, including an interview conducted with Janet Lawson, the woman who discovered Jones' body.

According to the AP, a coroner originally said Jones drowned while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. But many speculated that it wasn't an accident. Two 1994 books (Paint It Black: The Murder of Brian Jones by Geoffrey Guiliano and Who Killed Christopher Robin? by Terry Rawlings) claimed that Jones was murdered by a man named Frank Thorogood, and that Thorogood even admitted to the killing. According to Rawlings' book, Thorogood told Rolling Stones manager Tom Keylock that "It was me that did Brian. I just finally snapped." Both Keylock and Thorogood have since died.

What do you think?

1:47 PM ET | 08-31-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Finding A Beatle In A Mail Stack

by Bob Boilen

Well, I'm back from a week of vacation. This is the pile of mail I found waiting for me:

I'm told that in this stack of new CDs I'll find a sampler of The Beatles' remastered albums.

I'll report back later.

1:04 PM ET | 08-31-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Video: Tigercity Plays Leonard Cohen

by Bob Boilen

This week, we're featuring video performances of various artists playing the songs of Leonard Cohen. The video was recorded live at this year's South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

Of all the bands performing at "Happy at Last," the NPR/SXSW Tribute to Leonard Cohen, Tigercity was the band that surprised me the most. To start with, it tackled the song "Suzanne" -- Cohen's most emblematic song, besides "Hallelujah." The band also took this slow and gorgeous tune and rebuilt it as a slow-burning rocker. Now, if you'd told me that a version of "Suzanne" would rock, I'd have guessed it would be awful. But this Brooklyn band made it work.

9:54 AM ET | 08-28-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Video: The Hours On Leonard Cohen

by Bob Boilen

This week, we're featuring video performances of various artists performing the songs of Leonard Cohen. The video was recorded live at this year's South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

Members of the London-based band The Hours decided to tackle a Leonard Cohen tune from his 1967 debut album, The Songs of Leonard Cohen: "Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye." There is cinematic simplicity in this version.

3:13 PM ET | 08-27-2009 | permalink

comments () |

No Direction Home: Dylan To Voice GPS?

by Bob Boilen

I'm on vacation, but couldn't resist posting about a recent announcement from Bob Dylan that "I am talking to a couple of car companies about being the voice of their GPS system."

Imagine asking your GPS to find the nearest Piggly Wiggly, and having it chime back, "Oh, mama, can this really be the end / to be stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis blues again."

Imagine your scenario with Dylan as your guide. What lyrics might you imagine? Starting, of course, with "There must be some way out of here."

9:29 AM ET | 08-27-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Video: Laura Gibson Sings Leonard Cohen

by Bob Boilen

This week, we're featuring video performances of various artists singing the songs of Leonard Cohen. The video was recorded live at this year's South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

Laura Gibson's recent album, Beasts of Seasons, showcases the singer's stark narrative voice and flair for poetic songwriting. It's no wonder that she's attracted to the music of Leonard Cohen. At Waterloo Records, she performed a song from Cohen's 1988 album I'm Your Man. The track, "Take This Waltz," features accordion, a saw, some percussion and Gibson's gorgeous voice.

9:56 AM ET | 08-26-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Happy At Last: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen, Part II

by Bob Boilen

This week, we're featuring video performances of various artists playing the songs of Leonard Cohen. The video was recorded live at this year's South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas.

David Garza chose one of the best-known songs from one of Leonard Cohen's lesser-known albums: "Dance Me to the End Of Love," from the 1985 album Various Positions. Garza nails the Spanish and Portuguese influences in Cohen's music, though he may be coming to it as a Texas-based musician influenced by Mexican musicians.

11:43 AM ET | 08-25-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Happy At Last: A Tribute To Leonard Cohen, Part I

by Bob Boilen

Back in February, Leonard Cohen played his first U.S. concert in 15 years. Just a few weeks later, inspired by Cohen's resurgence, a group of artists at the South by Southwest music festival in Austin, Texas, paid tribute to the legendary singer-songwriter by performing some of his work.

The event functioned as an open mic of sorts, and took place at a store in Austin called Waterloo Records. NPR Music and Sony Music went to Waterloo and captured the event. I've chosen five of the artists who played there, and this week, while All Songs Considered producer Robin Hilton and I are on vacation, we'll post a new video performance each day.

We start with "Here It Is," from the album Ten New Songs, performed by the French folk duo Herman Dune. Like all of Cohen's work, the poetry is potent.

10:39 AM ET | 08-24-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Gone Fishin'

by Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton

We cats need a week off. Here's your chance to catch up on some stuff you might have missed.

Did you see the Tiny Desk Concert with The Swell Season?

Or the Tiny Desk Concert with Bill Callahan?

Or The Avett Brothers?

Here are a few live concerts worth hearing:

The Dead Weather

Metric

Sonic Youth

Dark Was the Night featuring David Byrne, The National, Dirty Projectors, Bon Iver and more

Animal Collective

Newport Folk Festival with Mavis Staples, The Low Anthem, Pete Seeger and 27 others

And, finally, the best songs and albums of the year so far

We already have new Tiny Desk Concerts lined up, and there is a ton of new music at the All Songs Considered home page

Happy Summer!
Bob Boilen and Robin Hilton

12:18 PM ET | 08-21-2009 | permalink

comments () |

MySpace Silences Auto-Play

by Robin Hilton

This probably makes me a whiny codger, but I've always loathed visiting Web sites that automatically play audio or video as soon as the page loads. Maybe all I want to do is read a little bit or look at a photo gallery. Forcing an unexpected song or video on me is just irritating.

I know, I know: Surely there are more important things to worry about. But this actually comes up a lot for me at work, since I'm always visiting band sites on MySpace, where a given band's music starts playing the moment the page loads. I've gotten in the habit of immediately searching for the "off" button the moment the site comes up.

So I was pretty elated to learn this week that MySpace is disabling the auto-play function. It actually has nothing to do with annoyed visitors; it's strictly a business move. Automatically streaming a band's audio costs MySpace a ton of money. It eats up a tremendous amount of bandwidth. Royalties also have to be paid every time a song is played. Digital Music News is reporting that MySpace will save tens of millions of dollars in operating costs simply by turning the auto-play feature off.

Some users and fans might think this kills one of the most effective ways to grab a user's attention, making MySpace less dynamic. But it also eliminates some of the sonic clutter and gives bands a more realistic idea of how many people are actually playing their music.

What do you think? Is it a good move by MySpace, a bad move or of no consequence?

2:51 PM ET | 08-20-2009 | permalink

comments () |

New Video: The Antlers' "Two"

by Robin Hilton

The Antlers, the Brooklyn-based band behind one of this year's best albums (Hospice), has released its first-ever video. Directed by Ethan Segal and Albert Thrower, it's a beautifully animated companion to the Hospice song "Two."

I've really loved watching the progress of The Antlers this year. It began 2009 as a completely unknown band with a self-released album. Then Hospice was picked up by Frenchkiss Records. The number of fans at the group's live shows kept growing. The next thing you know, The Antlers' members are being featured on ABC News.

12:07 PM ET | 08-20-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Decemberists To Play Songs Drawn From Lottery

by Bob Boilen

I just saw this from The Decemberists and thought I'd pass it along:

Adored Mailing List Recipients,

We received an urgent missive from the boys at the Decemberists SubTerra Campaign Organizational Front (DSCOF) the other day, bringing to our attention that a glaring hole had appeared between the first and the third days of the "A Short Fazed Hovel" Tour 2009, Phase 3. Apparently we had booked a show that day on a scarcely populated atoll off the coast of northern Maine which had succumbed to a mysterious sneaker tsunami and had vanished into the Atlantic ocean, its population of hypersensitive palette-enhanced pygmies disappearing entirely with only a crate of artisanal cottage cheese remaining as a testament to their ancient society.

We decided, in honor of the victims, that we'd play a show in New York City at Terminal 5 on that day, the 19th of September. But we thought we'd try to make it interesting: in homage to that totally awesome scene in Dragon Slayer, we Decemberists will perform a set that will be entirely left to the hands of fate -- we will draw songs from a lottery and dutifully play them, regardless of their quality or presence in our memory. Decemberists songs, naturally, but you do never know what bizarre cover songs or strange commands may end up in the pile.

A presale is currently underway at http://decemberists.tickets.musictoday.com/Decemberists/calendar.aspx. Tickets will be available to the public this Friday at 12 PM EST at http://www.terminal5nyc.com/event/3501.

For those of you who have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees, here's the whole of the Phase 3 dates:

September 18, University of Maine, Orono, Maine *
September 19, Terminal 5, NYC
September 20, Flynn Theatre, Burlington, VT
September 21, Wellmont Theatre, Montclair, NJ
September 23, Norva, Norfolk, VA
September 24, Charlottesville Pavilion, Charlottesville, VA
September 25, Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, Asheville, NC
September 26, Classic Center, Athens, GA
September 27, Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN
September 29, St. Augustine Amphitheater, Augustine, FL
September 30, Hard Rock Live, Orlando, FL
October 2, House of Blues Houston, Houston, TX
October 3, Austin City Limits Festival, Austin, TX
October 4, Cain's Ballroom, Tulsa, OK
October 6, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
October 7, Ninth Street Fallfest, Columbia, MO
October 8, Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL
October 9, State Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
October 18, Treasure Island Festival, San Francisco, CA

* The Maine show will be a standard, non Hazards of Love show.

See you then!

Yours,
The Decemberists
www.decemberists.com
twitter.com/thedecemberists

5:16 PM ET | 08-19-2009 | permalink

comments () |

New Video From The Music Tapes

by Robin Hilton

"It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."
- Pablo Picasso

The Music Tapes, a sweetly quirky group of artists based in Athens, Ga., play with the innocent abandon and wild imagination of wide-eyed children. Admittedly, the group's toy pianos, singing saw, pump organ and various other mechanical instruments aren't for everyone. But I've always been drawn to the magical little world of sound they create.

The Music Tapes offer a glimpse into this world on a new video they've just released on the Merge Records site. It's for a new tribute song to Pluto called "For The Planet Pluto."

The song features backing vocals by a group of fourth graders at Barrow Elementary School in Athens. It also features a cameo from Kevin Barnes, frontman for the group Of Montreal. Both Of Montreal and The Music Tapes are part of the Elephant 6 collective.

Continue reading "New Video From The Music Tapes" »

10:33 AM ET | 08-19-2009 | permalink

comments () |

CMJ Music Festival Announces Initial Artist Lineup

by Robin Hilton

The College Music Journal's annual music and film festival, held each fall in New York City, is expected to feature more than 1,300 bands this year. Though organizers haven't finalized the list of performers, this morning they announced the first batch:

Broadcast
School of Seven Bells
Zac Brown Band
Mum
Atlas Sound
Japandroids
Margaret Cho
The Budos Band
Pitbull
The Very Best
The Temper Trap
Crystal Antlers
Portugal. The Man
Cymbals Eat Guitars
Malajube
Local Natives
Wild Light
The Antlers
Das Racist
Suckers
Pissed Jeans
Screaming Females

The CMJ Music Marathon and Film Festival will be held Oct. 20 through the 24th.

10:05 AM ET | 08-19-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Second Stage: Silk Lung

Download "Just A Thread" by Silk Lung (Right-click or control-click to save to your computer).

I realize musicians have been making home recordings for years now, but I continue to be impressed with the quality and depth of what some of them come up with. Take the new EP from an unsigned band I've just discovered called Silk Lung. Silk Lung is the musical project of Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Jim Orso. His new release, Just A Thread doesn't come in a slick package, and there are only four tracks. But they're gorgeously produced, with some of the loveliest melodies and orchestration I've heard this year. Orso, who plays all the instruments and sings all the vocals by himself, weaves together samba rhythms and stylings from Brazil with American folk and experimental pop. He sings with a gentle but affecting voice about sleepless nights, memories of past loves, and hopes for a better tomorrow. Just A Thread leaves me wanting a lot more from Orso, so hopefully this is just a precursor to a full-length release.

This is the title track, "Just A Thread."

You can download the entire EP for free at Silk Lung's Web site.

Subscribe to the Second Stage podcast to automatically download each song to your computer.

Submit your music for possible inclusion in Second Stage or All Songs Considered.

3:44 PM ET | 08-18-2009 | permalink

comments () |

'Grooving' On Woodstock's 40th Anniversary

by Robin Hilton

I was only two months old when the now legendary Woodstock music festival was held on Max Yasgur's farm near Woodstock, N.Y. During the rainy, muddy weekend of August 15-17, 1969, 32 acts performed for a crowd of nearly 500 thousand people, making it one of the most memorable moments in popular music history.

I obviously don't have any of my own memories of the event, but I did get a glimpse of what it all seemed like to observers 40 years ago in two articles: the original Woodstodck press release issued today by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and an archived story by the New York Times.

Continue reading "'Grooving' On Woodstock's 40th Anniversary" »

11:35 AM ET | 08-14-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Second Stage: Drug Rug

by Robin Hilton

Download "Never Tell" by Drug Rug (Right-click or control-click to save to your computer).

Drug Rug seems like an entirely random name for a band. But apparently it's what you call a kind of striped poncho "hippies" wore back in the '60s and '70s. Drug Rug the band is a duo featuring the music of Thomas Allen and Sarah Cronin, and their songs owe a lot to the bands of those decades, particularly groups like The Byrds or The Velvet Underground. Allen and Cronin say their latest album, Paint the Fence Invisible, was inspired by "early folk musicians, comic books, campgrounds, funny hats," and the images of Garth Williams, the illustrator who did the artwork for books like Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. That might explain the playfulness and innocence that you can hear in Drug Rug's music. Allen and Cronin make lovely, two-part harmonies, with joyful melodies and propulsive rhythms. It's the perfect batch of songs for the dog days of Summer.

Thomas Allen and Sarah Cronin of Drug Rug

This cut from Paint the Fence Invisible is "Never Tell."

Subscribe to the Second Stage podcast to automatically download each song to your computer.

Submit your music for possible inclusion in Second Stage or All Songs Considered.

3:01 PM ET | 08-13-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Guitarist Les Paul Dies

by Robin Hilton

Legendary guitarist and inventor Les Paul has died at the age of 94. Gibson Guitar is reporting Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in White Plains, N.Y. with his family and friends at his side.

Photo by David Corio/Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images

I remember the first time I saw Les Paul play guitar on television. I was probably in middle school at the time, and he struck me as one of the goofiest guys around. No doubt he was a gifted player. His fingers danced effortlessly on the strings, but he made playfully exaggerated faces and bobbed around. He had big glasses, and to a young kid he came off as a "nerd."

It wasn't until later that I learned this bubbly, gifted artist was credited with inventing the solid-body electric guitar, which ultimately made the rise of rock 'n' roll possible. It was hard to imagine the lines that connected Paul with bands like Led Zeppelin or AC/DC. Without him, they may never have happened.

A tinkerer and musician since childhood, Paul also developed a number of critical studio techniques, including overdubbing, multi-track recording, and various effects, like tape delay. As a kid, he experimented with amplification.

Continue reading "Guitarist Les Paul Dies" »

1:04 PM ET | 08-13-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Another New Radiohead Song?

by Robin Hilton

As we noted earlier this week, the members of Radiohead are saying they're more interested in releasing singles now, instead of another album. And so far it looks like they're keeping their word. They released the single "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)" on the band's Web site last week, and now it appears a new track has surfaced called "These Are My Twisted Words."

The song first appeared on message boards and has since been widely circulated all over the Web. There's been no word from the band and we're yet to confirm that it actually is Radiohead. But it sure sounds like them.

11:03 AM ET | 08-13-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Rock 'n' Roll Summer School: Give The Piano Man Some

by Tom Moon

Every Wednesday this summer, we're offering a quick course in early rock 'n' roll. Your professor will be Tom Moon, NPR contributor and author of the book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. These overviews, mostly from the 1950s, are not intended to be comprehensive, but to help curious listeners dive in and explore some of the genre's often-overlooked building blocks. Whether you're a novice or a rock snob, join the conversation below.

THIS WEEK: Give the Piano Man Some!

The guitar wasn't always the supreme rock 'n' roll instrument. During the 1950s, guitarists had competition from a bunch of unruly, irreverent piano players. Some of these musicians exhibited great refinement -- think about the calm, lilting pulse Fats Domino put behind "Blueberry Hill" -- and others were distinguished by their harsh pounding "technique." Arguably the most exciting of them: the Georgia-born whirlwind known as Little Richard, who sent devastatingly precise electric shockwaves of rhythm shooting through the piano.

Continue reading "Rock 'n' Roll Summer School: Give The Piano Man Some" »

2:19 PM ET | 08-12-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Minimalism With 216 Guitars

by Bob Boilen

This weekend, I got an effusive text message from my friend, Bill Harvey. He was on stage with literally hundreds of other guitarists, all performing a piece by composer Rhys Chatham. It calls for 200 guitarists, 16 bassists and percussion, all divided into four sections. All the guitars are specially strung and tuned. (At six strings per guitar, plus the basses, that's more than 1,200 strings.)

Here's something else that makes me smile: Every guitarist had his or her own amp. So that's 216 amps with the volumes meticulously set and equalized.

The piece is called "A Crimson Grail for 200 Electric Guitars." Rhys Chatham was a hero to many back in the '70s, putting large guitar orchestras together and playing with guitarist Glenn Branca. As the first musical director of The Kitchen, an important NYC venue for new works by multimedia artists and musicians such as Laurie Anderson, Philip Glass, Glenn Branca, James Chance and Brian Eno, Chatham has a direct connection to other key figures in experimental, minimalist and classical music. He was La Monte Young's piano tuner and Glenn Gould's harpsichord tuner, and he studied under electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick.

Continue reading "Minimalism With 216 Guitars" »

8:11 PM ET | 08-11-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Second Stage: Generationals

by Robin Hilton

Download "When They Fight They Fight" (Right-click or control-click to save to your computer)

Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer are two New Orleans-based musicians who write and record under the name Generationals. The duo's newly released debut album, Con Law, is an unabashedly cheery, uptempo collection of songs that remind me a lot of the more innocent pop music of the '60s. Widmer and Joyner serve up catchy three-minute tracks with soulful horns, handclaps, ringing guitars and sweet two-part harmonies. There are a few seemingly anachronistic surprises here and there, like an analog drum machine or the occasional synth line, that give the mix a slightly more modern feel. But overall, the production is classic and warm, in part because Joyner and Widmer say they recorded the album on "an old 24-track, 2-inch tape machine that threatened to melt down several times."

This is the standout cut on the album. It's called "When They Fight They Fight."

Subscribe to the Second Stage podcast to automatically download each song to your computer.

Submit your music for possible inclusion in Second Stage or All Songs Considered.

4:05 PM ET | 08-11-2009 | permalink

comments () |

No More Radiohead Albums?

by Robin Hilton

I usually look for a new album from my favorite bands every two years. Since Radiohead released In Rainbows as a digital download in 2007, I was really hoping it'd have another new album out by the end of this year. But frontman Thom Yorke tells Believer magazine that the band is done with the album format, at least for now.

"None of us want to get into that creative hoo-ha of a long-play record again," Yorke says in the magazine's July/August issue. "It's just become such a drag. It worked with In Rainbows because we had a real fixed idea about where we were going. But we've all said that we can't possibly dive into that again. It'll kill us."

Radiohead recently self-released a new single, available through the band's Web site. "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)" is a tribute to Britain's only remaining veteran of WWI, who died in July at the age of 111. Unlike much of Radiohead's recent work, the song is mostly orchestrated string parts, without percussion or electronics.

"We've done that now. That's that," Yorke tells Believer. "In Rainbows was a particular aesthetic, and I can't bear the idea of doing that again. Not that it's not good; I just can't... bear... that."

Yorke says the band members are each currently working on their own projects. But he says Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood is always pushing the rest of the band to do more. "He can't stand it anymore, the pace of the way we work. It's fallout from all our false starts."

This is an unofficial video for "Harry Patch (In Memory Of)," which a fan produced and posted on YouTube.

1:33 PM ET | 08-10-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Dressed For Success

by Robin Hilton

Soul singer and multi-instrumentalist Raphael Saadiq and his gifted guitarist/backup singer, Rob Bacon, took the red-eye from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and landed early this morning, when it was still dark out. When they stepped off the plane, they were decked out in fitted black suits with white shirts and thin black ties. They were the very definition of cool.

When they showed up at NPR later to give a Tiny Desk Concert (which we'll post later), a number of people in the office commented about how good they looked, in addition to how amazing they sounded. I spoke with Rob Bacon about it after the performance, and he said he and Saadiq take their jobs "very seriously" and always dress up before taking a flight anywhere or giving a performance. It's an idea they got from James Brown; Bacon said that James Brown required all of his band members to dress up. If they were staying at a hotel and someone needed to run down to the lobby to get a newspaper or something, they had to be in their best suit. If they weren't, Bacon said, they were fined.

Raphael Saadiq (front) and Rob Bacon perform at the desk of All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen. (photo by Katie Hayes)

I think this sort of professionalism makes a huge difference. Sure, Raphael Saadiq and Rob Bacon are a couple of astonishing musicians who would have had our full attention anyway. But those suits made them really pop.

What do you think? Does what a band wears affect the way you see it? Does your perception of an artist change in any way when he's in a suit as opposed to raggedy jeans and a T-shirt?

5:01 PM ET | 08- 7-2009 | permalink

comments () |

New Circulatory System 'First Listen' Coming Soon

by Robin Hilton

As if the year couldn't get any better for new music, we finally got an early copy of the upcoming Circulatory System album, due out on Sept. 8. It's called Signal Morning. I've been eagerly anticipating this record for nearly eight years (seriously), and from what I've heard so far, it was well worth the wait.

Most of the members of Circulatory System used to be in one of my all-time favorite bands, Olivia Tremor Control. Unfortunately, OTC broke up in 2000, before I ever had a chance to see them live, and I was afraid we'd never get any more new music from them. But Circulatory System formed soon after, with all but two of the OTC members, and released a self-titled album in 2001.

Signal Morning was recorded by W. Cullen Hart and all of the original Olivia Tremor Control members, as well as Jeff Mangum and Julian Koster of Neutral Milk Hotel. Zowie!

We'll put the entire Signal Morning CD online for you to hear as an Exclusive First Listen on Aug. 25. In the meantime, here's the first single from the album. It's called "Overjoyed."

Cloud Recordings is taking pre-orders for the record and is offering a limited-edition "deluxe" version that includes original artwork by W. Cullen Hart.

4:11 PM ET | 08- 7-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Bill Frisell Meets Buster Keaton

by Bob Boilen

Back in the early '90s, guitarist Bill Frisell scored and performed original music to six Buster Keaton films. The music is brilliant, and I'd seen the Buster Keaton movies, but until now, I'd never seen and heard the two together.

On Sept. 1, those six Buster Keaton films -- including Go West, One Week and High Sign -- will be released with accompaniment by Frisell, drummer Joey Baron and bassist Kermit Driscoll. Here are a few samples. My only regret is that Keaton never saw this; no doubt, he would have loved it.

continued...

Continue reading "Bill Frisell Meets Buster Keaton" »

12:11 PM ET | 08- 7-2009 | permalink

comments () |

Second Stage: Andy McWilliams

by Robin Hilton

Download "By Boat" by Andy McWilliams (Right-click or control-click and save to your computer).