Patrick Stewart gives a Shakespearean soliloquy on the letter “B”.
Michael Stipe on a New Velvet Underground Tribute Album and Other Projects, And Yes, R.E.M.
Michael Stipe’s cover of “Sunday Morning” opens the new album, I’ll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground & Nico, out September 24. The record also features Iggy Pop, Sharon Van Etten, Matt Berninger, St Vincent, and more. Stipe joins us to discuss the album and the legacy of the band, as well as his other current projects, including a recently published book of photography and the upcoming 25th anniversary reissue of REM’s album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
Contemporary Jazz Artist Fiona Ross Spotlights Self-Worth in Brave and Beautiful “Good Enough”
“Will I ever be good enough?; Will I ever be wise enough…for anyone?” Multi-award-winning contemporary jazz artist Fiona Ross launches her heartfelt new single with these two intensely personal questions, bravely throwing the doors open to examine self-doubt with “Good Enough” from her recently released album, Red Flags and High Heels.
“We all have moments of doubt and wonder if we are good enough — whether this is as a musician, an artist, a parent or just a human being,” Ross offers. “It’s what it says on the tin, really: a song about being good enough or, more precisely, not being good enough.
“This song is just me and how I feel.”
With her bright, soulful vocals posing these pointed questions over a fluid piano line, guitar flourishes and tasteful, spare rhythms, Ross lays her innermost misgivings beautifully bare in “Good Enough,” and makes them all the more relatable in doing so.
“There’s a line in the song ‘people say the nicest things’, and this is so very true for me,” Ross notes of the line ‘People say the nicest things; I want to feel them, too, but I’ve never felt worthy of even a fraction of the things people say.’ “People are so very kind about me and my work, but I always find it very overwhelming because I just don’t see it. I have very high and unachievable expectations of myself and what I can do, and I know I can always do better and be better.”
Ross acknowledges that drive for constant growth and improvement and the questioning that fuels it occurs universally within her vocation. “I believe this is the life of an artist in many ways,” she says.
While “Good Enough” snapshots those moments of insecurity, the International Singer Songwriter Association’s 2020 International Female Songwriter of the Year believes that an artist’s natural self-doubt must be balanced with some self-confidence to achieve success.
“We all have worries and concerns and wonder if we are enough in so many ways and the sensible part of me says, ‘yes, we must believe we are enough, we have to believe we are if we want to achieve anything and to achieve change’.”
Following fast in the wake of her scathing kiss-off song, “You are Like Poison”, “Good Enough” is the second single from Ross’ fifth album Red Flags and High Heels, released last October to wide praise. Among many accolades, Jazz Journal called it “a probing album that oozes passion, punch and panache.” The album’s 10 studio tracks and 4 live recordings span the full breadth of life’s emotional spectrum and feature Ross’s stellar and highly accomplished 8-piece band.
That drive for growth and achievement that Ross says is so much a part of an artist’s life helps fuel her pursuits behind the scenes as a music journalist. She also founded the groundbreaking organization, Women in Jazz Media, which develops and supports initiatives for mentoring and promoting women in jazz music around the world.
To that end, Ross has asked women who have inspired her to write her album sleeve notes.
“My last album featured sleeve notes with the legend that is Maxine Gordon – she is a role model and a mentor to me,” Ross shares. “When I was thinking about this album, I thought it would be incredible to have strong, fierce, and inspirational women who have inspired me, write the sleeve notes for each of my albums from now onwards, with Maxine leading the way. Céline Peterson instantly came to mind, and I am absolutely thrilled that she agreed.”
Peterson, an artist representative, jazz festival producer and the daughter of the late Canadian jazz legend Oscar Peterson, writes, “Being able to connect with a singer and songwriter who can find the strength to share such deeply personal words with us in such a way that makes us feel safe, is rare. Red Flags and High Heels is a time capsule in musical creation.”
Ross is also the former Head of the British Academy of New Music where she trained chart-topping hit makers Ed Sheeran, Rita Ora, Jess Glynne and others. With “Good Enough”, Ross shows that even a mentor with high-level experience and stature is never completely free of self-doubt and that the best way to reveal those very personal feelings in song is honestly and unadorned.
“I always just write what comes in my head. Everything starts with me at my piano, so this is a pretty naked track from all angles.”
“Good Enough” and Red Flags and High Heels are available now.
Condor Matador Celebrates a Happy Return from Feeling Blah with “The ’90s Song”
Sometimes the only way to feel happy again is to just fake it ‘till you make it. Montreal-based pop artist Condor Matador, a.k.a Jeremie Legault, addresses that very process in his violin-studded, disco-infused earworm of a new single “The ’90s Song” — available now.
Legault had been in a funk; it was the pandemic, which is funk-inducing for all of us, and he was also working a job he didn’t like and was just feeling blah. Working on Condor Matador was one of the few things that brought him joy and kept him sane during that time; he wrote “The ‘90s Song” when he began making steps toward feeling better and taking hold of his own destiny. The opening lyrics – “As I walked along/Hummed a ’90s song/It was Cher/Do you believe in life after love” – inspired him to apply the disco treatment to the song, because who’s more disco than the diva Cher?
“’The ’90s Song’ is a love letter to disco, written with a punk-rock sneer,” Legault says, adding that the chorus is inspired by “SOS” by ABBA. However, because “The ’90s Song” prominently features symphonic violin accents –- that violin is actually the first thing we hear as the opener – it’s impossible to not immediately think of The Verve’s 1997 hit “Bitter Sweet Symphony” as the song’s touchpoint, while the slightly sneering vocals absolutely evoke the pop punk – Green Day, Blink-182, The Offspring – of the ’90s.
Though the song features acoustic guitar elements provided by Legault, he commissioned Marky Beats (Marc Dupre, Domeno, Jonathan Roy) to produce a disco and funk style beat to go with the music. Legault was also able to involve Andrew Wan, two-time JUNO award-winning violinist and concertmaster of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, in the making of the song. Meeting Wan was kismet, he shares. “My sister-in-law, photographer Erika Rosenbaum, had just taken some headshots for Andrew, and he happened to be visiting my brother’s farm on a day when I was helping him with a few things. We connected, and he said that he’d be interested in collaborating on a song.”
Wan went to Legault’s condo and they spent a fruitful evening recording his violin parts. “He was such a good sport and a wonderful collaborator,” Legault says.
The 90’s Song” will be included on the upcoming Condor Matador Album, Dirty Thirty — slated for release in June 2022. “I’m turning thirty this year, and I’m putting together a collection of songs that I feel encapsulate how I am living through this time,” he reveals. “There will be happy songs, and there will be sad songs. I might even do a ballad.
“I’m really challenging myself on this release.”
Legault will continue to work with Marky Beats, and he also plans to involve the producer Frame. The album will include a collaboration with singer-songwriter Yzabo, and will feature rock, pop and electro influences.
Formed in 2018, Condor Matador has been described as the rock n’ roll love child of Ed Sheeran, Blink -182, and just a little bit of Phil Collins. The brainchild of frontman Jeremie Legault, the project seamlessly mixes pop production techniques, fluid rock ‘n’ roll sensibilities, and impeccable songwriting. The result is a unique and uplifting experience that will leave you with a song in your heart that you just can’t shake.
His single “The ’90s Song” is available now.
Jon Bon Jovi’s Isolated Vocals For “Livin’ On A Prayer”
Jon Bon Jovi did not like the original recording of this song, which can be found as a hidden track on 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong, so he and the band re-recorded it for Slippery When Wet, on the way to spending 4 weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1987.
Watch A Really Young Coldplay Perform “Yellow” In 2000
At one of its first performances outside of England, Coldplay plays an intimate, understated set — approximately one month before the release of its smash “Parachutes” debut album in June 2000. It’s a rare, valuable look at the band moments before it became a global phenomenon.
Watch the entire concert here.
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators Perform Elton John Cover And New Song For Howard Stern
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators perform Elton John’s “Rocket Man” live from the SiriusXM Garage in Los Angeles.
Slash featuring Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators perform “The River Is Rising” live from the SiriusXM Garage in Los Angeles.
Eddie Vedder in Conversation with Bruce Springsteen
Catch Eddie Vedder joined in conversation with Bruce Springsteen on February 11th at 2pm ET, presented by Amazon Music and Amazon Live for an exclusive conversation on Earthling here.
Stephen Sondheim Gives A Master Class On ‘Send In The Clowns’
Stephen Sondheim does a talk at the Guildhall School of Music, London with a focus on the classic tune.
Billie Eilish’s Isolated Vocals for “Happier Than Ever”
“Happier Than Ever” by Billie Eilish was her the sixth single off the album of the same name, and was nominated for four Grammy Awards, including Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBAei1lNezU&feature=share