Friday, August 1, 2008

New Music/CD Releases (August 5th, 2008)

August 5
The Airborne Toxic Event - The Airborne Toxic Event
Amy Ray - Didn't It Feel Kinder
Black Light Burns - Cover Your Heart & the Anvil Pants Ody
Brazilian Girls - New York City
Carrie Rodriguez - She Ain't Me
Carla Bruni - Comme Si de Rien N'Etait
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
Darker My Love - 2
Ernie Halter - Starting Over
Heidi Newfield - What Am I Waiting For
Hawthorne Heights - Fragile Future
Jamey Johnson - That Lonesome Song
Keanthony - A Hustlaz Story
Keith Anderson - C'mon
Kid Sister - Koko B. Ware
Lewis Black - Anticipation
Lloyd - Lessons In Love
Mike Gordon - The Green Sparrow
Nappy Roots - The Humdinger
Ne-Yo - Year Of The Gentleman
Pater Bradley Adams - Leavetaking
Randy Newman - Harps and Angels
Santana - Multi-Dimensional Warrior
Trapt - Only Through The Pain
Soundtrack - Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2

dvd

Pete Seeger: The Power of Song

w/Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Paxton, Natalie Maines, Arlo Guthrie


Pete Seeger reads The Wall Street Journal! That's perhaps the most startling revelation in Jim Brown's (The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time) wonderful documentary that etches an indelible portrait of an American icon and a global treasure. As a solo performer and as a member of the Weavers, Seeger introduced America to its musical heritage and was instrumental in ushering in the folk music revival in the 1960s. Branded as an "evil Commie" for his leftist beliefs, he is hailed here as an "absolute patriot" and "a living testament to the First Amendment." Seeger didn't call out politicians or presidents. He called out backward policies, unjust laws, and divisive attitudes. Songs that he popularized, or were covered by others, such as "We Shall Overcome," "The Hammer Song," "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," and "Turn, Turn, Turn," became Civil Rights and anti-war anthems. Music, he eloquently states in The Power of Song, should not be used just to forget one's troubles, but to also help to understand and to do something about your troubles. Whether singing work songs at union rallies or Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" to schoolchildren, Seeger used folk music as a uniter. The Power of Song is a profile in courage. In dramatic archival footage, he is seen defying the House Un-American Activities Committee. Seeger, never in it for the money, recalls how he quit the phenomenally popular Weavers when the other members agreed to do a cigarette commercial. Seeger was green before green was cool. At 88, he lives in the log cabin that he built and continues to work the land; chopping wood and hauling water. This film also chronicles his successful campaign to clean up the polluted Hudson River.

The Power of Song" is more than a great life story. It's also a great love story. Toshi, his wife of more than 60 years, emerges as an extraordinary woman who has greatly sacrificed to allow Seeger to take his music and message around the world (at one point she jokes that she wished her husband chased women instead of causes so she could leave him). Seeger says his singing voice is gone, but his spirit is undimmed (one clip captures him standing on the roadside with a handful of war protesters). Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks, Mary Travers, and family members are among those who pay tribute, but Seeger's own plain-spoken words and the concert footage and performance clips--by turns joyous and profoundly moving--take full measure of the man as a musicologist, iconoclast, and "social artist." One admirer says of Seeger that he stood for justice and had powerful enemies. That makes him sound like a superhero. In his own gentle way, perhaps he was.



and remember, whenever possible buy your music directly from the artist(s) or your local independent record store. both could become endangered without your support.

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