The Influence of the Everly Brothers

Ray Davies and Graham Nash both cited the Everly Brothers as a big musical influence. Graham and a friend stalked them when he was younger and did get to meet them. A thrill of his life was singing with the Brothers later on in his career. 

I find it interesting that the last three autobiographies I’ve read all reference the Everlys which I thought about while reading them . A day after finishing Ray’s book Americana as well as Linda Rondstadt’s Simple Dreams (Linda recorded the Everly’s When Will I Be Loved), I heard that Phil Everly had died.  A death will allow for a string of tributes and I had no idea of the impact this duo had on music.  Looking back, they were pioneers of blending pop and country.  They got so much out of their voices.  They were great songwriters.  They had stories to tell and everyone was listening. 

The Charming Linda Ronstadt

--> “I’m not competitive musically.”  This seems obvious.  Linda Ronstadt is the ultimate collaborator.  She has sung with everyone from Dolly Parton to Nelson Riddle to Mariachi los Camperos de nati Cano.

She was on the road with Neil Young in Houston.   She heard about Emmylou Harris from Chris Hillman. He thought they had the same music sensibilities.  After her show, she heads over to this biker club.  It was rowdy.  Gram Parsons comes on stage and sings with Emmylou.  She said you could hear a pin drop in the place. At that moment she felt jealousy.  She loved Emmylou’s voice.  She said I could carry that jealousy or I could embrace her as a fan and maybe one day get to sing with her.  The latter was the chosen path and it resulted in Trio. 

Gracious, funny and very astute, my impression of Linda Ronstadt.  John Rockwell interviewed her last night at the 92Y last night.  I haven’t read her book Simple Dreams, but I’ve heard Rockwell and others say it is beautifully written.  The only thing she said she wrote before this book was thank you notes. She was inspired by Renee Fleming’s and Rosanne Cash’s memoirs.  Her publisher said you don’t have to write about your old boyfriends, just about the music.  She was in.  She wrote on a laptop, mostly late at night after her kids went to bed. 

She has a varied cast of friends, She was asked about Phoebe Snow who she said she misses dearly.  They might not speak for a year, but when they did it was like no time had passed and they made each other laugh.  Rosemary Clooney invited her to sing at a benefit.  Linda said I’d love to talk to you about Nelson Riddle. (This was after her three records with him and he had passed.) He told Linda that Clooney was the love of his life. Clooney invited her for dinner. Linda told the funny story of how Jerry Brown just shows up at her house as she’s leaving to go to Clooney’s house. He invites himself to dinner and then high jacks roses that were sent to Linda to bring to Clooney.  She said he doesn’t spend a red cent. 

Not much of the rock era of her career was touched upon.   After playing arenas, which she said sounded horrible; she wanted to play “on a stage with a curtain”. They used to joke that it reverberated so much in those venues, that you could hear a guitar solo that was played the week before.  John Rockwell was instrumental in connecting her to Joseph Papp and then came Pirates of Penzance, which was eventually performed on a stage with a curtain.   

She is active in the bay area not for profit organization Los Cenzontles. Their goal is to create a family-like environment where young people could learn and explore traditional Mexican music and dance.

Linda was charming and sassy.  She’s well read and well versed in music.

She shared her joys with us last night.  I always thought she was the coolest and she still is.  Her book, Simple Dreams:  A Musical Memoir is out now.  

For more reading:  SF Gate. 

Linda Ronstadt

A friend and I were talking about Linda Ronstadt and how underrated we think she is.  Her voice is golden and bold, a very nice combo.  In the next few days I get the 92Y catalog and there it is on September 18th, a conversation with Linda.  I buy ticket the next day.  Two days later, the news comes that she has Parkinsons and can't sing anymore.  It's a total tragedy for our ears, but worse for her being.  As of my post, there are still tickets available. 

I'm looking forward to what she has to say and I'm sure it's a lot. Her autobiography Simple Dreams comes out in September.  The New Yorker has a nice piece on the power of Linda. 

Oh my god. Who let me out of the house?

This exclaimed Rosanne Cash after finding some publicity photos of herself at age 20, 21.  At the time she was promoting her first record which initially came out in Germany.  Read full tweet.

I think we've all had that moment.   I look back on photos from 6th, 7th, 8th grade where my hair was all over the place or pulled back in a pony tail. It looks awful. I once asked my mother why she didn't insist on cutting my hair.  Her response, "I had to pick my fights."  

Here is the cover of Rosanne's first record.  She looks pretty amazing.  She's giving Linda Ronstadt a run for her money.

RATTLE ON!

It's The Rattles record release day.  The Rattles are a band of animals from the swamps of NJ.  This project has been a labor of love for me for the past two years. I am more than excited to see the music available to everyone and the fun and colorful website up.   I will disclose that I am the music supervisor for the project.  I hired the songwriters, musicians and producers to do the music.  It so happens they are two extremely talented people.  I will be interviewing them in a few weeks. The Rattles debut album is Rattle On. 

The Rattles Band wear their music references on their sleeves.  Wavy Lane which you can download for free from the band's website immediately reminded me of one of music's unsung heroes, Mike Nesmith.  He wrote and sang those great Monkees songs Papa Gene's Blues and The Girl I Knew Somewhere.  Different Drum was a hit for Linda Ronstadt.  The innocent and endearing 1-2-3 Count On Me is the sleeper track.  It's sung by Kitty, the band's female drummer.  "Her" voice is so refreshingly charming.  R-A-T-T-L-E-S is the foot stomping, air punching nod to punk and pop:  a little Pump It Up and a little Saturday Night.  Shipwreck In The Sky and Lucky Sam's Banana Stand are both playful and catchy. When you listen to Rattle On, you can't help but think of the other "animal bands",  the already mentioned Monkees, The Byrds and The Beatles. 

Take a listen and I'm sure one of the songs will be stuck in your head, in a good way.  Play it for your kids.  Play it for yourself.