The Scaramanga Six

 

The Scaramanga Six is the brainchild of headstrong siblings Paul and Steven Morricone. Not in any way like your conventional mindless rock-star filth, The Morricone brothers appear more like a pair of polite and softly-spoken, yet viciously intense and sadistic nightclub bouncers. Raised in the Westcountry seaside resort of Weston-Super-Mare on an education of Stranglers records (by elder brothers) and Tony Bennett records (by their Mum), the young Morricone twins discovered there was much fun to be had in crooning and shouting in equal measures. The Scaramanga Six was finally realised in the dark & drizzly backdrop of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire where the band still lurk to this very day.

TyrannoPop? Luxury Rock Noir? Schitzophonic Splattercore? – whatever you want to call it, this suave and enigmatic unit have carved their own scenester-defying niche since the mid-90’s as the most unique and creative underground rock band in the UK. Every one of these individuals is hell-bent on assaulting the ears of the unsuspecting with intense and preposterous rock and roll music. Add ‘prolific’ to their wild claims – over the last decade & a half, the band have relentlessly embarked on a rampant recording spree. The average gestation period for a Scaramanga Six long-player is approximately 2 years – ‘The Terrifying Dream’ is the title of their current (and eighth) studio album, for which The Scaramanga Six decided to use the fantastic PledgeMusic platform to find and release with a hugely successful campaign. For their previous album, ‘Phantom Head’, The Six made an ambitious pilgrimage to Chicago Illinois to record with the best engineer in the world, Mr Steve Albini (Pixies, Nirvana, PJ Harvey, The Stooges, Shellac etc etc) in his own Electrical Audio studio. To get that authentic ‘Albini sound’, the recordings were all done completely live with minimal overdubs onto 2” tape using all analogue equipment and the bare minimum of post-production.

But hot on the heels of ‘The Terrifying Dream’, The Six are currently holed up in their secret underground base preparing a barrage of new material for their ninth studio album, which promises to be the most uncompromising, bloated and lavish offering to date. It seems The Six are entering a zenith of creativity, despite committing the music industry cardinal sins of mostly being over 40 and being around for over a decade.

The self-styled ‘evil pop group’ have been tearing a hole in the arse of the live circuit over recent years with their incendiary rock rituals including key slots at many UK festivals (headline set at Leeds 2007 on the Introducing stage). Their previous few albums have pulverised the minds of critics and also seen releases across Scandinavia, the Germanic countries and Japan, all through the band’s own infamous label – Wrath Records. Bookings at some of the big European festivals have also transpired (Hove Festival, Norway and Peace & Love, Sweden). All the while they have been building up and grooming a legion of die-hard crackpot fans ready to creep out from under logs or something and support the band wherever they play. 

 

 http://www.thescaramangasix.co.uk

Eddy Davis

 

Eddy Ray Davis was born on September 26, 1940. He was an American musician and bandleader of trad jazz, who was internationally known mainly through the decades of collaboration with the clarinetist and filmmaker Woody Allen.

Davis started playing banjo during his senior year in high school to play Dixieland with a college band called The Salty Dogs. The Purdue-based group played across the Midwestern United States and had pre-appearances of greats like The Four Freshmen and The Kingston Trio. He moved to Purdue for a year, then to Chicago. There, he became an integral part of the jazz scene at venues such as the "Gaslight Club" and Bourbon Street and often worked for variety or comedy acts, among others. with actor David Huddleston. He also appeared on a Dixieland revue in Disneyland and served as musical director for a tour resumption of the musical Whoopee! In 1966, he recorded his debut album "Live! At the Old Town Gate", with a group that from then on operated as "Eddy Davis Dixie Jazzmen". The next albums under the Davis name included "Whiz Bang" (1973), a satirical production with flute and tuba and "Plays and Sings Just For Fun".

Davis went to New York and received recognition from the jazz traditionalists there: he played drums in the earliest edition of Vince Giordano's "Nighthawks". In 1976, he performed in Germany with his European colleagues Herbert Christ, Jean-Pierre Mulot and René Franc in the "Hot Jazz Orchestra of Europe". In the American edition of this "Hot Jazz Orchestra" he played in 1979 with Max Kaminsky, Vince Giordano, Bobby Gordon and Dill Jones; In 1983, the clarinetist Jack Maheu and the pianist Don Ewell were part of "Eddy Davis and The Hot Jazz Orchestra". With "Stanley’s Washboard Kings" around Stan King, Davis went on a Japanese tour in the same year. He also orchestrated and conducted a musical by Terry Waldo, with whose "Waldo’s Gutbucket Syncopators", he recorded several albums.

When the conductor performed Maurice Peress Paul Whiteman's "Aeolian Hall Concert" from 1924 on its 60th anniversary, he hired Davis as a banjoist. At that time he performed regularly in the club Red Blazer Too in a trio with his banjo colleague Cynthia Sayer and the bassist Pete Compo. With Sayer, Davis also founded the "New York Banjo Ensemble", which recorded an album with compositions by George Gershwin in 1984 and an album with Rags in 2005.

Davis's connection with Woody Allen was established in Chicago in the 1960s when Davis was headlining a club on Rush Street and Allen was a comedian at that club, but also played in his band. Allen played in Eddy Davis's "New Orleans Jazz Band", with which Allen - otherwise known as a filmmaker - held the court as a clarinetist in New York for around 35 years. The band has played in the "Café Carlyle"' every Monday evening since 1997 (when it wasn't on an international tour); before that she had appeared in "Michael’s Pub" every week since 1985. Davis also appeared on the soundtrack for Allen's film "Radio Days" "(1987) and appeared on "Sweet and Lowdown" as a band member. For his contribution to the soundtrack for "Midnight in Paris" he received a Grammy Award. The documentary Wild Man Blues records Allen's first tour with Davis’s band. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Davis was also heard every week in the restaurant called "The Cajun" on Eighth Avenue in Chelsea. In the band he led there, Scott Robinson played on C melody saxophone. In addition, other recordings such as The Bunk Project (1993) or Just Sittin ’Here Strummin’ This Ole Banjo (2005) were created.

Davis was involved in 73 recording sessions between 1957 and 2012, including: with Leon Redbone, Turk Murphy, Doc Cheatham and Frank Vignola. Davis died in April 2020 of the SARS-CoV-2 infection at Mount Sinai West Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. He was 79 years old.

 https://theeddydavis.com/

The blog of JAM Radio in the list of the top 35 Blues Music Blogs

 

This blog JAM Radio has been selected as one of the Top 35 Blues Music Blogs on the web by the site feedspot.com. 

Many thanks to feedspot.com and to all the people who visit this site every day!

https://blog.feedspot.com/blues_music_blogs/

Celtas Cortos

 

Celtas Cortos is a Spanish Celtic rock band. They have sold over two million records during their career, making them one of the most commercially successful Spanish groups of all time.

They formed in Valladolid (Castilla y León) in 1986. Eight friends, four of whom played in the group Almenara, decided to participate in a music contest under the name "Colectivo Eurofolk". They won the first prize and continued to play together, changing their name to Celtas Cortos. Nacho Castro, the former drummer, suggested the name based on his favourite tobacco.

They won another contest in April 1987, where the prize was the production of an album. They shared the prize with two other winners, and contributed three songs to the album Así es como suena: Folk joven.

Executive producer Paco Martín helped them get out their first album, Salida de emergencia, with only instrumental songs. The next album, Gente Impresentable added the voice and the lyrics of Jesús H. Cifuentes (Cifu) to the powerful instruments. Their celtic rock style was combined with protest and other more melancholic lyrics. Through the years their music mixed with different styles such as Caribbean music, flamenco, electronic music or reggae. Their list of hits include 20 de Abril, La senda del tiempo and Tranquilo Majete.

In 2002 Cifu left the group, a definitive turning point after the departure of César Cuenca and Nacho Martín. At the beginning of 2006 Cifu came back to the group to prepare their next release, 20 years after their foundation. Their 2008 album 40 de Abril was very popular, landing in the top five of the Spanish albums chart. Between 2008 and 2016 they released another four albums.

Phil Vassar

 

 

Phillip George Vassar Jr. (born May 28, 1962) is an American country music artist. Vassar made his debut on the country music scene in the late 1990s, co-writing singles for several country artists, including Tim McGraw ("For a Little While", "My Next Thirty Years"), Jo Dee Messina ("Bye, Bye", "I'm Alright"), Collin Raye ("Little Red Rodeo"), and Alan Jackson ("Right on the Money"). In 1999, he was named by American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) as Country Songwriter of the Year.

Later that same year, Vassar was signed to Arista Nashville as a recording artist. His debut album, Phil Vassar, was released in early 2000, producing five hits on the U.S. Billboard country singles charts and earning a gold certification in the United States. He followed it in 2002 with American Child, Shaken Not Stirred in 2004, and finally Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 in 2006 before Vassar left the label for Universal South Records (now Show Dog-Universal Music). His first album for that label, Prayer of a Common Man, was released in early 2008. He has charted nineteen singles on Billboard's Hot Country Songs, including two which peaked at No. 1: 2000's "Just Another Day in Paradise" and 2004's "In a Real Love". 

https://www.philvassar.com/

The Allman Brothers Band

 

 

The Allman Brothers Band were an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1969 by brothers Duane Allman (founder, slide guitar and lead guitar) and Gregg Allman (vocals, keyboards, songwriting), as well as Dickey Betts (lead guitar, vocals, songwriting), Berry Oakley (bass guitar), Butch Trucks (drums), and Jai Johanny "Jaimoe" Johanson (drums). Subsequently, based in Macon, Georgia, the band incorporated elements of blues, jazz, and country music, and their live shows featured jam band-style improvisation and instrumentals.

The group's first two studio releases, The Allman Brothers Band (1969) and Idlewild South (1970) (both released by Capricorn Records), stalled commercially, but their 1971 live release, At Fillmore East, represented an artistic and commercial breakthrough. The album features extended renderings of their songs "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" and "Whipping Post", and is considered among the best live albums ever made.

Group leader Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident later that year – on October 29, 1971 – and the band dedicated Eat a Peach (1972) to his memory, a dual studio/live album that cemented the band's popularity and featured Gregg Allman's "Melissa" and Dickey Betts's "Blue Sky". Following the motorcycling death of bassist Berry Oakley one year and 13 days later on November 11, 1972, the group recruited keyboardist Chuck Leavell and bassist Lamar Williams for 1973's Brothers and Sisters. This album included Betts's hit single "Ramblin' Man" and instrumental "Jessica". These tunes went on to become classic rock radio staples, and placed the group at the forefront of 1970s rock music. Internal turmoil overtook them soon after; the group dissolved in 1976, reformed briefly at the end of the decade with additional personnel changes, and dissolved again in 1982.

The band reformed once more in 1989, releasing a string of new albums and touring heavily. A series of personnel changes in the late 1990s was capped by the departure of Betts. The group found stability during the 2000s with bassist Oteil Burbridge and guitarists Warren Haynes and Derek Trucks (the nephew of their original drummer) and became renowned for their month-long string of shows at New York City's Beacon Theatre each spring. The band retired for good in October 2014 after their final show at the Beacon Theatre.

Butch Trucks died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on January 24, 2017, in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 69. Gregg Allman died from complications arising from liver cancer on May 27, 2017, at his home in Georgia, also at the age of 69. The band has been awarded seven gold and four platinum albums, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1995.

Live365

 

 

LIVE365 is an Internet radio broadcasting and listening network where users are able to create their own online radio stations, or choose to listen to thousands of human curated stations created by people from around the globe. LIVE365 is unique in that online radio stations on the LIVE365 network were created and managed by music and talk enthusiasts, including both hobbyists and professional broadcasters. LIVE365 also has many well established AM and FM stations that utilized the LIVE365 broadcasting platform to simulcast their terrestrial radio streams via the Live365 distribution network. The Live365 network also features radio stations from well-known artists such as Johnny Cash, David Byrne, Pat Metheny, Jethro Tull, Frank Zappa, and more. LIVE365 was created in 1999, and remains one of the longest running internet radio websites for listeners and broadcasters.

With the pending expiration of the lower royalty rate allowed for small broadcasters, investors removed their support of the company. In late December 2015, LIVE365 laid off most of its employees and vacated its office, and the few remaining employees were working from home. On January 31, 2016, LIVE365 ceased webcasting and its website redirected listeners and users to a list of competing services. The shutdown of LIVE365 also affected terrestrial AM and FM stations that used the platform, causing them to disperse to other live streams. Nearly a year to the day after its closure, LIVE365 relaunched its site and streaming services.

On January 6, 2018, Live365 was reorganized under Media Creek Inc., a Delaware-based holding company. The service is available in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, with licenses from those countries' performance rights societies.

Nanocosm Inc. (the parent company of Live365) was a technology startup founded by two roommates from the Princeton class of 1981, Alex Sanford and Steve Follmer, whose initial product was NanoHome, a 3D "Virtual Home" website featuring 3D homepages on the World Wide Web. The first release of Live365 was built by a small skunkworks team of workers at Nanocosm; it had its beginnings in a hosted community radio project developed by Nanocosm employee Andy Volk in his free time using Shoutcast technology, and later modified by employee Brian Lomeland. In 1998, Andy Volk shared the idea with Nanocosm CTO Peter Rothman, and they developed the concept for a new large-scale hosted community radio service dubbed Live365. Live365's explosive initial growth after launch in July 1999 quickly eclipsed NanoHome, and the company soon shifted to solely focus on Live365 and online audio streaming services.

At launch, broadcasting and listening on Live365 was free of charge. Stations had a maximum listener cap of 365 simultaneous listeners and 365 megabytes of storage for music and audio. In September 2001, Live365 began charging for use of its broadcasting services to remain financially viable in the wake of rising music royalty costs. More expensive plans allowed stations to have more simultaneous listeners and a greater amount of music file storage space. Members who joined before September 2001 could continue broadcasting with their original package for free. This model would later be replaced with one in which all members pay, but those who joined before September 2001 received a discount. In March 2003, Live365 launched their commercial-free membership called VIP, giving millions of listeners the opportunity for an enhanced listening experience. Since that time, Live365 has continued to progress as an internet broadcasting and listening leader.

The Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 expired in January 2016, ending a 10-year period in which smaller online radio stations, Live365 among them, could pay reduced royalties to labels. On January 31, 2016, webcasters who are governed by rules adopted by the Copyright Royalty Board were required to pay to SoundExchange an annual, nonrefundable minimum fee of $500 for each channel and station, the fee for services with greater than 100 stations or channels being $50,000 annual.

In July 2016, Live365 was acquired by Jon Stephenson, owner of content delivery network EmpireStreaming. The following month, the website returned to its live status with signs of a possible relaunch.

An article dated May 22, 2017 appeared on the site's official Twitter page the next day, and begins with the following: "You may have heard the buzz that Live365 is officially back! Open sign-ups launched last week after giving former broadcasters from the “old” Live365 a chance to restart their stations. Now anyone with an internet connection can create a legal internet radio station in a matter of minutes by joining Live365."

Billy Mick

 

 

 

Billy Mick, a gay singer/songwriter based out of Orlando, is celebrating life, his community, family and friends in his music. While attending Manchester Pride in 2018 with his husband, Billy was inspired by the overwhelming sense of community and acceptance he experienced. And after seeing so many diverse and talented performers on the musical stages, he realized the time was right to share his music with others. 

Billy released his first studio album, "Just B.",  last June during quarantine and earlier this year released his second album, "Leveling Up", exclusively on Bandcamp.com!

Billy has been honored to perform at Orlando's Miss GayDays Pageant, Space Coast Pride, as well as, participating in several Virtual Pride events across the globe. He takes the opportunity to perform onstage at HAOS on Church in Orlando, Florida whenever possible. Billy has stepped into the role of Producer, as well, creating his sell-out one-man show, his own monthly variety show, and is currently working on his second "Super Gay Wednesday" event.  His dream is to continue producing new and diverse entertainment while promoting local artists and to perform onstage and at Pride events around the world.

Billy Mick has found his voice and he is excited for what the future holds.

 https://www.billymick.com/