If every old rock and roll band that wanted to come back out of retirement and go on tour could put on half the show half as the Doobies performance at the Aspen Jazz Festival this past September in Snowmass Colorado then I say bring it on. Its better to burn out than fade away and these boys are on fire.

Above is the great Skylark playing bass. Below is a shot of him when he came down into the crowd before the show to talk to a wonderful woman who is the president of the Doobie Brothers fan club.

The photo below is a wonderful black and white photo of the Doobies taken by Peter Duke in 1974, check out his wonderful website at http://dukemedia.com/. See Patrick SImmons on the guitar center stage, below this photo is one of Patrick now, still capable of jaw dropping leads and killer vocals.

Below is Tom Johnston throwing down some mean finger pickin rock leads.

Below is John McFee playing his American Steel guitar, all three original guitarists had an acoustic guitar mounted on stands on stage so they could reach over and play the acoustic guitar WITHOUT taking off their electric!

Ed Toth – Drummer left and Guy on the left.

Keyboardist for the Doobies Guy Allison who also provided wonderful backing vocals

Marc Russo saxophoneist/horns section

The Doobie Brothers are an American rock band. They have sold over 30 million albums in the United States from the 1970s to the present.^[1] The Doobie Brothers were inducted into The Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004.

Original incarnation

Drummer John Hartman arrived in California in 1969 determined to meet Skip Spence of Moby Grape and join an aborted Grape reunion. Spence introduced Hartman to singer, guitarist and songwriter Tom Johnston and the two proceded to form the nucleus of what would become The Doobie Brothers. Johnston and Hartman called their fledgling group "Pud," and experimented with lineups (occasionally including Spence) and styles as they performed in and around San Jose. They were mostly a power trio (along with bassist Greg Murphy) but briefly worked with a horn section. In 1970 they teamed up with bass player Dave Shogren and singer, guitarist and songwriter Patrick Simmons. Simmons, who had belonged to several area groups (among them "Scratch", an acoustic trio with future Doobies bassist Tiran Porter) and also performed as a solo artist, was already an accomplished fingerstyle player whose approach to the instrument complemented Johnston’s rhythmic R&B strumming. In a recent interview, Johnston attributed the band’s eventual name to friend and housemate Keith "Dyno" Rosen, who noted the guys’ fondness for "doobies." They considered the new moniker an improvement over Pud.

The Doobie Brothers improved their playing by performing live all over Northern California in 1970. They attracted a particularly strong following among local chapters of the Hells Angels and got a recurring gig at one of the bikers’ favorite venues, the Chateau Liberte’ in the Santa Cruz Mountains. An energetic set of demos (eight of which were briefly and illegally released on Pickwick Records in 1980 under the title Introducing the Doobie Brothers, and have since been bootlegged on CD under that title and On Our Way Up as well, both with expanded song selections), showcased fuzz-toned dual lead electric guitars, three-part harmonies and Hartman’s frenetic drumming and earned the rock group a contract at Warner Bros. Records.

At this point in their history, the band’s image reflected that of their biggest fans – leather jackets and motorcycles. However, the group’s 1971 self-titled debut album departed significantly from that image and their live sound of the period. The album, which failed to chart, emphasized acoustic guitars and frequently reflected country influences. The bouncy lead-off song "Nobody," the band’s first single, has surfaced in their live set several times over the ensuing decades.

The following year’s second album, Toulouse Street (which spawned the hits and classic rock staples, "Listen to the Music" and "Jesus Is Just Alright"), brought the band their breakthrough success. In collaboration with manager Bruce Cohn, producer Ted Templeman and engineer Donn Landee, the band put forward a more polished and eclectic set of songs. They also made a change to the line-up, supplementing Hartman’s drumming with that of Navy veteran Michael Hossack while still touring behind their first album (a concert from June 14, 1971 at Fillmore West bears this out as it has this short-lived lineup). Also, the band recorded several songs on the second album with Shogren on bass, guitar & background vocals. But during the album’s recording, Shogren left after disagreements with producer Templeman. Shogren was replaced with singer, songwriter and bass guitarist Tiran Porter. Porter and Hossack were both stalwarts of the northern California music scene, Porter having previously played in Scratch with Simmons. Porter brought a funkier bass style to the band and added his husky baritone to the voices of Johnston and Simmons, resulting in a rich three part harmonic vocal blend. Pianist Bill Payne of Little Feat contributed keyboards for the first time, beginning a decades-long collaboration that included many recording sessions and even a two-week stint touring with the band in 1974.^[2] With an improved rhythm section and the songwriting of Johnston and Simmons, the Doobies’ trademark sound – an amalgam of R&B, country, bluegrass, hard rock, roadhouse boogie, and rock and roll – emerged fully formed.

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I ended up hanging out with a group of avid RRE fans, one of them was named Leif and he was a joy to be around, really all his friends were. I’m not sure when the last time I was around so many good natured, and friendly folks, when I look at the crowd shots from that night I see so many smiling faces, some with eyes closed but all smiling, so happy and content.

I met a guy named Pete Gilmore, Monkey Tunes Music who was recording the audio portion of the show. He was nice enough to send me a link tho the recordings, see below. The ended up being incredibly clean and are a blast to listen to. http://www.archive.org/details/rre2009-09-06.flac16

 Railroad Earth is a roots and Americana-based jamband from Stillwater, New Jersey. Their name stems from the Jack Kerouac short story “October in the Railroad Earth,” and the band has a song by the same name. Railroad Earth’s music combines elements of bluegrass, rock and roll, jazz, celtic and more, and the group is known for its extensive live improvisation and lyrical songwriting within an acoustic base.

History

The band members first came together in early 2001. Originally comprising guitarist/vocalist Todd Sheaffer, violinist/vocalist Tim Carbone, mandolinist/vocalist John Skehan, multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Andy Goessling, drummer/vocalist Carey Harmon, and bassist Dave Von Dollen, the group played both original compositions mostly written by Sheaffer, the former From Good Homes songwriter, as well as traditional songs.

After just three weeks of rehearsals, they went into a local recording studio and tracked a five song demo. Recorded live with no overdubs except backing vocals, The Black Bear Sessions set Railroad Earth’s career in motion. Within a week they had a manager on board who then sent their demo out to several festivals, quickly landing a slot at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival.

That was their first gig. The Black Bear Sessions was released to the public in June 2001, and following their appearance at Telluride Sugar Hill Records approached the band and offered them a record deal. The Black Bear Sessions contains some of the most popular songs in Railroad Earth’s repertoire, including “Seven Story Mountain” and “Head.”

In June 2002, Railroad Earth released their follow-up album to The Black Bear Sessions (and first official Sugar Hill release) entitled Bird In A House, featuring songs such as “Like A Buddha,” “Mighty River,” and the title track to the LP.

Jeff Miller, above, of the band New Monsoon stepped in for a few songs in the second half, adding some very tasty leads to and a rocky edge to a few songs.

The band continued its steady touring schedule, playing theatres, folk-music festivals, jam-band festivals, and other venues, while gathering much praise for its unique sound and enjoyable live concerts. The band eventually built up a devoted fanbase who call themselves Hobos.

In 2003 Dave Von Dollen was replaced by bassist Johnny Grubb. In 2004 the band released its third studio effort, The Good Life, featuring “Storms,” Mourning Flies,” and “Goat.” The band continued to tour throughout the country, and its first live album, “Elko,” was issued in late January 2006. They performed at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on September 15, 2007.

The band’s fourth studio album, entitled Amen Corner, was released on June 10, 2008. The new album features songs such as “Been Down This Road,” “Hard Livin’,” “Waggin’ The Dog,” and “Lovin’ You.”

Current members

Todd Sheaffer – guitar, vocals (2001 – present)

Tim Carbone – violin, accordion, electric guitar, vocals (2001 – present)

John Skehan – mandolin, bouzouki, vocals (2001 – present)

Andy Goessling – acoustic guitars, banjo, dobro, mandolin, flute, pennywhistle, saxophones, vocals (2001 – present)

Carey Harmon – drums, hand percussion, vocals (2001 – present)

Johnny Grubb – upright bass, vocals (2003 – present)

For a complete set of photos see the Flickr set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30893898@N08/sets/72157622271752257/

Pete Gilmore, Monkey Tunes Music

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Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello showed that a 55 year old former punk rocker can still rock hard, together with his incredible backing band the Imposters, they powered through a fantastic set of music on September 5th at the 2009 Aspen Jazz Festival. Not sure why, but he came directly over to where I had positioned myself in the photo pit and gave me a couple great classic rock poses.

For a complete set of photos from this performance see the Flickr set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30893898@N08/sets/72157622419213782/

Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus, 25 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London‘s pub rock scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the punk rock and New Wave musical genres. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello’s lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs, and his music has drawn on many diverse genres; critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote, “Costello, the pop encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image”.

Early life

Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus^[2] in St Mary’s Hospital, London, the son of Lillian (née Ablett) and Ross MacManus, a musician and bandleader.^[3] He is of Irish heritage.^[4] Costello lived in Twickenham, attending what is now St Mark’s Catholic Secondary School in neighbouring Hounslow.^[5] With a musically inclined father (his father sang with The Joe Loss Orchestra), Costello’s first broadcast recording was alongside his dad in a television commercial for R. White’s Lemonade (“I’m a Secret Lemonade Drinker”). His father wrote and sang the song; Costello provided backing vocals. The ad won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.

Costello moved with his Liverpool-born mother to Birkenhead in 1971. There, he formed his first band, a folk duo called Rusty with Allan Mayes. After completing secondary school at St. Francis Xavier’s College, he moved back to London where he next formed a band called Flip City,^[6] which had a style very much in the pub rock vein. They were active from 1974 through early 1976. Around this time, Costello adopted the stage name D.P. Costello. His father had performed under the name Day Costello, and Elvis has said in interviews that he took this name as a tribute to his father.

To support himself, he worked a number of office jobs, most famously at the Elizabeth Arden — immortalised in the lyrics of “I’m Not Angry” as the “vanity factory” — where he worked as a data entry clerk. He worked for a short period as a computer operator at the Midland Bank computer centre in Bootle. He continued to write songs, and began actively looking for a solo recording contract. On the basis of a demo tape, he was signed to independent label Stiff Records. His manager at Stiff, Jake Riviera, suggested a name change, combining Elvis Presley‘s first name and Costello, his paternal grandmother’s maiden name.^[7]

1970s

Costello’s first single for Stiff was “Less Than Zero,” released on 25 March 1977. Two months later, his debut album, My Aim Is True (1977), was released to moderate commercial success (No. 14 in the UK and, later, Top 40 in the US) with Costello appearing on the cover in what became his trademark oversize glasses, bearing a striking resemblance to a menacing Buddy Holly. Stiff’s records were initially distributed only in the UK, which meant that Costello’s first album and singles were initially available in the US as imports only. In an attempt to change this, Costello was arrested for busking outside a London convention of CBS Records executives, “protesting” that no US record company had yet seen fit to release Elvis Costello records in the United States. Costello signed to CBS’ Columbia Records label in the US a few months later.

Costello’s backing on the debut album was provided by American West Coast band Clover, a roots/country outfit living in England whose members would later go on to join Huey Lewis and the News and The Doobie Brothers. Later in 1977, Costello formed his own permanent backing band, The Attractions, consisting of Steve Nieve (born Steve Nason; piano), Bruce Thomas (bass guitar), and Pete Thomas (drums; unrelated to Bruce Thomas). He released his first major hit single, “Watching the Detectives“, which was recorded with Nieve and the pair of Steve Goulding (drums) and Andrew Bodnar (bass), both members of Graham Parker‘s backing band The Rumour (whom he had used to audition for The Attractions).

Elvis Costello, Cardiff, 1979

On December 17, 1977, Costello and The Attractions appeared as the musical guest act on the episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Miskel Spillman (an elderly woman who won the show’s “Anybody Can Host” contest, where an ordinary person gets chosen to host an episode of Saturday Night Live) as a last minute fill-in for the Sex Pistols. He did not appear on the show again until 1989. Following a whirlwind tour with other Stiff artists (captured on the Live Stiffs album, notable for Costello’s recording of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself“) the band recorded This Year’s Model (1978). Some of the more popular tracks include the British hit “(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea” and “Pump It Up“. His U.S. record company saw Costello as such a priority that his last name replaced the word “Columbia” on the label of the disc’s original pressing.

A tour of the U.S. and Canada also saw the release of the much-bootlegged Canadian promo-only Live at the El Mocambo, recorded at a Toronto rock club, which finally saw an official release as part of the 2 1/2 Years box set in 1993. It was during the ensuing United States tour that Costello met and developed a relationship with former Playboy model Bebe Buell (mother of Liv Tyler). Their on-again-off-again courtship would last until 1984 and would allegedly become a deep well of inspiration for Costello’s songwriting. In 1979, he released Armed Forces (originally to have been titled ‘Emotional Fascism’, a phrase that appeared on the LP‘s inner sleeve). Both the album and the single “Oliver’s Army” went to #2 in the UK. Costello also found time in 1979 to produce the debut album for 2 Tone ska revival band, The Specials.

Costello’s standing in the U.S. was bruised for a time when in March 1979, during a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett in a Columbus, Ohio Holiday Inn hotel bar, the singer referred to James Brown as a “jive-ass nigger“, then upped the ante by pronouncing Ray Charles a “blind, ignorant nigger”.^[8][9] Costello apologised at a New York City press conference a few days later, claiming that he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious in order to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would bring his comments to the press. According to Costello, “it became necessary for me to outrage these people with about the most obnoxious and offensive remarks that I could muster.” In his liner notes for the expanded version of Get Happy!!, Costello writes that some time after the incident he had declined an offer to meet Charles out of guilt and embarrassment, though Charles himself had forgiven Costello (“Drunken talk isn’t meant to be printed in the paper”).

Costello worked extensively in Britain’s Rock Against Racism campaign both before and after the incident. This incident inspired his Get Happy!! song “Riot Act”.^[10]

Costello is also an avid country music fan and has cited George Jones as his favourite country singer. In 1977 he appeared the Jones’ duet album My Very Special Guests, contributing “Stranger In The House,” which they later performed together on an HBO special dedicated to Jones.

1980s

The soul-infused Get Happy!! would be the first, and — along with King of America — possibly most successful, of Costello’s many experiments with genres beyond those he is normally associated with. The single, “I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down” was an old Sam and Dave song (though Costello increased the tempo considerably). Lyrically, the songs are full of Costello’s signature wordplay, to the point that he later felt he had become something of a self-parody and toned it down on later releases; he has mockingly described himself in interviews as “rock and roll’s Scrabble champion.” His only 1980 appearance in North America was at the Heatwave festival in August near Toronto.

In 1981, the band released Trust against growing tensions within the band, particularly between Bruce and Pete Thomas. In the U.S., the single “Watch Your Step” was released and played live on Tom Snyder‘s Tomorrow show, and received airplay on FM rock radio. In the UK, the single “Clubland” scraped the lower reaches of the charts; follow-up single “From A Whisper To A Scream” (a duet with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze) became the first Costello single in over four years to completely miss the charts.

Following Trust, Costello released Almost Blue, an album of country music cover songs written by the likes of Hank Williams (“Why Don’t You Love Me (Like You Used To Do?)”), Merle Haggard (“Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down”) and Gram Parsons (“How Much I Lied”). The album was a tribute to the country music he had grown up listening to, especially George Jones. It received mixed reviews. The first pressings of the record in the UK bore a sticker with the message: “WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners.” Almost Blue did spawn a surprise UK hit single in a version of George Jones’ “Good Year For The Roses” (written by Jerry Chesnut), which reached #6.

Imperial Bedroom (1982) marked a much darker sound, due in part to the production of Geoff Emerick, famed for engineering several Beatles records. Imperial Bedroom remains one of his most critically acclaimed records, but again failed to produce any hit singles. Costello has said he disliked the marketing pitch for the album. Imperial Bedroom also featured Costello’s song “Almost Blue”; jazz singer and trumpeter Chet Baker would later perform and record a version of this song.

In 1983, he released Punch the Clock, featuring female backing vocals (Afrodiziak) and a four-piece horn section (The TKO Horns), alongside The Attractions. Clive Langer (who co-produced with Alan Winstanley), provided Costello with a melody which eventually became “Shipbuilding“, which featured a trumpet solo by Chet Baker. Prior to the release of Costello’s own version, a version of the song was a minor UK hit for former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt.

Under the pseudonym “The Imposter”, Costello released “Pills And Soap”, an attack on the changes in British society brought on by Thatcherism, released to coincide with the run-up to the 1983 UK general election. Punch the Clock also generated an international hit in the single “Everyday I Write the Book“, aided by a music video featuring lookalikes of the Prince and Princess of Wales undergoing domestic strife in a suburban home. The song became Costello’s first Top 40 hit single in the U.S. Also in the same year, Costello provided vocals on a version of the Madness song “Tomorrow’s Just Another Day” released as a B-side on the single of the same name.

Tensions within the band were beginning to tell, and Costello announced his retirement and the breakup of the group shortly before they were to record Goodbye Cruel World (1984). Costello would later say of this record that they had “got it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution”. The record was poorly received upon its initial release; the liner notes to the 1995 Rykodisc re-release, penned by Costello, begin with the words “Congratulations!, you’ve just purchased our worst album”. Costello’s retirement, although short-lived, was accompanied by two compilations, Elvis Costello: The Man in the UK, Europe and Australia, and The Best of Elvis Costello & The Attractions in the U.S.

In 1985, he appeared in the Live Aid benefit concert in England, singing the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” as a solo artist. (The event was overrunning and Costello was asked to “ditch the band”). Costello introduced the song as an old northern folk song, and the audience was invited to sing the chorus.

In the same year Costello teamed up with friend T-Bone Burnett for a single called “The People’s Limousine” under the moniker of The Coward Brothers. That year, Costello also produced Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash for the Irish punk/folk band The Pogues. It was then that he met his second wife, Pogues bassist Cait O’Riordan.

By 1986, Costello was preparing to make a comeback. Working in the U.S. with Burnett, a band containing a number of Elvis Presley‘s sidemen (including James Burton and Jerry Scheff), and minor input from the Attractions, he produced King of America an acoustic guitar-driven album with a country sound. Around this time he legally changed his name back to Declan MacManus, adding Aloysius as an extra middle name. Costello retooled his upcoming tour to allow for multiple nights in each city; playing one night with The Confederates (James Burton et al.), one night with The Attractions, and one night solo acoustic.

In May 1986, Costello performed at Self Aid, a benefit concert held in Dublin that focused on the chronic unemployment which was widespread in Ireland at that time. Later that year, he returned to the studio with the Attractions and recorded Blood and Chocolate, which was lauded for a post-punk fervour not heard since 1978′s This Year’s Model. It also marked the return of producer Nick Lowe, who had produced Costello’s first five albums. While Blood and Chocolate failed to chart a hit single of any significance, it did produce what has since become one of Costello’s signature concert songs, “I Want You”. On this album, Costello adopted the alias “Napoleon Dynamite”, the name he later attributed to the character of the emcee that he played during the vaudeville-style tour to support Blood and Chocolate. (The pseudonym had previously been used in 1982, when the B-side single “Imperial Bedroom” was credited to ‘Napoleon Dynamite & The Royal Guard’, and was later appropriated by the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite).

In 1989, Costello, with a new contract with Warner Bros., released Spike, which spawned his biggest single in America, the Top Twenty hit “Veronica“, one of several songs Costello co-wrote with Paul McCartney in that timeframe (see “Collaborations” section below).

[edit] 1990s

In 1991, having grown a long beard, Costello released Mighty Like a Rose, which featured the single “The Other Side of Summer”. He also found time to co-compose and co-produce, with Richard Harvey, the title and incidental music for the mini-series G.B.H. by Alan Bleasdale. This entirely instrumental, and largely orchestral soundtrack garnered a BAFTA, for ‘Best Music for a TV Series’ for the pair.

In 1993, Costello experimented with classical music with a critically acclaimed collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet^[11] on The Juliet Letters. During this period, Costello wrote a full album’s worth of material for Wendy James, and these songs became the tracks on her 1993 solo album Now Ain’t the Time for Your Tears. Costello returned to rock and roll the following year with a project that reunited him with The Attractions, Brutal Youth. In 1995, Costello released Kojak Variety, an album of cover songs recorded five years earlier, and followed in 1996 with an album of songs originally written for other artists, All This Useless Beauty. This was the final album of original material that he issued under his Warner Bros. contract. In the spring of 1996, Costello played a series of intimate club dates, backed only by Nieve on the piano, in support of All This Useless Beauty. An ensuing summer and fall tour with the Attractions proved to be the death knell for the band. With relations between Costello and bassist Bruce Thomas at a breaking point, Costello announced that the current tour would be the Attractions’ last. The quartet performed their final U.S. show in Seattle, Washington on September 1, 1996, before wrapping up their tour in Japan. To fulfill his contractual obligations to Warner Bros., Costello released a greatest hits album titled Extreme Honey (1997). It contained an original track titled “The Bridge I Burned”, featuring Costello’s son, Matt, on bass.

In the intervening period, Costello also served as artistic chair for the 1995 Meltdown Festival, which gave him the opportunity to explore his increasingly eclectic musical interests. His involvement in the festival yielded a one-off live EP with jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, which featured both cover material and a few of his own songs.

In 1998, Costello signed a multi-label contract with Polygram Records, sold by its parent company the same year to become part of the Universal Music Group. Costello released his new work on what he deemed the suitable imprimatur within the family of labels. His first new release as part of this contract involved a collaboration with Burt Bacharach. Their work had commenced earlier, in 1996, on a song called “God Give Me Strength” for the movie Grace of My Heart. This led the pair to write and record Painted From Memory, released under his new contract in 1998, on the Mercury Records label. They also recorded an updated version of Bacharach’s song “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” for the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, with both appearing in the film to perform the song. He also wrote “I Throw My Toys Around” for The Rugrats Movie and performed it with No Doubt. The same year, he collaborated with Paddy Moloney (The Chieftains) on “The Long Journey Home” on the soundtrack of the PBS/Disney mini-series of the same name. The soundtrack won a Grammy that year.

In 1999, Costello contributed a version of “She“, released in 1974 by Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer, for the soundtrack of the film Notting Hill, with Trevor Jones producing. For the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Costello was invited to the program, where he re-enacted his abrupt song-switch: This time, however, he interrupted the Beastie Boys‘ “Sabotage”, and they acted as his backing group for “Radio Radio.”

[edit] 2000 to present

Costello performing with The Imposters in 2005.

In 2000 Costello appeared at the Town Hall Theatre, New York, in Steve Nieve’s opera Welcome to the Voice, alongside Ron Sexsmith and John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants.

In 2001, Costello was announced as the featured “artist in residence” at UCLA (although he ended up making fewer appearances than expected) and wrote the music for a new ballet. He produced and appeared on an album of pop songs for opera singer, Anne Sofie von Otter.

In 2002 he released a new album, When I Was Cruel, on Island Records, and toured with a new band, the Imposters (essentially the Attractions but with a different bass player, Davey Faragher, formerly of Cracker). On 23 February 2003, Costello, along with Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, and Dave Grohl performed a version of The Clash‘s “London Calling” at the 45th Grammy Awards ceremony, in honor of Clash frontman Joe Strummer, who had died the previous December. In March 2003, Elvis Costello & The Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In May, his engagement to Canadian jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall was announced. In September, he released North, an album of piano-based ballads concerning the breakdown of his former marriage, and his falling in love with Diana Krall.

In 2004, the song “Scarlet Tide” (co-written by Costello and T-Bone Burnett and used in the film Cold Mountain) was nominated for an Academy Award; he performed it at the awards ceremony with Alison Krauss, who also sang the song on the official soundtrack. Costello co-wrote many songs on Krall’s 2004 CD, The Girl in the Other Room, the first of hers to feature several original compositions. In July 2004 Costello’s first full-scale orchestral work, Il Sogno, was performed in New York. The work, a ballet after Shakespeare‘s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, was commissioned by Italian dance troupe Aterballeto, and received critical acclaim from the classical music critics. Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, the recording was released on CD in September by Deutsche Grammophon.

Costello’s hand prints on the European Walk of Fame, Rotterdam

Costello released another album that same month: The Delivery Man, recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, and released on Lost Highway Records. The Delivery Man was hailed as one of Costello’s best albums.

In July 2005, a CD recording of a collaboration with Marian McPartland on her show Piano Jazz was released. It featured Costello singing six jazz standards and two of his own songs, accompanied by McPartland on piano. In November 2005 Costello started recording a new album with Allen Toussaint and producer Joe Henry. The River in Reverse was released in the UK on the Verve label on May 29, 2006.

In 2006 the studio recording of Nieve’s opera Welcome to the Voice, for Deutsche Grammophon, Costello interpreted the character of Chief of Police, with Barbara Bonney, Robert Wyatt, Sting and Amanda Roocroft.

Also released in 2006 was a live recording of a concert with the Metropole Orkest at the North Sea Jazz Festival, entitled My Flame Burns Blue.

In 2007 Nieve’s opera Welcome to the Voice was released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon, reaching #2 in the Billboard classical charts.

The soundtrack for House M.D. featured Elvis Costello’s interpretation of “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera, as well as appearing in the second episode of Series 2.

Costello has been commissioned to write a chamber opera by the Danish Royal Opera, Copenhagen, on the subject of Hans Christian Andersen‘s infatuation with Swedish soprano Jenny Lind, called The Secret Songs. Some of the songs were previewed on the Opera’s main stage in October 2005. However, since Costello has repeatedly missed deadlines, plans have been changed: extracts from the projected opera will be interspersed with songs from The Juliet Letters for performance in the Opera’s studio theatre (Takelloftet) in March 2007. It will be directed by Kasper Bech Holten and will feature Danish soprano Sine Bundgaard as Lind.

On May 6, 2008, Fender Musical Instruments released Elvis Costello Jazzmaster, an exact representation of the late 1960s heavily modified Fender Jazzmaster guitar he had used to record his first 1977 album, My Aim Is True. Its features include a post-1968 neck design, a walnut stain finish and a tremolo with easier and greater travel, essential for that “Watching the Detectives” tone, or what Costello called “that spy movie sound”.

On April 22, 2008, Momofuku was released on Lost Highway Records, the same imprint that released his last studio album, The Delivery Man. The album was, at least initially, released exclusively on vinyl (with a code to download a digital copy of the album). That summer, in support of the album, Costello toured with The Police on the final leg of their 2007/2008 Reunion Tour.

On 5 February 2008 it was announced Costello would play a homecoming gig at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 25 June.^[12]

On 28 June 2008, Costello gave his first performance in Poland, appearing with the Imposters for the closing gig of the Malta theatre festival in Poznań.

In July 2008, Costello (as Declan McManus) was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Liverpool.

In November 2008, Costello was the Chief of Police in Welcome to the Voice on the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, with Sting, Joe Sumner of Fiction Plane (Sting’s son) and Sylvia Schwartz.

Costello is the host for a Sundance Channel series entitled Spectacle in which Costello talks and performs with stars in various fields. It airs on Wednesdays, beginning 3 December 2008.^[13]

Costello was featured on Fall Out Boy‘s 2008 album Folie à Deux, providing vocals on the track “What a Catch, Donnie“, along with other artists who are friends with the band.

Costello appeared in Stephen Colbert‘s television special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All; in the program, he was eaten by a bear, but later saved by Santa Claus; he also sang a duet with Stephen Colbert. The special was first aired on 23 November 2008.^[14] Costello released Secret, Profane & Sugarcane on June 9, 2009. The album is a collaboration with T-Bone Burnett, who previous worked with Costello on his King of America and Spike sets. ^[15] It was his first on the Starbucks Hear Music label and a return to country music in the manner of Good Year for the Roses.

[edit] Personal life

Costello has been married three times. In 1974, Costello married Mary Burgoyne. The couple had a son, Matthew, and divorced in 1984. In 1986, Costello married Cait O’Riordan, then bassist for the band The Pogues. The couple split at the end of 2002. Costello became engaged to singer Diana Krall in May 2003. In December, Costello and Krall married at the London estate of Sir Elton John. Their twin sons Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James were born 6 December 2006 in New York City.

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Michael Franti

Pure passion and musical magic were dished up in huge helpings Friday night at Snowmass Village Festival for the kick off of the three day Aspen Jazz Festival in Colorado. With a full moon rising over the mountain peaks and the threat of rain passed the crowd of over 6,000 Franti fans settled into a set of music than can only be described as pure bliss.

“Music is the thread that’s gone through my life and given it so much meaning”
Michael Franti is a very big man who has always dared to say very big things through his joyous and passionate music during an unusually diverse and highly impressive career.

Yet for all the wide-ranging, yet consistent excellence of his body of work, what’s most impressive about Michael Franti as a recording artist and live performer is his ability to inspire. Ultimately, the heartfelt music that Franti makes and his dedication to greater understanding on a global level, are not two aspects of his life, but very much one and the same.

The Bay Area born Franti has been bringing our world exceptionally powerful, deeply felt music under a variety of names and in a wide range of genres for twenty years. From the intense punk rock of the Beatnigs, to the deeply political rap he made with the Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy to his joyful and meaningful modern soul music with Spearhead, and now as Michael Franti & Spearhead, this still young man has released an impressive series of recordings that have vividly reflected his status as a musical citizen of this world.

Consider Franti’s most recent musical masterpiece, All Rebel Rockers, an album featuring the legendary production team of Sly & Robbie that reinforces his place as a global force and a true musician of his time. Its first single, “Say Hey (I Love You)” is fast becoming one of the biggest of Franti’s career. It’s one of the most added records at multiple radio formats; Top 40, Hot AC and Alternative and its music video has already exceeded 1 million views on YouTube. As for the CD, All Rebel Rockers marked Franti’s highest Billboard Top 200 Album Chart debut ever.

Through his entire musical career to date, Franti has continued to slowly, but surely build an extremely dedicated global grass roots following. He’s done it with a new spin on an old fashioned way. He’s earned his fans, one winning concert at a time. Ultimately what unites Franti’s remarkable and impressive career is, ironically, the man’s ongoing search for harmony.

“As a musician and a man, I more than anything else want to be a unifier,” Franti explains. “I want to bring people together through music and its unique power. And I hope that somehow that sense of unity extends beyond the music.”

In every way, Franti has become a modern day troubadour spreading the word with equal passion, whether he’s playing to a packed theater somewhere in America, Australia or Europe, or simply giving an impromptu performance in some war-torn corner of the world.

“I wear the troubadour badge with great pride,” Franti explains. “I love playing music in the street more than anywhere else. It’s still a lot of fun to get on a big stage, but the rest of the time, when you just play for people anywhere you can, it’s like playing a pick up basketball game and I love that too. I love the intimacy of it, playing without all the bells and whistles.”

To see Michael Franti play for people anywhere in the world is to realize that music is the driving force in his creative world. “Above almost any thing else on earth, I love songs,” he explains. “I love songwriting myself, but in listening to the songs of others, I’ve learned that a great song is an incredibly powerful thing. I really believe that music can bring people together because I’ve seen it. To me, music is much more than the way I happen to make my living. It’s the thread that’s gone through my life and given it so much meaning.

That same thread has been woven into the lives of so many Franti fans all around the world. He credits the strong grass roots support that has allowed him to endure. “We have very deep roots and we all hold onto one another,” Franti says. “That’s how we’ve been able to grow; that’s been the key to our sustainability. We’ve put out records that are more rock-oriented reggae and have explored a lot of musical territory and still have an audience that’s willing to come with us. To make music for people like that isn’t just a pleasure, it’s a privilege.

As a teenager, Franti’s life was profoundly changed by the music and the message of Bob Marley and the Wailers. “I first heard him when I was 15,” Franti remembers. “He was calling for world unity (“One Love”) and his music opened up my world. In fact, I was in Canada with my family for a year, and somehow I got tickets to see Bob Marley live and I was so excited. I still have the scrapbook from when I was a kid and there’s that front page of the music section talking about his death. What a loss for the world.”

Through Franti’s appreciation of Bob Marley, he got turned on to bands that had a reggae influence like the Police and, especially, the Clash.” “I got really into the Clash,“ Franti recalls. “They did that impossible thing that a lot of artists strive for; they made it socially engaging music and put it right alongside more personal songs and still made you dance. Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye all did that. Then there was Sly and the Family Stone, a multiethnic band making socially aware music that made people happy. For me, that’s is about as good as it gets.”

And when the rain falls down You know the flower’s gonna bloom And when the hard times come You know the teacher’s in the room And when the sun comes up You know I’ll be there for you.
–“Have A Little Faith” by Michael Franti

Franti’s own performances today are marked by a genuine openheartedness, a commitment to communication and a greater sense of community. “The people who come to see us seem to love the experience of the party as well as the message and the music,” he says. “Increasingly over my life, I have less interest in being part of the fighting between parties. I’m interested in bringing people together on the left and the right, to face the issues of the day.

The problems from global warming to the economy that we face today are so clearly universal that we need to address them together.”
Indeed, Franti, the African-American son adopted and raised by Finnish American couple, has continued on many fronts to reach across all groups in a variety of ways, whether its with his annual Power To The Peaceful Festival or his award-winning documentary I Know I’m Not Alone, which featured Franti in Iraq, within the Palestinian territories and in Israel.

As a socially conscious singer-songwriter, Franti has grown up in public as his message has evolved from one of youthful anger to a more mature determination to find common ground. “When I first started out, I think that my politics could be boiled down to ..Fuck The System’ or ..Fuck the Man,’” Franti says. “When you’re coming of age, you’re desperate to change the world, but you have no idea how to actually do it. It takes time to discover that just complaining about the world is not enough. You have to do some affirmative.”

One war zone experience informs Franti’s sense of musical mission. As he remembers, “I was playing on the streets of Bagdad, and I introduced a song called ..Bomb The World’ that says ’You can bomb the world into pieces/but you can’t bomb it into peace.’ I would translate that. And people there told me, ..Oh well that’s an interesting song, but we’re living here where our world is being blown up, so sing us something that can make us dance and laugh and clap. That’s what they want to do.”

The truth is that we need everybody. We need the ideas of the grass roots. We need the resources of the corporate world. We need the cooperation of the government. And we need the intelligence of everyday people with their street wisdom.
“We need everybody, Franti explains. “So that’s who I play music for – everybody.”

Amazon.com
There aren’t many hip-hop artists out there today who give a damn about putting positive messages in their music, but Michael Franti is one of them. Ever since his days with seminal group Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, Franti has infused his sounds with insightful and thought-provoking lyricism, and this latest Spearhead joint is no exception. Stay Human tackles, among other things, the subject of capital punishment. Through a make-believe community radio station, Franti tells the tale of Sister Fatima, a healer and activist who is being put to death for a crime that her community believes she didn’t commit.

The “live” broadcasts act as elaborate skits between Franti’s insouciant, soul-rap hybrids and help to expose the arrogant nature of America’s judicial system and the brutal finality of the death sentence. Musically, Franti has created a richer, more string-laden backdrop for his tracks, creating some of his best idiosyncratic, feel-good vibes to date.

But while the funkadelic edge of “Rock the Nation” and laid-back ballad style of “Do Ya Love” are worthy in their own right, Franti’s real genius lies in his ability to weave opinions into compelling narratives so that we don’t feel we’re being battered over the head with someone else’s ideas. Emotive, soulful, and opinionated, Spearhead are almost single-handedly keeping alive a tradition epitomized by Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, and Bill Withers. Don’t sleep. –Paul Sullivan

Michael Franti & Spearhead: General Info

Band Members
MICHAEL FRANTI – voice
CARL YOUNG – bass
DAVE SHUL – guitar
MANAS ITIENE – drums
RALIEGH NEAL – keys
CHERINE ANDERSON – special guest

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Elvis Costello

Just a quick post to let you know about other sites that are using my photos;

The Denver Post article below (Live review: Elvis Costello, Black Eyed Peas, Doobie Brothers, Allman Brothers Band @ Jazz Aspen Snowmass) is the sixth review of a musical event that they have used my photos in: http://blogs.denverpost.com/reverb/2009/09/09/live-review-elvis-costello-black-eyed-peas-doobie-brothers-allman-brothers-band-jazz-aspen-snowmass/

GrooveMine.com is a festival oriented music website out of Seattle that has used many of my photos in the last few months:

http://www.groovemine.com/audiofile_mward

http://www.groovemine.com/musicfestivals

I still have tons of photos to post from last weeks Aspen Jazz Festival so please be patient, this includes;

Elvis Costello seen above.

The Allman Brothers

The Doobie Brothers

Michael Franti and Spearhead

Drive By Truckers

Citizen Cope

Umphrey McGee

More of The Black Eyed Peas

Also have some great shots of one of the most unique bands ever, Railroad Earth!

Tomorrow I’m off to the Monolith Festival at Redrocks, over 70 bands, should be intense.

Take care.

Lewis

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Their breakout album, Elephunk, was released in 2003. It was the group’s first album to feature the vocals of Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson and she became the replacement for background singer Kim Hill, who left the band in 2000. Originally, Nicole Scherzinger (lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls) was approached to join the Peas. She was forced to decline because she was a member of Eden’s Crush and was under contract. She later introduced Fergie to Will.I.Am.

Rolling Stone notes that since 2003, when the group “hired a blond bombshell named Stacy ‘Fergie’ Ferguson and gave up their pursuit of backpack-rapper cred, they have made a kind of spiritual practice of recording dumb songs — a total aesthetic commitment that extends from their garish wardrobes to their United Colors of Benetton worldview.”^[1]

From Elephunk came “Where is the Love?“, a single featuring Justin Timberlake which became Black Eyed Peas’ first major hit, peaking at #8 on the U.S. Hot 100, but topping the charts practically everywhere else, including six weeks at #1 in the UK where it became the biggest-selling single of 2003. The single had similar results in Australia, staying at #1 for 6 weeks as well. In an interview with TalkofFame.com, Taboo shared that Justin Timberlake’s split with Britney Spears impacted the recording of “Where Is The Love?“.^[2]

The album subsequently spawned “Shut Up“, which peaked at #2 in the UK and topped the charts in many other European countries including France and Germany, as well as Australia, holding on to the #1 spot for 3 weeks there. Elephunk won worldwide success and went Gold and Platinum in the US, UK, Germany, and other European markets.

The third single from the album, although significantly re-styled from the original Elephunk version, “Hey Mama” hit the top 5 in Australia and the top 10 in the UK, Germany and other European countries and reached #23 in the U.S. The song received even more exposure in 2003 when it was featured in the second of iPod‘s silhouette TV commercials.

During Black Eyed Peas’ concert tour in Asia in 2004, apl.de.ap’s life story was featured in a weekly Filipino TV drama special called Maalaala Mo Kaya (“Would You Remember”), which explained his childhood with his poor family in Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines. (“The Apl Song“, with the chorus written in Tagalog, a language of the Philippines, from their album Elephunk, tells his story.) It was at this time that apl.de.ap formed the Filipino Songwriters and Artist Group (FSAG) with Leli, a songwriter from Pampanga, Philippines, who had developed her writing craft in Compton in the early eighties.

Black Eyed Peas’ song “Let’s Get Retarded” was restyled as “Let’s Get It Started” for an NBA Finals worldwide commercial. The song was quite successful on the charts worldwide, peaking at #21 on the U.S. Hot 100, #11 in the UK, and at #2 in Australia. This spot featured Carlos Santana. On the CD, it is listed as a bonus track, and is before the other bonus track “Third Eye”. The unrevised song had great success as a single, particularly on the iTunes music download service and was featured on the soundtrack to the stoner road trip comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. The song earned the group a 2005 Grammy for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group. Black Eyed Peas were then featured in the video game The Urbz: Sims in the City as characters. They re-recorded “Let’s Get It Started” and “Shut Up” as well as other songs in “Simlish“, the dialect language used by The Sims characters. This revised version was used in the ads for the iMac G5, with will.i.am and Fergie singing about the computer

In 2004, The Black Eyed Peas embarked on the Elephunk Tour, hitting many countries, including several countries of Africa and Europe.

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