Free Listen & Download of “Thunder Road: A Folk-Punk Tribute to Bruce Springsteen”

Thunder Road Folk-Punk

A new Bruce Springsteen tribute CD takes a folk-punk approach to many of the singer-songwriter’s songs, including “Thunder Road,” “Lucky Town,” “Radio Nowhere,” and “Born in the U.S.A.” The album, entitled Thunder Road: A Folk-Rock Tribute to Bruce Springsteen, features performers such as Cactus Vella, The Matchup, Jon Creeden, and Jesse LeBourdais.

My favorite tracks include Swissknife’s “The Wrestler,” Jon Creeden’s “Atlantic City,” and The Matchup’s version of “Radio Nowhere.” An unusual and delightful sing-along version of “I’m On Fire” by Choir!Choir!Choir is worth checking out.

If you like what you hear, Anxiety Attack Records has made the music available for free download. You may listen to the music and download if you choose by going to the Anxiety Attack Records website.

What do you think of the folk-punk tribute to Springsteen? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Willie Nelson’s New Video for “The Wall”

    Band of Brothers Nelson

    Willie Nelson will release his first album since his duets CD To All The Girls. . . (2014) with Band of Brothers (2014). Legacy Records will release the new Nelson album that features fourteen tracks. Nine of the songs are new originals by Nelson, making Band of Brothers the first time in more than two decades that Nelson is releasing an album of predominantly new originals.

    The video for one of the new songs, “The Wall,” has been released. The song recounts a number of recognizable events from Nelson’s life.

    The new album will also include a duet with Jamey Johnson on Billy Joe Shaver’s “The Git Go.” Band of Brothers hits stores June 17.

    Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    History of Jazz Piano in One Video

    Jazz piano
    In this video, Kris Bowers sits down behind a piano and takes us through a history of instrumental jazz piano using more than 40 tunes. Bowers, a Thelonious Monk Competition winner, gets a little help from some other musicians from the “History” series and a sign that tells us what is going on.

    Check out this video on the history of jazz piano.

    NPR disagrees with a little of the commentary, but it is an interesting music tour. Check out some other videos in the History series posted by collectivecadenza.

    What is your favorite jazz piano piece? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    “The River” Had a Happy Ending After All

    The River One of the many depressing songs on Bruce Springsteen’s 1980 double album The River, is the title track. The song ends with the singer haunted by memories, wondering “Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true / Or is it something worse?” The story is based on real life, but the real-life inspirations for the song did not have the ending foreseen in the lyrics.

    “The River”

    The singer of “The River” tells the story of meeting Mary in high school. The singer first recounts how the high school kids would go down to dive in the river. While the image is one of teenage joy, the music and earlier lines about growing up “to do like your daddy done” hint at something sadder. By the time the singer is nineteen, Mary is pregnant, and the couple find themselves getting married at the courthouse “with no wedding day smiles.”

    In the song, more troubles come.  The singer faces hard times and acts like he no longer remembers the past.  Meanwhile, Mary “acts like she don’t care.” But the singer does remember the past.  And it is those good times at the river that haunt his days.

    The Inspiration for “The River”

    Springsteen based his song on his sister Virginia (“Ginny”), who during her senior year of high school became pregnant. Ginny married her boyfriend, Michael “Mickey” Shave, who was a rodeo rider, in a small ceremony. The two then began their young family life together.

    In this video from one of his performances during the the No Nukes: The Muse Concerts For a Non-Nuclear Future on September 19-23, 1979 at Madison Square Garden, you can hear Springsteen introducing the new song with, “this is my brother-in-law and my sister.”

    The Real-Life Story

    Although Springsteen imagined a sad life resulting from such a start, things worked out better for Ginny and Mickey than they did for the singer and Mary. Ginny and Mickey have been married for more than forty years, and they had three children and several grandchildren.

    While, like everyone, Ginny and Mickey may wonder some days about what might have been, the real-life people who inspired “The River” do not seem as haunted as the characters in the song.

    Not only did things work out for the couple, but their wedding gave Ginny’s brother what Rolling Stone Magazine calls his fifth greatest song. It sounds like everyone’s dreams came true after all.

    What do you think of “The River”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Bobby Darin Singing His Last Hit With Stevie Wonder

    Darin Wonder Carpenter

    On May 14, 1936, Walden Robert Cassotto, who we all know as Bobby Darin, was born in the Bronx. When one thinks of Darin, the first thing that probably comes to mind is one of his hits from the late 1950s or early 1960s, like “Splish Splash,” “Dream Lover,” “Mack the Knife” or “Beyond the Sea.” But Darin continued to record in a number of different genres, including folk and country, and he also did some acting, even earning an Academy Award nomination.

    In 1963, Darin played a shell-shocked soldier in the World War II drama, Captain Newman, M.D.., which also starred Gregory Peck and featured other actors like Tony Curtis, Angie Dickinson, and Robert Duvall. The movie, based on a novel by Leo Rosten, followed the work of Captain Newman (Peck) at a neuro-psychiatric ward of a military hospital in Arizona.

    For his portrayal of the shell-shocked Cpl. Jim Tompkins, Darin was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Additionally, at the Cannes Film Festival, he won the French Film Critics Award for best actor. He appears for a few seconds in this preview.

    Although he continued to record, act, appear on TV, and become involved in politics through the 1960s and the 1970s, Darin had his final Top 10 hit in 1966 with a recording of Tim Hardin‘s “If I Were a Carpenter.”

    Below Darin performs “If I Were a Carpenter” in January 1969 with Stevie Wonder when Darin hosted NBC’S Kraft Music Hall: Sounds of the Sixties special. Their performance has the feel of an impromptu jam, and it is pretty awesome.

    Although Darin is only 32 in the performance with Wonder, Darin had health problems through much of his life from a weakened heart due to a childhood illness.

    Darin passed away at the age of 37 on December 20, 1973, and at his request, his body was donated to science. As he did in his too-short life, Darin wanted to give everything he could even in death.

    What is your favorite Bobby Darin song? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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