CollegeHumor has released a video of tryouts for the Cantina Band from Star Wars. The segment takes place on the actual Star Wars cantina set thanks to Disney and Lucasfilm.
The video features Chris Daughtry, Ben Folds, Liz Phair, Reggie Watts, Mark McGrath, Jordin Sparks, Rick Springfield, Weird Al Yankovic, Lisa Loeb, and mc chris. And everyone’s favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett makes an appearance too. Make sure to look closely at Lisa Loeb’s famous glasses. Check it out.
If the video leaves you wanting more, CollegeHumor has some bonus footage on its website. Who would you like to see in the Star Wars Cantina Band? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Chimesfreedom has discussed country singer Marty Brown’s 1990’s career and post-success struggles, and we have been following his new successes aided by his appearances on America’s Got Talent. Most recent interviews have focused on his new music and new career, but Marty Brown recently took the opportunity to reflect on his early struggles as a young artist.
In this video, he sits on a brick wall in an alley in Nashville. And he explains how when he went to Nashville from Kentucky as a young man, he used to sleep in that alley next to the wall. Near the end (around the 9:30 mark) he sings a little of his song, “I’m From the Country.” Check it out.
While we have written a lot about Brown’s vast and under-appreciated talents, his stories in the video provide some insight into how hard he has worked to get to where he is today.
For this month’s fortieth anniversary of the U.S. release of the single “Band on the Run” by Paul McCartney and Wings, McCartney has released a new video for the song. The video, directed and produced by visual artist Ben Ib, creatively uses the lyrics of the video to create images from the song. [Update: The video is currently no longer available.]
The album Band On The Run was recorded during August-October 1973 in EMI Studios, Lagos and AIR Studios, London. It went on to become the most successful album from Wings.
What is your favorite song from Band on the Run? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In what has become an annual tradition on Chimesfreedom, we wish a happy birthday this week to Willie Nelson, who was born in Abbott, Texas late at night on April 29, 1933. Due to the late hour, the birth was not officially recorded until the next day and his birthday is sometimes reported as April 30. So, Nelson celebrates his birthday on both dates. One of his recordings I love is his wonderful interpretation of Guy Clark’s “Desperados Waiting For a Train.”
The song “Desperados Waiting For a Train” combines themes of memory, aging, history, and mortality. The singer recounts being friend with an old man when he was a boy.
The singer reports how the old man told him about his youthful days as a drifter working on oil wells. And the young man watches the old man get older. Anyone who as a child has been close to an elderly person or a grandparent may recognize the relationship and admiration. The singer sums it up, “Well to me he was a hero of this country.”
One of the reasons the lyrics ring so true is that Clark based the story on someone he knew. As he explained in a 2011 interview, “It’s a true song about someone in my life – I mean, you couldn’t have made that up. . . . It was about a guy who was like my grandfather.” Clark also recounted how he knew he would write about the man almost as soon as he started writing songs.
Versions of “Desperados Waiting For a Train”
There are several excellent recordings of “Desperados Waiting For a Train.” Guy Clark made a beautiful recording of it, including some live versions. Jerry Jeff Walker released the first recording of the song on his 1973 album Viva Terlingua. Actor Slim Pickens released his own version, where he reads the lyrics like poem over the music.
Willie Nelson took part in an earlier version recorded with Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson as the Highwaymen. Their version that appeared on the super group’s album Highwayman was a top 20 hit when released as a single in 1985.
The more recent version by Nelson alone appeared on a wonderful Guy Clark tribute album, This One’s For Him (2010). At the time, Nelson, like the old man in the song, was “pushin’ eighty.” This version of the singer as an older man looking back on his youthful encounter with old age and death adds a deeper layer to the classic song. Check it out.
For some additional Willie, the Larry King Now website features a recent episode where Larry King interviewed Nelson about music, marijuana, politics, and aging.
Happy birthday Willie, and thanks for the presents to us.
What Willie Nelson song are you playing for his birthday? Leave your two cents in the comments.
While listening to my iPod on random play, a song started playing that I did not immediately recognize. I wondered if it were a lost Allman Brothers track I did not know. Eventually, though, I figured out it was “A Different Man,” a track from Will Hoge‘s album that I had recently purchased, Never Give In (2013). Hoge has been recording for years and is not as well known as he should be, although he boosted his fame a little in recent months with his song “Strong,” from the same album as “A Different Man,” featured on a Chevrolet commercial.
There are only a couple of versions of “A Different Man” on YouTube. Here is Hoge performing the song in 2025 at The Rock Boat in Miami, Florida The sound quality is not great, but hopefully you can still recognize what a great song it is, leading you to check out the recorded version and other music by Will Hoge. Check it out.
As a bonus, check out this acoustic performance of his song “Strong,” which you might recognize from the commercial. Hoge’s voice and song remind me of some of the songs from the also under-appreciated Greg Trooper.
What is your random song of the day? Leave your two cents in the comments.
was recorded during August-October 1973 in EMI Studios, Lagos and AIR Studios, London. It went on to become the most successful album from Wings.
. Actor Slim Pickens released 
was a top 20 hit when released as a single in 1985.
