Performances recorded at Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood’s Madison Square Garden concerts of February 2008 are scheduled to be released 19 May on CD and on DVD. If this clip of “Forever Man” is any indication, it will be great. These guys rock pretty good for geezers.

Each release will include two discs, and the DVD [...]

Jackie Greene’s first CD was released in 2002, but I didn’t hear of him until American Myth (2006). This cautionary tale comes from his latest, Giving Up the Ghost (2008).
Recorded live at Harmony Festival, 2008.

Science proves that Bob Dylan was right.
Scientists have just shown that one of Bob Dylan’s most famous lines–”everybody must get stoned”– is correct. That’s because they’ve discovered that the brain manufactures proteins that act like marijuana at specific receptors in the brain itself.
The possibilities are intoxicating.
This discovery may lead to new marijuana-like drugs for managing [...]

As a pop music producer, he was a genius; but, as a human being, not so much.  His worldly success and wealth made him a self-obsessed recluse and a pitiful and dangerous old man.
An evil Spector: Record producer guilty of murder
Second jury convicts producer in actress’s death
LOS ANGELES — Phil Spector, the rock music impresario [...]

Susie, an American woman in Saudi Arabia, has made the shocking discovery that vice cops with the Committee for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CVPVP) censor CD covers. She recently bought her son a copy of Kate Perry’s One of the Boys.
When he opened up the CD, we were both astonished [...]

It’s the end of an era.  Elevator music is no more.
They were the jaunty, forgettable streams of synthesized music you would hear between the lobby and your floor.
But like so many other cultural reference points, the elevator-music industry has faded away. And barely anybody noticed.
The breaking point came in February, when Muzak, the company that [...]

This hidden gem, recorded in 1962 for a film that was never released, Ten Girls Ago, features the great Dion singing “Feeling No Pain”. He co-wrote the song and produced a version by The del Satins that was released in 1963. The del Satins were the back-up group on many of Dion’s 1960s [...]

Brendan O’Neil has just seen one of the worst films ever: The Age of Stupid.
Imagine a film which played so promiscuously fast and loose with the ‘scientific facts’ that it strongly implied that the Asian businessman’s penchant for flying was responsible for fatal rainstorms in Mumbai, and that Bedford Council’s rejection of our heroic wind-turbine [...]

Charlie Chaplin was not known as a Christian while he was alive, but some Hindu activists in India seem to think he has undergone a post-mortem conversion. Humourless BJP fanatics have blocked installation of a 67-foot statue of the great comic actor because it would offend Hinduism.
The last laugh may be on Charlie Chaplin, [...]

I have a teenage daughter, so this video spoke to me in a big way.  The song is controversial (as are many Toby Keith songs), but I think it has a positive message about God, his gospel, and his kingdom.

The girl walked away from God for a time, but God didn’t walk away from her. [...]

As an example of a wealthy celebrity prone to bizarre outbursts, consider Sir Bono.
Perhaps the best-known, and certainly the loudest among them, is U2’s Bono. His efforts have won him an honorary British knighthood, no fewer than three Nobel Prize nominations and the adulation of Tony Blair. Yet one of Bono’s most significant outbursts – [...]

Hollywood actress Maria Conchita Alonso spoke for many when asked to comment on Sean Penn’s Oscar win.
“He’s an amazing actor. I can’t take that away from him,” she said of Penn, who worked with her on the 1988 cop film Colors. “It’s just that he has no clue at all what’s going on in Venezuela. [...]

The latest issue of Relevant magazine carries a fascinating story on Mickey Rourke, who has won several awards for his role as Randy “Ram” Robinson in The Wrestler. As a child, Rourke attended the Catholic Church until his parents split when he was six. At 17, he returned to the church but, although [...]

The Reverend Gary Davis (1896-1972) was a gospel and blues singer and songwriter and a remarkable guitarist. His unique finger-picking style influenced many folk, blues, and rock guitarists, including Jerry Garcia, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, and Jorma Kaukonen.
This clip is believed to be from a 1970 documentary.
Born partially blind, Rev Davis lost his sight [...]

“Trouble In Mind” was recorded during the Slow Train Coming sessions (1979) and released as the B-side of “Gotta Serve Somebody”.
h/t: Francis Beckwith at What’s Wrong With The World