Pop Talk from Creators Syndicate

The song doesn't remain the same with this duo for 06/30/2008

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 -0700

For the record, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are not romantically involved.

But the legendary former Led Zeppelin singer and the heavenly voiced bluegrass queen are happily engaged in a musical affair of the heart that began with their chart-topping Grammy Award-winning 2007 album, "Raising Sand," and is continuing nightly on their first concert tour together.

" ...

Updated: Mon Jun 30, 2008

DiFranco's Tale of Two Cities for 07/04/2008

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

A tale of two cities … starring Ani DiFranco.

City No. 1: Buffalo, N.Y., DiFranco's hometown, where she was instrumental in transforming a 19th-century church slated for demolition into Babeville — a state-of-the-art performance space and the new headquarters of her indie label Righteous Babe Records.

City No. 2: New Orleans, where DiFranco now resides, a city still deep in ...

Updated: Fri Jul 04, 2008

Musician Marsalis Stays Active with Summer Tour and New Album for 07/14/2008

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Ask Wynton Marsalis about his dues-paying days as a teenage musician in New Orleans or his new live album with Willie Nelson, "Two Men With the Blues," and the Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter, composer and bandleader happily answers in vivid detail. But ask him to recall the last time he and his 14-man Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performed in a club, as opposed to a concert hall ...

Updated: Mon Jul 14, 2008

Poor Economy has Concert Promoters Singing the Blues for 07/18/2008

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Pop-music concerts raked in $3.9 billion in North America last year, but the struggling U.S. economy is fanning fears among event promoters of a summer tumble and winter fallout.

"The impact of the economy on concerts is the biggest I've seen in my 17 years here," said John Wojas, vice president of AEG Live San Diego. "We're seeing lower attendance at every show across the ...

Updated: Fri Jul 18, 2008

Let's Hear it for Mundell Lowe for 07/21/2008

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The July 22 all-star San Diego concert honoring Mundell Lowe is being billed as a birthday celebration. But the show, which will air globally as a "Jazz Live" radio Internet broadcast on KSDS-FM Jazz 88.3 (www.jazz88online.org/), is also a musical love fest for this esteemed jazz guitar great, who counts Billie Holiday, Lester Young and Charles Mingus among the many luminaries with wh ...

Updated: Mon Jul 21, 2008

Rhythm, Speed and Style are a Combo That's Tough to Beat for 07/28/2008

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's not unusual for an especially dazzling drum solo to be punctuated by a growing swell of cheers and shouts of encouragement from enthusiastic fans. But Marco Minnemann's solo last summer at San Diego's Birch North Park Theatre was so masterfully performed — and such a marvel of musical creativity, pinpoint dynamic control and wit — that the audience listened mostly in hushed sil ...

Updated: Mon Jul 28, 2008

Lyle Lovett Tries to Make Each Concert 'Work as a Live Thing' for 08/04/2008

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

At the age of 50, Lyle Lovett is still too young to spend much time thinking about his legacy, or his mortality. That's precisely why this Texas singer-songwriter with the large Stetson and the even larger band declined to offer any specifics when asked how he'd like to be remembered.

"I don't know — and I don't want to jinx anything!" he said with a boisterous laugh. &qu ...

Updated: Mon Aug 04, 2008

Emmylou Harris Goes to Bat to Make Songs 'Shimmer' for 08/11/2008

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Emmylou Harris has got game.

A 2008 Country Music Hall of Fame inductee who released an exquisite new album last month, she has collaborated in recent years with artists as diverse as Elvis Costello, Neil Young, Solomon Burke, Mark Knopfler and Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst.

But the queen of Americana music has rarely been one to boast. And though she's now embarked on a three-week U. ...

Updated: Mon Aug 11, 2008

Skill and a Few Unusual Breaks put Musician Ray Suen on Tour with The Killers for 08/18/2008

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When asked to identify the common denominator between earning a degree in psychology at the University of California, San Diego in 2007 and embarking on a world tour with one of the hottest young bands in rock a year later, few people would cite a former roommate's fondness for doing housework in the nude.

But for multi-instrumental wiz Ray Suen the naked truth is exactly that.

&q ...

Updated: Mon Aug 18, 2008

Ian Anderson and Jethro Tull Took on Time and Won for 08/25/2008

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Hell has not frozen over — an increasingly unlikely prospect in these harrowing days of global warming — but something nearly as unlikely has happened.

That's right, Jethro Tull, the pioneering English prog-rock band that your parents or grandparents may have rocked out to in the late 1960s and early '70s, has suddenly become cool. Again.

At least it has for the member ...

Updated: Mon Aug 25, 2008

For Guitar Wiz Jennifer Batten, Music is 'all about Stretching your Creativity' for 09/01/2008

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

After spending three years going head-to-head with rock guitar icon Jeff Beck in his band, and a decade as the featured six-string soloist in pop-music legend Michael Jackson's group, Jennifer Batten was ready to downsize.

"I really needed a change," said the guitar wiz.

"After 20 years of living in Los Angeles, I wanted to breathe real air, drink water out of the t ...

Updated: Mon Sep 01, 2008

Limits of Radiohead Vanish as Individuals Come Together for 09/08/2008

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Few bands in or out of rock exceed the sum of their parts as often — or as brilliantly — as Radiohead, whose sold-out concert at Cricket Wireless Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, Calif., reaffirmed the band's collective power.

Apart from lead guitarist and keyboardist Jonny Greenwood, a classically trained musician and budding film composer, no one in Radiohead qualifies as a vir ...

Updated: Mon Sep 08, 2008

Music Lovers are Going Back to the Future with Vinyl for 09/22/2008

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Step aside, iPod users. Move over, digital downloaders (legal and otherwise). A very cool "new" form of recorded music is growing in popularity with teens, twentysomethings and even their parents: It's called . . . vinyl records?

That's right.

Against all odds in this high-tech age, vinyl albums — those round, 12-inch discs that look like thin Frisbees with a small ...

Updated: Mon Sep 22, 2008

Antonio Sanchez's Jazz is a Beat or Two Ahead of the Pack for 09/29/2008

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

It's not unusual for famous rock drummers to cite great jazz drummers as their biggest musical inspirations. But jazz drum great Antonio Sanchez reverses that equation by citing a pair of top rock drummers, Neil Peart of Rush and Stewart Copeland of The Police, as two of his biggest inspirations.

"It all started because my mother is a big, big music fan and she used to listen to the ...

Updated: Mon Sep 29, 2008

'I'm Still at the Beginning of What I'm Doing' for 10/13/2008

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Success is not always what it seems.

Just ask Duffy, the young singer who has been thrust into the international spotlight as both a solo star and a key figure in a growing retro pop-soul movement that also includes fellow United Kingdom vocal sensations Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone and the lone-named Adele and Estelle.

"People talk to me about success as if I know what it is,&q ...

Updated: Mon Oct 13, 2008

Reed's 'Berlin' Challenging, Harrowing, Rewarding for 10/21/2008

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Few albums have charted a more curiously rocky path — or inspired as much controversy and belated acclaim — as Lou Reed's "Berlin," which has now been reborn as a concert film directed by Julian Schnabel. Originally released in 1973, it is easily the second most misunderstood work in this legendary New York rocker's discography.

The first, of course, was "Metal ...

Updated: Tue Oct 21, 2008

At Age 62, Neil Young -- Musician, Storyteller, Artist -- Remains a Vital Force for 10/27/2008

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

"I hope to be around a long time."

Neil Young told the San Diego Union-Tribune that two years ago — not about himself, but about his annual Bridge School benefit concerts at the Shoreline Amphitheatre near San Jose, Calif.

Launched in 1986 to raise money for a special-needs Bay Area school for students with severe speech and physical impairments (including his son, ...

Updated: Mon Oct 27, 2008

'Sticky and Sweet' Tour Sales Might be Slow, but Don't Bet Against Madonna for 11/03/2008

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Sure, the Queen of Pop has been encouraging her audiences to vote for Barack Obama at each stop on the U.S. leg of her ongoing "Sticky and Sweet" world tour. And, yes, she has also been flashing images of John McCain during her nightly performances of "Get Stupid," although not of his running mate. ("Sarah Palin can't come to this party," Madonna told the audience ...

Updated: Mon Nov 03, 2008

Jodi V Turns Heartbreak into Art by 'Doing Music That's Kind of Inspirational' for 11/10/2008

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Getting her heart broken for the first time at the age of 18 was a wrenching experience for Jodi V. It was also the best thing that ever happened to her, musically speaking.

"I actually remember the night that this little punk hurt me," she said of her former boyfriend. "I went right in the house and wrote a poem in my diary, then I wrote the song 'Breaking Down.'"

Updated: Mon Nov 10, 2008

Rodney Crowell's Music Frankly Takes on Issues of the Heartland for 11/17/2008

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

There's a good reason "Sex and Gasoline" ranks as Crowell's most accomplished and satisfying album since 2001's justly acclaimed "The Houston Kid." In both instances, the veteran Texas singer-songwriter completed an entire album, then discarded it and began the whole process anew, only this time in Los Angeles instead of Nashville, Tenn.

"I recorded it, mixed it ...

Updated: Mon Nov 17, 2008