REGGAE IS DEAD.
WHO KILLED JAH MUSIC?

Technology and materialism have replaced musicianship, spirituality and human rights — what’s left is lifeless and soulless.

When, exactly, did reggae music cease to exist? Think about that for a moment: the musical revolution from a tiny island in the Caribbean — one that united Rastafarians and punk rockers, hippies and rude boys — is dead. And it has been for a long time. But when, exactly? And why? The first question is easier to pinpoint; the second more complicated and convoluted.

IT’S THANKSGIVING.1976.
A Celebration of The Band’s “Last Waltz”

For music lovers, there are few things to be more thankful for than Thanksgiving Day, 1976. Oddly, that was the day that a legendary band of four Canadians and an Arkansan would retire from public performance. The fact that this Band would rekindle interest in American roots music is well-documented; they are, in my mind, the first and last word in the music now known as ‘Americana.’ Their landmark album Music From Big Pink, shifted the psychedelic axis of music to a more intimate and pastoral worldview. It contributed to Eric Clapton’s decision to leave the supergroup Cream, who upon hearing the album, said simply, “It changed my life.” George Harrison and Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters would also cite the album as a major influence.

I DON'T KNOW WHY…
Memorial Day on Martha’s Vineyard and discovering Norah Jones.

Memorial Day is the “unofficial” start of summer and, if you live in New England, that day — along with the arrival of baseball season— can’t come soon enough. It’s time to ditch the cold and snow of winter, and the rainy tease of spring, for beautiful summer days — preferably spent on Martha’s Vineyard. I remember hearing a track from Norah Jones’ debut album for the first time so vividly on “The Rock” many, many years ago. I’d heard and read all the hype. I’d heard all of my hip friends call her “Snorah Jones.” But she still hadn’t yet come across my radar and I hadn’t made any effort to seek her out.

THE WILD ONE, FOREVER…
Remembering Tom Petty

Strange. I’m sitting here sharing, I think, a weird moment between the present of this mortal coil, and the afterlife, as conflicting reports about one of my all-time favorite artists also vacillates between the two. It was reported that Tom Petty had passed, and social media exploded with instant grief, sadness and remembrances before giving way to — maybe, just maybe — that Petty was still clinging to life. Still, the outcome looked dire. Discovered in cardiac arrest and rushed to the hospital, there was no pulse and no brain activity. Reports cited a DNR and that the singer had been removed from life support from his family, who awaited the inevitable. Regardless, the outlook for one of his generation’s greatest songwriters and performers did not look good.

ROLL TAPE!
Should “Record Everything” Replace “Keep Your Publishing” As A Band’s Golden Rule?

It was a trend started forever ago, in jazz dens, bluegrass festivals and folk haunts. Fans would record — secretly and not so secretly — their favorite musicians of the day, who plied their trade set after set, night after night. The Grateful Dead famously took that notion to the Nth degree, recording themselves to study what worked and didn’t work in their free-form explorations. The fans would soon adopt the practice and create a new barter economy that did not faze the band; Dead patriarch and guitarist Jerry Garcia tacitly approved, saying “Once we’re done with the music, you can have it.”

SURF’S UP…
An American Music Trend Goes Outernational

It’s a hot, humid night along the boardwalk of the Jersey Shore. Asbury Park, long a summer haunt of teens, young families with kids, and couples of seemingly every age walking hand in hand, is jumping on a Saturday night. Music — is that doo wop? — mingles with laughter and ice cream or pizza orders, as the music of street musicians blend together in the warm night air. Toward the end of the boardwalk sits the Convention Hall, built in the late 1920s, and people are filtering in to listen to “surf” music.