Ivan May

A New World Record and Out Of The Blue are testaments as to why Jeff Lynne is such a hard working record producer. Love some ELO!

Say what you will about Avril Lavigne, at least her attempts at alternative rock sold millions, even if critics totally dissed her music. But I was a huge fan of Bowling For Soup growing up (I was in first grade when 1985 was released) and I’m surprised that they’re not as mentioned as other pop punk bands from that era. What most everybody remembers this band for is that they composed and sang the theme song for the popular children’s tv series Phineas and Ferb (a show I watched religiously as a child.) They also did a cover of I Melt With You by Modern English for the soundtrack of the Disney film Sky High (complete with a kazoo solo) Jaret is a very good guitar player. He never gets enough credit, given that he is the source of Ernie Ball Music Man income! But if any of you are fans of Bowling For Soup post your opinions here. Thanks

Along with Green Day and Blink-182, American Hi-Fi was one of those pop punk bands every music critic loved to hate. Personally, I consider American Hi Fi to be as influential as those 2 bands, even if they really are short in the lyrics department. The group was based out of Boston, MA, and led by Stacy Jones, a guitarist who had previously played drums for Veruca Salt and Aimee Mann. He enjoyed playing a Fender Jaguar, but American HiFi is perhaps well known for their first and only major American hit, Flavor Of The Weak. Jamie Arentzen played a 1970 Gibson Les Paul, a Strat and a sunburst Fender Jazzmaster. American Hi-Fi still records and tours to this day, and they also appeared on the soundtracks of movies such as Little Secrets and Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, and even guest starred on an episode of All That, which is how I found out about them. I think I also used to listen to American Hi-Fi on a college radio station I used to listen to. But along with American Idiot and Enema Of The State, you should give American Hi-Fi a spin in the CD player. You’ll thank me.

My parents saw Fleetwood Mac in 1988 as part of the "Shake The Cage" tour that they embarked on in support of the album Tango In The Night. Lindsey Buckingham had already quit by that point, which was a little sad, but his replacements, Rick Vito and Billy Burnette, weren't that bad when it came to guitarists. My mom saw ACDC at around the same time, and has been suffering from tinnitus for years as a result.

I like the Black Crowes, but Chris Robinson's flat out imitations of Ronnie Van Zant can quickly become annoying. Well, to me at least. At least Rich Robinson is a good guitarist.

My mom just got new glasses last week. She is turning 61 years old on December 20th, and is due to have cataract surgery sometime in the new year. I hope it works for her and that she won't lose her eyesight. I have had to wear glasses since I was 7. At first I hated it but after a while I got used to it.

Back in the late seventies, Di recording was a fashionable thing. Nowadays, not so much. Dougie Thomson’s Jazz Bass was usually recorded through the mixing console, on all those vintage Supertramp albums. I believe Dave Hope of Kansas also used to record his bass tracks through a Harrison mixer, and I know that Geddy Lee’s Rickenbacker on Fly By Night, Caress Of Steel and 2112 was also recorded through a DI signal, before Geddy moved on to Ampeg, Sun and Marshall amps during the Eighties.

Hey @David Emm I am not sure if @David Emm has ever heard of Al DiMeola, but he is an awesome guitarist!

This isn't very good news. I love Carvin and Kiesel guitars and I am sad to see the site go kaput. On the other hand, Gretsch Pages forum just closed a few months ago.

As many videos as the gentleman Dave Spuria also known as The Real Music Observer has done about or regarding gossip about washed up classic rock stars, I am somewhat surprised that he, The Real Music Observer, has not been a subject here on MPN. He is originally from Boston, MA, and used to work as a college radio DJ, but his family recently moved to Florida. Out of all the innumerable videos he has done, at least 80% of his videos have been about Journey or Steve Perry in some shape or form. In fact, he at one time had a HUGE Twitter battle with Neal Schon regarding Neal’s tense and intense online argument regarding Cain (Frigga) and his/his wife’s activities and the sabotage of Arnel’s voice via the set list and who actually owns the JOURNEY/JRNY band brand…all of which eventually got him blocked from viewing Neal’s Twitter account. No surprise there because there are some here that got blocked from his account for trying to be the voice of reason. He supposedly broke the story that Steve Perry’s new manager, according to a very well-known musical source is/was Steven Jensen (of Direct Management Group), and that he (Jensen) was going around telling people that Steve’s album was finished and that they were planning a HUGE comeback. That video gained at least 35k views. However, a quick Google search did not bring that up and many went to look up Steven Jensen and found DMG website. While there are a few select artists listed: k.d. Lang, Adam Lambert, Katy Perry and 1 or 2 others…there is no Steve Perry to be found. It was found out that Steven Jensen is a friend of SP that is/was merely helping him out in some form. He has and is still claiming that Steve Perry watches or at least has been shown his videos and was allegedly angry about the one where he speculates if Steve had vocal cord surgery or not, based on a supposed scar he (SP) appears to have from a close of when SP appeared onstage at the RRHOF. So I am saying all this to say that there is enough blame to go around with the gossip wheel turning. He has blamed SP while he stirs and fans the flame of rumor with his videos. While I cannot say with any kind of certainty that he doesn’t know anything (because you never know who knows who), I can confidently say that he doesn’t know much (as he sometimes admits by saying it is all speculation). Ok. I have said my piece about this video blogger gossip magazine (for now). Anyone else?

When I say that Mark Knopfler is one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived, I mean it. Nobody rocks a Strat and a Vox AC30 like Knopfler does!

Not sure if any of you know about Shawn Colvin, but she was a very well known folk rock singer-songwriter in the Nineties. Let me put it this way: Shawn Colvin was the woman that wrote the song Sunny Came Home. (The song where a woman is tired of being abused by her husband, so she burns his house down as a revenge act.) Shawn Colvin has always been one of my favorite female acts. (Then again, I was born in 2001, so artists like Shawn Colvin, Shania Twain, Roseanne Cash, Aimee Mann, Jewel and Michelle Branch were the female artists I grew up listening to.) I saw a video of Shawn Colvin performing The Boxer with Allison Krauss in 2007 with Jerry Douglas on Dobro. It was a really great video, and I suggest you look it up just to mark my words. I always loved her work with Suzanne Vega, and she has a very nice contralto voice. A friend of mine even mentioned to me that he discovered the music of Tom Waits through Shawn Colvin. I think one reason why Shawn Colvin is underappreciated is partly because she was 33 when she put out her first album, Steady On, in 1989. Most of the acts that were part of the New Wave of Female Singer-Songwriters in the Nineties were all in their 20s. (I take that back, Bonnie Raitt was 40 when she put out Nick Of Time, and Sheryl Crow was 31 when her first record was made.) I do love the song Sunny Came Home. Lyrically, it is a very dark song, but I love the mandolin melody that plays throughout. I found the CDs of Fat City, Steady On and A Few Small Repairs at a Value Village thrift store recently. Her voice is arguably as melodic as Joni Mitchell, with the country elements of The Band and a Grateful Dead reference here and there. She also was a backup singer for Suzanne Vega, Mary Chapin Carpenter and performed at the Lilith Fair. I never really cared much for her cover of Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic by The Police. I understand why she put the male pronouns in, though. She got a lot of airplay on college radio in the Nineties, but after Sunny Came Home came out, she fell off the map. She still continues to make music (her most recent album was in 2016,) and her Columbia back catalogue was recently remastered on compact disc and vinyl by Legacy Recordings. The fact alone that she was during a time when vinyl was stopped being manufactured and CDs and cassettes were the only things being made at that time. Bruce Springsteen was a huge fan of her music, claiming in 1995: "In the world of McMusic, Shawn Colvin is the only artist--either male or female--I listen to on a regular basis." Wise words from The Boss. But Shawn Colvin has won some Grammys, and even a lot of my male friends listen to her music. (Like most everyone, I always thought Shawn Colvin was a guy.) I also recommend the users on SH to look up her covers of "I Don't Want To Live On The Moon" from Sesame Street, and her acoustic cover of Lovers In A Dangerous Time by Bruce Cockburn. (I still prefer the Dan Fogelberg cover, however.) I would like for Shawn Colvin to be looked at in a more favorable way. When I look at Rolling Stone or Entertainment Weekly come up with this "Greatest Pop Albums" list, and I see that none of her albums are mentioned on there, when I know how profoundly of an influence she has, it's a very painful struggle. Had she recieved better promotion from Columbia Records, she would have had more critical acclaim. Because at the time, many of the same writers were comparing her sound to Jagged Little Pill and Come On Over. I also wonder if Michelle Branch and Taylor Swift were influenced by Shawn Colvin. Do you have any Shawn Colvin albums in your collection? Have you ever listened to any of her albums in her entirety? Please let me know. I do think it would be pretty cool if Shawn Colvin and Mark Knopfler collaborated. Given his success collaborating with Emmylou Harris, I think a collaboartion between Shawn Colvin and Mark Knopfler would sound cool.

Del Amitri were massive back home in the UK, but meant nothing here in America, which is a shame. They weren't exactly Britpop, but they do have the multi tracked vocals, great bass work from Justin Currie and jangly guitars, so I guess they count as a Britpop band. Wish they were as more well known as Blur and Oasis, though.

The Big Country was much different from every other jangle pop/new wave band at the time: They were adding a strong Scottish/Irish music influence to the Talking Heads/Pretenders template. Imagine hearing Sting cover "Whiskey In The Jar" and you'll understand what I mean. The group was comprised of guitarist Stuart Adamson, who had previously spent time in the Scottish post punk band The Skids. The other members included drummer Mark Brzezicki, basist Tony Butler and lead guitarist Bruce Watson, who was born in Canada but spent his childhood in Scotland. While Big Country were a one-hit wonder in the US (their only big hit was In A Big Country, which peaked at #17 in the US, and also peaked at #17 in the UK), the band took their primary influences (The Beatles, Thin Lizzy, Dan Fogelberg, Roxy Music, The Cars, Brian Eno, The Who and The Chieftains) and meshed it with the sounds of Celtic folk music. Their debut album, The Crossing, was released by Mercury Records in 1983 and was produced by Steve Lillywhite, who was also mentoring U2 at around the same time. The Crossing eventually earned a gold disc in both the US and Canada, and Big Country evrntualy eanred a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist (losing to, surprisingly, Cyndi Lauper!), as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Big Country's sound is also recognizable, with Mark Brzezicki's treated drums and the "bagpipe" sound (which is actually Bruce Watson and Stuart Adamson using Ebows to make their guitars sound like bagpipes.) Big Country's first single was "Harvest Home", recorded and released in 1982. It was a modest success, although it did not reach the UK Singles Chart. Their next single was 1983's "Fields Of Fire (400 Miles)", which reached the UK's Top Ten and was rapidly followed by the album The Crossing. The album was a hit in the United States (reaching the Top 20 in the Billboard 200), powered by "In a Big Country", their only US Top 40 hit single. The song features heavily engineered guitar sounds, strongly reminiscent of bagpipes; Adamson and fellow guitarist Watson achieved this through the use of the MXR Pitch Transposer 129 Guitar Effect. Also contributing to the band's unique sound was their use of the e-bow, a device which allows a guitar to sound more like strings or synthesizer. The Crossing sold over a million copies in the UK and obtained gold record status (sales of over 500,000) in the US. The band performed at the Grammy Awards and on Saturday Night Live. Their next single, a non album track called Wonderland, was a moderate hit in the UK, reaching no. 8, but stalled at number 86 in the US, eventually becoming their last hot 100 entry. Their second album Steeltown (1984) was a hit as soon as it was released, entering the UK Albums Chart at No. 1. The album featured three UK top 30 hit singles, and received considerable critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, but like Wonderland (and, in fact, all subsequent releases) it was a commercial disappointment in the US, peaking at No. 70 on the Billboard album chart. On Christmas 1984, the four members participated in the Band Aid charity record "Do They Know It's Christmas?". They are among a small handful of acts to contribute a spoken message to the B-side of the single. Throughout 1984 and 1985 the band toured the UK, Europe, and to a lesser extent the US both as headliners and in support of such bigger-name artists as Queen and Roger Daltrey. They also recorded prolifically, and provided the musical score to a Scottish independent film, Restless Natives (1985), which was released years later on the band's Restless Natives and Rarities (1998) collection. Big Country had backed Roger Daltrey on his 1985 solo album Under the Raging Moon, and Tony Butler played bass and provided backing vocals on Pete Townshend's 1980 hit single "Let My Love Open the Door" and the Pretenders' 1982 hit single "Back On The Chain Gang". Both Butler and Brzezicki performed on Townshend's 1985 solo album White City: A Novel. Brzezicki played drums for The Cult on their 1985 Love album and was featured in the video for the single, "She Sells Sanctuary". 1986's The Seer, the band's third album, was another big success in the UK, peaking at Number 2. It produced three further Top 30 singles, including the Irish number one hit "Look Away", which would also prove to be the band's biggest hit in the UK, peaking at No. 7. Kate Bush provided backing vocals on the album's title track, and the album received good reviews from the music press. In the US, The Seer sold a little bit better than Steeltown, reaching No. 59 on the Billboard chart. An additional single, The Teacher, reached #28 in the UK, and got heavy airplay on MTV. In what some critics felt was an apparent attempt to regain their dwindling US following, Big Country used producer Peter Wolf, formerly of the J. Geils Band, for their next album, Peace in Our Time (1988), which was recorded in Los Angeles. It reached No. 9 in the UK Albums Chart, but sold poorly in the United States. The album launch took place in Moscow and was accompanied by a tour of the USSR, a political statement some felt seemed insincere. During the Peace in Our Time UK tour, the band were supported by Diesel Park West and Cry Before Dawn. No Place Like Home (1991) nearly broke up the band. Drummer Mark Brzezicki, who had also worked with Procol Harum and Joan Armatrading during this time, returned to the studio as a session drummer after leaving the band. The album found Big Country trying to reinvent themselves and shift away from their 1980s image. It was not a commercial success and was not released in America, although two re-recorded tracks showed up on 1993's The Buffalo Skinners. In 1991, the band was dropped by Mercury and its distributor Phonogram, the companies that had released all of their material since 1983. After that, Big Country became a minor act, popping up in the lower echelons of the charts in the UK and Europe with the release of every subsequent album. Only one of these, 1993's The Buffalo Skinners, received a major label release (via Chrysalis Records), and it seemed a return to form of sorts for the band, reaching the UK Top 25. The album obtained enthusiastic critical response, and although it produced two UK Top 30 singles in "Alone" and "Ships", its sales were meagre. In June 1995, Big Country released their seventh studio album, Why the Long Face. 1999 saw the release of Big Country's eighth and final studio album with Adamson at the helm, Driving to Damascus (titled in its slightly different, augmented US release John Wayne's Dream). Adamson said publicly that he was pleased with the album but disappointed that it did not fare better on the charts, which led to depression. Later that year, he disappeared for a while before resurfacing, stating that he had needed some time off. Adamson moved to Nashville in the mid-1990s, where he met country music singer/songwriter Marcus Hummon, and together they released an alternative country studio album as The Raphaels in 2001. Adamson returned for the band's 'Final Fling' farewell tour, culminating in a sold-out concert at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom on 31 May 2000. They played what turned out to be their last gig in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October that year. In November 2001, Adamson disappeared again. Numerous appeals were put on the Big Country website asking for Adamson to call home and speak to anyone in the band, the management company, or his ex-wife. The website also requested that any fans who might have been 'harbouring' the singer to contact the management company and alert them to his whereabouts. Mark Brzezicki and Tony Butler had indicated they were concerned but the reason Big Country had lasted so long was they stayed out of one another's personal lives, and both later noted they were unaware of the extent of Adamson's problems. He was found dead in a room at the Best Western Plaza Hotel in Honolulu, Hawaii on 16 December 2001. Adamson was cremated, with his remains buried at the Dunfermiline Crematorium. A memorial to Adamson was held at Carnegie Hall, Dunfermline in January 2002, followed by a tribute concert at Glasgow Barrowlands in May. It brought together the remaining members of both Big Country and Skids; Adamson's teenage children, Callum and Kirsten; as well as Steve Harley, Runrig, Simon Townshend, Midge Ure and Bill Nelson. In 2007, to celebrate 25 years of Big Country, founding members Bruce Watson, Tony Butler (now lead vocalist for the first time), and Mark Brzezicki reunited to embark on a tour of the UK with dates in Scotland and England and a gig in Cologne (Germany). They also released a new album, Twenty Five Live, on the Track Records label. After the anniversary activity, the band returned to their hiatus. The surviving original members toured again in late December 2010 and January 2011 with Mike Peters of the Alarm and Jamie Watson, Bruce's son, added to the line-up. This line-up began more regular touring as well as writing new material for potential release, in part with the involvement of record producer Steve Lillywhite. The efforts resulted in the creation of Big Country's first single in 11 years, entitled "Another Country". In a September 2012 press release, Bruce Watson announced that Butler had retired from the group at the end of their last tour. He was replaced by former Simple Minds bassist Derek Forbes, who was Adamson's original choice for bassist on the initial Big Country recordings, although Forbes was not asked due to shyness on Adamson's part. The group also parted ways with longtime manager Ian Grant at the same time as Butler's departure. With the involvement of Forbes, later in 2012 and into 2013, the group recorded a new album in the Welsh town of Wrexham. The new material featured lyrics composed by Peters over band-written music; Butler still held writing credits on most of the album, with Forbes having contributed on a number of tracks as well, although he played all the album's bass parts. Titled The Journey, the album was released through Cherry Red Records in April 2013, becoming the group's first studio record since 1999. Further performances followed throughout the year, including a month-long North American tour between July and August. Mike Peters left the band in November 2013 at the end of their 19-date Land's End to John O'Groats UK Tour. The band attributed Peters' departure to his inability to commit fully to Big Country, much of his time being devoted to The Alarm and solo projects. Initially, the band intended to continue as a four-piece, sharing lead vocals and returning all the songs to their original keys; Peters had required the songs to be tuned lower to accommodate his deeper voice. However, when they resurfaced in December 2013, they were joined by English singer Simon Hough, who performed most of the lead vocals as well as harmonica and additional guitar. While the status of Hough's membership was not immediately clarified, in a March 2014 podcast, Bruce Watson confirmed that Hough was now the band's fifth member. He also indicated that the group was working on new material, which would involve Hough, for potential future release. On 9 July 2015, the band announced that Derek Forbes would no longer be performing with Big Country, and that all forthcoming gigs would go on with a replacement, Scott Whitley. On 12 November 2021 the band announced that bassist Scott Whitley would be leaving the band to pursue other interests. His replacement is Gil Allan from Dunfermline. I am a little sad about Stuart Adamson's death, because I really loved how he made his guitar sound like bagpipes using an unusual effects pedal. I bought the album The Crossing by Big Country last year at a thrift store, and I must say, it is a great album. Certainly worth checking out! Maybe someone will bring Big Country out of obscurity by making a documentary about them. I'd love to see it.

Let me tell you, hearing Bruce Springsteen cover Keep The Car Running by Arcade Fire with the actual members of Arcade Fire is awesome! A once in a lifetime event that will probably never happen again! As you can tell from the video, the guy who shot this footage and can't stop screaming, "Oh my God!" I was quite surprised to see Bruce and Arcade Fire on the same tour together. You would be too.

Based out of Santa Cruz, CA, in the late Eighties, The Call was an American rock band formed in Santa Cruz, California in 1980. The main lineup consisted of members Michael Been, Scott Musick, Tom Ferrier and Jim Goodwin. The band released nine studio albums over the next two decades before disbanding in 2000. Their 1986 song, "I Still Believe (Great Design)", was covered by Tim Cappello and included in the 1987 film The Lost Boys. The band also achieved significant success with "Let the Day Begin" in 1989 which reached No. 1 on the Billboard U.S. Mainstream Rock chart and was later used as a campaign theme song for Al Gore's 2000 Presidential Campaign. Michael Been's son, Robert Levon Been, is also a rock musician. The original lineup of the Call was Been (lead vocals, guitar), Musick (drums, percussion), Ferrier (guitar) and Greg Freeman (bass). This lineup grew to include Steve Huddleston on keyboards from 1981 through 1983. Goodwin joined the band as keyboardist in 1983, replacing Huddleston. Freeman departed in 1984 with Joe Read taking over bass duties for Scene Beyond Dreams. Both Been and Musick were originally from Oklahoma but didn't meet until independently moving to California. The Call was earlier known as Motion Pictures and served as Phil Seymour's band at that time. Beginning with their self-titled debut in 1982, released by Mercury Records, they went on to produce and release nine studio albums by 2000, though most of these albums have been sadly out of print for decades. The eponymous premiere album was recorded in England, and Been recalled in a 1987 interview that the band was in an exploratory phase at this point. He further noted, "The Call was a compassionate album, but it probably came out as anger." Peter Gabriel liked the band so much that he called them the "future of American music" and asked them to open for him during his 1982–1983 "Plays Live" tour. (Been would eventually perform backing vocals on Gabriel's classic 1986 album So.) Their next album, Modern Romans, released in early 1983, was notable for its political content. It has been later stated, "There was a great deal happening politically—Grenada, Lebanon, or the government saying the Russians are evil and the Russian government probably saying the same about us. That kind of thinking inspired me to write the last lines of 'Walls Came Down'." Garth Hudson of the Band played keyboards on these first two records, whereas Robbie Robertson of The Band and Jim Kerr of Simple Minds also considered themselves under the spell of The Call. The song The Walls Came Down, a New Wave track not unlike what The Cars and Brian Eno were putting out around the same time, was a minor hit and got heavy airplay on MTV. This was followed by Scene Beyond Dreams, released in 1984. Been referred to as the Call's "metaphysical" album. With a strong poetic sense to the lyrics and a change in instrumentation, the change in sound is notable. The band's next album, Reconciled, was recorded in mid-1985. Prior to this, the band had not had a recording contract for two years, due to what Been described as "legal bickering" between the Call's former record label, Mercury, and their management company." However, when a new deal was signed with Elektra Records, the band produced their most commercially successful album to date. Peter Gabriel, Simple Minds' Jim Kerr, Hudson and Hudson's bandmate Robbie Robertson—both of the Band—all performed as guests on the album, which was released in 1986. Several tracks from the album became hits on the Mainstream Rock Chart, and one of these tracks, "I Still Believe (Great Design)" (aka "I Still Believe") appears on the soundtrack of the 1986 film The Whoopee Boys. The following year, "I Still Believe" was covered by Tim Cappello for the film The Lost Boys. In the film, Cappello memorably stole the scene as a shirtless saxophonist belting out the tune on the beach. The song was also covered by contemporary Christian musician Russ Taff on his 1987 self-titled album, and more recently by the Protomen as part of their 2015 cover album. In 2017 Klayton from Celldweller Covered "Too Many Tears" on The Cover Up. In 2018, a cover version of "I Still Believe" appeared in the Paramount television series Waco about the Branch Davidian tragedy. The band released Into the Woods in 1987, which Been referred to as his favorite album. In 1989 they released Let the Day Begin, whose title track reached No. 1 on the US Mainstream Rock chart. Their label under-ordered physical copies of the album and the resultant decline in sales limited their chart position. Red Moon, the group's final studio album for a major label, was released by MCA Records in 1990. The album included background vocals by U2's Bono on the track "What Happened to You". The album took a turn into the new genre of Americana, and was out of step with the shock of grunge music taking over the airwaves. Following the Red Moon tour, the band took an "extended break". The group would reform in the early 2000s, but sadly, lead singer Michael Been died of a heart attack, aged 60, in Belgium in August of 2010. This band has been largely forgotten, but thanks to the Internet and the Music Player Forums, now people will understand their brief moments in American rock music in the Eighties.

I think it’s fair to officially admit that playing Hotel California is a rite of passage for anybody wanting to learn the guitar. I read that Don Felder originally composed the tune on a 12 string electric guitar and a drum machine at his apartment in Malibu. The 12 string heard during the solo was played on a Gibson EDS 1275 with the guitar being fed through a Leslie. Joe Walsh added the unison guitar on his Fender Telecaster through a tweed Fender amp. There are not many songs that are in the Grammy Hall Of Fame that have also won the Grammy for Album Of The Year.