Big Leather Couch

One Night Only – Barbra Streisand And Quartet At The Village Vanguard –September 26, 2009 will be released on DVD and DVD/CD Combo Pack as well as Blu-Ray Disc by Columbia Records on May 4.

One Night Only covers the entire experience of Ms. Streisand’s first cabaret performance in 48 years.

The DVD immerses the home viewer in a tiny West Village nightclub, privy to the best sight lines and sound imaginable, to share an exclusive and intimate evening that prompted the New York Times to marvel, "...Ms. Streisand was booked for one night at the Vanguard — legal capacity 123, absurdly small for an artist who has sold over 71 million albums in the United States alone.... But outnumbering the boldface names were two busloads of ticket-lottery winners, ordinary fans from around the world. Some said they had never been able to afford a Streisand ticket before, but on this night they rubbed elbows with Oscar winners, The Secretary Of State and a former president...."

Carrie Rodriguez' new studio album, Love & Circumstance will be released in the US & Canada on Tuesday, via Ninth Street Opus Music. Produced by Lee Townsend (Bill Frisell, Loudon Wainwright III) and featuring her world-class touring band augmented by guest appearances from Buddy Miller, Bill Frisell, Greg Leisz, and Aiofe O’Donovan.

A collection of others songs that she makes hers. Songwriters covered include: John Hiatt (& the rest of his Little Village era crew, Nick Lowe, Ry Cooder, & Jim Keltner), Buddy & Julie Miller, David Rodriguez (her father), M. Ward, Lucinda Williams, Richard Thompson, Sandrine, Gillian Welch & Dave Rawlings, Bonnie Owens & Merle Haggard, Townes Van Zandt, and Hank Williams.

We are arranging to get Ms. Rodriguez to sit on The Couch with us very soon and will be reviewing this new CD next Monday.

MONDAY, April 12, 2010
10pm Eastern; 9pm Central; 8pm Mountain; 7pm Pacific

This week:
TRISTAN CLOPET
SIT ON
THE COUCH

He enrolled at the University of Miami and despite making the dean’s list at one of America’s best private universities, Tristan took a big leap of faith and made music his full time gig. "Why put my life on hold? Why do anything else if this is what I love to do and I think I can make a living at it too?"

Tristan will be sitting on The Couch with me and discussing PURPLE, his second EP, released in early January, a recent nine-city tour, and the continuation of his popular “Living Room Sessions” series, where each week Tristan records a cover of his favorite songs and posts it on his web site, YouTube and MySpace.

I will take your calls at 1.347.633.9400.

The live interactive chat room opens 20 minutes before show time. Follow this link HERE and click on the Chat Now icon.

Remember, unless you take the two minutes to register, you will not be able to participate in the chat room or send me questions to ask Tristan, but you will still hear the show.

So tune in on Monday evening or, you can always listen anytime after the show ends from the player HERE or the one above and you can download to your iTunes, from my iTunes page HERE.

The Lewisburg Patriot Marching Band took 2nd in their grouping on Saturday. There were some 10 schools in their group, so they should be very proud.

I have quite a few photos but will share tomorrow, as there was some RUBY to be seen!

Peace Globes are done...well designed. There is still time for you to do one and participate this Thursday. Hope this works today...

As you may - or may not have noticed, we have not been doing music posts on Monday's for the last month or so.

Well, after the week of music when we were away on the honeymoon, and the overall lack of interest, I decided to take a break.

I do have a couple of new CDs I will be reviewing next Monday for y'all..one a Christmas CD, the other and CD by an band many of you will know.

Barbra Streisand’s album Love Is the Answer - hit No.1 on October 12th on both sides of the Atlantic- a first in her career. This is Streisand’s first studio album in four years - a collection of intimate jazz standards produced by Diana Krall.

Motion City Soundtrack are giving fans a holiday season treat this year when they spend three nights at Chicago’s newest venue – Lincoln Hall – in December. The band will be taking a look back at their seven year career when they perform their first three albums in their entirety over three separate nights – I Am the Movie on the 18th, Commit This to Memory on the 19th and Even if it Kills Me on the 20th. Tickets will go on sale on Friday October 23rd at 12pm and fans will be able to buy a three show pass for $49.99 and a single show ticket for $20. For more information you can visit the band’s web site HERE and the venue’s web site HERE

It was only a matter of time before Slayer's lyrics leapt off the printed page and made their wanton way to the visual medium. The band's discography is gorged with tales of mass murderers, serial sadists and drooling deviants of every stripe - vicious mental cases just begging for a cinematic reception.

Enter Metalocalypse director and big-time Slayer fan Mark Brooks who created a 20-minute DVD titled Playing with Dolls, a 12-episode video-graphic novel that will be included exclusively in Slayer's World Painted Blood Deluxe Edition, out November 3 in tandem with the World Painted Blood Standard Edition. Inspired by the songs on World Painted Blood - in particular, Jeff Hanneman's "Playing With Dolls" from which the horror short takes its title - the film blends elements of animation and still-photography into a visual style similar to that of a graphic novel. A trailer for the short has just been posted at www.slayer.net
The soundtrack for the Playing With Dolls short features clips from all 11 of the songs on World Painted Blood; in addition, the music bed for Episode #7 is taken from "Atrocity Vendor," a new song that is not on the album.

MLB has an interesting way of counting. So, a player caught using performance enhancing drugs the first time gets a 50-day suspension.

But wait kiddies! Even though you are suspended, you can go to the minors for a 'rehab assignment'?????

If the suspension is from Major League Baseball for 50-days, then why should the 'rehab' start before the 50 days are over????

See, last night Manny Ramirez, he of the female hormones, began his rehab assignment at the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate, the Albuquerque Isotopes (named after the Springfield Isotopes of 'Simpsons fame') last evening. Now his 50-day 'suspension' ends on July 3rd, but I guess MLB counts differently.

If you want to make a statement that drugs are a NO-NO, then make a damn statement!

Speaking of MLB, the MLB Players Association announced that Donald Fehr who joined the MLBPA as general counsel in 1977 and was named executive director in 1985, will be stepping down.

Fehr has been a constant on the scene for so long, it will be strange without him. During his tenure the average baseball salary rose from $300,000.00 to $3,000,000.00!

He stymied the implementation of steroid testing for many years. He has been criticized by some for not agreeing to drug testing until 2002.

"He was wrong to see things in terms of civil liberties for the players and not in terms of the overall interests of baseball," Fay Vincent, former Commissioner of the MLB said. " He always said that was your responsibility [the commissioner and the owners]. But I don't want to harp on that as it is just one aspect of an outstanding career."

"If we, I, had known or understood what the circumstances were a little better, then perhaps we would have moved sooner," was Fehr's response.

Fehr presided over a two-day strike in 1985 followed by a 32-day lockout in 1990 and a 7½-month strike in 1994-95 that wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years.

There has been labor peace for the last 14 years of his tenure.

In all, Fehr should be remembered for his determination and desire to get the most possible for his union members.

Did he do it correctly every time? Absolutely not, but in the end, he did it correctly a majority of the time.

Weird Al Yankovic is back with his first track “Craigslist” from his INTERNET LEAKS EP due out later this summer. This is a brand new original track for Al, however, he was able to get The Doors keyboardist, Ray Manzarek to play on it!

The video was shot by Liam Lynch whose credits include MTV’s Sifl & Olly Show, Tenacious D: Pick Of Destiny, music videos for Foo Fighters, No Doubt, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal!

Check it out HERE. Don’t forget to add Al’s widget to all of your personal pages! Find it HERE

For all the latest on Weird Al himself, check out HIS WEBSITE.

LOVE IS THE ANSWER, the new studio album from Barbra Streisand, will be available everywhere on Tuesday, September 29.

The first full-length collection of new studio recordings from eight-time Grammy award winner Barbra Streisand since 2005's Guilty Pleasures, and first new Barbra Streisand album since Live In Concert 2006.

Love Is The Answer provided an opportunity for Streisand to work for the first time with the Grammy-winning Canadian jazz artist Diana Krall (piano) and her quartet (guitar, bass, drums) who brought a refined and sensual poignancy to the album's spare and subtle accompaniments.

Also working with Ms. Streisand is the legendary songwriter ("The Shadow of Your Smile") and Grammy-winning arranger Johnny Mandel who worked with Streisand on her 1993 Back to Broadway album and arranged/co-produced Krall's 1998 Grammy-winning When I Look In Your Eyes.

This one just popped onto my iTunes and I found myself smiling...do NOT ask me why...

LOL...