doych

Did she say Yes Yes Yes?

My gossip-thirsty friends were happy to forward me a post today, reporting Amy Winehouse has checked herself in Rehab. Being I'm a fan, I dug around a little to read for myself. Early posts say she sure did check in, while NME reports the rumors are false and she's sticking to her No No No: " Despite newspaper reports that the singer had entered The Priory rehab clinic, the latest information is that she has locked herself in a London hotel room to recover."

Hmm. The hotel room should do the trick. Maybe she's busy on step 8 of 12: "Make a list of all persons you have harmed, and become willing to make amends to them all." Yes! That will make for a kick-ass new album.

Rehab is for quitters

Amy Winehouse is a bad ass. Her new CD, Back to Black, clearly states she's made it through Step 1 of 12 and has no qualms about ignoring the last 11.

She's British, full of soul, honest and non-apologetic - picture Charles Bukowski crossed with Billie Holiday. Eww that made me shudder. But Amy pulls it off with her mature lyrics and jazzy melodies. This 23 year old white middle-class Jewish girl sounds like she's been singing in smoky jazz clubs for 35 years.

Yeah, so she looks like a malnourished crack head... some guys actually call that sexy. I'll try to stick to music judgement.

Clearly I'm more than satisfied with my latest download purchase.

This is Mellencamp Country

As tired as we are of hearing John Mellencamp's "Our Country" backing Chevrolet Silverado commercials, he's sick of hearing from his fans that he's "sold out."

The songwriter pleads his defense here in an interview with The New York Times.

Love and peace... or else

My sister got married (again). This time she and her new hubby decided on a "cost-effective" wedding. Translation: My mom will pay for food and venue. And that's it. I received the passive-aggressive phone call about a week before the wedding: "So I guess we'll have no music since I haven't hired a DJ." *sigh* Close friends and family know I'm hooked on MP3s and will happily "DJ" an event - or more like "create an ITunes playlist."  While going through my music library, I feel I have to point out some very funny titles, given the nature of the event and the captivating witchiness of my sister. Here's some song titles that gave me a chuckle:

Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Love And Peace Or Else
Love Is Blindness
Many A Mile To Freedom
Hidden Treasure
If You Could Only See
See No Evil
Annie Get Your Gun
Dirty Little Secret
Hips Don't Lie
The Path Of Thorns
I Didn't Mean To Turn You On

and my favorites... "Back Door Man" and "Whipping Boy"

This will pump you up

Or give you nightmares. It's Arnold  Schwarzenegger giving you post-holiday workout encouragement, backed by Journey.

Listen, and Lift.

Purple reigning in Sin City

Prince - live - two nights a week in his Vegas 3121 club. Now that's finally a show for which I'd pull myself away from the craps table. Eye candy for the straight boys are The Twinz, his back-up singer/dancers and official spokespersons.

Disappointment.

I have to set this up.

There’s a musician I absolutely love. Grammy-winning, critic’s darling, all that. Moment I heard her first CD, I thought it redefined the folk genre. Second release? No sophomore slump here. On the third, although darker lyrically, it hit on all cylinders. But on her fourth, she hit the wall in my mind. Songs didn’t have the same edge, and it didn’t do well commercially or critically. Gave it a pass though. Figured, she’s earned enough cred with the previous three.

Until the other day, when I checked out her latest and fifth, and well, I didn’t get it. It was the antithesis of everything she did musically on her first. It was, for lack of a better word, safe. Gone was the dark edge, the moody exploration of relationships past, not to mention the intriguing harmonies and chord progressions I’d not heard before in folk. I’d read she’d gone through some life changes recently, and rationalized to myself that maybe this was the reason. But then I had a thought that I’ve never had before about an actor, artist, musician or athlete:

It’s my fault.

Doesn’t matter if I like it, the performer does what they do for themselves first. They have to. Otherwise, they end up changing their style to fit the audience and compromising the work. I’d been in a groove for those first three CDs and expected more of the same. After all, don’t people naturally prefer what’s comfortable to them? Don’t change things too much. Give them their drink, their TV and their favorite chair.

Which is how I get with music and movies. I make a connection to the work someone does, and like a drug, need more and more of what it is they do in the style they do it. Wise? Probably not. Because after being disappointed over this latest release, I realized that while people hate change, there’s something more important at work here for the artist:

They need change.

If they don’t, forget compromising the work – they die as artists. Like the shark that has to keep swimming or it dies, the artist has to change or they die. The best we can hope for is that we’re in tune with their work for as long as possible, but eventually, they may go in a different direction from where we expect them to go. And there’s not a thing we can do about it.

Nor should we.