(Listen to this interview here.)
Modesty is a rare commodity in the world of rock and roll, but Delbert McClinton thinks it's an essential element of writing a good song.
"Being a songwriter, you have to know humility, and embrace it," he said in an interview last week. "In songwriting, there's what we around here call good stupid and bad stupid."
The
psychedelic conspirators at Melted Mailbox Records have the lysergic
solution, looking to use your tone arm's needle instead of a
syringe to trip your light fantastic. Later this month the
wax-friendly label will issue the first limited-edition 12-inch
single in its new Melted Mailbox Vinyl Club, a bi-monthly program
that for $70 could be the best pen pal an experimental- music
aficionado could ever have.
First
you hear an old-timey banjo, then a voice like early Dylan, but soon a rousing
chorus, full Americana, kicks in: drums, twin fiddles, and horns that sound
like Van Morrison wrote the charts. That's "Old Dan Tucker," the opening cut on
Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, a
multi-layered tribute not just to Pete Seeger but to "roots" music in general.
The Quad Cities' first summer festival - Gumbo Ya Ya: Mardi Gras in the District - has a moniker that's pretty self-explanatory.
Cheap Trick is back at the top of its game with an all-new CD
this coming Tuesday, Rockford, named for the group’s Illinois hometown.
The Big3 Records release features a handful of songs recorded by
post-punk champion Steve Albini, and the first single, “Perfect Stranger,” was co-written and produced by star-making songwriter Linda Perry of 4 Non Blondes.
