So, what are you listening to these days?

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Well, that's an interesting one for a Sunday afternoon. I actually hope they didn't put this in the program. Both so folks like me could be pleasantly surprised and so some stuff shirts could get unpleasantly offended. In case you're wondering, it's hard rock classic "Poison" by Alice Cooper sung by an operatic tenor with a full orchestra behind him.

 
John Lodge's career spans 7 decades now, beginning in the sixties and now continuing with his new EP Love Conquers All. He's 81 and suffered a stroke last year, but music seems to keep him going. John is best known for being bassist, vocalist, and songwriter with the Moody Blues from 1967 until they called it a day 2018 after the death of drummer Graeme Edge. Here's two tracks from the album. The first is "Love Conquers All" a Christmas song that he released last year and wrote while recovering from his stroke. It is the EP's title track. Footage of John here was shot by his daughter and son-in-law, about whom I will say more below.


Then there's "Whispering Angels", co-written with his son-in-law Jon Davison (so glad they use different spellings of their shared first name), who is the current lead singer of prog legends Yes. Yep, two of my favourite bands have a family connection. Davison also sings on another track on the EP. Geoff Downes, who has played keys in Yes at a couple points in their vast and complex history, plays on the track as well.


These are both are very much classic John Lodge and wouldn't sound out of place on one of the Moody Blues' later albums. Indeed the whole EP sounds like it could be a Moody Blues album with Justin Hayward's (guitarist and the other vocalist and songwriter) tracks removed.
 
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So some days while trying to maximize music I love on cbc, I run into time zone roadblocks where I am faced with several choices I do not wish. My new default is the playlist "Tom Allen presents". Like it a lot.
 
I first heard "Vivo per lei" on Andrea Bocelli's album Romanza many, many years ago. He sang it with Italian pop singer Giorgia. This version has Italian opera (and occasional metal) singer Laura Macri taking the opera part and metal singer Chiara Tricarico of the band Moonlight Haze the pop part. And it's a beautiful version.


This likely came up in my recommendations because I just discovered Tricarico through a video I watched this afternoon. However, I do know Laura as well. Her partner is Mark Jansen, a Dutch metal musician and composer who co-founded bands After Forever and Epica, both of which I am a fan of. Laura normally sings opera (in case you can't tell) but is one of two lead singers in Mark's project MaYaN so has some metal experience as well.
 
I like Julie Nazrellah, although her tastes are a bit conventional. I adore Paulo Pietropaulo, In Concert on Sunday afternoon, Frederika Petit-Homme on Sunday morning Choral Concert. Tom Allen curated "My Music" on Saturday mornings is wonderful, and I am growing very fond of Marianne Newman (Ne'gegah) hosting Saturday afternoon at the opera.

But there's also tons of pop music time, a little bit of jazz, etc.
 
Okay, I thought I had posted this before, but since we are discussing Cynthia Erivo in another thread, here she is from a recent (last year) performance at the Kennedy Centre in Washington. While I knew Cynthia by name, this was basically my intro to her and my mind was suitably blown.


And from the National Memorial Day concert last year.

 
New Cynthia Erivo yesterday!! And it's not from a musical. It's new original pop song from her upcoming solo pop album (she's been working on it since 2023, in between working on Wicked and other projects). She's the lyricist, too.


And from the Grammy Awards' tribute to music legend Quincy Jones, Cynthia singing "Fly Me To The Moon" with the great jazz pianist/keyboardist Herbie Hancock as her accompanist. American songbook, musicals, modern pop. Is there anything this lady can't sing? I wouldn't say no to her taking a shot at rock or metal someday (though she might not want to go there).


And an article from Billboard where Cynthia talks about the single and upcoming album (with a very dramatic picture of the singer, too).

www.billboard.com

Cynthia Erivo Talks ‘Leaning Into Vulnerability’ on Her New Single ‘Replay,’ Teases Upcoming Album

Cynthia Erivo chats with Billboard about the making of her new single 'Replay,' and teases what fans can expect from her upcoming album.
www.billboard.com www.billboard.com
 
Every now and then, YouTube keeps throwing me recommendations and somehow, I don't quite bite. That's been the case for UK singer-songwriter-guitarist Mary Spender. Much of her YouTube output are vlogs about the joys and difficulties of being an indie musician in the 21st century. However, she also put out a lot of music, both covers and her own. And somehow, the fact that Mary put out her debut album last summer slipped by me until a new video from the album came out yesterday. And I liked that song so much, I immediately found the album on Spotify and started listening. Wow. She's got a nice, soft, well-honed voice, plays a mean guitar, and writes very mellow, personal songs. So, the sort of music I would have listened to in my pre-metalhead days. Thing is, I was in an absolutely bottom of the pit mood yesterday, and listening to Mary's album seemed to yank me out of it. Anyhow, the album is title Super. Sexy. Heartbreak. and the latest release from it is "One Kept Secret".


"You Can Have Chicago" is the leadoff track on the album and a nice kickoff it is, too.


And if you like those, Mary has quite nicely posted an audio of the whole album on her channel. And it's on all the major streamers, too, as far as I know. And she sells Vinyl, CD and Cassette (yes, really) in the store on her YouTube channel.

 
In Germany We Don't Say, a podcast by married couple Liam and Valerie Carpenter, all aboot their life in Germany from a comedic pov

They also do short skits on their youtube, around her and him split into 4 different characters, the elderly German, the young German woman, the put upon dour (but with a sardonic wit) German man and his British roomie

a gf an me have stopped watching Love Island, Australia. We got aboot 14 episodes in before we quit --- waaaay too slow and nothing much happening. Trash TV can be fun and enjoyable. This one we gave it a go. We had difficulty with the thick Aussie accents -- for some reason there wasn't CC for everything

So now we are watching something else. Celebrity Bear Hunt, where celebs have to do tasks and those that don't do well are put into the "Bear Pit" where they have 1 hour to escape from Bear Grylls. The shows are quickly paced, lots of comraderie and smiles and hugs and attempts at helping fellow teammates.

Survivorman. Loving this show. Eastern Canadian Les Stroud goes into the wilderness somewhere with no food, no camera crew, and films himself trying to survive. He is one of the firsts to do this type of thing, and some people have imitated his efforts and inventions :3 Love the few shows with his son. And he is also a musician. Has a foraging cooking show.

(omg, Netflix is playing lost. wow. i got so lost in that show that i stopped watching)


Supernatural, then and Now, where two of the Actors of the Show (the one who played God and Gabriel) watch every episode and comment on it and interview some of the people involved. That show was epic, going on FOREVER lol

The Time is Now: a Millennium podcast aboot one of my fav tv series, Millennium, which will never ever happen again or be rebooted because it was one of those shows that was perfect for the actual times it came oot at. Also I love the Irish accent of the host. Smooth and dreamy

Julian Richings is such a fun actor. Perfect as Death

Umm...Hazbin Hotel and Hellava Boss are still making product. Adult, profane, sexxy, funny as heck, heavily LGBT+ friendly, all aboot life in Hell with the machinations of Heaven tossed in. Animated. And it has MUSICAL NUMBERS each episode. Both are available for free view on youtube. Great shipping goes on all around!
 
If the spirit is un sexed ... is something cut out and thus similar to confused genres in myths? Maybe an act ... a put-on instead of putin?

Switches would suggest change and we couldn't abide with that because we'd have different lines ...
 
Just some of my fav tunes

I adore Peter Gabriel. Nuclear creativity, experimented with ideas and sound and narrative tweaks

I first heard this on the City of Angels, which was the US version of Wim Wenders' perfect movie Wings of Desire

Such a journey here, from the depths, slowly seeing more light, then incorporation and surfacing from the totalitarian umwelt


Tom Waits will.always be special to me. A trickster, riffer, fun interviewee and even actor, his art cannot be contained

Full of multitudinous complexities
From Whimsey and Joy, through the sardonic and ironic, even the solemn and brutal
This one speaks to me. The world is full of suffering and all that, still c'mon up to the house and be with me


I think I would enjoy their concerts, the Polyphonic Spree. A huge cast, multiple instruments, humanity cannot be contained


There are a few artists who remind me of each other. Tom Waits and Kate Bush and Tori Amos to me are of a sort. Kate Bush again with her lush music and amazing narratives. Some of her stuff grates on me; her shrieking can get to me lol

This one, Cloudbusting, aboot a certain scientist, Wilhelm Reich, who ran afowl of the US gov't and was pretty much depersoned. Much of his works burned.

And Kate Bush did an amazing song on him
Starring Donald Sutherland, another artist I like

MUSE has a unique genre, Conspiracy Rock, and the following was my intro to them, Knights of Cydonia, nothing to do with Conspiracy but it gobsmacked me like when I watched the film version of Jesus Christ Superstar. I would listen to this endlessly


And pretty much everything by Gay Christian USAian Sufjan Stevens. Chicago I can still listen to again and again -- it is like aural matcha :3
 
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