There are a couple of albums that I consider lost in time.

To me, music does tend to reinvent itself anyway. It’s something like a massive solera system, where it all takes a similar path, filters out and ultimately pours out of the same cask — albeit with different nuances.

One of those albums is Television’s Marquee Moon and particularly the title track. It’s back on top of my playlist these days.

I’m actually not sure how it jumped onto the top of the stack again — although it does that every few years. I’ve been listening to a bit of Wilco lately and there’s something about their guitar work that reminds me of Tom Verlaine, Television’s frontman.

Either way, Marquee Moon was released in 1977, and was quickly dubbed one of the greatest guitar albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine. It doesn’t have screaming licks. It’s simply melodic and beautiful — and inventive.

Were the rock gods less fickle, Verlaine and company would’ve enjoyed greater success, and shared in the acclaim that contemporaries like the Talking Heads, Blondie and others eventually enjoyed.

As we told you in our earlier profile of Verlaine, he did just fine elsewhere. He packed it up and headed to Europe, where he enjoys relative success and where he continues to live and perform.

But whatever his musical path, I’m grateful it started with Marquee Moon, the song and the album.

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There’s just about two more weeks until the performance of The Green Emerald, a rock opera written by Mercury Landing’s Corey J. Feldman.

There are so many really cool layers to this project, including an illustrated storybook by Chris Hingel and live projections of the artwork.

As you may have seen, we here at The Listening Room have been following the progression of this saga, posting pieces of the story over the past few weeks. Be sure to read on to see what’s happening next in this fantastical world Mr. Feldman has so artfully crafted for us. (Here’s the past posts if you need to catch up.)

But hold up! Before you start reading, you should also know that Feldman is trying to raise some money to support the printing of the hardcover storybooks. You can purchase tickets and pledge money towards to the books by visiting this Website.

Feldman says the style of music is influenced by classic rock, jam, jazz, progressive, Latin, world music, and much more. If you’ve ever heard Mercury Landing, then you know the boy’s not afraid to mix up styles!

The Green Emerald performance will take place at 8 p.m Dec. 4th and 5th at the Bowery Poetry Club, located at 308 Bowery in Manhattan.

THE GREEN EMERALD BAND consists of 7 all-star members involved in New York’s vibrant music scene:

Corey J. Feldman (Guitar/Vocals) – www.mercurylanding.com
Kat Rees – (Vocals) – www.myspace.com/katreesmusic
Dan Griffith (Guitar) – www.myspace.com/stiltsmusic
Matt Robbins (Keyboards) – www.myspace.com/mattrobbinsjazz
Nick Hundley (Bass Guitar) – www.myspace.com/linfinity – www.myspace.com/shilparay
John Adamski – (Drums) – www.juliusc.com
Devon Caesar (Narrator)

As a longtime fan of this band, I was very excited to see Metallica play in the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden. And they definitely didn’t disappoint. They played with the same ferocious energy and passion that got me hooked when I first saw them as a teenager. As usual, I had a very sore throat the following day.

Their usual suite of pyrotechnics and flair were on display in the form of laser beams in the dark and fireballs blasting during their epic 80’s song entitled “One”. A new feature to this tour was a set of large coffins that were suspended above the stage and would rotate up and down during certain songs off the new album. Metallica has always been a band which places a heavy emphasis on giving fans a great experience as well as delivering great music.

They played a really good mix of new and old tunes that had longtime fans as well as the newbie fans banging their heads and dancing. I pretty much expect to hear “Enter Sandman” “One” and “Master of Puppets” at every Metallica show. They played those songs very well. Especially “Puppets”, which is my all time fave Metallica song. I was surprised and excited to hear “Fade to Black” (power ballad from the 1984 album “Ride the Lighting”) live for the first time since I first saw them in concert. Frontman James Hetfield rotated between acoustic and electric guitars and perfectly delivered the vocals to do justice to a true Metallica classic.
Other classics “Dyer’s Eve”, “Trapped Under Ice” and “Last Caress” were a few more pleasant surprises that are not usually on the standard ‘Tallica setlist.

The rest of the band—lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, drummer Lars Ulrich, and bassist Rob Trujullio also delivered great performances without any noticeable missed notes or beats. Apparently the concert was on the same day as Kirk Hammett’s birthday as Hammett got doused with several cakes and pies when his band mates gave him an impromptu birthday celebration on stage at the end of the show.

When Hetfield asked the crowd how many people were there to see Metallica for the first time, I was pretty surprised to see a strong contingent of hands go up. It’s nice to see that even after all these years, Metallica is still getting new fans. And deservedly so.

Setlist:
That Was Just Your Life
The End of the Line
Creeping Death
The Shortest Straw
Fade to Black
Broken, Beat & Scarred
My Apocalypse
Sad But True
One
The Judas Kiss
Kirk Solo #1
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Dyers Eve
Kirk Solo #2
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
Encore Jam
Last Caress
Trapped Under Ice
Seek and Destroy

Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Date: Sunday November 15, 2009

Download the show

Last month, on what was the 15th anniversary of his death, NPR dubbed Danny Gatton the “World’s Greatest Unknown Guitarist.”

And with good reason. During a performing and recording career that spanned more than two decades, Gatton earned well-earned acclaim for his virtuoso guitar playing, which blended rockabilly, jazz and blues.

In short, he could just flat-out play.

Gatton had a head start with music: His father, Danny Gatton Sr., was a locally reknown guitarist who gave up music to raise a family — and school his son in the insturment. The younger Gatton needed little prodding.

By his teens, Gatton was playing in local bands around the family’s Washington, D.C., home.  He increasingly gained wide acclaim, playing with a variety of performers and jamming with prominent blues, jazz and rockabilly performers. In later years he would play behind noted performers that included rockabilly crooner Robert Gordon and Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Roger Miller.

But it was his solo work and performances that incresingly gained him acclaim — and respect — in the industry.

In all, Gatton released eight albums before his death in 1994, either as a solo artist or in various ensembles. An additional eight releases of his work were issued posthumously, all of which showcase his remarkable talent.

The tragedy of his death on Oct. 4, 1994, is magnified by the mystery surrounding it. Gatton locked himself in the garage of his Maryland home and shot himself. He left no note or obvious explanation. Friends later suggested he may have suffered from depression.

Months after his death, Gatton was honored at Tramps in New York City, with a three-day musical festival that included performances by musical giants like Les Paul and James Burton — with the proceeds going to Gatton’s wife and daughter.

In 2003, author Ralph Heibutzki also published a Gatton biography, titled “Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny Gatton.” which details both the musical accomplishments of Gatton’s life as well as his lost promise.

If there is a silver lining to his death it is that Gatton left behind a substantial collection of music. Give him a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

(NOTE: This is part of my ongoing series of reports on guitar players who fly under the mainstream radar. Keep checking The Listening Room for future installments of guitar players you should know – JF)

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Sometimes a writer just tells a story the right way, and there’s really no point in trying to tell it differently. Such is the case today with my colleague, columnist Phil Reisman.

In his latest column for The Journal News, Phil talks about singer/songwriter Chip Taylor, a Yonkers native and brother to actor Jon Voight. The news here is Taylor’s latest release, which pays homage to his hometown – the city of hills.

Anyway, here’s Phil’s column about Yonkers boy Chip Taylor:

The story of Yonkers is worthy of a song

To be dismissive about the so-called “city of hills” is to forget that the hills come with deep valleys of disappointment. And that the story of Yonkers is the story of working people who are forever struggling up those steep slopes.

Somebody should write a song about this mythic place.

Actually a well-known somebody by the name of Chip Taylor wrote 11 songs about it and packaged them in a new two-CD record album aptly titled, “Yonkers NY.” (trainwreckrecords.com)

With dark humor, the singer-songwriter perfectly captured the gritty essence of Yonkers in the very first verse of the title track.

Born and raised in Yonkers, New York

It doesn’t matter if you’re tall or you’re short

Sooner or later you’ll be down on your luck

You’ll take a chance just to make a buck

Taylor grew up in the Yonkers of the 1950s when the factories still hummed on Nepperhan Avenue and Getty Square had a movie theater. He was the youngest of three boys. The oldest, Barry, became a geologist. The next in line, Jon, became Jon Voight, the famous movie actor. Yeah, that’s right — Taylor, whose real name is James Wesley Voight, is the uncle of Angelina Jolie.

Taylor achieved early success as a country songwriter for big-time artists. Fooling around one day at a music publishing company in New York, he wrote and recorded “Wild Thing.” When he got home to Yonkers that night, he picked up a guitar and sang it to his brother, Jon, who enthusiastically fell to the living-room floor and declared it was the best song he had ever heard.

In 1966, the primitive, punk-sounding rock tune was a huge hit for The Troggs, a British band, and has since been covered by Jimi Hendrix and many others.

From “Wild Thing,” Taylor went on to the next thing and next thing after that. His biography is extensive. So with “Yonkers NY,” it appears as if he has come full circle with a collection of autobiographical songs. It was a spontaneous creation, he told me.

“The reason is hard to explain because I’m a stream-of-consciousness writer, and I don’t really think that much about what I’m doing until the stuff starts to come out,” he said. “So I didn’t predetermine that I wanted to talk about Yonkers.”

The first to come out was “Charcoal Sky,” which is a beautiful little song about visiting the Nepperhan train station with his father and brothers.

Without that steam boys — there’d be no American dream.

“All of sudden,” Taylor continued, “I was back there and within a week I had written all these songs about my upbringing. So it’s something that I look back on and say, ‘Well I’m proud to talk about it and sing about it.’ “

Years ago, Loudon Wainwright III wrote “Westchester County,” a tongue-in-cheek tribute to country clubs and country day schools. Taylor’s world is one of pawn shops and gin rummy. Indeed, some of Taylor’s songs reflect Yonkers’ darker underside — the lure of street rackets.

“Yonkers people were mostly poor folks in those days,” he said. “If you get a way to get out, it’s very understandable. Not good, not right. But there would be temptations floating around Yonkers, you know, more than there would be in Scarsdale.”

He laughed and then added, “Those guys might get more involved in the corporate kind of stuff.”

Reach Phil Reisman at preisman@lohud.com.

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Word is that The Who will play the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIV next year. They’re obviously not the first rockers to do it: U2, the Stones, Bruce and others have done it before.

But, personally, it feels wrong to me, just like hearing Led Zeppelin on a Cadillac commercial or Bob Seger peddling pickup trucks. Now The Who are just the latest rockers to cash in.

And I guess that’s the way it works these days, when the height of musical integrity a rocker demonstrates is to refuse to lend their music and their likenesses to “Rock Band.”

Maybe I’m just too much of a purist.

Frankly, I don’t watch the halftime shows at the Super Bowl, parpticularly since they’ve become such a hyped-up separate event over the years. And this one seems particularly unappealing.

The Who – or rather Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend – are a shadow of what they once were. Daltrey has lost nearly all of the vocal range he once had and Townsend’s “windmill” guitar playing just seems silly at his advanced age. Sorry, that’s just how I see it.

But that’s what rock has evolved into, and you can’t blame The Who for cashing in the way everyone else has by selling their music to video games and TV commercials.

So, hats off to The Who. But I won’t be watching.

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The results are in….

Last Saturday we posted our first Listening Room readers’ poll, and we asked you to submit your lists of the greatest guitar players of all time. And boy, did you ever respond.

In all, we received votes for more than 140 guitar players, and tallied those up based on the number of votes each received.

Topping the list was Jimi Hendrix, who won easily.

Hendrix was in very good company, of course. Here’s the top 15 guitarists as voted by you:

1 – Jimi Hendrix
2 – Jeff Beck
3 – Stevie Ray Vaughan
4 – Eric Clapton
5 – Carlos Santana
6 – Eddie Van Halen
7 – Duane Allman
8 – Django Reinhardt
9 – Tom Morello
10 – Mark Knopfler
11 – BB King
12 – John Frusciante
13 – Buddy Guy
14 – Derek Trucks
15 – Pete Townsend

Then we had a batch of guitarists who just missed the top tier:

• Stevie Vai
• Les Paul
• John McLaughlin
• Jorma Kaukonen
• Slash
• Gary Moore
• Jack White
• Jerry Garcia
• Trey Anastasio
• Wes Montgomery
• Kirk Hammett
• Prince
• Warren Haynes
• The Edge
• Tony Iommi

Then there’s the category we’ll call Honorable Mention: Guitar players who received multiple votes but fell just under the top two levels of vote getters:

• Jonny Greenwood
• Angus Young
• Richard Thompson
• Lee Ritenour
• Steve Morse
• Joe Satriani
• Alan Holdsworth
• Jimmy Page
• Chuck Berry
• Jimmy Herring
• Chet Atkins
• James Burton

Now, here are some observations: Considering how many names of guitar players were submitted, we were surprised that no one put any of these musicians on their lists (in alphabetical order):

Rick Derringer
Robben Ford
Peter Frampton
Robert Fripp
John Lee Hooker
Alvin Lee
John Mayer
Ronnie Montrose
Ted Nugent
Carl Perkins
Joe Perry
Randy Rhoads
Tom Verlaine

You can definitely add Elvin Bishop and Ry Cooder to that list as well. And we were equally surprised that these following guitarists didn’t get more votes (again, in alphabetical order):

Larry Carlton
Jonny Greenwood
Kirk Hammett
Eric Johnson
Jimmy Page
Les Paul
Joe Satriani
Richard Thompson
Stevie Vai
Jack White

Either way, thanks to all who participated. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We’ll also be doing more readers’ polls in the coming weeks. We’ll pick a category in a week or two and put it out there.

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This acorn didn’t fall far from the tree — but he certainly rolled in his own direction.

Last week we told you about Murali Coryell’s new album, Sugar Lips, and his performance at the Towne Crier Café in Pawling.

Now we add him to our growing list of Guitar Players You Should Know — where he firmly belongs.

Coryell comes from solid pedigree: He is the son of jazz-fusion guitar legend Larry Coryell, and the brother of jazz guitarist Julian Coryell.

He grew up surrounded by some of the biggest names in music, from Carlos Santana and Jimi Hendrix, to Miles Davis and Jack Bruce. Coryell says he initially shunned the music industry — how does one follow in such giant footsteps?

But when he discovered blues he found his own voice.

“I had to find  my own style,” Coryell told me last week. “Everybody, they kind of expect you to do what your dad does.”

“It was incredibly burdensome and pressured,” he said. “I remember being so stressed out with the pressures of all that and feeling like potentially you’re a failure if you don’t do this. But it was when I fell in love with the blues and decided like, you know what? This is something that regardless of whether I succeed or don’t succeed, I have to do this, and this I can do. It wasn’t this impossible thing.”

And he’s begun building his own legacy. Sugar Lips, his sixth album, is due for release in the coming days, and highlights both his accomplished guitar playing as well as a surprisingly soulful voice.

Of course, Murali Coryell doesn’t entirely shun his father’s fame. The elder Coryell joins him on the new album, as does blues great Joe Louis Walker, a longtime inspiration.

The results are solid, and for any fan of modern electric blues it’s as close to a must-have CD as you’ll come across.

After all, at this rate Coryell won’t stay under the radar for long.

(NOTE: This is part of my ongoing series of reports on guitar players who fly under the mainstream radar. Keep checking The Listening Room for future installments of guitar players you should know – JF)

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We’ve gotten over 100 players nominated for the Listening Room readers poll of greatest guitar players – and we’re looking for more.

As we told you a few days ago, we’re doing a less-than-scientific list of our readers’ choices for the greatest guitar players of all time. We’re not asking for rankings: Every guitar player mentioned on your list counts as one vote. The player with the most votes at the end gets ranked by the Listening Room, and we’ll also give you a list of runners-up and honorable mentions based on your votes.

Anyway, send in your lists of 5 to 10 guitar players, in no particular order, and we’ll tally them up. Don’t worry about genre, past or present, alive or dead: They’re all guitar players in our book.

We’ll post the results on Thursday, and we’ll follow up with other polls.

We’ll take entries in the comments section below, on Twitter (https://twitter.com/jfitzgibbon or  http://twitter.com/dianacostello) or you can emai jfitzgib@lohud.com or dcostello@lohud.com.

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The thing about music is everyone has an opinion and no one is necessarily wrong – sort of.

Nowhere is this more evident than with guitar players. Everyone has their favorites, across genres, styles and technique. Take Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 greatest guitarist, which was compiled in 2003. There’s an argument at every entry.

Is Chuck Berry really a better guitar player than Eddie Van Halen? No, but he was a more influential guitar player. The one that fueled an argument at the office yesterday was Jack White vs. Slash. Is White more creative, influential and innovative than Slash? Of course. But is he techinically a better guitar player than Slash? Not close, in my view.

So let’s start some new debate. What do our readers think? Let’s see if we can’t put together the Listening Room’s Greatest Guitar Players of All Time as determined by you, the reader.

We’ll take entries here in the comments section, on Twitter (https://twitter.com/jfitzgibbon or  http://twitter.com/dianacostello) or you can emai jfitzgib@lohud.com or dcostello@lohud.com.

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Murali Coryell spent years shunning his legacy.

With an affinity for languages, he toyed with the idea of becoming a translator or an academic.

Anything, he thought, but to become a musician and toil in the shadow of his father’s greatness. Because Larry Coryell is a veritable legend, a founder of jazz-fusion guitar who counted Jimi Hendrix, BB King, Buddy Guy and others as contemporaries and friends.

It proved to be an inescapable legacy for Murali Coryell — and something he ultimately came to firmly embrace.

“It was incredibly burdensome and pressured,” he said this week. “I remember being so stressed out with the pressures of all that and feeling like potentially you’re a failure if you don’t do this.”

“But it was when I fell in love with the blues and decided like, ‘You know what? This is something that, regardless of whether I succeed or don’t succeed, I have to do this.’ It wasn’t this impossible thing.”

Murali Coryell has found his own niche in music. A talented blues guitarist in his own right, he is also gifted with a soulful voice he says was inspired by Motown vocalists like WilsonPickett, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding.

He’ll put those talents on display on Saturday, when he takes the stage at the Towne Crier Cafe in Pawling. The show comes 10 days before the scheduled release of Sugar Lips, his latest album and sixth overall since 1995.

“It just represents artistic growth,” Coryell says of the record. “I really kind of went for it and took a chance and it worked. It totally paid off.”
Sugar Lips represents several departures for Coryell. He shared songwriting duties for the first time, and he threw himself into the Nashville recording scene, “ a place I didn’t know before.”

But he was so committed to the project that the took out a second mortgage on his home in the outskirts of Woodstock to fund it.

The album is also deeply personal, paying homage to his recently deceased mother with the track ‘Mother’s Day,’ while also embracing the music he grew up surrounded with. And he grew up with plenty.

Carlos Santana and former Cream bassist Jack Bruce both lived with the Coryells when he was a youngster. Jimi Hendrix once held him backstage at the Filmore East when he was a baby.

“I remember Miles Davis gave me a $100 bill for my tenth birthday,” he recalled. “I didn’t even realize quite who they all were. I just knew they were really important when I was a kid. I just knew they were really important people.”

None more so than his father, who plays on Sugar Lips, as does blues great Joe Louis Walker, a significant musical influence and mentor for the younger Coryell.

Father and son, of course, have recorded together before. Coryell’s third album, in fact, was The Coryells, a collaboration with his father and younger brother, Julian Coryell, an accomplished jazz guitarist himself.

The family’s musical pedigree dates even farther back: Carol Bruce, Coryell’s grandmother, was a noted Broadway singer and actress.

“The bar was raised very high,” Coryell said. “I looked at that and  I said, ‘Okay, I have to try to do some great things here and make a mark.’ Carve your own thing.”

Now 40, Murali Coryell has become his own man, even as he remains very much his father’s son.

He credits blues music with providing the glue that brought those two concepts together — it became his “thing” within what is essentially the family business.

“For me, the trick and the key is to be able to be true to the spirit of the music while still trying to create something new,” he said. “Because if it’s not allowed to grow, then it’s just going to end up in a museum, and that’s not where it belongs. It’s living, breathing  music.”

Today, he’s far removed from the young man who feared his father’s musical greatness.

And Sugar Lips, with its polish and musical maturity, could very well push Murali Coryell closer to his own burgeoning legacy.

“I feel like I just did my best work and I’m proud of everything I’ve done before,” he said. “I feel like even my best stuff is ahead of me. It just feels really, really good to do what you love.”

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Listen to him play.

Yes, the name is ridiculous and the gimmick is ludicrous – something seemingly drawn from an unhealthy fascination with Styx’ “Mr. Roboto” or the Jet Jaguar character in the Godzilla B-movies.

But just listen to Buckethead play, because behind the mask is bonafied guitar genius.

(photo courtesy of last.fm.com)

Buckethead is the stage persona of Brian Carroll, a California-born guitar prodigy best known to mainstream audiences as the man who took over lead guitar for Guns N Roses in 2000.

But unbeknownst to many music fans is that Buckethead has a massive resume of solo recordings, collaborations and movie scores. He released his first solo effort, Bucketheadland, in 1992, and had his most commercially successful solo release in 1999 with Mosters & Robots.

In all, he’s recorded 28 solo albums – including three this year – and has appeared on dozens of other artists’ releases. In addition to his Buckethead solo work, he records under the name Death Cube K, an anagram of Buckethead.

He began playing at age 12, and quickly developed as an accomplished guitarist under the tutelage of several music teachers. He certainly took to the instrument, developing a playing style that blends classical guitar techniques with fusion, jazz and heavy metal.

In 1992, he launched his recording career with Praxis, the first of several bands and side projects that Buckethead has launched over the years, augmenting his solo work.

But he remains an elusive and mysterious figure, guarding his identity and appearance in any public forum. Reportedly, he once missed out on a chance to join Ozzy Osbourne’s band at Ozzfest because he refused to perform without his trademark bucket and mask.

And the Buckethead character is something he takes a long way. The story he’s built around the persona is as bizarre as the costume: That he grew up abused on a farm and was forced to live in a chicken coop.

The truth is more novel, according to noted music writer Kurt Loder, who profiled Buckethead in a 2002 piece in mtv.com:

Nobody much liked the 1988 fright flick “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers.” After 10 years, this slasher franchise was pretty much played out. (Even though it’s still with us today!) But Brian Carroll was inspired by the film. He went right out after seeing it and bought a Michael Myers-like white mask. Then, that night, as he was eating from a bucketful of take-out fried chicken, another inspiration struck. He described it in a 1996 interview with Guitar Player magazine: “I was eating it, and I put the mask on and then the bucket on my head. I went to the mirror. I just said, ‘Buckethead. That’s Buckethead right there.’ It was just one of those things. After that, I wanted to be that thing all the time.”

Whatever the mystique, the man undoubtedly oozes talent. He’s not only mastered the guitar styles of his childhood guitar heroes, he’s taken it to the next level. His techno-laced shows are a multi-media experience; part concert, part performance art. And his prodigious touring and recording schedules have helped build a cult-like fan base.

And why not? Gimmick aside, Buckethead plays like no one else can.

(NOTE: This is part of my ongoing series of reports on guitar players who fly under the mainstream radar. Keep checking The Listening Room for future installments of guitar players you should know – JF)

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It’s hard to envision a better night of music than a Keb’ Mo’ show, particularly if blues is your thing.

Or even if it isn’t.

The California-born blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and storyteller is a bluesman of the old school. Don’t think his music’s dated — he’s as improvisational a musician as you’ll find. But he’s cut from the blues troubadour mold, and is as engaging a storyteller as he is a talented guitarist.

You don’t have to take it from me: See for yourself. The Grammy-winning bluesman, born Kevin Moore, is scheduled to perform at the Tarrytown Music Hall on Friday, and it’s certainly a Listening Room-recommended show.

As we told you in our profile of him earlier this year, Keb’ Mo’s been around for quite a while and won plenty of well-earned acclaim. It’s not too man years ago that he was playing small venues — he played the Bayou Restaurant in  Mount Vernon not too many years back.

Now he’s worked his way up, thanks to a remarkable stage show, a blend of traditional and modern blues, and an engaging stage personality that was, fortunately for him, rewarded with his Grammy Award honors.

Like I said, go see for yourself. You won’t be disappointed.

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Leave it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to put on a show.

Last night marked the first of a two-night stand at Madison Square Garden to commemorate the Rock Hall’s 25th anniversary. By all accounts it was a rousing success, with legendary performers like Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, John Fogerty and Crosby, Stills and Nash – and an army of others – sharing the stage.

The highlights included Springsteen sharing the stage with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave guitar wiz Tom Morello (below), who we profiled for you here in the Listening Room this summer.

(photo by AP/Henry Ray Abrams)

The second show is tonight, and should be equally memorable.

Here’s Rolling Stone magazine’s rundown of last night’s show and highlights, part of the music sheets excellent curtain-to-curtain coverage of the event at the World’s Most Famous Arena:

• Jerry Lee Lewis reminds the crowd of rock & roll’s ’50s roots by settling in at a white baby grand for “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”
• Crosby, Stills and Nash add another layer of perfect harmony when James Taylor joins in on “Love the One You’re With.” The capper: one of many awe-inspiring guitar solos by Stephen Stills.
• Bonnie Raitt joins CSN for her own “Love Has No Pride,” and later tells the press, “To go back in my catalog and do something I rarely do live was angelic for me.”
• CSN break into “Midnight Rider” by the Allman Brothers on the anniversary of Duane Allman’s death. It’s a poignant moment, followed by another: Jackson Browne hits the stage to perform “The Pretender.”
• Paul Simon invites David Crosby and Graham Nash back onstage for very special reason: to honor “a dear friend of mine” who “was the first person to ever have a benefit concert here at Madison Square Garden — it’s called the Concert for Bangladesh — and it’s a man who I really loved and admired greatly, George Harrison.” The song: “Here Comes the Sun.”
• Paul Simon shouts out a pair of New York City neighborhoods when he invites Dion DiMucci and Little Anthony and the Imperials to the stage.
• Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s voices mingle on “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The pair throw their arms around each other at the conclusion of “The Boxer.” Will the U.S. see this reunion again? Garfunkel admits their recent shows together “were a lovely falling back together again” but they have “no such plans,” after their set.
• Stevie Wonder turns a technical difficulty into a hilarious quip: “Aw, shit … stuff happens, you know what I’m saying?” and changes his set before it even gets going to kick off with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind.” He later pays homage to Michael Jackson with a stunning “The Way You Make Me Feel.”
• Smokey Robinson emerges for a loose, warm rendition of “Tracks of My Tears.” Moments later, John Legend arrives onstage to pay homage to Marvin Gaye with “Mercy, Mercy Me.” Not enough? B.B King is up next, earning Stevie’s praise as “the king of blues for every city in the world” with “The Thrill is Gone.”
• Sting strides onstage popping the bassline to “Higher Ground,” and the song morphs into “Roxanne” and back again.
• Two words: Jeff Beck. The guitar legend joins Wonder for “Superstition” and breaks into an otherworldly solo on the break, flinging his bare right hand at the strings and tapping away.
• Bruce Springsteen hits the stage with his famous plea, “Is there anybody alive out there?” He gives even himself a jolt with guest Sam Moore, who he praises as “one of the all time great bandleaders.”
• Springsteen welcomes John Fogerty for “Fortunate Son” and a pair of sweet covers: “Proud Mary” and “Pretty Woman.”
• The E Street Band make their own Wall of Sound as Darlene Love joins Bruce and the gang for “A Fine, Fine Boy” and “Da Doo Ron Ron.” “We’re in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame now,” Springsteen exclaims.
• Tom Morello wah-s out a bone-crunching solo on a mind-blowing cover of “London Calling” with the E Street Band that nearly outdoes his earlier heroics on “The Ghost of Tom Joad.”
• Springsteen delivers a brief and hilarious speech about how New Jersey and Long Island were once a connected landmass as a way of introducing the night’s final very special guest: Billy Joel. E Street keeps cranking through “You May Be Right,” “Only the Good Die Young” and Joel’s hometown anthem “New York State of Mind.”
• Six hours after Tom Hanks took the stage to open the show, Springsteen brings the house down with “Born to Run” and reluctantly leaves after wringing the last possible “higher” out of “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” “That’s rock & roll!” he exclaims.

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The myth has persisted that the Allman Brothers’ classic album Eat a Peach was named in honor of Duane Allman, who was killed when he drove his Harley-Davidson into a truck – presumably a peach truck.

The story’s not true. The title came from a comment Allman made to a reporter when asked what he was contributing to the peace movement. His reply was “there ain’t no revolution, it’s evolution. But every time I’m in Georgia I eat a peach for peace.”

The ultimate tragedy is that Allman did, indeed, die in the wreck after striking a flat-bed lumber truck. That was 38 years ago today, when Allman, who was just shy of his 25th birthday, was at the pinnacle of his already brilliant career.

(photo courtesy of rollingstone.com)

The Allman Brothers Band had just released At the Filmore East, their legendary live album, when Duane was killed on Oct. 29, 1971. The prior year, Allman was invited into the studio by Eric Clapton, contributing to Derek and the Dominos classic album, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. The Clapton/Allman collaboration makes the album one of the most enduring rock masterpieces of all time.

Unfortunately, it was then, at the height of his success and acclaim, that Allman died.

When it was released in 1972, Eat a Peach included some of Duane Allman’s last recorded tracks, which had been put down in the studio during the early stages of the album. The band, of course, would go on with brother Greg Allman and guitarist Dickey Betts.

Fortunately, Duane Allman’s own work remains available to fans today. It certainly stands the test of time.

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Guitar Player magazine once called this Texas guitar slinger “a virtual deity – a living legend.”

Because while his kid brother may have stolen the spotlight, Jimmie Vaughan is as genuine a guitar icon as has ever come along in modern blues.

He is, in short, the real deal.

(photo courtesy of explorechicago.org)

The onetime co-founder of The Fabulous Thunderbirds and big brother to the legendary Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan has carved out an impressive career among the era’s greatest blues musicians.

He got his start in his hometown of Dallas, but relocated to the music hub in Austin with his band, Texas Storm, formed in 1969. The band even helped launch Stevie Ray’s career — he played bass for the Storm at one point.

The band quickly won over fans and critics alike, with Jimmie’s soulful blues leading the way. He developed a unique style, belting out traditional blues that often carried a hint of rockabilly, rhythm & blues and country.

His big break came when he formed The Fabulous Thunderbirds with singer Kim Wilson. They became the house band for blues club owner Clifford Antone, and started to make a name for itself as a gritty blues band.

The band would eventually release six albums, starting with their self-titled debut, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, in 1979. Their success continued to build, highlighted by the release Tuff Enuff in 1986, perhaps their most commercially successful album.

However, by 1989 Jimmie was running ragged after years on the road. That year, the TBirds released their sixth studio album, Powerful Stuff. It would be his last new release with the band.

“I had just burnt the candle at both ends too long and I just wanted to go home,” he told mnblues.com in a 2002 interview. “I wanted to get off the road.”

And he did – heading right into the studio. The break allowed Jimmie to finally record with his brother. The two teamed up for Family Style, their first full-length recording together. It would be their only joint effort: Before the album was even released Stevie Ray was killed in a helicopter crash after a Wisconsin blues show.

Jimmie Vaughan was devastated, but would continue to do what the Vaughan brothers always did best: Play blues. He released his first solo album, Strange Pleasure, in 1994, and would go on to record three others, the most recent being 2007’s On the Jimmy Reed Highway.

He continues to tour and even worked on a tribute album to his brother, who remains an iconic figure in the realm of electric blues. And Jimmie’s right there with him.

Because you shouldn’t sell big brother Jimmie Vaughan short — the man’s got chops.

(NOTE: This is part of my ongoing series of reports on guitar players who fly under the mainstream radar. Keep checking The Listening Room for future installments of guitar players you should know – JF)

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By Jack Alcott
Listening Room music critic

Formed in 1983, The Flaming Lips cut their teeth playing Oklahoma City’s underground punk and new wave clubs, gradually  evolving into one of the most experimental and original bands on the national scene.

With 2002’s “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” they burned their way onto the airwaves with memorable trance tunes like “Do You Realize?,” their first single.  Since then, the Lips have won several Grammy Awards, including two for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

“Embryonic” the group’s 12th album, follows up on 2006’s critically hailed “At War with the Mystics,” and was recorded in Fredonia, N.Y.,  and Oklahoma City.

The Lips are well-know on the concert circuit now for artsy and outrageous live performances that often include various pyrotechnics and other special effects — such as frontman Wayne Coyne singing from inside a clear plastic bubble lofted  above concertgoers on a sea of upraised hands.

The Okie eccentrics’ latest venture into the musical nethersphere does not disappoint. From the opening track, “Convinced of the Hex,” Coyne’s vocals ride high above an electric storm of ambient bleats, electronic honks and buzzy explosions, all somehow held together by airy melodies and wave upon wave of fuzzed-out guitar, deranged synthesizer and Kliph Scurlock’s crazed, propulsive drumming.

Coyne’s voice alternately soars, croons, pleads and intones over a wash of harmonies that lend the music an otherworldly beauty.

Clearly these guy’s are descendants of Meddle-era Pink Floyd, early ‘70s Amon Düül, The Moody Blues and San Francisco’s much darker Tuxedomoon during that band’s “Half Mute” days, circa 1980.  All with a megadose of Eno.

Interesting word combinations are as important to Coyne as droning chord changes, and his writing takes on a kind of trippy poetry with titles like “Gemini Syringes” and “Silver Trembling Hands.”

A little bit of whimsy goes a long way, though, and Coyne does sometimes overdo it — but so what? The passion is there and he’s having fun — and so will fans.

About midway through the CD, the Lips dig into “The Ego’s Last Stand” with some muscular guitar riffs that make you wish the band had injected more rhythm and blues into the mix.

Back in the early ‘80s when they were just gaining an audience, the other great underground band in Oklahoma City was The Fortune Tellers, led by the brothers Basile and Miho Kolliopoulos, two Greek expatriates who somehow managed to play the most snarling, overdriven electric blues and hypnotic R&B swamp-raunch this side of a Mississippi roadhouse (think Fat Possum records on ouzo and meth).

Well, The Fortune Tellers have recently reformed and Coyne & Crew could take a lesson in grit  from their Greek-Okie peers.

Maybe on their next galactic outing.

This one is definitely for all my animal activists out there.

A special Halloween concert will be taking place from 7-9 p.m. Oct. 29 at Kenny’s Castaways in New York City to benefit Farm Sanctuary, an organization devoted to ending cruelty to farm animals.

On the bill are the musical acts HERE, Athena Reich, and Debra from Devi. Farm Sanctuary President and Co-founder Gene Baur will also be on hand throughout the night.

The show is 21+ and costs $10. Kenny’s is located at 157 Bleecker St., between Sullivan and Thompson Streets.

The economy may still be tanking, but you wouldn’t know it from the numbers being reported by the music industry.

USA Today says gross revenue from some big tours are on a par with last year, while attendance at major shows is up slightly. The newspaper says fans may be going to concerts as an escape from their daily struggles, or avoiding expensive vacations and taking in music shows instead.

Whatever the reason, the top-10 list of highest-grossing shows for the year is led by country star Kenny Chesney, and includes both new up-and-coming performers like the Jonas Brothers as well as legendary artists like Paul McCartney.

(AP photo/Harry Scull Jr.)

It’s actually surprising what artists aren’t on this list. U2, for instance, is still on the road, so those numbers may not yet be complete. Then again, there are also some surprises.

Here’s USA Today’s top-10 list. Decide for yourself:

1 – Kenny Chesney – $57.6 million

2 – Elton John & Billy Joel – $55.8 million

3 – Beyonce – $41 million

4 – Jonas Brothers – $36.7 million

5 – Paul McCartney – $32 million

6 – Dave Matthews Band – $31.1 million

7 – Coldplay – $30 million

8 – Idols Live – $23 million

9 – Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band – $22 million

10 – Fleetwood Mac – $21.1 million

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Paul Carrack is really more than just the guy who replaced Jools Holland in Squeeze.

Although Carrack’s soulful vocals on “Tempted” forever linked him to the group’s legacy, he’s actually an accomplished and prominent musician, singer and songwriter in his own right.

So what have we lost and now found from Carrack?

That would be “I Need You,” a Motown-inspired love song off of Carrack’s second solo album, Suburban Voodoo, released in 1982.

To be honest, I don’t know how the song got in my head. But I ended up scouring the web for the music to it so I could learn to play it on the guitar.  Found the lyrics, but not the music, so I’ll have to do it by ear.

It’s just a catchy song. The video got some airplay on MTV at the time, and I still have the vinyl album.

Carrack, as I said, was farmiliar as the voice behind Squeeze’s “Tempted,” but he was already well-known for his time with Ace, having written that band’s debut hit, “How Long.” He also played with Roxy Music before landing in Squeeze.

He was also the voice of Mike + the Mechanics, the group put together by Genesis founding member Mike Rutherford.

Carrack has spent the bulk of his time since as a session musician and collaborating with other artists, while maintaining his own solo career. He’s built quite a resume.

But somehow I keep humming that simple little tune in my head.

Listen to it yourself:

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I know this sounds extreme, but as I sit here listening to the music of the late Justin Veatch, a 17-year-old Yorktown boy who died of an accidental drug overdose last year, I absolutely am covered with goosebumps and am fighting back the tears.

As you could imagine, a lot of CDs grace my desk here at LoHud. And most of them are very good—the caliber of local musicians here in the Lower Hudson Valley really is astounding.

But there is something about Justin’s music that really strikes a chord.

Before his death, Justin had recorded six original songs under the name of his band, The Ivoryton Piano Factory. He planned to release his first album, “Permagrin,” but passed away before he could see it through.

His father, however, started the Justin Veatch Fund and committed to finish his son’s dream CD.

The result — “Permagrin: The Music of Justin Veatch by The Ivoryton Piano Factory and Friends” — is now available, with all proceeds going to support music scholarships for college-bound students pursuing a music education. The fund awarded its first scholarship in June.

There is undoubtedly a certain melancholy to Justin’s songs, which were salvaged from his home studio. The lyrics are powerful and mature: “Hey mom and dad, come look at this photograph. Even though it’s black and white there was so much color in our eyes.” (How could a parent hear that and not just melt inside?)

In addition to Justin’s own recordings, numerous other artists have contributed to the CD by covering his songs. There are 14 tracks in all on the disk.

Personally, I enjoy the originals best. Justin felt a strong connection to his music, and that comes across quite clearly in each of the songs. May he rest in peace…

Listen to some of the tracks on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/theivorytonpianofactory

Goodbye Bruce, Hello Jon.

Just weeks after Hall of Fame rocker .html” target=”_blank”>New York Daily News is reporting that another famed Jersey rocker, Jon Bon Jovi, will open up the new stadium with his own show next year.

It certainly seems to make sense: If Bruce is the king of New Jersey rock, then Bon Jovi is certainly the prince.

(photo courtesy of the Associated Press/Jeff Zelevansky)

Obviously, the football Giants and Jets are still playing out the season at the old stadium. But Springsteen’s shows were slated to be the last performances there. And it was quite a send-off.

The NY tabloid says the Bon Jovi show will be sometime in the spring, but no confirmation or dates yet.

According to the Giants Stadium website, the new $1.4 billion field, which will have a capacity of 82,500, is due to be completed on Aug. 1, 2010, and will house both the Giants and Jets games for quite a few seasons to come.

No doubt Springsteen will hardly be a stranger to the new venue, and I’d bet a couple of dollars that if the Bon Jovi show gets off you could very well see the Boss pop up on stage at some point.

But first thigns first: Let’s see if the gig happens.

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If innovation is the measure of a great guitar player, then Eric Krasno should be top of the heap.

The jam-crazed axeman for Soulive has delved into every musical genre from rock and jazz, to hip-hop, reggea and funk — and mastered all of them.

And the beauty of it is that he’s just getting warmed up.

(photo courtesy of nuvo.net)

Soulive grew out of a 1999 jam session, when brothers Alan and Neal Evans invited Krasno to their Woodstock, N.Y. home. The session was released later that year as the EP “Get Down!” The trio knew they were on to something special.

“The more we played together, the more we knew where we wanted to go with the music,” Krasno told LAist.com in a 2007 interview. “We wanted to fill in all these different influences. Over the years we threw in all the hip-hop stuff, and I mean we’ve gone everywhere with it.”

Soulive’s first full-length release, Turn It Out, came several months later. Then they hit the road.

The core of the band — Krasno on guitar, Alan Evans on drums and Neal Evans on keyboards — proved both its musical chemistry as well as its knack for improvisation and innovation. And something else was happening: Soulive was fast becoming one of the premier jam-based live acts.

In all, the band recorded eight albums — including this year’s Up Here — not counting a compilation release and a 2003 reissue of Turn It Out. They’ve also scored big gigs, including as the opening act for legendary rockers like the Rolling Stones and the Dave Matthews Band.

Krasno also continues to play with the band Lettuce, while he and the Evans brothers continue to push the envelope with Soulive. They’ve played with different lineups and different genres over the years, including the use of a horn section and the addition of reggea singer Toussaint.

Currently back to the original trio, Soulive remains a true collaboration. But Krasno remains its most intriguing component, with a masterful blend of playing styles that lends itself perfectly to Soulive’s jam-based performances.

There’s no telling what he’ll do next. But it’ll be a hell of a lot of fun to listen.

(NOTE: This is part of my ongoing series of reports on guitar players who fly under the mainstream radar. Keep checking The Listening Room for future installments of guitar players you should know – JF)

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Corey J. Feldman, founder of the NYC-based band Mercury Landing, is in the process of creating a rock opera. Kindly, he has agreed to share a new piece of it each week with us here in the Listening Room.

“The Green Emerald,” as the opera has been named, is almost three years in the making. An illustrated storybook will also accompany the performance of the opera, which will take place at 8 p.m Dec. 4th and 5th at the Bowery Poetry Club, located at 308 Bowery in Manhattan.

Below we have the sixth installment, entitled “Wonder in Aliceland.” Click here for all previous entries. Enjoy!

VI – “Wonder in Aliceland”

These be the thoughts,
The shaded dreams he’d find,
Buried deep within,
King Hania’s inner mind.
He believed he was an idol,
For children all around,
As his face was seen on TV,
But the truth would soon be found.

“I think the blues will always be around,” Johnny Winter once said. “People need it.”

Amen to that. And the beauty of Johnny Winter is that he does his part to keep the blues alive. The legendary blues man has been cranking out electric blues for decades, and continues to bring his show on the road.

He’ll do just that on Saturday, when he takes the stage at the Irvington Town Hall Theater.

Winter, the older brother of multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter, is all about guitar blues. He once said he’d just as soon spend the night watching acoustic blues as he would be playing it. Thankfully, he spends a lot of time playing it.

As we told you in our recent Listening Room profile of the ranchy-voiced guitar slinger, Winter grew up playing music with his kid brother. The two still tour as a unit, and still get as much of a kick out of their music as they did as kids.

Perhaps Johnny never got the acclaim that other blues guitarists got, but he’s certainly been true to his calling. And blues fans and music critics have been tuned in to his talent since the 1970s.

Our recommendation is to go out and give him a listen. He never disappoints on stage.

Check out the details at the Irvington Town Hall Theater website.

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When artists like the Sex Pistols and Joan Jett both cover your song, you know you’ve pretty much come up with a classic.

And “Roadrunner” is just that.

Jonathan Richman’s catchy two-chord tune is rock and roll simplicity at its best — and has the staying power of any rock anthem.

This is one of those tunes you turn up when it comes on the radio. And that’s what happened: I was driving home after working late the other night and it came on, putting the melody into my head for the past three days.

Richman first recorded the song with the Modern Lovers in ’72, and released it in ‘75. It remains part of his repertoire on stage.

Don’t get me wrong, he’s done a heck of a lot more than the one song — he’s recorded over a dozen albums and he’s hardly a one-hit wonder. He also scored the soundtrack for the 1998 Farrelly Brothers hit flick, “There’s Something About Mary.” (He appears throughout the flick and that’s him getting shot at the very end).

But whatever his resume and his musical accomplishments, I just keep coming back to “Roadrunner.” It’s just one heck of a song.

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Jim Morrison once called Blue Cheer “the single most powerful band I’ve ever seen.”

They were. Long before Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, Blue Cheer was putting together the genre that would come to be known as heavy metal. Along with bands like the MC5 and Dust, Cheer was cranking out loud, aggressive rock before anyone else.

Dickie Peterson was there from the start, banging out bass lines and singing for the band that went on to record 10 studio albums and release seven live ones, not to mention four compilation albums and a tribute release in 2000.

And he was still doing it, continuing to front the latest Blue Cheer lineup until his death Monday from liver cancer.

(photo courtesy of bluecheer.us)

Peterson co-founded Blue Cheer in 1966 with guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Eric Albronda, who was soon replaced by Paul Whaley.

The band’s lineup changes, from the start, were dizzying. But they solidified around Peterson, and established themselves as a power trio playing psychedelic, blues-based rock in the San Francisco area. They were brash, loud and new.

Their first album, Vincebus Eruptum, scored with a cover of “Summertime Blues,” and gave them enough momentum to release five more albums over three years before their popularity waned — for the time being.

Peterson also released two solo efforts, Child of the Darkness in 1998 and Tramp in 1999. Both are now rare.

But Blue Cheer was hardly done, and continued to resurface over the years with varying lineups. In 2007 they released their latest studio album, What Doesn’t Kill You…., and earlier this year they put out Blue Cheer Rocks Europe, a live performance DVD.

Whether or not Cheer will continue with another bass player, it’s hard to imagine it would be the same.

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Ray Toro was a relatively late bloomer when it comes to playing guitar, having first devoted himself to it as a sophomore in high school.

He’s made up quite a bit of ground since.

(photo courtesy of Getty Images)

The lead guitarist for Jersey rockers My Chemical Romance has since carved a niche for himself, with a guitar style founded on the licks of his childhood rock idols — with his own flare thrown into the mix.

“My older brother was really who got me started,” Toro told epiphone.com in a 2004 interview. “He always had a ton of guitar magazines lying around and books like Pink Floyd and Metallica that had the tabs so I just started picking them up and trying to learn.”

Now its Toro who’s become standard fare in those same magazines.

A high school classmate of MCR frontman Gerard Way and bassist Mikey Way, Toro was part of the founding of the band in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

The band has gone on to wide acclaim and commercial success with three studio albums, including 2004’s breakthrough Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge — which yielded the video hit “Helena” — and a highly successful third album, Welcome to the Black Parade, in 2006.

The band is currently working on its fourth studio album, which is billed as a “back-to-basics” album that will wipe away some of the polished “goth” image and theme that the band has been known for.

“I think it will definitely be stripped down,” Gerard Way told NME earlier this year. “I think the band misses being a rock band.”

And that should play to Toro’s favor, likely highlighting his acrobatic guitar work.

Toro has already become a fanatic for getting the right sound. Perhaps surprisingly, he used to favor the Epiphone Les Paul model, although he can obviously now afford a collection of the high-end Gibson Les Paul that every burgeoning guitarist seems to covet.

“I play a lot of chords where there’s a lot of finger stretching and I use a lot of octaves and then add melody on top,” he told epiphone.com. “I always try to find a tone where you can hear e very single note going on and the Epiphone responds beautifully.”

It’s certainly hard to argue with the results.

So, whether or not MCR is your thing, rest assured their lead guitarists is the real deal. Personally, I’m anxious to hear Toro front-and-center in a stripped-down version of the band.

(NOTE: This is part of my ongoing series of reports on guitar players who fly under the mainstream radar. Keep checking The Listening Room for future installments of guitar players you should know – JF)

Follow me on Twitter at https://twitter.com/jfitzgibbon

Corey J. Feldman, founder of the NYC-based band Mercury Landing, is in the process of creating a rock opera. Kindly, he has agreed to share a new piece of it each week with us here in the Listening Room.

“The Green Emerald,” as the opera has been named, is almost three years in the making. An illustrated storybook will also accompany the performance of the opera, which will take place at 8 p.m Dec. 4th and 5th at the Bowery Poetry Club, located at 308 Bowery in Manhattan.

Below we have the fifth installment, entitled “Hania and Aiyana.” Click here for all previous entries. Enjoy!

V– “Hania and Aiyana”

He rules Santa Fe,

Some 17 years ago I had a memorable cab ride in New York city. I was heading from Grand Central down to the lower East Side, where I had a date with an ex. I was running late, and the cabbie was one of those hard-edged ones. The guy seemed to hate his life, his job and, by extension, the guy in the back of the taxi.

But then I noticed him singing along with a tape he was playing, and I recognized the music as Edith Piaf – the legendary singer whose unique vocal stylings made her France’s greatest songstress.

And it changed the cab ride. The cabbie turned off the meter and we drove around for 30 minutes while he explained the lyrics for song after song. He got teary-eyed, explaining how the songs reminded him of his childhood, his mother, his homeland. Then he dropped me off and didn’t charge me.

Such was the power of Edith Piaf, whose death was first made public on this day in 1963.

I can’t say I’m one of those Piaf fanatics, although I have come across more than my share, and in some surprising social settings and from a wide range of musical tastes. There was just something pleading and forlorn in her voice that seems to reach out to people, even now.

Piaf was once considered a traitor because she entertained German soldiers in occupied France during World Warr II. Only after the war did she reveal – and it has been partially confirmed – that she had been working with the French Resistance. It has been documented that she helped Jews escape their fates in Nazy Germany.

After the war she enjoyed wide success, even if her private life was occasionally troubled. Nonetheless, when she died on Oct. 10, 1963 of liver cancer – a fact made public a day later – it prompted one of the largest funeral processions that Paris had seen. Years later, the Edith Piaf Museum was established.

Such was the draw and mistique of Edith Piaf, that it reached all the way to a gruff Big Apple cabbie all those years later, and could move him to tears from the sheer beauty of it.

So, maybe I don’t get it. But you have to admire music that has that kind of power.

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