"Another year older.....this time I am celebrating birthday #22 (for the first time, mind you.....several people on this list are celebrating their 22nd birthdays for the X-teenth time this year). For anyone who doesn't know me, my favorite artists include The Ames Brothers and Ronnie Dove (coincidentally, a neat little birthday present for myself is that I am going to be seeing Ronnie Dove performing on my birthday, in Annapolis, MD. I am going to the show with two DJs from http://www.topshelfoldies.com/, Lee Michael Demsey and Gary Mitchell, who are among the Tuesday night DJ's who call themselves the DC Dynamos.

2006 was a pretty crappy year in terms of several of my favorite musicians who passed away, especially in December, I hope 2007 isn't nearly as bad.

As for the latest goings-on in my life, I got an external hard drive for Christmas, and I am already getting some good use out of it...I'm also slowly but surely preparing a cd of recordings from the Diamond record label, which I hope to finish in 2007....as I collect this label, I still can't even find out who owns the rights to the masters (and I've been heavily searching for the last 7 years), the cd will likely be very homemade and pressed onto cd-rs. A few Mystery Lyrics friends of mine have already requested copies and they shall get them when the set is finished...although they will be pressed up on cd-rs and have computer printed liner notes, and won't be shrinkwrapped (i dont have a few thousand dollars to get them professionally done), some of the mp3s I have passed around that will appear on the set (or future sets if the first is successful enough) have received rave reviews from the few who have heard them (pretty amazing what someone can make an old 45 sound like, compared to how some other bootlegs out there sound). Aside from that, as of this writing i am not presently in school (my parents pulled me out of the college i went to because they didnt like it), no job, and no drivers license (but i am working on that).

So that is about the latest in my life...not too much to talk about, really. Hopefully this year will go better than last year did."

Tomd

 

Tom I hope the concert is grand! December was a rough month for recording artists. It seemed like I was getting updates weekly with yet another person gone to rock n roll heaven. Let's hope this year is kinder to us. I'd love one of those cdr's and if you need some blanks I'll be happy to donate to the cause. Just drop me a line... shar

 

January 6

1999 French Jazz piano virtuoso Michel Petrucciani dies in New York following a brief respiratory illness. He is 36. Petrucciani was the first French artist signed to EMI's Blue Note imprint, for which he released several albums from 1986-1994.

1996 Renowned fiddle player Robert Russell "Chubby'' Wise dies of heart failure following pneumonia in Bowie, Md. Age 80. Wise performed and recorded with Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys during the group's classic period in the '40s. He also worked briefly with Hank Williams and was a member of Hank Snow's band, the Rainbow Ranch Boys, for 16 years.

1993 Bass guitarist Bill Wyman announces that he has officially left the Rolling Stones. The group last toured together in 1990.

1993 Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie dies in an Englewood, N.J., hospital after a yearlong battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 75. The jazz legend received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989 from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences.

1977 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: "You Don't Have to Be a Star (to Be in My Show),'' Marilyn McCoo & Billy Davis Jr.

1958 No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: "At the Hop,'' Danny & the Juniors. The four members of the group all grew up in Philadelphia and started singing together in high school as the Juvenairs.

1946 Syd Barrett (Roger Barrett) of Pink Floyd is born. He names the group after bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council. Billboard ranks the group's 1973 album "Dark Side of the Moon'' as the longest-charting album of all time. It stays on the magazine's pop album

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                                                             Thanks Sev!

 

A little hint on the band:

The Lead Singer and the band have come a long way since first assembling in 1995. Back then, on the outskirts of the musical mean streets of Memphis, life appeared to be a dead-end. “I’m a young southern kid that didn’t come from much,” says (lead singer). “My daddy played country gospel, dirty south hip-hop was the sound of my street, and I remember seeing lots of Motley Crue and AC/DC concerts. So I grew up with a bunch of major styles hitting me at one time.”

When he found a bunch of all-star musicians in the area who shared his enthusiasm and flair, his vision for the band crystallized, first heard on the band’s Island debut, from (2001). Today, the monster chemistry between (lead singer) ****** and his band, guitarists Wayne ****** and Chris ****, bassist Dave *****, and drummer Paul *****, has grown into something formidable. All of the band members contributed significantly to the new album, and all are in the process of coming into their own as artists in a huge way. This makes (band name) an incredible mosaic of sound and groove.

“Memphis has a lot to do with the music we make,” he says. “It’s got the best of R&B, rock and roll, and the blues. That gave us a musical freedom we’ve been unafraid to use since. Who we are now is a modified version of that.” And what they sound like is a modified version of the rock masterpiece that is (newest album's name <g>

Songs from the band appeared in movies such as The Fast & the Furious, and Daredevil. The lead singer has been on a TV series (2005) and also a bit part in the movie Hustle & Flow (2005)