One of my most memorable Studio C performances was an on-site Lyle Lovett performance with his large band at The State Theater some years back. One of the songs from that session made it on to that year's Sampler. Lyle was joined by a few friends Tuesday night in New York during a special show to celebrate his new album Release Me. Ex-Nickel Creek members Sean and Sara Watkins played in Lovett's band for much of the night and Lovett even allowed the brother and sister to do brand new songs from their respective solo albums.

Lovett used his time in New York to also record a track for an upcoming tribute album to singer-songwriter Jess Winchester. He'll appear on MSNBC's Morning Joe tomorrow.

Lyle and John Hiatt will be here on March 7th at The State Theater, doing another in their series of singer/songwriter/storytelling evenings. Not to be missed.

The song Bruce Springsteen is streaming today off his new album, Wrecking Ball, features the last saxophone solo Clarence Clemons recorded for his Boss. Springsteen says when he hears the solo in "Land of Hope and Dreams" that "...it's a lovely moment." Clemons died last June at 69 following a massive stroke. You can listen to the song right below this paragraph by clicking on the link:


Bruce and Clarence and The E Street Band - "Land of Hope and Dreams"

Tomorrow's final stream is "We Are Alive." Wrecking Ball will be out Tuesday.

Elvis Costello will be tonight's guest paying tribute to Springsteen on NBC's Late Night With Jimmy Fallon. He'll play "Brilliant Disguise" from Tunnel of Love. Springsteen will wrap up the tribute week tomorrow night as the only guest for the entire hour. Time to set the DVR/TiVo!

James Beard Award nominee Michelle Gayer of the Salty Tart bakery invites you to the Share Our Strength Minneapolis Cakewalk - a night of drinks, dancing and, most importantly, incredible desserts from the best pastry chefs in the Twin Cities. Michelle is one of the sassiest, nicest and giving people I know in the Twin Cities Foodie community, and by the way - there are hundreds more like her! It's all good. We caught up for a few minutes on Feb. 29th:

 Michelle Gayer has the lowdown on The Cakewalk and Share Our Strength


Join in! 100% of ticket sales go directly to support Share Our Strength, an organization dedicated to ending childhood hunger in Minnesota and America.

Fine Line Music Cafe, tonight from 8pm to 11pm. I mean, really, c'mon - we're talkin' tasty everything, plus helping an incredible cause? Be there.

Trace of the Sun, a documentary about Sara Bareilles's involvement with Japanese relief efforts while on tour there following last March's earthquake and tsunami, will premiere March 23rd on VEVO. While she was there, Bareilles hooked up with the relief organization All Hands. The film chronicles four days she spent working with them. Here's the trailer:


A Trace of the Sun Documentary Official Trailer

Sara Bareilles | Myspace Music Videos

And the giving doesn't stop there. Tuesday, Bareilles visited Southeast High School in Bradenton, Florida and delivered a $10,000 check to the school's music education program. It was part of a contest sponsored by 8th Continent Soymilk. The winner, a Southeast graduate, got to see Bareilles perform in Orlando and have her present the check to the school of her choice. Bareilles will present checks on behalf of four more contest winners at other tour stops. She told Patch.com, "If every one goes like this, this is my new favorite thing to do."

Oake will echo my sentiments, as we both always extol the beauty of a well-crafted and well executed pop song. And in the the middle through late 60's - a group known as The Monkees gave the likes of The Beatles and others a bit of a run for the title of Top of the Pops. Much like the guys from Liverpool, the four members of The Monkees had very distinct personalities and looks. And much like Paul McCartney was for The Fab Four - the "cute" Monkee was Davy Jones.

Sadly, Davy died the morning of February 29th after suffering a heart attack. He was 66 years old. He leaves behind his wife, Jessica, and four daughters from previous marriages.

Davy joined The Monkees in 1965, along with Micky Dolenz, Mike Nesmith and Peter Tork, and together they churned out a bunch of hugely popular songs, including three number 1 hits: "Daydream Believer," (a Neil Diamond tune, by the way!) "Last Train to Clarksville" and "I'm a Believer." Although the band was literally created and "manufactured" to make music and a to star in a hugely popular TV show, they later went on to demonstrate that their talents were genuine and real. By the way, another UK singer and performer was on the music scene in the middle 60's, who's name was also Davey Jones. But given the popularity of "Davy" from The Monkees - the other Jones ended up changing his performance name: to David Bowie.

The last time The Monkees played the Twin Cities was just last summer, as a part of the Music In The Zoo concert series. By all accounts the shows were enormously good fun. Sad that I missed them, as I had other stuff going on at the time.

R.I.P., Davy Jones...

He was, by many accounts, the man who created an entire genre' of the rock world - a blend of rock, country and folk that would be called 'Country Rock' by those who played and enjoyed the music, say, in the early 70's when The Eagles rose to the top of the popular music heap. Later, it would become better known as 'Americana' with the present era of Wilco, The Jayhawks and others.

Music legend Gram Parsons lived a short and fast burning life, fueled by too many substances and too little control.

Now mind you, the end story of an actor and former party hound named Gary Busey could have turned out the same as Parsons. Gary, to his credit, has been sober for many, many years now. BUT, he's still a 'live wire,' and for his February rock and roll movie - Rob Chapman hosted Gary Busey here in the Twin Cities for a screening of "The Buddy Holly Story," in which Gary has his breakout role as a movie star. Rob's reflections on Gary's visit here are at once funny and disturbing:

 Rob Chapman riffs on Gary Busey and his Buddy Holly visit


Now, on to the Gram Parson's documentary. He was a kid of privilege who possessed an incredible music talent. However his life, his work, and his death were all of a meteoric nature:

 Rob and BT chat about the Gram Parsons documentary

The location, as always, for Rob Chapman's "Rock and Roll Moving Picture Show" is Pepito's Parkway Theater in south Minneapolis. Thursday, March 1st at 7:00pm for "Gram Parsons - Fallen Angel," a film by Gandulf Hennig.

Back in October of last year, we shared with you a new release from Lissie, the 'Covered Up With Flowers' EP, which consisted of all covers. Most of the tracks on the EP had lived on Lissie's YouTube page prior to seeing an official release on iTunes in November.

Fast forward to more recent times when Lissie announced that her 5-song EP would be growing by 1 with the addition of the Fleetwood Mac classic 'You Can Go Your Own Way'. Now, it's not uncommon to see a record re-released with bonus tracks but adding a single track to an already somewhat obscure EP release is not something you see very often...I can't think of another example to tell you the truth.



It's unclear whether this cover is a new recording or a salvaged gem from a previous session but we're delighted at its release either way - her performance has this wonderful underlying spookiness that really gives the song new life. You can grab the entire 6-song EP for under $6 or you can simply nab 'Go Your Own Way' for the standard $.99 price tag.