Emmylou Harris In The '70s
Emmylou Harris was born in 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama. She was discovered by Gram Parsons and assumed vocal duties with the man who we now deem as one of the fathers of country rock, cutting the timeless duet “Love Hurts”. She was to eventually establish herself as one of the most distinguished female performers within country music along with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton, and as a true point of reference within music as a whole. Continue reading
A Young Linda Ronstadt
The number of female figures in music today makes it a bit difficult for members of younger generations to wholly grasp the impact Linda Ronstadt had through several decades before other figures such as Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and who knows who else came along. I am not going to discuss the merits of such performers – all I am going to say is that many of them are not artists but mere entertainers. Linda, on the other hand was, is and will always be not just an artist but a person who promotes art in its purest form, and that has opened a door into music that shows the way to female artists in an industry where roles are sadly (and constantly) painted in black and white. Continue reading
There is something about Joy Division that is impossible to apprehend or even hope to comprehend. Is that because they beget a caterwaul of emotions when you listen to them, and these emotions turn to be the ones we want to keep our distance from yet at the same time the ones we want to have as a permanent fixture within our lives?
The band formed in Manchester in the year 1977. Its members were singer and occasional guitar player Ian Curtis, drummer Steven Morris, guitarist Bernard Albrecht and bass player Peter Hook. They were going to release one EP and two full albums, as their career was to be truncated by Curtis’ suicide in late 1979. He suffered from epileptic seizures, but his lyrics made it clear there was so much more going on, that his frail health was the tip a devastating inner conflict. And the real tragedy is that maybe what happened could have been avoided – the band members readily admitted they never paid his lyrics any heed, and after that fateful day whenever they listened to the old songs something always clicked. Continue reading