Three of the girls picked songs from my recommendations.  And, in my opinion, all three performances were in the top 6.  When it comes to the 60′s or 70′s, they really need to  run their song choices by me!

• Alexandrea Lushington - Blood, Sweat and Tears – Spinning Wheel
• Ramiele Malubay – Dusty Springfield – You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me
• Asia’h Epperson – Big Brother with Janis Joplin – Piece of My Heart

Amy or Kady should have tried The Look of Love – Diana Krall version (done in the 60′s by Sergio Mendez and Brazil66 and by Dusty Springfield).

The most eclectic music ever made was in the 60′s. So what was the crap the contestants (tried) to sing last night? I was disappointed in how little rock and roll history these contestants have.
For those of you that weren’t born yet, here is a sampling of artists from the 1960′s.

• Van Morrison
• Aaron Neville
• Beatles
• Credence Clearwater Revival
• Otis Redding
• Rolling Stones
• Aretha Franklin
• Gladys Knight
• Stevie Wonder
• Percy Sledge
• Roy Orbison
• Temptations
• Supremes
• Righteous Brothers
• Animals
• Donovan

So for the boys, we should have heard:

1. The Byrds – Mr. Tambourine Man
2. Percy Sledge – When a Man Loves a Woman
3. Roy Orbison – Pretty Woman
4. Animals – House of the Rising Sun
5. Temptations – I Wish it would Rain
6. Donovan – Sunshine Superman
7. Otis Redding Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay
8. Roy Hebb – Sunny
9. Aaron Neville – Tell It Like It is
10. Blood, Sweat and Tears – Spinning Wheel
11. Steppenwolf – Born to be Wild
12. Groovin’ – Young Rascals

And for the girls, let’s hope we hear:

1. Barbara Lewis – Hello Stranger
2. Skeeter Davis – End of the World
3. CCR – Proud Mary (Tina style)
4. Mary Hopkins – Those were the Days
5. Lulu – To Sir With Love
6. Leslie Gore – You Don’t Own Me
7. Little Peggy March – I Will Follow Him
8. Sergio Mendes – The Look of Love
9. Dusty Springfield – You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me
10. Big Brother with Janis Joplin – Piece of My Heart
11. Aretha – You Pick
12. Gladys Knight – You Pick

But there’s really no reason to think tonight will be any better than last night.

Note: Just had 15 grape vines, 75 strawberry plants, 2 elderberry bushes, 8 raspberry and 12 blackberry plants show up. Got to get them planted ASAP. So this is condensed version.

ETA: Thanks to Sunny for link to Josiah on Ellen Show.

About 2 years ago, millions heard “I was born by the river” and had to look to see who was singing. This was our introduction to Taylor Hicks and over the next 3 months, we saw Taylor turn American Idol upside down. He was Simon’s and Nigel’s worse nightmare – a top 12 contestant that refused to conform. Week after week, the Soul Patrol got stronger and bigger.

So TBTB seemed determined to make sure this didn’t happen again. With all the millions they make from the show, they also wanted the millions from a top selling recording artist. So we get Season 6 – the most boring season ever. AI went from probably the best group of contestants (Season 5) to the worst (Season 6). Ratings drop and no superstar emerges from this cast of “Idols”.

So how do they fix it for Season 7? They bring in a bunch of “ringers” who they believe can be packaged to sell records. Just one little problem – Josiah Leming.

Now the question is – Why was Josiah cut? Because of his performance of Stand By Me? I think not. His first 2 auditions were too strong. Was it because he dismissed the band? I doubt that too. Each contestant only got 5 minutes with the band. Josiah tried to get the band to play the song the way he heard it in his head but couldn’t get it done in 5 minutes. So I’m guessing he was given a choice of either singing with the band unrehearsed or singing acapella. I doubt if cockiness or arrogance had anything to do with it.

But Josiah was about to be the next Taylor. When I looked at the AI forum, it looked to me like the Josiah related postings outnumbered all the other contestants combines. Even after he was cut, the number of Josiah postings was impressive – even with the board ops deleting Josiah related threads.

Josiah’s fan base reminds me of Taylor’s. Read a few postings and you’ll see comments like “My granddaughters and I love Josiah”, “I’m in my 30′s and the mother of 3 and love Josiah”, “My wife and I love Josiah”, “I love his passion”, “I’ve never visited a message board before”, “I’ve never tried to look up an AI contestant on the Internet before”, etc. Remind anyone else of the Soul Patrol?

Since being cut from AI, Josiah has sold thousands of dollars of downloads of his music, two of his original compositions have received over 250,000 hits on YouTube, he is scheduled to be on Ellen tomorrow (Feb 19), and is also going to be on MTV. I think TPTB knew that Josiah had the potential to quickly attract a huge fan base, take the lead, and never relinquish it. So he’s gone, and Idol is the worse for it. In my opinion, Josiah was the most creative contestant AI has ever had.

One Last Song – Written and Performed by Josiah Leming

Tell me if there is a better performance by a female singer ever!

Annie Lennox – Why

And have you ever seen a band rock any harder than this?

Credence Clearwater Revival – Keep on Chooglin

The Rumble Strips are a British band that has had only limited success in Britain and not yet charted in the US. Guess that says a lot about music today. The Rumble Strips sound a lot like Dexy’s Midnight Runners at times – and have a fantastic horn section. How can a band with horns not be good?

Their top charting single is Alarm Clock (#41 in UK). Take a listen and let me know what you think?

Alarm Clock (Great Horns in this One)

Girls and Boys in Love (Great Beat and Vocals)

Back to Black (Made famous by Amy Winehouse)

Hate Me You Do – (Reminds me of Dexy’s)

So do you think they should have made the US charts?

This Friday is the final of the Next Great American Band. No American Idol, but if you love music, it was an interesting show. The final 3 are the Clark Brothers, Sixwire, and Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. I think it came down to the lead singers.

Denver and the Mile High Orchestra – This is exactly the kind of band I wanted to start when I was a teenager. The band is great – but Denver is only OK. I think Denver should be the band leader, maybe play the trumpet, and hire a great front man for this band. They might go somewhere with a stronger singer out front.

I’m Free (Great sax and brass – weak vocals)

Sixwire - Kind of reminds me of Exile – without the charisma. Here’s a good example of the problem. This song demands a great lead singer to step up- not sing harmonies.

The Rolling Stones Last Time (Sixwire)

The Clark Brothers - Great passion, great musicianship, lead singer with great charisma. Ashley seems a little reluctant to step out in front of his brothers, but his passion and charisma make him a natural. I think they should take a look at how the Dixie Chicks became so successful and see if they can incorporate some of their strategies into their own plan for success – Country with Rock and Religious.
Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter (Clark Brothers)

Number 1 with a bullet. YsabellaBrave’s newest song is the top rated music video on YouTube today. She wrote the lyrics, wrote the music, produced it, performed it, … everything.

All You Have to be is You

If you start to lose hope, look around
There’s stars on the ground
If you make a wish you want to come true
Well it starts with you
All you gotta to be is you, it’s true

This song is pop, adult contemporary, a little country, Christian, easy listening. The ease with which she hits the high notes is unbelievable.

Her album will be released soon, so Good Luck YsabellaBrave.

If you love good music and weren’t a regular at graycharles.com, you really missed a wonderful experience.  Gray had an encyclopedic memory for music, movies, pop culture, etc. -  but even more importantly, people that had forgotten about music came to his website and were “Reborn”.  When we are in our teens, twenties, and even our thirties, music is the background of our lives.  But as we get older, we forget – forget how our emotions can be raised up or brought down by a great song.

As great as graycharles was (and is), the vehicle we all used to show us the way was American Idol Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks.  Not the best singer to perform on American Idol, but certainly the most passionate singer and performer.  He reminded us how music can transport us to another place, a beautiful place – where our passions overrule our logic and we just know that anything is possible.  That no matter our age, a great song can make us 18 again – for just a few minutes – our body and mind have traveled through time – and we can relive that time.

But Gray’s is gone, and American Idol has produced only pretenders to the throne.  The community at graycharles is no more – and never did find a new home.  It just wasn’t the same.  Many of us started blogs to fill the void we felt.  I think the best is Music Maven who has done a really outstanding job with her blog.  Morewines (gotta love anyone named more wines) recently posted a link to some of Taylor’s music.  If you need a fix, take a listen.

Did you ever work with a person who was promoted to manager?  Did you notice how much smarter the person became?  Overnight, the person’s IQ goes up 30 points!  Or at least they act like it did.

Being a manager is just a different position – with a different job description.  Great managers recognize the new job responsibilities and focus on mastering these new responsibilities.   Poor managers believe that as a manager they have to have all the answers – and therefor, they must be smarter than everyone that reports to them.

So what’s this rant about?  Congress – specifically my 2 Senators – Jim Webb and John Warner.   John Warner is the co-author of the global warming bill the senate is about to vote on.  No other Republican on the committee are supporting the bill.  So why is John Warner pushing a bill so out of touch with his party?  Because John Warner believes he is smarter than everyone else.  His Senate career has been a long list of John charting his own course – one that only he is smart enough to understand.

I recently sent an email to his office asking for information on the bill. I also suggested that all Virginians should be told exactly what is in the bill and what it means to Virginia.  I asked if the bill addresses ONLY man-made global warming.  What if global warming is real, but a natural cycle – not a man-made one.  Will we spend the billions for nothing?

And since no government program has ever been 100% successful, what would a 50% success rate mean?  How about a 75% success rate?  Would the Tidewater area be under water if the plan is only 50% successful?  What would happen to our seafood industry if the plan is 75% successful?  Are any plans underway for construction of seawalls?  Are any areas being declared off limits to construction?  Are any changes in federal flood insurance included in the bill?

And you know what response I have received from the all knowing John Warner?

NONE!

YsabellaBrave’s album is complete and should be available by Christmas!

ETA: Found You’re in My Heart on rickey.org.

ETA: On YouTube 

If you haven’t seen the Clark Brothers on The Next Great American Band, tonight is the night – 8 o’clock eastern. This is a taped show and I understand they were phenomenal once again. Tonight they perform You’re in My Heart (Rod Stewart night).

Here’s their performance from last week of the Stones Gimme Shelter.

You can hear all their other performances here. I’ll post a link to tonights performance as soon as it is available.

A little disappointed that like at least one other band (SixWire), the Clark Brothers have been around for quite a while – performing as the Clark Family Experience. Had a couple of albums and even opened for Reba McIntyre. Doesn’t take anything away from their performance, but the Next Great American Band does make me think that the bands are unknown and not bands that have been performing for many years with a substantial fan base. Here’s a great article about The Clark Brothers and SixWire.

Paul Potts was on Oprah (YouTube Stars) and sang Nessun Dorma. Is Paul a great opera singer? I’ll leave that to the experts to decide, but Paul has that special ability that only a few performers have – to touch the audience and make them feel the music.

But this post is really about my favorite singer and performer YsabellaBrave. A real YouTube star that has a fan base in the 10′s of thousands who cheer her on every day. A singer that makes magic every week with a new performance or two. A singer who interprets a song just the way we think it is supposed to be sung – maybe borrowing a little from the greats – but each song a wondrous YsabellaBrave interpretation. So I give you her latest – in Latin of course.

Pater Noster – YsabellaBrave (Guaranteed to Move You)

YsabellaBrave’s latest original song – Machine – hints that she might be having trouble with TBTB on her new album -

“I can’t be part of this machine
Not while I’ve got this beating heart
I can’t be part of this machine
Go ahead fellas, try and kick me out”

But then she tells us -

“I can’t be part of this machine
I got too much heart to keep it in
I can’t be part of your machine
I promise this is not the end”

So here’s hoping that the album is on track and available soon.