Archive for December, 2009.
When you think of the best rock music of the last 3 decades, one of the first names that will come to your mind would have to be Bon Jovi. His songs have become some of the most important and interesting of that time and many people still put on his music when they are feeling down. I certainly enjoy seeing this guy out on stage because he still knows how to put on a real show and his songs have held up remarkably well! In 2010, he will be on tour again in cities all around the country. Get 2010 Bon Jovi concert tickets and you will get to see this legendary performer onstage and hear some of the most fun music of all time! It is an inexpensive and fun way to enjoy a great concert!
Taylor Swift, Beyonce and the Black Eyed Peas are going to be some of the main performers at the upcoming Grammys ceremony. It’s going to be a lot of fun too, because these performers are definitely among the best of the year. They have also been nominated for Grammys over the last few years, in Swift’s case, this year will be her first, if I remember right. I have enjoyed these performers a lot and their music will give the evening an extra bounce that it generally doesn’t have. It would seem that Swift has had an incredible year in publicity and in music. She has become one of the nation’s most recognizable stars and one of the most talented singers at the moment. We can expect more of the same as 2010 rolls by!
Sting put forward a nice holiday concert this year. While he is starting to look like a Civil War era politician in his clothing choices and beard, he also has some fun music that he’s doing. His holiday show wasn’t the usual fun, family Santa-based thing. He seemed much more likely to go into medieval music and perform it. With his backup band of harps and lutes and other obscure instruments, we found that he was able to perform such unusual Christmas pieces. It’s not exactly “Every Breath You Take” but when you look back at songs like that, you can hear a little bit of the same kind of melodic work like in the medieval songs that he likes so much. What an interesting development for such a talented musician.
When you see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, you know it’s Christmas time. They have even opened up several different groups of performers all around the country. It will be interesting to look around at the different groups. I kind of wish I could see a bunch of them and then compare. But either way, their full-fledged musical experience is one of the most well-known examples of its kind. From the beginning, through all the rollicking pieces, the exciting pyrotechnics and everything else, you should check out this show if you get the chance. It’s a lot of fun and will give you an experience you will never forget!
One of the people that you hear frequently during the holiday season is Kenny G. It’s not that he’s a particularly holiday type of character, but he does have a few CDs out that you can enjoy this time of year. He performs occasionally during the holiday season, with his interesting arrangements of holiday music. The one that I always have in mind is his mix of “We Three Kings” and “Carol of the Bells”. We would love to hear him in person, but you will have to check the schedule of concerts that he has released to see if he’s actually going to perform there. Enjoy his great music either on CD or in concert this year! Make sure that you bring your friends and family too, because it’s going to be particularly fun,
Billy Joel and Elton John were supposed to be touring through this month and most of November too. But first John was sick, the flu or something. It was pretty strong. Then after that Joel was sick too. So they keep canceling dates and it’s going to be awhile before we will be able to see them back in tour. In fact, it will be nearly a month. Over last week, we started hearing stories that Billy Joel’s daughter was arrested for drunk driving or some other such work. There are also reports that she overdosed on sleeping pills last week too. We hope that she’s ok, and she definitely has a great resource in her father, who has gone through the same problems in the past and will hopefully help her, if these are indeed the problems that we have heard reported.
Liam Clancy was one of the best Irish folk musicians of the last half century. With his brothers Pat and Tom, they formed an important musical group that influenced many other folk musicians as well as the burgeoning folk rock artists at the end of the 60s. He had been ill for a long time and passed away at the end of this week. But his music will live on for a long time. His talent for ballads was especially clear back in those older days. The music of the Clancy Brothers was Irish in nature, but was more uptempo than the slower ballads that had been performed by Bing Crosby and others in the decades leading up to it. It became very popular in the early 60s, when they were singing their top hits on Ed Sullivan and in big concert halls all over. We wish his family well going forwards, and thank him for his great music. He was 74.
The newest CD from Rihanna is so different from anything else she has produced in her career. She was just a regular pop music singer with the same dull background music that anyone else has. She had attitude but a playful style too. But her newest album is the first since the February incident that has made her and Chris Brown the center of the domestic violence discussion. In the CD the first few songs are kind of typical, with a woman in her prime, at the top of her career, famous. Then somewhere around the middle, she sings a song about being stupid. The voice in the song went back to a man who was bad to her and she declares herself stupid. It’s a shocking amount of candor and insight for a performer who hasn’t been much about the “deep” lyrics, preferring instead typical love songs. Perhaps she has some real artist inside!
