Performing@Home In The Time of Coronavirus: Volume I

Sara Bareilles trouble-shooting
her Instagram Live broadcast

Professional performers such as actors, dancers, comedians and musicians spend a great deal of their life in auditoriums, bars, cafes, studios, theaters, and various venues on the road away from their home, family, and friends. As a fan, I miss seeing them all perform live on stage!

As you watch artists video themselves during this pandemic, they work hard to keep a brave face and carry on, but those faces are challenged, missing the audience's oxygen combined with their talent to spark magic and illuminate an amplified space.

So in our current world-wide pandemic that has us all @home more than we could have ever imagined; artists working before a large sitting audience will in fact be one of the last groups of professionals to get back to work in the world.

However, digital technology's ease of use has been a shining light during these times @home. In the past couple of years, the combination of consumer: smartphones, laptops, digital audio and video compression, conferencing apps and 5G Internet speed make this pandemic a bit more bearable... than just a bear.

Late Night with Seth Meyers, my favorite pandemic TV show shot from Seth's attic
with his 8G Band performing from their homes.

Here's a great article about Late Night with Seth Myers in Verge by Andrew Marino that shows all of us average bears how to create our very own homegrown production studio.

THE GADGETS LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS USES TO KEEP THE SHOW RUNNING FROM HOME: Consumer electronics have replaced studios during the pandemic

This past week, I searched across YouTube and found live performances of self-made videos by a wide group of performers all shot from home starting in the lockdown madness of March to now.

I start with a Sara Bareilles phone video on Instagram that was the spark for this blog (p.s. I love Sara Bareilles).

I also want to thank my friend Paul Hobbs for sending me a a video from his garage this week, a song, California written in high school (back in the Pleistocene Era) with our dear friend Paul Tognazzini.

On a side note- you'll also notice some of our famous artists have a little bit more home technology than the average bear.

Enjoy and stay well my friends!

#NewMusicMonday • April-May • 2020

A YEAR of #NewMusicMondays  

January-March • April-May • June • July-August • September • October • November • My Favorites of 2020

In March, I started a new and reoccurring blog series that I call #NewMusicMonday. I plan to highlight new music releases hopefully during a current one, two, or thee month stretch throughout the year. This installment is for April-May, but it's really impossible for me to find and capture on a playlist every song released at a particular month. 

So this month, you will see some of my new favs I found dating back to January that I missed in my January-March installment. I may also throw in an old song that's been recently recorded. For example, I have several #StayAtHome videos of Jimmy Fallon and James Taylor songs that I think you will enjoy. I may also throw in a song or two I haven't heard before. Paul Hobbs sent me a 2019 Keb' Mo'/Taj Mahal song plus several new releases, and I added a 2019 video from Rosie Flores who played the San Diego club circuit in the 1970's with Rosie and the Screamers, and rekindled some fond memories. 

Purchase or Stream on Amazon

For this week's playlist I have 69 songs. For me, one album stands out above the rest, James Elkington's 
Ever-Roving Eye. 

An epiphany… a cryptic storyteller and dazzling acoustic guitarist. – Rolling Stone 

Elkington stands apart among the wave of 21st century guitar soloists. Beautiful, complex, and assured.
– Pitchfork

Stay well my friends, music always helps.

References

• Americana Music Show
• Pitchfork
• Rolling Stone Magazine
• Uncut Magazine
• Wikipedia List of 2020 Albums

Paul McCartney - Egypt Station release

Photograph: MJ Kim/MPL Communications

Awhile back I did a sneak preview of Paul McCartney's new album, Egypt Station with a couple of YouTube songs released before the official September 7th release date. The highlight of that blog was my inclusion of the James Corden piece with Paul McCartney Carpool Karaoke which I have included here again at the end of the playlist.

For this week's release of the album, I was able to snag every song from the new album off YouTube from various sources. Here's the album on Amazon Music if you have a subscription.

This is Sir Paul's 17th solo album that he's calling 'a concept album' but I couldn't hear the travel or any other connected themes other than love or want of. I still think its a very good album that is worthy of a start to finish listen to as we used to do back in the day. I've only seen pictures as shown above of the album cover, but Paul's really put a great deal of visual art into the vinyl album that I think many fans will love to look at and read the liner notes while listening. Here's a link to buy on Amazon.

I start this playlist with three Jimmy Fallon videos with Paul on his show promoting the album last Friday, September 7th. I always enjoy Jimmy's love for Paul that now extends across several generations of fans.

If you want to read a review of this album, just read Rob Sheffield's Rolling Stone review here, with the opening line - "Make a list of all the songwriters who were composing great tunes in 1958. Now make an overlapping list of the ones who are still writing brilliant songs in 2018. Your list reads: Paul McCartney."

So happy Monday and start (or end) your day enjoying Paul's new music and sense of humor here!