Listen & Be Heard Weekly Archives

Get Rich Entertainment sent copies of its recent releases to the Listen & Be Heard office. Editor Martha Mims handed the CDs to me, saying, ?I don?t know whether this is your kind of thing.? I replied that I would not know until I listened to them, took the discs, and headed for home. The [...]

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On a CD titled Beautiful Mistakes, one would expect a collection of first or second-takes of songs, all benefiting from the immediacy and ?in the moment? aspects of the performances. One might also expect to hear songs containing ironic lyrics, songs about disconnection, songs used to state the culture?s misguided amount of attention on beauty [...]

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The cover for Tia Carroll?s self-titled CD is its own Da Vinci Code: intentional or not, it gives the first-time listener a clue regarding the music about to be heard. The cover is a double-exposed photograph of Ms. Carroll in the same pose, right hand holding a cordless microphone, in either mid-breath or in the [...]

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Few things in life are as pure and simple as a child singing. Nothing matters but the song and the joy of singing it. The child matures and begins to sing in school choruses, church choirs, or with family members. The purity and simplicity are multiplied by the gathering of fellow singers and shepherded by [...]

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I get visited by The Ghost Of Jack Kerouac in my dreams. He pops in from time to time to see how things are going in the world he left in 1969, brag about the museum tour of his manuscript for On The Road, and ask me about new music. ?I?m getting SO tired of [...]

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The most treasured CDs in a collection are the ones with music that gets into your ears, and immediately your feet or fingers start keeping time with the rhythm. A feeling of connection to the music develops with each successive listening, sometimes right away. You might find yourself singing along, playing air guitar or some [...]

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Listen and be heard. These four words are an excellent definition of a musician. They are also useful in describing the essential duties of someone writing about music, whether writing about a well-known musician, someone virtually unknown, and everyone who falls somewhere in between those two categories. Take Vallejo?s Saturday morning Farmers? Market on Georgia [...]

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