Nine Lives

They say, “a cat has nine lives.”

They call musicians, “cats.”

I wonder if musicians have nine lives?

Or is there some other meaning to Steve Winwood’s newest album, “Nine Lives”? Has Steve gone through 8 of them already and this is his last? Scary thought, especially if he believes that. There is nothing in the liner notes - yes, I read all the liner notes in every album - to explain the title of this album. I don’t get it - so I’m going to have to dig deeper.

Steve Winwood and his songwriting partner, Godwin, wrote every song on the album. There’s only 9 songs on the album - a little light on the load for today’s typical CD. On the other CDs that I bought today, there are 13 on Willie’s, 11 on John’s, and 14 on Tom’s. (Can you guess the last names of these 3? I’ll talk about those in other posts, so read on, my friends. Heh heh.) So I guess Steve is having us pay for quality - not quantity.

On the first track, Steve plays all the instruments himself. But the reason I bought the album, unheard, is that I know his good friend, Eric Clapton plays a kick ass guitar solo on the song, “Dirty City.” This is depressing look at a working man’s life with an odd upbeat, and it lasts 7 minutes 44 seconds. Another great bathroom break song for the radio DJs, and my favorite of all the tracks.

Cristofori’s Dream

There was a compliation album of new age or easy listening music that included a delightful instrumental by David Lantz called, “Cristofori’s Dream.” As I was not familiar with David Lantz, I did a little surfing to see what I could find.

Turns out that Bartelomo Cristofori was an Italian inventor. He toiled away in a little shop working on harpsicords, one of the primary instruments of the day. He was intrigued with finding a way to make the sound less harsh and worked on modifying the design until he found a way to make the sound he was looking for. Thus, in 1709 the piano was born in his modest Florence shop.

David Lantz wrote this song as a tribute to Cristofori - and it’s beautiful.

Fletcher

A local coffeehouse is one of my customers and I like to stop by to patronize them every once in a while, even though they are a little out of my way to do so.

On the counter by the register was a CD by a band called, “Fletcher.” The photo on the front is three guys in jeans and tee shirts. On closer look I realized that they looked a lot alike, so they must be brothers. But two of them looked a LOT alike and I realized that they are twins.

The coffee shop clerk told me that they are indeed brothers and indeed two are twins, that they like locally and he is helping them out putting their CD out on the counter for sale. They have a southern rock sound, which is something I like.

I struck a deal with the clerk - if he can get the brothers to autograph the CD for me the next time they come in the store then I will buy one along with my iced coffee. Let’s see how that works out - I’d like to give them a listen.

Sending the Crowds Home

I was wondering of this economic downturn was going to affect attendance at the CMA Music Festival this year and I just read a report in the Business Journal that this year’s attendance was a record crowd. We had an average of 52,000 music fans here each day, almost a 10% increase over last year.

I think the fact that the artists performing were some of the top acts helped draw a lot of people. The festival is an excellent entertainment value and the fans proved again that country music has the biggest loyal fan base of all the genres.

CMA Music Fest

If you live here, we don’t care that the name was changed to “CMA Music Fest.” To us, this week will always be “Fan Fair.” There are rock music festivals all over the U.S. every summer, like the infamous Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza. But this festival is about country music and the fans that buy the records and support their favorite singers and bands.

This is the week that the country music industry thanks their fans by posing for pictures, signing autographs, giving concerts in the clubs and stadiums all over town, and meeting with their fan clubs for picnics, bowling tournaments, and cruises down the Cumberland River. The other music industries don’t do anything even close to this week long festival, and we don’t care that the industry is trying to bring in non-country acts. That’s fine. But the jist of this week is that the country music artists give a little back to the fans. And that’s the way it SHOULD be.