Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus

While I was channel surfing last night I stumbled upon something called "Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" on MPT. The name pretty much describes it all. The Rolling Stones along with a slew of other artists performed in a replica circus tent. The performance took place in December of 1968 and included performances by Jethro Tull, The Who, Taj Mahal, The Stones, and a band I had never heard of called "Dirty Mac." This supergroup consisted of Eric Clapton on lead guitar, John Lennon on lead vocals and guitar, Keith Richards on bass, and Mitch Mitchell on drums.

Some notable things to mention about the show:

1. It was the last public performance Brian Jones made with the Stones.
2. It was the first time John Lennon had played publicly without any of the other Beatles.
3. Tommy Iommi, guitarist from Black Sabbath, played with Jethro Tull as he was part of the band for a few weeks.
4. The performance wasn't released until the mid 90's. The Stone said that they didn't release the footage because they were exhausted and it showed. Others say that The Who upstaged them and that The Stones didn't want people to see that.

I'm glad I caught it as I thought it was great and a lot of fun seeing these legends when they were in their 20's. I hope you check out the performance Dirty Mac put on of "Yer Blues"

Rhythm & Booze

The Washington Post has been giving a lot of attention to some of the same artists WTMD is so excited about. A few weeks ago The Post's Going Out Gurus were all excited about Lily Allen coming to town, and today's issue has J. Freedom du Lac's rave review of "Rehab" singer Amy Winehouse's new album, Back to Black.

Songwriter Honors Hometown With Anniversary Album

I used to work for a very similar station to TMD in a North Dakota town of about 50,000 called Grand Forks. As the name indicates, it was built around the confluence of two rivers- the Red Lake River and the Red River of the North (the only north flowing river in the US- and as many of those who live in river towns know...you live and die by its whim).

Almost ten years ago (April 10,1997), the snow from too many blizzards melted and poured into the swollen Red. Residents of Grand Forks lost the battle to save their town.

http://www.geo.mtu.edu/department/classes/ge404/mlbroder/during.html

Fortunately, I didn't lose any property, but I did lose something there. But, life tends to orbit back in a good way, doesn't it? Helping make 4/7/07 more sweet than bitter is a talented songwriter from Grand Forks I recently happened on. He just put out a record to commemorate the flood. The album is called GRAND FORKS and his name is Tom Brosseau. His voice has the kind of sweet yearning you'd hear in Jeff Buckley or Elliott Smith. He colors his songs with earth tones, yet splashes them with the green optimism of spring- much like the cycle of nature that part of the country deals with every year, particularly in '97. And Tom's been keeping some esteemed company lately. Renowned violinist Hilary Hahn seems to be one of his fans. Have a listen to a recent NPR story on their collaboration.