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(Roger Chapman of Streetwalkers - once proudly admitted he beat out Tom Jones in a singing contest)

Our sister site Late Night Music Club ran a clip from a performance by Streetwalkers on German Television in 1975. As luck would have it, I just happened to have a concert recorded by the BBC at their Paris Theatre, also in 1975.

Roger Chapman has one of the most unique and expressive voices in music - hands down. I had the pleasure of meeting him during his days with Family during their short tour of the U.S. for the release of Bandstand, about a year or two before they broke up to form Streetwalkers. He admitted, rather proudly that, early on in his career he was in a singing contest, alongside another aspiring singer, Tom Jones. Roger won the competition and I guess you could say the rest was history.

But in any event, Streetwalkers were sadly together for only a few years before packing it in around 1977. Times and audience tastes had changed and the gutsy, distinctive voice of Roger fell somewhat out of favor. But not for long. He is still recording, with various alumni of Family and Streetwalkers, and it's good for all of us they are.

But for now, a look back at Streetwalkers from 1975 and the inimitable Roger Chapman.

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ConservaDems in the Senate like Blanche Lincoln have been almost as big a problem for enacting the agenda voters elected President Obama to advance, particularly, as we've seen, on health care.

Now, with Tea Parties on everyone's mind, they're making sounds like they are getting ready to cave to the Republicans on clean energy legislation like cap-and-trade.

Lincoln, for instance, has issued press releases claiming that such legislation "places a disproportionate share of the economic burden on families and businesses in rural America" -- without any evidence to support this claim.

This is simply buying into right-wing rhetoric about clean-energy legislation. Similarly, Sen. Claire McCaskill has tweeted about cap and trade thus:

Anticipating their weakness in the coming debate over cap and trade, Al Gore's Repower America organization has prepared a series of ads featuring constituents in states like Arkansas and Missouri reminding their senators that they strongly support clean energy efforts.

The ads are taken from the Repower Wall, which enables ordinary citizens to upload messages declaring their support for creating clean-energy jobs, as well as safeguarding our nation's economic and energy future and doing our part to combat the global climate crisis.

So far, some 57,000 people have made their voices heard. Go make yours heard too.

The wonderfully talented Kate McGarrigle is dead. What I loved about The McGarrigles was that their songs were never easy - always about complex emotions, rendered in simple ways. Anna McGarrigle's "Heart Like A Wheel" is like that, and we'll never forget the sound of Kate's voice singing, And it's only love that can wreck a human being and turn him inside out. Indeed.

CBC News is reporting that Canadian musician Kate McGarrigle has died at the age of 63. McGarrigle was best known as one half of the singing duo Kate And Anna McGarrigle, whose songwriting and performing career dated back to their time attending college in Montreal together in the 1960s. Linda Ronstadt gave their career a boost by recording the McGarrigle original "Heart Like A Wheel," and the attention led to their excellent 1975 debut album Kate And Anna McGarrigle. Nine more albums offering modern takes on traditional English and French folk music and suffused with the sisters' warm but difficult-to-pin-down personalities, their songs' mature sentiments thrown into sharp relief by the sisters' vulnerable, often girlish voices.

Kate married American singer Loudon Wainwright III in the 1970s, a union that produced another musical generation in the form of Rufus and Martha Wainwright before ending in divorce. 1998's The McGarrigle Hour finds Kate's children and both sisters performing alongside Loudon and guest stars like Emmylou Harris.

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Well, it looks like everyone has their price. Sen. Sanders explains why he's going to vote for the health care bill even though it does not contain a public option.

From Sen. Sanders site--Release: Primary Health, Dental Care for 25 Million More Americans:

$10 Billion More for Community Health Centers will Revolutionize Care

WASHINGTON, December 19 – A $10 billion investment in community health centers, expected to go to $14 billion when Congress completes work on health care reform legislation, was included in a final series of changes to the Senate bill unveiled today.

The provision, which would provide primary care for 25 million more Americans, was requested by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

He said the additional resources will help bring about a revolution in primary health care in America and create new or expanded health centers in an additional 10,000 communities. The provision would also provide loan repayments and scholarships through the National Health Service Corps to create an additional 20,000 primary care doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and mental health professionals.

Very importantly, Sanders also said the provision would save Medicaid tens of billions of dollars by keeping patients out of emergency rooms and hospitals by providing primary care when then needed it.

Continue reading »

As Naturally 7 describes it, a capella music is voice without instruments. They are performing what they call "vocal play," where they use their voices to become the instruments. The music, which is amazing, starts at the 1:26 mark.

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(Trashcan Sinatras - They're working on it)

Another band you can file under "criminally neglected" (at least here in the States). Trashcan Sinatras have been around since the mid-90s and are still turning out great tracks. They have a new album out "In The Music", which is getting good reviews and they have been doing a lot of touring this year, both in the U.S. and Australia and all points between. Perhaps because they are from Glasgow they have escaped being pigeonholed as Britpop, but they've also escaped being recognized as one of the more influential voices in the alternative/indie genre.

This track, Welcome Back is off their 2004 album Weightlifting and it's typical of the kind of wordplay they are so good at.

I suspect it's only a matter of time before they stop being overlooked and start being enjoyed and respected for just how great they are.

One hopes.

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(Sarah Vaughan in 1947 - one of the greatest voices in Jazz)

Probably one of the greatest voices in the world of Jazz, Sarah Vaughan had the most incredible phrasing and range of any singer of her generation. Listening to her early recordings, the ones she did for small labels in the mid-1940's are really a wonderful introduction to the artist, at least for me. From 1946 to 1949 she recorded a number of sides for the Musicraft label with a veritable who's who of Jazz greats accompanying her.

This track, the pop standard I Cover The Waterfront, is given the Sarah Vaughan treatment that turns a well worn song into a unique experience. It was recorded on October 10, 1947 and features the Ted Dale Orchestra backing her up. 1947 was also the year Downbeat Magazine voted her most popular Female vocalist.

She's been gone for a while and I imagine there are people who have never heard her or are certainly not familiar with her early material.

In any event, here's a good introduction to a legend - or a nice reminder of one.

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(What it is, is Baseball)

One last salute to Baseball before it all goes away until next year. This one, from a program called Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow ran a history of baseball up to August 12, 1951 (the date of the broadcast).

Check it out and keep it for that snowy day in January to remind yourself Summer eventually comes.

Midwest Voices: Bob Dole outs naysayer Mitch McConnell

TalkLeft: Sully: It's Hillary's Fault

Blue Gal: Halliburton Rape

evilslutopia: Getting to the point of #nestlefamily

Wall St. Cheat Sheet: The Treasury Department endorses lying to the public

William K. Wolfrum Chronicles: I'm heterosexual - and wow, do I have a lot of rights

This is pretty big news. The big progressive groups hadn't yet spoken on the question of escalation in Afghanistan - their silence was pronounced. MoveOn finally broke that silence today, appealing to the President to commit to a clear exit strategy. It's a pretty big step.

U.S. policy in Afghanistan has reached a pivotal moment. President Obama is poised to make a critical decision about the Afghanistan war in the next few weeks. And there’s a big debate happening right now about what to do.

Pro-war advocates both inside and outside the administration—including John McCain and Joe Lieberman—are calling for a big escalation. The general in charge of Afghanistan is expected to request tens of thousands more troops, and that may just be the beginning. They’re cranking up the pressure for an immediate surge.

But other powerful voices are urging caution: Vice President Biden and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have raised real concerns about the idea of sending more troops to Afghanistan without a clear strategy, as have Democrats in Congress. And a majority of Americans oppose increasing troop levels.

Can you write to the White House and tell them we need a clear exit strategy—not tens of thousands more US troops stuck in a quagmire? You can send the President a message by clicking below:

http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51843&id=&t=1

Some administration officials are arguing for a smaller, nimbler approach with a narrow focus on the threat from al-Qaeda. But cheerleaders for the war refuse to acknowledge that there could be any viable strategy other than more and more troops. So they’re trotting out the same tired old lines and questioning the motives of those who disagree with them.

They figure they can cut off any debate about our ultimate goals in Afghanistan and the region. But President Obama has consistently shown a willingness to stand up for his more thoughtful approach to foreign policy, and that’s what he needs to do here, too.

The hawks are making their position heard. Now, the majority of Americans—those of us who are for as quick and as responsible an end to the war as possible—need to make our voices heard, too.

With Democrats opposing escalation by more than two to one, MoveOn is just reflecting the opinions of their membership. They're a bit late to the debate, but better than ducking it entirely.

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(The Dylans - funny, the 90's are almost twenty years ago)

Since I spent all of last week knee-deep in 70s Prog, I thought maybe it would be a nice change of pace to jump up a couple of decades and check out the somewhat vague and overlooked 90s. I keep thinking the 90s were the time radio stopped being relevant, stopped telling people what they were playing and generally gave up. Maybe I'm wrong, and maybe I was just listening to the wrong stations. Although I do remember commercial radio becoming un-listenable around this time and the only ones playing anything remotely interesting were college stations run by kids whose breathlessly adenoidal voices really made listening an endurance test.

But despite all that there were nuggets to be found. One of those nuggets, among many, to catch my attention were The Dylans.

Together really only a short period of time, and releasing just two albums, with personnel changes going on between the first and second. Nonetheless, they were a good band that mixed up a good combination of psych, shoe-gazing and rhythm.

"I Hope The Weather Stays Fine" is off their first album The Dylans.

You may not have heard them before - here's a good chance to.

Alternate Brain: GOP Town Hall Handbook Revealed

Ta-Nehisi Coates: The Coverage We Deserve

Rising Hegemon: Remember that one time...

TBogg: Roll Over, John Phillip Sousa

The Impolitic: Doctor, doctor, gimme the news

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Here and Now, Sandbox Report, Ramona's Voices, Morning Martini

BAGnewsNotes: I guess all those dittoheads - oops, I mean citizens - not delivering "high-decibel rants" must be "more reasoned voices."

The Rude Pundit: A few random observations regarding the newest torture report

Bats Left/Throws Right: Thank God our long national nightmare of a wildly successful government program that accomplishes something is over.

Jeff Hoard: A Canadian goes back through the archives and brings together 101 of Fox News's worst moments.

Amygdala: Calley: Wrong, but right

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Private Buffoon, Pulp Friction, UncommonSense, POUR

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(Peter Asher (L) and Gordon Waller (R) - A very important wing of the British Invasion of 1964)

I was very sad to learn today that Gordon Waller (the Gordon half of Peter and Gordon) died yesterday at his home in Connecticut.

It reminded me of how much of a presence Peter and Gordon were, during the British Invasion of 1964 and just how long ago that was.

I never saw them live, but rather via television. Their popularity waned by the end of the 60's, with Peter (Asher) turning to producer and being responsible for a string of hits for artists such as Linda Ronstadt.

But it was their sound, their voices that made such an impression. Several of their early hits were written by Lennon-McCartney, and I'm sure it had much to do with their initial success, but they were talented song writers on their own.

By way of a tribute, I dug up a live version of "World Without Love" originally featured on an album "Tribute to Michael Holiday" recorded in 1964 and added as a bonus on a Japanese CD release in 2002.

I doubt if it's been heard very much. I'm sure you're all familiar with the hit studio version. I thought I would offer something special.

Because they were and Gordon was.