Born on this day ...

[CRAZY-HORSE]

CHRIS REA  (73)

lets go for this one:

[CRAZY-HORSE]

NEIL SEDAKA  (85)

one of the greatest songwriters of the rock era.

[Ruby]

Laura Pergolizzi aka LP was born on this day in 1981, in Long Island, New York. I am not going down the whole pronoun road - seriously - who cares? 

She's a musician, singer and songwriter who aside from her solo albums has written material for the likes of Cher, Christina Aguilera, Rihanna, Rita Ora, Mylene Farmer, and so on and so forth - intriguingly, Joe Walsh appears on that list too! I haven't listened to any of her albums but am familiar with her "Lost On You" which is pretty striking and memorable - an unusual personage who uses her voice adroitly and to good effect IMHO, in this instance at any rate! 

[CRAZY-HORSE]

WILLIE NELSON  (91)

is it the benefits of THC which keep him going???
still performing and has a new album out shortly...

lets go for this one:

[Music Head]

yes it is
and me too

[Ruby]

It’s Annie Haslam’s birthday today – she was born in 1947, in Lancashire England.

Gifted with an absolutely effortless 5 octave range, she has a distinctive and super clear voice IMHO – even in later life. She sings in a classical style I’d say, with very little embellishment - dead true. Lead vocalist for Renaissance in their heyday which was the early to late 70’s, the band was in hiatus for many years but found a new lease of life in the noughties releasing Tuscany in 2001 and Symphony of Light in 2013. She’s also had a solo career and contributed her considerable vocal talents to a number of albums by various artists. I was curious about her rendition of “Turn of the Century”, with Steve Howe – here is it … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbwBwTVN0YY … it doesn’t have the shimmering celestial choir quality of Jon Anderson and Yes, but it’s pretty good, I thought. Having Mr Howe playing and producing no doubt helped!

I don’t have any Renaissance albums but she sings on two other albums I own – David Minasian’s Sound of Dreams (2020) and David Sinclair’s Stream (2015).

However, staying with flipping things over, I chose to listen to the full Renaissance album Turn of the Cards, from 1974 …

This, the final track, is a tribute to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The lyrics of the song were written by Michael Dunford and Betty Thatcher (she wrote most of Renaissance's lyrics from what I gather) who were inspired by Solzhenitsyn’s autobiographical  ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Dinesovich’ …

[Ruby]

Max Middleton was born on this day in 1946, in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, England. He is a composer and classically trained keyboardist with somewhat jazzy leanings and a tour of duty with some well respected names beginning with Jeff Beck. He was on Blow by Blow and several later releases. He also went on to tour and record with Nazareth, Chris Rea, Mick Taylor and John Martyn as well as a few other names with whom I'm not familiar. He's released three solo albums - I'm currently listening to the most recent (2013), his Two Cranes which Discogs says is jazz/blues or cool jazz. Not at all unpleasant, I must say. So far ... as one might imagine from the title, a slight eastern/Asian flavour and a bit new agey, actually. 

Mr Middleton has also been a sought after session musician in his long and varied career, including contributing to the soundtrack of the movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He is credited with writing (and playing on) "The Loner" which appeared first on Cozy Powell's Over the Top, and then on Gary Moore's Wild Frontier - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWhAf4I5gyI.

I've chosen two Chris Rea tracks - one from Auberge, "Set Me Free" (on which he plays grand piano) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ge-l9CxCN-A, and the glorious "Nothing to Fear" (synths) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p60exx7JR4.

And I especially liked "Bamboo Forest" from the aforementioned Two Cranes ... (one or two tracks got a smidge noodley for me, tbh, although not to the point of not wanting to finish the album, and there are some interesting parts that compensate - sounds most assured and accomplished, on the whole) ... 

[Ruby]

Johnne Sambataro was born on this day in 1953, in South Florida, USA. He's primarily a session and touring musician and he's worked a lot with Dave Mason over the years - still does. Firefall as well. Towards the end of what to me were their best years. He's on albums by Andy Gibb, Meatloaf, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton, David Coverdale, and others. Guitar and vocals, and he's written a few songs. Also released one solo album which I didn't feel like listening to after hearing the first track. He's not a solo artist and does best with others is my pronouncement, and it's a good thing. Never short of gigs, by all appearances, and seems like he's had a solid and satisfying career in the biz. He has two sons who are also musicians - they are the product of a 50 year marriage that has endured despite the vagaries of being on the road an awful lot - or maybe because of that! Lol! Who knows?!

He was the lead in this Firefall song from their album Break of Dawn - definitely a Gibb brothers vibe going on IMHO ...  





And then Dave Mason made an album revisiting some of his own songs. Not so sure about that, but this is very hooky track indeed, in whatever form it arrives! Mr Sambataro sharing vocal duty ...