Chris Isaak: In Love Again

I still remember the first time I heard Chris Isaak, way back in 1990. I was working in the back room at

Main and the radio was turned on at low volume. I heard this haunting melody, this voice, and wondered, "Wow, what is that?" It was "Wicked Game", a song I'm sure most of you have heard. The video is also pretty famous (or infamous; I always like to say every American male of a certain age is familiar with the video!) I remember going to Zip's to pick up the cd that Wicked Game was on (Heart Shaped World), but they didn't have it. They did have the album that was released previous to Heart Shaped World, the self-titled Chris Isaak (1986). There are some great tracks on that one, including "Blue Hotel", "You Owe Me Some Kind of Love" (awesome video), "Lover's Game", and "Lie To Me". In some ways I think this album has held up better over the years than Heart Shaped World.

Here's my "I met Chris Isaak" story. "Wicked Game" was quickly becoming a huge single...

From Jazz to the Origins of Rock and Roll

I've been playing a lot of jazz lately and really getting back into some classic and amazing acts of the mid 20th century.

What is jazz? Jazz has its origins all over, from New Orleans Jazz in the early part of the 20th century, and incorporating blues and soul, ragtime, swing, and African influences among scores of others. Jazz hit high notes during the prohibition era when speakeasies would recruit jazz musicians to liven up the joints. Long before rock and roll in the 50's and heavy metal and Miley Cyrus came along threatening to corrupt youth, jazz was considered immoral and threatening old values in America; strange how times have changed.

My own introduction to jazz probably came early from listening to my parent's playing NPR radio, where jazz lives.

No Nepotism Here: Children of famous muscians who actually have talent.

The other night I caught Ziggy Marley (son of Bob Marley) on Late Night w/Jimmy Kimmel. I was a big fan of his music in the 80's and 90's and then lost track of him. He performed two songs. A new single which sadly, was not my cup of tea. But then he played one of his classics "Tomorrow People" and afterward I ran to my CD collection to find my "Conscious Party" CD by Ziggy Marley And The Melody Makers.
 This got me thinking, how many children of accomplished musicians are out there who are actually talented?
I came up with a short list off the top of my head. Read on to check out the list and hopefully reserve some of the music that our library carries.

Nightmares before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, and not a creature was stirring, except perhaps Rod Stewart, or Olivia Newton-John. And Ringo Starr, and even Toby Keith.

It is a time honored tradition that every year brings new albums of Yuletide joy from your favorite artist or washed-up musician. To honor these albums, we look at the delightful.. and the not so delightful.

And best of all, these albums are available for checkout from your Pima County Public Library.

For 2012, you can ring in Christmas with a duo familiar to each other: John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John have re-teamed for "This Christmas." Fans of this duo will of course remember them from the movie soundtrack of Grease and Travolta from dozens of movies you probably can't remember the name of.

Yeah...THAT Lisa Marie Presley...

Lisa Marie Presley. What do you think when you hear that name? Elvis' daughter? A spoiled heiress? Ex-wife to both Michael Jackson and Nicolas Cage? How about a songwriter/singer? Yes, indeed, Elvis' daughter seems to have inherited some of her legendary dad's musical ability. I'm pretty sure Elvis didn't have much involvement in writing the vast majority of the songs he sang, but Lisa Marie writes her own material (she generally writes all the lyrics and various songwriters come up with the melodies) and I think it's pretty impressive.