Blogcritics Author: Dave Lifton

Concert Review: Jukebox The Ghost with Travis Morrison Hellfighters and The XYZ Affair, 5/3/08 at The Black Cat, Washington, DC

Dave Lifton — Mon, 5 May 2008 23:49:45 EDT

Local band makes triumphant return home.
Saturday night at the Black Cat, Jukebox The Ghost made a triumphant return to their hometown of Washington, DC. The gig marked the first time that the trio, who formed while they were students at George Washington University, has performed in the nation's capital since the April 22 release of their excellent full-length debut CD, Let Live and...

Interview: John Carter Cash

Dave Lifton — Wed, 7 Nov 2007 14:19:47 EST

The son of musical legends speaks about the DVD of his parents' variety show.
For many people, Johnny Cash isn't just an American music icon. He is American music. His was the voice of the rebel, the seeker of truth, the romantic, the underdog, the criminal, and the preacher. In his life, he wrestled with the contradictions inherent in all those characters, which made him all the more fascinating. While that may be a...

Music DVD Review: Bob Mould - Circle Of Friends

Dave Lifton — Tue, 9 Oct 2007 22:39:48 EDT

Punk icon looks back over his career on this live DVD.
Despite being one of the most influential figures in rock over the past 25 years, Bob Mould has always been somewhat reticent about his past. After his first band, Hüsker Dü, broke up in 1988, he released Workbook, a solo album that traded the Hüskers revved-up punk for acoustic introspection. When he toured with his next band,...

Music DVD Review: Glen Campbell - Good Times Again

Dave Lifton — Sat, 6 Oct 2007 16:12:50 EDT

Country singer's variety show offers solid performances
Years before 1975’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” made him one of the biggest stars in the nation, Glen Campbell was a reliable hitmaker whose clear voice, boyish smile, and easygoing personality was seen weekly on the Glen Campbell Good Time Hour, a variety show that ran on CBS as a summer replacement series from 1969-1972. Earlier this...

An Interview with Glen Campbell

Dave Lifton — Wed, 3 Oct 2007 10:21:14 EDT

Glen Campbell talks about his long career upon the release of a new DVD featuring the music from his 1970s variety show.
Glen Campbell is a pop music legend, having sold more than 45 million records. From 1967 to 1977, he had over 30 singles on the pop charts, four of which hit the Top Ten, with two, "Rhinestone Cowboy," and "Southern Nights," going all the way to #1. He's also a two-time Grammy Award winner for "Gentle On My Mind"...

Book Review: Things I Overheard While Talking To Myself by Alan Alda

Dave Lifton — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 07:05:20 EDT

Second volume of memoirs centers around the speeches he's given.
How can an actor say anything new about Thomas Jefferson to a roomful of scholars at Jefferson's home at Monticello? According to legendary actor and writer Alan Alda, you do it not by regurgitating the words of previous historians, several of whom might actually be in the room, but by recounting the story of a biologist who transformed rice...

DVD Review: Elvis - The Hollywood Collection, Vol. 1

Dave Lifton — Sat, 8 Sep 2007 11:25:31 EDT

Hit-or-miss, but mostly miss, collection of some of The King's lesser known movies.
As Elvis Presley's popularity declined in the mid-1960s, so did the quality of his films. What began as a promising career eventually devolved into a seemingly endless series of embarrassing movies. The main problem was that, rather than find good projects suited to his client's talents, Col. Tom Parker routinely slashed the budgets to...

Concert Review: Jonathan Coulton with Paul & Storm - The Birchmere, Alexandria, Va., 8/13/07

Dave Lifton — Mon, 3 Sep 2007 15:36:15 EDT

You'll laugh, you'll sing, you'll want to throw stuffed animals
If you're ever unsure whether to spend an evening seeing live music or at a comedy club, check to see if Jonathan Coulton and Paul & Storm are in town, because you'll get plenty of both. They are the Razzles of live entertainment. Coulton has gained fame in the past two years through his folky cover of Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby...

Music Review: Various Artists - Vee-Jay: The Definitive Collection

Dave Lifton — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:06:40 EDT

Seminal Chicago blues label gets comprehensive treatment
Before Motown and Sam Cooke's SAR Records, Chicago's Vee-Jay Records defined the artistic and commercial possibilities for an African American-owned record label. Founded in 1953 in Gary, Indiana by spouses Vivian Carter ("Vee") and James Bracken ("Jay"), Vee-Jay soon moved to Chicago and, over the next 13 years,...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Music Review: Eddie Floyd - You've Got To Have Eddie

Dave Lifton — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 19:35:54 EDT

As part of their 50th anniversary celebration, Stax Records has re-issued several albums from its remarkable catalog in digital-only formats. Eddie Floyd's 1969 album, You've Got To Have Eddie, (downloadable from iTunes) is among the first batch of releases. Floyd is best known as the gritty belter who recorded the oldies radio staples "Raise Your Hand" and "Knock On Wood." But he also is responsible for one of the great lost soul gems of Stax, "Big Bird," as well as co-writing Wilson Pickett's classics "Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won't Do)" and "634-5789 (Soulsville, U.S.A.)." Those expecting retreads of Floyd's hits will be disappointed at first. There is little of the sweaty, greasy soul that was his trademark. Of the twelve songs on You've Got To Have Eddie, only " I Sowed Love (And Reaped A Heartache)" and "Non-Stop To Midnight" relive the sound of his earlier hits. But that doesn't necessarily make You've Got To Have Eddie a disappointment. Floyd's voice adapts well to the smoother material, allowing him to display his versatility as a singer. You can also hear how Stax, was opening up their sound to incorporate other sounds in R&B. The opener, "That's All," sets the tone with a typical Stax groove, complete with horns, but with strings added into the mix. "Can I Change My Mind," has some breezy funk led by a vintage Steve Cropper guitar line. Neither of them would have sounded out of place on the albums Jerry Butler was making with Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff at the time. There are three covers on the album. The first two, Tom Jones' "It's Not Unusual" and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Proud Mary" are perfectly fine, but they don't build upon the originals. The third is Bobby Darin's "Long Line Rider," which gives a deep soul treatment to a chilling tale of a murderous prison warden to great effect.With the exception of the Caribbean-tinged hit single "Don't Tell Your Mama," the other songs on You've Got To Have Eddie are solid, if unremarkable, slices of pop-soul. As with everything on Stax, the musicianship is exceptional. This is a good one to have in your soul collection.

Dave Lifton is a writer whose take on pop culture can be found at Wings For Wheels. He also blogs about soccer at Booked For Dissent.