Building on the successes of Biscuit (2006) and gravi-Tas (2008) grizzle n' bone showcases Cru's acclaimed songwriting talents that have earned him the moniker, "master of the triple entendre." The thirteen songs cover a range of blues styles from gospel inspired ballads to country blues and high-energy shouters.

Nearly all of the twelve original songs were written while Cru was riding out his spring 2008, Tornado Alley Tour. Several of them were featured in shows played throughput that summer and fall. Getting noteworthy response is "Tulsa Tornado" a song that pays homage to the power of Mother Nature (so to speak). The CD also includes a country blues/gospel cover of the mega Jackie Wilson classic, (Your Love Has Lifted Me) Higher and Higher.

The CD will appeal to blues audiences who enjoy raw traditional styles as on the title cut, Grizzle n' Bone and on Make My Woman Cry and The Prophet of Lynchburg. For those with a taste for the thick and flavorful there is One-eyed Jack, Can't Get Over Blues (again), and Money Talks. Blues lovers who find roots-based crossover styles to their liking will enjoy the Oklahoma red-dirt stirred up on Brand New Shoes and Tulsa Tornado, with its tip of the hat to JJ Cale. As "master of the triple entendre" Tas Cru goes beyond the literal and suggestive - to where meaning is as much felt as understood. Cru's lyrics show that he is first a storyteller, with lyrics that rouse the imagination rather than simply show or tell.

Grizzle n' bone is available from CD Baby and bandVillage.

www.tascru.com/

On Gulf Coast Highway, Eric Lindell takes his songwriting to new heights on a set of soul-infused, instantly memorable roots music anthems in the tradition of Van Morrison and Delbert McClinton. It's full of righteous grooves and punchy guitar fueled R&B rave-ups, heartfelt ballads and funky second-line rhythms. Lindell throws some honky-tonk spice into play as well, with frisky versions of songs by Buck Owens ("Crying Time"), Delbert McClinton ("Here Come The Blues Again") and Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson ("I Can Get Off On You").

Additionally, Stanton Moore and Robert Mercurio, the drummer and bass player from Galactic, guest on 8 of the 15 tracks.

For more: CLICK

Now, fresh from the studio Aynsley presents his latest offering 'UPSIDE DOWN'
(RUF 1124). Every aspect and quality that his fans have now come to expect is there, from the raunchy guitar, the melodic voice to the infectious songs written about what we can all relate to. However, to simply pronounce this release another worthwhile effort would be an injustice indeed: Lister has matured and honed his talent and on this release taken his first step into production. The result is his strongest, boldest and most compelling album yet.

 For more: CLICK

Among YouTube's massive catalog lies a myriad of music videos, live musical performances, and other audio recordings that have been captured on video or converted to the Flash video format. You can watch and listen to historical footage of great blues musicians like Robert Johnson or the latest Top 40 music videos, and now you can do it in a standalone music player specifically built to listen to audio from YouTube.

The Muziic Player looks slick, yet leaves a heavy system footprint.

Muziic is a music player and converter developed by the son-and-father team of David and Mark Nelson. Fifteen-year-old David is the technical lead, having developed the actual software.

Muziic lets you create playlists of streaming-audio files from YouTube, as well as convert your own audio files for submission to the site. According to the creators, Muziic adheres to the YouTube terms of use (which is why it includes a little video player), but not everyone is so sure about that.

After you install and start Muziic, it might hang a little as it connects with the YouTube server. Then you'll see a list of genres like Alternative, Classical, etc., in the left-hand column and a list of random tracks in the main window. A search box above the main window lets you search for any artist, song, or keyword, while the left-hand window lets you browse genres by YouTube user. Clicking on any user will list tracks in the main window.

To start listening to music, click the plus sign next to any of the available songs in the main window to add them to your playlist. A basic set of player controls--play, pause, stop, next track, and previous track--sits in the upper left-hand corner, and the tiny video player mentioned above rests directly to its right. A full-screen button lets you expand the video if you so choose.

The playlist controls are placed in the top-right corner of the interface. When you click on the plus sign next to any song, it will immediately be placed into this playlist. You can save and load playlists for later listening, and a "Clear Playlist" button" lets you start all over.

The Muziic Player looks slick and works fairly well, but it does use quite a bit of system memory, akin to Mozilla Firefox with many tabs open. I also found that while listening to an active playlist in Muziic, browsing the Internet via Firefox or any other browser slowed down considerably.

The standalone Muziic Encoder is a nice bonus. The simple tool lets you select an image (for the video) and an MP3 file, then it creates a formatted video version of your song that you can upload to YouTube directly from the Muziic interface.

Bill Wharton tosses them into a pot, then stirs up camaraderie, hope and peace of mind.

Self-nicknamed the "Sauce Boss," Wharton travels the country making gumbo and performing the blues at homeless shelters.

"We play for people who really need a good show and a good bowl of gumbo," he said.

On Thursday night, Wharton and his band, Planet Gumbo, played for a crowd of nearly 40 at the Thurman Brisben Center in Fredericksburg. Dressed in a white chef's coat and hat, and switching between guitar and ladle, he stirred up some toe-tapping tunes and gumbo and sprinkled in a few jokes.

"If nothing else, it gives them two hours when they have not thought about the rent money or 'How am I going to get food, medicine or a job?'" Wharton said.

He has mixed music and cooking for nearly 20 years.

At first, it was a gimmick to sell more bottles of of his secret sauce, Liquid Summer. He started making gumbo onstage while singing the blues. After the show, he served the gumbo to the audience.

Wharton says the combination makes for a good show, and he has served gumbo at his concerts ever since.

In 2002, Wharton played for a homeless shelter in Florida. That spurred Planet Gumbo, a spicy, jazzy outreach to the homeless. Now Wharton serves food once a month in Tallahassee and travels to shelters, offering gumbo and the blues.

After his stop at the Brisben Center in the Fredericksburg Battlefield Industrial Park, he headed to a shelter in Northern Virginia and a show in Washington. Wharton plays regular ven-ues, and uses those gigs to raise money for his travels to homeless shelters.

At each show, he puts a large silver-colored stockpot next to the gumbo. Audiences donate money as they get their food. So far, they've given more than $50,000, Wharton said. That money pays his travel costs, buys gumbo supplies and gives donations to homeless shelters.

It's money well spent, said Mike Kearney, a truck driver who came to the Brisben Center after losing his job recently. The gumbo and the music were both excellent, he said, as he added a liberal amount of Liquid Summer to his dinner.

Typically, nights at the shelter are quiet. Kearney and some other residents might play chess, read or watch some TV.

The music, Wharton said, gives them a chance to socialize. It allows the staff and residents to mingle on an equal footing, and gives residents a chance to do something fun.

That opportunity is important, said Bunny Melzer, the center's director.

"Our clients really have to hit the ground running when they get here," she said of the approximately 80 people who can stay at the shelter for three months to get back on their feet. "It's like, right away, 'Get a job, do this, do this.'"

So a chance to unwind means a lot.

Many different people came up to talk to Wharton afterward, to ask about gumbo, to thank him, to tell their stories. The shelter houses a variety of people, laid-off bankers and truck drivers, high school dropouts and college grads, families and singles.

"It's like gumbo, if you look at it, is many, many different things, just like the people in this room," Wharton said. "They all exist harmoniously, and it's good."

planetgumbo.org  

As danseuse Suchitra Date who advocates dance therapy says, "Through dance and music you employ all parts of your body and that includes even your brainboth left and right sides. It just does not teach you how to dance but acts as a form of exercise to keep yourself physically fit," says Date. She especially recommends Bharatanatyam for kids who have extremely busy schedules. "Dance can make them relax and improve concentration as well," she adds.

Drama, drum and story therapist Deepali Sabale finds dance as a good way of expressing yourself. "There are certain expressions or words that are prohibited by the society but those are the ones that may help a person express himself/herself. Through drama and story therapy, such people get a platform to speak whatever they feel because they are in character and people observing them will only see a character and not the person," says Sabale.

Besides these therapies are a way of getting out of society's prescribed little box' and opening yourself to the world, a kind of emotional catharsis. "Drum circles too are a great way of dealing with the negative emotion in you that leads to pent up negative energy. Eventually by beating the drums you get all the negative energy out making you feel good about yourself," says Sabale.

For musician and music therapist Amol Dongre, it's not just music but ever kind of art that can be therapeutic. "If you concentrate on the music, it makes you forget about all your troubles and lead to a state of relaxation. And this holds true not just for music, even reading or painting for example can act as a stress buster," he says.

IT professional Saurabh Limaye says that music therapy is a great way of destressing after a day of hard work. "I have even participated in a couple of drama therapy workshops and it is true that you can let out all your negative energy because all you are doing is getting into the character and saying whatever you feel at that point in time," he explains.

"I just feel we've got festivals, we're got to be running a maintenance budget in the next 12 months," Cr O'Neill said.

"I just feel we really need to get more for your money. Maybe it's time we started pulling back."

These comments came after a Council report, prepared by director of corporate services Brendan Hollands, showed a net profit of $5801.

"It should be noted that although this shows a profit from the Festival of $5801, once all invoices are paid and the last of the income is accounted for, it is anticipated that there will be a close to break-even result," Mr Hollands said. 

American roots label Blind Pig Records will release a trio of new CDs on April 21, 2009 from slide guitar virtuoso Roy Rogers, rock 'n' roll evangelist Webb Wilder, and rockabilly and roadhouse icon Commander Cody.

Roy Rogers- Split Decision
Roy's first studio recording in seven years with his band, The Delta Rhythm Kings, features an edgy, cross-genre style. The release marks a reunion of sorts with Blind Pig, as the label put out some of Roger's first albums in the late 1980s. Since then he's gone on to worldwide acclaim as one of the best slide guitar players around, garnered multiple Grammy nominations as producer for his one-time boss John Lee Hooker and for Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and received numerous accolades for his work as a song composer and on movie soundtracks and television. Roy's exquisite guitar work and sterling songwriting skill shine brightly on this latest offering.

Webb Wilder -More Like Me
For over twenty years Webb Wilder has mined rock 'n' rolls' most hallowed ground and has approached it all with a rare irreverence and wit. His self-effacing persona give Wilder's music - which incorporates surf, country, hillbilly blues, classic rock and British invasion - a sense of fun and imagination. As a singer, guitarist, bandleader, filmmaker, and humorist, Webb may be roots-rock's only true Renaissance man, and this new CD finds him in great form.

Commander Cody- Dopers, Drunks, and Everyday Losers
Ever since his wild early days as a front man for the Lost Planet Airmen, the Old Commander has plowed his own path through the fields of the American music scene as one of its few truly unique and iconoclastic figures. His special blend of old-time rock 'n' roll, redneck country, boogie woogie and swing has virtually defined American roots music. Finding the Commander "lost in the ozone" once more, this latest album will delight old and new fans alike with its mix of new songs and classics from the Cody catalog.

March 28-29

It's Eric Clapton's birthday. From the Yardbirds, to the Bluesbreakers, to Cream, to Delaney and Bonnie, to Derek and the Dominoes, to his long and amazing solo career-- the Radio Hour looks back. And there's a chance for you to win FULL TILT, the latest from the great Chicago blues band, Lil' Ed and the Blues Imperials. Icing on the cake: the LA blues superband, the Mannish Boys, fronted by the great rediscovered blues singer Bobby Jones.

     visit www.TheBluesMobile.com
     for times and stations in your area