Bye, Bye Kitty
By Jenna Croyle

This Friday September 30 at 10:00pm, the Crooked I will host what will be the end of an era, the final Hello Kitty Death Squad show, this Week’s featured band.
 

With a mix of sounds, vocals, and musical instruments, Hello Kitty Death Squad creates melodies and rhythms that are a psychedelic joyride of rock, metal and funk that leave you fried, burned-out, exhilarated and demanding more all at the same time, while your jaw drops from the sheer musical magic that pours off the stage.

Szuba’s Guitar licks offer up the complete guitar package, working through a collection of different tunings and techniques to get his musical point across. With bold fingerpicking, that creates harmonic overtones that are both dynamic and dramatic, while the melody is always a riveting mix of power-chord chunks that take you from heavy to poppy to scary to sad and back again.

Mark Waldinger’s rhythmic pulses are unexpected in that they deviate from the norm, with powerful beats, unstressed rhythms and a contemporary original style that emanates with every touch of the strings. With virtuoso techniques, Waldinger’s bass runs are just simply amazing, and always a perfect complement to the overall sound of the group as a musical juggernaut.

Mike Robertshaw’s gets his groove on with chops that accent the rhythm guitar perfectly. Robertshaw hits the money beat just right while never adding too much to the drumbeat, keeping the attention where it should be, on the notes. Robertshaw’s drumbeat drives the band, and moves the music forward, giving the band a strong accent, allowing the guitarists to provide distortions, and riffs that compliments his beat.

The skill of Robertshaw is not just sleight of hand or foot, his beats are inspired without relying on speed alone, offering brilliant fills and grooves.

Joe Cieslak is a phenomenal sax player who adds a special something to every Hello Kitty Death Squad show. The beefy sound of Cieslak’s sax is very warm and inviting, while energetic and almost mesmerizing at the same time. Cieslak’s skills are quite versatile, ranging from a very mellow sound to an upbeat and even heavy sound adding just another nuance to the total quintessential mega muscle that Hello Kitty Death Squad commands.

Vocal harmonies are hard and challenging, time-consuming to arrange, but are essential to Hello Kitty Death Squad style. The vocals of Skindell and MacGregor are exquisitely preformed, never missing a beat.

Finally, the most diverse and unique attribute of this six-piece band is without a doubt the amazing power packed punch that Garrett Skindell brings to the stage. As one of the only two bands playing out today that incorporates the use of a Theremin into their music, Hello Kitty Death Squad creates a truly one of a kind sound to be reckoned with.

In addition, Skindell masterfully injects Turntables, Samples, Keyboards and Percussion into to the mix, at times, seemingly playing many of them simultaneously, and all in perfect rhythm and excellence.

Skindell’s masterful use of the Theremin with reliable control of the instrument's pitch is continuous and amazing considering he is usually operating the turntable at the same time, demonstrating remarkable talent and coordination. Skindell, using rapid and exactly controlled combinations of hand movements, achieves complex and expressive performances realizing the Theremin’s full musical potential.

Skindell’s talent and tenacity is truly the cherry on top of Hello Kitty Death Squad’s musical extravaganza.

This Friday’s Hello Kitty Death Squad show will also feature two cream of the crop bands, The Jargonauts and Johnny James and the Absolutes. The show kicks off at 10:00pm and is sure to be the show to end all shows, or at least the one to end the reign of Hello Kitty Death Squad as Erie’s leader of the local music revolution.

Hello Kitty Death Squad is sure to scramble your brain, thrash your body and send chills down your spine as they get their funky groove on Friday night in a show that will live on infamy.

For more information on Hello Kitty Death Squad and show details, please visit their Facebook Page.

The Rock's Backpages Flashback: Wilco Calling
By Keith Cameron

1997 was, among other things, the year Wilco came of rock'n'roll age and released the sprawlingly great Being There. Keith Cameron found himself in Missouri with Jeff Tweedy and cohorts, subsequently filing this report for UK monthly Vox--Barney Hoskyns, Editorial Director, Rock's Backpages.

The waitress next door to the Blue Note desperately wants to come, but she couldn't get the night off work. "Oh, it'll be fantastic!" she enthuses. "I saw the Violent Femmes there a couple of months ago and had a great time. Y'all enjoy yourselves!"

The waitress across the road from the Blue Note, however, remembered to arrange an early shift and is now bracing herself for authentic scenes of obscure Midwest college town rock mayhem.

"They always f---ing sell about 200 more tickets than they should at that place," she says, frowning. "I'm gonna have to try find a space to groove a little. Can I get you guys some more coffee?"

Such are the concerns of two waitresses trying to earn honest beer money during term-time at the University of Missouri, which dominates the quiet little town of Columbia. For their part, Bob and Jo, retirement-age residents of Belleville, Illinois, have driven two-and-a-half hours to be here tonight. They've brought their elder son Steve along, arriving just in time to experience the vaguest apology for a soundcheck this noble hall has ever witnessed.

Onstage, most of the five members of Wilco are elsewhere. Steel guitar-player Bob Egan and bassist John Stirratt were last seen headed in the direction of the next-door record shop. Drummer Ken Coomer, it is strongly suspected, has embarked upon a quest for food. Unable to find a legitimate alibi, guitarist Jay Bennett is dolefully poking at his amplifier and wearing the unmistakable facial glaze of déjà vu. If it's Columbia, Missouri, then this must be the 28th and last night of the tour.

Jeff Tweedy knows the situation all too well. You don't play in bands for half of your 29 years without learning how to warp the tedious routine of rock 'n' roll into acceptable customs. Strapping on his guitar, Wilco's leader dives straight for his trusted, patented Soundcheck Redemption Maneuver.

He begins playing 'Hell's Bells' by AC/DC. That's my boy!

Jo Tweedy smiles knowingly. For as long as her youngest son has been pulling stunts like that, she's been out there, somewhere.

"I used to rent the hall and run the door when Jeff and Jay were playing at high school. The other parents thought I was insane. Those were the days when they were the Primitives, of course. They played cover songs, mostly. 'Twist And Shout,' 'Under the Boardwalk.' And 'Louie Louie.' Everyone enjoyed that one."

She smiles and gives a little sigh. Her husband Bob approaches, proudly sporting a red Wilco baseball cap. He's ready to get something to eat.

"Little did we know," says Jo, "what we were taking on with Jeff."

There are those who will claim rock 'n' roll to be a matter of life and death. Then there are those who have no time for such an attitude. They insist it is far more important than that.

Jeff Tweedy used to believe as much. Indeed, he used to proselytize his conviction that rock 'n' roll was the centrifugal force upon which our very existence hinged with such vigor that he helped spawn something dangerously close to a religious cult. With his school friend Jay Farrar, Jeff formed Uncle Tupelo, whose firebranded fusion of punk rock and country won them a small but hysterically devoted following. As their sound became ever more desolate and mournful, so Uncle Tupelo's star brightened. Yet the intensity of their muse took its toll on the friendship at the group's core, and when Farrar quit in 1994, he and Tweedy hadn't communicated for months. Jeff took immediate solace in Wilco.

"The main goal was to just brighten it all up," he recalls. "Not be as emotionally and sonically impenetrable as Uncle Tupelo was."

Essentially, the final Uncle Tupelo line-up minus Farrar, Wilco made a debut album, A.M., to Jeff's stated brief. It was immediate, immaculate and straightforward country rock. After the fervor of Uncle Tupelo, Wilco felt like light relief.

Farrar, meanwhile, had formed a new band, Son Volt, featuring the original Uncle Tupelo drummer Mike Heidorn. His first post-Tupelo document, Trace, emerged draped in gloom and despair. The sonic dichotomy between the former partners' new work apparently confirmed what one school of Tupelo disciples had long contended: that Farrar was the tortured genius, Tweedy his good-time, honky-tonkin' buddy.

Certainly, few could have predicted what Wilco would do next. After touring A.M. for the best part or a year--with new member Jay Bennett in tow--Jeff's head was reeling with songs, at least half of which appeared gripped by a mental joust over the whole point of rock 'n' roll.

"Just a lot of stuff about music," says Jeff. "The idea of playing music and the relationship you have with it after doing it all your adult life. Thinking it's so ridiculously important compared to other stuff, and realizing not everybody looks at it that way. And maybe it's better that they don't."

Jeff was jolted from his eternal rock adolescence with the birth of his first child. And so it was to young Spencer Miller Tweedy that he dedicated the second Wilco LP Being There, a sprawling alchemical vision of rock 'n' roll at the end of the century. Suddenly, Wilco were making music as grand, or even grandiose, as their leader's vision. Where A.M. fitted a generic niche, Being There lurches through country, blues, soul, folk, and bar-hall punk, before deciding it liked them all sufficiently enough to destroy and re-invent each. Whatever other records are made this year, Being There bookends 1997 in monumental style.

The atmosphere is spontaneous and ardent. Songs break down as often as the relationships depicted within. "I am so out of tune with you," mourns Jeff on 'Sunken Treasure', the second of the album's anthemic bridgeheads. But he finally admits: "I was made by rock 'n' roll / I was tamed by rock 'n' roll / I took my name from rock 'n' roll." On the opening "Misunderstood," he sums it up more bluntly: "Yet you still love rock 'n' roll."

Being There is the sound of one man and his soul epiphany.

Jeff Tweedy laughs softly. Voice hoarse from nearly a month on tour, he is smoking American Spirit herbal cigarettes in between chewing at a cheese toastie. We're tucked into the far corner of a Columbia diner, enamored at the sight and smell of an entire shelf's worth of hot sauces, and persistently catered to by tonight's gig-bound staff member.

"I'm more comfortable with letting go now," he says. "A.M. was still trying to tread some water with some perceived audience. This time we said: 'Forget we have an audience.' And it's a lot more rewarding and satisfying. You don't assume anyone's gonna care. Being There was a conscious effort to be centered on what I really wanted to do, as opposed to being part of somebody else's vision. On A.M., I had it in the back of my mind that I was bringing songs to Jay for his approval in Uncle Tupelo. On this record, that was nowhere near my thought process."

Life toward the end of Uncle Tupelo was, in Jeff's estimation, "grim," despite the fact that the band were at last reaping some commercial rewards for years of penurious slog.

"Jay and I weren't talking at all. I felt very much hated in the band," Jeff chuckles in the direction of the attendant--and in this context, confusingly named--Jay Bennett. "We knew Jay was leaving so we were on autopilot for three months to play out our touring schedule."

"I saw the second-to-last show," says Bennett. "It was grim."

"Jay's personality isn't bubbly under the best of circumstances," Jeff declares, "but in that context, it was downright morbid. At some point he stopped singing I and we when we'd do harmony vocals together. Which was intensely weird."

The Jay who now plays with Jeff considers the behavior of his predecessor: "That is... get some help."

Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar met and talked for the first time since their split a fortnight ago, when the Wilco tour reached St. Louis.

"It was fine," says Jeff. "It'll be a long time, if ever, before I feel like going back to that world with Jay. But it was good to see him."

The world Jeff currently inhabits revolves around not taking oneself too seriously. The beautiful irony of Being There's that, despite all the evidence to the contrary its author manages to find, its magnificent heart confirms that rock 'n' roll is important after all. Just don't be ashamed of enjoying it.

"We antagonize our audience quite a bit," Jeff smiles. "In a friendly way. 'We're here--throw stuff at us!' I think people have really been misled about rock 'n' roll being some kind of important art form. They've ceased to smoke pot and bring Strawberry Hill wine in a flask to the show and get f---ed up and jump up and down like idiots and have fun. I don't think that's retro. I think that's what it's for. I really believe it should be some sort of transcendental release. Why would you want to go to a show and have it be just as boring as your everyday life? Y'know, come home from work, get ready go to the show...And then stand there for an hour and a half before you go home? You might just as well listen to the record or go see a movie."

Jeff lost his rock 'n' roll virginity to The Clash. He fell in love with the scrawny attitude, the virulent mess of noise...and the pictures on the back of London Calling. And, of course, the Clash conveyed punk's ultimate legacy: accessibility.

"You lay in bed and listened to the Sex Pistols and thought: 'I could do that!'" enthuses Jeff. "Like, it can't be that hard! And you read that Paul Simonon's been playing bass for two months and he's in The Clash. He doesn't look any smarter than me! He's maybe better-looking but...So, really romantic, I guess."

Punk was, and remains, Tweedy's bedrock, the base from which his interpretations of other music stems. He bridles when Wilco gets referred to as a country band. Uncle Tupelo were at least as honest in their debt to the Minutemen as the Carter Family, while Wilco's chaotic production values on Being There wouldn't shame Sonic Youth..

"The last time I checked, country music was a part of rock 'n' roll. It never needed to be defined as such. But I still believe in punk rock. Spiritually. Not necessarily as part of a genre of music. To me, it's rock 'n' roll, it's the same thing. It's just some idea that you're important, that you could have some importance. I appreciate the amateurism of punk rock. And I think rock 'n' roll is like that, and the blues and folk, all the really pure forms of music or art in general are inspired by somebody's naive audacity to do it. The ability to pretend you're important in spite of really knowing where you're from, really knowing how low you are.".

Maintaining innocence in the face of harsh reality is as worthy an aspiration as any. And it's surely close to the essence of Wilco..

"It's good for you to totally f--- a song up," considers Jeff, "especially a song you've played a couple of hundred times. More real emotion comes from f---ing something up than sitting there trying to make it perfect every night. Interacting with the audience helps.".

That night at The Blue Note, Jeff decides to interact with the audience by diving into it. He struts, prances, leaps up and down. He wiggles his arse. After a set lasting over two hours, one's guts feel pulped, something to do with Wilco really being five bands in one..

"Being in a prototypical rock band is a pretty stupid thing to do," says Jeff. "I mean, at the same time I'm convinced about it, doing it the way we do it, but you run the risk of getting called a throwback. But then that's actually great. I like banging up expectations. It's invigorating. If there weren't expectations, you'd be in a creative quandary.".

After the show, a quaint scene unfolds. So laidback are the Blue Note staff that fans are allowed to wander up onto the stage and chat to the band as technicians work to dismantle the stage. Huddling in excited little knots, they conduct the ever evolving Wilco/Son Volt debate. Mimi had thought she was hedging toward Son Volt, but now she's wavering..

"Didn't they make you just want to dance?" she gushes..

One person in no creative quandary whatsoever is Jo Tweedy. Browsing through the family snapshots she's brought to show her son, one in particular grabs her eye. It features Jeff holding baby Spencer..

"Look. He is beautiful.".

Without explaining whether she refers to her son or grandson, she asks: "So did you like Uncle Tupelo also? Did you prefer it when they played rock 'n' roll or country?".

Um, well, I always thought it was nice the way they managed to find room for both..

"Hmm. I always preferred the rock 'n' roll myself. I still do.".

Three generations of Tweedy eyes twinkle..

"Wilco's one of the healthiest bands in the world," says Jeff. "That's our claim to fame. We don't give a s--t about the music - we just have a good relationship!"

Beach Boys Plan Anniversary Blowout With Likely Reunion Tour
By Patrick Doyle

In Capitol Records' giant Studio A in Los Angeles this summer, the surviving Beach Boys - Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine and Bruce Johnston - gathered around a microphone and, for the first time in two dec­ades, harmonized on a track. The song was, appropriately enough, a rerecording of their stomping 1968 hit "Do It Again." "Even the veteran sound engineers were moved," says Jardine. "Not all of us are left, but there are still enough of us for that vibration to come through.".

"The song title has pretty firm implications, doesn't it?" says Love. "Brian asked me, 'How does a 70-year-old sound that good?'?".

After resolving decades of bitter legal battles, the band is reuniting to celebrate its 50th anniversary in a major way, with archival releases on the way, including the upcoming Smile Sessions (out November 1st). And the "Do It Again" session was filmed as a promotional video for a likely world tour next year. "We'll do maybe 50 amphitheaters here and 50 or 60 overseas," says Jardine. "It'll be whenever the buyers think is the best time for us. We're wide open for that.".

The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time: The Beach Boys.

Ironically, it was the recording of Smile that drove a wedge between the band members. In 1964, Wilson, the group's primary songwriter and producer, suffered a nervous breakdown on tour. He returned home, fell in with the L.A. rock counterculture, began smoking pot and taking LSD, and focused solely on writing and producing rec­ords, notably the Beach Boys' 1966 masterpiece, Pet Sounds..

Smile, the intended follow-up, was even more ambitious. Wilson composed the album with lyricist Van Dyke Parks, constructing musical fragments with roots in Gershwin and American folk, and directing marathon sessions with the best players in Los Angeles..

Wilson composed key songs, including "Heroes and Villains," in his den, with his grand piano in a sandbox to remind him of the beach. "It was music that was totally experimental and drug-related," Wilson says. "We were out of our minds over how creative drugs made us feel.".

Wilson's confidence started to crack in November 1966, when he played the other Beach Boys some tracks after they returned home from a long tour. "Mike said, 'What is all this junk?'?" says Wilson, "?'all these little snippets?'?" (Love remembers it differently: "That's not true. His work there is fantastic. But some of the lyrics didn't connect with me.").

The planned release date passed. "They didn't think it was commercial enough," Wilson says. He became a recluse, battling mental illness for the next few decades, and the rest of the band became a touring nostalgia act. Countless lawsuits began, including Love suing Wilson for songwriting credits and Jardine over the use of the Beach Boys name..

Wilson finally finished Smile in 2003, rerecording songs with his touring band and releasing it as an acclaimed solo LP. And now, the original Beach Boys sessions will be released as a five-disc set. Under Wilson's supervision, engineers Mark Linett and Alan Boyd scoured dozens of hours of tape, pulling the best vocal and instrumental takes. The result is an edited, sequenced LP that reconstructs what the original Smile might have sounded like..

The box also includes entire discs from the "Good Vibrations" and "Heroes and Villains" sessions, with Wilson tirelessly trying new rhythms and vocal patterns. You also hear the druggy digressions: During vocal sessions for "Our Prayer," Wilson can be heard asking, "You guys feel any acid yet?" The bizarre moments include "Underwater Chant," a hypnotic track where the group name-checks sea creatures over heavy echo..

"I think five CDs is a bit much," says Love. "But for the serious music collector, it's a great record to have.".

Love is more excited to discuss the band's future; he says that he's talking to Wilson about writing songs together again. And Beach Boys session vet Eddie Bayers says he recently played drums on new Wilson tracks slated for a Beach Boys reunion record. "Brian's new creations are just unbelievable," says Bayers..

Not all the wounds have healed, though - in a recent interview, Wilson sounded ambivalent about a reunion. Asked if he's looking forward to the anniversary, he responds, "Not particularly," adding, "I don't really like working with the guys, but it all depends on how we feel and how much money's involved. Money's not the only reason I made rec­ords, but it does hold a place in our lives.".

Love insists, "Everybody sounds great. Brian will sit down at the piano and come up with some chords to sing, and it's always impressive. He hasn't lost the ability to do what he does best: chord progressions, vocal arrangements and great harmonies. It could be very exciting to do that all over again."

Life After the Pit: Hopesfall Guitarist Ryan Parrish
By Carlos Ramirez

Hopesfall was one the most influential post-hardcore bands from the last decade. After releasing four studio albums and one EP, the North Carolina band broke up after a series of business setbacks. "I like to say that the band had multiple eras. I look at the first three records as one era and the last two as another. I was on the first three albums and from that point on there was a pretty large lineup change. From there they got a new guitar player, bassist and drummer and moved on," says Ryan Parrish, an original member and guitarist of Hopesfall.

"For me it was just time to move on and do something different musically. As far as the later lineups, they toured pretty extensively. But I think what lead to the final breakup was all of the financial issues that they were dealing with. It became tough to stay on the road. Not to mention all of the drama they had with Trustkill Records. I just think when Hopesfall signed with the label we didn't really have any experience dealing with the technical and financial issues that entails. The deal wasn't worked out properly. But the thing that really drove it over the edge was the 'Magnetic North' album," reveals Parrish. Luckily for everyone, Hopesfall will be playing two reunion shows this coming weekend. Ryan continues telling us about the band's now infamous battle with their former label.

"Trustkill Records actually cut one of the songs off of the album without the band's approval. That lead to a very weird situation between the band and the label. I hate to talk badly about people, but my experience with Trustkill I wouldn't say was a very positive one and I was on the frontend of the situation and deal. The guys that were in the band after I left had to deal with that drama way more than I had to. It ultimately pushed the band into breaking up," Parrish laments.

The guitarist then tells Noisecreep about his time immediately after quitting Hopesfall. "When I left the group, I had the opportunity to move from Charlotte to Nashville to play in a band that I was a huge fan of called Celebrity. I ended up releasing two albums and one EP through Doghouse Records with them. We toured a lot too. It was more on the melodic side of things and it was a nice change of pace. I did that for about five years."

Since Celebrity split up, Parrish has kept busy working for Noisecreep's parent company, AOL. "By the time that band broke up, I was already in my late-20s and my priorities shifted. While I was in Celebrity I was just taking odd jobs to pay my bills, but when we split up, I decided to go back to school and get another degree. I had already received one in psychology while I was in Hopesfall, but I never used it.

"Since I was now living in Nashville, I decided to learn about audio production and technology. I eventually interned at a couple of places and got some experience. I worked at night at other jobs to survive. Earlier in 2011 I had an internship at a company here called Tail Light which does music video production and television commercial stuff. One of the main guys that worked there ended up leaving the company for a company called Studio Now which AOL had bought out about a year and a half ago. He approached me one day and asked if I would be interested in coming over for an interview. So I got hired earlier this year.

"What we do is bring video to scale for web and I help produce and coordinate shoots around the country for various partners. I love it. My experience here has been very positive from the people to the actual work. I feel fortunate to be able to do it for a living," says Parrish.

That brought us to Hopesfall's upcoming reunion shows. "We'll be playing two gigs and the first one started out with an invite from the band Codeseven. They asked us if we would be interested in reuniting the first era of the band and we agreed to do it. I don't think a lot of fans of the band got to see the version I played in and it's also the 10 year anniversary of our album, 'No Wings to Speak Of.' It's just a great time for us to be playing together again. That one will be in Winston-Salem. The second show will be in our hometown of Charlotte with Rosetta and Harvard. That's all that we have on the horizon for now, but who knows what the future will bring."

Hopesfall w/ Codeseven – August 5th – Winston-Salem, NC @ Ziggy's
Hopesfall w/ Harvard – August 6th - Charlotte, NC @ Amo's Southend

UK Expert Reconstructs "Missing" Beethoven Movement

By Mike Collett-White

A movement from a Beethoven string quartet which was discarded by the composer and replaced by a new version has been reconstructed by a musical expert in Manchester, northern England.

The piece, originally composed by the German maestro in 1799, will be performed by Manchester University's resident string quartet on Thursday, when the academic involved, Professor Barry Cooper, will also give a seminar..

"We have something probably very close to what Beethoven wrote out, although not exactly the same," Cooper told Reuters..

The "lost" piece of music was part of the "String Quartet in G, Opus 18 Number 2", and Thursday's recital will "almost certainly" be the first time it has been performed since Beethoven's lifetime, said Cooper, the university's professor of music..

He reconstructed the movement based on surviving detailed "sketches" for every one of its 74 bars..

The existence of the sketches was established in 1977, but in the 1980s a receipt was found that showed the composer, then aged 28, had delivered the manuscripts for three new quartets in October 1799..

The works -- Op 18 Nos 1-3 -- were sold to a Prince Lobkowitz for 200 florins..

But the following year Beethoven revised Nos 1 and 2, including a completely new slow movement for No 2 in which little of the original material remained and the rhythm was completely different..

"During the period that Lobkowitz had the early version of Nos 1 and 2, it seems inconceivable that he would not have arranged for a performance of them, or more likely several performances, since that was the whole point of commissioning them," Cooper explained..

While the receipt for the works showed that Beethoven must have written out the music in full, that version has been lost, prompting Cooper to reconstruct it based on the sketches..

"In the early 1990s, I thought it could be possible to reconstruct the movement, but while it was possible, I had lots of other things to do," he said..

Asked how accurate he thought the reconstruction was, he replied: "All modern performances are approximations, and mine is a bit more approximate than those.".

He added that the sketches were probably "very close" to the finished version, although he had to fill in "quite a few" of the lower parts..

Jessy Dixon, Gospel Legend, Dead at 73

Jessy Dixon, a singer and songwriter who introduced his energetic style of gospel music to wider audiences by serving as pop singer Paul Simon's opening act, died Monday. He was 73.

Miriam Dixon said her brother died Monday morning at his Chicago home. She said he had been sick but declined to provide additional details.

During a more than 50-year career, Dixon wrote songs for several popular singers, including jazz and rhythm and blues singer Randy Crawford. He later wrote songs performed by Cher, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole and Amy Grant.

But it was for his gospel singing — religious music that combined the rhythmic beat of blues, jazz and soul — that Dixon first gained attention. It was during an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1972 with his Jessy Dixon Singers that Dixon first came to Simon's attention. For the next eight years, Dixon toured with the pop icon, collaborating on Simon's `Live Rhymin' Simon' and `Still Crazy' albums.

Dixon also played keyboard with Earth Wind and Fire and guitarist Phillip Upchurch.

Dixon, who began studying music at age 5, aspired to be classical pianist but told The Associated Press in a 1997 interview that he always knew his talent was destined for use in the church.

Born March 12, 1938, in San Antonio, Dixon's professional compass was set by gospel music legend James Cleveland, who heard Dixon's teen group perform at a theatre in the south Texas city. Dixon said Cleveland liked the group, but he liked Dixon more and persuaded him to move to Chicago to join his group, the Gospel Chimes, as both a singer and pianist.

Chicago's South Side was the place to be for a gospel musician, especially in the early 1960s.

"Going to church was like going to school," Dixon said. At church, he heard the likes of Mahalia Jackson and blues pioneer Thomas A. Dorsey, who is credited with creating modern gospel singing.

"Reading his (Dorsey's) music and studying it, he was the one who wrote for Tennessee Ernie Ford, Elvis Presley and Pat Boone," Dixon said. "All these people were singing his music and were making it commercial."

Dixon credited the creativity of artists like percussionist Maurice White and blues singer Willie Dixon, no relation, inspired him to compose. He started with choral music for Chicago's Thompson Community Singers, for which he sat at the keyboards. Several of his early songs have become classics, sung in churches across America, including: "Sit At His Feet and be Blessed," "These Old Heavy Burdens" and "I Love to Praise His Name."

His more recent compositions gained him even wider acceptance. Dixon's "I Am Redeemed," released in 1993, lingered on Billboard magazine's gospel chart for more than five years.

After his stint with Simon ended, Dixon rode a wave of increased gospel music interest during the 1980s to build a following in Europe.

During his 1997 interview, Dixon noted that when he first began touring on his own outside the United States in the 1980s, the small audiences didn't have much respect for gospel as religious expression.

"At first it was viewed as entertainment," he said. "But now when I go, they ask me to share my faith as a Christian."

In the United States, Dixon was a long-time fixture on composer and singer Bill Gaither's Gospel Series, video concert broadcast on religious oriented cable television stations.

During his career, Dixon was able to produce five gold records and garner several Grammy nominations.

Dixon, is survived by a brother and sister.

Bluegrass World Celebrates Monroe Centennial

Ricky Skaggs can imagine the look his old friend Bill Monroe might have had on his face if he were alive today to see the bluegrass world celebrate his legacy.

"He would get out of the car and have that back straight as an arrow, and he'd have that hat on, and he'd be pulling it off and thanking people," Skaggs said. "He'd really be happy about people celebrating his life.".

As members of the International Bluegrass Music Association gather for their annual awards and conference in Nashville this week, Monroe and the message of his music are foremost on their minds. Monroe, the architect of bluegrass and a patron saint of country music, would have turned 100 on Sept. 13. He died in 1996 at the age of 84. Monroe is being honored with concerts in his memory and historical discussions this week, and he'll play a prominent role during the Bluegrass Awards on Thursday as well..

He left behind a legacy that's more vital and thriving than ever and a diaspora of former players and acolytes who continue to spread his music today. Bluegrass, developed from roots deep in the soil of his native Kentucky, has spread around the world. It's evolved with each generation that's passed since that mythic "birth of bluegrass" concert in December 1945 at The Ryman Auditorium that featured the debut of pioneering banjo player Earl Scruggs and guitarist Lester Flatt..

"Every country that I've ever been in in my whole life, I've always run into somebody who's either talked to me about bluegrass or there was a bluegrass band there, whether it was Russia, Thailand, wherever I've been," Skaggs said. "It's a huge music that's crossed lines.".

Monroe will be a featured presence at The Ryman on Thursday night when lead nominees The Boxcars, Russell Moore & IIIrd Tyme Out, The Gibson Brothers and Alison Krauss & Union Station featuring Jerry Douglas join most of the genre's biggest names for the annual IBMA Bluegrass Awards. He's always been revered in Nashville, but the centennial gives those who knew him a welcome chance to talk about their memories and tell stories about a man who was larger than life..

"I think it's a great time because we still have so many originators of styles such as Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs is still around, Doc Watson we still have, and we've got all these great young new bands," said Sam Bush, who will host the awards show. "Some of them play what you call Nu Grass and some of them take great pride in following the tradition of Bill Monroe. So I think he'd be pretty proud of the entire scene that's going on here.".

Bush said he'll focus his remarks on something he once heard Monroe say after listening to a player mimic his sound flawlessly: "Bill looked at him and said, `Now that's real good. What can you play on your own?'".

Monroe, born on a farm near Rosine, Ky., was already arguably country music's greatest mandolin player when he formed his Blue Grass Boys in 1938 and began refining his sound..

"Bill Monroe was one of the greatest experimenters of them all," Skaggs said. "The whole creation of bluegrass was an experiment. It was a test-tube baby.".

By the time he found Scruggs — Monroe reportedly began to dance with joy as Scruggs showed him his new three-fingered playing style — he was writing songs that would help redefine country music..

"One time he told me, `People don't know it, but I learn from them,'" said Del McCoury, who was Monroe's lead singer for a year in 1963-64. "He meant other musicians. His music comes from a lot of different styles, jazz and what he heard as a kid.".

In turn, he would influence new generations of young listeners with his sound. Doyle Lawson first heard Monroe in the late `40s on an Opry broadcast..

"I fell in love with it," Lawson said. "I asked my mother, `Who is that?' and she told me it's Bill and he played mandolin and he sang really high. And from that day on I never took my eye off the ball. I knew I was going to play music."

Visit them online at www.ibma.org

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Requiem For Oblivion is still seeking a guitarist. If you have the madness or know someone who does send them to these animals to feast upon. We must bring Requiem For Oblivion back to life with the blood of a young virgin & bow down at their feet as they hypnotize us with their lyrics.

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I have openings in October and November for radio interviews on COOL 101.7 fm. Thursday mornings. You would need to be in studio (Meadville) by 7:45 am, out by 8:30 am. (Catching the driving to work listeners and businesses) It's a great chance to promote your upcoming gigs, cds and more. Family friendly, we need to keep within the studio's programming guidelines. Cover bands/artists welcomed as well as original. Metal bands must be not too heavy... no gutterals, etc. Rock/classic is fine. One band member can come with a CD, or bring everyone and do something live. COOL 101.7 supports local music and reaches from Erie to Slippery Rock (and below on a good day) west into Ohio, and also includes a new Cory station, and more. Good exposure. PLUS you can listen live via your computer anywhere!

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The Cure to Perform First Three Albums
By Matthew Perpetua

The Cure have announced plans to perform their first three albums - 1979's Three Imaginary Boys, 1980's Seventeen Seconds and 1981's Faith- in their entirety at a series of concerts in London, Los Angeles and New York City. The band previously played these albums in full at their "Reflections" show at the Vivid Festival in Sydney earlier this year. According to the band's website, these seven concerts will be the last times the records will be performed live.

The dates for the Cure's shows, which are perfectly timed to celebrate the band's nomination to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, are as follows:

11/15 London, England - Royal Albert Hall
11/21 Los Angeles - Pantages Theatre
11/22 Los Angeles - Pantages Theatre
11/23 Los Angeles - Pantages Theatre
11/25 New York City - Beacon Theatre
11/26 New York City - Beacon Theatre
11/27 New York City - Beacon Theatre

"Country" Johnny Mathis Dead at 80
By Kenneth Partridge

"Country" Johnny Mathis, a singer and songwriter credited with penning more than 400 tunes over the course of his 60-plus-year career, died yesterday (Sept. 27) in Nashville. He was 80.

While Johnny shared his name with another performer -- legendary pop crooner Johnny Mathis -- he enjoyed a remarkable career in his own right. He got his start in 1949, when he signed to the StarTalent label, and in subsequent decades he recorded for Chess, Columbia and Mercury, among other labels.

In 1953, as part of the duo Jimmy and Johnny, he scored a Top 10 hit with 'If You Don't Somebody Else Will.' A decade later, he nabbed his highest-charting solo single, 'Please Talk to My Heart,' which reached the Top 15.

Over the years, numerous big-name artists have recorded Johnny's songs, including George Jones, Charley Pride, Johnny Paycheck, Tammy Wynette and even Elvis Costello.

Johnny had been in poor health following a 1999 stroke, and prior to that, he'd spent the last few decades singing gospel music and focusing on his family. He's survived by four children and Jeannie Mathis, his wife of 43 years.