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What a great isolated-version of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" by the Police. This is the content that we need right now!

The tuba tho!

Seriously guys. It's things like this that help me to believe that people are good. What a great way to start your day.

Oh, and as a music nerd, I can't begin to understand how the cast stayed together via a video conference call. So good.

Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Bill Withers passed away yesterday at the age of 81. A great write-up at the New York Times captures the essence pretty well:

William Harrison Withers Jr. was born on July 4, 1938, in Slab Fork, W.Va., to William and Mattie (Galloway) Withers. His mother was a maid, and his father worked in the coal mines.

At 17, eager to avoid a coal-mine career himself, Mr. Withers joined the Navy.

“My first goal was, I didn’t want to be a cook or a steward,” he told Rolling Stone. “So I went to aircraft-mechanic school.”

He spent nine years in the service, some of it stationed in Guam. He quit the Navy in 1965, while stationed in California, and eventually got a job at an airplane parts factory. A visit to a nightclub to see Lou Rawls perform was a catalyst for changing his life.

“I was making $3 an hour, looking for friendly women, but nobody found me interesting,” he said. “Then Rawls walked in, and all these women are talking to him.”

He bought a cheap guitar at a pawnshop, started learning to play it and writing songs, and eventually recorded a demo. Clarence Avant, a music executive who had just founded an independent label, Sussex, took note and set him up with the keyboardist Booker T. Jones, of Booker T. & the MG’s, to produce an album.

“Bill came right from the factory and showed up in his old brogans and his old clunk of a car with a notebook full of songs,” Mr. Jones told Rolling Stone. “When he saw everyone in the studio, he asked to speak to me privately and said, ‘Booker, who is going to sing these songs?’ I said, ‘You are, Bill.’ He was expecting some other vocalist to show up.”

Mr. Withers was laid off from his factory job a few months before “Just as I Am” came out. After the album’s release, he recalled, he received two letters on the same day. One was from his workplace asking him to return to work. The other was from “The Tonight Show,” where he appeared in November 1971.

The quintessential discovery story - love it.

While Withers has several recognizable songs ("Ain't No Sunshine", "Lean On Me", "Just The Two Of Us", "Lovely Day" and others), for me it doesn't get any better than "Use Me":



Studio version is here. Whether a live performance or in the studio, dude simply oozed soul. This is one of my personal top five favorite songs of all-time. And that's saying something.

It's too bad that Withers became frustrated with the music industry because I'm sure that he had more music to share with us.

Gross groove. Some good music for your earhole on a Friday morning.

So, I just discovered Run The Jewels.

I know, I know. If you're like my kids you're likely thinking, "well, you're a mid-40s guy who just doesn't know what is 'hip' anymore." To that I respond:

1. Shut up, and;
2. You're kind of right

The reason that I know that you're kind of right is because I used to have a proverbial finger on the pulse of music. But Run The Jewels (RTJ, as it were) has been around for quite some time now and I was just made aware on Friday of last week.

Damn. I must be slipping.

For work we use the Microsoft Office suite of products, of which Teams is a part. Ever since we have ventured into this 'remote work' space, we use the Teams app even more to stay in touch with each other. Most of it is work-related communication, but sometimes things venture into the personal or "hey have you seen this show/movie/heard this music?"

Last week I created a Teams channel that I dubbed "Entertainment Swap"; a place where folks could go during their lunch hour (or anytime that they were just taking a break) to post up ideas or suggestions. During the course of the first real dialogue in this newly created channel, a colleague mentioned a hip-hop group by the name of Run The Jewels. He explained that it included Killer Mike - with whom I was already familiar due to his appearances on early Outkast songs.

This led me down a proverbial rabbit hole of YouTube videos and Apple Music downloads, and before I knew it, I was bobbing my head and experiencing some serious regret of having just found out about the duo. I mean, check out the video for "Legend Has It" above. Or this NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Or this DJ Shadow tune that features RTJ (and that is a super creative video).

Needless to say, I'm glad that my co-worker brought RTJ to my attention. They're pretty great. Chalk up another win for working remotely!

Haunting and beautiful.

When we first heard the theme it was only one minute and eight seconds into the premier episode of The Mandalorian - and even that early in the series I knew it was going to be good.

This cellist's version is equally good. Enjoy.

Absolutely brilliant. A recounting of the entirety of the Star Wars saga (so far) in hip-hop form.

If you're curious, here are the lyrics:

Said a long time ago in a galaxy far far away a
Guy named Vader tried to kidnap a Rebel Princess Leia
So she employed a droid to record her a quick note, she said
"Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re my only hope." Go!

Hyperspace zoom, sent off some battle plans in an R2
C-3PO’s saying they’re doomed, until they’re bought by a farmer named Luke
His Force is strong
Obi-Wan hasn’t heard that name in long
Solo shoots first, don’t say that I’m wrong
It took him twelve parsecs for his Kessel Run

Well, sure. Chewie was charting the course
Luke learned the way of the Force
Blew up the Death Star, he had no remorse
He got a medal, he’s ready for more

Strike back, Rebels on Hoth are attacked
Yoda shows up and talks backwards
Battled with Boba Fett, put up a fight but then Han got froze in carbonite, burr
Wasn’t the plan, suddenly Luke is in need of a hand
Lando Calrissian led them to slaughter
And Darth Vader said to Luke
I am your father

What?! Jabba the Hutt, gotta admit that bikini was hot
Yoda is dying, yes that’s why I’m crying
Take this any longer I simply cannot
Hey Sidious
You were quite hideous
Vader protected his kid, I’m not kidding, I’m serious
Blew up a Death Star, ‘cause it was a trap
Shout out to Ewoks, ‘cause they had our back

Back in the day
Little boy Anakin loved to pod race
Padmé escaped, Darth Maul went ape
The ending for Qui-Gon Jin wasn’t so great

Attack of the clones
Ten years pass, Anakin’s grown
He falls in love but his master is captured
His mother is killed and then that spells disaster
Ooh!
Mace Windu
Anakin loses an arm to Dooku
Secret marriage
Twins in the carriage
Palpatine’s savage
And Vader breaks through!

I’m trying to think… Who’d I forget? What’s his name?
Meesa called Jar Jar Binks!

Now to today
Jumping ahead to a scrapper named Rey (Hey!)
Teamed up with Poe and a Stormtrooper Finn
Who betrayed the First Order, so we let him in
BB-8!
Solo vs. Solo, Han met his fate
Rose got to work
Kylo won’t put on a shirt
Kylo is kind of a flirt
Tracked down Luke he was giving me hate
Until he saved the Resistance on Crait

Now Skywalker's gone
But faith in the Force remains strong
Skywalker always lives on
Wooh!

You can't stop me, I'm a Jedi from Jakku
Fight the Dark Side from Tatooine to Naboo
Let go of everything that you fear to lose
Be the spark the lights the fire and May The Force Be With You

Dr. John performing at the annual Ponderosa Stomp music festival in New Orleans in 2008. Credit: Lee Celano for The New York Times

New broke yesterday of the passing of a true music icon.

The music legend, guitarist, piano man, jive talker and psychedelic godfather Malcolm John Rebennack – better known as Dr. John – died "towards the break of day" on Thursday, of a heart attack, a statement has confirmed. He was 77.

That last bit of information was something only discovered, or at least disseminated, late last year, in fact: in his fantastical 1994 autobiography "Under the Hoodoo Moon," Dr. John had declared his birth date as "just before Thanksgiving 1940." But in a column for the Times-Picayune published in November 2018, author John Wirt unearthed a birth announcement from the same paper 77 years earlier: Mac, as he was colloquially known, was actually born November 21, 1941. The factual fluidity was, in its way, appropriate to an artist who lived and worked in the shifting, hip space of the trickster, and also to one who was as iconic of New Orleans as Louis Armstrong, to whom his final album, 2014's Ske-Dat-De-Dat... (The Spirit of Satch) was a tribute.

While it was his only top 40 hit, for my money it doesn't get much better than "Right Place, Wrong Time".

Don't know what 311 Day is? Go here.

photo credit: Twitter

Featuring @dodie. Just gross and so good.

Pomplamoose is simply brilliant. Well worth your ears.

I've mentioned my friend Nate before. The above is a recent press video that he produced with the help of some fine folks. You can download his most recent single "The Camera Chases" at any of your favorite digital music outlets (iTunes, Spotify, Prime).

And be sure to check out his music and show dates at NateWalkerMusic.com.

[video credits: filmed, directed and edited by Keith Pyatt, assistant DP - Leigh-Ann Ott]

Nate and I go back many years, to our high school days. Needless to say, I'm pumped for the release of this new single - and accompanying video! Available on all of your usual platforms (iTunes, Spotify, etc.) beginning tomorrow - February 1st. Hit up NateWalkerMusic.com for more about my brother-from-another-mother and his music.

Also worthy of your ears, his last single "Winter's Waiting" is an exceptional song as well.

[vid credit: David Ayllon]

Watch Prince completely upstage these rock icons.

I ran across this video of some legendary rock and rollers playing “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in a tribute to George Harrison. Prince comes out toward the end and completely shreds a guitar solo. Insanity.

A lot of the fuss in the past few days since the news of Prince’s death has focused on the impact that he had on popular music, and the reclusive lifestyle that he led. What I find missing from the coverage of his passing is the fact that… dude could shred.

Prince was the type of musician that didn’t need fancy production or guest musicians. He could play any instrument in the room. Better than anyone else in the room.

Sure, he had a huge impact on popular music. But, more importantly, Prince was the rare pop artist that above all else was a really good musician.