New England Music Scrapbook Newsletter
Alan Lewis, Editor

Our Corner of the Rock 'n' Roll Life

January 4, 2008
Issue 2008:256

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We've got Thrills, chills, Dirty Water
What more do you need?
When the big beat hits ya
Comin' from your transistor
Like the T at full speed
When the big beat hits ya...

-- "Boston Lullaby," Dudick/Naihersey.
Copyright c. 1980 by Camaraderie Music, BMI.
All rights reserved. Used with permission.


. . . . .


BRATTLEBORO, VT, January 4 - Various treatments for my temporary ear
trouble are bringing mixed results, so it is unknown as to whether I
will be hearing well enough, soon enough to play a few stacks of
records for the purpose of picking personal favorites of 2007. But
putting out a tentative, incomplete list has produced some rewards.
Now, it is worth considering that we get our share of promotional
copies of albums. There are piles of them all around my living room
floor. I got partway through trying to organize some of them -
favorites - but then I had to stop, which had the unfortunate effect
of making matters more disorganized rather than less. One record
which, unfortunately, got lost in this particular shuffle has been
called back to my attention, by an e-mail correspondent, as one very
much worth considering as among the best of 2007. It is "Engagement" by

DENNIS BRENNAN.

While fishing out "Engagement," I stumbled upon several other worthy
contenders for a Best of 2007 list.

My e-friend Maria McLaughlin sent sad news of the passing of one of
the cornerstones of Boston's blues community,

WEEPIN' WILLIE.

Maria supplied the following two links for anyone who would like to
learn more:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/12/31/death_comes_f\
or_a_musician_who_lived_the_blues/

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071231/ap_on_en_mu/obit_robinson

I researched Weepin' Willie back in the late 1990s, when I was making
filings to Mickey O'Halloran at the old Boston Rock and Roll Museum.
One thing I learned is that Willie was being inadvertently sold short,
by there being no general agreement as to whether his last name was
Robertson or Robinson. Unless one searched on both names, one would
only get about half the number of hits that were actually out there on
the Web.

We were also saddened to learn of the death of

JACK EARLE

the father of Stacey Earle and, of course, the father of Stacey's
brother, Steve Earle. We receive few mailings from Mark Stuart and
Stacey Earle. This news came in a December 30 announcement about
shows being canceled.

While everyone else was helping ring in the New Year, I was
celebrating Thanksgiving. Well before dawn on December 31, I took an
Olympic-level, industrial-strength, Warp-drive, body-slamming fall,
hitting the ice so hard I was simply astonished that I was able to get
back up and walk away under my own power. Something definitely broke.
I clearly heard it. But apparently the thing that broke was the ice
under me, as opposed to it being one of my body parts that fractured.
I was lucky, to say the least.

These days, I hurt really, really badly, especially when walking up
hill and putting on pants. Putting on pants WHILE walking up hill
might prove fatal. So if you should drive through Brattleboro,
Vermont and see some poor guy in his underwear, freezing half to death
while carrying a pair of pants up hill, that could be me.

Meanwhile, we received very little e-mail news once again this week.
But fear not ... the predictably slowest stretch of the calendar - for
us, at least - is about to end, and things ought to start heading back
toward what passes for normal.

Meanwhile, it is now officially late Friday afternoon, we have
officially received zero e-mails of news since yesterday (or maybe
even the day before), and I am officially going to get this newsletter
issue ready to mail.

[Actually, post-last-minute I gave our e-mail account one last look
and found a news e-mail from the Dropkick Murphys. News sent by "The
Man From DKM" is coming right up. - Ed.]


= = = = =


BRIEF ITEMS :


DROPKICK MURPHYS
On the David Letterman Show

"Dropkick Murphys will be appearing live performing 'The State of
Massachusetts' on the 'Late Show With David Letterman' this Monday,
January 7th. Please check your local listings for CBS air times in
your city."

http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/

-- DKM, "Dropkick Murphys on David Letterman,"
January 4, 2008


HUNGRYTOWN
(The Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson Duo)
The New Album Has Been Released

"'Hungrytown,' the CD, is finally out, and we should know - we've seen
it. In fact, we saw it for the first time exactly two hours before
its debut at the Newfane (VT) Union Hall last month. Nonetheless, the
party was well attended, people said nice things, and Ken remembered
to put on his shirt with the buttons facing forward. We have high
hopes for this record, based on the fact that Rebecca's mom bought
several copies. We think that you should also buy several copies, or
even just one to get started. Go to cdbaby.com/hungrytown."

-- Hungrytown, "January 2008 Newsdumpster,"
January 2, 2008


JON NOLAN
50,000,000 Zuzu Fans
Can't Be Wrong

"For all of you old school 'Zuzu fans who enjoyed our annual Elvis
tribute gig, now's the time to clear yer plans for Saturday night!

"My ol' ZuZu pal Cliff will be joining me, along with a few 'Hokums'
and other special guests to hack away at my songs, some ZuZu, uhhh,
hits, and of course many an Elvis classic will be performed. Save
some room for the complimentary Twinkies and Diet Dr Pepper."

-- Jon Nolan, "Elvis B-Day Bash," January 2,
2008


THE SILVER LINING
Working on a Second Album

Boston's

THE SILVER LINING

opened for Big Brother and the Holding Company at Harpers Ferry in the
great Massachusetts city of Allston. [I forgot to write down the day,
but I am quite certain it was Thursday. - Ed.] Along with the
announcement of that sure-to-be-fun event, band members sent this:

"We're also just about finished with our second album, and we'll have
a lot more news on that soon as well."

-- Silver Lining Mailing, January 2, 2008


THE EILEN JEWELL BAND
Back Home at Last

"The Eilen Jewell Band rests its case.

"After months of touring to support the release of 'Letters From
Sinners and Strangers,' EJ and the guys will be on hiatus until
mid-January. What a run ... Coast to coast, up and down the coasts,
and across the pond to Europe. Thanks to everyone who came to a show,
bought a CD, and said hello.

"2008 is already shaping up to be a busy year of touring."

-- Eilen Jewell Band, "Back in Boston,"
January 2, 2008


BECKY CHACE & CO.
Looking Ahead

"It's time to ponder the past and look toward the future on this first
day of 2008. We're already starting to think about our next CD!
We're excited to continue touring in 08 and remembering how much
support we received from you all in 07, thanks!"

-- Becky Chace and Co. Mailing, January 1, 2008


HUNGRYTOWN
The Duo
(As Distinct From "Hungrytown," the Album)

"Work, Work, Work. Does it Never End?

"We're frantically organizing our flip-flops, fanny packs, hula hoops
and cans of insect and alligator repellent in preparation for our
second annual tour of Florida and beyond. We'll be out for ten weeks
this time, which means that we'll miss a huge, frigid, slippery,
freezing, blinding, ice-cold chunk of our beloved New England winter.
We could just cry, except that our tear ducts are frozen shut."

-- Hungrytown, "January 2008 Newsdumpster,"
January 2, 2008

IS THERE ALLIGATOR REPELLANT on Batman's utility belt?


end BRIEF ITEMS


= = = = =


OINK
Death of a Website

Did you know about a Web site or service called

OINK?

If you did, you may want to read the story of its demise.

http://www.demonbaby.com/blog/2007/10/when-pigs-fly-death-of-oink-birth-of.html

This direct Web address was sent to us by an e-mail correspondent, who
offered the following commentary:

I never knew about torrent site "Oink," but having read this, I do
mourn its passing. It sounds like a great place to find rarities and
such. This guy's insight on the end of Oink and the situation which
created its passing is pretty worthwhile. I don't entirely agree with
his justifications of file sharing and downloading, but the issues he
brings up are still to the point. Not to mention, whether or not file
sharing, downloading, P2P [peer-to-peer] and piracy are pretty much
here to stay. The the RIAA cannot sue their entire userbase.


VOLTRON
On DVD

On the final Voltron set [DVD set of TV-series episodes, I think -
Ed.], they have several previews. They show a preview for "King of
Beasts: GoLion," which will arrive sometime this year on DVD. In the
ad, they poke fun at several of the edits they made on the show, such
as everyone crying as Sven is "carried off to the medical planet."
They also show a lot of things which are covered up by "Censored"
bars, which indicate the more violent and bloody overtones of the
original series.

Beyond that, they have a preview for the Vehicle Force Voltron, which
is also slated to be out in 2008.

They have a featurette which deals with the history of WEP, the
company behind Voltron, in which they mention the Voltron movie. Now,
it's been known for a while that there would be a movie, and that it
would be a live action/CG hybrid, but they mention that it will have a
new spin on the Voltron mythos (Meaning they will probably reboot the
series entirely), and that it is the first of many big screen Voltron
productions. With the improvements in CG over the last couple of
years, Voltron could look spectacular.


MARK ERELLI
January 2008 Newsletter

I am sorry to say that we have nothing to pass along from the latest

MARK ERELLI

newsletter. Something technical went wrong, such that passages and
even whole sentences would repeat, making his newsletter very hard to
read. It went something like this:

I am sorry to say that we have nothing to pass along from the latest

MARK ERELLI

newsletter. Something technical went wrory to say that we have
nothing to pass along from the latest

MARK ERELLI

newsletter. Something technical went wrory to say that we have
nothing to pass along from the latest

MARK ERELLI

newsletter. Something technical went wrory to say that we have
nothing to pass along from the latest

MARK ERELLI

newsletter. Something technical went wro

See what I mean? It is really unfortunate, because this guy is an
excellent writer, and his newsletters are normally quite newsy.


NEMSnews

New England Music Scrapbook
Brattleboro, Vermont

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. . . . .


IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO WOULD BE interested in any of the items in
this issue, please forward this newsletter to them. Thanks! We
believe this is one of the main ways we pick up readers.


As a rule, we do not post SHOW LISTINGS. The reason is quite
simple. Though our name is the NEW ENGLAND Music Scrapbook, probably
an easy majority of our readers are based outside the six New England
states. The great majority of show listings would be of no interest
at all to the great majority of our readers.

We make exceptions when show listings are part of an item of more
general interest. CD-release events are great examples. For us, the
main point of an item of this sort is that an act has a new record.
The show being announced is of secondary interest to us - if that - as
far as the contents of our newsletter goes.

In the very few, truly exceptional instances where we post show
listings...


... Shows can be canceled, sold out, or even moved to another
date or location. We recommend checking the Web, calling ahead or
otherwise confirming details.


To SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter:
http://www.geocities.com/nemsnewz/subscribe.htm

E-MAIL via:
http://www.geocities.com/nemsbook/fred.htm
(Please do NOT click the Reply button.)

NEWSLETTER's Yahoo Groups Home Page:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uridfm/

General CONTACT Information:
http://www.geocities.com/uridfm/contact.htm


Issue 2008:256

Published no less often than monthly.
We're guessing eventually we'll settle
into an every-other-week schedule.

Copyright © 2008 by the New England Music Scrapbook. All rights reserved.

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