1)Picard, old Voyager 2 part segment on the Borg, THE BEST NEXT GENERATION FILM, SPREAD OVER 10 HOURS...
I've got a LOT of writing to do so stay tuned....
2)Different Drum ✨ The Orion Experience ❤️ Linda Ronstadt
THE ORION EXPERIENCE BRINGS A “DIFFERENT DRUM” TO LINDA RONSTADT COVER ON NEW SINGLE AND VIDEO OUT TODAY
Different Drum ✨ The Orion Experience ❤️ Linda Ronstadt
Fourth and Final Single from Upcoming May 19 Cosmicovers Album is Reworking of Michael Nesmith Penned Tune & has Special Significance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
LOS ANGELES, CA (FRIDAY APRIL 21, 2023) – The Orion Experience announced today the release of their fourth and final single and video for “Different Drum” off their upcoming Cosmicovers album coming May 19 via their own Sweet! Records, is out today on all digital platforms.
Originally written by Michael Nesmith of The Monkees and made famous by Linda Ronstadt, “Different Drum” has special significance to the band. When lead singers Linda XO and Orion Simprini met in college, “Different Drum” was the first song that they learned to sing together at the campus coffee house. Little did they know that this collaboration would eventually lead to a prolific (and virally explosion) career in music.
“Different Drum” has been reworked with a groovy 1990s Manchester beat, and sparkling, rhythmic electric guitars, Linda XO takes center stage with her unmistakable vocal performance that also has its roots in a special memory. As a child, Linda XO would sing this song so often, her grandmother gave her the name “Linda Ronstadt.”
Currently the band has amassed more than 150 million streams on Spotify and have found a rabid fanbase for their music via social media platforms, YouTube and other online outlets. Tour dates will be announced shortly.
🎵 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2qU0j...
🍎 Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/the...
🌈 ORION EXPERIENCE MERCH: http://theorionexperience.com
30THE SMITHEREEENS THE LOST TAPES
3) THE SMITHEREENS THE LOST TAPES
4)ALLAN CLARKE AND GRAHAM NASH
KENNY ROGERS SHARES WISDOM ON LIFE, LOVE, FAMILY, AND LOSS ON NEW 10-SONG COLLECTION, LIFE IS LIKE A SONG
SPECIALLY
CURATED BY ROGERS’ WIDOW, WANDA ROGERS, ALBUM BLENDS ORIGINAL SONGS AND
MOVING COVERS FOR STUNNING SONG CYCLE THAT GUIDES LISTENERS ON A
JOURNEY FROM DISCOVERING LOVE, SAVORING TIME WITH YOUR CHILDREN, AND
SAYING GOODBYE
LOVE IS A DRUG
FEATURES EIGHT UNRELEASED RECORDINGS AND TWO COVETED RARITIES;
INCLUDES DUETS WITH DOLLY PARTON, JAMIE O’NEAL AND KIM KEYES
AVAILABLE JUNE 2 VIA UMe
LOS
ANGELES – APRIL 12, 2023 – Life Is Like A Song, a stunning and
emotional new song cycle, featuring previously unreleased gems and
coveted rarities performed by the legendary Kenny Rogers, telling the
story of the love, life, loss, and faith between Rogers and his family,
will be released June 2nd via UMe. The collection, comprising songs from
Rogers’ archives that were deeply personal to him, will be available on
CD and vinyl as well as digitally. The project marks the first new
non-Christmas studio album by Rogers in 10 years and the only
non-compilation/non-reissued full-length album to be released on vinyl
since 1991.
Curated
and executive produced by the late Country Music Hall of Famer’s widow,
Wanda Rogers, Life Is Like A Song features eight never-before-heard
recordings, spanning 2008-2011, and showcases Rogers’ range through an
array of original material and covers, including interpretations of Eric
Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” and Lionel Richie’s “Goodbye,” as well as
the artist’s long-sought-after duet with Dolly Parton, “Tell Me That
You Love Me.” A digital deluxe edition includes two bonus tracks: a
cover of the Mack Gordon/Henry Warren standard, “At Last” (made famous
by Etta James), and the Buddy Hyatt-penned original, “Say Hello to
Heaven.”
“I
think the record is fabulous, and it is going to make Kenny so proud,”
said Wanda Rogers. “These songs are such a beautiful reminder of his
love ‘for the feelings a song can make’ for a person. He would often say
that he wanted his songs to be ‘what every man wants to say, and every
woman wants to hear.’ I think there are a lot of those moments on this
album. This is a very special record to me and our family because it
really tells the story of our life together, and I feel his fans will
also relate to it in a big way because it walks the listener through the
seasons of life that we all experience in one way or another. There is
joy, there is love, there is family, there is uncertainty, there is
pain, there is faith… it’s emotional and real. This is the kind of music
Kenny loved to make.”
Beginning
today, fans can stream two selections from the album that showcase the
many sides of Rogers’ artistry and the breadth of these recordings.
Album opener “Love Is A Drug” is a hard-driving, fist-pumping country
rock anthem co-written by Rogers’ longtime musical partner and former
New Christy Minstrels bandmate, Kim Carnes. On the other end of the
spectrum is the Motown classic, “I Wish It Would Rain,” originally made a
hit by The Temptations. Brought to life with new instrumentation by
celebrated producer Kyle Lehning and in-demand musician/producer Viktor
Krauss, who together oversaw Rogers’ recording, the ballad harkens back
to Rogers’ classic soft rock era.
The
centerpiece of the album is the unreleased treasure, “Catchin’
Grasshoppers,” a deeply personal ode to Rogers’ twin sons with Wanda
Rogers, Justin and Jordan. Written by Laura McCall Torno and Earl Torno,
with production work by Rogers and Randy Dorman (a member of Rogers’
band, Bloodline, since the 1970s), the moving tune finds Rogers reveling
in the quiet, precious memories made with his young children, now aged
18. Rogers sings, “Years from now I won’t remember this day/I won’t
recall the field/But I’ll remember my children’s eyes/Lighting up like
stars when they were five/Yes, I’ll remember/Catchin’ grasshoppers.”
Similarly,
“Straight Into Love,” a duet with Australian country star Jamie O’Neal,
helmed by award-winning producer Brent Maher, a veteran of Rogers’
productions, speaks to cherishing time together with the one you love.
Another
duet on the album pairs Rogers with his longtime friend, collaborator,
and fellow icon, Dolly Parton. The duo, who began their chart-topping
musical partnership with 1983’s “Islands In the Stream,” reunited in the
studio in the mid-aughts to record “Tell Me That You Love Me.” Helmed
by veteran producer and record exec Tony Brown (George Strait, Vince
Gill, Reba McEntire), the song originally appeared on a 2009
compilation. Long out-of-print, a never-before-released, remixed version
of the rarity will now be available on digital platforms and vinyl for
the very first time, as well as on CD for the first time in this form.
Those
sessions with Brown also spawned Rogers’ rendition of “Goodbye,”
written by another good friend and frequent collaborator, Lionel Richie.
The emotional song, which closes the album, offers fans a particularly
poignant ending. The song has long been a fan favorite after first
appearing on the same, aforementioned 2009 anthology; following Rogers’
death in 2020 at the age of 81 it became a comforting musical balm. A
touching lyric video for the song was played at Rogers’ memorial in
2022. Watch the “Goodbye” lyric video here: https://youtu.be/LkxHxeZEF0I
Rogers
also delivers a standout take on Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight.”
The song features a newly recorded music bed, courtesy of Lehning (whose
credits for Rogers span more than 40 years) and Krauss. Backed by an
acoustic guitar, Rogers makes this classic ballad his own, while Lehning
and Krauss bolster Rogers’ performance with gentle orchestration.
“Am
I Too Late,” written by Larry Keith and Jim Hurt, is one of Rogers’
self-proclaimed favorite songs of all time. Originally cut for Rogers’
1977 hit album, Daytime Friends, the song is reimagined here as a duet
with powerhouse vocalist Kim Keyes (Billy Joel, Amy Grant, Peter
Cetera). “That’s Love To Me,” penned by Gary Burr and Jim Photoglo, is a
beautiful quintessential Kenny Rogers love song. In the cinematic
Legrand/Demy/Gimbel composition, “I Will Wait For You,” Rogers’
impassioned vocals shine: “Forevermore, I will wait for you/The clock
will tick away the hours, one by one/Then the time will come when all
the waiting’s done/The time when you return and find me here and run
straight to my waiting arms.”
The
tracks on Life Is Like A Song feature production from a whole host of
producers and co-producers, including Rogers himself, Tony Brown, Viktor
Krauss, Kyle Lehning, and Brent Maher, as well as members of Rogers’
longtime band, Bloodline: Randy Dorman, Steve Glassmeyer, Warren
Hartman, and Chuck Jacobs. The album was executive produced by Wanda
Rogers, Ken Levitan, and Jason Henke.
Rogers’
six-decade legacy includes more than 120 hit singles and nearly 40
studio albums. One of the best-selling artists of all time with
worldwide album sales topping 120 million, Rogers was the consummate
crossover star who found vast success across the pop, country, AC, and
rock charts. That versatility was evident in the singer, songwriter, and
musician’s earliest recordings - from his doo-wop era (The Scholars,
Kenneth Rogers) and work with Columbia Records jazz trio The Bobby Doyle
Three, to his time as a member of the celebrated folk ensemble The New
Christy Minstrels and, starting in 1967, with the eclectic psychedelic
rock, country, folk, pop, and R&B band, The First Edition. After
nearly a decade of hits with The First Edition, Rogers embarked on a
solo career, during which he would soar to global superstardom, thanks
to a string of chart-topping hits, including “Lucille” (1977), “The
Gambler” (1978), “Lady” (1980), and “Islands in the Stream” with Dolly
Parton (1983).
Rogers,
who also found success as an actor, entrepreneur, New York Times
best-selling author, and photographer, officially retired in 2017. The
recipient of the Horatio Alger Award in 1990, Rogers was an active
philanthropist, including work with the Kenny Rogers Children's Center,
USA For Africa/"We Are The World," and Hands Across America. His mighty
and enduring influence was celebrated in a final, star-studded concert
in Nashville, “All In For The Gambler,” which featured performances and
tributes by Parton and Richie, plus Don Henley, Chris Stapleton, Reba
McEntire, and Idina Menzel, among many others. During his lifetime,
Rogers was honored with multiple GRAMMYS®, CMA, AMA, ACM, People’s
Choice, and CMT Music Awards. In 2013, he was among the first recipients
of the CMA’s prestigious Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award
(second only to its namesake). That same year, he was inducted into the
Country Music Hall of Fame.
Changing fictional characters doesn't work. Professor X
was a bald man in a wheelchair. Marvel Comics wrote about the
disability community before it was in fashion... and Patrick Stewart was
perfect as Professor X, much better than his casting in Star Trek the
Next Generation. Indeed, after Captain Christopher Pike (Jeffrey
Hunter,) and Captain Kirk (William Shatner,) Paramount has yet to
get it right ....Captain Janeway in Voyager was simply a disaster. The
good-looking men playing Hunter and Shatner in the versions of Star Trek
also don't make the grade. Leave it alone and move on. As a
documentary filmmaker (lead singer of Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson
Starship's first solo documentary)
I
wasn't about to have Marty Balin tell his story on one side of the DVD
and then replace him with a tribute band. Now that Balin has passed on
we caught an authenticity that is difficult, actually impossible, to
duplicate. There's something genuine about keeping to the original idea.
A movie about Nelson Mandela should not have that great man played by a
woman (same with Harry Belafonte or Mick Jagger,) nor should Mother
Theresa be played by a man, or an Eskimo (or Martian for that matter.)
God
bless Val Kilmer but he wasn't a very good Batman (nor were Michael
Keaton and George Clooney) when Adam West had made an indelible mark.
When casting our heroes (and villains) one should not be cavaliere in
the approach. Kilmer as Jim Morrison was even worse in Oliver Stone's
bastardization of the Doors story. New generations think the Stone film
is the real deal, what a great legacy of Doors music to get so molested
by a famous director.
Perfect
casting is finding a Christian Bale (Batman) and a Heath Ledger (Joker,
arguably one of the best performances of any figure in film
history...arguably) to see. Sure, the TV Joker was magnificent - Cesar
Romero and shame on Tim Burton for not hiring Romero and West in `989
(Romero passed January 1, 1994,) for the "Joker" in the 1989 Batman was
Jack Nicholson playing the Joker playing Jack Nicholson" (to paraphrase a
critic's Lou Reed/David Bowie personas.) Bad casting is one thing,
changing a fictional character erodes its originality. Let Bond be Bond
(C)2023 Joe Viglione
