MacNuggets

[michelej1]

[Mick comments in a piece on Eva Cassidy]

The Washington Post By Dave McKenna December 10 at 7:02 PM

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...43c_story.html

The saddest part of the mostly heartwarming story of singer Eva Cassidy is that she had to die to get the renown she deserved.

Cassidy, an eclectic cover artist who was born at Washington Hospital Center and grew up in Bowie, Md., has amassed sales of more than 12 million albums. No other native Washington-area artist who spent their recording career here ever sold more.

Musicians who played with her and a small, devout passel of fans still talk about her concerts with you-had-to-be-there reverence.

“We’re still applauding Eva Cassidy,” says Mick Fleetwood, the Fleetwood Mac co-founder and drummer, who became a devotee of Cassidy’s while listening to her sing at Fleetwood’s, the Alexandria, Va., restaurant he owned and operated in the mid-1990s. “We’re keeping the campfire burning, letting people know about her. We want people to know about her!”

Yet, for all the devotion of those left behind, it remains true that you can take away every album sold before Cassidy died of cancer at age 33 in 1996, and that wouldn’t make a dent in her overall numbers. And that there was precious little demand for her as a live performer during her career.

Throughout the year before she died, Cassidy and her tight and tight-knit band played regularly at Shootz, a billiard room in Bethesda, Md. The cover charge for her Shootz shows was $3, which bought you four sets by Cassidy and her band — a cohesive ensemble willing and able to play jazz or blues or torch songs or whatever Cassidy felt like playing that night — plus $3 in pool credit.

These days, Fleetwood (who occasionally sat in with Cassidy and her band) is one of literally millions of music fans around the world who are assured that Cassidy’s voice should never have had to fight racked billiard balls for attention. Next month marks the 20th anniversary of her first headlining gigs at Blues Alley, a pair of performances that were supposed to improve her professional lot, and which are largely responsible for the posthumous fame.

“It all goes back to Blues Alley,” says Chris Biondo, her bassist, producer, sidekick, ex-paramour, and, to this day, most devout supporter.

The shows were recorded and proved at long last that she was indeed fit for the finest music rooms. The anniversary of the gigs is being commemorated with the release of “Nightbird,” a 33-song set taken almost entirely from one of her nights at the hallowed Georgetown club.

“We always had trouble getting Eva to finish things, like a [studio] record,” Cassidy’s arranger and pianist Lenny Williams says. “Al [Dale, Cassidy’s longtime manager] wanted a recording, and Chris thought doing a live album, getting it out quickly, getting her something she could sell, something for critics to write up, was the answer. And Eva said yes.”

They aimed high when targeting a venue for the project: Blues Alley, a nightclub that despite its small size — capacity is only 124 — has since 1965 hosted jazz titans including Sarah Vaughan, Maynard Ferguson, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis and on and on.

Cassidy had occupied the Blues Alley stage before, but as part of a duo with Chuck Brown, and everybody in her circle knew that it was the go-go godfather, and not Cassidy, that brought such a booking.

But Dale talked management into letting her headline a show with her band. He got two nights, in fact: Jan. 2 and 3, 1996.

“The club gave us the two worst nights for clubs in America,” says Williams, laughing. “Right after New Year’s, when everybody’s worn out from the holidays. Nobody goes out.”

But bad dates sometimes beat the heck out of no dates. Cassidy took the offer.

Since all expenses were coming out of pocket, the Blues Alley recording was done on the cheap. Biondo says he helped the recording engineer load in all the equipment to get a break on the regular rate. He also used a box of pre-owned digital tapes he bought at a deep discount.

As things turned out, it was a good thing they had an extended stay.

Shortly after the band left the club to huge huzzahs from the packed house after the opening show, Biondo and Williams sat down to check out the tapes. And they got crushing news: “There was a hum from beginning to end,” Biondo says. “It wasn’t something we could work around. It was a deal breaker.”

Nothing was salvageable. Biondo decided to record over everything from the first night. That left one show to nail every note. Or at least try.

“So what you got the second night was a very pissed-off band,” says Cassidy’s longtime drummer, Raice McLeod. “We all knew the first night was terrific, and we were relaxed and comfortable probably because we knew we had another night coming. But that’s all lost. Now we’ve got a one-shot deal.”

Guitarist Keith Grimes says he fretted that Cassidy’s worrying about the opening night’s sonic disaster would hinder her performance for the closing show. No need.

“Mostly I was savoring the experience of playing for an audience that appreciated us, and I knew a Blues Alley audience would,” Grimes says.

“I didn’t want Eva to fixate on wasting the first night, and just told her, ‘Everything’s going to be beautiful, they’re going to love it, let’s go do it!’ And we did.”

For all the worries, Biondo says, the tapes from the second show played back as wonderfully as he had hoped.

Cassidy, Biondo and Dale formed their own label to release the recordings and called it CBD Records after the initials of their surnames. To pay for the manufacture of CDs, Cassidy used money she had been given by an aunt. Biondo recalls Cassidy being pretty sure she had wasted the gift.

“We’d ordered a lot of a thousand CDs,” says Biondo. “I remember driving with her to Virginia to go pick them up from the CD plant. She thought we bought too many. So the whole ride she was saying she knows she’ll have boxes and boxes of them lying around forever, really concerned that for the rest of her life she’d be seeing these things in her basement. I was telling her don’t worry about that, that it would be fine. But, I thought it would be a great thing to sell the 1,000 we had.”

Biondo probably would have been content if the Blues Alley recordings improved Cassidy’s local fame enough to get her out of Shootz forever.

As things turned out, the recordings brought her international acclaim, and millions of “Live at Blues Alley” discs have been sold.

But those sales didn’t come on CBD Records. “Live at Blues Alley” was originally released in May 1996. Weeks later, while Dale and members of the band were still hand-delivering copies of the disc to area record stores in hopes they would offer it for sale, Cassidy showed up limping to a record-release party; doctors told Cassidy her hip had been destroyed by cancer, which until then she was unaware she had. She soon learned the disease had spread throughout her body, and that she didn’t have long to live. About a month before Cassidy’s death, her friend and fellow local musician Grace Griffith sent a CD of Cassidy’s recordings to Blix Street Records, a folk label based in Gig Harbor, Wash. Griffith told Blix Street boss Bill Straw that Cassidy deserved a record deal, and that she was terminally ill.

That Cassidy didn’t have a record label was part bad luck and part her own choice. The iconic jazz label Blue Note infamously passed on signing her, but others came calling. Fleetwood remembers Cassidy telling him about a trip to the offices of a New York label that went south when a record executive began telling her what she should sing. “I said, ‘You may have to be open to some of these suggestions that some of these people might have!’ ” recalled Fleetwood, who now lives in Hawaii, by phone. “And Eva said, ‘Mick, I’m not that person.’ . . . She was very adamant about not compromising.”

[michelej1]

[From a story about Adam Reader, Professor of Rock]

Herald Extra, Court Mann Daily Herald,

http://www.heraldextra.com/entertain...ee5caafa9.html

They aren’t finished, either: They’re scheduling interviews with Fleetwood Mac, Elton John and John Fogerty, among others, for 2016. Younger performers from bands like Panic! At The Disco, The 1975 and Neon Trees have also been interviewed about their biggest musical influences.

[michelej1]

[I don't get it. Christine would be good in the backfield]

Ed Willes, The Province 12/21/2015

Willes: Wilson is 'the man' in Seattle as Seahawks roll over Browns

http://www.theprovince.com/sports/wi...866/story.html

They put together six drives of 57 yards or longer, went nine for 12 on third-down conversions and ran for 182 yards with backups Bryce Brown and Christine Michael combining for 132 yards.

But, on this day, they could have had Christine McVie in the backfield and still won. Wilson, meanwhile, has 19 touchdown passes against zero interceptions during the five-game winning streak.

[michelej1]

[From an article on the band Jake's Leg which is now 40 years old]

Seattle Today by Kevin Johnson

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainmen...c645f4dea.html

Furrer says other highlights have been big shows like Fair St. Louis, opening for Bruce Hornsby and having performers such as Chuck Berry and Hootie & the Blowfish play with the band. Mick Fleetwood and Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac sat in with the band at Mississippi Nights. “Those kind of highlights are really good for the band,” he says.

[SisterNightroad]

AC/DC’s ‘Rock or Bust’ Tour Sold a Ton of Tickets in 2015
By Jeff Giles December 30, 2015 11:33 AM

AC/DC placed second on the Pollstar list with a $180 million gross, which the band amassed despite an average ticket price just under $78 — well below Swift’s $110 average and the $118 average recorded by U2, whose $152.2 gross was good for a fourth-place showing. U2 were followed by the Foo Fighters ($127 million) and Fleetwood Mac ($125.1 million).

Top 10 Touring Acts in 2015
Taylor Swift ($250.4 million)
AC/DC ($180.0)
One Direction ($158.8)
U2 ($152.2)
Foo Fighters ($127.0)
Fleetwood Mac ($125.1)
Ed Sheeran ($117.3)
Kenny Chesney ($116.4)
Garth Brooks ($114.9)
Rolling Stones ($109.7)



Read More: AC/DC's 'Rock or Bust' Tour Sold a Ton of Tickets in 2015 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/top-g...ckback=tsmclip

Read More: AC/DC's 'Rock or Bust' Tour Sold a Ton of Tickets in 2015 | http://ultimateclassicrock.com/top-g...ckback=tsmclip

[FuzzyPlum]

What the hell difference does it make what music she was listening to???
Alana Stephens, if you visit The Ledge- don't drink & drive- its not cool!

http://www.middevongazette.co.uk/Cre...ail/story.html


Crediton barmaid crashed car while listening to Fleetwood Mac
By Mid Devon Gazette | Posted: January 03, 2016

Crediton barmaid crashed car while listening to Fleetwood Mac

A DRUNK barmaid from Crediton lost control of her car as she played Fleetwood Mac songs including Go Your Own Way.

Her blue Toyota Yaris car crashed off the road as she went round a bend as the band played their hits which also include Don’t Stop.

Alana Stephens, aged 22, was unhurt in the single vehicle crash on the A379 at Peamore, Devon, in December.

She admitted drink driving at Exeter magistrates court on December 29 after she blew 54mg of alcohol – the legal limit is 35mg.

The court heard it was her second drink drive offence and banned her for 38 months and fined her £190.

Now unemployed, Stephens, of Threshers, Crediton, told police she was not driving fast but listening to Fleetwood Mac when she went round a corner and went off the road.

She had drunk three glasses of wine that night but had topped up from the night before but told police she ‘felt fine to drive’.

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by FuzzyPlum

[I]What the hell difference does it make what music she was listening to???

Mac music caused the collision. If she'd been playing Stop in the Name of Love, it wouldn't have happened.

Michele

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by michelej1

Mac music caused the collision. If she'd been playing Stop in the Name of Love, it wouldn't have happened.

Michele

"I think I'm in Trouble" was playing after the crash.

[James89]

"Stop driving my, stop driving my, stop driving my car around!"

[michelej1]

New York Daily News BY Keri Blakinger 1/8/2016

[from an article about Elvis]

Medical records for jailhouse rocker In 2001, Elvis Presley’s medical records went up for sale at an auction organized by Fleetwood Mac’s Mick Fleetwood, according to the BBC. The King’s medical secrets weren’t quite as valuable as the auctioneers thought, though; the lot failed to meet the $29,300 asking price. - See more at: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati....86xj4nxo.dpuf

[bombaysaffires]

I was out shopping at a street market and they had some racks of clothing for sale...found this interesting brand... "The magic of Stevie & Lindsay".

[michelej1]

[Why! I am at home minding my own business and you're going to gratuitously insulte me on two different fronts?]

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-ra...l-new-episodes

The Guardian on The X-Files:

The best reboots need to make a case for their very existence, otherwise it’s just the members of Fleetwood Mac getting together to play Rhiannon for the millionth time as we clap along and remember the good old days. New episodes should create something new, should take a series to a different place or comment on their legacy rather than just muddling around in the past hoping it’s enough for some good ratings. So far only one of the first three episodes manages to do that.

[Wdm6789]

Originally Posted by michelej1

[Why! I am at home minding my own business and you're going to gratuitously insulte me on two different fronts?]

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-ra...l-new-episodes

The Guardian on The X-Files:

The best reboots need to make a case for their very existence, otherwise it’s just the members of Fleetwood Mac getting together to play Rhiannon for the millionth time as we clap along and remember the good old days. New episodes should create something new, should take a series to a different place or comment on their legacy rather than just muddling around in the past hoping it’s enough for some good ratings. So far only one of the first three episodes manages to do that.

The Guardian is awful. I loved the X-Files in the 90s.

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by bombaysaffires

I was out shopping at a street market and they had some racks of clothing for sale...found this interesting brand... "The magic of Stevie & Lindsay".

That's so cool!! lol

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by Wdm6789

The Guardian is awful. I loved the X-Files in the 90s.

The Guardian did think the X-Files reboot improved and thought the third episode was great. It just made me laugh, because my two loves are FM and TXF and this review had to combine them.

Michele