R.I.P Bunny Wailer

 Neville O' Riley Livingston  passed away yesterday at the age of 73. He was better known as Bunny Wailer, a pioneer of reggae and a founder of The Wailers. Besides playing with Bob Marley and Peter Tosh  Bunny also won three Grammy Awards. 

                                                       "Cool Runnings"

"Another Dance"

Bunny with Peter Tosh and Bob Marley "Stir it Up"

A legend has passed but his music will live on.

R.I.P Toots

Toots Hibbert passed away. A reggae pioneer who song may have termed Reggae.

"Do The Reggae"

"Sweet and Dandy"

He he is with one of my current favorites JJ Grey and Mofro...

n

Here he is with Gov't Mule...

He was a pioneer in reggae but shred his talent with others crossing many genres. A musical giant from Jamaica who will be missed by the musicians he influence, the musicians he jammed with, his fans, friends and family.

Battle of the Bands 101: Redemption Song

It is hard to believe I haven't used a Bob Marley song in my Battles of the Band. It kind of fits that  I would celebrate an African musician on one post and move onto a Reggae giant in the next. Black History Month International Music version if you will.

The song I am choosing is Bob Marley's Redemption Song. This ne is just for reference and your enjoyment.

Contender One: Yannick Noah

Contender Two: Stevie Wonder

Yannick or Stevie you decide who wins with your votes in the comments. Both artists provide covers that are different from the original and different from each other. I'll count of the votes and post a winner in a week or so. Thanks for visiting and come back soon!

Monday's Music Moves Me: The Crossover Edition

This week's theme for Monday's Music Moves Me comes from Alana. "Crossover" songs done by a group/singer known primarily for one type of music, but in another type.


                                                Rock to Country

                                                 The Rolling Stones

                                                    "Far Away Eyes"
                                                 

                                                                

                                                Led Zeppelin

                                                 "Hot Dog"

                                              

                                              Rock to Reggae

                                              Eric Clapton

                                              "I Shot the Sheriff"


                                              

                                              Rock to Classical

                                            Jeff Beck (Ravel's Tunes gets Amplified)

                                           "Beck's Bolero"

                                             

                                           Jimmy Page

                                          "Chopin Prelude Number 4"

                                         

Classic Rock from yesteryear exploring musical genres such as Country, Reggae and Classical. Hope you enjoyed! Stop by again for more fun!

Happy Birthday Bob Marley!

Last year I celebrated Bob Marley's birthday with a love theme. You can revisit that post here.  Today, I am looking for the theme to go more with Black History Month. Perhaps to give me the opportunity to dig deeper into his musical catalog.

"Babylon System"

"Buffalo Soldier"

"Redemption Song"

I hope you enjoy and I will be back soon with a new post!

Happy Birthday Bob Marley!

Today is Bob Marley's birthday is reason enough to celebrate his birthday. If you are reading this from a colder climate the tropical vibrations of his music might warm you up. It would be appropriate to celebrate his music and legacy as part of Black History month. I enjoy his positive music, it is music I can share with my child without having to worry about lyrics on most songs. He could write spiritual, political, and songs with so much meaning. I could go on but really his music speaks volumes!"

"Is This Love"

"One Love"

"Could You Be Loved"

I kept the theme of love on the songs. One I love his music. It is February and Valentine's Day is around the corner and love will be on the minds of many. Marley's music also reminds of the different types of loves and love for different things. I hope you enjoyed these positive vibrations and I will have another post soon!

Battle of the Bands and A to Z Challenge: Mr. Big versus Maxi Priest

It is a Blog Hopping double helping at my blog today. Today marks the halfway point of April. In addition to my Battle of the Bands entry this post will also be my post in the A to Z Challenge. Today's letter is M.



I am doing the Battle of the Bands because this is what I would do on any first of the month. I like the blog hop. My blog isn't changing for the A to Z challenge. What you see during the challenge is just how my blog goes.




Since more readers may be popping in it is probably even more important for me to explain what is going on and who else has battles!

Regular rules, listen to the song clips in the blog post. In the comment section vote for the one you like the best. Feel free to explain why you voted the way you did. The battles take place on the first and 15th and winners will be announced on the 7th and 21st. I will normally post the winner in the comments. Of course have fun and enjoy!

The below list is edited to welcome some new battles and unfortunately some battles have taken a break. If you are still looking for more musical fun after you vote, you can check out these sites for more battles:

Tossing it Out

‘FAR AWAY SERIES’ 

 StMcC Presents Battle of the Bands

 ‘YOUR DAILY DOSE’ 

 'Curious as a Cathy'

Sound of One Hand Typing

Book Lover

This Belle Rocks

DC Relief Battle of the Bands

A to Z visitors please check out my friends above, they post some pretty neat stuff! 

Since today's letter is M so I picked a song by the artist formally known as Cat Stevens and now going under the name of Yusuf Islam. The simple reason the song is a masterpiece. I am going to mix it up with my contestants.

Here is the original, which is not eligible to win.

Let the fun begin! 

Contestant One Mr. Big

In my younger days I really enjoyed this band. Of course their is an M in Mr. so the band fits today's theme as well.

Contestant Two Maxi Priest

I stated I was going to mix it up. Going from a rock groups ballad version to a reggae version by Maxi Priest is certainly mixing it up. M in Maxi makes this choice fit the A to Z: Challenge. 

Testament to a great song that it can be  performed by different artists and still come out sounding great!

So which version did you like the best? Please vote for Mr. Big or Maxi Priest in the comments! Winner will be announced soon! Please feel free to share your thoughts! Thanks for visiting and I will be back soon with another A to Z post.

Happy Birthday Bob Marley!

I was going to blog about something else, but it is Bob Marley's birthday today. I want to celebrate the positive vibe of his legacy. I love his positive music and I enjoy reggae music. I never had the chance to see Bob Marley in concert. This past year I was able to see The Wailers and I watched his son Stephen Marley at Wanee the year before. I blogged about him last year on his birthday, you can read that here.I have some videos there. Let's celebrate the music I will post different videos on this one.

In honor of Black History month and Bob let me start it off with this tune...

One Love...

I added a couple of covers last year I will do the same this year.

Stephen Marley..here is a bit of Natural Mystic

Lauryn Hill "Could You Be Loved"

and here a vintage 50 minutes clip (Austrailia)

31 years ago...The Legacy of Bob Marley

I have a lot of Bob Marley related stuff happening in my life next week. However, it was 31 years ago today Bob Marley passed away. To me is the Elvis of Reggae music, the king of the genre. I like the positive vibe of his music. I'm a fan of reggae ( I like a lot of music, if you haven't guessed). I have been to reggae festivals in clubs in Washington, D.C. that are no longer there. I've seen Stephen Marley perform which was incredible.Unfortunately Bob Marley passed away before I got a chance to see him. Great lyrics, good vibrations, plus the flavor of the Islands what's not to like..

Anyway this isn't my first post about Bob Marley and it won't be my last. However to remember him on his day here is some footage from his funeral...

He survived being shot only to die due to cancer(yet another reason for me to dislike cancer)

Well I will leave you with a song...

A to Z: Challenge

One of the things I am trying to do this year is not repeat posts from last years. Sure the posts would be different but I want to strive for different topics. Well U is kind of hard so I will introduce to another old band today UB40. After yesterday's cold rain and snow flakes I need a little reggae flavored music to get me back into the late spring warm weather mood...

They are probably best known for this song...

The band also did a great job covering Elvis...

Well I hope you enjoy...

Blues Examiner of Harpers Ferry Up and Running

The new venture with the Examiner is officially up and running. My first article is a review of the Reggae Got Da Blues show at The Tap House in Charles Town, West Virginia.  The link should take you to the article. The review is about a show on Saturday, where Reggae singer Lenny Kurlou and his band Arkives were joined by local blues guitarist Paul Pfau.

It was a great night of music. The band played a long time with the time change.My goal is to shine a spot light on the great blues music in the Tri-State area. It should be interesting since I will be competing with the Washington, DC area.

Keeping busy in the writing world. I have a lot going on I will try to keep you posted.

The day the music died..

A friend of mine hooked me up with free tickets to see Roger Daltrey of the Who in concert at the Lyric Opera House in Baltimore. I thought I was off the hook for my anniversary which was the next day. However, the concert was cancelled! Just my luck...

Well we had the babysitter lined up so we had an enjoyable evening out watching a movie. The next day on our actual anniversary we decided to go see a reggae band playing in Washington, DC. We drove down to the Metro station. We walked in the cold rain down to the club. The club was completely empty. The band had cancelled. The combination of it being a weeknight and the rain had kept everyone away. So, my wife and I listened to some club remixes spun my the DJ and had a drink at the club. It was strange being the only people in the club who did not work there.

Lucjk at going to see live music was not with me this week. Very strange to shows I was planning to go to were cancelled. Oh well, I did get to say I emptied the club out for us on our anniversary.