A Gram Parsons tribute concert is planned for July in LA. The lineup includes Steve Earle, Jay Farrar, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, and others.

Or, at least, we point out that RockAndRollConfidential.com has it covered.

I reckon it’s true that, eventually, everything gets a techno remix (7.2MB MP3)

Sometimes, musicians use their powers for evil.

Andre 3000’s advice has been contradicted by Poloroid.

On this day 45 years ago, a plane crashed, starting a trend that has claimed folks at the top of their game and those just treading water. Of course, there are those who say Misters Holly, Valens, and Bopper were just copying Mr. Miller, so there you go.

(Yes, I left out this guy on purpose, since he can’t even blame coked-up pilots and too much luggage or “faulty heaters” like some others I could name.)

This Red Herring column provides some food for thought on the music industry’s current situation.

The Blind Boys of Alabama have a Christmas disc out. It’s absolutely astounding. Guests include Solomon Burke, Chrissie Hynde, Richard Thompson, Aaron Neville, Mavis Staples, as well as TOM WAITS and GEORGE CLINTON.

Don’t miss this one. I got mine at a great local record shop. Fred hasn’t got a website that I can see, or I’d point you there. In any case, it’s called “Go Tell It On The Mountain”; Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records is the label (which (thank God (HDANCN?)) has nothing at all to do with beautiful, vapid, self-absorbed twentysomethings screaming, whining, and misbehaving in absurdly well decorated apartments).

You can buy it online via either the Blind Boys’ site, or the label site, which curiously uses frames so I can’t link directly to the page in question.

In 1998, his second album with Rick Rubin (Unchained) won a Grammy for Best Country Album, this after he’d been dropped by Columbia and considered washed-up by the marketing drones of Music Row in Nashville. See, Johnny wasn’t a buff twangy guy in a hat and Wranglers, and that’s what they wanted to sell. To hear folks like Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, and Robbie Fulks tell it, that’s still all they’re interested in selling.

In appreciation of the “support” Cash’s records had received from Country radio (despite critical and commercial success with the pop & rock audience), Rubin and Cash published an advertisement in Billboard based on the (in)famous photo of Cash at right. Click the picture to see the ad (new window).

Said Willie Nelson at the time, “John speaks for all of us.”

Unless you live under a rock, you know Robert Palmer shuffled off this mortal coil back in September. With the passage Wednesday of drummer Tony Thompson (formerly of Chic, and then a very much in-demand session player), the only surviving Power Station members are, well, the least musically interesting: those two guys who were in Duran Duran. He was 48; renal cell cancer got him.

Thompson got what might be the rock drummer’s gig of a lifetime in 1985, when the remaining members of Led Zeppelin drafted him to fill in for John Bonham in their Live Aid appearance.

Even so, I reckon them Taylor boys oughta be careful. Seat belts, food tasters, etc. And be careful of vomit. You can’t dust for vomit.

Dozens of music luminaries gathered last night at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to pay tribute to Johnny Cash. The event will be televised this Saturday on CMT (7:00 Central time), but being there would have been really, really sweet. TV is better than nothing, though, so set your Tivos.

…and not in a good way. George Ziemann compares their methods to another former entertainment monopolist, and they don’t come out looking any smarter.

Professor Felton points out a terribly funny — in a sad way — post by Peter Jacobs on an investor board purporting to address Halderman’s points, and why they’re not valid. My favorite part — which is also Felton’s, it seems — is where Jacobs rants about how he bets that

. . . none of them [EFF members/supporters] EVER had any digital content that anyone else (aside from family and friends) would pay for, and, if they did, they’d be screaming bloody murder if someone ripped them off.

Uh-huh. Keep dreaming, Peter; the EFF includes some software heavyweights like Mitch Kapor (who founded Lotus) and John Gilmore (of Sun), plus others like sometime rancher and Grateful Dead lyricist John Perry Barlow “who became rich and famous by producing copyrighted works” (Felton). Not that SunnComm could be bothered to notice this, I reckon.

The Daily Princetonian is reporting that Sunncomm’s president Peter Jacobs has changed his mind, and that they will not be pursuing legal action against Alex Halderman after all. (via, once again, Ed Felton’s Freedom to Tinker)

(Astute Heathen will note that an earlier post quotes “SunnComm president Bill Whitmore.” Whitmore was so-identified by a Boston Globe story; Jacobs is referred to as President in the Daily Princetonian article linked above. Who really runs the firm is anybody’s guess.)

The famed business school weighs in on the notion of suing your own customers. Hint: they think it’s a bad idea, and they have the story of Henry Ford on their side. Interesting read.

Punk pioneer, former New York Doll, and sometime “Buster Poindexter” David Johansen played a show at a Staten Island rehab home on Wednesday, but it’s not a reason to fire his manager.

His mother was there. (Minor demographic information required)

The Definitive Paul’s Boutique Reference.

Another brief memory of Zevon, courtesy of AintNoBadDude.com.

I know, I know, but Salon’s running a really fine obit that’s well worth your time.

For a long time, this guy — and I don’t know him; I just know his site — had a photo diary of his son’s development here. Today, Biggerhand.com is a tribute to the Man in Black, and it’s nice, simple, and true.

Barry knew him, and tells a fine story or two about him.

American icon and music legend Johnny Cash passed away early today. The stated cause of death was complications from diabetes, but we ought not dismiss the obvious: his wife of 35 years, June Carter Cash, passed away earlier this summer.

Cash’s career spans decades, and includes a myriad of collaborations of the type typified by his last recording contract, with Rick Rubin. In the sixties, he worked with Bob Dylan on Nashville Skyline; his ’69 – ’71 TV show included guests such as Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and Louis Armstrong. Another famous guest on that program was Merle Haggard, who first saw Cash from the audience at Cash’s 1958 San Quentin show. Over four decades, he had 48 singles on the Billboard pop chart and won 11 Grammys, including a lifetime achievement award and the 1998 Country Album of the Year. CNN notes that “it’s said that more than 100 other recording artists and groups have recorded ‘I Walk the Line,'” and it’s easy to believe.

At 48 (in 1980), Cash became the youngest living inductee to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1992, he added the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to his accomplishments. Two years later, his relationship with Rick Rubin began, and he entered a sort of creative renaissance. Rubin stated he wanted Cash to sing and record whatever he wanted, and Cash obliged, including new recordings of his own work as well as almost shocking reinterpretations of songs by Soundgarden, U2, Danzig, Depeche Mode, and Trent Reznor. What could have been jokes — “old country artist does hard rock and roll” — turned out to be startling and affecting, thanks no doubt to Cash’s inimitable baritone and style.

Last year, Sony put out a previously unreleased recording of a 1969 show at Madison Square Garden. Along with Cash, it includes performances by Carl Perkins, the Carter Family, the Statler Brothers, and others; he’s at the height of his power and popularity. It’s been in heavy rotation at Nogators HQ for several months. It’s a fine piece of work, and of course, it begins the same way he started all his concerts: “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.” We here at Nogators believe you might enjoy it, too.

At lunch, I tried to go buy Warren Zevon’s last album at my local record shop.

They were sold out.

Warren Zevon died on Sunday. He was 56. Diagnosed with terminal lung cancer last August, he was able to spend much of the last year working on his musical epitaph, The Wind, released just last month. Astute Heathen will note it was Zevon who gave us the title for my dove hunting essay of several years ago (reposted last week).

Obits:

• NYT(nogators/nogators)
• Billboard
• Salon
• MTV

And a quote (from the Billboard obit):

In a candid interview with Billboard last year, Zevon — who had addressed death with frankness and caustic amusement frequently during the course of his 30-year career — joked that he wanted to live long enough to see the latest James Bond film. Once a Hollywood wild man of legendary reputation, Zevon had been sober for nearly 18 years and quit smoking almost five years ago. When he was asked last year what he does while staring death in the eye, Zevon replied by saying, “Work.” “Harder, hopefully with some focus,” Zevon said. “I’m working a lot every day. I already have great relationships with my children … I’ve already led two lives. I got to be a wild, crazy, Jim Morrison quasi-rock star, anyway, and I got to be a sober dad for 18 years. I can’t possibly complain.”