This week on September 22, Bruce Springsteen joined Jackson Browne to sing “Take It Easy” with Browne. On stage at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, the Boss looked both bemused and relaxed, perhaps because he was so close to his home. In other words, he was taking it easy too.
Browne wrote “Take It Easy” with Glenn Frey, who sang lead vocals when The Eagles made it a hit in 1972 and put it on their debut Eagles album that year. Browne also released his version of the song on For Everyman in 1973. The song remains associated with both The Eagles and Browne, but this week, Springsteen enjoyed bringing some Winslow, Arizona to New Jersey.
Springsteen may have looked extra happy onstage because the next day was his sixty-sixth birthday on September 23.
Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin not only has written some great songs, but she is a wonderful interpreter of songs written by others. In addition to mixing covers with her originals on some albums, she also released an all-covers album in 1994 called Cover Girl. This month, she is releasing a new album of covers, Uncovered (2015). The album, her first since 2012’s All Fall Down, features songs written by a wide-range of artists, including Stevie Wonder, Graham Nash, Robert Earl Keen Jr., and Paul Simon. Colvin has already released videos for her covers of songs by Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen.
On the new album, Colvin covers Tom Waits on “Hold On,” which appeared on Waits’s Grammy-winning Mule Variations (1999). Check out Colvin’s coer.
Colvin also tackles a song from Springsteen’s 1987 Tunnel of Love album, “Tougher Than the Rest.” Chimesfreedom previously wrote about the song as one of the highlights of Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love album, and Colvin takes a quieter acoustic approach to the song. Check it out.
Colvin’s album Uncovered goes on sale on September 25, and she will begin a new tour with Don Henley starting October 3.
What is your favorite Shawn Colvin cover? Leave your two cents in the comments.
WatchMojo recently put together a list of the 10 best biopics, considering sports movies based on real-life people and teams. The list, which does not include documentaries, puts together a decent list that is a good start for prompting a discussion.
There are some good choices on the list, even including some nice surprises like Hurricane (1999), Chariots of Fire (1981), Remember the Titans (2000), 42 (2013), and Cinderella Man (2005). I doubt everyone will agree with the complete list, but everyone will agree with some of the films. Check it out.
It is difficult to argue with WatchMojo’s number one pick. But no Miracle (2004), Eight Men Out (1988), Brian’s Song (1971), Rudy (1993), Pride of the Yankees (1942), or We Are Marshall (2006)? What sports biopics would you add to the list? Leave your two cents in the comments.
This week, John Mellencamp joined Willie Nelson for a bluesy rendition of Nelson’s classic song about living the “Night Life.” The two appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert together, commemorating this weekend’s upcoming thirtieth anniversary of Farm Aid, which is being held in Chicago this year.
With some help from Nelson’s guitar Trigger along with Mickey Raphael on harmonica, Mellencamp and Nelson give a nice performance. Nelson wrote the song in the late 1950s when he was playing clubs at night in Texas, struggling to make a living. “Listen to the blues that they’re playin’ / Listen what the blues are sayin’.” The song holds up more than fifty years later. [2019 Update: Unfortunately, the video is not currently available on YouTube.]
One of my favorite Disney movies as a kid was The Jungle Book (1967), so I cannot help but be worried and excited that Disney is remaking the animated film as a live-action movie with CGI effects. On the other hand, the cast and the new teaser trailer make me think this new version of Rudyard Kipling’s story might just be a hit.
Iron Man director Jon Favreau directs the upcoming The Jungle Book film, which was written by Justin Marks. The actors selected to voice the various animals seem perfect: tiger Shere Khan is voiced by Idris Elba, panther Bagheera is voiced by Ben Kingsley, the bear Baloo is voiced by Bill Murray, the wolf Raksha is voiced by Lupita Nyong’o, the python Kaa is voiced by Scarlett Johansson, and the orangutan King Louie is voiced by Christopher Walken. The young boy Mowgli will be played by Neel Sethi.
Richard M. Sherman who wrote songs for the original The Jungle Book with his late brother Robert B. Sherman, is writing new songs for the new film. But we will still get to hear Bill Murray sing the original’s “The Bare Necessities.” Unfortunately, there are as of yet no reports that Christopher Walken will sing “I Wan’na Be Like You,” but I would think the movie must include it.
The Jungle Book is scheduled to hits theaters April 15, 2016. Disney also recently announced plans for a new Mary Poppins movie, which will be set twenty years after the original 1964 film with Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke.
Will you see The Jungle Book? Leave your two cents in the comments.
, features songs written by a wide-range of artists, including Stevie Wonder, Graham Nash, Robert Earl Keen Jr., and Paul Simon. Colvin has already released videos for her covers of songs by Tom Waits and Bruce Springsteen.
goes on sale on September 25, and she will begin a new tour with Don Henley starting October 3.
