It wasn’t just Berry Gordy’s dream to cross over to the meat of the performance market during the 1960s. R&B singers early as Ruth Brown and Dinah Washington took to covering songs associated with Tin Pan Alley pretty early in their careers. The natural relationship between musical genres has always been an orgy; Jazz informed…
Category: Playlist
♌ A Lady Leo:A Long Long List of Feline Gems from the Heart ♌
We enter the dog days of summer. These long, luxuriant days are ruled by Leo, the sign that rules the sun and the heart. So I dive into the heart of the matter, what’s better than a radiant lady of the stage? Fixed Fire lights up the stage with an extended romp with some of…
Cancer Cares, Summer Stares and Prideful Pairs: Your Playlist at Solstice
Just because I’ve spent the better part of June dormant doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be back to you for this Full Moon Solstice Moment. We close out Gemini Season and welcome the caring warmth of Summer Cancer style as we came in, with a buoyant Sagittarius Moon giving way to a Capricorn one pushing us…
Beltane Blues and Taurus Tunes – Melodies For Your Mid~Spring Dreams
The later part of Spring starts to thaw and sparkle and sing. Seeds go in the ground. Taurus Season settles and abounds. It’s more than time enough for yet another mix of music courtesy of your favorite DJ ain’t it? This time there’s nothing particular agenda other than everything being easy, breezy and beautiful, like…
Just Like The Ditty From The Motor City: Motown Femme Soul Soundalikes 1963-1969
Another way to measure the scope of influence accountable to the music produced by Motown Records in the 1960’s is to pay attention to how often its various forms were imitated. Motown itself feed on itself, developing so many styles to craft different personae for different artists. Realistically, there’s no singular “Motown Sound.” Decidedly diverse…
Black Magic: Girl Group Solidarity, Queer Love and Black Lives Remembered – A Mixtape
I’ve said quite often, for little Black Queer Boys 20 something years ago like myself, Girl Group Songs saved a life quite often. Well, mine. I should really speak for myself. In the weird role play between gender expression and having even in the 1990’s so few cultural placeholders to identify with, I grasped full-hearted…
Love Covered: Cover Songs For Your Heart
It’s that season in retailers and in our consciousness. February culminates mid month with festivities of Pop Culture telling us the importance of love. Well, the importance of love and affection through consumption. One of the less treacly manifestations of this cultural crockpot is a soup of love songs, dontcha think? I’ve always had an…
Civil Discourse – Civil Disobedience: Your Civil Rights Mixtape 1962-1971
When it comes to politically themed soul music, many jump to make reference to either “A Change Is Gonna Come” or the extensive performative politics of Nina Simone. One could say that’s a pretty cursory and surface look at how the politics during a period of social change showed up in a variety of ways…
Step Out From ’66 – Step Out Front in ’16. Your New Year’s Playlist
If you know anything about my vintage pop culture junkie ways is that I do ridiculous tie-ins to the eras I’m interested in. As we creeped into 2016, which makes 1966 50 years ago, I thought of an Oldsmobile slogan from that year as I started to craft the first mix I’ll be creating in…
So an Aries, a Gemini and a Sagittarius contemplate Holiday Songs (A Playlist)
Once upon a time, around the warm glow of our collective computer screens around the world, Me, John Hamilton of Chart Rigger and Jens Keller of Beat Frauleins came up with an epic Facebook Thread of Christmas songs you might know, but are more likely not to know. The amazing thing about that thread is that…
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