A New Bigsby-Equipped Traditional Les Paul from Gibson

New Les Paul Traditional model features a Bigsby B-70 tailpiece

Here's what Gibson has to say ...

Designed to showcase the best features displayed by Les Paul during the six decades of its existence, Les Paul Traditional is an heir to mount on the guitar that Eric Clapton featured in the mid 60s, and quickly became the weapon of choice for many top players, including Mike Bloomfield, Jimmy Page, Paul Kossoff, Jeff Beck. To catch a preferred option by everyone from Neil Young, Keith Richards, Joe Perry to Carl Perkins and original Son Volt guitarist Dave Boquist, Gibson USA now offers the Les Paul Traditional with Bigsby.

Equipped with an original Bigsby ® B-70's tip, this instrument gives you all the fat, singing tone that the world's leading guitar solo cut is known, the more the versatility of a tremolo unit for a vintage style Work expressive lead and rhythm player quivering. As such, it is a package with a very broad appeal, suitable for a wide variety of styles of play

Bigsby Les Paul Traditional is formulated in all the classic ingredients that have helped make this model a legend, and features a killer show thanks to a magnificent high-gloss nitrocellulose black ebony. Carved maple top to promote clarity and sustain, while mahogany adds depth and richness. Like all the Les Paul guitar, the traditional use of modern relief printing to increase resonance and reduce weight. Solid one-piece quarter sawn mahogany neck is glued to the traditional mortis and Tenon Joint, and is derived from a profile of 'traditional', which measures 0.838 "is the first fret and .983" is 12 days. The rosewood fingerboard Grado, 22 belt medium-jumbo, with 12 "radius of each choke-free bending, scoop neck will culminate with the preferred 17 degree reverse pitch to improve the Pressure Die Plek string cutting Corian.

To start this complete tonal goodness in the stratosphere, the Les Paul with Bigsby has two humbucker pickups Gibson USA is more popular, a classic 57 in the neck position of the dulcet tones, warm voice and a bit warmer Classic 57 brave addition to the bridge crisis and rising tones of lead. These units are made with real acclaimed Alnico V magnets and wound with 42 AWG, as the late legendary PAF 50 and 60 years and offer a mix of depth and clarity that few can match microphones today.

One of the most exciting additions to the guitar appear in the tip, which helps give it its name. A genuine Bigsby ® B-70 of the nozzle was installed by Gibson USA subtle, smooth action vibrato that only the original unit can offer. The Bigsby ® is a collaboration with a bridge Schaller Roller ™ - a device based on its own Gibson Tune-o-matic, but with individual roller saddles - for better performance at high capacity when vibrato is used. The material is crowned by a set of quality tuners TonePros Kluson style ™.

Each Les Paul Traditional Bigsby ® is protected by-case lined with plush black finish, and even the owner's manual and the literature of regulation, as well as Gibson's limited lifetime warranty and 24/7/365 customer service.

Features:

• Mahogany body with carved maple top
• The rounded profile of the neck "Traditional"
• 57 Classic neck pickup and just over 57 hot bridge pickup classic More
• Genuine Bigsby ® B-70 ™ apparatus with Schaller roller bridge
• Tone Pro Kluson tuners with pearl buttons

Pricing and availability:

• $ 3,198 msrp

Source: sonicstate.com

This is the night...

Lève-toi, réveille-toi d'entre les morts!

Click photo to enlarge and see detail.

See here and here for more from Kariye (Chora) in Istanbul.
Click the French line above for Resurrection chant from Taizé.

Record Store Day: a special launching from Radiohead

There is lots of good ways to access some new music on the iPad. And how about a smartphone? Do you habe one of those? Right in the palm of your hand you can download musics, sync them up to your multi-media playlist and rock out while on the go.

But do you ever get your music from the record store? Well unless you truly don’t enjoy interacting with fellow music fans, holding some physical product in your hands and feeling the ambiance of rock and roll swirling all around you, then ditch the in-ear headphones and head to one Saturday — because it’s Record Store Day.

Do you know some top bands will celebrate the Record Store Day with launching special album for it. And Radiohead is one of them. You can check the story as written by the Telegraph.

Special vinyl releases and live shows planned on Saturday to celebrate independent record shops.

Radiohead will celebrate Record Store Day tomorrow by releasing Supercollider and The Butcher on a seven-inch vinyl single.

Two thousand copies of the two previously-unreleased songs will be made available for Record Store Day, which will take place in Britain and worldwide this weekend.

Beastie Boys, Tinie Tempah and Gorillaz are among the acts who will also release singles.

More than 1,000 stores on four continents are set to mark Record Store Day, an annual celebration of independent record stores, through events and special promotions.

Dozens of top bands will be making appearances at select record stores around the globe to sign autographs and perform sets. Billy Bragg is among the artists appearing in Britain.

Other bands set to release special editions on Record Store Day include Adele, My Morning Jacket, Big Star, The New Pornographers, Panda Bear, The Flaming Lips, Nickel Creek, Superchunk, and Phish. The Rolling Stones are also releasing a seven-inch of Brown Sugar.

Spencer Hickman, founder of Rough Trade Records and the person behind UK Independent Record Store Day believes the future looks bright for independents.

"There's lot of love out there for the old independent record shop," he says.

"People are waking up to the fact that all towns across the country are becoming identikit, and the small indie retailers are disappearing. They don't want this anymore and are finally saying 'No, enough is enough'."

New Single ‘Teenage Daughters‘: Martina McBride‘s Clever Performance

Martina McBride gave a clever performance of her co-written new single ‘Teenage Daughters‘ on Las Vegas’ MGM Grand stage, while photos of her three daughters ran on the big screen behind her.

2011′s ACM Awards co-host Reba McEntire took it upon herself to introduce Martina McBride‘s performance of ‘Teenage Daughters’ in order to share that she could relate to the stressed singer, who is currently raising three girls.

Martina McBride new single 'Teenage Daughters' now available on iTunes at the same day (March 29), McBride’s daughter Emma became a teenager! Emma celebrated her 13th birthday.

“I couldn’t believe it when I noticed the single release date was the same day Emma turns 13!” Martina said. “How fitting that I have another teenager in the house on the very day.”

Earlier this week, ironically the same day that ‘Teenage Daughters‘ hit iTunes, McBride quickly found herself raising not one, but two teenage girls, when her middle daughter Emma celebrated her 13th birthday. McBride is also raising 16-year-old Delaney and 5-year-old Ava. Martina shared that it was an exchange with the older daughter that inspired the topic of her latest single, which she co-wrote with the Warren Brothers. We wish her the best of luck!
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Dixie Chicks: Natalie Maines Releases New Song "God Only Knows"

Dixie Chicks fans have waited nearly five years – since 2006's Grammy-winning album "Taking the Long Way" – to hear new recorded material from Natalie Maines. Now, she's singing a new tune. Actually, the song isn't so new: It's a cover of the Beach Boys's classic "God Only Knows" – recorded by Maines, 36, for the series finale of HBO's Big Love, set to air March 20.

The Dixie Chicks have been off the radar for a while, which is all the more reason to catch "Shut Up & Sing" (8 p.m. Saturday, Country Music Television), the documentary that trails the country darlings as they recover from the backlash that followed their onstage slam of President George W. Bush and their subsequent album. The criticism may have stung, but it did lead to an armful of Grammys and an instant country classic, "Not Ready to Make Nice."

The Dixie Chicks are an American alternative country band which has also successfully crossed over into other genres. The band is composed of founding members (and sisters) Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, and lead singer Natalie Maines. The band formed in 1989 in Dallas, Texas and was originally composed of four women performing bluegrass and country music, busking and touring the bluegrass festival circuits and small venues for six years without attracting a major label. After the departure of one bandmate, the replacement of their lead singer, and a slight change in their repertoire, the Dixie Chicks achieved country music and pop success, beginning in 1998 with hit songs including "Wide Open Spaces", "Cowboy Take Me Away", and "Long Time Gone". The women also became well-known for their independent spirit and controversial comments on subjects such as war and politics.

During a London concert ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Maines said, "we don't want this war, this violence, and we're ashamed that the President of the United States (George W. Bush) is from Texas" (the Dixie Chicks' home state). The statement offended many people, who thought it rude and unpatriotic, and the ensuing controversy cost the band half of their concert audience attendance in the United States and led to accusations of the three women being "un-American", as well as hate mail, a death threat, and the public destruction of their albums in protest.

As of 2009, they have won 13 Grammy Awards, with 5 of them earned in 2007 including the coveted Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Taking the Long Way. As of July 2010, with 30.5 million certified albums, and sales of 26,733,000 albums in the U.S., they have become the top selling all-female band in the U.S. during the Nielsen SoundScan era.

Source:

• People
• Startribune

Black Eyed Peas Fans: HappyBdayFergie !

Such questions require lengthy debates, but one thing is for certain: Fergie turns 35 today. HappyBdayFergie ! Happy birthday greetings go out to Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson! She's battled through crystal meth addiction and numerous hurdles to become a respected artist and we always look forward to seeing what she'll do next.

Stacy Ann Ferguson (born March 27, 1975), better known by her stage name Fergie, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, fashion designer and actress. She was a member of the children's television series Kids Incorporated, and the girl group Wild Orchid. She is the female vocalist for the hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas with whom she has attained charting success worldwide. Her own debut album spawned four Billboard Hot 100 top five singles, three of which went to number one.

Having left Wild Orchid in 2001, Ferguson joined The Black Eyed Peas. With The Black Eyed Peas, she enjoyed a series of hits and albums before releasing her debut album, The Dutchess, in September 2006 to similar success. The Black Eyed Peas enjoyed further success with the release of their third album with Ferguson; they attained their first string of Billboard Hot 100 number one songs. As Ferguson's five solo singles and six singles with the Black Eyed Peas have reached two million downloads in the United States, Ferguson is the artist with most two-million sellers as of January 2011.

Ferguson married actor Josh Duhamel in early 2009 after a five year relationship.

Click to enlarge some of these Fergie pictures we put together as a tribute to the birthday girl Black Eyed Peas.

The oft-recycled Epiphany sermon (with asides on James Taylor, T.S. Eliot, Sadao Watanabe, and Masao Takanake)

Sadao Watanabe, The Magi's Dream

Bear in mind that I wrote this Epiphany sermon a little over a year after 9/11. It's from eight years ago, Epiphany 2003. I stand by what I said. Click here to read it.

I looked for artistic representations of Herod, since a good deal of the sermon focuses on him. What I found, for the most part, were representations of the consequences of Herod's actions: the slaughter of the innocents; the Magi returning home by another way; the flight into Egypt of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus.

Later on of course there is another Herod, Herod Antipas, who is the son of Herod the Great, and it is he who is involved in the deaths of both John the Baptizer and Jesus according to the Gospel stories.

The only scenes in which Herod shows up as a visible protagonist are, once in a while, Herod with the Magi, and, more often (at least in Western art), Herod's feast, but that one is Herod the son. The feast is the one at which which Herod Antipas's stepdaughter Salome dances and asks for the beheading of John.

In painted scenes of Jesus' infancy, even with Herod the Great's presence in the stories, artists tends to focus on the Holy Family, the shepherds, the animals, the angels, and the Magi. Makes sense. "But Herod's always out there. / He's got our cards on file," James Taylor's song notes. And... See the sermon for more.

Of course I also read --or listen to-- the T.S. Eliot poem "Journey of the Magi" every year, but I only cited a line or two of it in that sermon.

The link at the name of the poem will take you to the text of "Journey of the Magi" and to an audio of T.S. Eliot himself reading it. Well worth a listen.

Don't mix that with the sermon though -- very different animals. Read them separately, or just read one or the other.

Note: I never see the work of the Japanese artist Sadao Watanabe (see above) without thinking fondly of Dr. Masao Takanake, who during his time at Harvard introduced me and others to Watanabe's work. Watanabe's art graces the cover of at least one of Takenaka's books, The Bible Through Asian Eyes. A scholar of Christian ethics, Takenaka also wrote God Is Rice: Asian Culture and Christian Faith and other works. He was for many years the President of the Asian Christian Art Association.

For the new year

One of my favorite Pete Seeger songs, written by David Mallett:

The Garden Song

Photo: Sugar Creek Township, Greene County, Ohio

As Christmas approaches...

... I think back to France, where I lived when I was growing up. I had hoped to be there for these holidays, but for a variety of reasons I could not go. Perhaps just as well since airport and other traffic in Northern Europe have been in a snarl due to snow. I hear from a friend, though, that things are lovely in Southern France.

Here is "Un Flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle," which some of you will know as "Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella." This is the way it is supposed to sound.

Karl Barth and Thomas Merton - and Mozart

Note: I am writing this post on the weekend of December 11-13 but back-dating it to the day of the anniversary, the day I thought of it.

Karl Barth, considered by many to be the greatest Protestant theologian of the 20th century, author of the The Epistle to the Romans and the Church Dogmatics and principal author of the Barmen Declaration, and Thomas Merton, writer, Catholic convert, Trappist monk, spiritual seeker and teacher, died on the same day in 1968, December 10, and today we remember them both.

I remember them especially through the lens of Merton's short essay (from his journal) at the beginning of Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, one of two books that influenced and moved me during my conversion to Catholicism, which was also my time as an M.Div. student at Harvard Divinity School. The other book was Thoughts in Solitude. The Seven Storey Mountain never did much for me.

Here is the essay.


Karl Barth had a dream about Mozart.

Barth had always been piqued by the Catholicism of Mozart, and by Mozart's rejection of Protestantism. For Mozart said that "Protestantism was all in the head" and that "Protestants did not know the meaning of the Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi."


Barth, in his dream, was appointed to examine Mozart in theology. He wanted to make the exam as favorable as possible, and in his questions he alluded pointedly to Mozart's masses.

But Mozart did not answer a word.

I was deeply moved by Barth's account of this dream and almost wanted to write him a letter about it. The dream concerns his salvation, and Barth perhaps is striving to admit that he will be saved more by the Mozart in himself than by his theology.

Each day, for years, Barth played Mozart every morning before going to work on his dogma.: unconsciously seeking to awaken, perhaps, the hidden sophianic Mozart in himself, the central wisdom that comes in tune with the divine and cosmic music and is saved by love, yes, even by eros. While the other, theological self, seemingly more concerned with love, grasps at a more stern, more cerebral agape: a love that, after all, is not in our own heart but only in God and revealed only to our head.

Barth says, also significantly, that "it is a child, even a 'divine' child, who speaks in Mozart's music to us." Some, he says, considered Mozart always a child in practical affairs (but Burckhardt "earnestly took exception" to this view). At the same time, Mozart, the child prodigy, "was never allowed to be a child in the literal meaning of that word." He gave his first concert at the age of six.

Yet he was always a child "in the higher meaning of that word."

Fear not, Karl Barth! Trust in the divine mercy. Though you have grown up to become a theologian, Christ remains a child in you. Your books (and mine) matter less than we might think! There is in us a Mozart who will be our salvation.

Thomas Merton
Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

New York: Doubleday/Image, 1965, 1966

pp. 11-12

Back from Boston and Halifax (to the tune of Cole Porter)

Halifax Public Gardens

I am back safely from Halifax, Nova Scotia, and before that, Boston. I intend to blog about some aspects of my trip. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, happy birthday, Cole Porter!

Grading music prescription from Kirkepiscatoid

We had a little conversation going on Facebook last night about the appropriate music to accompany end-of-semester grading. I raised the question and a remarkable number of people chimed in with suggestions.

Our friend Kirkepiscatoid, who is not only an Episcopalian, as her nom de blog indicates, but also an MD pathologist (not to be confused with pathological) who trains and thus grades medical students, had a suggestion I cannot resist posting. It is, as it were, part of the core curriculum of grading music.

Enjoy. And note the brass players tapping their feet to the rhythm!

If you're one of my Facebook friends, you will probably see more links to grading music on FB as the evening continues. Or you can just go to my update from last night and see some suggestions and links already present.

P.S. Kirkepiscatoid is also a thoughtful blogger on matters spiritual and temporal, so you might want to check out her blog.

Musical silliness (related to sheep theme below)

Thanks to Kirstin for this one!

Baa, baa, bamba!

Sing along bilingually!

(+Maya Pavlova says thank you for el gatito.)

Gratuitous JT post #3

I heard this live around the time it came out --not this particular performance, but the same year and with the same great backup singers.

Note: if anyone can figure out the meaning of this song, let me know. JT has all kinds of cryptic, poetic songs, and this is one of them. It may well be that to let them be evocative is the best approach, but sometimes there are stories behind the songs.

Gratuitous JT post #2

Another old song -- from my college years! I still love it.

Picture from now, because middle-aged men are much more sexy than younger ones.

And a bonus: JT's first appearance on network TV! Great song. Mellow out, folks, it's Friday.

Gratuitous JT post # 1

He still sings this song well -- perhaps even better than before.

P.S. He has a new album out, Covers.

It's music time: Let It Be

I just posted this on Facebook for a friend who is deep in a writing job and thought I'd share it here for the assembled multitudes. I'm enjoying watching and listening to this video. (Sorry MP, I still love the Beatles.) And for you religious types, this has Mother Mary in it, too. What's not to love?

Enjoy.

With thoughts and prayers for the people of Mexico as they face the swine flu epidemic and the aftermath of an earthquake.

Anne Rothenberg, R.I.P.

My aunt Anne Rothenberg, née Anne Becker, died of cardiac arrest early this evening in New York.

Her son, my cousin Ron, said that she went peacefully. She had been in failing health and was undergoing physical therapy at a nursing home following a stay in the hospital after surgery.

Anne sang and played the piano (in her younger years she performed as Anne Barry) and was a vocal coach for Broadway performers. Her husband, my uncle Bill, died a few years ago after several years in a nursing home following a stroke. Bill had been a strong, handsome, athletic man, an educator, coach, and summer camp director and it was hard for many to see him weakened and unable to speak much after his stroke. Anne visited him every day after his move to the residential facility, staying most of the day and, after lunch, playing the piano for him and the other residents and singing their favorite tunes.

When we were younger and all involved in the summer camp my grandparents founded (Anne and Bill directed it for some years) Anne composed and directed children's musicals. At our big family reunion a couple of years ago, she sat down at the piano and played and sang, and several of us cousins sang with her. She was a spunky, dramatic, generous woman.

Anne was the mother not only of Ron, who cared for her kindly and diligently in her last months, but also of Lisa, who recently lost her husband Gerald. This is a lot of loss for my cousin Lisa.

May Anne rest in peace. May the Holy One bring consolation to Anne's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, and may her memory be a blessing.

Shabbat Shalom

A friend dropped by a few hours ago with a warm, freshly baked loaf of challah which she had just made. Mmmm!

I gave her some flowers from the yard-garden-whatever-this-land-is-called.

The weather is sunny and fresh.

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Here, for your enjoyment and perhaps also your edification, are some Shabbat songs and prayers.

I think I posted this a year or so ago, but never mind. It's a traditional Sephardic blessing before lighting candles. The beautiful (more on Sephardic music here) is by Balkan composer Flory Jagoda. The words are in Ladino (Judeo-Spanish, which is to Mediterranean Jews what Yiddish is to Eastern European Jews). You can hear the song, sung by Susan Gaeta, if you scroll down the page to where it says "click here." Here's the page.

Thanks to Ritualwell.org for the above and for the following.

Kiddush (prayer over the wine) with either feminine or masculine God-language. Has the tune of the chant, too. Here.

HaMotzi[ah] (prayer over the bread) with either masculine or feminine God-language. With the tunes.

Contemporary blessing after the meal here.

Healing Psalms, Day Ten - part 1

I am going to make this 10th healing Psalm last. Mostly because I have had a huge, long day and am cooking a little sniffle and want to take myself to bed and get a good sleep so that I don't get sick.

So I will post the Psalm tonight and then commentary tomorrow.

I'm posting the Psalm twice here, with the traditionally used pronoun in the first version and the other pronoun in the second. If G*d has no gender, then let's use all genders or none.

Psalm 150

Halleluyah/Praise God!
***Praise God in His Sanctuary;
***Praise Him
******in the vast expanse of Heaven!

Praise Him for mighty deeds;
***Praise Him
******according to His abundant greatness!

Praise Him
***with the blowing of the shofar;
******Praise Him
*********with the lyre and the harp!

Praise Him
***with drum and dance;
******Praise Him
*********with string instruments and flute!

Praise Him
***with resounding cymbals!
******Praise Him
*********with clanging cymbals!

Let every breath of life praise God,
******Halleluyah/Praise God!


Psalm 150

Halleluyah/Praise God!
***Praise God in Her Sanctuary;
***Praise God
******in the vast expanse of Heaven!

Praise Her for mighty deeds;
***Praise Her
******according to Her abundant greatness!

Praise Her
***with the blowing of the shofar;
******Praise Her
*********with the lyre and the harp!

Praise Her
***with drum and dance;
******Praise Her
*********with string instruments and flute!

Praise Her
***with resounding cymbals!
******Praise Her*********

with clanging cymbals!

Let every breath of life praise God,
******Halleluyah/Praise God!

Scroll down to posts below for previous Psalms and explanation of the origins of this custom of praying ten specific Psalms for healing of body and soul. Thank you, Reb Nachman. Blessings, all.