July 2010

Doing a great home recording is easier than it has ever been, but that doesn’t mean there still aren’t challenges to getting great tracks. Here are some tips to help you get that studio “magic” at home.

Pick a recording program and a setup that works for you. Grammy award-winning engineer, producer, and songwriter John Jones (Celine Dion, Duran Duran, Sir Paul McCartney) noted that “you can nowadays get a great sounding record at home. The key is to be able to get what you’re hearing.” Just because Pro Tools is what many pros use, doesn’t mean something less involved (and less expensive) won’t work as well. Get a software program that gives you the flexibility you need, and that is easy for you to use…

Performance Will Take Place At 34th Annual Beatle Fest in Chicago On August 14

CHICAGO, IL–August 14, 2010 marks the exact 50th Anniversary of the day that The Beatles adopted their famous moniker after having played for four years under the name The Quarrymen. In celebration of the historic occasion, synthesizer pioneer Gary Wright, a long-time friend of Ringo Starr and George Harrison, will perform the song “To Discover Yourself,” a composition co-written with George Harrison in 1971…

Over the years Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have made a lot of repetitive songs that don’t force you to think about them as such. Sometimes they’ve got sweet bridges and tiny solos; they’re layered and warm and bar-band authentic.

They’re about rock ‘n’ roll as sacrament, highways, the sun in your hair, boys and girls turning one anothers’ heads. They’re locked into their sentimentality and carry a promise that Mr. Petty will never change much…

The elder Hines played drums in the nightclub act Hines, Hines and Dad with his sons. They gained national prominence when Johnny Carson discovered the act and put them on his show many times.

Maurice Hines Sr., a drummer who toured for a decade in the nightclub act Hines, Hines and Dad that helped propel his tap-dancing sons to fame, has died. He was 88…