Beer pipeline…

Heavy metal fans like their beer, consuming an average of one gallon per person over the three-day Wacken Open Air Festival in Wacken, Germany.   The customary struggle to deliver that tasty goodness to attendees will not happen again,  as they are doing away with the customary trek across the fields with very heavy kegs full of beer,  thanks to the installation of  four miles of  underground piping.

 

 

 

Chris Cornell, R.I.P.

I have never been a fan of grunge music,  and the genres I am now willing to listen to shrinks annually,  but Chris Cornell was very different musically from Kurt Cobain and his other grunge peers, as  this article makes clear.

 

 

Chuck Berry, R.I.P.

Legendary singer Chuck Berry  has died,  having spent many of his 90 years belting out hits he wrote and performed for his legion of fans.   Unsurprisingly,  he was among the  first group  of performers inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986.

His 1958 hit  “Johnny B. Goode”  is the only rock and roll song included on the so-called  “Golden Record”  affixed to the Voyager spacecraft that was launched into space in 1977.

UPDATE:  Have some remembrances,  here.

 

Al Jarreau, R.I.P.

In case you don’t know,  Jarreau was  a noted jazz and rhythm and blues singer.   He gained more commercial appeal after writing and singing the lyrics for the hit 1980’s TV show “Moonlighting”,  but I enjoyed him primarily for his scat singing,  which done well is one of the finer points in jazz music.

 

 

Puppy party…

I’m tired of politics,  so I’m offering you an adorable moment when a litter of Alaskan Malamute  puppies hear  music for the first time.

 

 

Toots Thielemans, R.I.P.

If you or your children listened to Sesame Street,  you heard the distinctive harmonica  in the opening theme music.   That was Thielemans,  but he was so much more than that,  both musically and personally.   If Quincy Jones calls you  “one of the greatest musicians of our time,”   you are a force to be reckoned with in the jazz world,  and that is what he said of Thielemans.   Read this  to catch up.

 

 

Pete Fountain, R.I.P.

I was fortunate enough to hear the  jazz man  play his clarinet in his unique style live several times in New Orleans.   He was apparently as good-humored as a person as he was as a performer,  and he always appeared to be having a lot of fun doing what he loved.   The music in Heaven is even sweeter now…