• Lesley Soldat Appointed GM of Orbyt Media
• Sultans Of String Land US Representation and Two Folk Awards
• The Balconies Scoop Trio Of Ottawa Magazine Awards
• Eurythmics Top ASCAP Christmas List; Buble Comes In 7th
• Bon Jovi Lands Budget Busting $400 Billion Law Suit
• British Libel Laws Get Egalitarian
  
• Mos Def Wrote the End Note On Racial Exploitation
• Hellraiser – Ginger Baker Lets Loose In New Autobiography
• The Original Piano Man, Mr. Jerry Lee Lewis
• ‘The Hand Of Fatima’ Explores the Dark Side of Scribbler Robert Palmer
• Ronnie Wood’s Mad Money Obsessions
• Writing For Sinatra No Easy Assignment
• ‘All You Need To Know About the Record Business’
• ECMA Opens Online Shop
• CBC Radio 3 Top 30
• Strombo Radio, One Person’s Unflattering View of CBC Gone Wild
  

LESLEY SOLDAT: Astral Media Radio G.P. is pleased to announce the appointment of Lesley Soldat to the position of General Manager of Canada’s largest syndication company, Orbyt Media. The 21 year veteran of what was formerly known as Sound Source Networks worked as a semi-professional musician in a punk band, in addition to band management and concert promotion before joining MCA in Canada. Soldat worked for MCA Records Canada for 11 years and was the first female to head a promotions department (Director of National Promotions) for a major record label in North America. She joined Orbyt Media (then Sound Source Networks) in 1988 as Affiliate Marketing Manager, soon became Vice President of Affiliate Marketing and later held the title of Vice President of Operations and Affiliate marketing. After many years in the trenches, the recognition is long overdue for a professional who has always cut an impressive figure in her various roles.

SULTANS OF STRING: With two Canadian Folk Music Awards in hand this past weekend, Sultans of String are riding a wave of success from their sold out Yalla Yalla CD release concert in the Spring, to their Summer national feature on CTV’s CanadaAM, and most recently signing an agreement for U.S. representation with promoter David Wilkes who’s stable includes Emmylou Harris, Barry Manilow, Jerry Jeff Walker, Jesse Cook, Bela Fleck. The roots and genre-bending ensemble took home Instrumental Group of the Year and bandleader/fiddler and 2009 JUNO Award nominee Chris McKhool also took home the award for Children’s Album of the Year for FiddleFire! Wilkes is affiliated to Koch/E1 but separate from this is promoting the act and negotiating a US record deal.

THE BALCONIES, recently re-located to Toronto from Ottawa, have been voted Best Rock/Pop/Dance/Other Band and “Best New Musical Artist/Group” in the Best of Ottawa Xpress poll They also won the category for Best Rock/Pop/Dance/Other Album for their debut self titled release, that came out Independently on September 22nd.

CHRISTMAS FAVOURITES: Even as the digital music generation embraces the latest technological innovations, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) reports that traditional favourites still rule the holiday airwaves — and the iPod.

Topping ASCAP’s holiday songs list of the decade is one of the oldest songs on the list: “Winter Wonderland.” It was written in 1934 by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith, and was an instant hit for legendary bandleader Guy Lombardo And His Royal Canadians who took it to the #2 spot on the Billboard charts the same year. Recordings by the Andrews Sisters and Perry Como, in 1946, established the song as a Yuletide favourite. Versions by the Eurythmics, Jewel and Air Supply are frequently heard on radio today.

ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams knows something about holiday songs, having received an Emmy nomination this year for “I Wish I Could Be Santa Claus” from A Muppets Christmas: Letters To Santa, an original Christmas special with both story and songs by the renowned songwriter. He commented: “This is a tough list for any of us to break into. There’s a sense that people tend to gravitate towards tradition, especially at the holidays, and our top 25 list confirms this. So, whether you’re listening to holiday music on an iPod or a vintage record player, these time-honoured favourites are sure to evoke the magic of the season and memories of holidays past.”

The Top 25 most performed ASCAP holiday songs of the decade are listed below. Each song includes songwriter credits, and cites the most popular artist version played on radio today. The data was compiled with the help of Mediaguide, the most comprehensive digital audio performance tracking technology in the world.

1. Winter Wonderland
Written by: Felix Bernard, Richard B. Smith
Performed by: Eurythmics

2. The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)
Written by: Mel Tormé, Robert Wells
Performed by: Nat “King” Cole

3. Sleigh Ride
Written by: Leroy Anderson, Mitchell Parish
Performed by: The Ronettes

4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Written by: Ralph Blane, Hugh Martin
Performed by: The Pretenders

5. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Written by: Fred Coots, Haven Gillespie
Performed by: Bruce Springsteen

6. White Christmas
Written by: Irving Berlin
Performed by: Bing Crosby

7. Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Written by: Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne
Performed by: Michael Bublé

8. Jingle Bell Rock
Written by: Joseph Carleton Beal, James Ross Boothe
Performed by: Daryl Hall & John Oates

9. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Written by: Johnny Marks
Performed by: Gene Autry

10. Little Drummer Boy
Written by: Katherine K. Davis, Henry V. Onorati, Harry Simeone
Performed by: The Harry Simeone Chorale & Orchestra

11. It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year
Written by: Edward Pola, George Wyle
Performed by: Andy Williams

12. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
Written by: Walter Kent, Kim Gannon, Buck Ram
Performed by: Josh Groban

13. Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree
Written by: Johnny Marks
Performed by: Brenda Lee

14. Silver Bells
Written by: Jay Livingston, Ray Evans
Performed by: Anne Murray

15. Feliz Navidad
Written by: José Feliciano
Performed by: José Feliciano

16. Frosty The Snowman
Written by: Steve Nelson, Walter E. Rollins
Performed by: The Beach Boys

17. A Holly Jolly Christmas
Written by: Johnny Marks
Performed by: Burl Ives

18. Blue Christmas
Written by: Billy Hayes, Jay W. Johnson
Performed by: Elvis Presley

19. It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
Written by: Meredith Willson
Performed by: Johnny Mathis

20. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Written by: Tommie Connor (PRS)
Performed by: John Mellencamp

21. Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)
Written by: Gene Autry, Oakley Haldeman
Performed by: Gene Autry

22. (There’s No Place Like) Home For The Holidays
Written by: Bob Allen, Al Stillman
Performed by: Perry Como

23. Carol Of The Bells
Written by: Peter J. Wilhousky, Mykola Leontovich
Performed by: David Foster (instrumental version)

24. Wonderful Christmastime
Written by: Paul McCartney (PRS)
Performed by: Paul McCartney

25. Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed the World)
Written by: Midge Ure (PRS), Bob Geldof (PRS)
Performed by: Band Aid

Some facts about the Top 25 ASCAP Holiday Songs:

Oldest songs:
“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” and “Winter Wonderland” (both 1934)

Newest song:
“Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed the World)” (1984)

Most recorded Holiday song:
“White Christmas” with well over 500 versions in dozens of languages

Songs introduced in Film and Television:
“White Christmas” in Holiday Inn (1942)
“Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
“Silver Bells” in The Lemon Drop Kid (1950)
“A Holly Jolly Christmas” in TV special Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (1962)

Writer with most top Holiday songs:
Johnny Marks with three – “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Rockin’ Around the

Christmas Tree,” and “A Holly Jolly Christmas”

“Sleigh Ride” is the only holiday song on the list written originally as an instrumental piece for a symphony orchestra. The Boston Pops Orchestra gave the first performance in a concert conducted by Arthur Fiedler at Symphony Hall in Boston, May 4, 1948. Mills Music published it that same year. The Boston Pops Orchestra recorded it in June of 1949. Mitchell Parish added lyrics in 1949.

$400B LAW SUIT : A Massachusetts man is pursuing a $400 billion lawsuit against Bon Jovi, Time Warner and Major League Baseball, among others, against all odds. Samuel Bartley Steele filed the original lawsuit against the defendants a year ago for allegedly ripping off his ode to the Boston Red Sox entitled, “(Man I Really) Love this Team.” According to the complaint, the song was released in October 2004 and performed by the Bart Steele Band. Steele says he handed out copies to Red Sox executives, sent copies of the song to players, performed it live on local television, and sent it to MLB with the idea for a “country” song that would market baseball.  Eriq Gardner, Hollywood Reporter

LIBEL LAW: Britain’s libel was designed to serve the rich and powerful and does not reflect the interests of a modern democratic society. a new study reports.” The study’s authors have proposed 10 changes to current laws that they want the Government to introduce in a Libel Bill. The authors say that the chief remedy in libel should be an apology, not financial reward. The Register

MUSIC HISTORY: In 1981, Chaka Khan took Dizzy Gillespie’s jazz standard ‘A Night in Tunisia’ and co-wrote a lyric to accompany the tune. The words to ‘And the Memory Still Lingers On’ provided a celebratory tour through the great names of the genre, embracing Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Ellington and Coltrane and even Stevie Wonder along the way, an exuberant roll call of outstanding innovation.

Yet, in the midst of these reflections, there is one piece of compelling polemic that leaves them all in its long shadow: the extraordinary ‘Rock N Roll’ by the rapper Mos Def, as excoriating a tale of the past half century of music-making, of racial exploitation, as you are likely to encounter.

Released in 1999, it is a song of two parts, commencing with the coolest, smartest, laid back rap tribute to the greatest names from the black community, interwoven with a string of searing put downs to the groups who adopted their style, their voice, and made it palatable to the mainstream white audience, appropriation masquerading as appreciation.

Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley, James Brown, Nina Simone and Hendrix, Bad Brains and Fishbone are the gods of this pantheon; Presley and the Stones, Limp Bizkit and Korn are mere pretenders, pale and diluted imitations of the genuine article. Simon Warner, Rock’s Back Pages

GINGER BAKER: Even if you missed growing up in the 1960s, you’re bound to have heard Ginger Baker’s explosive drumming with the rock bands Cream and Blind Faith. In both beat combos, Baker was an amazing sight.

His kit featured two bass drums, tuned slightly differently, so that he could play counter-rhythms with both feet, while his hands belaboured the snare, toms and cymbals. His arms flailed; his wild red hair shook like a Celtic warlord’s. He was, rumour had it, the most truculent of rock stars, handy with both verbals and fists; while his Cream co-members, Eric Clapton and Jack Bruce, were mostly cool and understated, he was mysteriously agitated, bug-eyed and feral, like a pissed-off wizard.

Some reasons for his rage can be found in his book, modestly titled Hellraiser, The Autobiography of the World’s Greatest Drummer, out this week. It’s the story (partly ghosted by his daughter, Ginette) of a wartime London kid, raised in Eltham, who didn’t shine at school but discovered he had a God-given flair for percussion, who flourished in half a dozen Fifties jazz bands, achieved massive if short-lived fame in the rock’n'roll Sixties, injected tidal waves of dangerous narcotics, enjoyed the company of numerous “tasty chicks” (and one famous university professor) and found peace on horseback in early middle age. The Independent

JERRY LEE LEWIS: By the end of 1967, the record company had all but given up on Jerry and they planned to let his contract expire without renewal the following year. But on the cold, gray afternoon of Jan 9, 1968, in Nashville, Jerry Lee recorded a song called ‘Another Place, Another Time’. It was a straight country lament about booze, broads and loneliness, but the way he sang it, it seemed to contain all the sadness in the world. The record hit the country charts in the first week of March, and it rose till it was a Top Ten country hit. It stayed on the country charts for more than four months, and it crossed over to the pop charts. For the first time in ten long years, Jerry Lee Lewis’s voice was heard throughout the South and the land beyond.

He narrowed his eyes and watched that returned whore, errant fame, raise her skirt, and he felt her belly warm to his, and he threw back his head and he roared as he had never roared before. The hits kept coming. As ‘69 began, Jerry Lee was the hottest country singer in the south making more money than he ever had. And he had done something he had not intended to do. He had stirred Elvis from seclusion. Since ‘65 there had been no Top 10 pop hits for Elvis, no Top Ten country singles. Fewer and fewer people were buying his albums or paying to see his movies. In the summer months of ‘68, Jerry’s voice had once again come to be heard throughout the South, Elvis had gone into the NBC studio in Burbank and taped a television special. Broadcast on December 3, the one-hour show, Elvis, effectively revived his career and his confidence. In July ‘69 he performed in concert for the first time in almost 8 years, at the International Hotel Las Vegas, bringing an end to his retreat from the public and renewing in Jerry’s heart the desire to wrest the throne of that kingdom that now, in 1969, no longer was… – Nick Tosches, Penthouse, March 1982

In Search of a Father in Search of the Blues
ROBERT PALMER: Music critics’ lives — a blur of deadlines, headphone cords and modest payments by the word — don’t often inspire much fascination.

But Robert Palmer was different. As the chief popular music critic of The New York Times in the 1980s and the author of the enduring study “Deep Blues,” as well as a musician who could hold his own in jams with the Rolling Stones and Ornette Coleman, Palmer enjoyed a rare respect from the people he covered. When he died at 52 in 1997, of complications from liver disease, Sonic Youth paused at the start of a concert to pay tribute, and Patti Smith performed at his memorial.

“The Hand of Fatima,” a new documentary by his estranged daughter, Augusta, and a new anthology of Palmer’s writing, “Blues & Chaos” (Scribner), reveal what many colleagues knew but readers could scarcely guess from his eloquent and calmly authoritative prose: that he struggled with drug addiction and the emotional wreckage of three failed marriages, and that the place closest to his heart was not some club in New York or Mississippi but the remote Moroccan village of Jajouka, thousands of miles away. Ben Sisario, New York Times

ALICIA KEYS’ longtime producer Kerry “Krucial” Brothers’ tweets that the Superwoman and it-boy Drake are collaborating on a song on Alicia’s new (and long-delayed) album Element of Freedom.

RONNIE WOOD’s way with money is inspirational: As with most people, I expect, news of Ronnie Wood’s financial difficulties immediately made me think of Virginia Nicholson’s peerless history of early 20th-century writers and artists, Among the Bohemians: Experiments in Living 1900-1939. Wood doesn’t really have financial difficulties as such: it’s just that his divorce settlement reveals that he’s not as well off as you might expect someone who’s been in the Rolling Stones since 1975 to be. In recent years, his fortune has halved: the poor guy’s down to his last £35m. It would appear that Wood is, by his own admission, “a terrible businessman”, who spends money like water: £1,000 a week on flowers and £170,000 a year on chauffeured cars. The Guardian

WRITING FOR SINATRA: In the fall of 1959, a dashing Los Angeles writer of tunes named Lew Spence got a call from Frank Sinatra’s people. In between concerts on the Vegas Strip, the most popular jazz singer in America had finished a new album of classic, lightly swinging love songs, “The Nearness of You,” named for a Hoagy Carmichael standard. But now Sinatra, in typically volatile form, decided hewanted a new title song written especially for him.

The next morning, as he did every day, Spence met up with his writing partners, a married pair of lyricists named Marilyn and Alan Bergman. The trio were working in a converted garage, overlooking the San Fernando Valley, with black interior walls, a poster of Picasso’s Guernica and an upright piano. Writing a song for Sinatra was, Marilyn says, “like writing for a character. He had such a well-defined persona: sexy, smooth, a little rough and complicated, exuding a dangerous heat.” By then there were a lot of Sinatra songs emphasizing the sexy and the smooth. Together, the three made a decision. They would conceive a Sinatra song that was somehow different from other Sinatra songs, one that explored the complications of adult love …The (song these) three wrote in the garage for Sinatra was “Nice ’n’ Easy.” Nicholas Dawidoff, New York Times Magazine

MYSPACE is like the poster, the newspaper article, the radio. When this tool appeared, it was not a corporate enterprise, and that is perhaps more significant than whether using it compromises any perceived indie or underground status. The speed with which independently created tools are absorbed to function as corporate methods is disturbing. By Carrie Brownstein, Risk Management: Can An Artist Sell Out When There Are No Boundaries?

DON PASSMAN’s All You Need to Know About the Music Business has been regarded as an essential guide to the music industry. Now in its 7th edition, the book covers a wide array of topics, including picking the right team, negotiating a record deal, publishing and copyrights. It also addresses current topics like digital downloading, piracy, and 360 deals, as well as:
* Music downloads, webcasting, streaming and podcasting
* Video streaming services
* How royalties are computed in the digital age
* Developments in deals with independent labels , including upstream deals
* The latest on royalties, advances, video budgets, and copyright laws
Amazon

‘THE  STRUMBO SHOW’ SUCKS: For four hours last Sunday night CBC Radio 2 became something completely different. It became The Edge 102.1 FM, a loud litany of aimless frenetic noise.

Really just whatever popped into George’s head after a couple of hours of prep. Within minutes of taking over the microphone, he made the CBC unlistenable. Four hours of everything the CBC is not supposed to be, amateurs doing whatever they wanted to without any regard for the audience.

Since the beginning of time, teenagers everywhere have thought what a cool job it would be to sit all day and play records. And surely the world would be impressed by the outstanding choices being made and the exceptionally good taste in music being offered.

Yeah right.

Doing radio is not for everyone. Just ask David Lee Roth or Tod Maffin.

Doing any kind of radio requires a specific technical skill, but doing good radio is an art-form.

Anyone who has ever heard George on the radio when he was with Corus knows two things about him.

First, he can’t do a radio show by himself.

He can talk alright, just for the sake of talking. Anyone can. But he quickly runs dry of thoughts, and resorts to talking directly to someone, usually another person in the studio. They then respond on the air, and now we’re listening to someone else without knowing why their thoughts are so important in this situation. They aren’t, but they serve as a crutch for George who is deathly afraid of becoming boring. Usually, it’s much too late.

It becomes clear that, by himself, George has nothing to offer. There’s some personality there, but it’s the kind that are a dime a dozen. By Allan By Allan , The Tea Makers

ECMA SHOP: The East Coast Music Association (ECMA) is now offering its members a system to sell merchandise through an ECMA online shop at maplemusic.com! In partnership with Maple Music, ECMA has created a group account to provide its members with an outlet to sell their CDs, apparel, and other various merchandise (excluding tickets at the moment). ECMA will not take any commission, and Maple Music offers competitive rates as outlined further in the enclosed details.

CBC Radio3 – TOP 30
week of November 20, 2009

1. Joel Plaskett – Gone, Gone, Gone

2. You Say Party! We Say Die! – Laura Palmer’s Prom

3. Octoberman – The Backlash

4. The Wooden Sky – Oh My God (It Still Means A Lot To Me)

5. Spiral Beach – Domino

6. The Mountains And The Trees – Up & Down

7. Extra Happy Ghost – Mash-Up: Neither Being Nor Nothingness

8. Great Lake Swimmers – Still

9. Julie Fader – Maps

10. Metric – Gold Guns Girls

11. The Rest – Sheep In Wolves’ Clothing

12. Boo Hoo – The Future

13. RickWhiteAlbum – Me And My Pillow

14. Magneta Lane – Lady Bones

15. Kill The Lights – Crooked Fist

16. The Slew – 100%

17. Zeus – How Does It Feel

18. Little Girls – Last Call

19. Wax Mannequin – Everthing And Everyone

20. John Southworth – I Get It Now

21. We Are Wolves – Me As Enemy

22. The Hidden Cameras – Walk On

from Origin: Orphan (Arts & Crafts)

23. More Or Les – Pop N Chips (feat. Ghettosocks and Timbuktu)

24. The Diableros – Quell The Cold

25. Analog Bell Service – I Guess

26. Two Fingers – That Girl

27. Said The Whale – Black Day In December

28. King Khan & BBQ Show – Crystal Ball

29. Carolyn Mark & NQ Arbuckle – Officer Down

30. Land Of Talk – May You Never

MEDIA NOTICES

Global BC CHAN-TV/8 Vancouver news anchor Tony Parsons‘ new book A Life In The News has been released. The book covers his life from the beginning in England to his 36+ years on air in Vancouver. Chapters/Indigo

Phil Evans has been named promotions director at Rogers Radio Vancouver, which includes JACK CKLG-FM 96.9, Fun-FM CKCL-FM 104.9 and News1130 CKWX AM. He formerly held similar positions at Astral Media and Corus Entertainment Vancouver clusters.