Category: showcase

Lynn Rene Anderson ~ Taos

Genre: Country

Anderson (September 26, 1947 – July 30, 2015) was a multi-award-winning American country music singer known for a string of hits throughout the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, most notably her 1970 iconic, worldwide megahit “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden.” Anderson’s crossover appeal and regular exposure on national television helped her to become one of the most popular and successful country singers of the 1970s.

Anderson charted 12 No. 1, 18 Top 10, and more than 50 Top 40 hits. In addition to being named “Top Female Vocalist” by the Academy of Country Music (ACM) twice and “Female Vocalist of the Year” by the Country Music Association (CMA), Anderson won a Grammy Award (earning seven nominations), People’s Choice Award, and an American Music Award (AMA). She was the #13 country artist of the 1970’s according to Joel Whitburn’s “Billboard Hot Country Singles” book and the highest ranking artist of the list not yet in the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Anderson was the first female country artist to win the American Music Award (in 1974), as well as the first to headline and sellout Madison Square Garden that same year.

Anderson debuted in 1966, at the age of 19, and had her first hit with Ride, Ride, Ride. After a series of Top 10 hit singles on the country charts during the late 1960s, Anderson signed with Columbia Records in 1970. Under Columbia, she had her most successful string of hits. Her signature song, “(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden,” remains one of the biggest selling country crossover hits of all time. In addition to topping the U.S. country charts for five weeks, the song reached No. 3 on the Billboard Pop Chart. It also topped the charts in several countries around the globe, an unprecedented achievement at the time. CMT ranks “Rose Garden” at No. 83 on its list of the “100 Greatest Songs in Country Music History.” Anderson continued to record and remained a popular concert attraction until her death, regularly headlining major casino showrooms, performing arts centers and theaters. Anderson lived in Taos.

Here’s Lynn singing her mega hit, “Rose Garden” from 1973.

for more information: lynnandersonshow.com

source: wikipedia.org

Alaska in Winter ~ Albuquerque

Genre: Electronica, Dance/Electronic

Alaska in Winter is an Albuquerque based electronica band led by Brandon Bethancourt. Brandon lives in Albuquerque.

Achievements

• Alaska in Winter was featured on Grey’s Anatomy television series (season 4, episode 15)
• Alaska in Winter was song of the day on LA’s KCRW (remix of Submarines iphone commercial song “You Me and the Bourgeoisie” )
• Alaska in Winter was featured in MTV’s Making of the Band 4 (spring 09)
• Alaska in Winter’s 2nd album “Holiday” won the 2009 Independent Music Awards for best Electronic/ Dance album
• Alaska in Winter is also the 9th Independent Music Awards Vox Pop vote winner
• “We Are Blind” remix was used in professional skateboarder Daewon Song’s video “New Years Dae” aired 1/1/11 on theberrics.com
• “Your Red Dress” was used in Daewon Song’s X-Games video part summer 2011.
• Remixed “Blood Theme” from television show Dexter which is featured on the Dexter Season 6 soundtrack.

Quotes

“These are the kinds of songs that are impossible to sing without your eyes prayerfully closed… The production is elaborate in a streamlined way, the melodies infectious…” -Pitchfork

“Even at its most serious, the album’s unfaltering replication of a never-ending European dance party fills you up and never lets you down” – Spin

“Sublime Beauty” -Q Mag

“9/10” Vice (DE)

“The complex rhythms and guest chiming by Beirut will be sure to have ears craving for more” – URB

“It’s difficult to overemphasize the pervasive chill that hovers, paradoxically, around the album’s warm melodies: Even its most luridly romantic moments sound remote and contemplative.” – Pitchfork

“[…AIW] manages to expertly traverse the ever-narrowing gap between folk, classical and electronica. If Bjork, Royksopp and a bit of Bach are your thing, Alaska in Winter will be right down your ice chute. -Esquire Magazine UK

Here’s Alaska in Winter performing, “Night Falcon Returns.”

for more information:

http://alaskainwinter.bandcamp.com/
www.alaskainwinter.com
http://www.soundcloud.com/alaskaiwinter
http://alaskainwinter.bigcartel.com/
http://alaskainwintermusic.blogspot.com/
http://www.youtube.com/alaskainwinter
http://www.myspace.com/alaskainwinter
http://twitter.com/#!/alaskainwinter1/

XIT

XIT (Crossing of Indian Tribes) was a Native American rock band originally based in Albuquerque, New Mexico and are known for being signed to and releasing two albums in the 1970s on the Motown label. Historically, XIT established a new genre, American Indian Rock, which created music industry awareness, established the ground idiom, and contributed to paving the way for bands such as Redbone, Blackfoot, and Indigenous, as well as New Mexico’s blues guitarist Levi Platero.

above: Someday from XIT’s album Plight of the Redman, released in 1972.

sources:

• February 2019 article in Local Flavor Magazine written by Music Commissioner Jose Ponce
• discogs.com

Nacio Herb Brown ~ Deming

Brown (1896-1964) was born in Deming, New Mexico on February 22, 1896. He attended the Musical Arts High School in Los Angeles, California and graduated with a bachelor’s degree from UCLA. After college, Brown started his own tailoring business. A few years after that he then became a realtor accruing a small fortune in Beverly Hills real estate trading. However, none of these paths fit the creative composer and he began his finest career in songwriting in the early 1920’s.

In the early days of film soundtracks, Brown signed with MGM in 1928 and under contract would produce some of the greatest Motion Picture scores ever written. He wrote complete scores for films such as Broadway Melody of 1929, 1936 and 1937, Going Hollywood, Sadie McKee, Student Tour, Greenwich Village and The Kissing Bandit. Other films with Brown songs are Hollywood Revue, A Night At the Opera, San Francisco and Babes in Arms. His greatest success would come, however, with the score and title song entitled Singin’ in the Rain, written with longtime partner, Arthur Freed.

The Brown catalog holds some of the greatest standards from his era. Accompanying the already mentioned “Singin’ in the Rain”, Brown also wrote “Temptation”, “The Wedding of the Painted Doll”, “Eadie Was a Lady”, “Pagan Love Song”, “All I Do is Dream of You”, “You Are My Lucky Star”, “I’ve Got A Feelin’ You’re Foolin’”, “Broadway Melody”, “Our Big Love Scene”, “A New Moon Is Over My Shoulder”, “You Stepped Out of a Dream”, “Love Is Where You Find It” and “Make ’Em Laugh”.

Brown also composed serious music such as “Doll Dance” and “American Bolero”. His Stage productions include the Los Angeles production of Hollywood Music Box Revue and the Broadway production Take a Chance. He co-wrote the music for the popular children’s television western, “Hopalong Cassidy” which first aired in 1949. Other than Freed, Brown collaborated with Buddy DeSylva, Gus Kahn, Leo Robin and Gordon Clifford.

He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and into the New Mexico Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2012.

above: “Good Morning” from Singin’ in the Rain (1952) composed by Nacio Herb Brown.

for more information: Songwriters Hall of Fame

source: wikipedia.org

Jeff Bhasker ~ Socorro

Bhasker (also known as Billy Kraven and U.G.L.Y.) is an American record producer, songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. He collaborated with rapper and producer Kanye West on the albums 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Watch the Throne, with Jay-Z. He has won Grammy Awards for the songs “Run This Town” by Jay-Z, “All of the Lights” by Kanye West, and “We Are Young” by Fun.

Bhasker was born in Kansas City, Kansas, and raised in Socorro, New Mexico. His mother played the piano and his Indian-born father was a medical doctor and the town’s mayor for 24 years. Bhasker was introduced to jazz by his mother and his piano teacher. He played in the jazz band at Socorro High School, where he graduated in 1993, and then studied jazz piano and arranging at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. He gigged around Boston as a keyboardist and played in a wedding band. After playing with the ’70s era R&B band Tavares, Bhasker moved to New York on September 11, 2001. He toured with the jam band Lettuce and began focusing more on songwriting. One of his first productions was with neo soul singer Goapele, on her album Even Closer (2002). Bhasker produced a song on rapper The Game’s first album, The Documentary (2005).

Bhasker relocated to Los Angeles, in 2005. He began writing with Bruno Mars, and songwriter and executive Steve Lindsey served as their mentor. He played cover songs in a band with Mars around Los Angeles.^[3] Bhasker then began an association with rapper/producer Kanye West. Initially serving as a substitute keyboardist for West’s Glow in the Dark Tour, he went on to become West’s music director, and co-producer and co-writer on a number of songs. Bhasker collaborated on West’s albums 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and the Jay-Z/Kanye West collaboration album, Watch the Throne, including the songs “Welcome to Heartbreak”. “Lift Off”, and “Runaway”. Bhasker received the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song for West’s “All of the Lights”, and the Jay-Z/Rihanna/Kanye West song “Run This Town”.

Bhasker’s collaborations span multiple genres, including writing and production credits on Alicia Keys’s 2009 album, The Element of Freedom, including the charting singles “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart” and “Wait Til You See My Smile”, and the album tracks, “Love Is Blind”, and “Like the Sea”. In 2009, Bhasker produced the songs “Free”, “Zombie”, and “Heaven” for Natalia Kills, and co-wrote and produced, “Nothing Lasts Forever”, from her debut album, Perfectionist, under the alias ‘Billy Kraven’. He worked on Beyoncé’s “I Care”, “Rather Die Young” and “Party” from her 2011 album as a writer, musician and producer.

Bhasker worked again with Alicia Keys on her 2012 album, Girl on Fire, on the singles “Girl on Fire”, and “Tears Always Win”. He has also worked on the hit singles “Just Give Me a Reason” by Pink, Lana Del Rey’s “Summertime Sadness”, and Emeli Sandé’s “My Kind of Love”. Bhasker served as lead producer and co-writer for the band Fun’s 2012 album, Some Nights, for which he received the 2013 Grammy Award for Song of the Year for the song “We Are Young”. He was additionally nominated for Album of the Year, Record of the Year for “We Are Young”, and Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.

Bhasker won the 2016 Grammy for Producer of the year for his work on:

“Ain’t Gonna Drown” (Elle King)
“Burning Doves” (Mikky Ekko)
“Burning House” (Cam)
“Grand Romantic” (Nate Ruess)
“Last Damn Night” (Elle King)
“Never Let You Down” (Woodkid featuring Lykke Li)
“Runaway Train” (Cam)
Uptown Special (Mark Ronson)

above: Mark Ronson’s official music video for ‘Uptown Funk’ ft. Bruno Mars – Jeff Bhasker, producer.

for more information: Jeff Bhasker on Twitter

source: wikipedia.org