By Don Jacobson

Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and a whole heap o’ mainstream love for Americana and/or rootsy-rocky music: That was what the Grammys meant to me this year – the first time they’ve ever meant anything to me, I think. I generally hate awards and awards shows because, well, so many reasons, the main one being that they rarely reflect what’s really good in the industries they’re covering and are all either popularity contests, political bullshit, or, usually, a combination of the two. But the Plant-Krauss five-Grammy sweep for Raising Sand was different in that a usually meaningless awards show this time actually accomplished something worthwhile – moving Americana pretty solidly out of the tiny niche it’s been in and into a bit bigger niche that may help thousands of worthy artists get a listen.

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Posted on February 15, 2009

By Natasha Julius and Steve Rhodes

Also posted in Sports as The Beachwood Super Bowl Halftime Bracket, now with comments on Bruce’s performance.
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OK, everyone. It’s time for the only Super Bowl wager that really matters: the half time entertainment bracket. It’s not actually a bracket, but that sounds more sports gambling-y so I’m going with it.
You don’t have to know a thing about football to participate. You do, however, have to know a little about the kind of vaguely wholesome, arena-packing, fully-clothed, non-nipple-baring musicals acts that are invited to play during the part of the Big Game most of us use to go to the bathroom. The rules are simple: choose three songs that will be played by the Super Bowl half time entertainment. Why three songs? Because that seems to be the standard number, other than last year when Tom Petty played his entire back catalog. For the record, Smitty remains the only person ever to go three-for-three, correctly predicting Prince would perform “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Baby, I’m a Star” and “Purple Rain.”

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Posted on February 2, 2009