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I've recently begun examining Chris's 'ties' to Albert Camus's The Rebel. In a NY Times interview, "Whitley points to French philosopher Albert Camus’ 1951 essay ‘The Rebel’ and suggests, 'It’s not idealisms and this and that. It can be existential frustrations. We overlook that. You turn on the TV and if it’s guys burning American … Continue reading Invisible Day & Fireroad: Camus’ Influence?

I tried to post videos from the Washington Post to my Facebook account, but encountered copyright restrictions.  So ..., I'm gonna try to post here so that you can hear what a black hole sounds like and see magnificent images captured. "When we come together, we can do great things," the astronomer says. Reading about/viewing … Continue reading The Wonders of Science v. The Abysmal State of Humanity

Chris Whitley made music with a wide variety of musicians; his side work was extensive, ranging from Chocolate Genius to Cassandra Wilson, as shown in this playlist.  One musician I was surprised to discover that Chris sometimes jammed with is Bruce Hornsby.  Yet, as a review of Chris's gig at Kahootz in Richmond, VA notes, … Continue reading How Bruce Hornsby Came to Play on Rocket House

Excerpt from Steve Albini, "The Problem with Music." The Baffler No. 5, December 1993 These figures are representative of amounts that appear in record contracts daily. There’s no need to skew the figures to make the scenario look bad, since real-life examples more than abound. Advance: $250,000 Manager’s cut: $37,500Legal fees: $10,000 Recording Budget: $150,000Producer’s … Continue reading Expenses and Revenues of a Representative Record Contract

To view larger images of these reviews, click on one to open a slide show and to view full size.      

"He ventured new sonic territory with ... the romantic/existential yearning of "Weightless" (Lonelier than God/Fallen from above/ Weightless as a child/Hopeless to your love)." [from the LWA CD liner]   The version on Terra Incognita:    The remix on Long Way Around:   

It seems an odd pairing:  Chris, a self-taught guitarist whose visceral lyrics were influenced by desert landscapes and an appreciation of French surrealist poets; Warren, a piano man (briefly mentored by Igor Stravinsky) whose lyrics often described viscera and whom Rolling Stone labeled "rock's macabre jester."  Chris, the offspring of a Madison Avenue ad executive … Continue reading The Odd Couple: Chris and Warren Zevon

  A few years ago, I launched an ATCW post to document song inspirations that (primarily) Hiroshi Suda and I had gleaned from reading articles and listening to bootlegs.  Given that Facebook is a black hole into which old posts disappear, I'm using this blog post to catalog our efforts (including a few ATCW members' … Continue reading “Bringing in the Sheaves” – Gleaning Song Inspirations from Stage Comments and Interviews

This video of Chris and daughter Trixie singing "Serve You" was originally posted to YouTube by Martin Tupper on the first anniversary of Chris's passing (2006-11-20).  I've tried to contact Martin to ask whether he has more video of this show, but have never received a reply.  To make the video more easily accessible to … Continue reading “Serve You” w Trixie (Knitting Factory, NYC 2004-09-15)