Audio Visual Arts

07/19/2024

04/09/2024

1969....Rita Coolidge and Stephen Stills.

Whether you know her as the singer of “All Time High” from Oc*****sy or the woman at the heart of songs like “Delta Lady” by Leon Russell and “Cherokee” by Stephen Stills, you’ve heard of Rita Coolidge. She may not be as famous as the men who were obsessed with her throughout the 1960s and ‘70s, but she’s had a fascinating life filled with good tunes and good friends. Coolidge was a musical muse for artists like Kris Kristofferson, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and a slew of singer-songwriters, but she was a talent all on her own. With two Grammy Awards and a memoir under her belt, she’s just as accomplished as famous artists she came up with.

Born on May 1, 1945 in Lafayette, Tennessee, Coolidge bounced around Kentucky and Tennessee as the daughter of a Cherokee Baptist minister. She says that she was singing before she could talk and knew that she would be doing it for the rest of her life. After moving to Memphis in 1967 she found herself in the city’s music scene rubbing elbows with Booker T. & the M.G.’s as well as singers Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett. Along the way she met singer-songwriter Leon Russell who convinced her to move to Los Angeles with him and further her career. It wasn’t hard to persuade her and soon enough they hit the road.

In 1969 Rita Coolidge was one of the most in demand women in the industry. Seemingly at the center of multiple song writing sessions, both “Delta Lady” and “A Song For You” by Leon Russell and Joe Cocker are written about her, but the her relationship with the two singer-songwriters soured when she decided to get out of Russell and Cocker’s party heavy scene. In 2019 she said that she’s not entirely sure if “Delta Lady” is about her in spite of rumors to the contrary.

When Rita Coolidge met the members of Crosby, Stills, and Nash she had such an effect on Stephen Stills and Graham Nash that she’s still blamed by some as one of the major reasons behind the group’s break up. She met the group at a recording session and despite hitting it off with Graham Nash, Stills finagled his way into a date with her. His obsession with Coolidge built even after she ditched him to rekindle things with Nash.

Coolidge and Nash dated for more than a year, and in that time Stephen Stills tried to commit su***de after writing the name “Rita” on a hotel mirror in lipstick and he fought Nash over her in a drive way. She never had a romantic link with David Crosby, but he had his own obsession with her.

04/09/2024

Strange Pairings
Tom Waits and Bette Midler

🧐Newbies;
"Strange Pairings" is simply the title I gave (like a book title) of this ongoing puzzle, on my page showing a photo of two people, places or things.
🧐What's the connection? If any?
An ongoing game we here at ☀️glowgirl play for fun. 🤗
(someone always wins)

04/09/2024

Did you meet Bukowski?

Tom Waits:

“A couple of times. It's like when I met Keith Richards, you try to match them drink for drink. But you're a novice, you're a child. You're drinking with a roaring pirate. Whatever you know about holding your liquor you'd better let go of it right now.

So I thought I could hang in there but I wasn't able to hang in there, with either one of them. They're made out of different stock. They're like dockworkers. But it was interesting.

I met Bukowski at his house. Barbet Schroeder was a friend of mine, and they tried to get me to be in that movie, Barfly, playing Bukowski. They offered a lot of money, but I just couldn't do it, plus I didn't consider myself a good enough actor to do something like that. But Bukowski... I guess everybody when you're young and you enter the arts you find father figures.

For me it was more profound because I had no father - no operating father - so I found other men that supplied all that for me. I was looking for those guys all the time.”

01/13/2024

Joe Walsh and his early band 'The Measles' in 1966. They are performing at Kent State University.

12/06/2023

12/05/2023

06/19/2023

Prayers for my Mother in Law

06/05/2023

Yes, we are Proud PreSonus Dealers, our studios are fully equipped with PreSonus equipment with Studio One as our primary DAW and 2 StudioLive 64s consoles and 3 32r consoles. Oh did I mention we are fully mobile as well as a standalone studio to be able to record your live shows, Yamaha grand piano, Yamaha drums,Nord Organ and a complete assortment of Warm Audio microphones and a large selection of discreet and tube preamps. Give us a shout. We’re ready to cut your next hit project!!!

02/27/2023

Great show, “Mississippi Blues Marathon” This was our first event sporting the new PreSonus CDL12p line array system, they did not disappoint, very impressive. Please note that the whole system was PreSonus FOH Monitors and Consoles. Great job A.V.A. Crew, Joshua Coleman and Calven Frazier…

02/25/2023

And the PA is up and sounding good at the Mississippi blues marathon

02/23/2023

R.I.P Burt Bacharach. The celebrated composer and bandleader whose elegant melodies dominated pop radio for several decades, has died at the age of 94.

Bacharach gave Bobbie one of her biggest hits when she topped the UK singles chart in August 1969 with her recording of 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again'. Bobbie's recording was the most popular release of the song outside America, and also hit the top spot in Australia, and Ireland, reaching number 3 in South Africa and number 5 in Norway. In the U.S. her version was eclipsed by Dionne Warwick's recording which came out 5 months later. The track appeared on two of Bobbie's albums - 'Touch 'em With Love' in 1969 and 'Fancy' in 1970. Infact the 'Fancy' album was renamed in Europe to tie in with the hit single, and also contained her version of 'Raindrop's Keep Fallin' On My Head'.

Bobbie recorded two further songs by Bacharach which weren't released until after her retirement, these appear on her previously unreleased easy listening jazz album 'The Windows Of The World' which contains the title track and 'This Girl's In Love With You' - many fans feel these unreleased acoustic recordings eclipsed her released versions of Bacharach's songs.

Photo: The cover of the French 7"

02/14/2021

B.B. King: “I believe your sound comes from within you. You can manufacture a sound by having a wah-wah pedal or something, but the actual sound comes from you. You know, if you have a piano sitting out in the lounge, and Ray Charles is playing it, he’s going to sound like Ray Charles. If Elton John is playing it, he’s going to sound like Elton. My point is that it’s your touch and your soul that makes it sound the way it does.

"Now, you don’t want to play like B.B. King or somebody else. You want to be you. So what you do is listen to me and anybody else you like. I won’t use the word ‘steal,’ but try to ‘borrow’ a little bit from each guy. And, like that, you become you.”
On Soloing

“I was at the Apollo Theater one time, and a critic gave me one of the greatest compliments anyone has ever given me. He said, ‘B.B. King sings, and then Lucille sings.’ That made me feel very good, because I do feel that I’m singing when I play. That’s why I don’t play a lot of notes like some people. Maybe that’s the reason most of my music is very simple - that’s the way I sing.”

Willie Nelson, B.B. King and Eric Clapton at the Apollo Theatre, Harlem, 2003 Photo by Jonathan Becker

12/05/2020

Danny Brooks wrote a song about performing on stage with Brownie, in 1983 we recorded the song on his and Debi's new album Are You Ready? "The Mississippi Sessions"😎🎵😎

11/29/2020

Well sports fans, I'm playing around with the new page for AVA. These are pictures that you have seen before, but I'm trying put some content on the new page. Hope you like.🎵😎🎵

11/28/2020

Now Hear This, AVA Studios is having pre Christmas offer for a FOUR SONG recording session. You get FOUR Professional Musicians for a master session and two days in the studio first day for tracking and overdubs the second day for finishing any OD's and sweetening and mixing All For $1800.00. When you book prior to Dec. 31 you can have that price through March 31 2021. Give Tom Easley a call (601)540-5564 🎵🎵🎵