Music Lab Radio

06/01/2024

Join us every Friday evening at 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. EST as the Wingman takes you back to the 1970's, commercial free, right here on www.MusicLabRadio.com

03/10/2023

13/09/2023

Music Lab Radio is celebrating 15 years on-air this week and we’d like to give a shout-out to every one of our listeners to say thanks for making the station a success and supporting us all these years. It has not always been an easy road but we didn’t give up... we’re still here bringing you the best music experience on the net 24/7/365. www.MusicLabRadio.com

10/08/2023

Robbie Robertson, songwriting force in rock group The Band, dies at 80...

Aug 9 (Reuters) - Robbie Robertson, the guitarist and main songwriter in The Band, the Canadian-American group known for songs including "The Weight" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," has died at the age of 80, his manager said on Wednesday.

Robertson, who left his Toronto home at age 16 to pursue his rock'n'roll dreams, died Wednesday in Los Angeles after a long illness, Robertson's manager of 34 years, Jared Levine, said in a statement.
"Robbie was surrounded by his family at the time of his death," the statement added.

The Band included four Canadians - Robertson, Rick Danko, Garth Hudson and Richard Manuel - and was anchored by an Arkansas drummer, Levon Helm. Originally dubbed The Hawks as the backing band for rockabilly wild man Ronnie Hawkins, they gained attention supporting Bob Dylan on his "Going Electric" tours of 1965-1966.

After changing their name to The Band and rebasing in Woodstock, New York, they became one of the most respected groups in rock. Their 1976 farewell concert in San Francisco was the basis of Martin Scorsese's 1978 movie "The Last Waltz."
The Band had a unique chemistry. Known for their vocal harmonies, they had three excellent singers in Helm, bassist Danko and pianist Manuel. Organist and multi-instrumentalist Garth Hudson was also crucial.

"They were the goods," Robertson wrote of his four band mates in his 2016 autobiography, "Testimony." "This band was a real band. No slack in the high wire here. Everybody held up his end with plenty to spare."

"The impact of The Band's first album can't be exaggerated," critic Greil Marcus wrote in 2000, referring to their 1968 debut album, "Music from Big Pink." It contained "The Weight" and Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," among others.

Their 1969 sophomore album, titled simply "The Band," was even better. With their frontiersman look and unique blend of folk, rock, country, soul and gospel, The Band influenced the likes of Eric Clapton, Elton John, the Grateful Dead, the Beatles, and generations of later musicians who played music that was by then called "Americana."

Their music harked back to an earlier America, reflected in such song titles as "Across the Great Divide," "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)," "Up on Cripple Creek" and "The W.S. Walcott Medicine Show."

After The Band's breakup, a lifetime of hard living took its toll on the members. Manuel hanged himself in a Florida hotel room at age 42 in 1986. Danko died at age 55 in 1999. Helm died of throat cancer in 2012. Hudson is the remaining member still alive.
In February 2022, "Variety" reported, citing sources, that Robertson sold his music publishing catalog to a firm called Iconoclast for about $25 million.

After all the highs and lows, Robertson looked back at his Band mates with love and affection. "Through all the turbulence, I am left with such a deep appreciation for my journey," he wrote in his autobiography. "This shining path I've traveled being part of the Band - there will never be another like it. Such a gift, such talent, such pain, such madness ... I wouldn't trade it for anything."

29/07/2023

Randy Meisner, founding member of the Eagles who sang the ‘Take It to the Limit’ high note, dies at 77…
By Hillel Italie and The Associated Press

Randy Meisner, a founding member of the Eagles who added high harmonies to such favorites as “Take It Easy” and “The Best of My Love” and stepped out front for the waltz-time ballad “Take It to the Limit,” has died, the band said Thursday.

Meisner died Wednesday night in Los Angeles of complications from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the Eagles said in a statement. He was 77.

The bassist had endured numerous afflictions in recent years and personal tragedy in 2016 when his wife, Lana Rae Meisner, accidentally shot herself and died. Meanwhile, Randy Meisner had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and had severe issues with alcohol, according to court records and comments made during a 2015 hearing in which a judge ordered Meisner to receive constant medical care.

Called “the sweetest man in the music business” by former bandmate Don Felder, the baby-faced Meisner joined Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon in the early 1970s to form a quintessential Los Angeles band and one of the most popular acts in history.

“Randy was an integral part of the Eagles and instrumental in the early success of the band,” the Eagles’ statement said. “His vocal range was astonishing, as is evident on his signature ballad, ‘Take It to the Limit.’”

The band said funeral plans were pending.

Evolving from country rock to hard rock, the Eagles turned out a run of hit singles and albums over the next decade, starting with “Take It Easy” and continuing with “Desperado,” “Hotel California” and “Life In the Fast Lane” among others. Although chastised by many critics as slick and superficial, the Eagles released two of the most popular albums of all time, “Hotel California” and “Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975),” which with sales at 38 million the Recording Industry Association of America ranked with Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as the No. 1 seller.

Led by singer-songwriters Henley and Frey, the Eagles were initially branded as “mellow” and “easy listening.” But by their third album, the 1974 release “On the Border,” they had added a rock guitarist, Felder, and were turning away from country and bluegrass.
Leadon, an old-fashioned bluegrass picker, was unhappy with the new sound and left after the 1975 album “One of These Nights.” (He was replaced by another rock guitarist, Joe Walsh.) Meisner stayed on through the 1976 release of “Hotel California,” the band’s most acclaimed record, but was gone soon after. His departure, ironically, was touched off by the song he cowrote and was best known for, “Take It to the Limit.”

A shy Nebraskan torn between fame and family life, Meisner had been ill and homesick during the “Hotel California” tour (his first marriage was breaking up) and was reluctant to have the spotlight for “Take It to the Limit,” a showcase for his nasally tenor. His objections during a Knoxville, Tennessee, concert in the summer of 1977 so angered Frey that the two argued backstage and Meisner left soon after. His replacement, Timothy B. Schmit, remained with the group over the following decades, along with Henley, Walsh and Frey, who died in 2016.

As a solo artist, Meisner never approached the success of the Eagles, but did have hits with “Hearts On Fire” and “Deep Inside My Heart” and played on records by Walsh, James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg among others. Meanwhile, the Eagles ended a 14-year hiatus in 1994 and toured with Schmit even though Meisner had played on all but one of their earlier studio albums. He did join group members past and present in 1998 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and performed “Take It Easy” and “Hotel California.” For a decade, he was part of World Classic Rockers, a touring act that at various times included Donovan, Spencer Davis and Denny Laine.

Meisner was married twice, the first time when he was still in his teens, and had three kids.

The son of sharecroppers and grandson of a classical violinist, Meisner was playing in local bands as a teenager and by the end of the 1960s had moved to California and joined a country rock group, Poco, along with Richie Furay and Jimmy Messina. But he would remember being angered that Furay wouldn’t let him listen to the studio mix of their first album and left the group before it came out: His successor was Timothy B. Schmit.

Meisner backed Ricky Nelson, played on Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” album and befriended Henley and Frey when all were performing in Linda Ronstadt’s band. With Ronstadt’s blessing, they formed the Eagles, were signed up by David Geffen for his Asylum Records label and released their self-titled debut album in 1972.

Frey and Henley sang lead most of the time, but Meisner was the key behind “Take It the Limit.” It appeared on the “One of These Nights” album from 1975 and became a top 5 single, a weary, plaintive song later covered by Etta James and as a duet by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings.

Meisner’s falsetto voice was so distinctive it became a defining part not only of the Eagles but the entire California sound.

Meisner’s “high harmonies are instantly recognizable and cherished by Eagles fans around the world,” the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said in a statement.

In a pair of 2015 episodes of the parody series “Documentary Now!” about a faux-Eagles band, Bill Hader’s mustachioed, ultra-high-voiced character is clearly inspired by Meisner.

“The purpose of the whole Eagles thing to me was that combination and the chemistry that made all the harmonies just sound perfect,” Meisner told the music web site www.lobstergottalent.com in 2015.

“The funny thing is after we made those albums I never listened to them and it is only when someone comes over or I am at somebody’s house and it gets played in the background that is when I’ll tell myself, ‘Damn, these records are good.’”

26/07/2023

Irish Singer Sinead O'Connor has died at 56...

Sinéad O'Connor, the Irish singer known for her intense and beautiful voice, her political convictions and the personal tumult that overtook her later years, has died. She was 56 years old.

O'Connor's recording of "Nothing Compares 2 U" was one of the biggest hits of the early 1990s. Her death was announced by her family. The cause and date of her death were not made public.

The statement said: "It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved Sinéad. Her family and friends are devastated and have requested privacy at this very difficult time."

Alternative radio in the late 1980s rang with the voices of female singers who defied commercial expectations of what women should look like and how they should sound. But even in a crowd that included Tracy Chapman, Laurie Anderson and the Indigo Girls, O'Connor stood out.

The cover to her first album, released in 1987, was so striking — not just because of her beautiful face. It was her head, bald as an eaglet, and her wrists locked defensively across her heart. The album's title, The Lion and the Cobra, refers to a verse from Psalm 91 about believers, and the power and resilience of their faith. And throughout her early life, Sinéad O'Connor was resilient.

"I grew up in a severely abusive situation, my mother being the perpetrator," O'Connor told NPR in 2014. "So much of child abuse is about being voiceless, and it's a wonderfully healing thing to just make sounds."

O'Connor started making sounds in a home for juvenile delinquents, after a childhood spent getting booted out of Catholic schools and busted, repeatedly, for shoplifting. But a nun gave her a guitar and she began to sing, on the streets of Dublin and then with a popular Irish band called In Tua Nua.

22/07/2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1_RKu-ESCY

The official audio video for "Try That In A Small Town". Listen here ►https://jasonaldean.lnk.to/TryThatInASmallTownIDGet tickets to Jason Aldean's "Highway ...

10/06/2023

Join us every Friday evening at 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. EST as the Wingman takes you back to the 1970's, commercial free, right here on www,MusicLabRadio.com

24/05/2023

The Queen of Rock and Roll Tina Turner Has Died, Aged 83 . . .

Queen of rock and roll, American and Swiss singer Tina Turner has died at the age of 83... as reported on the artist’s page on Facebook...Turner died after a long illness at her home in Küsnacht near Zurich.

“With her, the world loses a musical legend and role model,” her spokesperson said in a statement.

The singer was born on November 26, 1939 as Anna May Bullock in the small town of Natbush in the US state of Tennessee. She first appeared on stage at the age of 18, becoming the lead singer of Ike Turner’s band Kings of Rhythm. In 1962, the couple got married, after which Anna changed her name to Tina.

In 1976, the singer left her husband after another beating, taking her two sons and two stepsons with her. Turner lived with the musician for 16 years. Then the artist began to practice Buddhism and took up solo performances. Tina Turner’s musical career spanned almost 60 years, and the peak of her popularity came in the 80s.

The singer is the winner of eight Grammy awards. For her temperament and stage expressiveness, she was awarded the title “Queen of Rock and Roll”. Rolling Stone magazine appointed Turner is one of the greatest singers of our time. His most famous songs are The Best, Proud Mary, Private Dancer and What’s Love Got to Do With It.

In July 2013, Turner married music producer Erwin Bach after a 27-year relationship with him. Three weeks after the wedding, the singer endured had a stroke and had to learn to walk again.

In 2016, Turner was diagnosed with bowel cancer. For treatment, she chose homeopathic remedies, which led to kidney damage and then kidney failure. In 2017 she transplanted husband’s kidney. Despite this, she faced side effects as her body tried to reject the new organ.

In 2018, the singer buried Craig’s oldest son. He committed su***de at the age of 59 at his home in California.

As of December 2022, Turner’s youngest son, Ronnie deceased in the street. While waiting for an ambulance, eyewitnesses performed artificial respiration on the man, but the efforts were unsuccessful. Later, the American media writing that the man died of colon cancer. At the time of his death, Ronnie also suffered from atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a buildup of cholesterol plaques on the walls of arteries that interferes with normal blood flow.

24/05/2023

Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian Folk-Rock Troubadour, Dead at 84. . .

Brilliant songwriter penned classics like "If You Could Read My Mind," "Early Morning Rain," and "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald"

Gordon Lightfoot, a genius-level Canadian singer-songwriter whose most enduring works include “If You Could Read My Mind,” “Sundown,” “Carefree Highway,” “Early Morning Rain,” and “Rainy Day People” — died on Monday, the CBC confirmed. He was 84.

Lightfoot’s deceptively simple songs, which fused folk with pop and country rock, have been covered by everyone from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Elvis Presley, and Johnny Cash to the Grateful Dead, Barbra Streisand, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Buffett, and the Replacements.

He scored a series of hits in his native Canada throughout the Sixties, but most Americans first heard his work in 1970, when “If You Could Read My Mind” reached Number Five on the Billboard Hot 100. The deeply personal song chronicles the agonizing breakdown of his marriage, casting much of the blame on himself. “I never thought I could act this way,” he wrote. “And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it/I don’t know where we went wrong/But the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back.”

He signed a management contract with famed manager Albert Grossman in 1965 that helped land Lightfoot spots on The Tonight Show and the Newport Folk Festival. He played an acoustic set shortly before Dylan made history by playing his first electric set. “I remember Albert and the musicologist Alan Lomax getting into a wrestling match in the afternoon of that day,” Lightfoot told Rolling Stone in 2019. “Joan Baez, Donovan, and I, we all stood around and watched. It was over the drum kit. They were trying to stay traditional, and somebody brought the drum kit onstage for the first time. It was quite a kerfuffle over it. It was a hot day in Newport. And a dry day. And I remember the dust was flying.”

In 2019, he was the subject of the documentary Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. Around that time, he celebrated his 80th birthday with an extensive tour that wrapped up last October at the Club Regent Casino in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Many fans were stunned to see him carry on despite his advanced age and significant medical issues, but it was part of a lifelong philosophy he outlined in a 1990 interview: “As long as I got the strength and willpower to do great shows, [I will keep touring],” he said. “If I’m still pickin’, I’m still kickin’.”

29/04/2023

There's nothing like a heavy metal tenor performing ballads or even opera. Take a listen to this guys' vocal range...

This is my The Song Of Silence cover, inspired in the version of the band Disturbed, originally by Simon & Garfunkel.►Wear the DAN'S LAW! -- https://represen...

20/01/2023

David Crosby, Founder of legendary bands The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Crosby-Nash, and CPR... Dead at 81

Crosby was a seminal, pioneering figure in the folk-rock scene for more than six decades as a member of The Byrds; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and then Crosby, Stills, Nash. He also had a prolific solo career, especially in recent years, releasing new music at an almost frenetic pace. Crosby was a two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame winner. Cause of death unknown.

13/01/2023

Lisa Marie Presley, American Singer-Songwriter, Dead at 54...

The only child of Elvis and Priscilla Presley died after suffering from cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, CA.

The singer whose blues-tinged voice carried across three albums, died on Thursday at the age of 54.

“It is with a heavy heart that I must share the devastating news that my beautiful daughter Lisa Marie has left us,” Priscilla confirmed in a statement to People Thursday evening.

Earlier on Thursday, Presley was transferred to a local hospital after suffering cardiac arrest at her home in Calabasas, the L.A. County Fire Dept. confirmed to Rolling Stone. Just days before the incident, Presley attended the Golden Globes alongside her mother, Priscilla, where Austin Butler, who portrayed Elvis in the biopic about the musician, was awarded the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. “Lisa Marie, Priscilla, I love you forever,” Butler said during his acceptance speech.

Presley has been open about her health struggles in the past, including her sobriety journey after suffering from an addiction to opioids.

12/01/2023

JEFF BECK, GUITAR GOD WHO INFLUENCED GENERATIONS, DIES AT 78...

Jeff Beck, a guitar virtuoso who pushed the boundaries of blues, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll, influencing generations of shredders along the way and becoming known as the guitar player’s guitar player, has died. He was 78.

Beck died Tuesday after “suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis,” his representatives said in a statement released Wednesday. The location was not immediately known.

“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter.

Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

“Jeff was such a nice person and an outstanding iconic, genius guitar player — there will never be another Jeff Beck,” Tony Iommi, guitarist for Black Sabbath wrote on Twitter among the many tributes.

Beck first came to prominence as a member of the Yardbirds and then went out on his own in a solo career that incorporated hard rock, jazz, funky blues and even opera. He was known for his improvising, love of harmonics and the whammy bar on his preferred guitar, the Fender Stratocaster.

“Jeff Beck is the best guitar player on the planet,” Joe Perry, the lead guitarist of Aerosmith, told The New York Times in 2010. “He is head, hands and feet above all the rest of us, with the kind of talent that appears only once every generation or two.”

Beck was among the rock-guitarist pantheon from the late ’60s that included Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix. Beck won eight Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice — once with the Yardbirds in 1992 and again as a solo artist in 2009. He was ranked fifth in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

“Jeff could channel music from the ethereal,” Page tweeted Wednesday.

Beck played guitar with vocalists as varied as Luciano Pavarotti, Macy Gray, Chrissie Hynde, Joss Stone, Imelda May, Cyndi Lauper, Wynonna Judd, Buddy Guy and Johnny Depp. He made two records with Rod Stewart — 1968′s “Truth” and 1969′s “Beck-Ola” — and one with a 64-piece orchestra, “Emotion & Commotion.”

Beck’s career never hit the commercial highs of Clapton. A perfectionist, he preferred to make critically well-received instrumental records and left the limelight for long stretches, enjoying his time restoring vintage automobiles. He and Clapton had a tense relationship early on but became friends in later life and toured together.

Why did the two wait some four decades to tour together?

“Because we were all trying to be big bananas,” Beck told Rolling Stone in 2010. “Except I didn’t have the luxury of the hit songs Eric’s got.”

Beck is survived by his wife, Sandra.