Tag Archives: Grammy

Put Your Lights On

3 February 2025 By in Music Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

While lying in a hospital bed recovering from a major heart attack at the age of 28, Everlast (Erik Schrody, aka Whitey Ford), an American singer and songwriter, wrote the song “Put Your Lights On.” A song of hope, of belief, an affirmation of caring for one’s soul. A powerful message, a warning even, signifying that “all you sinners” need to “watch out” when you find yourself in a dark place and “Put Your Lights On.”

Everlast penned the song in 1998, and after Carlos Santana asked him to contribute a track to his new album, it was included in the “Supernatural” album release in 1999. The song won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. As a single, it reached #18 on the charts.

Source: Songfacts. Graphic: Put Your Lights On, Santana, 2021, Video Remastered, Santana VEVO. Put Your Lights On cover 1999, copyright Arista Records.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

26 August 2024 By in Music Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Isbell in a 2020 interview said great songwriting required the ability to build a song that goes beyond personal experience into the realm of emotional storytelling. Storytelling about a perception of the world rather than one’s role or experiences in it.

His 2023 album release of ‘Weathervane’ delves predominately into the personal with a nod towards the worldly distractions, more Springsteen than Dylan but it is all a master class in songwriting. Great songwriting is the man not the subject.

Isbell provides 13 tracks of mostly Americana and roots ballads, providing his enchanted interpretations of love, longing, and regret.

The album won the 66th Annual Grammy Award for Best Americana Album.

Source: Apple Music. AllMusic. Graphic: Weathervane album cover, copyright Southeastern Records. The album cover has only two directions S and E.

Elvis

8 July 2024 By in Music Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Elvis Recorded Live on Stage in Memphis album was released 50 years ago on 8 July 1974 by RCA Victor. The recording was captured at a Mid-South Coliseum concert in Memphis, Tennessee 14 weeks earlier on the 20th of March.

The Memphis ‘concert’ included two shows each on the 16th and 17th with the actual recording occurring during the fifth show on the 20th. The five sold-out shows were estimated to have sold more than 60,000 tickets with some seating going for as much as $10.

In addition to the Memphis shows a ‘rehearsal’ concert was held in Richmond, Virgina on 18th of March in which the album Forty-Eight Hours to Memphis was recorded. The set lists for the Richmond and Memphis recordings were nearly identical.

Although the concert and subsequent album release were not in the same league as Elvis’ 68 Comeback Special, the Memphis album contained a truer representation of his career and his genre crossing-over appeal.

The album was certified gold, reaching number 2 on Billboard’s Country chart, number 40 on Billboard 200 and garnered another Grammy for Elvis for his rendition of the gospel song “How Great Thou Art”.

The original 1974 album left out the concert songs “Suspicious Minds” and “Polk Salad Annie” but were re-inserted back into the FTD Records 2004 re-issue of Live on Stage in Memphis. Sony’s 2014 40-year re-issue of the album includes the FTD Records 2004 re-issue on disc one plus also including the ‘rehearsal’ concert preformed at the Richmond (Viginia) Coliseum two days before the Memphis concert.

Source:  Sony Legacy Release by Troy Yeary, The Mystery Train Blog and Elvis Australia. Graphic:  Elvis at the Richmond Coliseum, 18 March 1974, Copyright FTD Records.