Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Luck of the Irish

It's a beautiful day, the sky falls And you feel like it's a beautiful day...

Ireland's most famous sons U2 are from Dublin. The band consists of Bono (vocals and guitar), The Edge (guitar, keyboards, and vocals), Adam Clayton (bass guitar) and Larry Mullen Jr. (drums and percussion).






U2 played at 1985's Live Aid concert to benefit for Ethiopian famine relief. Many believe the show was a turning point is U2's career.



U2's new album will be reviewed here soon.

Bob Geldolf of The Boomtown Rats (also from Ireland) helped organize Live Aid.



Van (the man) Morrison is from Belfast in Northern Ireland. Van was a member of the great 60's garage rock band Them. In the later part of that era he established his solo career with the great Brown Eyed Girl.



The Waterboys are composed of musicians from Ireland, Scotland and England. They played tribute to Van Morrison with a cover of Sweet Thing on 1988's Fisherman's Blues.



The Cranberries formed in Limerick in 1990. Dreams was a great pop song from 1993.






Thin Lizzy from Dublin, Ireland had a pretty good song of their own; 1976's The Boys Are Back In Town.




Sunday, March 8, 2009

U2 & Steve Earle: New Releases

There's a train a comin', hear them tracks a hummin'

First of all, this week (on March 3) U2's No Line On the Horizon was released. I just got it and haven't got to sink my teeth into yet. I like to digest a new release before I grade it.





Second of all, a new release from Steve Earle is going to hit the stores on May 12. The new release is Townes a tribute to the Texas songsmith and mentor to Earle. Read about it at Pitchfork.