Varanasi, Jan 12 (PTI) On the sandy banks of the Ganga in Varanasi, over 200 tents offer tourists a panoramic view of the famed ghats of the holy city on the other side of the river along with live classical music, ‘aarti’ in the evening and yoga sessions.
The ‘Tent City’, to be inaugurated virtually by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, has been developed on the lines of similar setups in Gujarat’s Kutch and Rajasthan.
Three clusters of 10 hectares each comprise the Tent City and are expected to give a fillip to the city’s tourism potential, said Kaushal Raj Sharma, the divisional commissioner of Varanasi.
Vice Chairman of Varanasi Development Authority (VDA) Abhishek Goyal said the Tent City will be a confluence of religion, spirituality and culture.
“Guests at the Tent City will experience the sunrise, live music events in the morning, yoga session by the river as well as boat tours. Special care has been taken for the comfort, convenience and safety of all tourists,” he said.
Goyal said the three clusters of tents include villas of 900 sq ft each, super deluxe accommodation of 480 to 580 sq ft each and deluxe accommodation of 250 to 400 sq ft each.
The tent city is complete with Swiss Cottages, a reception area, a gaming zone, restaurants, dining areas, conference venues, spa and yoga centres, a library and an art gallery. It will also offer water sports, and camel and horse riding on the sandy banks of the Ganga, he said.
Neeraj Upadhyay, the designer of the Tent City, said it has been given the shape of temple spires. The tents will give the feel of luxury and offer the facilities of a hotel, he said.
“An attempt has been made to project the image of Kashi in it. The atmosphere of the Tent City is such that it will tickle all five senses. The fragrance of sandalwood, rose and lavender can be smelled across the tent city while the famous Banarasi thandai, chaat and Banarasi paan will a treat for the taste buds,” he said.
City Police Commissioner Mutha Ashok Jain said adequate security arrangements have been made for the Tent City.
Two temporary police outposts have been set up there. Non-veg food items and liquor have been banned there, he added.
In 1976, some of Music City’s most eccentric, outside-the-box artists turned the town upside down, staging a commercial revolution against the Nashville establishment that resulted in a paradigm shift in country music. Ironically, they didn’t even mean to do it.
Wanted! The Outlaws wasn’t an album project that any of its participants thought to undertake. Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Tompall Glaser had all built their own brand of success, each of them largely isolated from the lush, string-laden sounds of much of Nashville’s slick product: Nelson had relocated to Austin and used that base to release Red Headed Stranger, one of the most acclaimed country albums of all time — and one that his label hadn’t wanted to release. Jennings had released Dreaming My Dreams, which he and Glaser recorded at Glaser’s legendary studio, Hillbilly Central. And Glaser had experienced huge success, both in a group with his brothers and as a songwriter and producer; he had also scored a solo hit.
It’s ironic, given the three’s anti-establishment stance, that it was a company that put together the album that put them all over the top. RCA proposed the project to capitalize on the success that each of the performers was having; Jennings’ wife, Jessi Colter, was also in on the record, fresh from her smash hit “I’m Not Lisa.” Wanted! The Outlaws consisted of a selection of tracks that each artist had already released elsewhere, brought together in one collection and with a cover that played upon the outlaw images that the performers had cultivated.
And it worked: Released in January of 1976, the album rocketed to No. 1 on the country charts, and also reached No. 10 in the pop charts. Driven by the success of two hit singles — Jennings and Colter’s “Suspicious Minds,” and Jennings’ “Good Hearted Woman” — the album sold a million copies, becoming the first country album to be certified platinum.
The success of Wanted! The Outlaws helped catapult Nelson and Jennings to their spots as two of the most iconic country music figures of their generation. In 1996, RCA re-released Wanted! The Outlaws on CD, with 10 bonus tracks.
Wanted! The Outlaws is available for download and streaming on Amazon.
This story was originally written by Sterling Whitaker, and revised by Angela Stefano.
It’s Fennec’s first time at East Sixth Street’s BLK Vinyl. The 32-year-old producer – musically aliased after the smallest species of fox – is a recent Austin transplant, though hardly a casual shopper. Like a munitions maker in a minefield, he sifts through the racks with weary, learned caution.
As bargain deals and gently used slabs flash before his eyes, the producer maintains a scientific posture. He harbors the same knowledge as any inveterate beatmaker: The true cost of a hidden gem always runs deeper than the price tag. When one found sound can reorient carefully laid creative plans, clever producers learn to be careful about the music they bring into their lives – and not just because it might land them litigation by a moneygrubbing pop star.
Across an eight-year oeuvre that evolves from windswept, melancholy downtempo (studycore) to funky, tropical house (dance floor), there are approximately 1,200 discrete sonic snatches threaded through Fennec’s six albums. He pulls from world-devouring, present-day dance divas and the deepest recesses of jazz obscurantist YouTube – be it a flash-bang cymbal crash or a looping, bass drum thump. In a way, this pseudonymous craftsman has paid for every single sound … y’know, spiritually.
Fennec doesn’t sample music so much as the music he makes samples him.
“The majority of what you hear, it’s whatever I happened to be watching or listening to at the time I made it. If I’m hearing a new song, I’m thinking, ‘Hmm, can I use this somehow?’ But if one of my own songs is playing, I’m even less present in the moment. Everything else grays out,” the producer explains during a pre-shopping stop at Kinda Tropical, his excitable, intelligent voice running rampant over the soft tones of the restaurant’s Curtis Mayfield playlist.
“If I’m not agonizing over what I’d do differently, I’m emotionally back to where I was when I made the track. And I’ve been to a lot of weirdass places.”
No matter where listeners dive in to Fennec’s discography, they’ll hear the daily therapy of a man who spent the last decade accumulating a degree in media production, a Juris Doctor to practice law, and a master’s in public policy – all while balancing an array of soul-sucking jobs and following no stable career path besides the 4/4 thump in his head.
“Music is almost like a video game to me, or journal keeping. Something in the background of my life an hour a day to defuse all the stress,” Fennec explains. “If I ever missed a day or two it was like a debt that built up … I gotta have something going or I don’t know what I’m doing with my time.”
Take a break from the discotheque. Silence your booty. Train your mind on the rhythmic intricacies of what’s pumping out of the loudspeakers. Obviously, that’s a pretty fucking dorky thing to do, so pretty quickly your big brain starts marveling at all the unique ways that sample-based dance music futzes around with time. First, to the astute ear, isolated musical moments call out to each other across the decades.
Piece by piece, perhaps through years of painstaking trial and error, these sublime seconds are then sped up, slowed down, and warped beyond recognition – all in service of a single night of ecstasy, and later, a million hazy memories of life at its most vibrant.
Fennec doesn’t sample music so much as the music he makes samples him.
That’s long been the subtext lurking beneath the subwoofer in Fennec’s music. On the producer’s sixth album and national breakthrough, last year’s Pitchfork-feted a couple of good days, the producer finally made those themes explicit. “We all want to be free and have a good time. We want a few laughs, a few joints, and a few drinks among those we love. But, we know we’re not going to be able to all our lives,” the producer wrote on his Bandcamp, just before thanking close to 70 artists who influenced (and may or may not be heard within) the record. “Here is a couple of good days we’ll be able to look back on, and forward to.”
A smoky, sunset-toned riot of conga hits and Caribbean keys, a couple of good days trains simultaneously on reveries past and present. More danceable than any Fennec has made before, the record’s 14 tracks draw from sonic trends only accessible by party-hopping to previous decades: namely, the Mai Tai fantasies of the exotica genre. Once soundtrack to Tiki bars and Madison Avenue clambakes the nation over, exotica was an offset of late Fifties lounge music, swirling Pacific Island rhythms with lushly arranged orchestrations.
Fennec came to the exotica genre in early 2020, near the start of his time in Austin. Driving on Burnet Road for the first time, he pulled over alongside the since-shuttered Genie Car Wash. As the building’s neon sign gathered brightness against a sinking Violet Crown sunset, the producer wondered what those retro hues would sound like as music. Pretty soon, Fennec – career student that he is – had built what he calls a “mood board” of close to 100 songs to begin “preliminary research.” The producer isn’t one to tackle house music from the traditional vantage of vise-tight singles or sprawling mixes; he’s all about the album experience.
“The majority of my life, I didn’t listen to dance music,” Fennec says. “I was interested in it for sure. But I always had this feeling of, y’know, ‘Why are all these songs like six or seven minutes long?'”
Fennec’s eccentric, erudite twist on house might make more sense considering his sonic roots sprouted far outside it. Coming of age alongside the rollicking rise of the White Stripes and the Strokes, his initial musical endeavors operated shamelessly in their lineage, making rip-off songs that he says could “slot right into their discography, but be not as good.” To this day, he still prefers to think through ideas on a guitar over any other instrument.
That near-academic proficiency in mimicry found a new form when he discovered instrumental titans J Dilla and Timbaland, as well as videos showing Maroon 5 and Katy Perry producer Benny Blanco at work. Fennec recalls being fascinated with the idea of pop music as some sort of formula – a series of inalienable rules anybody could learn.
“If I’m not agonizing over what I’d do differently, I’m emotionally back to where I was when I made the track. And I’ve been to a lot of weirdass places.”
– Fennec
Those were the tools; the inspiration came later. Fennec cites two sample-mad musicians he started listening to during undergrad at Indiana University Bloomington – the dusty, psychedelic loops of Panda Bear and the po-mo, high/low collisions of Girl Talk – for forming his stylistic framework. Working on mash-ups during study breaks, the burgeoning producer gleaned know-how from the syllabi for his music history minor, as well as an internship assisting on “shitty local commercials and education videos.”
“I just watched this guy cut together dialogue. He would trim out the ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ to make it this one smooth thing. I came to understand, ‘Oh, it’s within my power to cut together audio and make it this new thing.'”
When Fennec later applied to the Indiana Bloomington law school in 2012, he wrote his admissions essay about Girl Talk – hoping to practice the sort of copyright law that can offer a fundamental protection to fair use creatives like his musical hero. Ironically, it was during this tenure in higher academia that Fennec finally emerged from the shadow of the artist who got him accepted. In three years, he finished the first two minimal techno-styled albums in his discography. Cushy jobs he worked in the meantime – email marketing and record company inventory management – made it easy to listen to lots of music.
“My big mistake was not realizing that, if you want to work in copyright law – which is really just entertainment law – you have to live in New York or L.A. or Nashville,” Fennec admits. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to do all that.'”
Settling for work in Indiana employment law, Fennec spent only a single, miserable year as an attorney. Resolving to start fresh and “do a 180” landed him in high school teaching, first in a “severely underfunded” public school and then in an only “slightly less impoverished” charter school. Listening to his January 2020 deep house foray, free us of this feeling, takes him back to putting music together on his prep period between classes. He remembers feeling “mentally and physically drained.”
As with many a fledgling creative, the onset of COVID-19 forced Fennec down a crucial existential thought spiral. When his fiancée of six years mentioned moving back to her hometown of Austin, Fennec, always having harbored a love for politics and economics, sent an application to the UT-Austin public policy master’s program. Pretty soon, the producer was winnowing his record collection for cross-country transport, off-loading unsampled instructional exercise LPs, and dreaming of the couple of good days to come.
“It’s so embarrassing,” he recalls. “I didn’t even know public policy was a field of study before I looked.”
Not long after his latest album started gathering careermaking acclaim, the newly master-fied Fennec found employment in 2022 researching tech trends for a think tank. No need for concern, however – when the producer one day revisits this time period through forthcoming music, he promises the memories will be happy ones. Next up, he’s working on a dub-and-post-punk-influenced album.
Fennec’s workaday responsibilities – extensive fact-finding missions followed by clear, lucid presentations of research – sound an awful lot like his sonic side hustle.
“I would like to juggle both for as long as I can. Maybe, eventually, I can find a way to make a living off music, but there’s a really nice freedom to having a day job,” Fennec says, just before I leave to let him crate-dig his way out of BLK Vinyl. “You can say no to the things you don’t want, and right now I’m really trying to live without having any regrets.”
Good news for music lovers as Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival which is set to happen in April 2023 is to have headliners including BLACKPINK, Bad Bunny and Frank Ocean enthralling everyone with their music. A full line-up of the music stars performing at this much-awaited global music festival was revealed on 10 January and it is nothing short of impressive.
For the first time ever, making history is the K-pop girl band BLACKPINK, slated to perform on April 15 and 22. Another first-time headliner is Bad Bunny, the first Latin musician to perform here.
Another attraction for this year’s Coachella is Frank Ocean who was booked for the 2020 event which eventually got cancelled due to the pandemic. Also, EDM sensation Calvin Harris is a returning artist to the desert.
Indian music sensation Diljit Dosanjh who created waves with his ‘Born To Shine’ world tour and Pakistani artist Ali Sethi are two of the top performers as well. This inclusive line-up sure has wowed the fans around the globe. The event will occur over two weekends, 14-16 April and 21-23 April at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California.
More about Coachella 2023
Image credit: BLACKPINK/Instagram
BLACKPINK’s Coachella journey
This sensational South Korean band comprises members Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa. They were the first K-pop group to perform on the Coachella stage in 2019 and will be returning as headliners in 2023. They indeed have come a long way since their debut album in 2016 called Square One. This indeed is a proud moment for them and their fans because they will be joining the prestigious list of female stars headlining one of the biggest music fests in the world. This includes Björk, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande and Billie Eilish.
The band has been getting a lot of love from their fans as they have been on a world tour which kickstarted in October 2022. The girls covered important destinations in Europe and North America, with shows in Asia, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand that have been planned for 2023, as a part of this tour.
Coachella 2023: Who are the other artists to perform?
Bad Bunny in “Moscow Mule”; Image credit: IMDb
The mood to groove in the desert is set because this year’s line-up includes 50 biggest music artists including Gorillaz, Burna Boy, Björk, Kaytranada, Rosalía, The Kid LAROI, Kali Uchis, A Boogie, Dominic Fike, Charli XCX, Labrinth, Becky G, Metro Boomin, 070 Shake, Flo Milli, MUNA, YUNGBLUD, Doechii, Remi Wolf, BENEE, Idris Elba, Uncle Waffles, Jackson Wang, Latto, Willow, Rae Sremmurd, Fousheé, Sasha Alex Sloan, The Linda Lindas, Ethel Cain, Shenseea, EARTHGANG and UMI.
Bookings are now open. Very limited passes are available for the first weekend. Here is where you can book your passes for the second weekend.
(Main and featured image credit: Coachella/Instagram)
“Why doesn’t everyone just dance and shout to the music once in a while?” musician Takao Tajima said about the latest album from his solo project Original Love. “I think perhaps that’s what this album is saying.”
“Music, Dance & Love” is his first new album in 3½ years.
In that intervening period, a series of unimaginable events happened, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
“The world is totally different from what it was 3½ years ago,” he said. “Things happened one after the other, and I had to rewrite the lyrics many times.”
He altered the lyrics of the album’s lead track, “The Invasion,” at least three times. He had never before rewritten lyrics so significantly other than tweaking them.
The song has an international feel, reminiscent of South American and Middle Eastern music.
He sings in a stern voice, anger underlying the song. “We all need to say, ‘Something is wrong with the world.’ The words should be direct,” he said. “If you use expressions that are hard to understand, you will never get the message across.”
Tajima was inspired to create “Music, Dance & Love” after learning from news reports that there are people who enjoy dance parties in a town in Ukraine that has been attacked.
“It’s wonderful and cool,” he said. “I was happy that music could live on in such a situation.
“You can’t stop the music, no matter how you might be intimidated.”
That message can be heard in the songs on the album that are a mixture of soul and rock.
He was conscious of having a “danceable sound” throughout, with a groove that makes listeners sway.
“Amid the pandemic, I wanted to make something that would cheer people up when they were wondering what was going to happen and make them want to work a little harder,” he said. “I’m just trying to convey the message that music will never let you down,”
The year of 2021 was the 30th anniversary of Original Love’s debut. His solo act had hits in the 1990s with songs such as “Kiss.” A version of that song appears on the new album.
For the album, Tajima invited musicians who had backed him in the past. He could also feel himself growing as a vocalist.
“No matter how good the performance is, if you don’t sing well, it won’t be funky. Singing is the most difficult part,” he said. “I’ve been making music for this long, I’m finally starting to see what it’s all about.”
The times may have changed, but music has always been a part of his life.
“If it weren’t for music, I’d probably be dead by now,” Tajima said. “I have to live with music all my life.”
The definition of guilty pleasure, as per the word nerds over yonder at Merriam Webster is, “something pleasurable that induces a usually minor feeling of guilt.”
Examples of guilty pleasures include but are not limited to booze, processed foods, Nora Ephron movies, UGG boots, eating in bed, everything on the Lifetime Network, wearing pajamas all day, using someone else’s toothbrush, the music of Nickelback and anything else that brings a heady mix of joy and shame.
The advent of the internet has blessedly made it easier to share in these guilty pleasures and to find community in and through our bad or embarrassing behaviors.
As an unrepentant, pleasure principled Taurus, my god is more and my attitude towards guilt is no thanks. I encourage all of you to celebrate what makes you feel good even if it falls on the other side of cool, decent or healthy. Shame is the thief of joy so indulge freely and proudly with the knowledge that we all harbor habits that ride the line. Read on to learn more about the guilty pleasures and shameful indulgences of the signs.
Aries folk love to take a literal swing or a metaphorical jab. Emil Lendof
Aries folk loathe nothing more than boredom and will often pick a fight or instigate an altercation just to get their heart rate up and their nipples hard. Whether it’s making an inflammatory statement on Reddit, breaking a glass in the kitchen, picking a fight with their partner or inciting a riot at a sports bar they take pleasure in pushing buttons and boundaries.
TAURUS (April 20 – May 20) Online shopping
Taurus rules the second house of valuables and self-worth and when bulls feel at a lack for the latter they double down on acquiring the former. Other placements in the birth chart will indicate whether the Taurus in question is a QVC shopper, a home goods hoarder or a clothes horse but whatever the ilk, the operative word is more and the Gollum voice of their deepest wounds whisper ‘never enough.’
celebrity astrology Which three zodiac signs are most likely to cheat and destroy hearts?
Geminis uses language to make sense of the world and stories to self-soothe. At the highest level this makes them deeply curious folks and at their most indulgent it makes them two bit gossips and chronic doom scrollers. Whether its diving head long into the black hole of a stranger’s Instagram feed, looking for people they know on PornHub, identifying the zodiac sign of their ex’s new partner via a social media stalk, or swiping right on everyone in a chaos move that trips the algorithm of dating apps, if its a toxic screen habit that makes their minds fray and eyes burn, Gemini is into it.
CANCER (June 21 – July 22) Trauma bonding
Cancer uses pain like a sailing knot to keep them tied tight to those they love and love to be needed by. Being intimately familiar with the trauma of others keeps Cancer feeling both connected and indispensable. Bonus: treading water in the emotional maelstrom of others saves them from having to investigate the turbulent tidal pools of their own bull***t.
forecast Nostradamus predictions for 2023: An antichrist arrives, World War III and the monarchy dies LEO (July 23 – August 22) Googling themselves/fabricating reality
Leo is not so much self-centered as self-seeking, ever looking for the dopamine hit of recognition. Oxygenated by attention, good or bad, they take to the interwebs to search for signs of themselves and comb social media to make sure any unflattering photos are expunged. These people are about presentation which makes them equally guilty of crafting an enviable social media identity that champions a healthy lifestyle, emotional independence and rich friendships. Yet, the higher the sparkle factor of that online curation the higher the likelihood the lion in question is ugly crying in the dark about their perceived facial asymmetry, lack of intimacy and the tepid public response to their ecstatic dance routine on Snapchat.
Which zodiac signs are good with money? These are destined for riches VIRGO (August 23 – September 22) Being right
Virgo is the sign of instantaneous judgement or discernment as they see it. They know within moments if their friend’s significant other is a trash monster, if the food will be good, if you’ve dressed appropriately for the sartorial assignment, if they want to be your friend etc. and they get no greater thrill than when their instincts, opinions, arguments or unheeded advice turn out to be absolutely correct. Better than an orgasm and equal to a clean kitchen.
LIBRA (September 23 – October 22) Being a sugar baby
Ruled by luxury loving, work avoidant Venus, Libras want all of the spoils and none of the toil. Thus, their guilty pleasure is lavishness on someone else’s dime, freebies, impersonating a first class passenger, anything on the house, a hotel room upgrade, there friend’s parents beach house, an open bar, an “influencer” perk, cutting in line at a club, a swag bag etc.
SCORPIO (October 23 – November 21) Romantic comedies
Scorpios secretly love the simple promise and easy dopamine of a rom com. iStockphoto
Scorpio would never cop to it, but inside the dark vault heart of each and every one, under the overgrown ivy, around the barbwire and beyond the ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE graffiti lives a basic b**ch romantic that believes in “the one” and worships at the altar of the meet cute, the fairytale, and the everlasting love story.
death The three doomed zodiac signs destined to die alone
Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter, planet of luck and expansion which gives natives a supernatural optimism and the problematic belief that they can, should and will always win. That’s the kind of concentrated confidence that makes a mothertrucker roll the dice, bet the ponies, go all in on an average hand, pull the lever and never, ever pull out.
CAPRICORN (December 22 – January 19) Exiling their enemies
Capricorn is daddy energy and these people LIVE to punish and not always in a sexy way. Sea goats love to take stock of every slight they have suffered and every person who has failed them and then emotionally vanquish them to a desert landscape where they will be starved of the bankable resource that is the favor of a Capricorn.
AQUARIUS (January 20 – February 18) Binge watching reality television
reality tv Here’s which reality TV show should you binge based on your zodiac sign
Aquarius loves to observe human nature in all of its myriad messiness; hair pulling, betrayal, survivalism, tenderness etc without actually having to participate in it. Blessedly for these water bearing, ivory tower dwelling, moon boot wearing weirdos, they can watch it all and satisfy their signature blend of emotional remove and probing curiosity through the glut and gullet of reality television.
PISCES (February 19 – March 20) Everything
As the last sign in the zodiac, Pisces has a heavy load to bear, specifically the unchecked psychic baggage of all the signs that come before it. As such, these fish scaled folk need a lot of space for escape be it drugs, drinking, drum circles, sexual depravity or a selective sensory deprivation chamber filled with ambient light, bean bags and the sound of ocean spray.
Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports back on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. She is also an accomplished writer who has profiled a variety of artists and performers, as well as extensively chronicled her experiences while traveling. Among the many intriguing topics she has tackled are cemetery etiquette, her love for dive bars, Cuban Airbnbs, a “girls guide” to strip clubs and the “weirdest” foods available abroad.
The Philharmonia will perform at the Anglican Church in Batemans Bay on February 1 at 8pm and Ulladulla at St Martin’s Church on February 2 at 8pm.
Chamber Philharmonia Cologne 2023 perform a diverse program ranging from Antonio Vivaldi and his tremendously famous “Four Seasons” to Mozart and Niccolo Paganini
After several successful European tours the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne (Germany) returns to Australia in summer 2023 with a powerful and lovely new programme.
“Classical music the world over” – this is the motto of the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne.
A spokesperson for the Philharmonia said of the tour “It is irrelevant for our musicians whether they are playing in a little village church, in the open air, in Cologne Cathedral or in the Sydney Opera House – their enthusiasm to play music is the same every time.”
“The objective is simple – we want to inspire as many people as possible across all generations to enjoy classical music. The popularity of our ensemble is reflected in the fact that the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne gives around 300 concerts a year around the globe and listeners throughout the world look forward to a musical encounter with our exceptionally talented musicians.”
“The Chamber Philharmonia Cologne was founded in the city whose name they bear: Cologne. The city that is famous throughout the world for its University of Music and its musical and instrumental teaching. Generations of musicians have been trained there for many decades who, in terms of their musicality, are unparalleled around the world. Taking advantage of this pool of talent, a stock of outstanding musicians has accrued that in a changing cast of musicians take our motto across the world.
“Since November 2009, the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne has a very special partner at their side – the Mercedes-Benz Centre in Cologne. As part of a creative cooperation, this world renowned company, via its branch in Cologne, thrilled by our musical concept provides the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne with a comfortable tour bus. It enables our musicians to travel quickly and comfortably to the many varied concert locations. In return, the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne, in close cooperation with the Mercedes-Benz Center Cologne, organises special concerts for the car company’s special customers.
“The remarkable construction of the Mercedes-Benz Center is transformed in the process into a really top-class concert palace. This results in the smell of new cars mixing with the sounds of classical music.
“The Chamber Philharmonia Cologne is at home all over the world. Our tours regularly take us to New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Great Britain, Ireland and many other countries – and of course to Germany. In this context, the selection of works and soloists takes on a special significance. The multifaceted composition of the ensemble provides every member of the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne with the opportunity to perform as a soloist.
“The permanently expanding repertoire of the Chamber Philharmonia Cologne consists primarily of hand-picked pieces. The real appeal of our programme lies in the meeting of popular and unknown works from a wide variety of musical epochs. This sees familiar greats like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Vivaldi in dialogue with works from people such as Sergei Prokofieff through to the “King of Tango” Astor Piazzolla. This mix promises great diversity of the very highest order, without us having to preach to the audience in the process. After all, music is for entertainment and not for instruction.
“To inspire people across the world to enjoy classical music – that’s what we view as our maxim! Quite simply: Classical music the world over!”
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) – If you’re not a traditional country music fan of a certain age, you may not immediately recognize the name, Stan Hitchcock. But no matter who you are or your taste in music, you’re probably familiar with his work or know some of the many country music artists he’s helped by launching their careers or increasing their popularity.
Have you ever heard of Garth Brooks or CMT (Country Music Television)? Well, that’s just part of Stan Hitchcock’s legacy.
Born in the Kansas City area in 1936, Hitchcock moved to Springfield before he was five years old and began to play guitar at age 12. After enlisting in the Navy during the Korean Conflict and starting his band on board the USS Bryce Canyon, Stan returned home in 1958 and, along with his uncle Bob Johnson began to a ranch for homeless boys, the Good Samaritan Boys Ranch in Brighton, Missouri.
Stan joined with a local gospel group, The Waymakers, to raise funds for the ranch to launch a regionally syndicated radio show recorded out of KWTO in Springfield.
Bob Bilyeu, a friend of Stan’s for over 60 years, was a member of The Waymakers and met Hitchcock at a Sunday singing service at a Springfield church.
“His dad was pastor at Seminole Baptist Church, where all of us came to sing,” Bilyeu recalled. “So Stan sang, and we were mightily impressed with him. And then we sang, and he was mightily impressed with us. So afterward, he asked us if we wanted to sing with him, and we did.”
Stan and the Waymakers would also make an album together, which led to a solo career for Stan when another legendary figure in the Ozarks, Red Foley of Ozarks Jubilee fame, introduced Stan to Nashville record company executives.
Stan released 12 albums during his recording career and had several charted singles released worldwide. His biggest hit was “Honey I’m Home,” which reached number 17 on the country charts in 1969.
Hitchcock also toured extensively with well-known artists as their opening act.
Among them Loretta Lynn.
“They traveled together not in a bus, but in a car,” recalled Stan’s widow Denise Hitchcock. “Stan would drive, and Loretta would sleep in the back. It was late one night during the summer in northern Wisconsin with heavy fog that Stan started seeing these strange lights coming up behind them and a very unfamiliar sound. It turned out to be an emergency vehicle, but it had blue lights and that wah-woo siren sound that’s common in Europe. And this was when the UFO scare was going on, so Stan woke up Loretta and yelled, ‘Loretta, get up! We’re about to be abducted by aliens!’”
In 1966 Stan expanded his career with the nationally syndicated “Stan Hitchcock Show,” which gave a television start to Tom T. Hall, Barbara Mandrell, Mel Tillis, Jerry Reed, and many more. In 1979 Stan produced and hosted another nationally distributed television series, “Stan Hitchcock from the Ozarks,” with production centered in Branson.
In 1983 Hitchcock became part of the group that started Country Music Television (CMT), a significant moment in the history of country music as this new outlet convinced record labels to produce videos of young and upcoming artists to sell more records by putting them in front of a TV audience. The music industry recognized Hitchcock as the pioneer who brought a new generation of country music stars to the television generation and changed how artists delivered their music.
His “Stan Hitchcock’s Heart to Heart,” which featured artists interviewing with Stan and playing their songs, would go on for 25 years on several networks. Among the new breed of country performers that were introduced to television audiences on the show? Travis Tritt, Alabama, Reba, The Oak Ridge Boys, Keith Whitley, and an up-and-comer named Garth Brooks.
Denise remembers when Garth was honored at a music industry event, and Stan attended.
“When Stan walked into the room, a large group of reporters was surrounding Garth,” Denise recalled. “But when Garth saw Stan, he parted the reporters, walked through them to Stan, gave him a big ol’ bear hug, and lifted him off the floor, saying, ‘You are the reason that I made a mark in this business!’”
Stan passed away at age 86 on January 4 after a bout with cancer.
“He beat the cancer,” Denise said. “But it was difficult coming back from all the radiation.”
Stan leaves a long and impressive legacy that includes being named to the Traditional Country Music Hall of Fame, the Missouri Country Music Hall of Fame, and the elite Cable Television Pioneers organization.
“He was inducted into the Cable Pioneers for successfully launching three cable television networks,” Denise said.
Besides CMT, Hitchcock also started BlueHighways TV, headquartered in Tennessee, and the Branson-based Americana TV Network that eventually became the Hallmark Channel.
“I think his television production was his greatest legacy,” Bilyeu added. “But he’s written a great book about the history of country music, being a great singer and songwriter, and started that boys’ ranch. He was an affectionate person. He never said goodbye without saying I love you. I’ll miss him.”
“He didn’t ever shun anybody or look down on them,” said Stan’s brother Sam. “He was always there to help them if he could.”
The memorial service for Stan Hitchcock will be held on January 28 at the First Baptist Church, 205 E. Main St. Gallatin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. Visitation with the family will be from 10 a.m. until the noon service. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Good Samaritan Boys Ranch P.O. Box 617, Brighton, Mo. 65617.
To report a correction or typo, please email digitalnews@ky3.com
Saffron is an organization working to address the gender imbalance within music technology, production and the recording arts.
With the aim of creating space, visibility and representation for women, female-identifying and non-binary people within music tech, Saffron provide essential access to resources, workshops and mentoring while maintaining a supportive community that works towards this shared goal. The latest USC Annenberg report (opens in new tab) shows that less than 5% of the music tech industry is comprised of women, non-binary or trans people and less than 1% of these are people of colour.
Saffron also host an annual digital event called 7 Days of Sound. The event is made up of seven consecutive days of online music tech workshops, covering a broad range of topics within music production, sound engineering, composition, DJing and industry knowhow, and will be delivered by a number of notable figures within the fields of electronic music and music technology.
The lineup for this year’s 7 Days of Sound has been unveiled this week. As part of the 2023 edition, mastering engineer Heba Kadry (known for her work with Bjork, Beach House and Ryuichi Sakamoto, among others) will deliver a talk on her journey into the world of engineering, her approach to working with artists and her processes behind the desk. Attendees are encouraged to submit questions in advance of the Q&A with Kadry.
Electronic music producer rRoxymore will be hosting a session called Mixdown Surgery Hour, in which attendees can submit their tracks and receive feedback, while XL Recordings in-house engineer Josette Joseph will be opening up her DAW live to break down tracks she’s worked on as part of the Beat Breakdown workshop.
Certified Ableton trainer Pops Roberts will be delivering a workshop based around vocal production techniques, composer and producer Homay Schmitz will be taking a deep dive into composition and arrangement for strings, and NTS resident Elena Colombi is set to explore the process of setting up and running an independent record label in an industry-focused workshop.
We spoke with several members of the Saffron team in March of last year about the event’s previous edition. “We invited people all over the world to come and listen to women and non-binary people talk about music tech,” Saffron’s Glade Sinclair told us. “There were, I think, nearly 300 people in the room, online. It was really beautiful to have that. I think it’s allowed us to connect with everybody a lot more.”
7 Days of Sound takes place 27th January to the 2nd February 2023. Attendees can book a ticket for just one day, or the entire week. The event is open to women, non-binary and trans folks worldwide.
Tickets for 7 Days of Sound can be purchased via Saffron’s website. (opens in new tab)
Revisit our 2022 interview with the Saffron team to find out more about the work that they do. (opens in new tab)
With his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, Elton John confirmed his latest plans for retirement. The final show of the tour in July 2023 will be his last. However, deja vu suggests this might not be the last we see of Elton.
The singer has announced plans to retire at least five times since 1984 but is still going strong. By the end of his current tour, Elton John will have performed in over 300 concerts in the U.K., the U.S. and Europe and he shows no sign of slowing down. He’ll perform a headline slot at Glastonbury in 2023.
Elton is not the only performer with a history of retiring and unretiring. He is in good company with Barbra Streisand, Justin Bieber, Jay-Z, Lily Allen and Phil Collins.
Hip-hop star Nicki Minaj’s retirement lasted for only 22 days, while heavy metal singer Ozzy Osbourne’s valedictory No More Tours tour in 1992 preceded a further 30 years of performance.
In contrast with handsomely rewarded performances on the global stage, retirement can be an intermittent pipe dream for many musicians. Long, unsociable hours in the music industry often offer modest remuneration and few of the perks available in other sectors.
There is no compulsory retirement age in the U.K., which can be a godsend for lower paid professional performers who find that saving for an adequate pension is beyond their means. In these cases, working beyond the third age is a necessity.
For Elton and his internationally acclaimed peers, however, the incentive to return to performing is less likely to be financial. So why do some successful musicians find it so hard to stick to retirement?
The motivation of the stage
The key to understanding this lies in motivation.
For many musicians, the motivation to perform is intrinsic rather than extrinsic. Extrinsically motivated performers are interested in tangible rewards such as money. Intrinsic motivation meanwhile, is present when a musician performs mainly because of a strong inner desire to make music.
For intrinsically motivated performers, making music is inherently pleasurable and a means unto itself. This partly explains why the music profession remains attractive even if it does not always bring the financial security of other careers. It also explains why some celebrated performers find it difficult to stay out of the public arena.
Among those with a passion for music, the rewards of performance often exceed the financial benefits. The status and accolades derived from a celebrated performance career provide a source of affirmation which can become difficult to obtain elsewhere.
Once human beings have fulfilled their basic needs of food, water, shelter and relationships, self-actualisation becomes a significant driving force. For dedicated performers, achievement in the musical sphere can become an irreplaceable vehicle for attaining self esteem, personal growth and the satisfaction of fulfilling their potential.
You’re only as good as your last performance
Identity is also a central component in the motivation to perform. Continuing to perform professionally can provide validation for musicians, regardless of the level of income and recognition.
For many, being a musician is inextricably linked with their sense of self. Their self worth is then strongly affected by their capacity to perform. This is especially true for singers, as voice is an integral part of identify formation and expression.
There is some truth in the old saying; “You’re only as good as your last performance.” If you’re not performing at all, how good can you be?
For retired musicians, it can be challenging to find a comparable way to channel the energy they once dedicated to performance.
Musicians, like other professional groups, are diverse in many ways, but there are some personality traits different types of musicians tend to share.
For example, classical musicians typically score highly on introversion, which partly accounts for their ability to focus on the solitary practice necessary for developing technique before engaging in ensemble playing.
In contrast, rock and pop musicians tend to score highly on extroversion, often learning and rehearsing more informally in collaboration with their peers. Extroverted performers often derive their energy from audience interaction so it can be difficult to achieve that “buzz” once the music stops.
Don’t stop me now
Performing music is widely recognized as a way of achieving the highly desired state of “flow,” otherwise known as “peak performance” or being “in the zone.”
Providing that the challenge of performing closely matches the skill level of the performer, music can become an all-absorbing activity, which is so immersive that it distorts our sense of time and distracts us from our everyday concerns. During live concerts, the audience and performers can experience a sense of “collective effervescence” rarely achieved elsewhere.
Add in the emotional high derived from the adrenaline released in public performance and we can begin to understand why the rewards of performance can be difficult to replace in retirement.
Rihanna’s Don’t Stop the Music, Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now and Elton’s I’m Still Standing are these musicians ways of telling us that they want to be in the limelight, just as much as their audiences want them to stay there.
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