The Robbs — oldest sibling Dee Robb (guitar, vocals), Joe Robb (guitar, vocals), and youngest sibling Bruce Robb (keyboards, vocals) — began their lengthy careers within their hometown of Oconomowoc, WI (close to Milwaukee) being a teen-center pop group calling themselves Dee Robb & the Robbins. As Robby & the Robins, they documented “Surfer’s Lifestyle” for the Todd label, which includes since made an appearance on numerous browse compilations. Throughout a summer months tour, their guitarist was facing the draft plank, so the music group needed to shuffle the lineup and generate their cousin, Craig Robb (true name Craig Krampf) as an alternative on drums. The music group then changed brands towards the Robbs and soldiered on, playing gentle rock tranquility drenched play the vein from the Cowsills, the Monkees, or Paul Revere & the Raiders. Krampf as well as the three Robb brothers performed all over the Midwest, showing up as the starting act on expenses with the very best acts of your day. They were ultimately uncovered by music impresario Dick Clark, who acquired them perform at his Teenager World’s Good in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, the Robbs had been agreed upon to Mercury Information (the label that acquired, by then, agreed upon the four Cowsill brothers before falling the group after two singles) and documented their initial record, that was released in 1967. They made an appearance on TV’s Where in fact the Action Is certainly and, along with Buffalo Springfield, opened up for the Turtles. Clark afterwards asked the Robbs to become regulars on his Television show, so the music group transferred to California. There they truly became the support group for Del Shannon, Gene Pitney, Bobby Vinton, among others. The Robbs agreed upon with Atlantic for a couple singles. After that — with Shannon’s help — agreed upon with ABC’s Dunhill Information and transformed their name to Cherokee in the first ’70s. Like a country-rock clothing, they released one album, made by Steve Barri, which presented additional guest shows by previous Byrds Chris Hillman and Sneaky Pete Kleinow. Each person in the initial Robbs lineup eventually remaining the group until just Krampf continued to be. He discovered continual and stable employ like a program drummer, while Dee, Joe, and Bruce Robb, in the mean time, turned to executive and generating. They possess since become quite effective as the owner/providers of their personal Cherokee Studios, in Western Hollywood, CA, and Cherokee Ranch Studios, that was located following towards the Spahn Ranch in the ’60s, before shifting to Chatsworth, CA. The Robbs are award-winning makers/technicians of countless platinum performers, including Pole Stewart, John Cougar Mellencamp, Alice Cooper, and Steely Dan, to mention a few.
When I wrote my review of Neil Cicierega’s “Nature Tapes EP,” I had no idea that within the next 24 hours, Neil would somehow be able to top its pop cultural surrealism. Speak of the Devil. Or, if I may “horn in” with a beast more appropriate for the occasion, speak of Shrek. You see, while Super Mash Bros. bills itself as “Girl Talk’s hot cousin,” Mouth Sounds is its basement-confined stepbrother who subsists on an irregular diet of 20-year old Lunchables, reruns of Kenan and Kel, and the Shrek soundtrack, specifically Smash Mouth’s repurposed summer sports anthem “All Star.”
If the mixtape’s title was no indication, over the course of 17 tracks, Smash Mouth’s biggest hits “All Star” and “Walkin’ on the Sun” glow over six of them. As evidenced by Neil’s unhealthy preoccupation with Smash Mouth and its contemporaries, 90s (and to a lesser extent 80s) nostalgia is the album’s unifying theme, and is taken to its most equally incredible and horrific extreme on track 3, “D’oh.” In less than two minutes, Neil builds a nostalgic Frankenstein’s monster (or ogre?) out of everything from Austin Powers to Sir Mix-A-Lot, from “Once in a Lifetime” to the titular Homer Simpson catchphrase and the unmistakable barks of Porkchop from the Nickelodeon cartoon Doug. (On a side note, Porkchop’s voice actor Fred Newman also wrote a book called MouthSounds, which Neil acknowledged on his Tumblr).
Not all of Mouth Sounds’ mashups work for me (it’s hard to imagine that Neil is even the hundredth individual to pair “Billie Jean” with “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and the less said about “Imma Let It Be,” the better), but each of the mixtape’s true shooting stars breaks the mold every time. On the penultimate track, Neil proves that the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” and Loverboy’s “Working for the Weekend” sync amazingly regardless of which track has the a capella or instrumental portion.
Elsewhere, rumors of Bob Saget being the inspiration for “You Oughta Know” come to life when Alanis’ jaded accusations penetrate a carnival loop of the Full House theme, and late 90s standbys like Santana and Rob Thomas’ “Smooth” and Lou Bega’s “Mambo No. 5” jump out at you when you least expect them, but so does everything else here. Ogres may be like onions, but you’d be hard-pressed to find an onion with this many layers of unpredictable childhood memories.
Darius Rucker performed on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last night (4/25). While in New York City he visited the Today show yesterday, and the syndicated Wendy Williams Show, set to air today (4/26). He also played a benefit concert to fight homelessness and AIDS.
The Capitol Records Nashville artist recently celebrated his fifth chart-topping single, “This.” It was co-written by Rucker, his producer Frank Rogers, and Kara DioGuardi.
Rucker will be touring throughout the summer in support of his latest album Charleston, SC 1966. He will host the Darius & Friends Benefit Concert for St. Jude on June 6 in Nashville, as one of the events surrounding CMA Music Festival.
Lee Brice has a lot to celebrate at the moment. He is nominated for Best New Artist at the 46th Annual CMA Awards, his single “Hard to Love” is on the cusp of hitting No. 1, and he’s got big plans for 2013.
The South Carolina-born artist has been regarded as a consummate Nashville songwriter for some time, landing award-winning monster hits for Eli Young Band (“Crazy Girl”), Garth Brooks (“More Than a Memory”), and even himself (“Love Like Crazy”). So it’s interesting to note that he had no hand in writing his No. 1 hit “A Woman Like You” or “Hard to Love,” both of which appear on his Curb Records sophomore album Hard 2 Love. That’s okay, Brice says, because what matters most is that he identifies with the material.
“If I’m going to record a song I didn’t write, I have to connect with it as if I wrote it,” he explains. “So when I’m singing it, I’m selling it and living it as much as I would if I wrote it.”
“Hard to Love” has its origin in a writers retreat Brice took with friends. Brice and two of his buddies were writing outside, and three others (Billy Montana, John Ozier, Ben Glover) were inside doing the same. When Brice came in for a snack, he heard the group working through the song.
“It felt like I was in the room writing it,” he recalls. “I knew even then [before it was finished], it was something I wanted to record.”
It has been a gradual evolution for Brice, from hit tunesmith to hit artist. While he wants people to remember his songwriting contributions, his goal since arriving in Nashville has been the less-traveled road of artist singer/songwriter.
“I started writing songs when I was 10 because I wanted to sing and I needed something to sing,” Brice says. “I have been really fortunate to have [my] songs recorded, but I’ve been looking forward to this and this is what I’ve been working for. There’s been a transition but it’s been moving forward to get to this point. It’s where I’ve always wanted to be.”
2012 has been all about moving forward for Brice. “A Woman Like You” hit No. 1, then went on to Gold and Platinum sales designations; Brice toured nonstop, playing shows with Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert and more; and he just recently returned from the Blake Shelton cruise.
With the busy touring schedule Brice keeps, it only makes sense that he occasionally drops some of his hits for others into the mix at his shows. “More Than a Memory” pops up on occasion, but a newer hit really gets the crowds going.
“I do ‘Crazy Girl’ almost every night,” he says. “[That] was one I wanted to release myself. I wasn’t able to do that and the next best thing is, Eli Young Band makes it a big ol’ smash and changes my life. I appreciate that and now I still get to sing it. It gets a big reaction every night.”
Brice recently had a unique opportunity to put his writing talents to the test. A longtime fan and former player for Clemson University’s football team, Brice was selected by the school to create a game day fight song for the Tigers as they take the field. The result was “Orange Empire,” an AC/DC-esque crunchy rock anthem that will play in the stadium at home games. Brice will get to experience it for himself during Rivalry Weekend, when he hosts a pre-game concert Nov. 23 at Littlejohn Coliseum. The following day, the Clemson Tigers will take on the University of South Carolina Gamecocks.
Before that happens, Brice will experience a whirlwind CMA Awards week. He’s scheduled to perform at the SESAC Awards Oct. 28, and he will be accompanied by his fiancee Sara to the CMA Awards Nov. 1 to see if he wins the Best New Artist honor. Somewhere in between, he will find time to go trick-or-treating with his son Takoda on Halloween. It is a tricky process to balance family and work, but Brice says he is figuring it out.
“It’s difficult but I kind of thrive on challenges,” he says. “It’s an everyday process, learning how to do it. I have to say no sometimes. It’s not as important as doing stuff like trick-or-treating.”
Once the CMA Awards are over, Brice will focus his attention on 2013. He has plans to begin recording his third album (which he says could be titled “I Don’t Dance”) in January, and will embark on a tour with an unspecified male artist. After that, he’s setting a course for the moon.
“Sometimes maybe I reach too far, but my goal is after I get off this tour at the end of next October, by 2014, I want be able to go do arenas,” he says. “If I get to that, I don’t know. But that’s how I live my life, just shooting high.”
Above all, Brice is grateful for everything that has happened in the last year. The hit songs are happening, fans are coming to shows, and he’s got a loving family waiting for him at home.
“I am at one of the best times of my life,” he says. “I’m happy in my personal life, family, and career. It’s one of the high points.”
Singer Dottie Dillard, one of the cornerstone figures of The Nashville Sound of the 1950s and 1960s, has died at age 91.
As a member of The Anita Kerr Quartet, Dillard won two Grammy Awards and sang back-up for a who’s-who of Nashville music, including Red Foley, Johnny Cash, Jim Reeves, Perry Como, Bob Dylan, Skeeter Davis, Ray Price, Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, Webb Pierce, Brook Benton, Connie Frances and Jimmie Davis.
Dorothy Ann Dillard was born and raised in Springfield, Mo. She graduated from Drury College in 1945. She auditioned for WSM radio in Nashville that year and became a regular pop-music vocalist on the station.
In 1955, she formed The Anita Kerr Quartet as the alto vocalist alongside soprano Kerr, tenor Gil Wright and baritone/bass Louis Nunley. Producers Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins were soon using them as studio background singers.
The Anita Kerr Quartet and The Jordanaires helped to soften the country sound and make it possible for records to become pop as well as country hits. It is estimated that Dillard sang on one quarter of all the records made in Nashville in the 1960s.
The Quartet also gained fame under its own name. In 1956, the group commuted to New York and won on the nationally televised Arthur Godfrey Talent Scouts show. They subsequently became regularly featured vocalists on it.
Back in Nashville, the group had a string of releases on Decca and RCA Victor, including “Rockin’ Chair,” “Once in a While” and “You and the Night and Music.” Billed as “The Little Dippers,” they scored a top-10 pop hit with “Forever” in 1960. In 1962-63, the singers made the lower reaches of the pop hit charts with “Joey Baby” and “Waiting for the Evening Train.”
The Anita Kerr Quartet was part of the ground-breaking 1964 country package tour of Europe alongside Jim Reeves, Bobby Bare and Chet Atkins.
In 1965, the group’s LP We Dig Mancini won a pop Grammy Award and its collaboration with George Beverly Shea on Southland Gospel Favorites won a gospel Grammy.
Kerr left the group and moved to California around 1966, but Dillard, Nunley and Wright continued working in Nashville studios with substitute soprano vocalists.
After a 36-year career in Nashville, Dottie Dillard returned to Springfield in 1981 to care for her mother.
The singer died in Springfield on Wednesday, May 6. Her visitation and funeral are scheduled for today, May 11, at Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home, 1947 E. Seminole St., Springfield, MO 65804 (417-886-9994).
Dottie Dillard is survived by nieces Suzanne Dillard Burke and Sarah “Sally” Young, plus cousins George Dillard, Lynn Thompson, Karen Thompson, Patsy Thompson and Nancy White.
Memorial donations may be made to the Drury University Women’s Auxiliary Endowed Scholarship Fund, 900 N. Benton St., Springfield, MO 65802.
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The above search is a free service maintained by DoReMiWORLD.com for the benefit of private music teachers, as well as music students and their parents. Our goal is to help you locate a private music instructor, for example, a private piano teacher, a private violin teacher, a private voice coach, an online music teacher or another music education specialist who may offer private music lessons or online lessons to music students in Garden City New York.
Private music instruction is considered to be the best way to learn to play a musical instrument. Use this directory to find a private music teacher offering music lessons in your local area (Garden City NY) or online lessons around the world. At the moment, our directory is limited to the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, United States, and New Zealand. This music teachers directory classifies private music instructors by instrument, such as private piano teachers (for private piano lessons), private voice teachers (for private voice lessons), private violin teachers (for private violin lessons), etc. Please use the above search function to find a private music teacher near you.