BLACK CROWS FLY IN THE FACE OF CONVENTION

The Black Crowes has always been a band that marched — or should that be flew? — to the beat of its own drummer. Much has changed since brothers Chris and Rich Robinson formed the group — originally called Mr. Crowe’s Garden — in Atlanta, Ga. in 1984. Musical trends as well as bandmembers have come and gone, but the band’s independent spirit, and commitment to the creative vision of the Robinson brothers remains steadfast.

The band released Warpaint, its first studio album in seven years, in March 2008.

“Warpaint is a declaration of our soulful independence,” lead singer Chris Robinson said in a press release for the album. “The thing about the last three years has been, ‘How do we continue to be independent? How do we begin to exercise control and freedom over our own trip?’ That’s what the title is all about.”

“Every record was a great experience to get us to where we are today,” added guitarist Rich Robinson. “This is what we love to do, and we want to do it the best we can. That’s what’s in this [album].”

The band, which also includes original drummer Steve Gorman, bassist Sven Pipien, guitarist Luther Dickinson, and keyboardist Adam MacDougall — is performing a series of sold out shows at Levon Helms Barn in Woodstock, New York through March 7. The group will begin a European tour in the spring.

The long layoff between albums apparently didn’t hurt the band’s popularity. Warpaint entered the Billboard charts at No. 5, making it the group’s best debut since 1992’s The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion.

Since making its major-label debut in 1990, the Black Crowes has enjoyed both critical and commercial success, selling over 18 million albums. The band’s sound, typified by Warpaint’s lead single, “Goodbye Daughters of the Revolution,” mixes Southern-flavored, guitar-based rock, R&B, and a touch of ’60s psychedelia into a groove-heavy mix. The group's best known hits include “Jealous Again,” “Hard To Handle,” “She Talks To Angels” and “Remedy.”

The band has enjoyed its current success strictly on its own terms. Despite the long absence from the public eye, the group granted only a few press interviews to promote Warpaint, which was released on the band’s own label, Silver Arrow Records. The closed-door policy toward the press might be the result of an exchange with Maxim that started when the magazine published a lukewarm review of Warpaint in its March 2008 issue. The problem wasn’t so much the tone of the review, but the fact that the reviewer had only heard one track from the album before writing it. Maxim later admitted its blunder, and issued an apology to its readers (but not to the band).

A rocky relationship with the press is nothing new for the Crowes. In a 1995 interview for the Amorica album (infamous for its bikini bottom cover photo), Rich Robinson told me, “The things that are written about us always have to do with something other than music. People write about what we wear, what we say, what drugs we do, what drugs we don’t do, our album cover, anything other than the music.”

Music has always been the central focus for the Robinsons. They handle nearly all of the songwriting for the band, with Rich writing most of the music and Chris writing lyrics. Chris told me in a 1991 interview that having a songwriting partner that happens to be your brother has its advantages. “Musically there are a lot of unspoken things between us,” he said. “We know when something feels right and when something doesn’t. I’ve tried to write songs with other people and it’s just never felt right.”

And while the band never shunned commercial success, Chris Robinson maintains that even at the height of the band’s popularity, the Black Crowes flew its own course. “Even in our most commercially successful period,” he said, “there was nothing like us on any format. By the time grunge happened, Southern Harmony and Amorica didn’t fit into any part of popular music. We looked different, we sounded different, and we set up our culture a little different.”

Both Robinson brothers insist that their music, not commercial success, has always been their driving force.

“You could take it all away tomorrow and I’ll go back to Atlanta and start again,” Chris said. “You don’t kick the habit just like that. It’s your passion. This is the one vice I’m never going to get rid of."






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Train Keeps Rollin' On

Train has been one of the most successful bands of the last 10 years. The five-piece group, which formed in San Francisco in 1994, has enjoyed a string of melodic, acoustic-based rock hits that began with 1998's "Meet Virginia," and includes radio favorites like "Drops Of Jupiter," "Calling All Angels" and "When I Look To The Sky."

The band's fourth studio album, For Me, It's You was released by Columbia Records in January, 2006. If you've heard the single "Cab" playing on the radio, you can probably still hear its catchy chorus — "The days are better, the nights are still so lonely / Sometimes I think I'm the only cab on the road" — playing in your head.

In a telephone interview, guitarist Jimmy Stafford said that while the band is proud of its chart success, singles don't tell the group's whole story. He wants fans to know that Train can, and does, rock.

"Typically the songs that end up making it on the radio are the ballads, or the more pop-oriented material," Stafford said. "But when we play live, you get to hear the rest of our stuff. When you add in the live setting, and the adrenaline of the band and the crowd, the material comes off with a lot more energy than it does on the record."

In a separate interview, lead singer Pat Monahan (who released a solo album entitled Last of Seven in September 2007) said that Howard Stern is a big Train fan.

"Not because he loves [ballads like] 'Drops of Jupiter' or 'When I Look To The Sky,' but because he knows that beyond all the songs that people hear on the radio, we're a great rock band," says Monahan. "I think you have to see us live to really appreciate us."

In concert Train has never been a group of stool-sitters or shoe-gazers. The band — which includes drummer Scott Underwood, keyboardist Brandon Bush, and bassist Johnny Colt — is known for wearing its classic rock influences on its sleeve, from its big stage production values, right down to the Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin covers that have been featured in Train's setlist for years.

"We're not insulted by comparisons to classic rock bands," Monahan says. "You're talking about a bunch of guys whose lives changed when they saw classic rock bands. I love being the band that carries that torch, because if you ever saw Aerosmith or Van Halen in concert, your life was different when you walked out of that building."

For Me, It's You has been the most critically acclaimed Train album since the band's self-titled debut. It's also the group's most diverse collection yet. Like its predecessors, it contains its share of reflective ballads (including the poignant "Always Remember" and the single, "Give Myself To You"), but it also captures the band's harder edge on tracks like "Am I Reaching You Now," the catchy "All I Hear," and an energetic cover of Bob Mould's "If I Can't Change Your Mind." Train even shows its soulful side on "I'm Not Waiting In Line" and the title track.

Monahan believes the band was revitalized when Colt (formerly of the Black Crowes) and Bush joined three years ago (replacing guitarist Rob Hotchkiss and bassist Charlie Colin) for the My Private Nation tour. That tour was recorded for 2004's Alive At Last CD. For Me, It's You is the first studio album for the current line-up.

"When we went into the studio to work with [producer] Brendan [O'Brien], we didn't know that we were going to make a complete record," Monahan says. "We were just planning to record a few songs. We wanted to see where we were musically. After about six hours of recording, Brendan pulled me aside and said, 'Man, this is the best it's ever been. Let's make a record.'"

The band had approximately 40 songs to pick from. Band manager Jon Landau chose the 13 that make up For Me, It's You.

"Jon could tell that there was a very clear distinction among the songs that made sense together," Monahan says. "He would call it 'focus.' This album has focus."

The album was recorded in only eight weeks, in a collaborative spirit that Monahan says had been missing from the group for some time.

"We're just a higher-level band now," he says. "We've got a bunch of guys that really mean business. We are more confident. One of the things that bothered me a bit about the My Private Nation record is that everything from the artwork to the songs was a reflection of where the band members were personally," he says. "I think it was more of an album by five individuals than it was by a band. Now the band is healthy, and this is a real band album."

While For Me, It's You has yet to match the platinum sales levels of Train's prior studio albums, Monahan feels true success can only be measured over time.

"There aren't a lot of bands left from the days when 'Meet Virginia' first became a hit," he says. "I've been telling people since our first album came out that we weren't always going to be the fashionable, hot item. But we are going to be around for a long time, so you just have to get used to us."

Mode Music

British band Depeche Mode took its name from a headline in a Paris magazine. French for "fast fashion," its choice suggests that the band hoped to have an immediate, if short-lived, impact on the music scene. But after 25 years as one of the world's top techno-rock groups, Depeche Mode has proven itself to be anything but a flash-in-the-pan act.

The group - guitarist/keyboardist and primary songwriter Martin Gore, lead vocalist Dave Gahan, and keyboardist Andy Fletcher - has sold over 50 million records and played to over 10 million fans worldwide. Along the way, they've survived personnel changes, substance abuse, a suicide attempt, and the ever-fickle tastes of the music-buying public. Depeche Mode's 11th studio album, Playing the Angel, was released in October 2005, and was been hailed by both critics and fans as one of the band's best.

Playing the Angel received favorable comparisons to earlier Depeche Mode albums like 1990's Violator, and with good reason. The new album is not only similar in style to classic Depeche Mode; it's also similar in sound. Gore credits producer Ben Hillier with helping the band connect to its past.

"Ben is on the Internet every day hunting down old analogue synthesizers," Gore said in a recorded interview released to the media. "He brought a whole array [to the recording studio], so that was one of the things that helped define the sound of the record. The predominant sound [on the album] was from the analogue synths, which gave us a kind of direction, and which I think references old Depeche Mode stuff more."

Then there was the persistent rumor (bandied back and forth on various fan Web sites) that Playing the Angel would be Depeche Mode's final album and tour, hence the allusions to the band's history. Of course, that same rumor has been floated out ever since the release of 1993's Songs of Faith & Devotion, when four-year gaps between new Depeche Mode albums became the norm.

"I think you feel after every album it might be the last, and after every tour it might be the last," Fletcher says, "but … I think we're still making good records and still performing well, so it's quite natural that we've made another one, but you never know how much longer this is going on. We're getting old now."

Getting old[er] together is something Fletcher, Gore, and especially Gahan should welcome, considering the rocky road they've traveled together. The roots of Depeche Mode go back to Basildon, England in 1976, when keyboardists Vince Clarke and Fletcher formed a band called No Romance in China. It lasted only a few years, and by 1979 Clarke had formed French Look, another duo featuring Gore. Fletcher rejoined, and the trio renamed itself Composition of Sound. Initially, Clarke handled lead vocals, but in 1980 Gahan came on board as the lead vocalist and completed the lineup.

With Gahan's arrival, the band underwent its most significant transformation. They abandoned all instruments except for synthesizers, creating a slick, techno-based sound to showcase Clarke's catchy melodies. The final name change, to Depeche Mode, capped the group's stylistic makeover. The band met with quick success. "Just Can't Get Enough," the third single from their debut album, became a Top Ten U.K. hit. But just as Depeche Mode seemed poised for a major commercial breakthrough, principal songwriter Clarke left the band.

Gore took over as the band's songwriter, and keyboardist Alan Wilder was recruited to fill the void created by Clarke's departure. Gore's penchant for darker subject matter meshed well with the group's increasingly ominous instrumental textures, and laid the groundwork for the band's trademark industrial sound.

With albums like 1986's atmospheric Black Celebration and 1987's Music for the Masses Depeche Mode was hitting its creative and commercial stride. It reached a peak in 1990, when the band released Violator, a Top 10 smash which spawned the hits "Enjoy the Silence," "Policy of Truth," and "Personal Jesus."

The planets seemed to be lining up in the best possible way for Depeche Mode. Rock radio had shifted away from the heavy metal and grunge sounds that had dominated the late '80s, and began embracing alternative rock. Depeche Mode's 1993 release, Songs of Faith & Devotion, debuted at No. 1 on both British and American album charts.

Then, at the height of the group's success, things began to fall apart. Wilder left the band in 1995. Shortly thereafter, Gahan slashed his wrists in a failed suicide attempt. A year later, he nearly died of a heroin overdose. Fortunately, he later entered a drug rehabilitation clinic to battle his addiction. He has been sober ever since.

Perhaps the residue that remains from his experience is what Gahan uses to give voice to the dark subjects explored in many Depeche Mode songs. Appropriately, Playing the Angel is subtitled "Pain and Suffering in Various Tempos."

Ironically, while their songs focus on the negative, Gore, Fletcher, and Gahan say the group is the happiest it's been in years.

"We're very, very privileged 25 years on," Fletcher says. "We still think we're making great records. We still think we're a good group, and it's a very privileged position to be in. So will there be more Depeche Mode albums? Probably."

The Police: Back on the Beat

“Well, if the Grand Canyon were to rejoin itself, maybe there would be a possibility. We got back together for my wedding. It made me firm in my belief that it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

— Sting in a July 2000 Webchat for JAM, on the possibility of the Police reuniting for a tour.

“We started 30 years ago, so it would be nice to do something to celebrate. We don’t quite know what, but we’re talking about it. I’m very proud of the band we were in.”

— Sting, 2007

The Police, featuring lead singer and bassist Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers were one of the true supergroups of the 1980s. From their punk-pop origins, the trio became one of the most popular and critically acclaimed bands of the decade. Their hits include “Roxanne,” “Message in a Bottle,” “Every Breath You Take,” “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” and “King of Pain.”

Although there was no official breakup, the band had not toured since March 1984. On Saturday, Nov. 3, thousands of fans will pack Boardwalk Hall to welcome the Police back to Atlantic City for only the second time in the group’s history (their other concert here was in 1984). Tickets range from $50 to $350. Fiction Plane (featuring Sting’s son, Joe Sumner) will be the opening act.

“The reunion they said would never happen” is a line often used to hype the reunion tours of supergroups. However, the “they” is usually not a member of the band itself. Before this year, Sting’s stock response to reunion questions was, “What would be the point?”

It wasn’t that Sting, who was born Gordon Sumner, felt the Police had done everything artistically that they could do. Simply put, Sting was disliked by his bandmates, and vice versa.

Things were especially testy between Sting and Copeland, who were rumored to have come to blows on more than one occasion. During the making of Synchronicity, the band’s fifth and final studio album, things got so bad that Sting would record his parts during the day and Copeland would record the drum parts at night. Remarkably, not only was the album completed, but it went on to become the group’s first No. 1 album in the United States, and its biggest seller worldwide.

Over the years friction between the band members subsided and they became, if not friendly, at least less adversarial. The trio performed an impromptu set at Sting’s wedding to Trudie Styler in 1992, and played a three-song set at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2003. Today, Copeland says the stories of constant fighting are overblown.

“We used to read in the papers about how we were fighting all the time,” he said in a recent interview for the New York Post. “I don’t know what we were doing, but it wasn’t fighting. When we did argue, it wasn’t about petty stuff, it was about the music, because we’re passionate about what we do.”

Copeland formed the Police in England in 1977 along with Sting and original guitarist Henry Padovani. Copeland and Sting had strong backgrounds in jazz, but Copeland envisioned a power trio to join the burgeoning London punk scene. Padovani lacked musical skills, but he brought punk credibility to the group.

Sumner joined shortly thereafter, and the Police performed briefly as a quartet. After an attempted recording session exposed Padovani’s weakness as a guitarist, he was asked to leave the band. The group decided to continue as a trio.

Realizing that they were too old to play straight out punk rock, they developed a sound that combined the energy of punk with a strong reggae influence and even some jazz overtones. Over the years, even as the group became a commercial success, it never abandoned its experimental nature.

Early this year, when it was announced that the reunion tour would take place, there was much speculation as to whether the trio could actually pull it off. Thus far, the tour has received almost unanimously positive reviews.

To their credit, Sting (56), Copeland (55), and Summers (64) are all in great shape, both physically and musically. Rather than a lot of bells, whistles, and backing musicians, the tour features just the three musicians performing on an uncluttered, half-circle stage. The trio plays all the hits in a generous, 20-song set. While some arrangements have been updated, most of the songs sound just like you remember them.

While some critics have dismissed the Police reunion as an attempt by the aging trio to cash in on their legacy, most fans are happy to have the chance to see the group perform at least one more time. Other bands notorious for internal fighting have let bygones be bygones. If the Eagles, Kiss, and three-fourths of Van Halen can do it, why not the Police?

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The Police Files: Things You May Not Know:

• Copeland chose the name, “the Police” because his father was a CIA officer and his mother served in the British intelligence.

• Stewart Copeland’s brother Miles Copeland, who managed the Police, also started I.R.S. Records in the ’80s, home to the Go-Go’s, R.E.M., Squeeze, and others.

• Sting got his nickname while he was a member of a group called the Phoenix Jazzmen. He once performed wearing a black and yellow jersey with hooped stripes, and bandmate Gordon Solomon told him he looked, “like a bumblebee.”

• Sting’s love for literature found its way into his lyrics: “Don’t Stand So Close to Me” includes a reference to Nabokov’s Lolita, and “Tea in the Sahara” includes a line about The Sheltering Sky, the title of a Paul Bowles novel. Ghost in the Machine is a book by political writer Arthur Koestler; “Synchronicity” a well-known essay by Carl Jung.

• Each of the band’s five album covers featured some representation of the three members’ faces, from the straightforward portraits on Outlandos d’Amour, Reggatta de Blanc and Zenyatta Mondatta, to the three colored stripes on the cover of Synchronicity. The cryptic cover of Ghost in the Machine is actually digital clock-style depictions of the three faces, with spiky-haired Sting in the middle.

• After one of the early reunion concerts in Vancouver, British Columbia, Copeland posted a satiric review trashing the show on his Web site (http://www.stewartcopeland.net/). For example, Copeland about one of Sting’s mistimed stage moves, “The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock.” Many in the media took Copeland’s post seriously, and predicted that tempers were already flaring among the band members.

• Prior to the reunion tour, the last official shows performed by the Police took place in June 1986, when the band reunited to play three concerts for the Amnesty International.

• The bleached-blonde hair sported by the trio on the cover of their debut album, Outlandos d’Amour was not a marketing ploy. The band members all dyed their hair blonde so they could do a Wrigley Doublemint Gum commercial.

Counting Crows' Appeal Soars With Critics and Fans Alike

Generally speaking, rock stars don’t enjoy giving interviews. Most consider them a necessary inconvenience that helps sell CDs and concert tickets.

There are exceptions, however. Case in point — Adam Duritz, lead singer, songwriter, and founder of the San Francisco Bay area-based rock band Counting Crows, which performed two sold-out shows at Atlantic City's Borgata Music Box September 7 & 8, 2007.

“I actually kind of like talking about [the band and the music],” Duritz admitted in telephone interview prior to the show. “My willingness to say the truth has gotten me in a lot of trouble, but I’m more than willing to get into it again with you today.”

Having interviewed more than a few artists who offer little more than well rehearsed responses to even the most innocuous questions, Duritz’s honesty is refreshing. For Counting Crow’s fans, it’s part of the group’s appeal. Duritz has a reputation for expressing what’s on his mind at any given moment — whether in an interview or on stage. As a result, no two Counting Crows shows are exactly the same, as lyrics and arrangements are often changed mid-song.

“I never think of the recorded version [of a song] ever,” Duritz explained. “I sing the song like I’m feeling the song, which doesn’t mean it won’t be just like the recorded version. I just think of it as ‘this song is happening right now.’ I think that’s why our concerts are emotional. We could play the same set list three nights in a row and it will be a completely different show all three nights.”

The band, which also includes Dave Bryson (guitar), Jim Bogios (drums), Charles Gillingham (keyboards), David Immergluck (guitar), Dan Vickrey (guitar), and Millard Powers (bass), completed a summer tour in 2007. Along with supporting acts Live and Collective Soul, they played in minor league baseball parks across the country. Duritz says the tour provided the opportunity to visit smaller towns that many bands overlook.

“I think bands make a huge mistake in their careers by forgetting that America is made up of a lot more than just 10 major cities,” he says. “You can have a hit and sell a lot of records from the radio or MTV, but you keep a fan by what you do live.”

From the start, Counting Crows earned a reputation for great live performances. The band enjoyed success with its 1993 debut album August and Everything After, and the hits “Mr. Jones” and “Round Here.” Subsequent hits include a Top-10 cover of Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” and “Accidentally In Love,” from Shrek 2. A live album, New Amsterdam: Live at Heineken Music Hall 2003, was released last year. In all, the band has sold over 20 million records worldwide.

Duritz says this summer’s tour allowed him to push the limits of what his band was able to do musically. He continually kept the group from becoming complacent by adding new songs (from the recently recorded Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings — due in November) and rarely-played older songs to the set, often after only one rehearsal.

“I think we’ve added like 18 or 20 songs this summer that we haven’t been playing in recent years,” Duritz says. “It’s made the band fearless. I wanted them to get used to the idea that there is nothing they can’t do — and also that there is no such thing as an excuse. If you have a gig that night, you’d better go out there and be great.”

Duritz admits his approach caused some conflict and frustration in the band, but he believes the group is stronger as a result.

“When you aren’t sure what songs are going to be played, you’re forced to be involved,” he says. “As a result, we’ve gotten great this summer — to the point where friends of mine who have seen us a million times are shocked by how good we are.”

Duritz says that his on-the-edge approach to performing has also been a source of misperception regarding his on-stage sobriety.

“I want a Counting Crows show to be like walking a tight rope,” he says. “I’m always jumping on risers, walking around, and balancing on things — just because I like the sensation that I might fall — literally. I have reviewers all the time writing about how I’m drunk on stage. I’m not high, I’m just gone. If I’m on stage, I’m gone. It is a popular perception that I’m wasted on stage. It’s mostly not the case. And for this past tour, it was never the case.”

“I’m not promising anything for Atlantic City,” he adds. “That’s a fun town.”

"Girl Power" Concert In Wildwood, NJ

Since opening in 1986, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted only a handful of the influential girl groups of the 1950s and ’60s. On Saturday, July 7, 2007 original members of three of those groups — the Supremes, the Ronettes, and the Shirelles (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”) — performed along with the Angels (“My Boyfriend’s Back”) and the Dixie Cups (“Chapel of Love”) at the Girl Power concert at the Oceanfront Arena at the Wildwoods Convention Center.

In exclusive telephone interviews, Mary Wilson of the Supremes, and Nedra Talley Ross of the Ronettes talked about their careers, how the Girl Power concert came together, and recalled stories of performing in and around Atlantic City in the early ’60s.

Mary Wilson has the distinction of being the only Supreme who remained in the group from its beginning in 1959, when it was known as the Primettes, until it was dissolved in 1977. As a member of the Supremes, Wilson (along with Florence Ballard, Diana Ross, and later, Cindy Birdsong) enjoyed 12 U.S. No. 1 hits, including “Where Did Our Love Go,” “Stop! In the Name of Love” and “Baby Love.”

Wilson has never stopped performing, averaging over 100 appearances each year. Most recently, she has been playing a series of intimate club shows she dubbed “Mary Wilson Up Close.”

Wilson says the idea for the Girl Power show originated back in 2002 while she was working on a project that honored 12 different girl groups of the ’50s and ’60s, including the Ronettes, the Shirelles, the Angels, and the Dixie Cups, with commemorative postage stamps.

“We had the unveiling of the stamp collection at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland,” Wilson says. “So we had all the groups there, all the girls there, and we had a weekend of tremendous fun. We did a small concert where we did a few songs. We said it would be so great if we could do this more often, and since I had organized that particular event, everyone said, ‘OK Mary, you do it.’”

Original Ronette Nedra Talley Ross said the idea moved forward for her two years ago, when the Ronettes were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame at a ceremony held in Wildwood. Ross said that performances by the inductees that weekend turned into a friendly competition between the boy groups and girl groups, and made Ross realize that the time was right to take the show on the road.

“I think everyone’s at this stage in our lives where we’re like, ‘If you’re going to do it, do it now,’” she said.

While they had fewer hits than the Supremes, the Ronettes, featuring Ross and her cousins, Estelle Bennett and Veronica “Ronnie” Bennett (later Spector), may have had an even bigger stylistic influence on music. The multiracial New York City natives were young, stylish, and sexy. They wore long, matching hairstyles, heavy eye makeup and slit skirts. And they sang to the boys (“Be My Baby,” “Baby, I Love You”) instead of about them.

The Ronettes became known as the first “bad girls of rock ‘n’ roll,” which is ironic considering Ross walked away from the group in 1966 to become a wife and mother, and has been happily married for over 40 years. Today she is heavily involved with Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network.

Ross says that at the time she didn’t realize how revolutionary the Ronettes were.

“But I did know that we were making an impression,” she says. “We stood out, because we weren’t the black group, we weren’t the white group — people didn’t know what we were, but everyone could relate to us and claim us as their own. We all dressed alike. We all had long hair. We wore skirts with slits, because we danced. People thought we were wearing the slits just to be sexy, but the truth was, the slits allowed us to dance.”

While the involvement of producer Phil Spector has often overshadowed the group, the Ronettes are finally being recognized for their contributions to popular music. In addition to being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last March, the group was honored by the Library of Congress when “Be My Baby” was added to the National Recording Registry the same month.

For the Wildwood show, Ross will sing lead, performing with daughter Heather Ross and two backing singers. It won’t be the first time Ross has sung lead for the Ronettes. When the group was signed as the opening act on the Beatles’ final U.S. tour in 1966, an insecure Phil Spector wouldn’t let Ronnie go on the road with the Fab Four, so Nedra took over lead vocals and another cousin, Elaine, was brought in to sing Nedra’s part.

Both Wilson and Ross recalled performing in Atlantic City in the early ’60s. Ross’s story involves local music legend and Atlantic City Weekly columnist, Jerry Blavat:

“Coming from New York City ... we regarded ourselves as good dancers,” she says. “We had just done Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, and it was fine, but it didn’t have what we considered great dancers. ... And then we went to do the Jerry Blavat Show, and all these kids — with Jerry leading the way as the host — had routines. They could really dance! We were like ‘Oh my gosh, they’re tearing it up!’ That show had a vitality that I’ll always remember. It really stuck in my head.”

Wilson remembers performing with Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars tour at the Steel Pier.

“One of the things I’ll always remember about Atlantic City, was when we played the Steel Pier, there was only one way in and one way out,” she says. “At the end of the show, when we wanted to get back to the hotel, we’d have to walk all the way back through the Steel Pier. Many times we’d have to run because we’d have so many fans chasing us. We were like Pied Pipers — by the time we got to the entrance, we’d have hundreds of people following us.”

Besides her solo career, Wilson is involved in a wide variety of charitable and humanitarian causes. She says she would welcome a Supremes reunion with Diana Ross and Cindy Birdsong (original Florence Ballard died in 1976).

“If it were to come about in the right way, I would be more than willing to do it. In fact, I hope it will happen,” she says. “But I believe those things should happen with the best intentions, and everyone involved should want to do it. ... Now that we’re a lot older, and we’ve gone through our own personal trials and triumphs, maybe the time is right.”

Seal With A "Kiss"

Seal, the British-born singer-songwriter of Brazilian and Nigerian heritage, burst on the music scene in 1991 with a self-titled album that presented a unique fusion of soul, folk, pop, dance and rock, and immediately brought him success on both sides of the Atlantic. Although he’s only released three albums since — six, if you count two live recordings and a 2004 hits collection — Seal continues to attract a large and intensely loyal international following.

Despite his relatively sparse recording output, the 44-year-old singer, whose real name is Sealhenry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel, has managed to remain in the public eye. He’s released enough new music to remind listeners of his distinctive soulful voice, including a Grammy-nominated cover of Burt Bacharach’s “Walk On By” on Best 1991 – 2004, and the song, “A Father’s Way” (from the film The Pursuit of Happyness), which received a 2006 Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.

With a lean, muscular 6’4” frame, Seal’s sheer physical presence has always been enough for him to garner media attention. Growing up in the image-conscious MTV era, Seal has been savvy enough to take advantage of it. He might have gone into modeling, but was initially discouraged by the facial scars he carries as a result of a childhood bout with lupus. But when he decided on a performing career, Seal became convinced that the half-moon scars under his eyes were an omen of future stardom.

“I got really depressed about [the scars] at first, as you can understand,” he said in an interview with Rob Tannenbaum of Rolling Stone magazine. “Now I really like them. If I could design something, I don’t think I could do it better.”

He did design the rest of his look, which at one time featured long dreadlocks, but now sports a clean-shaven head.

“True beauty is internal and eternal — it doesn’t matter what’s only skin deep,” he has said.

Apparently, his view of female beauty tends to be more traditional. Seal dated supermodel Tyra Banks in the mid-90s, and married supermodel Heidi Klum in 2005. The couple has two children.

Seal began his performing career singing in London clubs and bars. He joined an English funk band called Push, which was successful enough to tour Japan in the mid-’80s. From there, Seal took advantage of his time abroad, immersing himself in a variety of musical cultures, and perhaps influencing his own eclectic style of pop music. While in Asia, he joined a Thailand-based blues band. After a short time with that group, he traveled throughout India on his own.

When he returned to England, Seal started collaborating with artists on the local dance music scene. He wrote and independently recorded a song called “Killer” with keyboardist Adamski. Its balance of dance and rock, coupled with Seal’s emotional singing and lyrics, took it to the top of the U.K. charts.

The song caught the attention of producer Trevor Horn (Tina Turner, Pet Shop Boys, Yes), who signed Seal to his ZTT label and produced his eponymous debut in 1991. The album was positively received by both critics and fans, and the singles “Crazy,” “Future Love Paradise” and a new version of “Killer” all performed well on the charts.

But it was Seal’s second album, also self-titled, that established him as one of pop music’s top artists of the ’90s. The 1994 album was also produced by Horn, and featured guest appearances by Joni Mitchell and Jeff Beck. It included the singles “Prayer for the Dying” and “Newborn Friend,” and received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. A third single, “Kiss From a Rose,” performed modestly when initially released, but later became a worldwide smash hit when it was featured in the film Batman Forever. “Kiss From a Rose” went on to win Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1996, and became Seal’s best known song.

Sales of 1998’s Human Being failed to match those of Seal’s first two albums, and the singer went through a difficult period, both personally and professionally. He had a falling out with Horn and left ZTT Records for Warner Brothers.

Seal returned to form for 2003’s Seal IV. Again produced by Horn, the album was a critical and commercial success, and included the singles “Get It Together,” “Waiting For You” and “Love’s Divine.”

In blog posts on Seal.com, his official Web site, Seal has talked about his new album (no, it's not called Seal V - it's called System) which hits the streets November 13, 2007. He says it will reflect a return to his roots as a club singer. Some of the song titles include “Amazing,” “System,” “Wedding Day” and “The Right Life.”

Hoping for a fresh sound, the album will be produced by Stuart Price, known for his work with Madonna, No Doubt, and Coldplay.

“The new record is really shaping up and is turning out to be much of a dance record,” Seal said in a recent post. “Over the years I’ve somehow become more known for my ballads, which I also love doing, but dance music has always been close to my heart. Make no mistake, there will also be a killer ballad or three on this record, but at this point in my life I really want to make something that is more dance-directed.”

ROLL OVER BEETHOVEN: THE EAST VILLAGE OPERA COMPANY BRINGS CLASSIC ARIAS INTO THE 21ST CENTURY

Since the late ’60s, dozens of bands have recorded rock operas – from grandiose concept albums like the Who’s “Tommy,” to stage musicals like Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Jesus Christ Superstar,” to the recent work of the Trans Siberian Orchestra. While the music usually rocked, it often had little to do with true opera.

The same can’t be said of the East Village Opera Company, which might be the first band to perform real opera that rocks.

On its self-titled Decca Records debut, the eleven-piece group uses electric guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards combined with a string quartet, and two lead vocalists to breathe new life into classic arias like “Habanera,” “Un Bel Di,” and “La Donna E Mobile.”

Keyboardist and arranger Peter Kiesewalter believes that today’s rock and yesterday’s opera share many similarities.

“These opera composers were just the rock stars of their time,” he said in an October 2005 interview for the News Journal. “They were often poorly behaved guys that infuriated a lot of people and really pushed the envelope of what was happening in popular music.”

While opera may be considered highbrow music today, Kiesewalter says that wasn’t the case 200 years ago.

“It really wasn’t for the upper classes, it was for everyday people,” he says. “It was music that people would sing in the streets the day after a premiere. It was the pop music of its day.”

The Ottawa, Canada native is a classically trained instrumentalist who considers himself “a rock guy” at heart. He put himself through school playing everything from Top-40 to rock to country to big band music. Eventually he moved to New York, where he became the music director and arranger of “The Downtown Messiah,” an annual presentation of Handel’s “Messiah.”

In 2001 he was hired by director Derek Diorio to write the musical score for “The Kiss of Debt,” an independent film featuring Tyley Ross as an aspiring opera singer. “The director told me that he wanted Tyley to sing fifteen opera arias in the movie, and I could arrange them anyway I wanted, as long as I didn’t do them traditionally,” Kiesewalter explained. “So I was given carte blanche to do whatever I wanted.”

A low-budget comedy with a very limited release, “The Kiss of Debt” never found an audience. Kiesewalter and Ross didn’t want their collaborative musical effort to suffer the same fate.

“At the end of the process, we decided to put the music out on an independent CD,” Kiesewalter says. “We thought nothing much would come of it, but the response right off the bat was a bit overwhelming.”

With success of the independent release, “La Donna,” Kiesewalter and Ross began drafting a permanent roster of musicians for live performances. The group established a home base at an East Village club called Joe’s Pub. The 2005 road trek marked the first time the group toured extensively.

“With eleven people in the band, it’s economically stupid, but I just couldn’t think of another way to break it down and make it cost effective,” Kiesewalter says. “We’ve been asked if we could go out as a four or five piece, and turn the string quartet into a synthesizer, but I just couldn’t do it. No matter how great the sample is, you just don’t get same the dynamic, or breath of expression that you do with real strings.”

The eclectic nature of the group’s music attracts an equally diverse audience, from rockers and hipsters, to working professionals and college students. Kiesewalter says a large number of traditional opera fans have embraced the group’s approach.

“A fair amount of older people who are subscribers to the Met, or traditional opera fans are definitely digging it,” he says. “I’m sure there are some horrified purists out there, but it’s good to know that some of the real fans are coming out and agreeing that the classic arts need a drastic reinvention in order for them to survive. We’re not trying to replace the originals, but I think for something to remain viable, it needs to be reexamined and turned on its head.

“If Mozart or Puccini were alive today, there’s no doubt in my mind that they’d be using microphones, and Pro-Tools, and samplers, and drums and electric guitars. We try to imagine what the composer would be doing with his music if he were alive today.”

While the East Village Opera Company does take a few liberties in its repertoire – like blending the keyboard and drum opening of the Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” into the “Overture” from “Le Nozze di Figaro” – the group adheres to musical tradition more often not. For example, the overwhelming majority of the material is sung in the original Italian or French.

“The lyrics just don’t translate gracefully into English,” Kiesewalter says. “It’s like going to see Shakespeare in Swahili. It does not have a flow, and it sounds extremely corny. The language of this poetry is so much a part of the aria. We were very adamant about sticking to the original text, and also to sing the aria in its entirely. When artists contemporize these songs, they’ll often do the most recognizable bit. In our approach, we do every section of the tune from start to finish, not just the most recognizable eight or sixteen bars.”

However, the group felt it was important to use material that would be familiar not only to opera buffs, but to the average well-rounded music fan as well.

“We weren’t shy about choosing the obvious greatest hits from the opera repertoire. The fact that we’re doing something that’s recognizable gives us context,” Kiesewalter says. “If people recognize the tune, then it defines what we do that much stronger than an unknown aria. It immediately puts a context and a framework around what we’ve done with it.”

Kiesewalter says that given the theatrical nature of the music, he’s looking forward to performing on larger stages. “With Tyley’s stage background, and the dynamics of the music, there’s never a dull moment,” he says. “We really haven’t worked out anything in terms of ’70s arena rock stage antics, but we embrace the pomposity of that style of rock much like we embrace the pomposity of opera.”

30 Years Later, KC and the Sunshine Band Still Going Strong

If, back in 1977, you would have told the average disco-hating rock fan that KC and the Sunshine Band would still be drawing crowds in 30 years, they would have thought you were crazy. But here we are, 30 years later, and while many of the rock bands of the late ‘70s are only a memory, KC and the Sunshine Band are still going strong.

Songs like “That's The Way (I Like It),” “Get Down Tonight,” “I'm Your Boogie Man” and “(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty,” have sold more than 100 million records, and earned KC and the Sunshine Band numerous awards. The group's upbeat sound, which blends R&B, funk, pop, island and Latin influences, has helped it maintain a large, loyal following of old fans and new for over 30 years.

Harry Wayne Casey (KC) has a simple explanation for his band's enduring popularity. “It's just music that lifts you up,” he said in a December 2006 interview for Atlantic City Weekly. “When you listen to it today, it still sounds fresh, and it sounds as exciting as it did 30 years ago. A lot of people come to me and tell me that my music has gotten them through a bad experience, or a bad day, or something negative they were dealing with.”

While it's become synonymous with the disco era, the music of KC and the Sunshine Band was filling dance floors four years before 1977's Saturday Night Fever brought the disco craze to America.

“I pulled from different types of sounds that I liked in music,” Casey says, explaining the origin of the group's unique sound. “I saw this Junkanoo band in the Bahamas, and the sound was just so infectious, I thought it would be great to translate that into a pop record. I always liked horns and percussion ... it all blended into one sound that became mine.”

From 1973 to 1983, K.C. and the Sunshine Band enjoyed a string of hits that also included, “Keep It Comin' Love,” “Please Don't Go,” and “Give It Up.” In 1982, Casey was involved in a nearly fatal car accident. He spent almost a year in traction and developed an addiction to painkillers. Two years later, his father died. Depressed and without a record contract, Casey began a cocaine addiction that lasted nearly 10 years.

After beating his habit, he got the urge to perform again. He recorded an album called Oh Yeah that was released in 1993 on ZYX Records. He reformed the Sunshine Band, bringing back some of the original members, including percussionist Fermin Goytisolo, who's still touring with the group.

With a schedule that averages 100 shows a year, Casey says he doesn't have much time to work on new material. That doesn't stop him from attracting new fans however. KC and the Sunshine Band has been sampled by contemporary artists like 50 Cent, R. Kelly, and Snoop Dogg, and a new generation has gotten to know the group's songs through their use in dozens of movies, television shows, and commercials.

In the last few years, Casey has dug into his archives and released two albums, In A Mellow Mood and I'll Be There For You.

Casey, who still lives in the Miami area, says he loves coming to Atlantic City, and has performed here almost every New Year's Eve for the last six years. His most vivid memory of Atlantic City didn't happen on stage, however.

“One year the fire alarm went off in the middle of the night,” he says. “It was freezing outside and we all had to get out of the hotel and stand out in the cold.”

The incident had no effect on his show the next day. After all, a guy who's used to shakin' his booty every night can handle a little shiver in Atlantic City.

Bon Jovi Still Having "A Nice Day"

When New Jersey rockers Bon Jovi released their self-titled debut album in 1984, few, if any, critics predicted a bright future for the band. The big rock hooks of Bon Jovi's first single, "Runaway" might have caught listeners' attention, but unimpressed cynics couldn't see past the group's pretty-boy looks. Lumped together with the many mediocre "hair bands" of the day, Bon Jovi appeared to be destined for one-hit wonder status. When their second album, 7800° Fahrenheit received a lukewarm response, the naysayers seemed to have been proven right.

Fast-forward 22 years and, remarkably, Bon Jovi is still here, both literally and figuratively. Founding members Jon Bon Jovi (lead vocals/guitar) and David Bryan (keyboards) still live in New Jersey; but more important, Bon Jovi and Bryan, along with lead guitarist Richie Sambora, drummer Tico Torres, and bassist Hugh McDonald, are still a vital and popular force on the music scene.

While contemporaries like Winger, Slaughter, and Ratt make news only when the words, "Whatever happened to…" precede their names, Bon Jovi is still selling millions of CDs and packing arenas on tour. Bon Jovi's latest platinum-selling CD, Have A Nice Day logged over a year on the charts.

In an February 2006 interview, Bryan says he feels that the group's longevity is at least partly the result of a serious work ethic shared by the band members.

"We never were a lifestyles band. Our lives have always been about music," he says. "You read about other bands and it's who died of a heroin overdose inside a limo. Our articles are about great shows and great songs. That's what we're about."

Bryan, born David Bryan Rashbaum, met Jon Bon Jovi, then known as John Frank Bongiovi, when they were juniors in high school in Sayreville, Middlesex County.

"I went to school with Jon's cousin, who turned me on to his band. I eventually joined Jon's band. We were called Atlantic City Expressway. We did Springsteen, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes covers, and some originals — blue-eyed soul music, what was the 'Shore sound' at that time."

The band eventually split, but Bryan and Bon Jovi remained friends. Bryan enrolled in Julliard, and Bon Jovi took a $50 a week job as a "gofer" at New York City's legendary Power Station recording studios.

The studio job allowed Bon Jovi to work on his own music after hours. Using the empty studios and any lingering musicians he could recruit, he recorded his own original songs. The bass player at many of the sessions was Hugh McDonald.

One of those songs, "Runaway," was included on a compilation album of local unsigned artists put together by the now defunct radio station WAPP. When the song took off, Bon Jovi was asked to perform at a series of live shows to promote the album. In need of a band, he called Bryan, who in turn brought bass player Alec John Such and Torres into the group. After a series of guitarists, Sambora joined and completed the original line-up.

Bryan says that the songwriting process hasn't changed that much for the group, but it has matured. It wasn't until they recorded their third album, the multi-platinum Slippery When Wet, he says, that the band "found its voice."

Bon Jovi and Sambora co-write most of the band's material, but Bryan says that everyone in the band has input.

"Everyone gets into the mix with suggestions," he says. "We try different things to see what works best, and the songs go through that funnel. Then it's really up to Jon, because he's got to sing them. The most important thing is to be open to an idea. That's the only way you can really grow together.

A deep-seeded friendship and respect for each other has allowed the band to flourish while weathering issues that have splintered other groups. Everything from the loss of an original band member (bass player Such left the band in 1994), to celebrity marriages (Sambora married actress Heather Locklear in 1994), to potentially career-ending injuries to both Bryan (his fingers) and Torres (his arm), to Jon Bon Jovi's attention-grabbing side occupations (an actor and co-owner of Arena League Football's Philadelphia Soul), have been dealt with in stride.

When Jon Bon Jovi decided to publicly support John Kerry, he consulted his bandmates before hitting the campaign trail.

"We support each other in whatever we want to do individually, it doesn't mean that we all necessarily agree," Bryan says. "If we thought [Jon's campaigning] was going to seriously hurt the band, we would say something. We each have our different outside interests."

Although the band might be tempted to wax nostalgic playing a show to a capacity crowd in its home state, Bryan says that looking forward, not to the past, is the key to staying vital.

"We're playing at least seven songs off the new record on this tour, because that's how you stay current," he says. "We look out at the audience every night and there are a lot of people singing the words to the new songs, so they know the new record. Those that don't will probably go out the next day and get it. We want to go out and promote Have A Nice Day, not just go on tour. That's how you do it; otherwise you're a nostalgia act."