AC/DC have won their first Grammy.

It was a long way to the top for the Aussie rockers and tonight the band beat Linkin Park, Nickelback, Alice In Chains and Metallica to take away the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance.

AC/DC won the award for ‘War Machine’, a song that wasn’t even an a-side. ‘War Machine’, from the ‘Black Ice’ album was the b-side to the ‘Rock and Roll Train’ single.

However, they missed out on the Best Rock Album award. That went to Green Day.

‘Black Ice’ producer Brendan O’Brien also won for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical for Black Ice, as well as his work with Pearl Jam, Mastodon, Killswitch Engage and Bruce Springsteen.

Other notable winners were guitar legend Jeff Beck, who won Best Rock Instrumental Performance for “A Day In The Life”, from ‘Performing This Week…Live From Ronnie Scott’s’.

The Derek Trucks Band took home Best Contemporary Blues Album Honors for ‘Already Free’,

Booker T. Jones (Of Booker T. & The MG’s fame) won Best Pop Instrumental Album for ‘Potato Hole’.

British metal titans Judas Priest won Best Metal Performance for ‘Dissident Aggressor’ from ‘A Touch Of Evil -Live’.

Delta Blues legend David “Honeyboy” Edwards, one of the last living links to Robert Johnson, was awarded a lifetime achievement award.

Looking for a great, rockin’ place to go after this site? Well dear readers, look no further than Rock N Roll TV.

Hosted by the lovely and talented Share Ross, bassist for Vixen, Contraband, Dogs D’Amour, and currently guitarist and singer for Bubble, every well produced episode presents the latest in rock news in an entertaining, fast paced fashion which is sure to appeal to your eyes and your ears. http://www.rocknrolltv.net/

A good friend to Nightwatcher’s House Of Rock, selected stories from which are featured on a fairly regular basis, do yourself a favor, cruise on over and tell them we sent you! Just recently they’ve been placing episodes on YouTube, where we’ve plucked this up from, #178 :

Don’t feel too sorry for Chicago blueswoman Grana’ Louise when she tells you her man’s ugly and stupid; he gives her Ferraris, cleans her house and cooks her dinner.

Besides, she’s not trying to be mean when she sings “My Baby is Ugly,” a song from her 2003 release, “Generations.” Grana’ Louise loves her man. She’s just having fun. And, man, she has fun.

“Big Annie’s Fanny,” a tune about a big, beautiful woman whose attitude is almost as big as Grana’ Louise’s voice, is a hoot. So is “Big Fat Daddy.”

Grana’ Louise brings the same saucy style to classic blues songs such as “Smoke Stack Lightning” and “Little Red Rooster.” You can bet Bessie Smith, Georgia White and other female blues legends would have loved the fact that Grana’ Louise wields her enormous voice like a claymore. You should, too. Just be careful or she’ll cut you up.

(Blues Blog Special is a regular feature that examines older blues albums worth checking out.)

The daily mix:

1) Kathleen Edwards: “Goodnight, California”
2) Cheri Knight: “Black Eyed Susie”
3) Fairport Convention: “Mr. Lacey”
4) Taj Mahal: “Annie’s Lover”
5) Barbecue Bob: “Motherless Chile Blues”
6) The Delmore Brothers: “Brown’s Ferry Blues”
7) The Louvin Brothers: “Blue From Now On”
Guy Clark: “Black Haired Boy”
9) A.A. Bondy: “Black Rain, Black Rain”
10) Mark Knopfler: “Back to Tupelo”

Indie
2009

Shining’s “Black Jazz” isn’t particularly black in the sense of being dark because it’s largely upbeat and it’s not exactly jazz in any traditional sense. What we have here is layers of frenzied sounds covered with synths and over-the-top electronics. It’s loud without being heavy and they don’t really to build and depth. Instead the sounds just push and fly forward, but not in any particular pattern. While multi-layered noise can be good, I think it needs a focus or something that will draw me in. I can certainly embrace off the wall music if there is some hook or a point that really grabs. This is more like video game music gone wild as it’s all over the place. I wasn’t expecting an easy listen, but I was hoping for some moments where this band would extabish something that would make me want to hear more. That just didn’t happen enough. Instead they just ramble on without a real plan and the songs tend to stop rather than come to any fitting end. I admire their desire to bring numerous sounds and tones to the table, but their sense of order or lack of order just failed to make me care about this album.

I was thinking about Ratt over the last day or two partly due to the new album coming out at some point and partly due to that post I wrote yesterday. My history with Ratt like many people starts in 1984 with “Out of the cellar”. I immediately took to it and it is certainly the band’s best album and still holds up pretty well today. I heard their 1983 self-titled EP the same year and that one also holds up too for what it is. Along with the likes of Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Judas Priest, Twisted Sister and a few others they were one of the first “current” bands I got into. “Invasion of your privacy” followed with much more hype in 1985 and I bought it right away, but it’s still an album that’s just decent to me. I tend to play it maybe once a year in hope that it will click, but it’s overall decent. I think my interest in Ratt began dropping after this in large part due to moving on to heavier bands like Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, Exciter and others. I did hear “Dancing undercover” right around when it came out even though I did not buy it right away. It struck me as having a stronger groove to it than did Invasion so it was one of the few hard rock releases I was spinning in between a strong diet of thrash that I was consuming in the fall/winter of 1986. Time passed and I don’t even think I knew about “Reach for the sky” coming out in 1988 until several months after it’s release. Again I was deeper into the heavy stuff like thrash, early death metal, hardcore, crossover and whatever other noise was coming down the pike at the moment. I did hear it and thought it was on the level of Invasion with a few stand-outs and few alright songs. By 1990 I was turning back towards some more hard rock and “Detonator” just hit me at the right time because I played the crap out it for months. Looking back it doesn’t stand out as well now in fact it’s certainly dated even more so than some of the other discs. After that things faded fast for the band. They released a best of and then broke up. I got married and moved back to Maryland in 1999 so with all that going I wasn’t listening to a lot of music at the time let alone a band I hadn’t been into for almost a decade, but Ratt released their reunion of sorts in the form of another self-titled disc. Consistancy had certainly been their greatest attribute during their first run, but they could not carry that into this album because it’s falls flat with a miserable thud. There is maybe one good song, two or three average ones and a bunch of clutter. It’s barely worth the buck I paid for it from the bargain bin.
Since that point they have been a mainstay of touring during the summer and releasing nothing. Until now as the new disc is coming soon. So my expectations? Well, they have been touring regularly and Pearcy and DeMartini are in it so that helps plus they were once a very steady band. That’s the positives. The downside includes the fact that the last album stunk like a truck full of rotten eggs on a hot day and Stephen Pearcy’s voice has always been a question mark although that could compensated for in the production room. I am slightly interested in it, but not enough to pay money for it new and I may be a bit jaded, but I would be surprised if it is better than average.

“Describing her sound as `rock noir`, Rykarda Parasol’s music evokes moody cinema drenched in gin and white-collar crime. Her personal songs depict bad love and bad deeds in stark simplicity.”

All the necessary melodrama surrounding this talented lady and her multicultural family tree is wholly justified, if anything the hype is a little subdued. While Siouxsie vocal references are duly made and PJ Havery/Nick Cave post goth narratives break the ironic surface, Rykarda`s delivery is no accidental scenario. It will almost make you laugh, it will certainly make you cry, at last a real long player to get your teeth into. Have a listen to the first single `A Drinking Song`, the idea of marrying a stoned Peter Gunn bass line with the orchestral suspense of a Spaghetti Western only expands the stunning atmosphere.

“Parasol’s masterful follow-up album For Blood and Wine is now set for a national release on February 16, 2010″

“Parasol’s vocal style on For Blood and Wine is as diverse as any. At times she employs bluesy intonation with a low tone and other times she sweeps high into a falsetto clouds. But what you can hear most often, is a conversation-like intimacy, almost talking.”

Rykarda Parasol : A Drinking Song
Learm More And Buy

Courtesy Of Fanatic Promotion

The daily mix:

1) Billy Price: “Push Me to the Limit”
2) Jimmie Lee Robinson: “Poison Ivy”
3) Earl King: “Seduction”
4) Joe Tex: “Show Me”
5) Nappy Brown: “I Wonder”
6) Gatemouth Moore: “It Ain’t None of Me”
7) Sunnyland Slim: “The Devil is a Busy Man”
Chuck Willis: “Search My Heart”
9) Junior Parker: “I Need Your Love So Bad”
10) Freddie North: “Indefinitely”

I’ve ordered a couple of albums by Big Ed Sullivan, a New York bluesman who adds liberal doses of rockabilly to his mix.

In the meantime, I’m enjoying some YouTube clips that feature him.

Live Daily is reporting blues-rockin’ guitarist Joe Bonamassa will spend most of the spring pounding the pavement in support of his forthcoming 10th studio set, “Black Rock.”

Following a late-February leg in Russia, the singer/songwriter/guitarist will kick off the US portion with a March 3 show in Eugene, OR. The two-month trek crisscrosses the country, stopping by theaters in 30 cities through a March 8 concert in Omaha. Details are included below.

“Black Rock,” Bonamassa’s 10th solo effort, is slated to hit retailers March 23 and will mark his sixth release on his own J&R Adventures imprint. The musician teamed up again with producer Kevin Shirley (Black Crowes, Aerosmith), who also worked on Bonamassa’s 2009 collection, “The Ballad of John Henry.” That set debuted atop Billboard’s Blues Albums chart last February.

The new album–which was recorded at and named after Black Rock Studios in Santorini, Greece–features a number of covers, including a version of the Willie Nelson-penned song “Night Life” alongside B.B. King. Other tracks on the album: Leonard Cohen’s “Bird On a Wire,” John Hiatt’s “I Know a Place” and Jeff Beck’s “Spanish Boots,” among others.

In November, Bonamassa accepted the Breakthrough Artist of the Year Award at the UK’s prestigious Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards in London. His most recent release on DVD, ‘Live From The Royal Albert Hall’, which features a guest appearance by rock legend Eric Clapton, hit #6 on Billboard’s DVD chart this past fall.

March 2010
3 – Eugene, OR – McDonald Theatre
4 – Portland, OR – Aladdin Theatre
5 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theatre
7 – Bend, OR – Tower Theatre
9 – Medford, OR – Craterian Ginger Rogers Theatre
10 – Santa Cruz, CA – Rio Theatre
11 – Sacramento, CA – Crest Theatre
12 – San Francisco, CA – Palace of Fine Arts Theatre
13 – Bakersfield, CA – Majestic Fox Theater
17 – Riverside, CA – Riverside Municipal Auditorium
19 – Phoenix, AZ – Orpheum Theatre
20 – Santa Fe, NM – Lensic Performing Arts Center
23 – Fort Worth, TX – Bass Performance Hall
24 – Austin, TX – Paramount Theatre
25 – Stafford, TX – Stafford Center
26 – Oklahoma City, OK – Civic Center Music Hall
27 – Fayetteville, AR – Walton Arts Center

April 2010
15 – New York, NY – Town Hall
16 – Boston, MA – Wilbur Theatre
17 – Peekskill, NY – Paramount Center for the Arts
18 – Wilmington, DE – Grand Opera House
20 – Albany, NY – Hart Theatre at The Egg
21 – Red Bank, NJ – Count Basie Theatre
23 – Washington, DC – Lisner Auditorium
24 – Glenside, PA – Keswick Theatre
25 – Harrisburg, PA – Sunoco Performance Theater
29 – Cleveland, OH – Ohio Theatre

May 2010
2 – Dayton, OH – Victoria Theatre
7 – Iowa City, IA – The Englert Theatre
8 – Omaha, NE – Orpheum Theatre