(This column is featured in the March/April issue. Subscribe here. And get the latest, free e-Book here). Break out the champagne – this issue marks a milestone, the first anniversary of “Measure For Measure.” So please, kick off your shoes and make yourself at home while I tune up the Martin; I have a song [...]

Although it shares its name with the final track on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Aimee Bobruk’s “A Day In The Life” takes its inspiration from a different source: Kimya Dawson’s quirky, acoustic contributions to the Junosoundtrack. “It’s intended to be a simple love song about two teenagers eloping — a teenage boy and [...]

In the liner notes to the 30th anniversary edition of All Things Must Pass, his mammoth 1970 triple album, George Harrison wrote, “I still like the songs on the album and believe they can continue to outlive the style in which they were recorded.” It was a typically modest, self-deprecating statement from Harrison, and one [...]

Wanna write a hit song? Just try three chords and a little science. In “Anatomy Of A Tearjerker” (Wall Street Journal, February 11, 2012), science editor Michaeleen Doucleff cites research showing that “emotionally intense music releases dopamine in the pleasure and reward centers of the brain, similar to the effects of food, sex and drugs. [...]

Goo goo g’joob. On October 9, Apple Films will release a newly restored version of the long out-of-print 1967 feature film The Magical Mystery Tour on DVD and Blu-ray, with a remixed 5.1 surround soundtrack, Paul McCartney’s director’s commentary, and previously unseen footage. There will also be a deluxe edition, containing both the DVD and [...]

James McCartney’s The Complete EP Collection is a killer assortment of tightly-crafted rock anthems. Produced by David Kahne and his famous Beatle father (Paul McCartney, you may have heard of him), the album has rightfully racked up critical acclaim on both sides of the pond. The occasionally press-shy McCartney shared with us his thoughts on [...]

Opening night at TPAC in Nashville found Rain running flawlessly through two hours of Beatles classics. Beatles fans… go see this show!

American-Sikh singer-songwriter and indie rocker Hargo Khalsa’s provocative new albumOut Of Mankind is out now. We talked to Khalsa about his songwriting heroes and “Crying For John Lennon,” which was the last song to be produced by Phil Spector. When did you first start writing songs? Were they good right away, or did that come [...]

(Photo: Songwriter Seth Swirsky with Ringo Starr) As the sole writer of the classic “Love Is a Beautiful Thing,” recorded by Al Green and several others, and a co-writer of hits by Taylor Dayne (“Tell It to My Heart”), Michael McDonald (“Tear It Up”) and more, Seth Swirsky has bragging rights to a lot of [...]

If you’ve been following the world of nu-folk and bluegrass, you already know all about Crooked Still. The critically acclaimed band (The Boston Globe has called them Boston’s most important folk group) is about to go on hiatus –  Aoife O’Donovon, who wrote “Lay My Burden Down” for Alison Krauss on Paper Airplane, will focus [...]

Seeing Paul McCartney, who turned 69 this June, at Wrigley Field last night, the second of two sold-out shows in Chicago, confirmed what I’d always suspected: he was the brains behind the Beatles. Sure, my favorite Beatle was always George. He had so much to give with All Things Must Pass, the result of years [...]

Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Me and you both, I’m sure. Fall, ’91, I was driving on Rt 23, and heard this song on the radio. I had my own little Beatles-on-Ed-Sullivan freakout, pulled directly into the Sound Exchange parking lot in Wayne, NJ, and bought the album (on cassette, it seems worth noting). That [...]