When your parents are James Taylor and Carly Simon, you could say you’re tailor-made for a career in the arts. Ben Taylor’s songwriting can easily stand on its own though, and his talents are on full display on his latest album, Listening, the followup to 2008′s The Legend Of Kung Folk – Part 1 (the [...]

Music is one of the universal languages of diplomacy. For decades, anthems like “We Are The World,” “Do They Know It’s Christmas,” and “Stand By Me” have unified nations to remedy crisis, to bridge culture gaps, and to foster hope. Now, the worldwide human rights organization Amnesty International has sponsored an original single “Toast To [...]

The Smeezingtons “Who is the audience for this music?” Bruno Mars explained was the constant question asked by the media prior to his breakthrough. And his answer was always the same: “The universe.” He was explaining in a master-class to a packed ballroom at this weekend’s ASCAP Expo the theme that was woven through all the [...]

ASCAP held their 29th annual Pop Music Awards on April 18 in Los Angeles, where Swedish producer/songwriter Max Martin was deemed Songwriter of the Year. It was his fifth time receiving the Award. In 2011, Martin wrote ten of the most-performed pop songs, including smash hits by Ke$sha, Adam Lambert and Britney Spears. Song of [...]

If Nikki Jean were any more upbeat, any fizzier, she’d have to be reclassified as an energy drink. If you’d just finished an album (in this case, her star-studded debut Pennies In A Jar) where you co-wrote with some of the premiere songwriters of the ‘60s and ‘70s, you’d be bouncing off the walls as [...]

Three years ago, genre-hopping artist Nikki Jean crossed the country on a quest to collaborate with her songwriting heroes. She succeeded, in a major way. Her debut album, Pennies In A Jar, due July 12 on S-Curve Records, features songs co-written with Bob Dylan, Carole King, Carly Simon, Lamont Dozier, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach and [...]

For the new autism documentary Wretches & Jabberers, composer, producer, and songwriter J. Ralph has assembled a soundtrack featuring the voices of Norah Jones, Carly Simon, Ben Harper, Bob Weir, Stephen Stills, Scarlett Johansson, and many more. Ralph, who scored the soundtracks to the Academy Award-winning films Man On Wire and The Cove, says that [...]