Walnut Creek: Home-grown singing talent heading to country music’s…
The News Review:
- Walnut Creek: Home-grown singing talent heading to country music’s…
- In prog we trust
- World Bank OKs Wolfowitz As New President
Walnut Creek: Home-grown singing talent heading to country music’s…
San Francisco Chronicle – Apr 1, 2005
tmpl –>Lisa Kolarich reveres her hometown of Walnut Creek. But as a country music diva in training, she knows this isn’t the place to be to get her career rolling. tmpl –> Images…
Kolarich’s goal is to land a recording deal, with sights on being the next Shania Twain or Faith Hill. A 2003 graduate of Concord’s Ygnacio Valley High School, Kolarich has performed in several Bay Area venues over the last four years, mainly in Contra Costa County. Along with her band, Blue Moon, she performed at Joe’s in Lafayette in March and will have a farewell show at Del Valle Theater April 29. Kolarich has made a couple of trips to Nashville in the past to work on demos with noted country songwriters such as Brian Nash and Toney Ramey, so she isn’t a total stranger to the scene. But this jaunt is Kolarich’s first serious run at establishing herself. “I don’t want to get my hopes up,” said Kolarich, 19. “I’ll go out there for a while and see if everything works out.
In prog we trust
Guardian Unlimited – Apr 1, 2005
Van Der Graaf Generator and Justin Hawkins of the Darkness “How can any innovative, forward-thinking art or music not be progressive?” asks Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, guitarist with the Mars Volta. “We are really tired of those labels. “If you want to describe Frances the Mute, the Mars Volta’s recently released second album, only the terms “progressive rock” and “concept album” will do. It has been designed as a pseudo-symphony, with evolving themes and interlocking movements. There are dramatic leaps from doomy blues to ferocious nu-metal, punctuated by cacophonous free jazz and mariachi trumpets…
Recording equipment has become cheap and accessible to an extent unforeseeable 30 years ago, while the globalisation of music makes it easy for musicians to soak themselves in a multiplicity of sources. Several of the new acts have female singers, in a departure from prog’s all-male tradition. Bands from South America or eastern Europe inevitably bring their own perspectives, and even the home-grown ones don’t conform to the popular cliches. “We all come from working-class backgrounds – we didn’t go to public school,” says Galahad’s Nicholson. “Our original members were from a council estate, but that doesn’t mean you can only be into the Sex Pistols. “Anything seems possible, and while there’s little likelihood of prog re-establishing its 1970s dominance, the music has proved that it is capable of adapting to survive. “Despite what the industry says music should or should not be, these people beg to differ,” adds Bruford.
World Bank OKs Wolfowitz As New President
CBS News – Apr 1, 2005
James Wolfensohn, the bank’s current president, will step down at the end of May, when his second term ends. Wolfensohn helped engineer a number of changes in the bank’s philosophy and how it operates. He pushed for greater emphasis on “home grown” development planning, trying to connect the bank closer to the countries it seeks to help. He pressed for debt relief for the world’s poorest countries. His 1996 “cancer of corruption” speech focused a new light on corruption as an impediment to development that must be addressed.