Tina Sinatra recently said of her father, “Dad had no interest in writing a memoir: “What good would that do?” he’d say. “My life and music are the whole of me.” Of course, he was right. Film was the only way to go. His music…
Genealogy is a fascinating thing. The more you learn, the more you realize we are all interconnected in ways that most of us never would have imagined. In 2006, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. a Harvard professor and writer served as co-producer and host for…
I knew nothing about Paper Rival until I was sent a copy of their self-titled EP last fall. The Nashville band–vocalist Jacob Rolleston, bassist Cody McCall, guitarist Brent Coleman, drummer Dillon Napier and guitarist Patrick Damphier–immediately impressed me with their lush pop melodies and alternative…
Rawhide premiered on January 9, 1959 on CBS and ran until January 4, 1966. The series was produced by Charles Marquis Warren, who also produced several early episodes of Gunsmoke. Warren used his 1958 film Cattle Empire as the basis for the series. Charles had…
I never watched The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles when it began airing on television back in 1992. Now, having watched the series, repackaged as a series of films for the DVD release, I regret I didn’t watch the show much earlier. Based on the early…
Sometimes you come across the kind of movie that leaves you completely spent and emotionally drained but glad to have seen it–the film is the kind of movie you’d volunteer to go see over and over again, but you recommend it to all your friends….
Ricky Nelson would have turned 68 today, had he not been killed in a plane crash on January 1, 1985. Here he is singing “It’s Late” on Ozzie and Harriet. The song peaked on the charts at #9 in 1959.
Hilary Swank’s recent film career is sort of like a championship runner; they either win the gold medal or finish completely out of the top three. In 2000, at the age of 26, Swank won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for…
With a slew of new Peggy Lee releases due out later this month, I’ve been listening to the upcoming Lee releases and drawn back to one of my other personal favorites, Judy Garland. Miss Garland often said how much she admired Peggy as a singer/songwriter…
As a long time music collector in my thirties, I’ve always had an appreciation for what I like to call “pure vocalists”–singers who seem to be able to belt out any song and make it their own. This talented group tends to cross musical genres:…