Guitar Mastermind Steve Hackett has re-recorded the GTR classic, “When the Heart Rules the Mind,” with Marillion’s Steve Rothery. The new version will be available tomorrow for purchase.
[With thanks to Prog Magazine for posting this first]
Author: bradbirzer
By day, I'm a father of seven and husband of one. By night, I'm an author, a biographer, and a prog rocker. Interests: Rush, progressive rock, cultural criticisms, the Rocky Mountains, individual liberty, history, hiking, and science fiction.
More Tears Than Fears: News
Ugh. I was just looking up Tears for Fears news to find out if the release date of the new album had been announced. I had thought it would have come out last year, and, admittedly, I was a bit frustrated and surprised when it didn’t. To this day, Tears for Fears remains not just a favorite band, but certainly my favorite proggy pop or poppy prog band.
Here’s the “ugh.”
I had no idea that Roland Orzabal’s wife, Caroline, passed away last year.
Roland, you don’t know me in the least, but I am so, so sorry for your loss. I knew that something had happened when the tour got cancelled, but I’d assumed nothing as drastic and horrible as losing a family member.
Caroline had been a major part of Roland’s life and his music as his wife and best friend since the early 1980s. They married in 1982.
The Express and Star (Andy Richardson, January 13, 2018) writes:
Roland is finding his way into the day. He’s tired. Yesterday was a big day, a tough day. Though he’s still grieving Caroline – and how could he not, they were happily entwined for all of their adult lives, she was his rock – he’s trying to stay in the moment, rather than slip into the past.
Now, of course, my worries about no new TFF album in 2017 seem nothing short of absurd. Our condolences, Roland. May Caroline rest safely and happily in the embrace of eternity.
IZZ News
This appeared on social media, earlier today.
Great news for all of us! God bless, Laura Meade and IZZ!
Happy 2018 to our loyal IZZ fans! We wanted to take a moment to let you know that there is new music on the horizon.
In late Spring, Laura Meade will release her first full-legnth studio album which features special guest artists including several of her IZZ bandmates. Written by Laura Meade and arranged and produced by me (John!), Laura’s album combines her passion for musical theatre with her art-rock sensibilities. Doone Records will have an announcement about the release date in the near future. On Wednesday, May 9th, Laura will be joining District 97 and Schooltree in Arlington, MA at the Regent Theatre for a night of Female-fronted art-rock, presented by NewEars.org. More information to follow.
IZZ is also back in the studio in full recording mode after writing together for the better part of a year. We are really excited about the freshness of the songs and can’t wait for you all to hear what we have been working on. We recently got together to film one of our final rehearsals before we went into the studio to start recording and we plan on releasing some of that footage later on this year in conjunction with the album release. We really enjoyed having a camera crew there filming as a “fly on the wall” of our rehearsal. They were able to capture some great stuff, including a new interview where we discussed a wide range of topics for the first time together on film.
So stay tuned…We have exciting new music in store for you in 2018.
Cheers!
John Galgano
IZZ
Bass / Vocals / Songwriter
Schubert (From TIC)
In terms of his achievement there is only one other composer to whom Franz Schubert can be compared: Mozart. Perhaps not as precocious as Mozart, Schubert was nonetheless already an accomplished composer as a teenager. In his brief thirty-one years, he created a life’s work of more than one thousand compositions, which include sublime masterpieces…
via Franz Schubert’s Music of Paradise Lost — The Imaginative Conservative
Kevin J. Anderson News
Some excellent news from Kevin J. Anderson, co-author of Clockwork Angels and Clockwork Lives.
Hi Bradley,
Guess what? The graphic novel, Stalag-X, that I wrote with TV writer-producer Steven L. Sears (remember Xena, Swamp Thing, The A-Team?) is almost here. It’s about human prisoners caught in an alien POW camp during a ruthless future war. Mike Ratera did the art, and the hardcover graphic novel is being published soon by The Vault.
Joe Human is taken to a harsh POW camp on a distant planet where he’ll be examined, tortured, and forced to endure experiments that rip into his very mind as the alien Krael seek to answer the question What is Human?—a question that, in their hellish situation, the human prisoners are finding hard to answer.
Steven and I have been working on this graphic novel for years (the saga of getting it into print is almost as long as the story is!), and we’re really excited that it’s finally coming out. It’s worth the wait, I promise! Stalag-X will debut during Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle at the beginning of March. Our original bonus Stalag-X novella, “Not a Prisoner” will be included in this edition.
Paying It Forward: Prepping for This Year’s Superstars Writing Seminar
In 2010, Rebecca and I got together with fellow bestselling authors Brandon Sanderson, David Farland, and Eric Flint to launch a career-oriented writing seminar. The Superstars Writing Seminars have grown each year, and hosting it is a huge job.
This year’s Superstars is Jan 31–Feb 3 in Colorado Springs, and it’s our biggest one ever. Right now, Rebecca and I are scrambling to finish our PowerPoint presentations. For weeks we’ve been working with our assistants Chris, Diane, and Marie—and lots of other volunteers—to gather and organize boxes and boxes of materials for Superstars (enough to fill the basement and several offices). Next time you see Chris, Marie, Diane, Nancy, Ike, or any of our staff, tell them how awesome they are.
People are already here for the seminar, and we can’t wait. I’ll fill you in later, but if you want to find out more, check out our Superstars website superstarswriting.com.
I’ll write you again once the Superstars whirlwind is over. Keep reading!
KJA
Hierophantic Hackett
Hwaet! The Genesis in days gone by
and the guitarist who ruled them had courage and greatness.
We have heard of that guitarist’s heroic campaigns.
A comfort sent by God to the peoples of the world.
He knew what they had tholed,
the long times and troubles they’d come through
without a leader; so the Lord of Life,
the glorious Almighty, made this Hackett renowned.
–With apologies to the Beowulf poet.
Hackett is back, and, of course, he’s greater than before. He has already conquered Grendel and Grendel’s mother. Now, he returns to fulfill the prophecy of the Hierophant.
If you’ve not guessed, my copy of Hackett’s latest live offering, WUTHERING NIGHTS: LIVE IN BIRMINGHAM, arrived in my post box today. And, oh, what a joy it is. I’ve listened through it all, and, now, I’m rather stuck on this version of “Shadow of the Hierophant.”
As I listen and watch it repeatedly, I am reminded what first brought me to prog rock, oh so many years ago. It is this, most certainly, this. The build, the lingering, the apex, the mystery, and the certainty.
I’ve always considered VOYAGE OF THE ACOLYTE the lost Genesis album of 1975, much like Squire’s FISH OUT OF WATER is the lost Yes album of the same year. “Shadow of the Hierophant” was stunning in 1975. It’s even better in 2018.
Hackett’s recent outings and return to the beloved prog of the 1970s only makes me realize how alive this music remains. Watching Hackett, King, O’Toole, Townsend, Beggs, and Lehmann perform “Shadow of the Hierophant” reminds me that even in this world of sorrows, heroes arise, called forth by the God to remind us of what beauty still remains.
New Releases: From Heavy Metal Overload
The wait is finally over! It’s the return of the weekly New Release posts. Every Friday, I’ll be taking a look at the day’s new releases and new reissues. But this will be a new remastered version of the New Release posts. In other words, totally compressed! I’m going to be thoroughly selfish and utterly […]
PROG Should Always Be About DRAMA
Following in the footsteps of the mighty Sean Tonar and magnificent James Turner, I want to continue the DRAMA.
DRAMA is one of the finest albums ever produced by Yes, and, by this claim, I certainly mean no disrespect to my heroes, Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman.
DRAMA is, however, exactly what the band needed and exactly what the prog world needed in 1980.
DRAMA fits into a very narrow category of prog rock. As such, it is, at least to my mind, one of a few exceptional New Wave Prog albums that appeared between 1980 and 1982. I would also include Rush’s MOVING PICTURES and SIGNALS; The Fixx’s REACH THE BEACH; and maybe a few others such as GHOST IN THE MACHINE by the Police.
Ave, Karisma
Norway’s Karisma Records is one of my favorite labels. For those of us who run part-time, non-professional websites dedicated to music, dealing with companies is the LEAST joyous part of it all. They remember us one day, but forget us the next. There are days in which I feel I do nothing but remind companies that we exist!
Not so with Karisma.
Not only has Karisma treated us professionally and wonderfully from its beginning, but it, more importantly, produces amazing music. Not the cookie-cutter prog, but the real stuff. Thus, ave, Karisma!
If everyone in this world acted as professionally as Karisma . . .
Farewell to Kings (and Faith): Neil Peart, 1977
In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of A FAREWELL TO KINGS.
What followed, 1977’s A Farewell to Kings, though, had far more in common with 1976’s 2112 than it would with 1980’s Permanent Waves. Not appearing on the market until September 1, 1977, A Farewell to Kings ended the new album every six months schedule Rush has followed thus far. A brilliant album in and of itself, A Farewell to Kings still belongs to Rush 2.1 as I have defined it. So does the follow-up album, Hemispheres. Certainly, Rush tried many new things—in terms of album structure, lyrical depth and story telling, and musical complexity—than it had on the first several albums. “We had written material that was a little beyond us, considering our level of musicianship at the time,” Lee later admitted.[i] But the progress is in continuity, a major reform rather than a revolution. “Our progress has always been sincere—not in an arrogant way, but for our own pleasure,” Peart stated in 1982. “We’ve always incorporated music from people we liked, so it has made us stylistically schizoid.”[ii]
While there are no side length tracks on A Farewell to Kings, the album revolves around its two major songs, “Xanadu” at 11 minutes in length and “Cygnus X-1” at almost ten and 1/2 minutes. Thematically, Peart continues to embrace both the fantastic—“Xanadu” based on the iconic romantic English poem, “Kubla Kahn,” by Samuel Coleridge—and science-fiction, “Cygnus X-1.” At the time, Peart lauded fantasy writing in lyrics. “It’s a way to put a message across without being oppressive.”[iii]
Continue reading “Farewell to Kings (and Faith): Neil Peart, 1977”
Progarchy 