Donny Hathaway is THE voice. Yeah, there is Otis, Aretha, Ella, Stevie, all fantastic singers, but for me the voice of soul is embodied in Donny Hathaway. Donny sang humanity's blues, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye followed in his footsteps, Marvin tragically too closely. Never heard of him? Neither had I until Georgia Louis (my good friend and mentor) told me about him. Georgia, somewhere nebulously in her 70s now (maybe) told me about being a young girl and going to every concert she could of his, listening to him, crushed by the sheer beauty of his voice. Likewise Delores Scott (whom some of you know as a Coloradoan who lives in Chicago) says this about Donny:

"My friendship with Donny came from him coming to our church and asking if he could keep his "big apple cap on" my Godfather Reverend Clay Evans said that if he would come to church, why should they make him take off his cap. My friends and I would follow Donny everywhere he performed. When he recorded The Ghetto, we were hanging out in the studio (like we so often did) and he asked us to sing on the bridge. There is also a piece in the song that his baby Lala started crying and he left it in, I guess he was the first to do digital recordings. Donny was one of the most loving people you could ever meet, little did any of us know of the hurt that he was holding inside."

Delores says that to this day she still has a hard time listening to him, so painful was the loss of him to this world. Recently Delores suggested that I read Quincy Jones' autobiography "Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones", I recommend reading this book more than almost any other music biography I have ever read, his tales are truly spectacular, he IS American music. Anyway, while reading the book I came upon this quote about Donny written by Quincy:

"Donny got it quick; he was truly a genius. But he couldn't understand why Stevie Wonder, whom I'd known and admired since he was 12, was more popular than him. He said, 'I've done everything right. I know how to touch people. What do I have to do to get people to love me like they love Stevie?' He used to travel with $200,000 to $300,000 in cash, and he felt safe enough to call me from almost every city in America, day or night. The last time was from his grandmother's in St. Louis. Months after he made the record, on a Sunday, Donny took off all his clothes and managed to unscrew two-inch-thick floor to ceiling glass windows at the Park Lane Hotel in New York, then leap out and land on an awning twenty-three stories down. These calls were desperate pleas for help. This memory pains me deeply; it is only one of many."

It pains us all. His tragic death was the result of manic depression and paranoid schizophrenia. We should not have suffered the loss of this great singer, but he left us the greatest gift he could, his music. Donny's first major song release, that you can hear Delores singing on, "The Ghetto" is an iconic song released in 1969. He is actually most famous for his duet with Roberta Flack on, "Where is the Love", but for me it all starts with his cover of Leon Russell's brilliantly written, "A Song for You". This was Donny's forte, he could take a song, no matter how cheesy, or wonderful in this case, and bring out the soul and depth of it. For example, "Sack Full of Dreams" by any artist would sound cheesy. When Donny sings, "...can they learn to understand, the world of love that I'm dreaming, the world of love, and I, I said I, I got a sack full of dreams, streets filled with laughter and toy balloons and people with hearts that care, who listen for love...", you believe that it is indeed what this man dreams of, from his soul on down, you can hear it.

Which leads me to my favorite album of his, there is a lot of good stuff out there by Donny, I always liked, "The Best of Donny Hathaway". It has "A Song for You" and another of his greatest songs,"Giving Up" on it, as well as classics like, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "I Believe in Music". You know these songs, but after hearing Donny sing them, they will never sound the same to you again, unless he's singing them. The album that has had regular rotation in my CD player for many years now however is, "These Songs for You Live". There are two live albums that are worth mentioning. This one and "Donny Hathaway: LIVE", which features the outstanding bass player, Willie Weeks. I prefer "These Songs for You Live" over the Willie Weeks album, because of this one song, "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know." The song has made me cry so many times I've lost count, If you listen to nothing else listen to his version of this song.

Donny Hathaway's Website

10 of My Favorite Tracks by Donny:

1. I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know - These Songs for You Live
2. What's Goin On - Donny Hathaway Live
3. A Song for You - The Best of Donny Hathaway
4. The Ghetto - Everything is Everything
5. Giving Up - The Best of Donny Hathaway
6. Jealous Guy - These Songs for You Live
7. Sack Full of Dreams - These Songs for You Live
8. Put Your Hand in the Hand - The Best of Donny Hathaway
9. What a Woman Really Means - Atlantic Unearthed : Soul Brothers
10. I Believe In Music - The Best of Donny Hathaway

So maybe I got ahead of myself a little. How could I start a "Favorites" list and not put my favorite up first. Now, I know that everybody knows about and loves Jimi Hendrix, he is an icon of American music. This little blurb's intention is about my relationship with Hendrix and what his life has taught me about music and about life.

My personal journey with Jimi started a long time ago. I grew up in a household with a father that played clarinet, saxophone, guitar and banjo and had his own band, "Throop's Troopers" in college. I listened to almost entirely jazz growing up. I heard all the Coltrane, Miles and Herb Alpert a child could take. Around the age of 15 a friend of my father's introduced me to the blues. He was a musician as well and felt that I needed to start with the blues and work through from there (he heard talent in my voice and was determined I would be a musician). I loved Muddy and Howlin' as I still do to this day, they made a huge impression on me. But I can still remember the day, a few weeks into my education when he turned on Jimi Hendrix's "Axis: Bold as Love". For me time stopped. I remember telling him to be quiet (something I never would have done back then). I listened to the whole album 3 times before I would let him speak again. I have probably listened to that album somewhere near 100,000 times, it's part of the soundtrack of my life.

Jimi Hendrix for a long time was nothing more than a struggling blues musician. In fact he struggled so much he had to leave the country to make it. How could no one in the U.S. hear how phenomenal and exceptional his playing was? It says a lot about the "crowd mentality" and people needing to be told that someone is good before they can hear it for themselves. Until Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend said that he was a guitar god... nobody heard it. This is a quote from "Jimi Hendrix: Setting the Record Straight" co-written by Eddie Kramer, his sound engineer.

"When we got there Ginger Baker was a bit uptight, but he was an old pal of mine, we had known each other at that stage for ten or eleven years, and backstage he said that Hendrix could jam with them if Clapton stayed on stage. He wanted this because if Eric stayed on stage and then it all went wrong, he could pull it out." Baker's conditions were respected. Regent Polytech was an important gig for the "cream" of Britain's white R&B enthusiasts. Partway through the set, Jimi went on, opening with "Killing Floor", his frenzied arrangement of Howlin' Wolf's recent Chess single. "Clapton stood there and his hands dropped off of the guitar," recalls Chandler. "He lurched off the stage. I thought, 'Oh God, it's happening now.' I went backstage and he was trying to get a match to a cigarette. I said, 'Are you all right?' and he replied, 'Is he that fu**ing good?' He had heard ten bars at the most. Within a week, he had his hair frizzed and would come by our flat anytime that he had a spare moment, to be with Hendrix."

Jimi backed up Little Richard, but drew too much attention away from the star and got fired. He lived in total poverty in New York City trying to make it in music... something I tried as well... But why was Jimi so exceptional? Why do we still talk about him today as unparalled? Because Jimi Hendrix worked his a** off. Jimi played the guitar almost continually and loved music like it was the sweetness in the air that he breathed.

One of my favorite releases ever about Jimi Hendrix is "Interviews". In this documentary the filmaker interviews friends and family of Jimi's and asks them questions about him just following his death. One of the lasting quotes from the movie, said by Little Richard is; "Jimi Hendrix would give it all to you, and that's what you want... you want it all or none". That quote goes through my head every time I step on stage. I believe I have also read every book ever written about Jimi, my favorite was written by his closest girlfriend that he wrote "The Wind Cries Mary", "Foxy Lady" and others songs about, Kathy Etchingham. The book is called, "Through Gypsy Eyes", she was reluctant to write it, but it gave me an insight into him that I hadn't gotten from the other biographies about him.

So what did Jimi teach me about music and life:

1. Give it all or none
2. You have to work at it, no matter how much talent you have it means nothing unless you put time into your art
3. Don't be afraid to be a FREAK!
4. Have faith, no matter how dark it gets the music will always carry you through
5. Believe in miracles, you never know when a Chas Chandler might come along and recognize your particular talent and also have a gift to help other people see it
6. Competition in music is healthy and necessary, long for people that are better for you, but don't let them stay that way for too long (reference is; Jimi before performing at Monterey finding out that he was going on after The Who and saying, "If I'm going on after you I am pulling ALL the stops out!"... and he did... made music history in fact)
7. Keep your sense of humor... always keep your sense of humor because people around music are CRRRRRAZY!

Jimi Hendrix's "official" website

So my 10 most favorite tracks of Jimi's are:

1. May This Be Love (Are You Experienced?)
2. Little Wing (Axis: Bold as Love) (South Saturn Delta)
3. Castles Made of Sand (Axis: Bold as Love)
4. If 6 Was 9 (Axis: Bold as Love)
5. Bold as Love (Axis: Bold as Love)
6. Voodoo Chile (Electric Ladyland)
7. Crosstown Traffic (Electric Ladyland)
8. Rainy Day Dream Away (Electric Ladyland)
9. Changes (Band of Gypsies) (Hendrix: The Baggy's Rehearsel Sessions)
10. Message of Love (Band of Gypsies) (Crash Landing) (Hendrix: The Baggy's Rehearsel Sessions)

Rarer tracks that I love as well:

1. Astro Man (The Cry of Love) (First Rays of the New Rising Sun)
2. Angel (The Cry of Love) (First Rays of the New Rising Sun) (Voodoo Soup)
3. My Friend (The Cry of Love)
4. Belly Button Window (The Cry of Love) (First Rays of the New Rising Sun) (Voodoo Soup)
5. Born Under a Bad Sign (Blues)
6. Mannish Boy (Blues)
7. Power of Soul (Hendrix: The Baggy's Rehearsel Sessions) (South Saturn Delta)

Beth Hart is unparalleled in her singing abilities. Without a doubt I have never heard a singer that gave me chills as often as Beth does. She can hit notes with vibrato and power that I wouldn't dream of approaching. As Jill Watkins said when listening to her, "you know she means it too!". Her story is an amazing one, and can be found here.

One of the primary reasons I picked Beth however is that almost no one in the U.S. knows about her. She's had only one major hit in the U.S., "L.A. Song" which many artists have covered. She's an all American girl, but most of her touring is done in Holland, Norway and Denmark. Thanks to a fan in Mead who told me I sounded like her (I WISH I was that good!) I discovered Beth. I want to see if we can get her to Colorado some time, but she needs more fans her, which shouldn't be hard to do once you listen to her!

I often hear that I sound like Janis Joplin and when people tell me this I am fond of telling them to listen to Beth Hart if they want to hear the next generation of Janis Joplin. My favorite album of hers for a long time was "Leave the Light On"... until I heard her "Live at the Paradiso" album. I highly recommend getting the DVD so that you have the visuals to go with it, but at least get this album. It's one of the best live albums I've ever heard. Her style is much more rock heavy in places, but her blues and her ballads (she plays the piano as well) are unbelievably moving.

My favorites on the album are, "Guilty", "Am I the One", "Mama" and "Leave the Light On".