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ABOUT RAR: For those of
you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher
of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites.
Use this link to visit the
RAR music page, which features original music
compositions and other.
ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance"-AVAILABLE
NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM
AMAZON.COM.Use
this link.
CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects
the building of America in a trilogy of novels
collectively called ATWOOD. Book One explores
the development of the American West through the
lens of public policy, land planning, municipal
development, and governance as it played out in one
of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of
the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious
and cultural traditions that imbued the American
Midwest with a special character that continues to
have a profound effect on American politics to this
day. Book One creates an understanding about
America's cultural foundations that is further
explored in books two and three that further trace
the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one
isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as
an icon in the development of a certain brand of
American character. That's the serious stuff viewed
from high altitude. The story itself gets down and
dirty with the supernatural, which inATWOOD
- A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance is the
outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the
monumental to the sublime.The
book features the epic poem"The
Toiler"as
well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard
Padilla.
Elmore Leonard
Meets Larry McMurtry
Western Crime
Novel
I am offering another
novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service.
Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its
sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado,
1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm
equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of
individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and
distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.
It is a ripping good yarn, filled
with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to
pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950,
when the story is set. Richard Padilla
has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of
a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The
whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on
Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little
of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns.
Use this link.
EXPLORE THE KINDLE
BOOK LIBRARY
If you have not explored the books
available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing
division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You
will find classic literature there, as well as tons
of privately published books of every kind. A lot of
it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published
books are awful, but some are truly classics. You
can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works
for two bucks.
Amazon is the largest,
but far from the only digital publisher. You can
find similar treasure troves at
NOOK
Press(the
Barnes & Noble site),Lulu,
and others.
MUSIC
"Windowpane"
The Cabin Fever
We have tossed earlier
light on L.A. dream rockers The Cabin
Fever. In this video, and with this song, the
shoegazers seem to be channeling the Zodiac killer, who is as
iconic to the world of psycho killers in California as the
Sierra Sasquatch has been to the Gold Country. Neither has ever
been captured. This band seems like it has an idea about what it
wants to be - sonic explorers of themes ranging from murderous
inner voices to spiritual emptiness - and they have nicely
matched their sound to their inquiries. They have a dark cool
factor. - RAR
ad here
"Weeds Like Us"
Janiva Magness
One suspects that no
impression is more immediate when it comes to invoking a
response as that first tone to emerge from a singer's throat.
The response will be personal and subjective, but you will know
immediately if you want to keep listening.
Janiva Magness pulls me in right away. She has been
around for decades, starting in Minnesota, working her way out
to L.A. in the '80s. She has
a
compelling back story, filled with tragedy and trauma, and
she has experienced some real triumphs. Only Koko Taylor and her
have been female recipients of the prestigious B.B. King
Entertainer of the Year Award, which is handed out by the Blues
Foundation. It is all detailed in a book, Weeds Like Us,
and expressed through an album she has out of John Fogerty
covers. - RAR
"What if I?"
Young Mister
Clean production, sweet
vocals, actual melody lines, accessible lyrics - what's not to
like? North Carolinian Steven Fiore
has been writing for Universal Music Publishing Group for nearly
a decade, collaborating on songs with Art Garfunkel and Ryan
Cabrera, and sharing stages internationally with Albert Lee,
Jeff Goldblum, Pete Yorn, and Lori McKenna. Fiore has done well
streaming tunes on Spotify and Apple Music and he is now out
with a new recording, Sudden Swoon. He recorded tracks in
his home studio and then shared twenty to get input on which
ones people thought were big-studio worthy. His camp describes
the songs as furthering his reputation for "literate, emotional
pop songs". - RAR
ad here
Pedal Steel
Maurice Tani & Crying Time
Bobby Black on pedal
steel. Say no more. Bobby Black is one of the world's great
pedal steel players, the top of a small group of people who have
given themselves to one of the world's more complicated
instruments. Now in his 80s, Black once backed an up-and-coming
George Jones, before Jones became as Country music legend. Black
had a whole career in Country before the '60s arrived and the
Bay Area began spawning eclectic hybrid Country-Jazz bands and
Black was introduced to a new generation of fans as a member of
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen,
New Riders of the Purple Sage, and
Asleep at the Wheel. He is presently playing with
Crying Time, a Bay Area
Country-Western outfit that does a wide variety of classic
Country, including a tribute to George Jones. These are some of
the finest veteran players in the Bay Area and way worth
catching if you are a hardcore fan of such frolic.
"Hippie Love"
Rob Laufer
Rob
Laufer is an L.A. musician who made the public radar in 1999,
when he landed the role of George Harrison in Beatlemania. He
turned that good fortune into an impressive performing,
songwriting, and recording career. His recording credits include
playing guitar on Fiona Apple's Grammy-winning single
“Criminal”, as well as work with the Pixies’ Frank Black, and
Welsh songstress Katell Keineg, among others. He has sold a raft
of material for use on TV shows (Scrubs, Felicity, Melrose
Place), movies (In the Land of Blood and Honey, Ramona and
Beezus, and Baby Mama), and ads (the award-winning HP
“Frames” commercial and a series of Sears ads with Johnny Cash,
Shawn Colvin, and B.B. King performing his songs). Laufer
appeared as a member of the Wrecking Crew in the Brian Wilson
biopic Love and Mercy. Laufer is also musical director of
the fabled Wild Honey Orchestra, which performs an ongoing
series of all-star benefit concerts for the Autism Think Tank in
Los Angeles. This video is from his recently released The
Floating World LP, in which Laufer chronicles growing up in the
Decade of Love. He was inspired to do this album by the death of
Tom Petty, who he sounds a lot like on this recording.
The CCJ at RARWRITER provides a steady stream of news
feeds from a variety of sources. Use this link to visit the
Music News page.
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