Erica Dunton on the set of her movie The 27 Club

Here’s a recent a 27 Club coincidence brought to our attention by NY Daily’s Joe Neumaier who as a movie critic notes that the “27 Club Goes From Reel to Real.”

“It doesn’t have the same scope, but next Friday, the indie comedy-drama “The Perfect Age of Rock ‘n’ Roll” will open in a few theaters in New York and L.A. The movie stars Kevin Zegers as a once-hot rocker recovering from a setback who goes back to his hometown to escape sleazy managers and record execs, assess life, get drugs out of his system and set off on a road trip with the former bandmate Jason Ritter he treated badly.
The movie’s title, and a theme in the movie, is how rock stars famously die at 27, from the Rolling Stones’ Brian Jones to Hendrix to Joplin to Morrison. And, one week ago, sadly, Amy Winehouse joined the “27 Club.”

For the record, we’d like to remind both the flick’s producers and Joe Neumaier that our friend Erica Dunton’s movie The 27 Club (starring Joe Anderson) hit the indie circuit four years ago to much acclaim. You should check it out and let us know what you think.

Being a true artist is far from easy. The stretch limo quickly becomes a fishbowl. The press. The pressures. Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll, right? “Time to go on stage.” You’re sitting in the green room backstage in some city. Thousands of fans waiting in front of the stage. You might’ve had too much of something. You go out there because you have to. It’s your job. Perform. “My fans are there to see me. I love them. Where’s the stage?” You go out there and sing. You stumble up to the microphone. Your mind is mushy; it’s like a dream. You know the song, but somehow it’s lost in translation. Your fans boo. You try another verse and they keep on booing.

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At 3:54pm, singer and songwriter Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment at age 27. We are currently getting as much of the details together from leading media resources. We’ll keep you updated as we learn more…

Today marks the 40ieth anniversary of bluesman Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson’s suicide in Topanga Canyon, California, on Bob Hite’s property. Blind Owl is an oft-forgotten member of the fabled 27 Club and his death marked the first of three 27s over the course of the fall of 1970; Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix were to follow.

Alan Wilson grew up in a Boston suburb and studied music at Boston University. From an early age he was, using a contemporary label, an ardent conservationist and environmentalist. Out of all the musicians who played Monterey in ’67 or Woodstock in ’69, Wilson truly held nature sacred, both in actions and in words. Canned Heat’s Future Blues record included a short plead in the gate-fold where Alan Wilson urged people to save his beloved California Redwoods from extinction. At the time, logging posed a huge threat to the last swaths of these primeval, majestic forests.

Instead of sleeping in hotels while on tour, Blind Owl preferred to roll out his sleeping bag in nearby fields and spend the early morning hours collecting samples that he’d stuff in a huge botany book that he liked to travel with.

When it came to playing music, Blind Owl’s chops on the harmonica and guitar, be it acoustic, electric or slide, was in a sense unrivaled. He possessed an in-depth knowledge of all forms of the blues and a true blues scholar. During the Hooker N Heat sessions, which took place shortly before his death, he proved seasoned enough to follow John Lee Hooker’s odd beats every step of the way. You can hear Hooker mutter in amazement that the pale, bespectacled kid always seemed to know where the old master was going. “You musta been listenin’ to my records all your life!” Hooker says. But Hooker was just one of many masters whose style Alan Wilson knew intimately. Six years earlier, in 1964, Wilson taught Son House, who had long retired from music, to play the songs House had recorded back in the 1930s.

While Alan Wilson’s chops were top-notch, he suffered with severe and chronic mental illness. His bandmates in Canned Heat provided support, but probably not the kind of stability someone like Wilson needed. He had already attempted suicide a couple of times before he did himself in with a handful of reds and a bottle of gin.

During the research for The 27s–The Greatest Myth of Rock & Roll, manager and friend Skip Taylor told us that when he discovered Alan’s body, the musician finally looked peaceful and happy.

Wilson’s songs and music live on through “On the Road Again” and “Up In the Country,” but his talent covers obviously much more than the famous hits. Seek out his work with John Fahey, the aforementioned Son House and John Lee Hooker, as well as “Five Owls” and “Raga Kafi” from Living the Blues‘s trippy “Parthenogenesis.” Yup, that’s Wilson on the hypnotic sitar.

Skip Taylor is currently shopping around a “solo” record that features released and unreleased Alan Wilson material with and without Canned Heat. We’re not holding our breath for this one, but hope it’ll be released sometime in the not-so-distant future.

Be sure to listen to the Stephen Stills clip below where he dedicates “Blues Man” to our tragic guitar hero.

Lady Gaga’s recent accomplishments include having more “fans” on Facebook than any other living human. She crushed the 10,000,000 mark earlier this year, surpassing President Barack Obama. Not bad for a 24-year-old diva. Although far less exclusive, but obviously impressive, she can add the cover and interview with the venerable Vanity Fair magazine.

It’s not surprising that the majority of blogs and mainstream media focuses on re-reporting that she admits to using cocaine “occasionally.” By her own account, prior to her fame, Lady Gaga was an addicted mess that did “bags and bags of cocaine” until her father confronted her.

On a more interesting note, the Vanity Fair interview reveals that Lady Gaga admits to being “perpetually lonely” despite her global success. “I’m lonely when I’m in relationships,” she says. “It’s my condition as an artist.” That statement might be the truest one in there. Most of The 27s suffered creative burns that manifested themselves in loneliness and/or bad relationships.

Lady Gaga’s conversation with Vanity Fair continued. “I’m drawn to bad romances. And my song [Bad Romance] is about whether I go after those [sorts of relationships] or if they find me.

“I have this weird thing that if I sleep with someone they’re going to take my creativity from me.” Consequently, she says, “I’m quite celibate now; I don’t really get time to meet anyone.”

The read the whole thing, be sure to stop by a newsstand.

She was instrumental in crafting Hole’s best-selling album, “Live Through This”, Spin’s #1 album of 1994, and a founding member of Minneapolis’ Janitor Joe.

To celebrate the life and music of Kristen Pfaff we’d encourage you to punch the volume, get out of your seat, and watch Janitor Joe drop the heat on Athen’s 40 Watt Club. Thanks for the music, Kristen.
Cheers~

“You can run, you can run, tell my friend boy Willie Brown”
With those words, rock’s grandfather and 27s archetype Robert Johnson immortalized bluesman Willie Brown in his prophetic “Cross Road Blues.” Cream (Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce), of course, brought the song into the rock canon with their version of the song.

While Willie Brown’s name is immortalized, his earthly remains rest in an unmarked grave in Tunica County, Mississippi. A group of blue fans, scholars, and musicians are in the process of raising $2,100 to get him a proper headstone at the Good Shepherd Church in Tunica. The Willie Brown Blues Benefit takes place September 26, 2010, in Tampa, Florida, and donations are collected there and through Paypal. Reminds us of Janis Joplin and the effort she was a part of with Juanita Green, which resulted in a permanent resting place for blues great Bessie Smith.

We commend Jason Rewald and the other fine folks at tdblues.com for this great cause and for their fantastic research, digging up census records, death certificates, and writing about Robert Johnson’s guitars, tunings, and much more. Keep it up!

National Public Radio dubbed Janis Joplin “the Queen of Rock” on a segment that aired this morning. Instead of the typical “best of” (read: “most famous”) track selections, the producers included a live version of “Women Is Losers” from a 1966 performance at San Francisco’s Avalon Ballroom. “Ball and Chain” from Monterey Pop followed and it was rounded out by the famous “Me and Bobby McGee.” They did not credit Kris Kristofferson with the song, which is too bad, as many people erroneously believe was written by the Queen of Rock. For more Janis Joplin on NPR, be sure to listen to the interview about The 27s from 2009.

There is little doubt that Janis Joplin’s iconic voice and wild lifestyle in the midst of the counter cultural sixties opened up the playing field to female rock stars, but although there have been countless famous singer-songwriters in the Joni Mitchell-vein and divas such as Madonna, not nearly enough larger-than-life Queen-bee rock personalities have emerged. Courtney Love and Amy Winehouse stand out like an open bottle of Jack at Sunday mass of course. Who else?

While shooting the video for his first single, titled “Yung Hott Killin ‘Em,” Griffin, Georgia, rapper Yung Hott (his real name was Jerode Paige) was shot and killed. He was 27 years old and is thus the latest member of the fabled 27 Club.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution reports this morning that the police has arrested four men suspected of the murder. The AJC writes, “Bahir Howard, 22, Corderra Walker, 21, Terry James Fuller, 31, and Terrance Jones, 23 — are being held without bond in the Spalding County Jail on charges of murder, aggravated battery, child cruelty and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime.”

A little girl playing nearby with her toy car was shot in the foot and injured during the shooting, which took place around 6pm Saturday night. According to reports, 150 people were present during the shooting either working on the video shoot or there to see it take place. Several witnesses got a good look at the assassins. “I saw them,” witness Virginia Berry told Channel 2‘s Tony Thomas. “They just shot him like this; pump, pump, shoot, pump, shoot, pump.” At least twenty rounds were fired, according to the police.

Eerily, the cover of Yung Hott’s single looked like the crime scene, complete with a Griffin police cruiser, cordons, and a body. At this point the motive for the killing is not known.

Yung Hott has a previous record of drug-related offenses, but was in the process of refashioning his life as a full-time rapper. His single was receiving some airplay in the Atlanta rap scene at the time of his murder.

You can watch Channel 2′s coverage of the incident here.

Check back for more about this later.

The British Royal Mail just unveiled a series of ten classic record covers made into stamps. The selection was based on the artwork, not the music, and includes the last record Brian Jones played on with the Rolling Stones, 1969′s Let It Bleed. The cover features the tone arm of a phonograph and a cake baked by the now-famous British cookbook author and TV-host Delia Smith. Brian Jones is credited with playing autoharp on “You Got the Silver” (which also features Keith Richards’ solo vocal debut), and (hardly audible) percussion on “Midnight Rambler.”

Here’s the complete list:
Rolling Stones/Let It Bleed (1969)
Led Zeppelin/’IV’ (1971)
David Bowie/The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (1972)
Mike Oldfield/Tubular Bells (1973)
The Clash/London Calling (1979)
New Order/Power, Corruption and Lies (1983)
Primal Scream/Screamadelica (1991)
Pink Floyd/The Division Bell (1994)
Blur/Parklife (1994)
Coldplay/A Rush of Blood to the Head (2002)

Now, will the USPS please get on the bandwagon and release stamps along the same lines?