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Last Updated May 13th, 2008


MUSIC SUPERSTARS COME TOGETHER FOR RAINFOREST BENEFIT.

Over the last 15 years, Sting and his wife Trudie Styler have hosted a bi-annual charity concert at New York's Carnegie Hall to celebrate the Rainforest Foundation Fund, which the two founded in 1989 to preserve rainforests and its inhabitants around the world. Last night's show featured many familiar faces, including James Taylor and Billy Joel, who've performed at the concert many times. But this year's spectacular gala also featured some welcome surprise guests, including Joel's daughter (Alexa Ray), Taylor's kids (Ben and Sally), Sting's daughter (Coco Sumner), Clarence Clemons, singer-songwriter Feist and Brian Wilson.

The first portion of the evening was surprisingly relaxed given the elegant environment of Carnegie Hall. Sting, Taylor, Joel and all their children — including a barefoot Ben Taylor — joined together for a faithful cover of the Byrds' "Turn! Turn! Turn!" The evening featured many casual family duets: Joel and Alexa turned out a cabaret-influenced version of "Baby Grand" while the Taylors teamed up for the meditative ballad "You Can Close Your Eyes." Coco Sumner, however, showed off her immense, smoky voice with a sultry performance of her own tune called "Bohemian Love." Other highlights of the first set included Feist — backed by a 34-piece orchestra — nailing a perfect version of her hit song "1234" as well as a set-closing Mardi Gras-style performance of 'When the Saints Go Marching In," which concluded with all the participants parading through the aisles.

Things heated up for the second portion of the concert. While the crew set up the stage for Brian Wilson, Sting and Dustin Hoffman filled in by performing a Hoffman-penned ballad called "Shoot the Breeze." The show really took off for the Beach Boys mastermind's excellent performance: Wilson — dressed casually in a cool blue-and-white-striped rugby shirt and jeans — performed serotonin-inducing classics like "God Only Knows," "Help Me Rhonda" and "Do You Wanna Dance," which featured some crazy psychedelic light shows. "Good Vibrations," which featured the entire night's all-star lineup, capped the set.

So what did the performers think of the event? "It was very emotional," Sting told Rolling Stone after the show. "Coco was amazing. Alexa and the Taylors were fantastic. It's evolution at work. And they're better than we are."


BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN AND THE E. STREET BAND PERFORM FULL LP'S AT COUNT BASIE THEATER.

It's unclear exactly what motivated Bruce Springsteen to perform his Darkness on the Edge of Town and Born to Run albums in sequence last night at New Jersey's Count Basie Theater. Maybe it was the fact that fans bid a minimum of $1,000 for tickets (the proceeds of which went towards refurbishing the theater) and he wanted to give them something special. Maybe it was because the last time he played a theater with the E Street Band in 1980 these songs were all relatively new. Maybe the recent death of founding E Street Band organist Danny Federici has made him reflect on the group's early days. Maybe after a strenuous eight-month arena tour he was ready for something different. Regardless, the nearly three-hour marathon concert — entirely composed of songs from the 1970s — was the most powerful Springsteen show I've ever seen.

With the exception of the Darkness track "Factory," all the songs on those two seminal albums are in regular rotation on his set list — but you'd have to attend about 15 concerts to hear all of them. The two albums have been at the core of nearly every E Street Band concert ever since they were released, particularly since the group reformed nine years ago. Hearing them in sequence for the first time ever on a stage made them even more moving. The despair of "Racing in the Street" was perfectly followed by the hope of "The Promised Land." Born to Run was even more carefully sequenced at the time to give the feel of twenty-four hours in a swampy Jersey day. The title track always feels victorious when played at the end of a long arena show, with the house lights on and fans holding their beers high. When played in a small, dark theater right after "Backstreets," the desperation and restlessness seeped through every word.

Patti Scialfa — who helped organize the fundraiser — gave a speech before the show about the importance of saving historic theaters. NBC newscaster (and Jersey boy) Brian Williams introduced the band with tales of hanging out at the Stone Pony as a teenager hoping Bruce would show up. New Jersey Governor John Corzine sat in the front row, where he endured some jeers from fans about state taxes. Considering the ticket price, the crowd was obviously more upscale than a typical arena show. Surprisingly, they stood most of the night and seemed nearly as into it as your typical crowd at Giants Stadium. The event raised over $3 million to restore the delipidated Count Basie theater to its original 1920s glory. Proving nothing will please everyone, some schmuck still screamed "Rosalita!" throughout the night.

The four-piece Max Weinberg 7 horn section joined the already bulging nine-piece E Street Band on a handful of songs, leaving nearly every inch of the stage packed. Their presence made "10th Avenue Freeze-Out" one of the night's highlights — and Mark Pender did an excellent job re-creating Randy Brecker's trumpet intro to "Meeting Across the River." Even with the help of an occasional horn section, Clarence Clemons was forced to work harder than he has in years and clearly deserves the MVP award for the evening. Since the 1970s, Springsteen's music has utilized the saxophone less and less, which has let the 66-year-old Clemons take a rest on his Big Man throne during large portions of the show on this tour. Last night he had few opportunities to rest, particularly during the Born to Run section of the show — which all built towards his epic "Jungeland" solo. He passed the test with flying colors and seemed to be having a blast all night.

As Bruce let out the final moans of "Jungleland," the audience didn't know what song was coming next for the first time of the night. Keeping with the 1970s theme, the group played a rollicking version of the Born To Run outtake "So Young and in Love" before launching into a ten-plus minute "Kitty's Back" featuring solos from nearly everyone on the stage. "Who's she with?" Bruce screamed at the end before diving right into "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)." A cover of "Raise Your Hand" — a Bruce live favorite from the Seventies — closed out the night. For the first time in memory there were no encore, but nobody seemed to mind.

HEART MAKES READY FOR BUSY SUMMER WITH ALBUM RE-RELEASES; THREE MONTH TOUR

The next two months will have a whole lot of Heart — the superstar rock band, that is — with three releases of classic and recent music coinciding with the group's three-month, 40-plus date nationwide summer tour. On May 13, Epic/Legacy will release a Heart twofer set that combines their landmark, multimillion selling albums Little Queen (1977) and Dog & Butterfly (1979) into one eco-friendly package as part of the debut of the X2 series. The X2 set boasts five bonus tracks, including a live recording of Heart performing Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven." And the liner notes by critic Michael Hill for the Heart Playlist collection make the case that "You could call Heart the first great indie-rock band" — they debuted with Dreamboat Annie on a Canadian independent label — and observe how "The Wilson sisters flipped the script on male-dominated rock, fronting a group of guys while never acceding to the role of rock-chick window dressing. Their up-tempo numbers were loud, fast, and economically arranged, focusing on Ann's amazing pipes and some killer guitar licks, but they also displayed a gentler, more hippie-like side that was equally appealing."

Epic/Legacy will also release a Heart title as part of its Playlist series that gathers 14 of the group's best songs — all re-mastered and mp3 ready — into an also eco-friendly digi-pak set that includes computer accessible pdf files containing liner notes essays, discographical information, photography, bonus features, and more.

The two packages also coincide with the recently announced June 3 re-release of Jupiter's Darling, Heart's most recent studio recording from 2004 that was hailed as "probably their best album to date" from the influential and beloved band and "the only album you need to buy this year" by England's Rave magazine. All Music Guide praised it as "easily the band's finest moment in over 20 years [that] proves in spades that Heart is a vital and creative rock'n'roll unit and a force to be reckoned with."

Heart's 32 years of ongoing and consistently high-quality rocking has had a cumulative effect that finds the band's appeal resurging as they make 2008 a particularly active year. The recent appearance by Ann & Nancy Wilson on the Idol Gives Back TV charity special performing "Barracuda" with Fergie powered a sales surge on iTunes for the original track as well as the clip of the song from the show. And since the announcement of the group's summer tour with Journey and Cheap Trick, membership in the Heart fan club ("Heartmongers") has doubled. On the tour fans will be able to enjoy performances from the extensive catalog of hits as well as songs from Ann Wilson's recent Zoe/Rounder Records solo album Hope & Glory.

The group's many 2008 activities and resurgent popularity suggest that even after 30 million albums sold to date, a groundbreaking legacy and a stature to rival rock's biggest stars, Heart's fourth decade of rocking will be as notable as those that came before.


DAVID GILMOUR TO RELEASE LIVE ALBUM FROM POLAND THIS FALL

David Gilmour has announced the release of Live In Gdañsk in September, 2008 on Columbia Records. The album was recorded during the last concert of Gilmour's 2006 summer tour, which was held in front of 50,000 people at the shipyards in Gdañsk, Poland.

The concert was the only occasion on which Gilmour performed the tour material with an orchestra, using the 40-strong string section of the Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Zbigniew Preisner, who was responsible for On An Island album's orchestral arrangements.

Other unique features of the show included the special 6-screen design, created by lightmeister Marc Brickman to allow each band member his own dedicated screen for the edification of the audience; the performance of "A Great Day For Freedom" with the orchestral arrangement of the late Michael Kamen, and a guest appearance by prominent Polish pianist Leszek Mozdzer, who reprised his piano part from On An Island's "A Pocketful Of Stones".

David Gilmour's most recent offering, On An Island, was multi-platinum around the world, hitting number 1 in Europe, number 1 in the UK and number 6 in the U.S. Best known as guitarist, vocalist and writer with Pink Floyd, Gilmour is also renowned for his solo work and collaborations with other artists including Kate Bush, Paul McCartney and Pete Townshend.


There's always news happening all over the music world, and if you see or hear news that's worthy of The River Crew to know, email Big Ry and he'll get to work letting the masses know what's going on and getting the stories straight for all the River fans.