LOST IN SPACE SEASON ONE (2018) (Netflix) Still Lost in Space Netflix brings back the sci-fi classic in this winning reboot by Mark Mussari “Danger, Will Robinson.” You’ll feel a certain thrill when the Robot speaks those lines in the first episode of Netflix’s new reboot of Lost in Space. It might be your childhood … Continue reading
Jimmy Webb’s New Memoir The Cake and the Rain Is a Rollicking, Musical Romp by Mark Mussari “There were two of me,” Jimmy Webb states at one point in his highly engaging new memoir The Cake and the Rain (St. Martin’s Press). Truer words could not be spoken by the composer of some of contemporary music’s … Continue reading
Marta Kristen and Mark Goddard – Fifty Years Later and Still Lost in Space by Mark Mussari Fifty years ago this year, families across the United States sat down on a Wednesday evening to watch the premiere of a new science-fiction series on CBS: Lost in Space. When it first appeared — on September 15, … Continue reading
Ronstadt Generations – Rooted In Family By Mark Mussari http://www.popentertainment.com/features_music/ronstadts.htm “Though leaves are many,” the Irish Poet William Butler Yeats once observed, “the root is one.” Sit down to talk with the members of Ronstadt Generations — Michael J. Ronstadt and his sons Michael G. and Petie — and you’ll feel the strength of their … Continue reading
Pentatonix – PTX – Pitch-Perfect in Every Way by Mark Mussari An eargasm. There’s no other way to describe the experience of hearing the five-member a cappella group Pentatonix sing live. Intricate harmonies buzz in a way not heard since the Manhattan Transfer’s heyday. The band moves deftly among dubstep, ballads, hip-hop — even a … Continue reading
Jimmy Webb Still On the Line by Mark Mussari About fifteen years ago, one chilly autumnal night, I was in a coffee house in Lahaska, Pennsylvania when a young man — no more than eighteen — suddenly sat down at an upright piano. “This is an old pop song,” he announced in an apologetic tone. … Continue reading
Patty Loveless Country Soul by Mark Mussari When Patty Loveless was a little girl, she had an ongoing argument with her father. Each week the two would settle into their living room in Pikeville, Kentucky to watch television. Her father, a coal miner and country music fan, wanted to watch the Earl Scruggs and Lester … Continue reading
Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. The Many Faces of Love by Mark Mussari For Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., the music never ends. The charismatic duo, whose instantly recognizable voices helped to make the 5th Dimension one of the pop era’s most revered vocal groups, has been married for almost 40 years. In … Continue reading
Anne Murray – The Voice, the Songs—and That Sad, Old Wintry Feeling by Mark Mussari Originally posted on February 21 , 2008. Anne Murray keeps making the same mistake. She thinks her recording career is over. She thinks the awards are long gone. She thinks the charts are out of reach. Fortunately for all of … Continue reading
The Manhattan Transfer 35 Years and Still Swinging By Mark Mussari Where in the musical landscape hasn’t the Manhattan Transfer taken us? From their inception in the mid-1970s as a cabaret act with doo-wop tendencies to their be-bop covers to their daring experiments in jazz and swing, Cheryl Bentyne, Janis Siegel, Alan Paul and founder … Continue reading
