Wow.

The AP reports:

LeRoi Moore one of the founding members of the Dave Matthews Band has died from complications from injuries suffered from an all-terrain accident he had in June.
He was 46.

The DMB who have had Jeff Coffin of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones filling Moore's spot during their 2008 tour have as of yet not cancelled or rescheduled any dates, but honestly if you're going to see them in the next couple days it's likely going to be just a little less groovy then usual.

Back in the early 90's when Matthews was a bartender in Charlottesville, Va., it was Moore to whom he gave his demo tape and it was Moore who enlisted his buddies and fellow classically trained jazz lover Carter Beauford to play drums.

R.I.P.

Apparently still smarting from the fallout of a less than two second flash of a nipple (and Kid Rock sweating all over the American Flag, and P-Diddy adjusting his junk) The Super Bowl half time show will continue to enlist classic rock/pop stars with less interesting nipples and presumable pre-show adjusted junk.

Super Bowl XLII will feature Bruce Springsteen, whom SB officials said they've been wooing for years, who will perform on Feb. 1 at Phoenix Stadium in Glendale when the Cleveland Browns face off against The Oakland Raiders.

….(hey, A fan can dream, can't he?)

Anyone want to take odds on the Boss' 3-5 song set list?

Born To Run?
Dancing In the Dark?
The Rising?
Kitty's Back?
Jungleland?
Girls in Their Summer Clothes?

Yikes it's been a rough weekend.

First comedian Bernie Mac dies on Friday and now soul legend and 2002 Rock Hall inductee Isaac Hayes.

For many folks under 30 Hayes was known for two things, asking folks "who is the man who would risk his life for his brother man" in his academy award winning theme from Shaft and his stint as Chef on South Park.

If you're a bit older you may recall that he was once "DUKE OF NEW YORK..A number 1!" in the 80's Kurt Russell vehicle Escape from New York.

Go back to the previous decade and you may recall him starring in the blaxploitation flicks Truck Turner and Tough Guys (and their funky soundtracks), of his recurring role as Gandolph Fitch on the (still underrated) cop show The Rockford Files.

Or perhaps you recall his show stopping performance in the 1973 Watts Stax documentary which every fan of soul/R&B music and/or truly impressive afros should see.

Then of course there was his fruitful association with Stax Records and former production/songwriting partner David Porter which produced many of that legendary labels classic tunes such as Hold On I'm Comin You Don't Know Like I Know, When Something Is Wrong with My Baby, Ain't That Lovin' You (For More Reasons Than One) and Soul Man.

But although Hayes was a fine songwriter in his own right who favored big horn charts and orchestral accoutrements in his own tunes, he also covered other artists/songwriters songs like no one else.

Hayes was a fan of Burt Bacharach's music and like many artists in the 1970s he covered Bacharach's music quite a bit, there was no mistaking that for those few (or several) minutes that song, be it the funkiest version of Walk On By, ever recorded or the sexy groove and punchy horns underneath The Look of Love was for those 11 minutes or so, belonged to Hayes.

Likewise his 18 minute plus jam on Jimmy Webb By The Time I Get To Phoenix with one of his signature Ike's Raps as it's intro. It's the kind of extended jam that coupled with Hayes soothing baritone that you put on the record player (ha, ha), sit back and simply let yourself sink into the steady groove while Ike takes his time to explain the vagaries of love.

If it takes the death of an artist to get you interested in their music than here's a list of Hayes albums into which you can sink.

Hot Buttered Soul (1969) - Features both Walk On By and By The Time I Get To Phoenix plus the heavily sampled, slow burning funk jam Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic

…To Be Continued (1970) - Contains the first of Hayes monologues aka Ike's Rap along with the long full version of Walk On By and the soulful and much sampled take on Medley:Ike's Mood I/You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.

Black Moses (1971) - Contains his boudoir warming cover of Never Can Say Goodbye and nice version of Curtis Mayfield's Man's Temptation and Gamble and Huff's Never Gonna Give You Up all funked up.

Shaft (1971) - Duh, it's got Shaft plus Do Your Thing another extended funk jam awash in wah-wah guitar craziness.

Joy (1973) - The main reason to buy this album…CD…digital download is for the 15 minute title track, a big, over the top jam that has also been pretty popular with hip hop producers.

Branded (1995) the first and better half of two simultaneously released comeback albums (the other was the mostly instrumental Raw and Refined) that found Hayes hooking up with old buddy David Porter and a few of the session guys from the Stax days for a surprisingly satisfying, slightly updated take on his classic sound.

At Watt Stax (2003) - This is Hayes' set from the Watt Stax concert at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972 and he's in full control of all of his powers and the crowd. Backed by an hard grooving band, Hayes lays down some of his raps, gives you a Shaft the socially conscious Soulsville and a smoking medley of Bill Withers Ain't No Sunshine (with Hayes on alto sax) and Lonely Avenue.

R.I.P. Black Moses…

When Rod Stewart released It Had To Be You: The Great American Songbook, few folks, including Stewart, expected it to blossom into a multiplatinum juggernaut.
But after shifting 3 million units of the first volume Stewart's pet project became a phenomenon a there are scores of similar themed albums by better singers with better arrangements, but none of those folks were ever called "Rod The Mod."
Stewart rightfully, milked it for all it was worth , releasing three more volumes each of which sold at least a million copies, took a big band on tour and split his his set between the familiar "greatest hits" and a much less satisfying set of standards.
Mercifully, for the near full house at Blossom Saturday night, Stewart has apparently satiated his jones for standards and has returned to familiar musical territory. Ostensibly touring behind 2006's Still the Same… Great Rock Classics of our Time, yet another covers album Stewart's two hour set was pleasant trip through the 63 year old rocker's 40 years in rock and pop with Stewart playing the congenial host.
Following a humorously outdated CGI intro which referred to Stewart as "a rockbot from the future" called "The Rodminator" shown on the huge video screen behind the band, Stewart, dressed in a silver lame jacket and black pants opened with his 80's hit Some Guys Have All The Luck.
Stewart looked svelte and his signature rasp was in fine shape as he fronted an equally nattily attired septet which included a percussionist fiddle/mandolin player, a pedal steel player, a saxophonist and three backup singers dubbed "the laptops."
Stewart was fairly spry wiggling his hips and playfully mocking the laptops moves as he took the crowd through a relaxed trip through his back catalog with a few ballads such as The First Cut Is The Deepest and Van Morrison's Have I Told You Lately and a heartwarming and heartfelt take on Cat Stevens' Father & Son that included a montage of several generations of Stewart men eliciting seferal waves of "awwwws´´ from the audience.
Stewart also rocked (and discoed) out a bit with solid version of 70's classic Hot Legs and got the rain soaked fans on the lawn dancing with Do Ya Think I'm Sexy and Stay With Me, the sole Faces tune of the evening.
There weren't many surprises (yes, Stewart kicked soccer balls into the audience), though few fans were likely expecting a drum duet in the middle of Downtown Train. With four decades of hits there were the expected questionable omissions (no Every Picture Tells A Story? no (Find A) Reason To Believe, but Stewart touched on all his eras (save the Jeff Beck Group) and sent fans home with their Stewart jones satiated.
Opener and fellow raspy voiced singer/songwriter Bryan Adams deformed an hour long set of his hook filled rock/pop with mixing his "rockers" such as Summer of ´69 and Cuts Like A Knife with a few of his diabetes inducing ballads and a couple of new songs from his album 11 that sounded as if they were recorded in a time warp. Just as with Stewart, Adams looked and sounded great and did a fine job of warming up the crowd with several sing-a-long moments.