Gene Bowen of Road Recovery receives National Child Labor Committee Lewis Hine Award

Congratulations to our friend Gene Bowen on his receiving the National Child Labor Committee Lewis Hine Award. This award is given to those individuals who do outstanding work on behalf of the health and safety of children, especially those who are at risk. The award could not have gone to a more deserving recipient. We are always amazed by the energy and commitment Gene has to making the world a better place.


More information about the organization and its programs can be found at: www.nationalchildlabor.org.

For more information about Road Recovery, check out their website.

Gary Stewart, iTunes, Diane Birch

I was in LA recently attending a seder with Gary Stewart, former head of A&R at Rhino who is now head of A&R at iTunes. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging with him. Gary was the king of reissues at Rhino back in the day and was responsible for turning people on to tons of amazing legacy music during the 80s and 90s. He produced many of my favorite box sets including 'Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era, 1965-1968'. Gary is a close mutual friend of Steve Greenberg's, whom I've had the pleasure of doing a lot of work for over the years.

Speaking of which, I'm deep into the vocal production of Diane Birch's debut album for Greenberg's S-Curve Records. This is the first project I've worked with Steve on since Joss Stone. Diane's talent is true and deep. These are trying times in the music business but the combination of an amazing talent like Diane with Steve's genius for song creation and promotion is very powerful. Keep your eyes peeled and your fingers crossed.

Major Who has been incredibly busy lately, so much so that we've put out a job ad for an administrator / assistant manager. Taking on another employee is a bold move in these times, but we just can't handle the workload by ourselves anymore. What's really interesting is the flood of e-mails and resumes that have come in since posting the ad. We're overwhelmed with going through and picking out the qualified candidates. The job market must be really tight right now because we're getting a lot of extremely qualified applicants. It's going to be difficult to choose. The primary purpose of the position is to have someone full time to work the catalog and find licensing opportunities for our songs and artists.

If you're up near the Ridgefield Playhouse in Connecticut, go hear Paula Valstein opening up for Colin Hay tonight. It'll be a great show.

It doesn't get any better than this!

MajorWho could not be more excited about this....

IT'S FREE CONE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's really, really simple people. You go to Ben and Jerry's, you get a FREE CONE.

This is truly the greatest country in the world.

Slash, Jerry Cantrell, Jakob Dylan,Tom Morello, Perry Farrell and more at the Road Recovery 10th Anniversary Show at Nokia Theatre, NYC, 4/17/08.

Wow- We at MajorWho are so proud of Gene Bowen, Jack Bookbinder, all the Road Recovery staff and mentors and especially the youth of the Crazy James Band, Henry Ittleson Center and the Hawthorn Center youth. The Road Recovery 10th Anniversary Show at Nokia Theatre, NYC, 4/17/08 was a huge success. Its an honor for us to work as mentors with this organization and we encourage everyone and anyone interested in giving a little something back to check them out and get involved!

This show was even more than I could have imagined. There are so many phone camera pictures and references it will take me weeks to sort through, but lets just say that Slash from Guns N' Roses , Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell, Alice In Chains' Jerry Cantrell, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, Joseph Arthur, MC5 founder Wayne Kramer, Jakob Dylan, Jimmy Gnecco and OURS, Dennis Leary (who rocked the crowd with 'I'm An Asshole':)), and the unexpected highlight of my evening Cypress Hill's SEN DOG getting the thousands in attendance to Jump, Jump, Jump- ROCKED the crowd hard for four plus hours in honor of Road Recovery's 10th Anniversary celebration. By far the best night out we've had in a long time!! A special thanks to Tom Morello and The Justice tour!

James Walsh & Mary Guilbert

I was also able to hang a bit with some of my favorite people over the course of the evening- including Mary Guilbert whom I have the honor of running around SXSW with along with the rest of the MajorWho/ Fun Palace / Road Recovery crew. When we were in Austin this last March we got the news that Jeff Buckley's cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah was the number one download on iTunes after its appearance on American Idol by Jason Castro. A very special moment for a proud mom...

• 

I'll do my best to put together a journal of the evening, but honestly- there were dozens of highlights that we will never forget- including:

• Perry Farrell singing "Pets" and "Mountain Song" backed by Tom Morello and Jerry Cantrell on guitars.

• Slash, Morello and Jerry Cantrell joining Wayne Kramer for the MC5's vintage "Kick Out the Jams."
• Jerry Cantrell featuring Slash on Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here"

• Tom Morello playing on the Alice In Chains staple "Brother".

• Jerry Cantrell singing Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak," with Tom Morello and Slash on guitars.

• Sen Dog of Cypress Hill doing multiple stage dives while backed by Morello, Slash and Farrell during performances of "Insane the Brain" and "Rock Superstar," as well as a version of House Of Pain's "Jump Around,"

• Wayne Kramer pogo dancing during Sen Dogs set.

• Perry Farrell singing Stevie Wonders "Superstition" with Wayne Kramer, Slash and Morello on guitars.

• Jakob Dylan joined by Tom Morello, etc.. for Sam Cooke's "Bring It All Home" and "He's Got the Whole World In His Hands," which he dedicated to "The Nightwatchman" (Tom Morello's alter ego).
• Slash closing out the set with Paradise City sung by Perry Farrell and Jimmy Gnecco and joined by everyone onstage including the Crazy James Band- a complete free for all!

Cell Phones w/ video cameras + YOUTUBE + BLOGS = instant gratification!!

Jerry Cantrell and Slash playing Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here"




Perry Farrell sings "Mountain Song"



Everyone performs "Paradise City" - Sen Dog (Cypress Hill) on vocals!



Jerry Cantrell sings "Jailbreak" w/Slash on lead guitar



Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer, Jerry Cantrell play "Kick out the Jams"




Sen Dog, Slash, Perry Farrell, Tom Morello play "Jump Around"

Disco Biscuits Anyone?

Had a blast with Dr. Steve Greenwell with the Disco Biscuits last night at the Nokia Theater.
First song?- 17 minutes long! Stevie may mix up a track for the band- and after seeing 5000 + folks dancing around the theater last night he's ready to rock it! Bring on the hardrives!



We will be at the Nokia again on April 17th for the Road Recovery 10th Anniversary show. It was nice to poke around backstage and listen to this fun jam band from a few different perspectives, especially since we'll be there again this week w/ Slash, Perry Farrell, Jerry Cantrell, Jimmy Gnecco from OURS, Dennis Leary, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer from MC5 and the Crazy James Band for their All Star Benefit Jam. Tickets are still available at Road Recovery.
I happen to know some $25 tickets just went on the block- so jump in on a great org that MajorWho supports!
NYC Music Producers James Walsh and Sheldon Steiger present MajorWho Media...

Love those Ladyfingers

Had the privelege of going down to REHAB last night (formerly Midway) on the Lower East Side to see Ladyfingers. Effing rocked. We first met them down in Austin during SXSW. Love Adam's vocal style.

...just to make himself a cheesecake

I did notice that Sal Mineo (a deceased actor who was in Exodus, Rebel Without A Cause, and a bunch of TV shows) is one of their top friends on myspace...

In case you were wondering (as I was), a "Lady Finger" is a sweet sponge cake shaped like a big finger. A lady finger is not to be confused - as it often is - with a lady's finger, which is another name for okra.

This blog post was brought to you by the wonderful folks at Wikipedia.

Mike Doughty and Dave Grisman in One Weekend

Mike Doughty at the Highline Ballroom on Friday

I caught two great shows in a row this past weekend, Mike Doughty at Highline Ballroom on Friday and Dave Grisman (The Dawg!) at Ridgefield Playhouse on Saturday. Both shows were fantastic. The trip up to Ridgefield, CT is well worth it - this theater has played host to many of my favorite artists over the past couple of years. I've also really been getting into the Highline lately - becoming one of my favorite clubs in NY.

Band of Thieves

Band Of Thieves have spent the last couple days with us at MajorWho in our Threshold Music Studios laying down basics for some new material with producer Mikki James and engineer Albert Di Fiore. A lot of great things happening for this band lately and a cool bunch of fellows to boot.. We also learned a thing or two along the way.
This week Band Of Thieves had a song of placed in an episode of The Riches on FX. They've also had music in the ABC series "Greek" and "Parking Wars" on A&E. Congrats on the placements and best of luck!

MajorWho seeks experiend eggplantist and carroteer

All my life I thought that carrots were nothing more than a delicious source Vitamin A and dietary fiber. This video certainly disproves that notion.

Also, have you ever seen that video where a choir gets together and performs car noises?


Choir-Honda - Celebrity bloopers here