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Dear Readers,
Welcome to a new feature on my blog, “A Visit to My Back Porch,” which is reserved exclusively for my favorite musicians. It is my pleasure to start this feature with one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Lori McKenna, whom I was lucky enough to hear and meet in Zionsville, Pennsylvania, a few weeks ago (I tried to see her in Nashville at the Bluebird Caf, but it was all sold out!).
What I love about Lori is she writes songs that cut to the heart of living a real life. She’s a mother of five kids (yes, five!!!) and lives in Massachusetts. But she has managed to create songs that have become hits for people like Faith Hill (“Stealing Kisses”), and one of my favorite songs from the new Keith Urban album (“The Luxury of

It took the Dead to bring Jim Kohlberg’s film to life.
The Grateful Dead, that is – and Bob Dylan. When they agreed to allow their songs to be used at an affordable price for the soundtrack of Kohlberg’s directorial debut, The Music Never Stopped, the film suddenly found its footing.
“When I first read the script and the music that the writers wanted to use, I thought, ‘This will never get made in a low-budget context’,” says Kohlberg, who had worked as a producer for more than a decade. “But we sent the script to Dylan and the Dead – and, miraculously, they came back and said they’d like to do it on terms we could afford.
“Once they were on board, the film had so much credibility that we could move forward. It’s been my experience in independent film that the things that get made create their own

A Conversation with Liz Phair
Mike Ragogna: Liz, when did you feel it was time to rev up your new album, Funstyle?
Liz Phair: You know, it really was born very naturally from the musical experience I was going through at the time–usually my records are. I found myself in two different recording environments leading up to this release, one of which was my television scoring that I’ve been doing the last couple of years, where you’re doing a ton of music in a very short time and you orchestrate stuff with sort of a push of a button. So, part of Funstyle was born from that sort of experimentation. Then, the other half of it was all about jamming in the studio with other musicians and friends, and seeing what we come up with

Another of the great blues musicians from the Mississippi delta has died, one of the last now. Pinetop Perkins passed away at his home in Austin, Texas on March 21, 2011, aged 97. Just last month, he won a Grammy for Joined at the Hip, his CD with Willie “Big Eyes” Smith who was in The Muddy Waters Band with him for many years. I got to know them 35 years ago when I met Jerry Portnoy, Muddy’s harmonica

It was through those violet eyes that she spoke to us and embraced a nation with her courage.
Oh why hadn’t the Academy honored her in their recent Academy Awards? The Oscar telecast had no mention of this icon and her absence was sorely missed. And now there will be no ‘next year’ to make up for the Academy’s faux pas. Her photo in her blue eyeglasses perched crookedly on her nose as she was wheeled into the hospital cabling her days were numbered blast through internet sites and still the Academy could not mention her name and a tribute to her accomplishments. The Academy was focused on ‘youth for

Elizabeth Taylor was a giant star, a legendary actress and an openhearted humanitarian. My father always told me that she was also the single most beautiful woman who ever lived — and I never argued with my father. Here are some songs to help us all remember a fascinating Hollywood icon who will never be forgotten.
A PLACE IN THE SUN – Stevie Wonder
HOW TO HANDLE A WOMAN – Richard Burton
HEAL THE WORLD – Michael Jackson
ELIZABETH – Statler Brothers
GIANT – The The
CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF – Dinah Washington
I WANT TO MARRY YOU – Bruce Springsteen
D-I-V-O-R-C-E – Tammy Wynette
CELLULOID HEROES – The Kinks
STAR – David Bowie
VELVET – Fergie
PLAN TO MARRY – Lucinda Williams
SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER – The Motels
THE SONG OF RAINTREE COUNTY – Nat King Cole
LOVE AND MARRIAGE – Frank Sinatra
THE OTHER WOMAN – Jeff Buckley
WISH YOU WERE HERE – Eddie Fisher
I KNEW THE BRIDE – Dave Edmunds
LONDON AT DAWN – Elizabeth Taylor, John Barry & Johnny Spencer
SHE’S A BEAUTY – The Tubes
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR – Dionne Warwick & Friends
ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA’S LOVE – Alex North
CLEOPATRA’S DREAM – Bud Powell
ONLY GAME IN TOWN – America
ONLY LOVE – Virginia Wolf
ELIZABETH TAYLOR – Young People
WHO’S AFRAID OF ELIZABETH TAYLOR – Joan of Arc
LOVE TAKES TIME – Elizabeth Taylor with the cast of “A Little Night Music”

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Brandon Grey at Box Office Mojo called the weekend box office ‘listless’. Nikkie Finke at Deadline Hollywood called it ‘a soft weekend’. And Brent Lang of The Wrap called it ‘sluggish’. ‘Weak’ was the word as three mid-to-low budget films opened with both solid reviews and decent box

Brandon Grey at Box Office Mojo called the weekend box office ‘listless’. Nikkie Finke at Deadline Hollywood called it ‘a soft weekend’. And Brent Lang of The Wrap called it ‘sluggish’. ‘Weak’ was the word as three mid-to-low budget films opened with both solid reviews and decent box

Welcome to last installment ofWife Watch!, the blog post that will name, once and for all, the most powerful wife onBig Love.
(SPOILERS AHEAD!)
—
So here we are. The end of the road. My journey with Big Love has been bumpy, but now that the car has stopped and I know we’re not going to hit a guardrail, I’m glad I went on the ride. There were problems, yes, and fights, but all in all, the show was always

The film opens with the following words:
If you are looking for Hell,
Ask the artist where it is.
If you cannot find an artist
Then you are already in Hell. – Avigdor Pawsner
The Creators is an ambitious undertaking — shot, edited and directed by South Africans with the assistance of a bright young woman named Laura Gamse, who hails from Arlington, VA. The recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship, she moved to South Africa to make a documentary about one phenomenal artist. “As I spent more time in the country,” she recalls, “I realized that the story of just one person could not capture the diversity of — and tensions within — South African

There’s disaster in Japan, Americans still involved in an increasing number of pointless wars in the Middle East, oil still polluting the Gulf of Mexico and idiots in Congress carrying on a culture war as if the economy was no longer a problem.
And what are Hollywood and its bloggers concerned with?
When they’re not blathering about whether the Lizard will be the villain in the next Spider-man movie or who Joseph Gordon-Levitt will play in the next Batman film, the big question is this:
Whether or not Johnny Knoxville will or should play Moe in a Three Stooges movie. And whether Benicio del Toro will be in or out. And Jim Carrey. And Sean Penn.
Glad to see we’ve got our priorities straight.
Really, I’m mystified by the seemingly constant frenzy online about whether or not the Farrelly brothers’ longstanding urge to make a Three Stooges movie will ever get off the

A Conversation with Paul Simon
Mike Ragogna: Paul, how are you doing?
Paul Simon: Good.
MR: Paul, you’ve recorded this new album with Phil Ramone, which makes it a reunion of sorts. What motivated you guys to get back together again?
PS: Just a casual meeting or running into each other. I told him I was just starting to work on the album, and he said he’d love to work with me again, so I said I’d love to work with him again too. We’re sort of neighbors up here in

Winter in Wartime starts with two boys playing at war – exploring the ruins of a British fighter plane in the countryside, until they are chased away (and then simply chased) by Nazis.
By the end of Martin Koolhoven’s film, the central youth in this story, Michiel (Martijn Lakemeier) has found that, in fact, there is no playing war in wartime – the business and reality of war are deadly serious.
A Dutch film set in Holland during World War II, Winter in Wartime is alternately a story of youthful adventure and one of adult seriousness. As Michiel learns, there are no rules – and no one, ultimately, is safe, when it comes down to it. Melodramatic and predictable, “Winter in Wartime” wants to be tough but settles for compellingly familiar.
Michiel is, in fact, as privileged as a Dutch kid can be in a Nazi-occupied town. His father (Raymond Thiry) is the mayor of the town, the person who deals with the Nazi commander and tries to sooth ruffled feathers or calm Nazi

It was 1969, and the Vietnam War was raging. Protests, riots and societal turmoil were ripping at the seams of the western world. Into this political furnace stepped the unlikely characters of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
John and Yoko married in March, checked into the Amsterdam Hilton in Holland for their honeymoon and, to the surprise of many, immediately announced that a “happening” was about to take place in their bed. Holland was permissive, but even the chief of Amsterdam’s vice squad issued a warning to anyone planning to

Richard Lewis is on the phone, shot out of a cannon almost as soon as you pick up the receiver.
“I’m driving around in a taxi and I’m completely insane – like a cross between Shecky Greene and Travis Bickle,” the 63-year-old comedian says. “Maybe that’s my new stage name – Shecky Bickle.”
He’s calling to talk about his upcoming run at Caroline’s on Broadway, where he’ll be performing nightly March 24-27. But with Lewis, the stream-of-consciousness conversation rarely stays on one track.
“I’m so sick of me,” he says, continuing, “I think I’ve never been better on stage. But I’m 63 – so at this point, my balls are longer than my

PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT — THE MUSICAL * 1/2 out of ****
PALACE THEATRE
Bachelorette parties have a new go-to destination. The musical Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert offers silly costumes to let them giggle, enough male flesh in fabulous shape to let them squeal and plenty of songs they already know to let them sing along. Best of all, there’s only a wisp of a plot to distract them from their revelry.
Unfortunately, anyone who comes to the show expecting a little heart and soul from the movie along with high heels and glitter will be sorely

The tentative pact, which is in line with deals reached by SAG, AFTRA and the DGA, provides for 2% annual wage increases but also keeps network primetime residuals at current rates. Details: The Hollywood Reporter.
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At this point in SXSW’s evolution as a music festival, the only way you could adequately report on every day’s show offering is to gather a hundred rock critics (literally a hundred), give them assignments and rations and canteens, send them out early enough to wait in line at all the key day party venues, and then sequester them after the shows for long enough to make sense of their notes — perhaps during the primetime showcases that are still supposed to be the focal point of the festival.
It wasn’t always like this. Back in the day, bands would just do their evening showcases, and perhaps make a couple of isolated appearances during the week at other venues. But now, bands are more likely to use their primetime showcase spot as a jumping off point to pack in as many shows in a week as possible.
For at least five years now, SXSW Music has been two festivals: one for the high caste of badge holders and middle caste of wristband holders, and another, more chaotic one in which the lines of privilege blur and thousands upon thousands come together to map out their own SXSW experience show by

When Christian Bale won his Oscar for The Fighter (2010), I was hardly surprised, but nor was I elated. And I had to ask myself why.
This now hugely successful movie star is prodigiously talented, blazing with intensity and intelligence — not to mention killer good looks.
Still — with apologies to all the self-proclaimed “Baleheads” out there, on an emotional level the actor leaves me cold.
This fact got me thinking about how we relate to public figures and celebrities, and the importance of that elusive, yet fundamental human connection- admiring someone famous not just for their ability, but because we feel we know and “get” them.
In the realm of major politicians and movie stars, the “likeability” factor has always been important. This quality has helped more than a few undistinguished if not downright inept politicians get

Just before St. Patrick’s Day — Dance Lord Michael Ryan Flatley held court at the Regency Hotel with a small set of select journalists and waxed on about his career of breaking boundaries and a few bones. The boisterous 52-year-old became internationally known for creating and performing in the Irish dance-based shows Riverdance, Lord of the Dance, Feet of Flames, and Celtic Tiger.
Born 16 July 1958 in Chicago, this Irish-American took traditional Celtic step dancing steps beyond its traditions and established an international audience for the form. First he created a dance portion for the Chieftains, the legendary Irish folk-rock group, then as an actor, choreographer, and musician this lord of dance extended into several long-form shows that has made his one of the richest men in

Photo Credit: Fabrizio Rainone
Poly Styrene was a shrieking teenaged force of nature, jumping and flailing about onstage and every once in awhile flashing an engaging grin full of braces. Her band, X-Ray Spex, flavored their thrash punk with a wailing sax effectively cutting through the AOR complacency of 1977 like an extra-sharp knife. Her impassioned rant against violence to women, Oh Bondage, Up Yours!, still resonates through the years – and even now sounds fresh and new – cementing her role as an icon, however reluctant, to Kim Gordon, Kathleen Hanna, and countless others. Though Styrene later insisted the sentiment was more of anti-capitalism than feminism, it was a stunning battle cry during the first wave of Punk Rock, which was anything but kind to

Assuming that the world needs more soaring, sing-along melodies that align themselves into anthems for a subset of music fans — let’s say, for sake of argument, the same subset that welcomed Kings Of Leon’s Only By the Night — the arrival of Cold War Kids’ Mine Is Yours earlier this year should be something welcome when you, say, breeze by it and see it on sale in the Target music racks.
But if you consider yourself indie — and not just a fan of the wide spectrum of music that gets lumped in the difficult-to-pin-down indie category — Mine Is Yours is more than just a collection of new songs pointing in a more pop-oriented, straightforward direction than on previous albums. It’s, even though it doesn’t mean to be, something personal.
If you’re a fan of Cold War Kids based on the band’s pre-Mine Is Yours work, it’s likely for qualities that resonate more with college radio than hit radio. Their lyrics often veer into short story territory, detailing characters and their lurches through life, with Nathan Willett’s wailing, distinctive voice making lines like “I give a check to tax-deductible charity organizations” positively

TEDDY THOMPSON *** 1/2 out of ****
CITY WINERY
Poor Teddy Thompson. The New York Times calls him “one of the most gifted singer-songwriters of his generation” and laments the puzzling lack of commercial success for this artist with music video-ready good looks, name recognition (thanks Mom and Dad), and of course songs that are smart but clearly hook-y enough for any radio station clever enough to play them.
But I for one appreciate Thompson’s refusal to grab the brass ring dangling in front of him. One might easily be annoyed by his dashing good looks, lovely voice, string of critically acclaimed albums — of which Bella is the latest — and a self-deprecating wit that wins over the ladies. A hit single would turn that quiet envy into downright

Onscreen in Tom McCarthy’s Win Win, they interact like a long-time married couple.
In fact, actors Paul Giamatti and Amy Ryan barely knew each other before they accepted the invitation of old friend McCarthy, who told both of them, “I’ve written something with you in mind.”
“Paul and I had been ships passing in the night – a few years ago, he was leaving a production of The Three Sisters as I was joining it – so I was nervous at first,” says Ryan, 41. “We’re both shy people. But once we were on the set, that all melted away. And he was one of the most easy-going people to work with I’ve met.”
Giamatti found that Ryan locked in to a certain quality of her character that he found impressive: “She captures this thing just unbelievably well,” says Giamatti,