Terry Fator

I just love this! This guy is incredible.





There's even more clips on YouTube.

Musical Monday

I wonder how many of you will know this one?
This LP (long playing record for you young ones) came to us with my Father-in-law's collection.

John Charles Thomas (1891 - 1960) was a famous American baritone. His father was a Methodist minister and for a while he wanted to be a preacher as well, but later became interested in medicine. He had entered college to study homeopathy, but was offered a scholarship to the conservatory of music at the same time. He flipped a coin, and music one!

His first New York stage appearance was in "The Peasant Girl" where he stole the show. He went on to appear in Gilbert & Sullivan shows, and various pre-war operettas, but his preference was for concerts.

Hi first concert was in 1918. In 1924, he appeared in his first opera - "Aida"- which was followed by a concert tour, to earn enough money to study in Europe.

He had a contract in Brussels from 1925 until 1930 when he returned to America.

His repertoire embraces all fields - ballads, folk songs, art songs, operettas and opera. He has a rich baritone voice, a command of various dialects, and superb diction in all languages.

This album features some of his performance favourites: Oh, what a Beautiful Morning; Ol' Man River; Annie Laurie; The Green-Eyed Dragon; Steal Away; The Lord's Prayer and I Hear America Singing (a Cantata base on Poems of Walt Whitman).

Musical Monday

I missed posting an album last week, so to make up for it, we have my entire collection of David Bowie albums on vinyl. This does not include my Bowie CDs or tapes.

As you can probably guess, I was a Bowie fan. Still am. I have a lot of admiration for his music, his lyrics, his theatrical styles and his art.

I wasn't what you'd call a hard core fan (i.e. I didn't dress and cut my hair in the latest Bowie character's style) like some did, but I bought everything I could get my hands on, including a few bootlegs. That wasn't easy in the Hunter, so I relied on a friend getting them from Sydney for me. Trouble was, she was even more into Bowie , so I only got what she didn't want.

Bowie's concerts were the absolute best! Such a showman. He was doing theatrical shows long before anyone else, and you always knew that his concert tours were well worth the money and the sitting all day outside the Showground so you could get right down the front (with your smuggled in camera - no digital cameras back then either) and be right there! Awesome!

Favourites? Mmmm, that's a hard one. I love Low, Heroes, Diamond Dogs and StationtoStation, best, I think, but there are individual tracks on various albums that I love, too.

My 26 year old daughter grew up hearing Bowie. In fact, we used to put Bowie on for her to go to sleep. None of that soft lullaby stuff for her! LOL

When both of our kids were old enough to sit and listen to stories, they loved listening to Bowie narrating Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, backed by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra. It's my favourite narration of Peter.

Musical Monday

"Dreamcatcher: the best of Secret Garden" Universal Music Noway 2003/Australia 2004

includes Nocturne; Dreamcatcher; Passacaglia; Illumination; Windancer; etc

This is a beautiful CD. It has nothing to do with the musical of the same name. Secret Garden is Fionnuala Sherry and Rolf Lovland.

The music is haunting and hypnotic. It carries you away to wherever you desire. The words are beautifully sung and weave magic around you.

This is one of my favourite CDs and gets played frequently in our house.

Visit Secret Garden

Musical Monday

Shirley Bassey: "Never Never Never"; United Artists Records, 1973

Songs list: Never, Never, Never; Baby I'm-A Want You*; Someone Who Cares; The Old-Fashioned Way; I Won't last a Day Without You; Somehow; There's No Such Thing As Love; Killing Me Softly With His Song*; Going, Going, Gone; No Regrets; Together; Make The World a Little Younger.
* My favourites

(Dame) Shirley Bassey was born in Cardiff, Wales on January 8th 1937. She is probably best known for her James Bond theme songs: Goldfinger and Diamonds Are Forever. She also recorded Moonraker, but that one isn't as well known. She is the only singer to have recorded more than one James Bond theme song.

I bought this album with Birthday money in 1973. I loved her rich melodic voice and thought it was so sexy, I tried lowering my voice to match.
The album is moody, sexy and poignant, and the theme is love and disappointment in love. Perfect for someone in their late teens, in that era!

I still like her voice, and I enjoyed listening to this album again, after all these years. Definitely one to put on when relaxing in a bubble bath with a glass of vino.

Musical Monday

For his Birthday last December, I bought DH a turntable that could plug into the computer, so he could convert the old vinyl records (and some very old bakelite ones!) into CDs.

This has meant dragging out the record collection, and it has given me an idea.
I have decided to choose an album or CD from our music collection to share with you, each Monday.

There will be ones that I love, ones I can't believe I bought, ones given to us, and some inherited from the previous generation. This may (or may not) bring back memories for some of you. It might even give you a laugh, occasionally!

So here's my first choice.

"Quatro" by Suzi Quatro! [1974 E.M.I.]

with Dave Neal - drums, Alistair McKenzie - keyboards, and Len Tuckey - lead guitar.

Boy was she a dynamo. All of 5 feet +a couple of inches, petite figure, sweet face. But energy to burn and a gutsy hard rock voice! She also played (plays) bass.

In the early 70s, I loved her! Being only 5 foot nothing myself, and having a petite figure back then, I thought she was the most wonderful female alive. Her leather, skin tight outfits were to die for!

Songs on this album include "The Wild One" (probably my favourite); "Klondyke Kate"; "Devil Gate Drive" (who from that era doesn't remember that one!); "Hit the Road Jack" and "Keep A-Knockin".

I'll keep this one, for posterity, but these days, it's probably a bit heavy for me, to play the whole album at once.

I heard her interviewed a couple of years ago, and she was still out there touring with her band.