Sounding Off On Sound

Jeff "Boday" Christensen: "Just give me the key"

By Dwight Hobbes, Sounding Off On Sound

I’ve no idea what the hell his nickname and professional alias Boday is about and’ve never got around to asking him. The damnedest thing is interacting with Christensen came about entirely as a happy accident. In my never-ending quest to unearth the full story on Stanley Kipper (New Primitives frontman and co-founder with Chico Perez), I got very lucky. Kipper, virtually as an after thought, handed me copy of Straight from the Sun by an album from 1991 by One World, an incredible fusion of R&B, Latin rock, plain old regular rock and a flavorful infusion soul music. Christensen was playing guitar. And I mean playing absolute hell out of the thing, doing, of all things, a funky rendition of the Jimi Hendrix Experience classic “Crosstown Traffic” that you just never saw coming. Which was enough to interest me in interviewing the guy, so, I did.

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Sounding Off On Sound

Mary Bue's "Apple in the Ocean" is poetic and distinctive

By Dwight Hobbes, Sounding Off On Sound

“Thought you’d be in Cosmopolitan by now/ Thought you'd have the hottest legs through the turnstile.” The Good Fairy has at least given this reviewer a break, in the form of a strong lyricist who is gracious enough to provide the words to an album. That’d be one remarkably sardonic Mary Bue, with an ear for tight melody and a voice that, while not extraordinary, indeed gets the job done in distinctive fashion.

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Sounding Off On Sound

Mary Louise Knutson on jazz: "I had to break a lot of rules"

By Dwight Hobbes, Sounding Off On Sound

Jazz pianist Mary Louise Knutson makes gorgeous music. And has a pair of beautifully entertaining albums—as well as an enviable track record—to show as evidence. The second release, In the Bubble, sat quite comfortably on the top 50 at JazzWeek for more than four months straight. It’s characteristic of her craft, a sweet shot of laid-back sophisticaton, brightly animated, refreshingly inventive.

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Sounding Off On Sound

Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson at the State Theatre: Two legends, so happy together

By Dwight Hobbes, Sounding Off On Sound

Two legends, count ‘em. Two living legends on one stage. Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson, July 25 at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, playing and singing to a sold-out house of absolutely delighted fans. The night was all very off-hand, loose knit, just a couple good ol’ boys a-pickin’ and a-grinnin’, havin’ theirself a honky-tonkin’ good time.

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Sounding Off On Sound

Michael Nelson, a.k.a. the Wilryans, on the life of a journeyman musician

By Dwight Hobbes, Sounding Off On Sound

Gifted singer-songwriter-producer Michael Nelson, a.k.a. the Wilryans, makes great music, skillfully rendered pop-rock like you seldom ever hear it done these days.

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Sounding Off On Sound
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