We now return you to our semi-regular blogging habit which is next only to listening to music new and old.
Above you will see the link to the video to “The Beautiful Game”, a lovely treasure of a tune by UK singer Billy Franks. The proceeds to this song, which you can buy on iTunes, go to Prince Harry’s charity to benefit African children. The timely theme, of course, is soccer, so the song serves a dual purpose for the love of the game played by so many African children. It’s definitely an atypical song in these electronic times but its simplicity is contagious in the same way that took Paul Simon’s Graceland to build 24 years ago. Billy Franks is a veteran singer who I was glad to learn was still making music a number of years back. One of my favourite unheralded 80’s groups was UK’s Faith Brothers, of which Franks was lead vocalist. They released two supremely excellent albums, Eventide and A Human Sound, which I’m happy to say are available most places now on iTunes. View the video for the Faith Brothers’ 1985 track “A Stranger on Home Ground” below and get acquainted with a song that will make you want to hear more (I love YouTube for stuff like this 🙂 ). And don’t forget to buy “The Beautiful Game”!
ZACPOOR, as he is billed, is a new Los Angeles talent that I discovered through our friends at Electroqueer. I swear some of the best new voices around are discovered through the BlogVerse! The song that strikes me most, which you can hear on his MySpace (as well a taste of the live rendition below in which you can hear the unique timbre in his voice) is “Silver Screens”. Zac is obviously a songwriter who lives through his songs and would appeal to fans of someone like Jon McLaughlin as well as harder edged storytellers like Lifehouse. If you’re in SoCal you can catch Zac live through July.
Roz Bell is a Toronto singer whose tunes I always look forward to hearing, since his laid-back and good-natured style captured me on his 2008 debut The First Sunbeams, which featured the singalongs “Yesterday Man” and “Papercut”. A live set in Toronto in Spring 2008 broadcast on CBC radio gave him a nice showcase, and Roz followed up that album with the digital release October last Fall, which yielded another Canadian hit with “Heart Attack”. And his soulful collaboration with 100 Akres for the free download of the funky “Pink Cadillac” was one of my favourites of last year. The upcoming CD is called Songs For Leaving, and from it comes the new single “Endless Summer Night”, which as the title expounds is for those clear, warm – but with a hint of breeze – city summer nights and havin’ a good time. No brain surgery here folks – the friendliest of 2010 summer songs to make it all worthwhile. Smells like a hit to me. Enjoy!
BILLCSMUSIC BLOG 
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