Playlist:
Devon Allman- Strategy, X Y Eli- If I Could Be, The Mighty Soul Drivers- Blind, Crippled & Crazy, Tom Sanders & The Hornets- Routine Blues, Cheryl Arena- Love Gone Wrong, Hash Brown & the Browntones- I’ve Got the Blues, Roxy Perry- Do It, Bronze Radio Return- Mister, Mister, Girls,Guns and glory- Nighttime, Sarah Borges-The Waiting & the Worry,Shawn Holt & the Teardrops- Mean Little Woman,Ryan Hartt & the Blue Hearts-Oh Espanada, Popa Chubby- Universal Breakdown Blues, Brent Johnson- Meet Me In The Morning, Anni Piper- Great Big Baby, Damon Fowler- Sugar Lee, Shaka & the Soul Shakers- Would You Would, Alexis P. Suter Band- John the Revelator, Alexis P. Suter Band- Free, Mojomatics-Soy Baby.
Win $100 in the Feed Our Friends Contest:

There was no winner in our Feed Our Friends Contest this week . To win a $100 gift card from Black-Eyed Sally’s in Hartford simply send us an 8-15 second video about why you want the gift card. Send your videos to music@onthehorn.com and you are in the running. Good luck next week!!

Black-Eyed News:
In a year of declining album sales, Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience was the biggest selling album of 2013, according to Billboard. A total of 2.43 million copies sold. While the ranking is certainly an honor for Timberlake, it's less flattering for the record industry as a whole: The 20/20 Experience was the only album to sell over 2 million in 2013, which marks the lowest top-seller in SoundScan's 22 years of tracking sales. The previous low came in 2008, with Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III selling 2.87 million copies.

Rounding out the top 10 was Eminem's acclaimed The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (1.73 million), Luke Bryan's Crash My Party (1.52 million), Imagine Dragons' Night Visions (1.4 million), Bruno Mars' Unorthodox Jukebox (just under 1.4 million), Florida Georgia Line's Here's to the Good Times (1.35 million), Drake's Nothing Was the Same (1.34 million), Beyoncé's surprise LP Beyoncé (1.3 million), Blake Shelton's Based on a True Story (1.11 million) and Jay Z's app-backed Magna Carta...Holy Grail (1.1 million). What do we think this means to the future of album sales? Total sold in top 10 14.67 Million average of 1.46 million per but 7 of those albums were not even close to that number.

Editorial Aside:
What is to blame for the low sales? Piracy claims the record company; the artists say streaming is the villain here. But how about the cost of an album at the store. Not a digital copy but a hard copy. I have seen them for as much as $18 in the store. Also quality some of the stuff is just not that good.

Back to the Numbers:
The top single sales were led by a different set of artists. Robin Thicke's ubiquitous "Blurred Lines" came in at Number One with 6.5 million sales. Mackemore and Ryan Lewis' "Thrift Shop" was a close second, with 6.15 million. The other top sellers were Imagine Dragons ("Radioactive," 5.5 million), Florida Georgia Line ("Cruise," 4.69 million), Lorde ("Royals," 4.42 million), Katy Perry ("Roar," 4.41 million), P!nk featuring Nate Ruess ("Just Give Me a Reason," 4.32 million), another from Macklemore and Ryan Lewis ("Can't Hold Us," 4.26 million), Bruno Mars ("When I Was Your Man," 3.93 million) and Rihanna ("Stay," 3.85 million).

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/justin-timberlakes-20-20-experience-tops-2013-album-sales-20140103#ixzz2pZu3Stlq

Phil Everly, whose hits with his older brother, Don, as the Everly Brothers carried the close fraternal harmonies of country tradition into pioneering rock ’n’ roll, died on Friday in Burbank, Calif. He was 74.
The group’s official website said he died in a hospital near his home in Southern California. His son Jason said the cause of death was complications of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
With songs like “Wake Up Little Susie,” “Bye Bye Love,” “Cathy’s Clown,” “All I Have to Do Is Dream” and “When Will I Be Loved?,” which was written by Phil Everly, the brothers were consistent hitmakers in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They won over country, pop and even R&B listeners with a combination of clean-cut vocals and the rockabilly strum and twang of their guitars.
They were also models for the next generations of rock vocal harmonies for the Beatles, Linda Ronstadt, Simon and Garfunkel and many others who recorded their songs and tried to emulate their precise, ringing vocal alchemy. The Everly Brothers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its first year, 1986.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/arts/music/phil-everly-half-of-pioneer-rock-duo-dies-at-74.html?hpw&rref=arts&_r=0

Blues man Tabby Thomas, a well known & widely influential Baton Rouge musician, club owner, radio DJ and recording artist, and the father of blues musician & actor Chris Thomas King, has passed away. He was 84 and just four days shy of his birthday.
Born Ernest J. Thomas in Baton Rouge January 5th, 1929, Thomas owned and operated a blues club called Tabby’s Blues Box and Heritage Hall for nearly three decades until it’s closure in 2004. “There was something about Tabby’s Blues Box,” wrote Chelsea Brasted for the New Orleans Times Picayune, “An intangible quality seeped out of the joint on nights when legends were being made on its stage, solidifying its place in local music lore.”
Thomas has long been one of the best known blues musicians in Baton Rouge. Having learned music in a local church Choir as a child, and following an Air Force stint, Tabby relocated to California and began a touring and recording career, notably with Hollywood Records and the well-known Excello Records label.
Returning to Louisiana, Tabby’s records were quickly played on local radio on New Orleans’ WBOK. His music earned him a spot at New Orleans’ famed Dew Drop Inn venue — a premiere live blues room that was host to Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, Guitar Slim and dozens more top acts of the time. He caught the attention of Louis Armstrong, who arranged for the Eric Shaw Agency to book Thomas a tour.
Tabby’s son, Grammy award winner Chris Thomas King, found his first experiences at the club that he helped his father create. He signed his first recording contract with Sire Records, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers, at Tabby’s Heritage Hall. King went on to sell more than ten million records, earning a Grammy for Album of the Year for his cover of Skip James’ “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” track on the O! Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. King famously played bluesman Tommy Johnson in the film.

http://www.americanbluesscene.com/2014/01/famed-baton-rouge-bluesman-passes-away/

Rolling Stone Magazine recently published a story reporting that Allman Brothers bass player Oteil Burbridge, the man who has been providing the lower end for the Allman Brothers for decades is leaving the band. Fans of the band immediately began protesting and about the shake-up.
“We’re here to assure you that that is not true,” said Oteil, refuting the claim on Social Media, “and he will be playing with the Allman Brothers throughout 2014. Happy New Year and thank you to all the fans for your support!”
Oteil also had this to say on his website:
“For the record…. It was an amazing experience recording and playing with the Zac Brown Band and with Dave Grohl in November. It was an awesome time and a reunion of sorts for me with old friends Chris Fryar, Penn Robertson, and Eric Pretto (the drummer, bass tech and guitar tech for ZBB, respectively) who I’ve known for over a decade. I am proud to be part Zac’s record.
2014 will mark the beginning of my 16th year with the Allman Brothers and as we celebrate the bands 45th anniversary, it reminds me what a huge part of my musical life this incredible band has been. I’m really grateful and proud to be such a big part of the ABB history. And we ain’t done yet!
I certainly hope to work with the Zac Brown Band again in the future. They are incredibly talented and great guys. Wherever I land in the future, I hope my fans understand that my primary concern is for the wellbeing of my family and will continue to bring you the highest level of groove and improv that I can muster.”

http://www.americanbluesscene.com/2014/01/trucks-says-oteils-staying-put-despite-rolling-stone-story/

and Lastly

Jack White has a new album in the works, and it looks like it could be coming out soon. In a recent chat with fans on the message board of his label, Third Man Records, White dropped the news: "I'm producing two albums this month, and finishing them," he said. "One of them is mine."
Assuming White is referring to a solo album, this could mean a follow-up to 2012's Blunderbuss will be appearing shortly. In an interview with Rolling Stone last February, White mentioned that he had 20 to 25 songs already written. "It's definitely not one sound," he said of the new material. "It's definitely several. Like you heard in Blunderbuss, there's many different styles there. I don't pick my style and then write a song. I just write whatever comes out of me, and whatever style it is is what it is, and it becomes something later."

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/jack-white-finishing-up-new-album-20140105#ixzz2pZxGOBhK

Blues In The Area:
1/10 FRIDAY
Ronnie Earl - The Katherine Hepburn Center for the Arts (8pm) - Old Saybrook, CT
Dan Stevens - Perks & Corks (9pm) - Westerly, RI
Johnny Hoy & the Bluefish - Chan's (8pm) - Woonsocket, RI
Blues Alley - The Mona Lisa Restaurant (8-11pm) - Wolcott, CT
Eight To The Bar - The Knickerbocker Cafe (8pm) - Westerly, RI
1/11 SATURDAY
The Alexis P. Suter Band - Black-eyed Sally's (9pm) - Hartford
The Cobalt Rhythm Kings - The Park Central Tavern (9pm) - Hamden, CT
Dan Stevens - MCC on Main (8pm) - Manchester, CT

Black-Eyed Sally’s Weekly Rundown:
Wednesday Blues Open Mic hosted by Brandt Taylor
Friday Bruce Gregori Trio
Saturday Alexis P. Suter Band
Monday Monday Night Jazz Featured performer Stephen King Porter Group Featuring Jazzmeia Horn
Tuesday Mike Palin’s Other Orchestra

I hope to see you out and about this week but if not please continue to support live music wherever you are.

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