REVIEW: Colbie Caillat – All of You - Universal Republic
July 20, 2011 – On her third album Colbie Caillat has decided to strategically give us an uptempo summer-vibe. It still sounds like her smash debut “Coco” but this time it’s Colbie with caffeine and it’s positive and fun.

Caillat co-wrote every tune on the album with different famous, mostly behind-the-scenes songsmiths.

The singer’s father, Ken Caillat, co-produced two of Fleetwood Mac’s biggest albums, “Rumours” and “Tusk” and that early inspiration has always showed in her music but nothing like the first tune on this album, “Brighter Than the Sun.” It could easily fit on most Buckingham/Nicks-Mac projects. It’s also her latest single from the CD. It easily reflects that silly-willy-in-love drug that changes the directions of our lives – It’s an irresistible pop tune.

“I Do” looks at a common movie theme of a lone-wolf who loves that, sometimes narcissistic, freedom but fate has different plans. With it’s almost 50’s vibe the tune tells the story of that chance meeting that changes everything. This was also picked as the first single, released before the album in February.

Caillat has a more serious, sultry, feel on “Before I Let You Go.” It’s another example of that trademark hypnotic effect that the singer soaks every chorus with. It’s pretty easy to sing out load. MORE

The Sky is Falling – Justin Bieber Wins the Most American Music Awards
November 22, 2010 – Last night, while watching the American Music Awards, I had to remind myself that when it comes to music everybody's right...right? It's important to remember that Justin Bieber fans can't possible be talked out of loving his tunes – you either like him or you don't. Last night the 16 year old teenybopper won the most AMA's, a total of four, and I had to concede that teenage girl might just rule the world. My wife, however, reminded me that older woman also enjoy his sugary doo-doo and maybe the world is even infested with reasonable helping of dudes who are closet Bieber fans.

When watching music awards shows I used to be the guy at the end of the couch urging himself to breathe while getting ready to play soccer with my television but one day I realized I was turning into Perez Hilton. I had unconsciously transformed myself into a hater. My Twitter and Facebook friends pounced on me when I once wrote “I'd rather be Star Jones' toilet than ever have to listen to “All I Want To Do” by Sugarland again.” Yeah, I know, a little over the top but in my defence Jennifer Nettles twang makes a needle in my eardrum seem like a good idea. More

REVIEW - Elton John & Leon Russell – The Union – Decca Records
October 31, 2010 – This project started after Elton John just happened to mention his chief influences on “Spectacle,” a TV program hosted by Elvis Costello and produced by him and partner David Furnish. “I talked about three singer/songwriters that I thought had been forgotten; says John, “Leon Russell was one of them. The other two were Laura Nyro and David Ackles, who have both passed away.” This was 2008, flash forward one year later, by then Furnish had downloaded the music of this special group of legends. While on safari in South Africa, of all places, Elton was completely taken off-guard yet pleasantly surprised to hear Russell’s “Retrospective” coming from Furnish’s ipod and he cried. In fact, Elton cried uncontrollably. I call these “musical JFK moments” – we always remember where we were when they happened and they change us. The moment certainly rejigged Elton John and this album served as a diary for that muse.

Elton was heavily influenced by Russell, the pair knew each other after sharing gigs in the early seventies, but their relationship had been severed by 37 years of different roads and decisions. Long story short, Elton decided to call Russell followed by producer T Bone Burnett?’ Elton’s long-awaited thank you to Russell was going to finally happen.

Before I start foaming at the mush over “The Union” I'd be remiss not to mention that this project is like fine wine so the young ones probably won’t get it. You can’t jump to the last scene of “Gone with the Wind” and expect to feel a damn thing. Having an appreciation for the history and the music makes a difference. More

Where's My Teeth? - American Idol Makes it Official Jennifer Lopez to Judge
September 22, 2010 – Oh boy, aren't we lucky! Another non-singer is going to be a judge on American Idol. Following in the heels of famous lip-syncher Paula Abdul comes someone with as much vocal prowess as Abe Vigoda gargling shoe polish, Jennifer Lopez, who I would love to hear sing a cappella, just to prove a point, has now officially joined on, along with Aerosmith's Steven Tyler.

So who will play the bad guy role that Simon Cowell left vacant? Well, even though both Tyler and Lopez have reputations riddled with drama it seems the hands-down winner has to be Lopez. Interestingly, the only way this can work is if J-Lo actually lives up to her bitch-potential. Have all the diva reports been wrong about her? I doubt it. I, frankly, find it hard to even look at her and don't get me started on her pretend music career. As the cliche goes, she's a entertainer not a singer. The girl has a paper-thin voice – she really can't sing! If Lopez wants to make this work on American Idol she has to be herself. So give them all hell J-Lo! When the dust settles however any judge on that show needs to recognize talent more than actually have it themselves. Like reading a classic novel, just because you appreciate great writing doesn't mean you can replicate it.

There will be other changes on Idol this year. Music legend Jimmy Iovine will now serve as in-house mentor instead of rotating A-list special guests. Iovine has produced the likes of U2, Tom Petty, Dire Straits, and in the seventies, worked with John Lennon and Bruce Springsteen.  More

A Disappointing Return for Sade
REVIEW - Sade – Soldier of Love
June 16, 2010 – There’s always been an understated value to everything that Sade does and sameness to her entire repertoire. That quality of old wine has served the singer/band well… until now. Unlike Norah Jones who has, at least, tried to mix-up-the-pot, Sade really needs to stop wearing the same dress to every party.

Not to be taken lightly, Sade, the lady and band, has only released 6 albums of original music but stand as one of the most successful musical outlets of the last 25 years. Staying power is rare but Sade certainly has it and her voice, even on this album, is the stuff of angels. Still haunting, peaceful and distinctive, it's a quality that's truly rare in music and it's as captivating as the sirens song.

The album kicks off with “The Moon and the Sky” which, without comparisons to the past, sounds like a garden-variety album track from a generic Smooth Jazz vocalist but it’s still drop-dead boring and gloomy at that. More

Where's My Teeth? Billy Joel Splits from Wife Katie Lee – Are You Really Surprised?
June 20, 2009 – If there ever was a mismatched pair, physically and intellectually, it was Billy Joel and his young wife Katie Lee. Now comes word of the inevitable, the couple are splitting up.

Their Oprah interview a few years ago was impossible to watch in a “Stepford Wives” creepy kind of way. Billy’s young little prize made Mary Hart’s perkiness seem positively dull. Here was Billy Joel, a music superstar, who had a reputation for telling it like it is, he never suffered fools and he was married to someone more annoying than Celine Dion on a good day. What gives? To make things worse in front of millions of viewers Katie tried to make us believe that she never knew who Billy Joel was or heard any of his songs before they met. Either way she came off like an idiot with that statement. Was she culturally inept? Remember Joel has the 6th biggest selling album of all time, or was Katie just out-right lying and digging for gold and fame. The latter is the theme of most of the internet chat rooms today. It is reported however that the couple had set up a pre-nuptial agreement.

The whole thing has been a mess from the start, Joel is 60 and Katie Lee is only 27. What was a gorgeous young thing like that doing with a guy who looked like a Buick? More

Where’s My Teeth? Will Sara Evans Turn into a Soap Opera Again?
June 17, 2009 – They say “Like attracts like.” Remember when Sara Evans was on Dancing with the Stars a few seasons ago and she was stung by the Jerry Springer-deep-vacuous-hole-of-emotional-need-flu? Was it a coincidence that Springer was also competing that season? It was crazy-town Kodak stuff. Sara’s then husband, Craig Schelske, was accused of being a sexaholic, two-timing rat-bastard and poor Sara told the gory tale to anyone who would listen.

Maybe blabbing all over town even helped her career, maybe she thought of that long before I did. Maybe she didn’t come out of that looking as bad as her crazy-buns ex but something about her opportunistic behaviour made me suspicious of her Martha-everybody persona. For a person who was claiming to be protecting her kids through this tsunami divorce she sure was making sure they’d hear every juicy morsel from her either first or second hand. I always say you can tell a lot about a person by how they break up.

Evans is now married to former University of Alabama quarterback Jay Barker and her soap opera past may be a distant memory. More

Who Will Have Stronger Career Kris Allen, Adam Lambert or Danny Gokey?
May 26, 2009 – Up until the finale of this year’s American Idol I had a renewed faith that the show was a singing competition again but Adam Lambert, clearly the better singer did not win. Though his Goth looks threw me off at times and that “cat on your back” show-off wail reminded me of why Celine Dion and I do not mix. I was still always waiting to see what treatment he would give a song.

I enjoyed Danny Gokey, for similar reasons, he had an amazing voice and presence. The Milwaukee choir leader lost his wife a month before his Idol audition and he came locked and loaded with a heaping, helping of Al Green’s soul but he didn’t win either.

Kris Allen was the champ on last Wednesday’s season 8 finale. Hell, even he was surprised. It made for the biggest upset in the show’s history.

So why did he win if Lambert and Gokey were clearly better singers? Popularity, plain and simple but more specifically popularity with young girls. Prepubescent teens don’t always make the difference, I doubt Taylor Hicks or Ruben Studdard, both past Idol winners, scored very high with the young chicks but Allen’s unassuming personality and boy next door looks made up for that perfect All-American score. He does come off like a genuine nice guy but he’s not in the league of Lambert and Gokey when it comes to singing. More

Where's My Teeth?: Can We Please Vote Paula Abdul Off American Idol?
May 7, 2009 – Paula Abdul waited seven seasons on American Idol to remind the world that even though she judges a singing competition it’s always better to lip-synch your way through a tune. Many Idol fans on-line are calling Abdul a hypocrite today after her obvious lip-synched performance last night on the show. I’m not sure why she even wore a microphone.

It was almost anti-climatic when Abdul admitted to Ladies’ Home Journal to being hooked on pain killers for 12 years (update: she now denies ever saying that). Girl, you’ve been quacking like that duck since the beginning of the show. Like a true addict, especially a high functioning one, the singer thought she was fooling everyone but we knew she was on something, either drunk or high and no one is surprised that she came out. Abdul did admit that she used medication a few years ago but this is the first time she admitted to having a problem.

In 2005 People magazine asked her point blank about drugs and she said, "Drugs? I'm not addicted to pills of any kind," I wonder if she was slurring her words when she said it? More

Where's My Teeth?: Killers Blame Led Zeppelin and Nirvana for Lack of World Domination
May 1, 2009 – Brandon Flowers of the Killers figures his band would be much bigger if Led Zeppelin and Nirvana never existed. In fact he told NME.com he’d like to knock both bands “off their pedestals.” Yeah, good luck with that. Let’s see Brandon, Zeppelin had changed the face of Rock music forever and had broken up long before you were even born.

Flowers goes on to say he appreciates his groups huge success in the UK but feels a need to overcome listeners prejudices in his home country of the U.S.

"We’ve been embraced in Britain in a way that I’ll never understand, and it’s such a wonderful thing," he said. "But over here [in America], people are still so obsessed with Led Zeppelin and Nirvana, those sorts of bands, that nobody else is allowed [to grow]."

Flowers, who is the lead singer and chief songwriter of the Las Vegas band, said, "It’s not just us; there are a lot of great bands that have been held down or confined by the influence of these people that we’ve put up on pedestals. I’m tired of it, you know? I just want to knock them all off! And people don’t like that attitude. It’s almost like they don’t believe that it’s possible that anybody else can be the real deal.” More

Where’s My Teeth? Britain's Got Talent Creates Unlikely Star – Susan Boyle
April 17, 2009 – A week ago Susan Boyle was just an unemployed charity worker living alone with her cat Pebbles in Blackburn, West Lothian. The 47 year old is now the most talked about singer on the planet after her historic audition on the ITV1 reality show `Britain's Got Talent.'

The Scottish woman was laughed at as she walked on stage. Even judge Simon Cowell rolled his eyes before her audition. The unassuming Boyle looked completely out of place and admitted she’d never even been kissed, but then, she sang and everything changed. If this isn’t a reality check about our idea of what makes a star then we’re all doomed and sentenced to listen to Heidi Montag forever.. Her rendition of `I Dreamed a Dream` from the musical `Les Misérables` was delicious, honest and a complete surprise to everyone, not only in the audience but, around the world.

The video has now gone viral and her YouTube hits have surpassed 25 million. The world has fallen in love with Boyle. Even Broadway legend Patti LuPone gave her a huge thumbs up a few days later on The Early Show. More

Where's My Teeth: Billy Bob Thornton: A lesson in the “Perfect Storm” of Lunacy
April 16, 2009 – Chances are, if you come up to anybody and asked them about Billy Bob Thornton’s music career they would say “What Duh, you mean Billy Bob the actor?” That’s exactly how I reacted at first. I like Thornton, the actor; ‘Bad Santa’ is one of my all time favourite movies. In fact, I gave his singing a chance because of that and it turns out his tunes aren’t bad, as long as you have an affinity for "cosmic cowboy music."

As you’ve heard Thornton acted like a dick to CBC host Jian Ghomeshi, after being asked (or rather referencing) about his acting career. So why did Billy Bob steal the crazy-crown from Joaquin Phoenix? First off, things clearly started on the wrong foot and one thing led to another, creating a “Perfect Storm” of lunacy.

Ever find yourself looking back on a day, shaking your head, wondering, how things got completely out of hand? It’s happened to all of us but it might just happen to Thornton more often than not. Also, it doesn’t sound like old Billy Bob is regretting anything that happened at the CBC. He went on stage later and called Ghomeshi “an ass-hole.” Was he really angry about the “acting” mention or was he just being the ass-hole? He did ask CBC producers not to mention his acting but come on! More

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