Resolution Calling for New Streaming Royalty to Fairly Pay Music Artists
Congresswoman Tlaib Introduces Resolution Calling for New Streaming Royalty to Fairly Pay Music Artists Aug 11, 2022 WASHINGTON, D.C. – This week, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) introduced House Concurrent Resolution 102, a new resolution recognizing the need to establish a new royalty program that would directly compensate musicians with a fairer royalty payment every time their music is listened to on a streaming music service, like Spotify. “Streaming has become an increasingly popular choice for people to enjoy music, but unfortunately while streaming services and record labels continue to make tons of money off of these platforms, the artists who make this music are ... [Read More]
Anaïs Mitchell and “Hadestown” Opens in Los Angeles
After playing to sold-out audiences on Broadway prior to the pandemic, and winning a dozen Tony and Grammy Awards, the musical “Hadestown” arrived in Los Angles a few nights ago. Julia and I joined a jam-packed crowd at the Ahmanson Theatre two nights ago and it was a ball. Based on the mythological story of Orpheus and Eurydice, “Hadestown” is set in the Depression years and features 21 great songs. The music, lyrics, and book were written by an incredibly talented woman, Anaïs Mitchell. “Hadestown” plays in Los Angeles for about a month. I noticed that several shows are sold ... [Read More]
Honoring Esteban Torres with Guthrie’s “Plain Wreck at Los Gatos (Deportee)”
Recently I learned that retired U.S. Representative Esteban Torres had passed away at the age of 92. Although I had met Congressman Torres (or “E.T.” as friends called him) several years ago, I never really knew him, but I knew about his incredible career. Born in the copper mining region of Arizona, his father, a miner, was deported to Mexico in 1935, when E.T. was three years. This was during the depths of the Great Depression and thousands of Mexican laborers were deported. E.T. never saw his father again but he went on to an inspiring career serving in the ... [Read More]
All They Will Call You: The Telling of the Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon – Darryl Holter Book Review
Tim Z. Hernandez, All They Will Call You: The Telling of the Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon. University of Arizona Press, 2017. Book Review by Darryl Holter | Woody Guthrie Annual, 3 (2017) Woody Guthrie made lists. He compiled lists of all the songs he had written and then made new lists, sometimes changing the titles. In private notebooks he made lists of songs he wanted to write, headlines from newspapers, and names of friends he planned to write. On New Year’s Day in 1943 he recorded a list of thirty-three resolutions including “work more and better,” “change socks,” ... [Read More]
Happy Birthday, Waylon Jennings! (No, not that Waylon Jennings.)
Happy Birthday, Waylon Jennings! No, not that Waylon Jennings. I mean my dog and BTW, I didn’t name him. Waylon turned 15 years on January 16th, so we had a little party for him. I adopted Waylon from a rescue service in 2008. I’ve always liked the songs by Waylon Jennings so I liked the dog’s name. Also, I am a bit of a Francophile and Waylon is a French Brittany, the largest of the Spaniel family, a bird dog who loves to retrieve tennis balls. Unlike American Brittanys, which are brown and white or liver and white, French Brittanys ... [Read More]
All of Darryl Holter’s recordings are now available to stream or purchase on Bandcamp
Darryl Holter has made his latest album Roots & Branches available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp - Along with his entire back catalogue, including Radio Songs, West Bank Gone, Crooked Hearts and more, now easily accessible. Visit the entire catalogue for stream or purchase on https://darrylholter.bandcamp.com/ Darryl Holter grew up playing the guitar and singing country and rock and roll songs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His current brand of Americana music draws from country, blues and folk traditions and often tells stories about people, places and events.
Happy Birthday, Bob Dylan
It's Bob Dylan's 80th Birthday and that reminded me of this incident. - DH It was December 1977 or 1978 and I was driving from Madison to Minneapolis with April and Rachael to visit our families for Christmas. We stopped in Menominee to pick up April’s brother, Dean. Around midnight I stopped at the Big Steer truck stop outside of Osseo, Wisconsin, to get some coffee so I could make the next hundred miles to the Twin Cities. I saw a new red Cadillac in the parking lot. We sat in a booth and ordered. Dean, who was sitting across ... [Read More]
Don Heffington, Lone Justice drummer and session musician for roots stars, dies at 70
I had the pleasure of working with Don Heffington on two albums, Crooked Hearts and Roots and Branches. Don was a consummate professional. He arrived ahead of time, set up his drum kit, and was ready to roll when most of us were still tuning up. The long list of artists lucky enough to hire Don for percussion reads like a who’s who in roots and Americana music. In the studio Don was low-key and serious, but I remember when we knocked off for lunch while recording at Sunset Sounds, Don asked me why I changed the tempo of “A ... [Read More]
Op-Ed: Why L.A. shouldn’t rename a stretch of Figueroa Street for Kobe Bryant
By Darryl Holter, William Estrada and John Echeveste Los Angeles Times | Dec. 6, 2020 Whether with a bulldozer or stroke of a pen, Los Angeles often shows little respect for its multilayered history. To most motorists, Figueroa, Pico and Alvarado may just be major and meaningless congested streets that crisscross the city, but their significance is deeply ingrained in the rich history and diverse cultural heritage of Los Angeles. A case in point is the controversy surrounding Figueroa Street, one of the city’s earliest and longest streets, stretching in two segments nearly 30 miles across Los Angeles, from the ... [Read More]
San Francisco’s iconic City Lights bookstore on verge of closing
San Francisco's iconic City Lights bookstore on verge of closing Sad news. Another victim of Coronavirus might be San Francisco’s venerable City Lights Bookstore. Like other bookstores in California, including our Chevalier’s Books in LA, it has been shuttered since March 16 and may not survive. I’ve always loved City Lights and never visit SF without stopping to browse the poetry section or the incredible collection of Beat Generation literature upstairs. I stay at a hotel near Union Square, walk through Chinatown up to City Lights, buy a book or two, walk across Jack Kerouac Alley, enter Vesuvio's Bar, order ... [Read More]
Darryl Holter grew up playing the guitar and singing country and rock and roll songs in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His current brand of Americana music draws from country, blues and folk traditions and often tells stories about people, places and events.