Saturday, October 03, 2009

This Saturday Only!

From Pearl Jam on Austin City Limits to the music of Stevie Wonder at Threadgills Downtown

Fresh from its Austin City Limits debut with Pearl Jam last Saturday (show will air nationally on PBS on Nov.21), Will Taylor and Strings Attached present a concert and lightshow this Saturday Night:

Songs in the Key of Life
The Music of Stevie Wonder

Feat. Tameca Jones and Jayme Ivison

One SHOW ONLY

Saturday, Oct. 10th 9pm
Threadgills Downtown


Get Tickets at StringsAttached.org


Its late Thursday night and I have a mission. I need to compose an email so compelling, that you reach excitedly for the mouse on your right to click the Buy Tickets link as your heartbeat quickens and you call several close friends to join you for the show.

A vision of your Saturday night forms in your mind: cool weather,
colorful onstage visuals that add a new dimension to the Wonder songs, women and men dancing, a relaxing massage with Michelle during the show, and dinner with several close friends at Threadgills inside or out before the show.

Sounds like a perfect night out in Austin to me. Too bad I've got to play the show. :(

Look into my eyes...you are now clicking Buy Tickets

Clicked yet? Well let me present a little menu of fun items to whet your appetite more:

1) Stevie backwards- can you guess the three songs on this mp3? Download or podcast

2) Take our facebook Stevie Wonder Quiz

3) Want a photo with Will at the show? Click here

4) See a video playlist of the songs we'll be performing.

5) See a documentary about the making of the album
here.

6) You want more? Ok here's a free surprise mp3 for you.

Now Buy Tickets ?

Thanks for your support.


"Let us come together before we're annihilated." -- Stevie Wonder

More shows at StringsAttached.org

Including our upcoming Police show.



See Strings Attached perform Stevie Wonder songs below:


Get Tickets here or at the door.

Will Taylor and Strings Attached will recreate selections from Stevie's masterpiece Songs in the Key of Life.


See a documentary about the making of the album here.

Here's a bit of background on the songs we'll be playing. Prepared by Holley Mcconnell.

Living for the City: The song begins with Wonder describing the life of a boy born in "hard time Mississippi". His family is poor, but his parents work hard and encourage him, in spite of the terrible conditions they live in, they also have lack of food and money as well as dealing with a constant battle of racism. As the track progresses, the tension and anger build in Wonder's voice, matching the growing frustrations of the subjects in the song. A spoken interlude midway through the song has the young boy, now a young man, arriving in New York City for a new beginning. He is tricked into transporting drugs, arrested and sentenced to 10 years in jail. The tension in Wonder's voice boils over at this point into an angry growl, but then subsides again as he ends the song on a positive note.

All in Love is Fair (Review): Laced with agony and pain, Stevie teaches us all about the difficulties of a romantic relationship. Sure, people vow to stay in love--but all too often they don't. Stevie sings of how his love with his woman did not stand the test of time; Stevie sings this with passion and style.

Make Sure You're Sure (Review): A lush string-laden track concerning commitment in a relationship.

Knocks Me Off My Feet (Review): One of his famous love ballads, which is classic in directness and simplicity. The song is turned loose in the dense, danceable Brazilian-flavored production.

Sir Duke: The song was written in tribute to Duke Ellington, the influential jazz legend who had died in 1974. The lyrics also refer to Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.

Village Ghettoland (Review): Stevie Wonder sings of "Village Ghetto Land," describing an almost Brechtian scene of despair and corruption over a deliberately ironic piece of elegant, mock-classical music.

Pastime Paradise (Review): This song sounds like a parody of a well-meaning protest song with its meaningless shuffle of words. Though the words to "Pastime Paradise" may make you want to run from the room, the music will keep you there, with its fascinating blend of what sounds like a string quartet set to a delicate Latin beat.

As: it reached #36 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Black Singles chart. In 1999, Mary J. Blidge and George Michael covered the song, and it is the second single from George Michael's greatest hits Ladies & Gentleman: The Best of George Michael. While not released in the U.S., it became a top ten UK pop hit, reaching #4 on the chart.

Boogie on a Reggae Woman: This song, which was not in the reggae style (hence the unmistakable rock-steady rhythm guitar), continued Wonder's successful Top Ten streak on the pop charts. The lyrics are designed as a dialogue between the "nice" and "naughty" intent. It is also dubbed the farting song as it sounds like someone farting in the introduction.

Superstition as If You Read My Mind: Wonder had actually written this song for Jeff Beck, but at the insistence of his own manager, Wonder himself recorded it first. Beck was instead offered "Cause We've Ended As Lovers," which he recorded on Blow by Blow. Jeff Beck played guitar on Talking Book and later recorded his own version of "Superstition."The song deals with superstitions, and mentions several popular superstitious fables in its lyrics.

Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing: The song's lyrics convey a positive message about taking things in stride and accentuating the positive. It begins with an unusual spoken bit of dialogue, a forerunner of the "skits" popular in later hip-hop albums, in which Wonder portrays a slick character trying to impress a woman with his worldliness.

I Wish: The song focuses on his childhood. The single hit number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and soul singles chart.

Higher Ground: Against a driving, percolating clavinet-based arrangement, the lyric posits that religion can perhaps successfully do battle with the darker sides of human nature. The album version of this song contains an extra verse and runs 30 seconds longer than the single version. The unique wah-clavinet sound in the song was achieved with a Mutron envelope filter pedal. The bass is a Moog synthesizer. Via overdubs, Wonder played all instruments on the track, including drums.

"Let us come together before we're annihilated." -- Stevie Wonder


See a documentary about the making of the album here.

Barter for Tickets: http://budurl.com/barterfortics
Tell your facebook friends about the show: http://budurl.com/8hdy
Tell your facebook friends about our page: http://budurl.com/SuggestPage
Host a House Concert: http://budurl.com/houseconcertinfo

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