The Beatles come to Pittsburgh - 50 Years ago this week (1964)

I had the very good fortune this summer to meet the man who was largely responsible for bringing the Beatles to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during their first US tour. This would end up being the Beatles one and only appearance in the "steel city", and was near the beginning of Pat DiCesare's legendary career in the concert business.

Pat DiCesare started out as a songwriter and Doo Wop performer in the 1950s and later moved on to booking shows and concerts. In time, he and his partner Rich Engler became the single most powerful force in the Pittsburgh area concert business. It wasn't long before DiCesare-Engler Productions became one of the top grossing concert companies in the entire US. Their dominance in that industry would continue for over 3 decades. During that time, Pat and Rich would go on to produce and promote concerts by legendary artists including Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin, The Temptations, Aretha Franklin and many, many more.

My wife and I both were fortunate to meet Pat this past August during a Quantum Leap conference (nope, its not about the very cool TV show, but instead it's an incredible training and mentoring program). It turns out Pat took his lifetime of experiences and stories and turned them into an amazing book "Hard Days, Hard Nights" and was there like us learning how to promote his book. This amazing book of musical journeys tells many of Pat's own personal stories of working with and promoting many of the legendary artists we all grew up with.

To honor Pat and his incredible career, the governor of Pennsylvania just announced that the week of Sept 14th was The Beatles week to honor the Fab Four visit to our state 50 years ago on their inaugural US tour. In addition, the governor named the day of the Beatles concert, Sept 14th, as Pat DiCesare Day in Pennsylvania. I can't believe I met someone who has a day named after them how cool is that! In talking with Pat, both in person and on the phone, you can tell he's just about the nicest and most genuine person you will ever meet, especially in this crazy music business. If you are a music fan like me, I highly recommend you head over to Amazon or Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy of "Hard Days, Hard Nights". You will absolutely enjoy the experience!

That's all for today kiddies. I will be back tomorrow with another post, but that topic will be a mystery until I put my writing hat on tomorrow :) Have another great nite and we'll see you soon!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

AMAZING - 41% Increase in Music Education in the UK over the last 15 years, BUT...

I was astounded to read that over the last 15 years, there has been a 41 percent increase in the number of kids in the UK that know how to play an instrument. WOW, that's just amazing! A study by ABRSM, the exam board of the Royal School of Music, also found that the piano, recorder and classical guitar were the favorites with drums, electric guitar and bass guitar not far behind. Now, I'm thinking if they did this in the 60's, guitar, bass and drums would have been tops thanks to the Beatles and the entire British music invasion.

But, back to the topic: In an article I just read, the Royal School of Music study credits this positive musical trend on recent government initiatives, particularly in England. The piece doesn't specifically mention what those initiatives are, but perhaps we need to dig a little deeper. Some of these ideas could possibly be implemented in the US and other countries.

One interesting thing about the article: It mentions that the children from well-off families have a much higher chance of playing an instrument, which itself is not surprising. But I also found it very odd that the title of the article mentions that fact, but not the dramatic increase in the number and percentage of kids playing an instrument. I know as musicians, and for me especially, as part of our "Keep Music Alive" mission, we want to shout out from the mountain tops "WE NEED MORE MUSIC!". But we also need to trumpet out the good news stories where more music is being played. This provides a fairer and more balanced (and ultimately more believable) argument, and also provides us with positive examples that others can learn from.

Here's a link to the article - take a read and post your comments and let me know your thoughts on the topic: Music education still a preserve of the rich, UK study shows

On Deck: Pat DiCesare and "Hard Days, Hard Nights"

We're back on the blog kick folks and we're gonna try to do at least one short blog post EVERY day. Tomorrow we'll be talking about my new music friend Pat DiCesare who is a legend in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania concert world. Pat was instrumental in bringing The Beatles to their one and only appearance in Pittsburgh back in 1964. He also went on to produce hundreds of concerts over 40 plus years, hosting acts like Led Zeppelin, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations and many, many more. So look for the new post on Pat and his new book Hard Days, Hard Nights tomorrow. Till then have a grrrreat nite all!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Tell us your Story about how Music changed YOUR Life!

LoveSongs.com wants to know how music changed your life, whether as a child or some time as an adult. What specific song or artists helped you get through a particularly difficult time in your life and why? We are compiling your original quotes, anecdotes and stories about how music has affected you.

Many of us already know how important music is to our lives: The educational value, the therapeutic value and how music makes us a much happier society. Imagine what our lives would be like if the Beatlesor Elvis never existed, if Michael Jackson, Billy Joel or Elton John never wrote a song or sang a note, or Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones (or insert your favorite artist) never picked up a guitar and began to play. Can you even imagine this? Well unfortunately I can foresee a future where there is no new quality music because of the continuing de-emphasis of music and arts in our schools and the general devaluing of music in our society (when was the last time you bought a CD or purchased an MP3 download)?

We are looking for your stories to include in our blog and a book about "how music can change your life" to be published in the spring of 2015. If you have a quote, anecdote or story you would like to share with the world about why music is so important to you and how it changed your life, then please hop on over to www.LoveSongs.com/keepmusicalive where you'll find a link to be able to send us your story. Each quote or story that is included in our blog or in the book will entitle you to a complimentary copy of the book when it is published. Even more importantly you'll be sharing your music story with the world which will greatly help in our mission to let the world know what music really means to us.

That's all for today kiddies - I'll be back with another post tomorrow as we resume our daily posting now that the "Summer Love & Music" Tour has finally come to a close. Have a great night and will see ya very soon!

Music, Love & Laughter

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Vinyl Records are making a comeback - say WHAT???

I recently heard that vinyl records were making a comeback. I thought, okay so maybe they are selling a little more then they used to for nostalgic sake. Then I dug a little deeper and was amazed to see that in the first half of 2014, vinyl record sales have increased 40% over last year. They are currently on track to sell at least 8 Million units for the year. This is even after selling 6 million units last year which itself was a sizeable increase over the year before. If you look at the numbers, vinyl albums are now selling 10X more units then they were selling 20 years ago. What the heck is going on here?

Like many I was a big "record" buyer back in the day, amassing a decent collection of records from artists like The Carpenters, Elton John, Barry Manilow, Air Supply, Kiss, Led Zeppelinand more. Yes you heard right, I said Kiss & Led Zeppelin in the same sentence as Barry Manilow, Air Supply & The Carpenters. While growing up, I LOVED so many different styles of music and still do today. If a song has a great melody or hook, then I don't really care what style it is, I wanna hear it!

Still, it is amazing that vinyl record sales are increasing at such a high rate, and at the same time sales of CDs and even MP3 downloads are decreasing. If you look behind the numbersm you'll see that some of this phenomena is due to the nostalgic buyers picking up a newly printed version of masterpieces from the past (aka. The Beatles Abbey Road). However even more of the trend is coming from newer artists like Jack White, the Artic Monkeys and Beck, each of who are releasing their music on the vinyl format in addition to CDs and online. We've always known that the quality of vinyl records far surpasses the CD and online MP3s. When you listen to digital music you just can't hear the warmth and all instrumentation nuances when you've cut out part of the audio spectrum in order to get it down to less "bits".

Buying your music on vinyl also gives you much larger artwork (remember album covers) that you can admire for years to come. Inside the album or on the back cover you'll also find a myriad of information about the artists, songwriters, producers and anyone else involved in making the record. So if you don't mind the occasionally scratched record or having to pick up the needle and put it back on the song you want, then vinyl record sales may continue to increase at least for a little while.

For some background info on this phenomena I recommend this article at Qz.com (Quartz) entitled Quartz: The Music Industrys New Fangled Growth Business - Vinyl Records. In addition to some interesting details it also offers some great statistics on what's going on. I also managed to come across two very good short documentaries on YouTubeon why vinyl records are making a comeback. If you remember albums and want to reminisce or if you've heard about records and want to learn more I highly recommend you check these both out:

That's all she wrote for today folks - I'll be back tomorrow for Sunday hits, where we talk about some of our favorite songs on the radio (and online) today. Until then have yourself a grrreat Saturday nite!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #12 - Please visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission