On the other hand…

I mean I’m sitting there at Musicares… All those label people? They don’t attend anymore, that’s not where the money is, it’s all in live. And Mariah Carey was honored and it was weird, because everybody involved in breaking her was not there. Donnie Ienner worked me hard on “Vision of Love,” and needless to say Tommy Mottola was in a relationship with Mariah, married her…

So it made me feel old. Like the music world had passed me by.

And then I went to the Troubadour last night.

Sitting up in the bleachers I had a long conversation with David Macias, whose Thirty Tigers is the bleeding edge of quality distribution. What I mean is…if he’s involved, it’s worth paying attention… All the acts the majors no longer invest in, he’s the man… Like with Lucinda Williams. He’s even got an Amy Grant album coming out.

And David started philosophizing, about today’s music being regressive, that’s the word he used. How it was looking backwards, he wanted to put out records that were something new, that pushed the envelope, and he’s working on that.

But ultimately the show began.

I mean get old enough, and you start to feel removed.

But last night’s show reinvigorated me, illustrated that the problem was not me, but the music being purveyed by the big time industry.

There were no hard drives. People played their instruments. The music was alive and it breathed.

And rather than dancing queens, we got endless ladies who showed how far women in music have come.

All I can say is you have to see Rhiannon Giddens to get her. The passion…she was in the moment, she melded with the music, it was riveting.

Sierra Hull performed the one song I was hoping to hear, “Look Out for My Love,” which Linda Ronstadt covered so exquisitely on her “new wave” album “Mad Love.” Check it out if you don’t know this version, it amps up the song, gives it added gravitas.

Chris Pierce? I’d never heard of the guy, but he channeled Paul Robeson doing “Ol’ Man River,” only in this case it was “Southern Man,” which Pierce slowed down to a dirge and bellowed…it was like watching a movie, it was more than the song, more than a performance, it was a PRESENCE!

Margo Price… Speaking of Ronstadt, Margo did “Love is a Rose” and evidenced such charisma that when she was gone you could feel the absence, she is a star.

Molly Tuttle made me like a song I never did. She took “Helpless” out of the ether with a more full-bodied version than the original. And she picked a few notes to boot. Everybody could play. Sierra Hull…

Maggie Rose belted the choruses of “Down By the River,” and urged those in attendance to join along, and I don’t know about everybody else, but I could not hold myself back.

Katie Pruitt I’d never heard of, but she picked the notes in “Ohio”… And even though it’s over half a century old, I felt the spirit of Minneapolis in the room.

Young the Giant? I never got them, but they sang a powerful version of “Old Man” that had me reflecting on my own life, where I’d been, who I am now… That’s what we want from music, to set our minds free, so they can float down the river of thought..

Jesse Welles, the man of the moment, did “After the Gold Rush” and didn’t walk off immediately, so I thought he was going to break into his anti-ICE song, but alas, that did not happen.

Grace Potter evidenced more spirit, more of the rock and roll ethos than any woman I saw on the Grammy telecast. You could tell it was coming from deep inside, her soul, she was a rock chick, there was nothing calculated about her performance whatsoever.

And there was Sara Watkins and the Milk Carton Kids and even more, but all I can tell you is I started off the show at a distance, but about a third of the way in I was totally involved, I became one with the music… No, it was more than that, it was the atmosphere, the vibe, like David Byrne once sang, it was the same as it ever was.

Yet it wasn’t old farts, but young ‘uns. Just when I thought the formula was lost, I found that it had been channeled by a younger generation, removed from the vapid, cringe-worthy mainstream, keeping it alive and extending it. These people could play and sing and there was no dancing involved… It was about the music, pure and simple, nothing more was necessary, and it touched every single person in the place.

At dinner we were talking about how hard it is to get us out. Because we’ve seen all the acts, in their heyday, and the new ones…

When I left the Troubadour last night there was a bounce in my step. I felt not only did the people and the music still have it, but SO DID I! I may be closer to death, but everything that excited me, that drew me to the sound, was still there, alive and cooking.

I only wish you were there.

What kind of crazy, f*cked up world do we live in where Reba McEntire is the highlight of the Grammys?

One in which “popular” music is vapid, two-dimensional tripe evidencing the worst tropes of the past three decades.

Yup, like Mariah Carey being honored at Musicares… A dud of an evening. Normally people are on their feet, mixing it up, it’s a concert, but Friday night? Dullsville. You wanna know why? Because she has no fans. No hardcore army. She’s burned those she had out, as for the rest of us, we wince and pass by. But on singing TV shows… It became about range, melisma, and those are the penumbra as opposed to the heart.

The heart is the song. With melody. That people can sing along to. A number with changes that sticks in your head.

Now normally I don’t watch the Grammys, however… Our internet has been down, and the Spectrum repairman was supposed to come between five and six and he was delayed and I ended up seeing too much of this show.

Now youngsters are not going to watch. They never do. They believe in an on demand world. They’ll see the clips later if anything truly noteworthy happens. But this show was skewed young and it was just creepy.

Sabrina Carpenter… I mean really? She’s the Great White Hope of the industry, everybody is saying how great she is, but she looks like a flight attendant doing karaoke.

As for Bruno Mars… I mean it was a novelty when NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys danced, and MTV had evolved into mass dance before that, but mostly with Janet Jackson and other members of the rhythm nation. I mean this is the best we can do? A revue? Little different from the crap purveyed before the Beatles broke the world wide open?

Of course Bruno is talented, but he’s got no soul… I don’t mean soul music, I mean meaning, something more than skin deep. It’s all show. There’s a market for that, but that’s not what blew this business up, that was about speaking individual truth and leading the public, opening people’s eyes, not just being the soundtrack to their lives.

As for the New Artist nominees… Execrable in most cases. If these people are gonna last, we’re doomed. One knew Olivia Dean was gonna win before they even ripped open the envelope. I mean she’s in the real music world, the rest are just caricatures. As for Lola Young, “Messy” is great, the rest not so much.

I applaud Bad Bunny.

But then you’ve got nitwit Billie Eilish saying “No one is illegal on stolen land.” God, it makes me feel good I’m educated. That’s right, we’ll lump every cause together as you shed a tear, as you talk about immigrants, obliquely referencing what is going on in Minneapolis with ICE. Why don’t you just come out and say it instead of virtue signaling. The plight of Native Americans is a big issue, but please, follow Don Henley to the heart of the matter.

And you may criticize me for giving Eilish sh*t, picking nits, but she’s been working on her career since her early years, I don’t think she’s ever read a book, there’s nothing that evidences she has. Don Henley saved Walden Woods, Billie Elish saved the stylist who came up with her baggy clothes and multi-colored hair.

Don’t tell me to be nice. It’s they little things that separate legendary from pedestrian. As for Justin Bieber… You may have seen him on Letterman talking about his tattoos, Dave telling him not to go all Sistine Chapel on himself. Bieber? He called it the SIXTEENTH CHAPEL!

These are our “leaders,” watch the parking meters.

Tonight’s show was straight out of the sixties, a variety conglomeration that tries to cover all the bases and appeals to no one. There’s no edge, no gravitas. Until…

Reba McEntire hit the stage. I was never a fan and she’s taken the plastic surgery too far, but…

She can sing. Seemingly better than anybody who preceded her. A song with melody and changes, it’s a relief. And you’ll find more of this in country music, but hipsters in Hollywood think those people are hicks, they look down on them, which is why Morgan Wallen, the biggest act in America, didn’t submit his music, nor did Zach Bryan.

That’s right, Luminate put out its year end report. Because of endless vinyl iterations and other sales, which are unduly weighted in the bogus charts, Taylor Swift got the crown, she was number one. But in truth, Morgan had the most CONSUMPTION, the most LISTENS! And that’s all that counts.

But he’s not there.

Country and Latin, those are the stories of today’s music business, not this pop tripe. But it keeps being shoved down our throats.

But the mainstream music business is all pop, all the time…and there’s a market for that, there has been throughout time, but that’s not where passion lies, and music needs to be about passion to grow. As George Drakoulias once told me, he used to fight over records. Can you imagine fighting over a record today? In a world where backstage everybody wants to talk about streaming television and politics? And if the conversation turns to music, it’s always the same thing… MONEY! How much money is this act garnering.

The problem with music today is there’s just not enough money in it, so the best and the brightest go elsewhere. And the biggest phenomenon of the year was “KPop Demon Hunters,” which happened without industry participation…whilst Robert Kyncl and Lucian Grainge keep talking about AI. How about IDEAS?

This business is being run like it’s the last century, but it no longer is.

And since it’s easiest to sell lowest common denominator stuff, that’s what they’re focusing on.

We used to sell “Five Easy Pieces.” Now we sell the musical equivalent of Marvel movies. There’s no there there. We haven’t had a new sound in years. Just endless repetitive junk, and they keep telling us it’s good as fewer and fewer people pay attention. I mean if you were a newbie, in from the hinterlands, and you saw tonight’s acts you’d think they were cartoons. Where are the earthy people? Rockers used to have jagged teeth, even Bowie, but everybody on stage was a product of cosmetic dentistry… It’s your edges, your imperfections, that grab people. But everybody tonight was sleek and you just couldn’t hook on to them

Until Reba.

We are so far from the roots we can’t even see the garden.

You had to be brain dead to enjoy this show. You watched it from a remove, a distance… These are not your people, you can’t relate to them. If they come from the same background, they’ve long since left it behind. It’s all flash and no dirt.

But when it’s dirty, edgy and soulful…

That’s when we connect.

And that connection is everything.

Tune in Saturday January 31st to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

Phone #: 844-686-5863

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz

I know this sounds contradictory to what I’ve been saying, but hang in there.

“Streets of Minneapolis” may have no legs as a record (ignore its #1 status on iTunes, only old people buy tracks and the number required to top the chart is minuscule), but it does have power as a statement. That’s what we’ve seen over the past couple of days, Bruce cut a protest song, word spread on the internets and it became a big news story. Ditto with opening the Grammys.

Now you don’t have to be nominated for a Grammy to open the show. Just look back to the Police in 2007, who led off the show as a giant advertisement for their reunion tour. Then again, this was news, the band hadn’t been together for decades.

You can’t separate politics from music, as illustrated by this letter to the editor in today’s “New York Times”: 

_____

So Roma Daravi, the Kennedy Center’s vice president for public relations, believes that there is no place for politics in the arts? She should then be informed of a few historical facts.

In 1786, Mozart premiered his opera “The Marriage of Figaro,” based on a play by Pierre Beaumarchais, an allegory about the French aristocracy.

In 1804, Beethoven retracted his dedication of his Symphony No. 3 to Napoleon in protest of his crowning himself emperor of France.

In 1938, Arturo Toscanini refused to return to the Salzburg Festival in Austria in protest of Hitler’s annexation of Austria.

This list only scratches the surface of how politics has affected the arts over recent history. And it proves that the artists who have recently refused to perform at the Kennedy Center are in extremely good company.

Arthur J. Horowitz

Washington

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/opinion/philip-glass-protest-kennedy-center.html

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Politics and music are intertwined.

But we haven’t had that spirit here since 1969.

But Big Music has become afraid of politics, for fear of alienating someone, for fear of blowback, as the power of music becomes marginalized and the ratings of the Grammys have declined.

But if Springsteen opens the show with “Streets of Minneapolis,” alone, sitting on a stool with an acoustic guitar, the story will be front page news immediately, it will dominate discussion for days, it will be a huge anti-ICE story, never to be forgotten.

Like Pee-Wee Herman opening the MTV Video Music Awards.

That’s what MTV specialized in, not bogus, wince-generating “Grammy moments,” but true cultural events, that showed a knowledge of the landscape, that made people believe the outlet was not beholden to anyone but itself and was invested in always pushing the envelope, being on the bleeding edge.

Unlike the Grammy telecast.

So Springsteen opens with this song… The Trumpist blowback will be immediate, just like when it was announced that Bad Bunny would be doing the Super Bowl, a man who has had no problem stating his at times uncomfortable to the right truth. And the funny thing is months later, the NFL now looks prescient, it’s in the right place at the right time. When the blowback happened, the discussion was first about the NFL punting, getting a new headliner, and then not ever having a controversial performer at the game again. But now, in the wake of ICE in Minneapolis, the NFL looks like it has a backbone, instead of bland entertainment it is standing its ground, presenting an artist with a viewpoint.

So, Springsteen…

All it takes is a private jet. Just the man and his guitar. No rehearsal necessary, no one needs to know, even CBS.

And this is the last year of the show on CBS, so if there are bridges to be burned, now is the time. If the heat falls on CBS, all the better…the network that settled with Trump, that is appeasing the president, with Bari Weiss in charge of the news.

And never forget, when Kimmel was taken off the air… He was brought back on primarily because people started canceling their Disney+ subscriptions. CBS and the Ellisons may be in thrall to Trump, but their bills are paid by the public, that’s where their true loyalties, and financial future, lie.

Of course not everybody is going to agree with Springsteen’s anti-ICE viewpoint, but Trump’s ratings are abysmal and the tide is turning against ICE. Being afraid of blowback is exactly what Trump and his minions want, they call this a chilling effect. If you’re afraid to voice your opinion…

What Trump wants is a typical Grammy telecast, forgotten within twenty four hours. Quick, who won last year? You can’t remember. But you will remember that Springsteen opened the show with this anti-ICE song.

And where is it written that no one can perform a political song, have a viewpoint on television? There is no rule, no law whatsoever,  just fear. This is why the Grammys were completely irrelevant at the height of the music explosion. The Beatles and the San Francisco sound and the FM acts were just too dangerous, but that’s where all the action, and the money, ultimately were.

This is a no-brainer. It’s just a matter of whether Harvey Mason, Jr. and Ben Winston have the balls to do it.

Of course everybody on the inside will say not to take the risk, but isn’t music all about risk? Isn’t it always the unexpected that pushes boundaries, that makes us question our values and beliefs, that succeeds? The Beatles did drugs, John Lennon said the band was bigger than Jesus. In retrospect they’re seen as fresh-faced and safe, but that was not the case. They were leaders, they influenced the public, the way people thought. You can’t say the same thing about Bruno Mars, even Lady Gaga, that’s entertainment, not that different from the dreck that preceded the Beatles, that the Lads from Liverpool wiped off the map.

Springsteen may be old…then again, so is CBS’s audience. I mean who is watching an awards show in real time? Certainly not the younger generations, who may not even have access to the show, if anything they’ll watch clips online after the fact, and a clip of Bruce opening the show will go viral.

It’s about the event, the publicity, the statement more than the song itself. This is a moment of triumph wholly within reach of the Grammys and their telecast.

I dare them to do it.