Music world

The complete cast of the 1965 Oscar-winning film reunited on the Oprah Winfrey Show for the first time in 45 years. The show also featured show by the real Von Trapp great-grandchildren.

Nicholas Hammond, who played the eldest boy Friedrich in the movie, said the "kids" are still close and are at present working on a new project together.

"We realised that we have got this riches trove of memorabilia that we have kept (from the shooting of the movie) our home movies and photos and all of the matter and we are doing a book, the seven kids, and answering all the questions that everybody has asked," Hammond said. "We thought now was our chance to kind of give that back to all the magnificent fans around the world." The book is expected to be out next year.

The actors recall about filming the movie and shared private anecdotes during the one-hour show with Winfrey. Noting that the movie "made my career," Andrews, 75, said, "It was that big a movie, and we had no idea really at the beginning that it was going to be that huge." Andrews was 28 and a new mom when she headed to Austria to shoot for her role as the nun-turned-governess ‘Fraulein Maria.’ Andrews also spoke of her throat surgery in 1997, an operation that left her renowned voice permanently damaged.

"It was not a successful operation, and tissue was removed. I didn’t have cancer, I didn’t have nodules, I didn’t have anything. So, sadly, I had to work to deal with the loss of a voice because it just didn’t come back." Plummer, who played the strict widower Captain Von Trapp, admitted having "fallen in love" with Andrews after seeing her on Broadway in ‘My Fair Lady’ a few years before.

Plummer said he was not thrilled with the role of Captain Von Trapp at first. "I wanted to do a musical, and that was what paying attention it to me. But the part as written was not accurately Hamlet… There was not enough humour in it." ‘The Sound of Music’, which captured the real life Von Trapp family’s escape from Nazi-occupied Austria, won five Oscars counting for Best Picture. Songs from the movie like ‘My Favorite Things,’ ‘Climb Every Mountain’ and ’16 going on 17′ are one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time.

A remastered 45th anniversary DVD and Blu-ray set, counting sing-alongs, a map of filming locations, quizzes and a full length documentary, goes on sale on November 2.

Trashed rake, old frying pans and moose antlers might be scrap to some, but not Canadian Lorne Collie who has made all of these things into guitars at one time or another.

Collie is a "luthier," or guitar maker, and his hobby is transforming the scrap he stumbles across at the farm his lives on with wife, Helen, into electric guitars.

The first guitar he made was out of a spade.

Collie regularly gets offers from guitar enthusiasts to buy weird instruments but he says they are not for sale. He doesn’t want to get into making things to sell. He retired now. He simply does it for pleasure.

For now, Collie is retaining his treasure trove of shaped obscurities until a Beatle comes along.

Working out of the loft of his house in Veenendaal in The Netherlands, Landman has made one-off instruments for musicians including Sonic Youth and Kate Nash.

It makes it individual. My guitar, which has a bass string, sounds like a five piece band.

–Laura-Mary Carter, guitarist, Blood Red Shoes.

The 37-year-old who made his first guitar 10 years ago out of a table leg, now builds instruments with three to 18 strings, giving them an idiosyncratic pitch and tone compared with traditional six-stringed variety.

When it comes to Las Vegas, Carrie Underwood is a certain bet.

Underwood won her second country music artist of the year award of 2010 in Sin City on Monday night. She earned it at the inaugural American Country Awards about eight months after she won the top honor at the Academy of Country Music Awards in April.

In both cases, fans determined the winner. And when it comes to fan support, Underwood has no match. Her fans vote early and often – a holdover from her time as "American Idol" champion – and she made sure to give a shoutout to her supporters after winning six awards.

Lady A won single of the year for the trio’s breakthrough, "Need You Now," and artist of the year: duo or group. Brad Paisley was voted male artist of the year and Blake Shelton and host Trace Adkins won music video of the year.

The show was performance heavy and featured Rascal Flatts and Alan Jackson performing medleys of their hits after tributes, Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan teaming up on "My Kinda Party," and Toby Keith, Keith Urban, Reba McEntire, Josh Turner and The Band Perry playing recent hits.

Adkins opened the show by declining to wear a pair of "meat chaps" offered by the show’s producers, a la Lady Gaga’s meat dress, in a pre-taped comedy skit. He also appeared to skip the monologue.

"It’s a live show," Adkins said. "What are they going to do? They can’t fire me right in the middle of it, right?

Powerpop rock band House Of Heroes is giving away three new songs free to fans as part of a digitally-aggressive campaign by label home Gotee Records with the full album The End Is Not The End available at iTunes.com on April 15th for just $9.99.

The site, www.freeHoH.com, allows fans to download three new House Of Heroes songs free of charge in return for providing five email addresses of other people who they think may enjoy the music as well. Those email addresses will only be used by the label to send the link to the House Of Heroes download site.

“When you set out to make a record, you have certain hopes and expectations as far as how you expect the final product to turn out. I can honestly say that we exceeded every single one of those with this new music, “says lead vocalist/guitarist Tim Skipper. He adds, “It’s an exciting time for music with the developments we have in technology, especially communication. We’re ready to try something new! Hopefully this thing spreads very organically, with friends telling friends and so on.”

House of Heroes has two major label releases to their credit including their 2005 self-titled debut and Say No More in 2006. Prior to signing a record deal with Mono VS Stereo/Gotee, the band released an indie project What You Want Is Now (2002) to much critical acclaim and a large grassroots following. On the tour front, House Of Heroes has opened up for the likes of Silverchair, Relient K, MxPx, and music legend Stryper, as well as full-blown tours with acts including Spoken, The Evan Anthem, Last Tuesday, Dropping Daylight, Love Arcade, and Kids In The Way. Plans for extensive touring this year include a recent headlining club tour in markets including St. Paul, Chicago, Columbus, NYC, Nashville, Atlanta, Orlando and more.

The band is Columbus-Ohio natives Tim Skipper (guitar/lead vocals), A.J Babcock (bass/vocals), Colin Rigsby (drums/vocals), and Jared Rigsby (guitar/vocals).

(Nashville, Tennessee) –June 15, 2010 – Popular Grammy Award winning Christian artist, Rebecca St. James is in New York for a live appearance Wednesday night (16th) on Fox New’s Channel’s “Hannity.” (9:00 PM Eastern/8:00 PM Central). St. James will make a return guesting on the program’s popular “Great American Panel” –her third visit to the guest panel in the last few months.

With the fall 2009 release of her starring role in the film, “Sarah’s Choice,” (Pure Flix Entertainment) giving voice to a strong pro life agenda, Rebecca is devoting time this year, amidst plans for new music and more films, to a series of special appearances nationally for crisis pregnancy and right to life organizations.

She describes her involvement on behalf of the centers as one the most rewarding results of her creative association with "Sarah’s Choice." “My passion for the pro-life message has grown tremendously as I have encountered firsthand the dedication and importance of their mission for the unborn. It is just beautiful to see their work, and I’ve felt so incredibly fulfilled and energized, coming alongside of what they’re doing and supporting them in such a small way,” she noted in a recent interview.

Rebecca St. James is the current cover/feature of the May-June issue of Celebrate Life magazine, a publication of the American Life League.

Resource Rebecca St. James online: www.myspace.com/rebeccastjames

For information on the film "Sarah’s Choice:"

http://sarah.pureflix.com

Read our review of Sarah’s Choice.

Read our interview with Rebecca on Sarah’s Choice.

Brand new music from female-led rock band Fireflight will debuted last night on NBC with the band’s yet unreleased track “Unbreakable” selected to air in promotion for the network’s new hit show “Bionic Woman”.

The promotional spots began airing last night on NBC and will run throughout the week.

The high-impact new song is the title track for Fireflight’’s forthcoming sophomore album releasing spring 2008. Although the album is months from release at retail, the title track is an instant hit with NBC executives.

Janine Kerr, NBC/Universal Director of Promo Services, says, “Once I heard ‘Unbreakable’ by Fireflight, it just made sense that NBC should use this song in ‘Bionic Woman’ promos. In fact, the whole CD is great. Buy it!”

The single is scheduled for digital download at iTunes and other select digital channels in November.

To hear an excerpt of the song, visit Fireflight’s Myspace page: www.myspace.com/fireflight.

Update! Check out most recent post here about this song now being available on iTunes!

On the heels of situation a record for the first female artist to score nine Country Music Association nominations this September, Miranda Lambert carry on her success with her first DVD, Revolution: Live By Candlelight. The six songs acoustic collection was released on Oct. 12 and follows up her 2009 studio album, Revolution.

One of the tracks she sings on the DVD is "Love Is Looking For You," one of Lambert’s own favorites from her 2005 debut album, Kerosene. Filmed in a close setting in Nashville, TN, the screen only shows Lambert performing with her band and being surrounded by candles, which actually set off the fire terror while filming.

Lambert, whose songs tend to be clever and unruly with tracks like "Gunpowder and lead" from her second album Crazy Ex Girlfriend, in its place opens the on-screen concert on a much softer side. Revolution: Live By Candlelight turns into amazing you would hear in Starbucks: good, old mellow tunes that warm the heart.

Lambert talks openly during the videos, as if talking to a best friend on what enthused the songs that gained her critical acclaim. "I think Jesus would like hanging out with our band," Lambert says earlier than she sings "Heart Like Mine," on the DVD. It can easily be this generation’s version of Joan Osborne’s 1995 hit "One of Us," because it portrays her personal interpretation of what God and heaven would be like.

"White Liar," which became Lambert’s first highest-chart single reaching at number two on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs, is her strongest performance on the place. "Love Song" is another beautiful song that truly shows "real love" as she clarifies it, smiling and talkative when referring to her fiancé and fellow country artist, Blake Shelton. On another note, "Dead Flowers" is despite to the caliber of her other songs. Still the DVD is quite strong and Lambert truly delivers.

For her first acoustic DVD, Lambert gives it her all to find a way to attach to her fan base. Six songs don’t justify the talent that Lambert has in a music genre that is currently led by an American Idol Carrie Underwood and a teenage sensation Taylor Swift. Lambert herself was a finalist on the 2003 period of the short lived, "Nashville Star."

More prominently, Lambert was named the third female country singer in history to have three records debut at number one on the Billboard country albums charts. Clearly a talented musician, Miranda Lambert opens her music to her fans in an opened visual on this DVD, now available to any country music fan.

The BBC’s alternative music radio station 6 Music, which recently fugitive being shut down, has doubled its weekly listeners.

The digital station, which helped launch indie bands like Florence and the Machine, above, now has an regular of 1.2million tuning in, the latest Rajar figures expose.

A campaign by 6 Music fans to save the station advanced its audience to 100.7% more than last year.

BBC Asian Network, which still faces end, increased its listeners by 22.4% this quarter to 437,000 a week.