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Hello and welcome to an all new installment of The Crossing. Here you will find unbridled, passionate rock ‘n roll confined, captured and
contained on those little shiny discs we call CD’s. But, take heart, it’s in our minds, hearts and souls where real rock ‘n roll lives and breaths!

ARTIST of the MONTH:

Just when you thought you had to have an actual album released during the month to become an artist of a specific month, comes Bill Mallonee. If you look below, you’ll see that Bill Mallonee doesn’t actually have an album out in the month of June. But, if you know Bill, then you know the month ain’t over yet! So who knows? We might have a new album by him by month’s end. I chose Bill Mallonee to be this month’s artist of the month ‘cause, well for no specific reason other than he deserves a month all to himself to bask in the glory of a career so astonishing, so enriching, so captivating, so magnificent, so humble that it takes a genuine reflective human being with a real beating heart to actually GET what’s going on with this guy! That’s where you all come in...

For those in the know, Bill’s got a small but loyal fan base (army?) that has stuck with him thru thick and thin and everything in between. For me, it started when a good friend of mine sent me a cassette tape of the VoL compilation (Bill’s band: Vigilantes Of Love) with some songs from Slow Dark Train added on to it to round out the tape. This was early 1998 as I recall...relatively late in the story of Bill and VoL, but turns out it’s right about in the middle now since the Vigilantes took off around 1990. I remember popping in the tape into my car cassette deck at the time and giving it a listen. To be totally honest, my first impression was of that of a good Americana type band in the Son Volt/Jayhawks/early Wilco mode. But that was all based on just listening to the music. But as I continued to listen I realized there was a LOT more going on with this new band lyrically than could be imagined. I investigated further and gradually started picking
up anything and everything by VoL. This was when you could actually find some VoL titles in the, within a few years, soon vanishing record stores. A year later, in 1999, I had moved to Nashville, Tennessee and began seeing Bill and his band pretty much on a regular basis. Places like 12th & Porter, 3rd & Lindsley, JJ’s Market, and the first place I ever saw Bill, the Exit/In, for a Pioneer Music Group showcase. This was right around the transition of the To The Roof Of The Sky period to the popular Audible Sigh period.  

Jumping to the present, the ever prolific Bill Mallonee has, within the past month, released two albums! The long-awaited “Friendly Fire” got released and, to the surprise of all, an all new totally acoustic album entitled “Hit and Run” got released thru Bill’s official website. Recorded in one day in April, it’s an intimate and dark album somewhat in the Springsteen “Nebraska” mode. To top it all off, Bill’s taking pre-orders for his next project, titled at the moment, “Permafrost” to be out later this year. With a recent reunion of the popular Audible Sigh band lineup and a not too far in the distance appearance at this year’s Cornerstone Festival, it’s no wonder that Bill Mallonee is this month’s Artist of the Month.

If you’d like to dig a little bit deeper into the universal heart, mind and soul of the human condition and experience then, by all means, give Bill Mallonee a good, heartfelt listen. With his consistent mix of memorable rhythms and melodies and a lyrical style that straddles the fence between the straightforwardness of a Springsteen and a stream-of-consciousness opacity of an REM, Bill’s a guy who can please many, but only you will know what he really means to you. In short, he supplies the soundtrack to our collective hearts, minds and souls. He’s Bill Mallonee. Through sixteen-plus albums, he’s The Crossing’s Artist of the Month for June of 2005.

To learn more about Bill and Vigilantes Of Love, please visit: http://www.billmallonee.net 

and his official archive site: http://www.parting-shot.com/

Now, let’s get to the goods:

Recently released and not mentioned in last edition:

• Bill Mallonee - “Hit and Run” (available at billmallonee.net)
• King’s X - “Dogman Demos” (Available at tytabor.net)
• Cowboy Junkies - “Early 21st Century Blues” (Covers album plus two originals; includes covers of two Bruce Springsteen songs (Bridges Under The Bridge and You’re Missing) and also a cover of U2’s ‘One’. Read more about the album at cowboyjunkies.com.
• Gillian Welch - “Black Star/Pocahontas” (2 song live single; a Radiohead song and a Neil Young song.) 
• Gene Loves Jezebel - “Exploding Girls” (Import;
• Michael Aston’s version of the band he started with his twin brother Jay. Title refers to the first Palestinian female suicide bombers.)
• Dune - DVD (Extended Version.)

• White Stripes - “Get Behind Me Satan”
• Coldplay - “X & Y”
• Teenage Fanclub - “Man-Made”
• Daniel Lanois - “Belladonna”
• Dream Theater - “Octavarium”
• Shadow Gallery - “Room V”
• Finch - “Say Hello To Sunshine”
• Taproot - “Blue Sky Research”
• Clumsy Lovers - “Smart Kid”
• The Spinto Band - “Nice And Nicely Done”
• The Mark Inside - “Static/Crash”
• Tinsley Ellis - “Highwayman: Live”
• Dido - “Live at Brixton Academy” (CD & DVD.)
• John Mayer - “Room For Squares” (Dualdisc reissue.) 
• Seal - “Live In Paris” (CD & DVD.)
• Bush - “Best Of Bush 1994-1999” (2 CD’s; 2nd disc is live at Woodstock 1999.)
• Jim White - “Presents Music From Searching For A Wrong-Eyed Jesus” (Features Jim White,Cat Power, David Eugene Edwards & Sixteen Horsepower,etc.)
• Graham Parker - “Songs Of No Consequence”
• Beth Neilsen Chapman - “Look” 
• Ralph Stanley - “Shine On”
• Allison Moorer - “Definitive Collection”
• Johnny Cash - “Johnny Cash - The Legend” (4 CD Boxset; limited edition comes with DVD.)
• June Carter Cash - “Keep On The Sunny Side” (2 CD anthology.) 
• The Eagles - “Farewell Part 1 Tour - Live From Melbourne” (2 DVD set.) 
• The Machinist - DVD 
• Be Cool - DVD
• The Agronomist - DVD
• Imaginary Heroes - DVD 

• Bob Dylan - “Bob Dylan” (Remastered reissue.)
• Bob Dylan - “The Times They Are A-Changin’” (Remastered reissue.)
• Pernice Brothers - “Discover A Lovelier You”
• Brian Eno - “Another Day On Earth”
• Eric Johnson - “Bloom”
• Seven Nations - “Thanks For Waiting”
• Ry Cooder - “Chavez Ravine”
• John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers - “Road Dogs”
• Rory Gallagher - “Big Guns: The Very Best Of Rory Gallagher” 
• Dressy Bessy - “Electrified” 
• Little Atlas - “Wanderlust” 
• Dark New Day - “Twelve Year Silence” 
• Grey DeLisle - “Iron Flowers”
• Indigo Girls - “Rarities” 
• Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell - “Begonias” 
• Mercy Creek - “Bonfire Of Vanities” (2 CD set.) 
• Dwight Yoakam - “Blame The Vain”
• Michelle Shocked - Four reissues 
• Alanis Morissette - “Jagged Little Pill - Acoustic” (10th anniversary.)
• Fabulous Thunderbirds - “Painted On” 
• Everly Brothers - “Too Good To Be True” (18 unreleased 1950’s recordings.)
• Paul McCartney - Live In Red Square” DVD 
• Duran Duran - “Live At Wembley Arena” (early 2004 show; DVD.) 
• Hitch - DVD
• Rory O’Shea Was Here - DVD
• Jaws - DVD; 30th anniversary edition.

• Foo Fighters - “In Your Honor” (2 CD set; one acoustic, one electric.)
• Billy Corgan - “The Future Embrace” (former Smashing Pumpkins frontman, of course.) 
• Mark Knopfler - “One Take Radio Sessions” (U.S. version of the Trawlerman EP. Eight song live EP.)
• Me’Shell Ndegeocello - “Dance Of The Infidel” 
• Al Stewart - “A Beach Full Of Shells” 
• John Hiatt - “Master Of Disaster” 
• Laura Cantrell - “Humming By The Flowered Vine” 
• Stacey Earle & Mark Stuart - “Communion Bread” 
• William Topley - “Sea Fever”
• Eliza Carthy - “Rough Music”
• Sinead O’Connor - “Collaborations” (U.S. release.) 
• Wide Right - “Sleeping On The Couch” 
• The Offspring - “Greatest Hits” 
• Violent Femmes - “BBC Live” 
• Redwalls - “De Nova”  
• Coach Carter - DVD 
• The Jacket - DVD 
• In The Realms Of The Unreal - DVD
• Hostage - DVD

• Fountains Of Wayne - “Out Of State Plates” (2 CD rarities set plus two new songs.) 
• The Posies - “Every Kind Of Light”
• The Greendcards - “Weather And Water”
• Bering Strait - “Pages” 
• Erin McKeown - “We Will Become Like Birds”
• Shannon McNally - “Geronimo”
• The Fall - “Complete Peel Sessions” (6 CD Boxset.) 
• Joan Osborne - “One Of Us” (Features previously released material.) 
• Dropkick Murphy’s - “Warrior’s Code”
• Megadeth - “Greatest Hits”        
• The Pacifier - DVD

• Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers - “Live at Billy Bob’s Texas” 
• Steve Walsh - “Shadowman” (Singer/keyboardist of Kansas.) 
• Alice Cooper - “Dirty Diamonds”   
• Thin Lizzy - “Greatest Hits” (DVD.)
• Hide And Seek - DVD 
• Bride And Prejudice - DVD

• Son Volt - “Okemah And The Melody Of Riot” (Jay Farrar returns under the Son Volt name with all new band members.)
• Willie Nelson - “Countryman” (Willie goes reggae! (?) Inspired by a long ago trip to Jamaica. Will it be as bad as it sounds?)
• Million Dollar Baby - DVD

• Doug Pinnick - “Emotional Animal” (Possible title; third solo album for the King’s X vocalist; first under his own name.)
• Switchfoot - “Nothing Is Sound”
• Marjorie Fair - “Self Help Serenade” (import.) 
• Frank Black - “Honeycomb” 
• 30 Seconds To Mars - “The Battle of One” 
• Constantine - DVD
• Ice Princess -DVD

Bob Mould - “Body Of Song” (Former Husker Du and Sugar frontman.) 

Brian Setzer - “Rockabilly Riot Volume 1 - A Tribute To Sun Records” 

311 - “TBA”

The Upside Of Anger - DVD 

Vernon, Florida - DVD

• Various Artists - The Dick Cavett Show: 1969-1975 (3 DVD set includes appearances by Paul Simon, George Harrison, David Bowie, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin and Jefferson Airplane, etc.)
• Alexander - DVD

• Nickel Creek - “Why Should The Fire Die?” 
• Carrie Newcomer - “Regulars And Refugees: More Stories From The Diner” 
• Ryan Adams - “Jacksonville City Nights” (a honky-tonk, country type album.) 
• Hootie & The Blowfish - “Looking For Lucky” (We can all rest easy now.) 
• Because Of Winn-Dixie - DVD

• Stryper - “Reborn”

Journey - “Generations” (import.)

• King’s X - TBA
• Sheryl Crow - TBA

The songs on the radio still suck I’m afraid.

Yeah, you give it all your heart, cause that’s the way you play the game.

and the Light never fades and the Light never grows
cold and it’s the Light that you gave from
your stain glass soul.

Have a great summer! Support LIVE music!! See you in July... 

Chris Barlow