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Easy listening is a broad style of popular music and radio format that emerged in the 1950s, evolving out of big band music, and related to MOR (middle-of-the-road) music as played on many AM radio stations. It encompasses the exotica, beautiful music, light music, lounge music, ambient music, and space age pop genres.^[1] The range of lounge music encompasses soft rock music-influenced instrumentals, modern electronica (with chillout, nu-jazz and downtempo influences), while remaining thematically focused on its retro-space-age cultural elements.

It was mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in American radio from the 1960s through the 1980s. Lounge music, beautiful music, and the often derogatory terms Muzak, "doctor's office" and elevator music are other common terms for the format and the style of music that it featured. Beautiful music can also be regarded as a subset of the middle of the road radio format.

Easy listening is broad and may include instrumental arrangements of popular music designed for playing in shopping malls, grocery stores, department stores, telephone systems (while the caller is on hold), cruise ships, airports, doctors' and dentists' offices, and elevators. The term is also frequently applied as a generic (and often derogatory) term for any form of easy listening, smooth jazz, or middle of the road music, or to the type of recordings once commonly heard on "adult contemporary" radio stations.

Easy listening music for malls and elevators is typically set to a very simple melody, so that it can be unobtrusively looped back to the beginning. In a mall or shopping center, elevator music of a specific type has been found to have a psychological effect: slower, more relaxed music tends to make people slow down and browse longer.

A good deal of easy listening music was pure instrumental (i.e., no main vocal part, although there could be minor vocal parts), which was called lounge music. Sometimes, this music would be theme music from movies or TV shows, although such music could be produced independently from other entertainment productions. These instrumentals could be produced with an orchestral arrangement, or from an arrangement of instruments very similar to that found in jazz, or even rock and roll such as the Hammond organ or electric guitar.

History[link]

The earliest type of lounge music appeared during the 1920s and 1930s, and was known as light music. Contemporaneously, the term lounge music also denotes the types of music played in hotels (the lounge, the bar), casinos, and piano bars.

Origins of the term[link]

The name "Easy Listening" was coined in 1965 by Claude Hall, radio-TV editor of Billboard magazine to describe the sound of WPIX-FM. The station quickly became the top-rated FM radio station in New York and ranked among the top five of all stations, AM and FM, from 1964 through 1968. The music itself was common prior to the coining of the label, and was the most popular format along with pop vocalists, before the advent of rock and roll.

The original Easy Listening format was emulated by many syndicated programmers and became the most popular format in FM radio nationwide. It later became known as Adult Contemporary, and this signaled an end to the instrumental content of the format. An attempt to revive the original format in the late 1990s was unsuccessful due to problems with delivery. It remains one of the most popular radio formats of all time.

It was initially offered soft and unobtrusive instrumental selections on a very structured schedule with limited commercial interruptions. It often functioned as a free background music service for stores, with commercial breaks consisting only of announcements aimed at shoppers already in the stores. This practice was known as storecasting and was very common on the FM dial in the 1940s and 1950s.

Popularity[link]

The magazines Billboard and Record World featured easy listening singles in independently-audited record charts. Generally 40 positions in length, they charted airplay on stations such as WNEW, New York City, WWEZ, Cincinnati, and KMPC, Los Angeles. Record World began their listings January 29, 1967 and ended these charts in the early 1970s. Billboard's Easy Listening chart morphed into the Adult Contemporary chart in 1979, and continues to this day.

Beautiful music is a subset of easy listening music, since, as a radio format, it had rigid standards for instrumentation, e.g., few or no saxophones, and restrictions on how many vocal pieces could be played in an hour. The easy listening radio format has been generally, but not completely, superseded by the soft adult contemporary format.^[2]

Easy listening singers[link]

Easy listening/lounge singers have a lengthy history stretching back to the decades of the early twentieth century. Easy listening music featured popular vocalists such as Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Dionne Warwick, Bill Kenny, Astrud Gilberto, Matt Monro and many others. The somewhat derisive term lounge lizard was coined then, and less well known lounge singers have often been ridiculed as dinosaurs of past eras^[3] and parodied for their smarmy delivery of standards.^[4] In any event, these lounge singers, perhaps performing in a hotel or cocktail bar, are usually accompanied by one or two other musicians, and they favor cover songs composed by others, especially pop standards, many deriving from the days of Tin Pan Alley.

Many well known performers got their start as lounge singers and musicians. Although he claims not to have worked for very long, Billy Joel worked as a lounge musician and penned the song "Piano Man" about his experience. Not all lounge singers, however, sing lounge music.

Lounge, a more modern term for easy listening, emerged in the late 1980s as a label of endearment by younger fans whose parents had played such music in the 1960s. It has enjoyed resurgences in popularity in the 1980s and 1990s, led initially by ironic figures such as Buster Poindexter and Jaymz Bee.

In the early 1990s the lounge revival was in full swing and included such groups as Combustible Edison, Love Jones, The Cocktails, Pink Martini and Nightcaps. Alternative band Stereolab demonstrated the influence of lounge with releases like Space Age Bachelor Pad Music and the Ultra-Lounge series of lounge music albums. The lounge style was a direct contradiction to the grunge music that dominated the period.^[5][6]

In the 2000s Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine has added to this resurgence by covering (usually profane) hit songs of other genres (primarily metal and hip hop) in the style of a lounge singer. Other artists have taken lounge music to new heights by recombining rock with pop, such as Jon Brion, The Bird and the Bee, Pink Martini, the Buddha-Lounge series, and the surrounding regulars of Café Largo.

Instrumental-vocal mix[link]

Most stations adopted a 70-80% instrumental - 20-30% vocal mix, a few offered 90% instrumentals, and a handful were entirely instrumental. Initially, the vocalists consisted of artists such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Doris Day, and others. By the 1970s, softer songs by artists like The Carpenters, Anne Murray, John Denver, Barry Manilow, Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Nancy Wilson and others were added to the mix on many stations. Also, some of these stations even played soft songs by artists like Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Billy Joel, and other rock-based artists.

All vocals on such stations had to be extremely soft. Therefore, on one hand a song like "She's Out of My Life" by a non-core artist like Michael Jackson would be heard on some of these stations; similarly, "Crazy for You" or "Live to Tell" by Madonna. On the other hand, even uptempo jazzier songs by standards artists, such as "Detour" by Patti Page, would not be heard on easy listening music stations except during specialty shows.

The custom recordings were usually instrumental versions of current or recent rock and roll or pop hit songs, a move intended to give the stations more mass appeal without selling out, but also disgusted some longtime listeners of the format. Some stations would also occasionally play earlier big band-era recordings from the 1940s and early 1950s.

Many beautiful music stations would air a few Christmas songs during the season. The stations' vocal content would typically increase to about 40 to 60 percent of the playlist during this period, as well. This concept was later borrowed (and expanded upon) by Soft AC, Oldies, and even some country music and Hot AC stations.

The predominantly instrumental-vocal mix is still in use today, mainly by smooth jazz stations.

Notable artists[link]

Samples[link]

Chillout-Music

See also[link]

• New Age music
• Light music
• Ambient music
• Exotica
• Soft rock
• Adult contemporary music
• Muzak Holdings

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Lanza, Joseph. (1994). Elevator Music: a Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong. New York: St. Martin's. ISBN 0-312-10540-1.

Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan at the Independent Music Awards, Webster Hall, New York City.
Background information
Born	(1975-07-01) July 1, 1975 (age 36)
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Genres	Indie folk, baroque pop, indie pop, electronica
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, banjo, piano, xylophone, vibraphone, English Horn, oboe, drums, recorder[1]
Years active	1999–present
Labels	Asthmatic Kitty Sounds Familyre Orchard
Associated acts	Cryptacize, Danielson Famile, Denison Witmer, Marzuki, My Brightest Diamond, Rosie Thomas, The Welcome Wagon, The National, Nico Muhly, Bryce Dessner
Website	www.asthmatickitty.com/sufjan-stevens

Sufjan Stevens ( /ˈsuːfjɑːn/ SOOF-yahn; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer-songwriter and musician born in Detroit, Michigan. Stevens first began releasing his music on Asthmatic Kitty, a label co-founded with his stepfather, beginning with the 1999 release, A Sun Came. He is best known for his 2005 album, Illinois, which hit number one in the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the song "Chicago".

Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of Enjoy Your Rabbit and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas. Stevens makes use of a variety of instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording,^[2] and writes music in various time signatures. Though he has repeatedly stated an intent to separate his beliefs from his music,^[3][4] Stevens also freely draws from the Bible and other spiritual traditions, incorporating mystical elements into his music often.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Stevens was born in Detroit and lived there until the age of nine, when his family moved to Petoskey, Michigan. In Petoskey he attended the Petoskey High School, the prestigious Interlochen Arts Academy and graduated from Harbor Light Christian School. He went on to attend Hope College in Holland, Michigan and earned a Master of Fine Arts from The New School in New York City.^[5]

Sufjan is an Arabic or Persian name^[6] meaning "comes with a sword".^[7] It predates Islam and most famously belonged to Abu Sufyan, a figure from early Islamic history. The name was given to Stevens by the founder of Subud, an inter-faith spiritual community to which his parents belonged when he was born.^[8]

A multi-instrumentalist, Stevens is known for his use of the banjo, but also plays guitar, piano, drums, and several other instruments, often playing all of these on his albums through the use of multitrack recording. While in school, he studied the oboe and English horn, which he also plays on his albums. This multitude of instruments, including string and horn orchestrations, figure prominently in his compositions, giving his music a symphonic sound.

Stevens currently lives in Kensington, Brooklyn, in New York City,^[9] where he makes up the Brooklyn staff of Asthmatic Kitty Records.^[10] His brother Marzuki Stevens is a nationally recognized marathon runner.^[11]

Career[link]

Stevens performing at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee

Stevens began his musical career as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band from Holland, Michigan. He also played (and continues to play) various instruments for Danielson Famile. While in school at Hope College, Stevens wrote and recorded his debut solo album, A Sun Came, which he released on Asthmatic Kitty Records. He later moved to New York City, where he was enrolled in a writing program at the New School for Social Research.

While in New York, Stevens composed and recorded the music for his second album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, a song cycle based around the animals of the Chinese Zodiac that delved into electronica.

Stevens followed this with the first album to be released as a part of his "Fifty States Project", a collection of folk songs and instrumentals inspired by his home state of Michigan. The result, the expansive Michigan included odes to cities including Detroit and Flint, the Upper Peninsula, and vacation areas such as Tahquamenon Falls. Melded into the scenic descriptions and characters are his own declarations of faith, sorrow, love, and the regeneration of Michigan.

Following the release of Michigan, Stevens compiled a collection of songs recorded previously into a side project, the album Seven Swans, which was released in March 2004.

Next he released the second in the 50 states project, titled Illinois. Among the subjects explored on Illinois are the cities of Chicago, Decatur and Jacksonville; the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the state's observance of a holiday in honor of Casimir Pulaski, the poet Carl Sandburg, and the serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Over the 2005 winter holidays, Stevens recorded an album with Rosie Thomas and Denison Witmer playing banjo and providing vocals. In April 2006, Pitchfork erroneously announced that Stevens and Thomas were having a baby together, but were forced to print a retraction.^[12][13][14] Witmer and Thomas later admitted it was an April Fools' prank.^[15] In December 2006, the collaborative recordings were digitally released by Nettwerk as a Rosie Thomas album titled These Friends of Mine. The album was released in physical form on March 13, 2007.

On September 11, 2006, in Nashville, Tennessee, Stevens debuted a new composition, a ten minute-plus piece titled "Majesty Snowbird".^[16][17] On November 21, 2006, a five CD box set Songs for Christmas was released, which contains originals and Christmas standards recorded every year since 2001 (except 2004). Stevens undertook in the project initially as an exercise to make himself 'appreciate' Christmas more.^[18] The songs were the work of an annual collaboration between Stevens and different collaborators, including minister Vito Aiuto; the songs themselves were distributed to friends and family.

In April 2007, in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, Stevens made unannounced appearances on Thomas's tour in support of this album. In 2007 he did a Take-Away Show acoustic video session shot by Vincent Moon standing on a roof in Cincinnati.^[19] In 2007, he played shows sporadically, including playing at the Kennedy Center to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Stage concerts.^[20] He was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music to create a "music and film work" titled The BQE, described as "a symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York City's infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway".^[21] It premiered at BAM's Next Wave festival on November 1–3, 2007.^[22] Stevens has also worked as an essayist, contributing to Asthmatic Kitty Records' "Sidebar" feature and Topic Magazine.^[23] He wrote the introduction to the 2007 edition of The Best American Nonrequired Reading, a short story about his early childhood education and learning to read titled How I Trumped Rudolf Steiner and Overcame the Tribulations of Illiteracy, One Snickers Bar at a Time.^[24][25] That winter, he hosted an "Xmas Song Exchange Contest" in which winner Alec Duffy won exclusive rights to the original Stevens song "The Lonely Man of Winter." The track has never been uploaded, and can now only be heard by attending private listening parties at Duffy's home in Brooklyn.^[26][27]

Stevens has contributed to the music of Denison Witmer, Soul Junk, Half-handed Cloud, Brother Danielson, Danielson Famile, Serena Maneesh, Castanets, Will Stratton, Shannon Stephens, Clare & the Reasons, and Liz Janes. In 2007 alone, Stevens played piano on The National's album Boxer, produced and contributed many instrumental tracks to Rosie Thomas's album These Friends of Mine, multiple instruments on Ben + Vesper's album All This Could Kill You and oboe and vocals to David Garland's new album Noise in You.

He has contributed covers of Tim Buckley ("She Is"), Joni Mitchell ("Free Man in Paris"), Daniel Johnston ("Worried Shoes"), John Fahey ("Variation on 'Commemorative Transfiguration & Communion at Magruder Park"), The Innocence Mission ("The Lakes of Canada"), Bob Dylan ("Ring Them Bells") and The Beatles ("What Goes On") to various tribute albums. His versions of "Free Man in Paris" and "What Goes On" are notable for only retaining the lyrics of the original, as Stevens has taken his own interpretation on the melody and arrangement. His rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" has a similar rearranged melody and arrangement as well as a whole new verse.^[28]

His song "The Tallest Man, The Broadest Shoulders" was featured in the 2006 British comedy-drama Driving Lessons, starring Harry Potter's Julie Walters and Rupert Grint. In 2008, he produced Welcome to the Welcome Wagon, the debut album of Brooklyn-based husband and wife duo Vito and Monique Auito, The Welcome Wagon.

In February 2009, Stevens contributed "You Are the Blood" to the AIDS benefit album Dark Was the Night produced by the Red Hot Organization. In April 2009, Stevens uploaded a song about director Sofia Coppola online.^[29] This song was written while Stevens was in college, from a series of songs about names.

Stevens recalled:

"[...] A few weeks later, our dog got hit by a snowplow and I forgot all about the problem of names. Until college, when I learned to play the guitar, and, as an exercise, started writing songs (very poorly executed) in the same way that Henry Ford produced the automobile: assembly-line-style. I wrote songs for the days of the week (poor Monday!). Songs for the planets (poor Pluto!). Songs for the Apostles (poor Judas!). And, finally, when all else failed, I started a series of songs for names. [...] Each piece was a rhetorical, philosophical, musical rumination on all the possible names I had entertained years before when my parents had given me the one chance to change my own. Oh fates! I sang these songs in the privacy of my dorm room, behind closed doors, pillows and cushions stuffed in the air vents so no one would hear. And then I almost failed Latin class, my grades plummeted, my social life dissolved into ping pong tournaments in the residence halls, and, gradually, my interest in music (or anything divine, creative, fruitful, enriching) completely waned. I turned to beer. And cigarettes. And TV sitcoms. And candy bars. Oh well! A perfectly good youth wasted on junk food! That is, until a few months ago, when I came across some of the old name songs, stuffed onto tape cassettes, 4-track recorders, forgotten boxes, forgotten shelves, forgotten hard drives. It was like finding an old diary, or a high school yearbook, senior picture with lens flare and pockmarks, slightly cute and embarrassing. What was I thinking? [...]"^[30]

In September 2009, Stevens began performing four new songs while on his Fall tour, "All Delighted People", "Impossible Soul", "Too Much" and "Age of Adz".^[31] That year Stevens contributed to an album with his step father, Lowell Brams, entitled Music For Insomnia. The album was released December 8, 2009.^[32]

In November 2009, Stevens admitted to Exclaim! Magazine, in regard to the fact that he recently called his fifty-state project a joke, that "I don't really have as much faith in my work as I used to, but I think that's healthy. I think it's allowed me to be less precious about how I work and write. And maybe it's okay for us to take it less seriously."^[33]

In June 2010, The National's Bryce Dessner claimed Stevens is currently at work on his next full length album and stated the band is playing on the new album.^[34]

The Fifty States Project[link]

Beginning with Michigan, Stevens announced an intent to write an album for each of the fifty U.S. states.

Stevens spent the second half of 2004 researching and writing material for the second of these projects, this time focusing his efforts on Illinois. As with Michigan, Stevens used the state of Illinois as a leaping-off point for his more personal explorations of faith, family, love, and location. Though slated for general release on July 5, 2005, the album was briefly delayed by legal issues regarding the use of Superman in the original album cover artwork. In the double vinyl release, a balloon sticker has been placed over Superman on the cover art of the first 5,000 copies. The next printings had an empty space where the Superman image was, as with the CD release.^[35]

The widely acclaimed Illinois was the highest-rated album of 2005 on the Metacritic review aggregator site, based on glowing reviews from Pitchfork Media, The Onion A/V Club, Spin, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, KEXP, and The Guardian.^[36] The 2006 PLUG Independent Music Awards awarded Stevens with the Album Of The Year, Best Album Art/Packaging, and Male Artist Of The Year. Pitchfork Media, No Ripcord, and Paste Magazine named Illinois as the editors' choice for best album of 2005 and Stevens received the 2005 Pantheon prize, awarded to noteworthy albums selling fewer than 500,000 copies, for Illinois.^[37] In April 2006, Stevens announced that 21 pieces of music he had culled from the Illinois recording sessions would be incorporated into a new album, called The Avalanche,^[38] which was released on July 11, 2006.

The next states to be taken on in the project have been reported as Oregon and Rhode Island.^[39] In late 2005 and early 2006 Stevens played a new instrumental track titled "The Maple River". There are various Maple Rivers in the U.S., in Minnesota, Iowa, North or South Dakota. There is also evidence to suggest the possibility of a New York album. Not only is Stevens's current residence in New York City, but at the footnote of his writing piece titled "Friend Rock", Stevens stated that he was reading a biography on Robert Moses, who is a notable New Yorker.^[40] In late 2007, Stevens debuted several new songs about New York, including "BQE", a track about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, one of many urban developments designed and spearheaded by Robert Moses.

Stevens made brief mention to a possible collaboration with Asthmatic Kitty labelmate Rafter on an album about California.^[41] Stevens also recorded "The Lord God Bird"^[42] about the reported sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker, thought to be extinct, in Arkansas (known as the 'lord god' or 'great god' bird because of its breathtaking appearance). This was in connection with a National Public Radio piece in which "independent radio producers Dan Collison and Elizabeth Meister were curious about how Stevens writes his songs."

"Sufjan Stevens is not going to write a record for each of the 50 states after all" was the original text included on the online liner notes for their Mews Too: An Asthmatic Kitty Compilation disc released on February 7, 2006.^[43] This statement was possibly included as a joke, as the text has since been removed and the current liner notes related to Stevens reads, "18. Sufjan Stevens can fold a fitted-sheet (he once worked as a professional folder in a commercial laundromat)."

In an article published on February 24, 2008, in New York Magazine, Stevens implied that New Jersey could be the target of his next state project. After he gave a brief quote about the New Jersey Turnpike, he was asked, "So is this the next musical project?" Sufjan joked, "New Jersey, the musical—an ode to the turnpike."^[44]

The Guardian published an interview with Stevens on October 27, 2009, in which he stated in relation to the Fifty States Project: "I have no qualms about admitting it was a promotional gimmick".^[45]

[edit] The BQE

On May 31, 2007, Asthmatic Kitty announced that Stevens would be premiering a new project titled The BQE in early November 2007. The project, dubbed a "symphonic and cinematic exploration of New York City's infamous Brooklyn-Queens Expressway", was manifested in a live show. The BQE featured an original film by Stevens (shot in Super 8 mm film and standard 16 mm), while Stevens and a backing orchestra provided the live soundtrack. The performance used 36 performers which included a small band, a wind and brass ensemble, string players, horn players, and hula hoopers. There were no lyrics to the music. The BQE was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music as part of their Next Wave Festival and performed on three consecutive nights from November 1–3, 2007.

The performance sold out the 2,109 seat BAM Opera House without any advertising.^[46] After three weeks of rehearsing the piece with the three dozen musicians^[47] involved, he presented the 30-minute composition. The BQE was followed by an additional one hour of concert by Stevens and his orchestra. The BQE won the 2008 Brendan Gill Prize.^[48]

The multimedia package was released on October 20, 2009. The release included a CD of the show's soundtrack, a DVD of Brooklyn-Queens Expressway footage that accompanied the original performance (not a film of the performance itself), a 40-page booklet with liner notes and photos, and a stereoscopic 3D View-Master reel. A limited edition version that features the soundtrack on 180-gram vinyl and a 40-page BQE-themed comic book starring the show's hula hooping wonder women, the Hooper Heroes, was also released.

[edit] Run Rabbit Run

On October 6, 2009 Stevens' label released an album of versions of his 2001 album Enjoy Your Rabbit rearranged for strings and performed by the Osso String Quartet, entitled Run Rabbit Run.^[49]

[edit] All Delighted People and The Age of Adz

Stevens returned to recording and touring in 2010 after a hiatus—he's pictured here performing in 2011

In 2010, Stevens was featured on The National's album High Violet, released in May, and sang backing vocals for the band on The Late Show with David Letterman.^[50] Following the release of High Violet, band frontman Matt Berninger mentioned that Stevens was recording a new album in the band's studio and that The National would appear on some of the tracks. In early August, Stevens announced North American tour dates across dozens of cities. On August 20, 2010, Stevens suddenly and unexpectedly released a new collection of tracks, the All Delighted People EP, for digital download. The EP is built around two versions of the title track, "All Delighted People."^[51] The EP surprisingly rose to #27 on the Billboard 200 albums solely through its digital sales.^[52] On August 26, Asthmatic Kitty announced that Stevens would release his newest full length album, The Age of Adz, on October 12.^[53] NPR streamed the album until it was released on October 12, 2010.^[54]

The two albums featured a wide range of arrangements, from orchestral to electronic. Song lengths were also extended; the track "Djohariah" from All Delighted People is 17 minutes long, while "Impossible Soul" from The Age of Adz is 25 minutes long. The albums also feature many styles from disco to folk.

Stevens has stated in interviews that in 2009/10, he suffered from a mysterious debilitating virus infection that affected his nervous system. He experienced chronic pain and was forced to stop working on music for several months.^[55] He said: "The Age of Adz, is, in some ways, a result of that process of working through health issues and getting much more in touch with my physical self. That's why I think the record's really obsessed with sensation and has a hysterical melodrama to it."^[56]

On October 12, 2010, Stevens began his North American tour in Montreal, featuring virtually all new material. The tour lasted just over a month and ended on November 15, 2010 in New York.

Stevens toured Australia and New Zealand in early 2011, featured as part of The Sydney Festival, and appeared on-stage with The National during the last of three sold-out Auckland shows.^[57] He also toured Europe and the United Kingdom in April and May 2011, playing there for the first time in five years.^[58] His shows mostly consisted of new material, but he did play many older tracks from Seven Swans and Illinois. Stevens ended the Age of Adz tour with two shows in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York.

On February 27, 2012, it was announced Stevens would release a collaborative EP called Beak & Claw on March 20th with artists Son Lux and Serengeti under the name s / s / s on the Anticon record label.^[59]

Themes[link]

Stevens' stage shows feature elaborate lighting, costumes, and choreography

Many of his songs have spiritual allusions. He says he does not try to make music for the sake of preaching. "I don't think music media is the real forum for theological discussions," says Stevens. "I think I've said things and sung about things that probably weren't appropriate for this kind of forum. And I just feel like it's not my work or my place to be making claims and statements, because I often think it's misunderstood."^[4]

Such themes are most notable on his album Seven Swans, the songs "Abraham", "Seven Swans", "To Be Alone with You", "He Woke Me Up Again", "We Won't Need Legs to Stand" and "The Transfiguration" refer to Christian themes. In "Abraham", Stevens recounts the Old Testament story in the Book of Genesis. The lyrics of "The Transfiguration" appear to follow the Biblical accounts of Matthew 17:1–8, Mark 9: 1–8, and Luke 9:28–36. The title of "All the Trees of the Fields Will Clap Their Hands" is a quote from Isaiah 55:12.^[60]

During a 2004 interview with Adrian Pannett for Comes with a Smile magazine, when asked how important faith was to his music, he responded, "I don't like talking about that stuff in the public forum because, I think, certain themes and convictions are meant for personal conversation."^[3]

Sufjan's most recent music features less clear statements about religion and spirituality, arousing question of his current ideas on spirituality. In an interview released on October 12, 2010 (the same day as Sufjan's album The Age of Adz released), Sufjan confirmed he is a Christian.^[61]

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (January 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sufjan Stevens

• Sufjan Stevens – official site
• Asthmatic Kitty – label page
• Sounds Familyre – label page
• Purevolume – official Purevolume site
• Sufjan Stevens – Rateyourmusic
• Photos from Town Hall
• Interview with Vish Khanna
• Interview with Sufjan Stevens by Gerry Visco, New York Press, "Give Me Your Ugly"
• "All Quiet on the Midwestern Front," Cover Story by Susan Moll, Stomp & Stammer, September 2005
• Sufjan Stevens performance from Austin City Limits, September 17, 2006
• Live concert from the Sydney Opera House, Sydney Festival, January 2011 Sufjan Stevens: "Age of Adz", Sydney Opera House, January 2011.

Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley performing on August 19, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Brad Douglas Paisley
Born	(1972-10-28) October 28, 1972 (age 39)
Origin	Glen Dale, West Virginia, United States
Genres	Country, Country Rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, mandolin
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Arista Nashville
Associated acts	Alison Krauss, Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, Keith Urban, Martina McBride, Chely Wright, Scotty McCreery
Website	BradPaisley.com

Brad Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. His style crosses between traditional country music and Southern rock, and his songs are frequently laced with humor and pop culture references.

Paisley was the 2008 CMA and ACM Male Vocalist of the Year winner. Starting with the release of his 1999 album Who Needs Pictures, Paisley has recorded seven studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums certified gold or higher by the RIAA.^[1] In addition, he has charted 25 singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, 16 of which have reached #1 with a record 10 consecutive singles reaching the top spot on the chart.^[2] On November 10, 2010, Paisley won the Entertainer of the Year award at the 44th annual CMA Awards.^[3]

Biography[link]

Paisley was born on October 28, 1972 in Glen Dale, West Virginia to Douglas Edward "Doug" Paisley, who worked for the West Virginia Department of Transportation, and Sandra Jean "Sandy" (née Jarvis) Paisley, a teacher.^[4] He was raised in Glen Dale, West Virginia. He has stated that his love of country music stems from his maternal grandfather, Warren Jarvis, who gave Paisley his first guitar, a Sears Danelectro Silvertone^[5] at 8-years-old and taught him how to play. At age 10, he performed for the first time in public by singing in his church. He later recalled that, "Pretty soon, I was performing at every Christmas party and Mother's Day event. The neat thing about a small town is that when you want to be an artist, by golly, they'll make you one".^[5] At age 12, Paisley wrote his first song, entitled, "Born on Christmas Day".^[5] He had been taking lessons with local guitarist Clarence "Hank" Goddard.^[5] By age 13, Goddard and Paisley formed a band called "Brad Paisley and the C-Notes", with the addition of two of Paisley's adult friends.^[5]

While in junior high, his principal heard him perform "Born On Christmas Day" and invited him to play at the local Rotary Club meeting. In attendance was Tom Miller, the program director of a radio station in Wheeling, West Virginia. Miller asked him if he would like to be a guest on Jamboree USA. After his first performance, he was asked to become a member of the show's weekly lineup. For the next eight years, he opened for country singers such as The Judds, Ricky Skaggs and George Jones. He would become the youngest person inducted into the Jamboree USA Hall of Fame. He also performed at the Jamboree in the Hills.^[6]

Paisley graduated from John Marshall High School in Glen Dale, West Virginia in 1991,^[7] studied for 2 years at West Liberty University (WV) and later was awarded a full-paid ASCAP scholarship to Belmont University, in Nashville, Tennessee (from 1993 to 1995). He interned at ASCAP, Atlantic Records, and the Fitzgerald-Hartley management firm. While in college, he met Frank Rogers, a fellow student who went on to serve as his producer. Paisley also met Kelley Lovelace, who became his songwriting partner. He also met Chris DuBois in college, and he too would write songs for him.^[6]

After graduating from Belmont with a Bachelor's degree in music business, within a week Paisley signed a songwriting contract with EMI Music Publishing;^[6] and, he wrote David Kersh's "Top 5" hit, "Another You", as well as David Ball's 1999 single, "Watching My Baby Not Come Back." The latter song was also co-written by Ball.^[8]

[edit] 1999–2001: Who Needs Pictures

His debut as a singer was with the label Arista Nashville, with the song "Who Needs Pictures" (released February 22, 1999). In May of that same year, he made his first appearance on the Grand Ole Opry.^[1] Seven months later he had his first #1 hit with "He Didn't Have to Be," which detailed the story of Paisley's frequent co-writer Kelley Lovelace and Lovelace's stepson, McCain Merren.^[9] We Danced also was a hit for Paisley off the debut album, reaching #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart. By February 2001, the album was certified platinum.^[10]

In 2000, Paisley's mainstream notoriety received a huge boost when he was exposed to his first national non-country music oriented audience on the TLC special, "Route 66: Main Street America." Producer, Todd Baker, tapped the young musician to appear on this show when he was a relative unknown outside the world of country music. It featured Paisley and band doing rare live and acoustic versions of Route 66. The international and home video versions of this program end with a full, un-cut acoustic rendition of the piece, which was performed live on Rainbow Bridge in Riverton, KS.^[11] The show accurately predicted that Paisley would become a legendary musician, and also featured blues artist, Buddy Guy.^[12]

Later in 2000, Paisley won the Country Music Association's (CMA) Horizon Award and the Academy of Country Music's best new male vocalist trophy. He received his first Grammy Award nomination a year later for Best New Artist. On February 17, 2001, Paisley was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry^[1] He was 28 when he accepted the invitation, and was the youngest member ever to join. PBS did a 75th anniversary concert special, which saw Paisley pair up with Chely Wright and sing a song called Hard to Be a Husband, Hard to Be a Wife, and would be included on the album Backstage at the Opry, It would get a CMA nomination for Vocal Event of the Year.^[13]

[edit] 2001–2003: Part II

In 2002, he won the CMA Music Video of the Year for "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)." Several celebrities made notable guest appearances in the video, including Little Jimmy Dickens, Kimberly Williams, Dan Patrick, and Jerry Springer. His three other singles off the Part II album, "I Wish You'd Stay", "Wrapped Around", and "Two People Fell in Love", all charted in the top 10. The album stayed in the charts for more than 70 weeks and was certified platinum in August 2002. To support his album, he toured the country as the opening act for Lonestar.^[14]

[edit] 2003–2005: Mud on the Tires

Paisley released his third album, Mud on the Tires (2003), following Who Needs Pictures and Part II. The album features the hit song "Celebrity", the video of which parodies reality shows such as Fear Factor, American Idol, The Bachelorette and According to Jim, and included such celebrities as Jason Alexander, James Belushi, Little Jimmy Dickens, Trista Rehn and William Shatner. (Paisley later contributed to Shatner's album Has Been.) The album's title track, "Mud on the Tires", reached Billboard #1 in 2004.^[15]

In addition, the ninth track from Mud on the Tires, "Whiskey Lullaby", a duet with Alison Krauss reached #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks (now Hot Country Songs) charts, and #41 on the Billboard Hot 100. The music video for Whiskey Lullaby also won several awards and was rated #2 on the 100 Greatest Music Videos by CMT in 2008. The album would be certified double platinum.^[14]

[edit] 2005–2007: Time Well Wasted

In 2005, after touring with Reba McEntire and Terri Clark on the "Two Hats and a Redhead Tour," he released Time Well Wasted, containing 15 tracks. This album includes "Alcohol," two duets — "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Dolly Parton and "Out in the Parking Lot" with Alan Jackson — and a bonus track, "Cornography." On November 6, 2006, the album "Time Well Wasted" won the Country Music Association CMA Award for Best Album. "Time Well Wasted" also won album of the year at the 2006 ACM Awards.

Paisley also contributed two original songs to the Disney film Cars. These can be found on the film's soundtrack. This was in recognition of his contribution to the "Route 66: Main Street America" television special.

At the 2006 Grammy Awards, Paisley received four nominations: Best Country Album (for Time Well Wasted), Best Country Song (for "Alcohol"), Best Country Instrumental (for "Time Warp") and Best Country Vocal, Male (for "Alcohol").

[edit] 2007–2008: 5th Gear

Paisley's fifth studio album, 5th Gear, was released in the United States on June 19, 2007. The first four singles from the album, "Ticks", "Online", "Letter to Me", and "I'm Still a Guy", all reached number one on the country music single charts, making seven straight number one hits for Paisley."^[16] "Online" featured the Brentwood High School marching band playing toward the end of the song, a cameo by Jason Alexander, and again featured a cameo by William Shatner. Throttleneck would also reach number one, which would get Paisley his first Grammy.^[17]

The fifth single from 5th Gear actually came from a reissued version of the album – a new recording of "Waitin' on a Woman", a track cut from Time Well Wasted. The reissued version received unsolicited airplay in late 2006, and features less prominent string guitar and violin parts and a more "muted" musical tone. For the chart week of September 20, 2008, the song became Paisley's twelfth number-one single and his eighth straight number-one hit, making him the artist with the most consecutive Number One country hits since the inception of Nielsen SoundScan in 1990.^[18]

In July 2006, producer Todd Baker tapped Brad for a television appearance as an animated character in The Wonder Pets, Daddy Armadillo. The yet-to-be-broadcast episode features Brad's wife, Kimberly Williams, as Mama Armadillo.

Paisley toured April 26, 2007 through February 24, 2008 in support of 5th Gear on the Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour. The tour visited 94 cities over a 10 month period and played for over 1,000,000 fans. The tour was so successful that it was extended past its original end date to February 2008. Some of the opening acts who appeared during the tour were Taylor Swift, Kellie Pickler, Jack Ingram, Rodney Atkins and Chuck Wicks.

Paisley was nominated for three 2008 Grammy Awards related to 5th Gear: Best Country Album (for 5th Gear), Best Country Collaboration (for "Oh Love" with Carrie Underwood), and Best Country Instrumental (for "Throttleneck"). On February 10, 2008, he won his first Grammy award for Best Country Instrumental for "Throttleneck".

In March 2008, Brad Paisley announced his next tour, "The Paisley Party," a 42-date tour sponsored by Hershey's. The tour kicked off on June 11, 2008, in Albuquerque, New Mexico with Chuck Wicks, Julianne Hough and Jewel as the opening acts.^[16]

[edit] 2008–2009: Play

A sixth, largely instrumental album, titled Play, was released on November 4, 2008.^[19] Brad Paisley and Keith Urban released to country radio their first duet together on September 8, 2008, "Start a Band." It was the first and only single from Play, and it went on to become Paisley's thirteenth number one hit and his ninth in a row. The album also features collaborations with James Burton, Little Jimmy Dickens, Vince Gill, John Jorgenson, B.B. King, Albert Lee, Brent Mason, Buck Owens, Redd Volkaert and Steve Wariner. Paisley and Urban both received Entertainer of the Year nominations from the CMA on September 10, 2008. On November 12, 2008 Brad Paisley won Male Vocalist of the Year and Music Video of the Year for "Waitin' on a Woman" during the CMA's.

[edit] 2009–2010: American Saturday Night

Brad Paisley performing at the White House.

Brad Paisley announced on January 26, 2009 his new tour named "American Saturday Night." Dierks Bentley and Jimmy Wayne will be opening in the majority of the shows. Brad Paisley's newest album, American Saturday Night was released on June 30, 2009. The album's lead off single, "Then" was released in March 2009 and performed for the first time on American Idol on March 18. It went on to become Paisley's 14th number one single and his tenth in a row.

On May 6, 2009, Paisley gave an exclusive performance^[20] to a small group of members from his fan club in Studio A of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, TN as he and his band taped an episode of CMT Invitation Only. The show gives fans a chance to see their favorite artists in a more intimate setting up close and personal. There was a Q & A session and interaction between Paisley and his fans. The show aired on Monday, August 3 at 9:00 p.m. on CMT.

On July 21, 2009, Paisley performed at the White House in celebration of country music. "Country Music at the White House " was streamed live on the White House web-site as well as a special on Great American Country.

On November 11, 2009, Paisley co-hosted the CMA Awards for the second straight year. He also performed "Welcome to the Future", and won both Male Vocalist of the Year and Musical Event of the Year for Start a Band with Keith Urban.

On March 1, 2010, Paisley was the first musical performance with "American Saturday Night" for the second tenure of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

On Friday March 5, 2010, Paisley slipped and fell performing his last song of the set, "Alcohol," at a concert at the North Charleston Coliseum in Charleston, South Carolina, on the final date of the American Saturday Night Tour. Fearing a broken rib, he was held overnight at an area hospital, but was released when a CT scan was negative.^[21]

On July 31, 2010 Brad performed alongside Carrie Underwood at the inaugural Greenbrier Classic PGA Tour Event in Lewisburg, W.Va. An estimated 60,000 people attended the outdoor event to watch Carrie and Brad perform in the pouring rain.

On August 4, 2010, it was announced on his official website that Paisley would release his first official greatest hits package, entitled Hits Alive. Released on November 2, 2010, Hits Alive is a double-disc collection, with one disc containing studio versions of Paisley's hit singles, while the companion disc features previously unreleased live versions of his songs.^[22]

Brad Paisley cohosted the 44th Annual CMA Awards on November 10, 2010, where he was also awarded the CMA's top award, Entertainer of the Year.^[23] During his acceptance speech, Paisley emotionally honored his grandfather, who inspired him to play the guitar.

In 2012, MSN.com listed American Saturday Night as one of the 21 Essential 21st-Century Albums.^[24]

[edit] 2011-present: This Is Country Music

In December 2010, Paisley released "This Is Country Music" as the title track to his eighth studio album, released May 23, 2011. The album's second single, "Old Alabama" (with Alabama), released to country radio on March 14, 2011 and became Paisley's nineteenth number one hit. "Remind Me," with Carrie Underwood, was released May 23, 2011 to radio.

On March 22, 2011, Paisley's website announced a new beta game titled "Brad Paisley World." The game is modeled after other Facebook games such as Farmville or Mafia Wars and features original animation. The game provides a new way for fans to interact with each other and view exclusive material that would otherwise be unavailable.

On May 12, 2011, Paisley's website announced that he would release two songs on the soundtrack for the film Cars 2. One of them would be a collaboration with British pop singer Robbie Williams.

On October 19, 2011, Paisley made a voice cameo as various background characters in the South Park episode "Bass to Mouth". ^[25]

On January 14, 2012, Paisley was a guest on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, during which he did a rendition of "Life's Railway to Heaven" by Charles Davis Tillman.^[26]

Brad also tweeted that he has started recording his upcoming album.

On April 25, 2012, Paisley was featured on the South Park episode "Cartman Finds Love", in which he voiced himself,^[27] sang "The National Anthem", and helped Cartman sing the 90's hit song "I Swear", which was popularized in 1994 by the country musician John Michael Montgomery and the pop group All-4-One. ^[28]

Paisley extended his "Virtual Realty" tour throughout the summer of 2012. He will be touring the country and making pit stops at local country music festivals. The goal of these outdoor concerts is to give the audience the full experience of Brad Paisley's music, as many of his songs contain outdoor elements. ^[29]

Tours[link]

• Brooks & Dunn's Neon Circus & Wild West Show 2003
• Mud & Suds Tour 2004 (w/ Sara Evans, Andy Griggs)
• Two Hats & A Redhead Tour 2005 (w/ Reba McEntire, Terri Clark)
• Time Well Wasted Tour 2006 (w/ Sara Evans, Sugarland, Carrie Underwood, Jake Owen, Josh Turner, Billy Currington)
• Bonfires & Amplifiers Tour 2007–2008 (w/ Taylor Swift, Jack Ingram, Kellie Pickler, Rodney Atkins, Chuck Wicks)
• The Paisley Party Tour 2008 (w/ Chuck Wicks, Julianne Hough, Jewel)
• The Paisley Party Tour 2009 (w/ Dierks Bentley, Darius Rucker, Crystal Shawanda)
• American Saturday Night Tour 2009 (w/ Dierks Bentley, Jimmy Wayne)
• American Saturday Night Tour 2010 (w/ Miranda Lambert, Justin Moore)
• The H2O Tour 2010 (w/ Darius Rucker, Justin Moore, Easton Corbin, Steel Magnolia, Josh Thompson)
• The H2O Frozen Over Tour 2011 (w/ Darius Rucker, Jerrod Niemann)
• H2O II: Wetter and Wilder World Tour (w/ Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, Jerrod Niemann, Sunny Sweeney, The JaneDear Girls, Brent Anderson, Edens Edge)
• Virtual Reality Tour 2012 (w/ The Band Perry, Scotty McCreery)

Band[link]

Paisley records his studio albums, in most part, with the backing of his live band, The Drama Kings. Their first gig together was May 7, 1999. The only changes have been Randel Currie's addition on the steel guitar in 2000 and Jimmy Heffernan's departure in 2001. Also, Jody Harris worked as Paisley's guitar tech until officially becoming a bandmember for the American Saturday Night Tour. As of 2010, the lineup is:

• Brad Paisley – lead vocals, lead guitar
• Gary Hooker – rhythm guitar
• Randle Currie – steel guitar
• Kendal Marcy – keyboards, banjo, mandolin
• Justin Williamson – fiddle, mandolin
• Kenny Lewis – bass guitar
• Ben Sesar – drums

Personal life[link]

Paisley performing in 2006.

Brad Paisley has been married to actress Kimberly Williams since 2003. Paisley had first seen Kimberley Williams in Father of the Bride with a former girlfriend. Brad and his former girlfriend broke up prior to the release of Father of the Bride Part II, which Brad went to see alone.^[30] Brad has stated that he watched Kimberly Williams' performance and thought "She seems like a great girl — smart and funny and all those things that are so hard to find."^[30]

Paisley and Williams began dating in 2001. In 2002, Williams appeared in a video for the song "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)," the last release from his Part II album. The two married on March 15, 2003, at Stauffer Chapel on the campus of Pepperdine University after a nine month engagement. They live in Franklin, Tennessee, and have another home in Malibu.

Paisley and Williams first son, William Huckleberry, or "Huck", was born on February 22, 2007, in Nashville, Tennessee.^[31] Their second son, Jasper Warren (named after his grandfather who bought Brad his first guitar), was born on April 17, 2009.^[32]

In the last months of 2000, Paisley had a relationship with fellow country music singer Chely Wright,^[33][34][35] even though Wright and her female lover had moved together into a new home earlier in the year. Wright was touring together with Paisley, with whom she had co-written one song the previous year, and he had been enamored of her ever since. Although she felt no sexual attraction to Paisley, as to all men,^[36][37] she recounts why Paisley was the man she decided to have a relationship with, "he’s wickedly smart, which is one of the reasons why I made the decision to spend time with him. I loved Brad. I never had the capacity to fall in love with him, but I figured if I’m gonna live a less than satisfied life, this is the guy I could live my life with. If I’m gonna be with a boy, this is the boy."^[38] Her actions were further fueled by the fact that she held him in high esteem and great affection in every way other than sexual attraction.^[36][39] In her autobiography she expresses remorse for how she treated him.^[40]

Paisley is a member of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry,^[41] and a Noble of the AAONMS,^[42] also known as Shriners. He was accompanied by his father, Doug Paisley (32º), for the ceremony on October 28, 2006.^[41]

He is also a lifelong fan of the Cleveland Browns. Paisley sang the national anthem before a game during the 1999 season, and stated in an interview, with ESPN his dream job would be to play football for them.^[43] He also invited former Browns Quarterback Brady Quinn to a concert at the Blossom Music Center, in 2008.^[44]

Paisley is also a fan of West Virginia University athletics and the Boston Red Sox.^[45]

In late 2009, it was announced in Variety that Paisley would enter the world of scripted television as an executive producer of a new hour-long drama series for The CW network called, appropriately, Nashville.^[46] The plot was written and created by Neal Dodson and actor Matt Bomer. The creator of the series One Tree Hill, Mark Schwahn will direct the pilot and oversee the series. Actor Zachary Quinto is also an executive producer on the series, along with Dodson, Bomer, and Corey Moosa.^[47] The pilot was not picked up for a series when The CW's fall schedule was announced in May 2010.