Today's Tune: "Shot Me Down" By Nazareth

"Shot Me Down" (1977), by Scottish rockers Nazareth, is the 'Today's Tune' for this April 14th. I picked this song because it connects with two events. One a tragic incident that happened on this day 146 years ago, the other actually a happy spectacle from just last night.

The tragedy I refer to, is the assassination of US President Abraham Lincoln. He was shot down by Bel Air, Maryland native and stage actor John Wilkes Booth, while trying to take in a play on April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theatre in Washington, DC. Lincoln, perhaps America's greatest president, died the following day.

The other story, which also took place in Washington, is last night's triumphant start to the first round of the NHL's 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs, at least that's the way we fans of the Washington Capitals see it. After going 0 (goals) for 44 (shots) in all of last year's Quarterfinal series, Caps' elite Russian forward, Alexander Semin shot down goalie Henrik Lundqvist and his New York Rangers with an overtime goal in Game 1. Hopefully, that haunts Lundqvist throughout the rest of the best of seven series. He may only be able to think ...You "Shot Me Down", whenever Semin skates toward him, from now on.

Nazareth - "Shot Me Down" Studio (1977)

Nazareth Remasters On The Way

According to the following announcement, which showed up on the official Nazareth web site a couple days ago, all of the Scottish rock band's back catalogue will be re-released in improved remastered form. Some will be out by April 2010, with more shortly thereafter, via Salvo Music.


Nazareth Remasters

Salvo Records are set to reissue all of the Nazareth albums, the albums will be Remastered with extra bonus tracks relating to the album concerned, plus new sleeve notes. The first to be released will be a new 2 cd 'The Anthology' collection, then Nazareth and Exercises in one single package, followed by Razamanaz.

Loud 'n' Proud, Rampant and Hair of the Dog, are also now availiable.

In April the original Greatest hits will be released with eight exrta tracks, plus Close Enough for Rock and Roll and Playin' the Game. These two albums will be released as one CD with added bonus tracks and new sleeve notes.

June will see Expect No Mercy and No Mean City. More details on these soon.

Today's Tune: "Guilty" By Nazareth

The 'Today's Tune' for this January 7th is "Guilty" by the Scottish rock band, Nazareth. This track was chosen because I haven't been around for a while, and though I explained why in my last blog entry, my apologies once again. I feel so bad about being away, that I'm including three different performances, one studio and two live.

The melodic blues song, with both country and soul elements, was originally released only on the Canadian and European vinyl versions of the hugely successful album 'Hair Of The Dog' (1975). Too bad it didn't make it on the original US copies, but then we got "Love Hurts" . Hard to imagine that tune being left off in Canada and Europe, yet that's the one that they swapped.

Nazareth - "Guilty" Album Audio



Nazareth - "Guilty" Live 1976



Nazareth - "Guilty" Extended Live Acoustic Audio


Band Members:

Dan McCafferty - Lead Vocals
Manny Charlton - Guitars, Synthesiser
Pete Agnew - Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
Darrell Sweet - Drums, Backing Vocals

Today's Tune: "Beggars Day", "Rose In The Heather" By Nazareth

"Scottish mountains with heather" photo found at SRGC Bulb Log Diary.

Happy Birthday Heather Locklear. Locklear is an American television and film actress, with most of her work being in comedies. Her movies include 'Looney Tunes: Back In Action', 'Uptown Girls' and 'The Perfect Man'. No classics in that bunch, I know. Television has been much more her medium. Some of her TV roles and supporting roles (that I enjoyed anyway), have been in the likes of Going Places, Spin City and Scrubs.

Hey, she's a fantastically beautiful babe. Heather's also of Scottish heritage like myself, so she's got that going for her. For our 'Today's Tune', we might as well go with a band from Scotland. I'm serving up two tunes from Nazareth. The first is "Beggars Day" (I'd beg, if Heather's into that.), and then to relate even more to Heather Locklear, "Rose In The Heather" (Instrumental). Yeah, you kind of get both of them because there's no gap between them anyway.

Nazareth - "Beggars Day" / "Rose In The Heather"


And fair dues to former Nazareth guitarist, Manny Charlton ...



Manny Charlton (with American band) - "Rose In The Heather" Live

Nazareth's "The Newz" In US Stores July 22nd

Nazareth live in Germany 2006 - Photo by Dagmar Heinrich-Hoppen

Scotland's finest rock band, Nazareth will release their 21st studio album "The Newz" in the US on Tuesday July 22, 2008. The album has already been out everywhere else. The recording of the album was filmed for a DVD, which will be released later on. The current lineup of the band includes original singer Dan McCafferty on lead vocals, Jimmy Murrison (joined December 1994) on lead guitar, original bassist Pete Agnew and on drums Pete's son Lee Agnew who joined the band late in the summer of 1999, after original drummer Darrell Sweet died while on tour in the US.

Nazareth are currently in the middle of the '40th Anniversary "Road Trip" Tour 2008'. They started the non-stop worldwide tour in Europe back in late January, and will hopefully be announcing the November 12th through December 1st USA dates very soon. You may have seen advertisements for "Nazareth with Manny Charlton" , but that's their original (fantastic) guitarist Manny Charlton and his new American band (including awful lead singer), not the legally "official" Nazareth. The real Nazareth as a whole are far superior.

Visit the band's MySpace site to hear six of the great new tunes on the provided player. You'll find that unique sounding band that has influenced so many big names in rock history. They are commonly listed under heavy metal or hard rock, and they can seriously deliver on that front. However, with Dan's raspy yet bluesy vocals, they also offer a few sweet ballads that will bring tears to your eyes. Don't worry, you can find plenty of upbeat music by these lads as well. This album provides the whole range of their styles. I know I've got to get the CD the next time I get to the music store.

"Liar" from The Newz (danilonazareth2)

"Dying Breed" from The Newz (danilonazareth2)