Thursday, March 27, 2008

More Than A Kiss - Tommy Conwell

 
More Than A Kiss is a song written and performed by Tommy Conwell. Music from the original motion picture soundtrack, Shout (1991). 
 
From the 1991 Shout Movie Soundtrack
Hollywood movie producer, Don Hehmanand, asked Tommy Conwell to contribute two songs to an upcoming film starring Jon Travolta. For movie buffs, the flick was Gwyneth Paltrow’s debut.
Tommy wrote two songs, “More Than a Kiss” and “Devil Call Me Back Home.” The first song was recorded in Los Angeles with Tommy on vocals backed by Stray Cat alums, Brian Setzer and Lee Rocker. The other song was recorded with blues legend Otis Rush on lead vocals with Conwell, Setzer, and Rocker.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

1987 Philly Music Hall of Fame: The Hooters, Tommy Conwell



          Interviews of Eric Bazilian (with Rob Hyman) of The Hooters and Tommy Conwell at the Philadelphia Music Foundation's Hall of Fame, April 16, 1987. Mini-performance of "Rock Around the Clock" by The Hooters at end of segment.   
          The PMF inducted 10 music legends into its Hall of Fame: Marian Anderson, Pearl Bailey, Chubby Checker, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, Bill Haley, Mario Lanza, Bobby Rydell, Bessie Smith and Leopold Stokowski.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Rumble [1988] - Rolling Stone Magazine Review

Rolling Stone Issue 540 · December 1st, 1988

Review of Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers first national album, Rumble - December 1, 1988 issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

Record Ratings per editors of Rolling Stone

Rumble
 

Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers
-------------------------------------------------
Columbia

★★★ [3 stars]

          Philadelphia's Tommy Conwell and the Young Rumblers are a strong, dynamic live band. Coming out of the scene that produced the Hooters and Robert Hazard, Conwell is clearly the pick of the pack. His best material is engaging , spry and witty, and his band can build on traditional rock motifs without succumbing to them.
          But then why is much of Rumble disappointing? The band comes on steaming in the kickoff cut, "I'm Not Your Man" (a spirited, sometimes hilarious recasting of the ideas in Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe"), but too often both Conwell and his support sound stuck in the Beaver Brown Purgatory for Derivate Bands. There's a bit of Keith Richards guitar here, a splash of Max Weinberg drums there, a torrent of David Bowie phrasing over there. The production is clean and unobtrusive, but that clarity often serves to underline the indecisiveness of the arrangements. Whenever Conwell and the band seem about to sail into uncharted waters -- say, on the rampaging "Workout" -- they stop themselves and return to the riffs they grew up on.
          The album has some fine songs, particularly "I'm Not Your Man" and the simmering ballad "Gonna Breakdown," but the compactness and muscularity of the best ones leave you longing for more.