Photos courtesy of Georgia Rose Lucas Ethereal, whimsical, and utterly ahead of her time, Alexandra Elene MacLean “Sandy” Denny was one of the more beautiful and fragile artists to envelop popular music. Like a cautious fawn navigating the natural world, for each bold step forward she would take it would be followed by breathing in her surroundings and contemplating whether to continue onward. If you could see her when she appeared, you simply wouldn’t be able to take your eyes away for they would be locked with hers. When she smiled, you could feel beams of warmth emanating from her. When she would look directly head-on in a stoic manner — be it on album covers or in promo shots — you could sense she was taking all of you in, seeking to decipher the core of your emotive makeup. In America, she lacked the attention other parts of the world bestowed upon her but she does hold one untouchable distinction. She remains, to this day, the only other vocalist to share the microphone with Robert Plant while Led Zeppelin was in existence and actually match his vocal intonations and chops. “First of all, it’s, ‘Have you heard of Sandy Denny?’ And they say, ‘No, I haven’t,’” Denny’s daughter Georgia Rose Lucas told me recently. “Then if they haven’t heard of Sandy, I’ll say, ‘Have you heard of Fairport Convention?’ Sometimes people will say, ‘Yes,’ and I say, ‘Well she sang with them.’ If they don’t get Fairport, then I say, ‘Well do you know Led Zeppelin?’ They always say, ‘Yes,’ and I say, ‘Well she was the only singer to sing with them. She did “The Battle of Evermore.”’ And they go, ‘Oh my god.’ That’s another way they discover her is through (Led Zeppelin IV).” But I’m using this forum to all but demand that Sandy Denny be recognized and heralded beyond one epic Tolkienian song. Whether fronting British folk powerhouse Fairport Convention or crafting such masterful albums as Sandy (1972) and Like an Old Fashioned Waltz, Denny should easily be regarded as Britain’s Joni Mitchell. I’d even venture to say that Kate Bush’s musical vulnerability is a byproduct of the Sandy Denny songbook. If you want to maximize her impact in terms of originality, pair her with the elusive Nick Drake. Denny tragically died at age 31 in 1978; Drake died in 1974 at age 26. “I feel that she’s similar to Nick Drake. His life was tragic and he didn’t get discovered until 30 years after which was devastating for him because he wanted to be famous,” said Lucas, 47, a graphic designer and artist based in Sydney, Australia. “I don’t think (my mom) wanted to be famous. I think she just wanted to sing in the folk clubs and live a more simple life. I think she got pushed a little bit to be a bit more commercial.” It doesn’t take repeat listens of her canon to understand the breadth of Denny’s talents and artistry. Tracks like “Who Knows Where The Time Goes,” “Late November,” “Solo,” “It Suits Me Fine,” “Like An Old Fashioned Waltz,” and “I’m a Dreamer” may reflect timidity on their surface but they also exude an authority that makes Denny one-of-a-kind. Like An Old Fashioned Waltz turns 50 this year and it’s a primer for anyone seeking to learn more about the “legend” that is Sandy Denny. The cover’s antique look and feel is, on the one hand, ironic given the album’s title but it also displays a maturity not readily heard within popular music at the time. The bright “Solo,” the album’s title tune, “At the End of the Day,” “Whispering Grass” ─ all standout tracks. Side surprising note: Emmylou Harris would cover “Like an Old Fashioned Waltz” on her 1983 album White Shoes so if that doesn’t speak to its impact… just saying… “Everything she’s done is amazing. It’s hard to compare anyone to her,” Lucas adds. What makes Denny’s tale that much more real and, in aspects, heartbreaking though is the fact that arguably the harshest critic of her work was Denny herself. “She was very self-conscious, and she didn’t think she was that good — whereas we all know that she was probably one of the best female artists in the world,” Lucas told me. “I think that she’s still underrated. I think that she should have more recognition. Her music is still being discovered. It’s timeless music, it’s never going to get old. It’s always going to be there for a new generation; it’s just getting that new generation to hear it.” In my own case, it’s also the relatively small treasure trove of videos and footage that contributes to the Sandy Denny mystique. It’s far easier, for example, to find footage of a brooding, intense John Martyn bending guitar notes and his voice to match his feelings. With Denny, there’s more trepidation, but as her confidence grows, so does the range and color in her voice. Her world and her artistry are microcosmic so for those who were able to experience it in real time during her lifetime, consider yourself lucky! “When people hear my mom for the first time, they go ‘Oh my god’ every single time. No two ways about it,” Lucas says. “Every single time someone hears my mom’s voice it’s an ‘A-ha’ moment for them and they’ve just discovered her.” For Lucas though, it hasn’t always been easy to fully embrace the fact that she is Sandy Denny’s daughter. Lucas wasn’t even a year old when Denny passed away. Her father, musician, Trevor Lucas, a bandmate of Denny’s in the group Fotheringay, would pass away in 1989 at the age of 45. Per Lucas: “I didn’t know her. All I’ve got are her diaries and her music. “I sort of pushed this whole legacy under the carpet because I was so hurt. It was quite tragic. People would always come up to me and say, ‘Your mom was this and I knew her…’ I was really upset about that, and I didn’t want to listen to my mom’s music. If someone wanted to listen to her music, I would pass them a pair of headphones and say ‘Here, you can listen to it on these because I can’t do this or I’ll cry.’ I didn’t understand why people wanted to listen to music that made them cry. Obviously, I didn’t want to deal with that back then. “I knew that I could access the stories, and I knew I could ask but I didn’t want to hear it for a long time because it was just too painful. I felt ripped off, like both my parents are gone and they just left me. I was very bitter about the whole thing; very sad. I wouldn’t say I was bitter — I just asked the question ‘Why? Why would this happen to me?’” Lucas quickly adds, “Now I am very much behind my mom’s legacy,” citing a cancer scare she suffered as a key reason for revaluating life and the importance of her mother to both herself and others. “That’s what came of my cancer journey is to be more involved and let my mom’s legacy in and be part of it,” she says. “(Her) estate was running on a skeleton crew for most of my life and I thought I’d better do something. When you have a near-death experience, you either want to live and fight it or let life go. I wanted to live and fight it. And here I am. “Before my dad died, I was learning the piano. When he died, it all sort of went away and I got very depressed,” she adds. “I’ve come from a very dark place and I love my life now. I just wish that I had been able to do this sooner but then maybe it wouldn’t have been the same. Because I’m such a stubborn person, I needed to be slapped… My cancer was a strange gift.” Starting with folk-rock mainstays The Strawbs (of “Lay Down,” “Part of the Union,” and “Grace Darling” fame) and Fairport Convention, Denny would form the short-lived Fotheringay in 1970 before releasing four solo albums between 1971 and 1977. For however much the public may have known about her personality, in private, Denny proved to be just as mystifying. “I think that she was depressed. She’d had a rough time, I think, with a few things and it came out in her music. Back then everybody was all over the place with everybody and my dad was touring with his band.” Lucas says. “She was left in the Byfield house on her own. Back then we didn’t have that connection with the world and she didn’t like being alone. It was hard for her. It came out in her music.” For Denny, a key outlet for expression would be her diaries where emotions would pour out on the page in tandem with her lyrical poetry. Its these exclamations, proclamations, and insights that form the basis for a 2023 Sandy Denny tribute album, Songbird, developed by Lucas in tandem with German singer Carla Fuchs. “You can see in the diaries what sort of mood she was in – whether she was calm or in a good place or if she angry and scribbling,” Lucas said. “One song on the album is called “Simply Falls Apart” and there’s a wine spill on that piece of paper. The way she was writing the lyrics, it was like she was not in a good place. You could tell by the diaries. Her emotions and moods were all over the place in those diaries so the songs that she’s written – I don’t know who writes songs like that.” While there’s an underlying somberness to Songbird that recalls classic Sandy Denny material, there is a sweetness and beauty that’s undeniable, especially on tracks like “Sixpence,” “If You Are Free,” and “Georgia,” where the lyrics detail her daughter’s interactions with the world how she eagerly awaits the next moments they can be together. Fuchs’ voice eerily recalls Denny’s own, but this is a good thing as it means Denny’s legacy is omnipresent. When Fuchs sings a Denny line like, “And If I don’t make it before I die, I just ain’t gonna die,” you smile because you realize that Sandy Denny was actually a master at conveying strength through song. Lucas, meanwhile, sums her mother up with the following: “She’s just brilliant in every way.” *** Share your feedback and suggestions for future columns with Ira at vinylconfessions84@gmail.com. Ira’s book, “Hello, Honey, It’s Me”: The Story of Harry Chapin, is available for purchase here.

New York City Hall chief counsel Lisa Zornberg has resigned from her position. 

According to the Washington Examiner, six weak Republicans have signed a “Unity Commitment” pledge to safeguard the election. Unless the courts find corruption, it reads like a pledge to back up any crooked election. They pledge to accept the winner, attend the inauguration, and become voices for calm. It’s another slap at J6. If only they […] The post Six Republicans Surrender with an Obnoxious “Unity Commitment” appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

This is the affidavit about the corrupt debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris last week. The person who signed the document will testify before Congress and sent this to Speaker Mike Johnson the day before the debate. The man who signed it does not support Donald Trump for any position. He has also unopened […] The post The Debate Affidavit: ABC News Corrupted the Debate for Harris appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

'silence the concerns of American citizens'

One of Sara Gonzales’ longtime dreams was fulfilled this week — an “ultimate bucket list item,” she called it — when the notorious Alex Jones joined the program. While the two broached a number of pertinent subjects related to the dire state our country is in, one topic of conversation was “all of these Haitian migrants that the left keeps saying” is “just another crazy right-wing conspiracy theory.” Regardless of what the media says, “all of the residents in Springfield, Ohio, are pretty mad about the government giving thousands of dollars in aid to not the homeless veterans on the streets, not all of these Americans who — I don't know — could use the handout in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ America, but to the Haitians,” criticizes Sara, noting that the mass influx is “driving up the cost of living,” “driving up insurance rates for people's car insurance” due to foreign drivers “having accidents all over the place,” and ultimately, “driving locals out of their homes.” Sara plays a recent clip of an interview with a Springfield resident who was very candid about the treachery that’s going on in her city. “I'm having a hell of a time finding a job because they want the Haitian. ... I worked retail before I lost my job back in April. When I do transactions, I can see what comes across on certain cards. ... A Haitian comes through and spends $500 in food stamps and still has five grand on their food assistance card,” the resident lamented, adding that Haitians are “calling them the magic money cards because they never run out.” “I'm homeless, I'm jobless, I'm sleeping on friends’ couches because I can't get government assistance because I come from the wrong country, apparently,” she said. Jones says the woman’s words are “powerful.” However, the Haitians overrunning the city of Springfield is neither isolated, nor accidental. - YouTube www.youtube.com “This is an absolute program; it's already been tested in Europe 15 years ago up until now. It’s global [United Nations Non-governmental Organizations]. Trump, when he first got in, removed us from the UN Migrant Treaty; Biden put us back on,” Jones explains, adding that now “the UN is in charge of who is going to be seen basically as a refugee.” As far as the Haitian refugees in Springfield are concerned, Jones says that the media is treating the catastrophe exactly like it treated the Venezuelan gangs that were taking over apartment complexes and wreaking havoc in the streets of different cities across the nation. It’s denying the severity of the situation, chalking it up to mostly right-wing conspiracy, including the part about people’s pets being eaten. Jones points to “videos of a crazy woman in the parking lot eating the cat she just killed, admitting she did it in a voodoo ritual.” “They believe they get the power of the cat if they eat it live,” Jones explains. “That's in mainline stories about Haiti. They've deforested Haiti; they eat any cats or dogs that are out. ... They're butchering them right there on their front steps.” “This is all there ... and just a few nights ago, Kamala says, ‘That's totally made up, that's a hoax,’ and everybody laughs at Trump saying it's not true.” Not only is it true that pets are being eaten, says Jones, but it’s also true that Haitian immigrants are “given $3,000 a month by the feds, $1000 by the state, [but] the average citizen who's on welfare gets about a quarter of that.” “They advertise worldwide if you come here you get the debit cards, you get the money for at least three years. Now what happens when they're cut off?” Jones asks rhetorically. This is where it gets really dark. “The main NGO company ... that ran the operations in Europe the last 15 years was brought here three and a half years ago by [Joe Biden],” and according to Jones, it’s that same NGO that’s processing and importing masses of immigrants into America — specifically into red cities with the intention of changing the demographic. “They are bombing red cities, red counties ... like what we just saw up there in Ohio,” says Jones, adding that the goal is to install “a permanent underclass that knows their boss is the Democratic Party.” “This is an organized replacement migration,” he says, adding that although he’s called a conspiracy theorist and a racist, this is easily verified by facts. “You can go to the UN’s website, type in replacement migration, read the report. They want 600+ million people [in America] by 2050. ... They want 400 million in Europe, and they're well on their way doing it,” he says. “This is how you capture the West: You bring in incompatible super ultra third world populations.” Especially those who hold beliefs contrary to Western thinking and certainly Christian values. Jones says that “black Haitians that are Christians [are] saying, ‘You don't want to bring in these military-age men voodoo people; they're crazy.” To hear more of the conversation, watch the episode above. Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred take to news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The “God’s Not Dead” series isn’t taking anyone by surprise these days. The franchise shocked Hollywood in 2014 by raking in more than $62 million on a microscopic budget. The latest disturbing headlines power 'God’s Not Dead' as much as its faith-friendly demographic. The fifth film in the saga, “God’s Not Dead: In God We Trust,” will earn decidedly less based on shrinking receipts from previous installments. That doesn’t diminish what the franchise means to both Christian conservatives and pop culture in general. The first film, starring Kevin Sorbo, Dean Cain, and David A.R. White, gave Christians a rare, red-meat view of the culture wars. The story focused on a secular professor (Sorbo) matching wits with an evangelical student. If the young man didn’t declare “God is dead,” he would fail the class and crash his academic dreams. Critics savaged the film. Witness the movie’s 12% “rotten” rating at Rotten Tomatoes. Subsequent films faced similar brickbats from Critic Nation. Christian audiences lined up anyway, eager to see stories reflecting their worldviews. Hollywood, by and large, does the opposite, then and now. The saga’s durability is part of an overall hunger for faith-friendly fare that continues today. The recent Kendrick brothers drama “The Forge” has earned an impressive $20 million in just three weeks. That’s more than mainstream titles like “Borderlands,” “The Crow,” and “Blink Twice” have generated. “The Forge” follows a young black man (Aspen Kennedy) who turns his life around by embracing his faith. The “God's Not Dead” franchise also has a knack for riding the zeitgeist in uncomfortable ways. The 2018 sequel “God’s Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness” tracked clergy members under fire for allegedly using their pulpits to promote political causes. The 2021 sequel “God’s Not Dead: We the People” dramatized efforts to squash the rise of Christian homeschooling in America. “In God We Trust” finds lawmakers singling out people of faith, demanding that religion stay far, far away from the government. If any of this sounds a bit too close to real life, that’s no accident. Christians are routinely slammed by Hollywood, but in real life it’s often worse. Pro-life protester Lauren Handy, 30, was sentenced to nearly five years in prison earlier this year for a 2020 incident blockading an abortion clinic. Meanwhile, countless examples of extreme far-left violence go unpunished. Church arson attacks are commonplace in Canada. Closer to home, the FBI’s “Richmond Memo,” according to the House Judiciary Committee, fingered “traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists.” And who could forget how the U.S. government kept churches closed but liquor stores open during the pandemic? Even the New York Times noticed. It’s no wonder “God’s Not Dead” refuses to fade away. “It’s almost as if [White] has a crystal ball, or he’s being guided in some direction,” Scott Baio, who co-stars in the latest “God’s Not Dead” feature, told "The Hollywood in Toto Podcast" of the saga’s co-star and producer. The latest disturbing headlines power “God’s Not Dead” as much as its faith-friendly demographic. That isn’t all that the saga does. The franchise offers work to actors whose conservative bona fides keep them out of Hollywood Inc. Think Cain, a co-star in the latest installment, along with Samaire Armstrong, Scott Baio, and Melissa Joan Hart. All worked steadily in Hollywood for decades before their openly conservative views caught up with them. These aren’t walk-on roles, either. “In God We Trust” co-stars Armstrong as a single mom helping Reverend Dave (White) defeat a cruel Democrat (Ray Wise). Baio shines as the Democrat’s right-hand man, a smooth operator eager to exploit any opportunity for his client. Many conservative actors keep quiet for fear of losing work. And they have a point. Sorbo says his agent left him more than a decade ago due to the star’s Christian conservative beliefs. He’s been forced to create his own projects outside the Hollywood bubble to stay active. Oscar nominee James Woods, another outspoken conservative, hasn’t had a major film role in a decade. If stars see their like-minded colleagues keeping busy with new projects, it may embolden them to speak out, too. The “God’s Not Dead” series doesn’t represent peak cinema. The films preach to the choir and lack the razzle-dazzle of bigger-budget movies. They still offer an alternative to audiences and a chance for right-leaning stars to do what they do best: entertain us.

Advanced technology has detected the sketch of a Leonardo Da Vinci masterpiece hidden beneath the finished product as well as the artist's own handprints. The post Hidden Sketch Found Underneath Da Vinci’s 500-Year-Old Masterpiece ‘Virgin Of The Rocks’ appeared first on All That's Interesting.