Rob Thomas (musician)
Robert Kelly Thomas is an American singer, record producer and multi-instrumentalist, best known as the lead singer of alternative rock band Matchbox Twenty. Thomas records and performs as a solo artist, with "Lonely No More" released in 2005 becoming his biggest solo chart success. Thomas earned three Grammy Awards for singing on the 1999 hit "Smooth" by Santana, he has been a songwriter for such artists as Willie Nelson, Mick Jagger, Marc Anthony, Pat Green, Taylor Hicks, Travis Tritt and Daughtry. Since 1996, his band has released a string of hit singles to radio including "Push", "3AM", "Real World", "Back 2 Good", "Bent", "If You're Gone", "Mad Season", "Disease", "Unwell", "Bright Lights", "How Far We've Come", "She's So Mean". In 2004, the Songwriters Hall of Fame awarded Thomas its first Hal David Starlight Award, recognizing young songwriters who have had a lasting influence in the music industry. Thomas was born February 14, 1972, in Landstuhl, West Germany, at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, to Bill Thomas, a United States Army sergeant, his wife Mamie.
Thomas has an older half sister, from his mother's previous marriage. The family returned to the United States, his parents divorced. Thomas lived with his sister, they were poor and moved often staying with Mamie's mother in Lake City, South Carolina. His grandmother was an alcoholic, she owned a small country gas station, where she sold marijuana and moonshine. She gave Thomas his first marijuana, he grew up listening to country music and idolized the "big stars who lived... hard lives", like Johnny Cash and Merle Haggard. Their stories inspired him to be a songwriter. Thomas and his mother and sister moved to Sarasota, when he was 10 settled in the Orlando area the following year. Around this time, Thomas received a Casio keyboard. A friend taught him to play, Thomas practiced by trying to reproduce the songs he heard on the radio, he acquired a guitar with no strings, which he used as a prop while he pretended he was in a rock band. His home life was not stable. Thomas describes his mother as an alcoholic who beat him.
When Thomas was 12, his mother was diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma and given only six months to live. His sister ran away from home leaving Thomas to care for their mother on his own, she entered remission. Mamie dated a series of men, some of whom beat her, she loved wild parties. Thomas woke up to find a dozen strangers sleeping off a hangover on their living room floor, he attended Lake Brantley High School in the Orlando suburb of Altamonte Springs. Thomas joined the choir in an unsuccessful attempt to attract the attention of a girl, his choir teacher told him to keep working. To impress girls at parties, Thomas played music. A few months before graduation, Thomas dropped out of high school, saying his "regular life was in such disarray that going seemed ridiculous", he earned a GED. He was convicted of stealing a Camaro and spent two months in county jail when he was 17. For the next two or three years, Thomas was homeless. He'd crash for a few days or weeks at the homes of various friends. At other times, he would hitchhike around South Carolina.
Soon after getting out of jail, Thomas connected with several local musicians. He began writing songs in earnest. Thomas said, and all I wanted to do was get out of Florida." One of his bands, Fair Warning, earned a three-week job playing at a hotel in Vero Beach. They were fired three days into the job, after they were caught stealing beer and candy from the hotel. Another band, Tidal Wave, played surf tunes. Thomas experimented with drugs. During one acid trip, he decided to play with dry ice, his hands were burned so badly that doctors thought they would require amputation. Thomas's sister recalled that while she was concerned with how Thomas would manage everyday activities, Thomas cried and asked "how am I going to get these songs in my head out if I can't play them?" In 1993, Thomas formed the band Tabitha's Secret. Brian Yale was the group's bass player. Paul Doucette earned a spot as drummer after answering an ad. Guitarists Jay Stanley and John Goff rounded out the band; the band was popular in the Orlando area, where they played in nightclubs.
Most of their songs were written by Thomas, including "3 A. M." This song, inspired by his time taking care of his mother, was the first that he had written and liked. In an effort to recreate that magic, his writing shifted to focus more on emotions inspired from his own life. Producer Matt Serletic heard them was intrigued; the band broke up before any contracts were signed. Thomas worried. Thomas and Doucette were still interested in working together, Serletic introduced them to rhythm guitarist Adam Gaynor and lead guitarist Kyle Cook. Together, they formed a new band, Matchbox 20. Serletic sent Thomas to vocal coach Jan Smith to learn; the band recorded several demo tapes, with Serletic as their producer. Three radio stations in Orlando and Tampa added the songs to their rotations. Executives at Atlantic Records noticed. Although the band sounded green, executives thought the songs were good; the band was soon signed to Atlantic subsidiary Lava Records. Thomas wrote every song on Matchbox 20's debut al
Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana audio is a Mexican and American musician who first became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, which pioneered a fusion of rock and Latin American jazz. The band's sound featured his melodic, blues-based guitar lines set against Latin and African rhythms featuring percussion instruments such as timbales and congas not heard in rock music. Santana continued to work in these forms over the following decades, he experienced a resurgence of popularity and critical acclaim in the late 1990s. In 2015, Rolling Stone magazine listed Santana at number 20 on their list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists, he has won 10 Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards. Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Mexico, he learned to play the violin at age five and the guitar at age eight under the tutelage of his father, a mariachi musician. His younger brother, Jorge Santana, would become a professional guitarist. Young Carlos was influenced by Ritchie Valens at a time when there were few Mexicans in American rock and pop music.
The family moved from Autlán de Navarro to Tijuana, the city on Mexico's border with California, San Francisco. Carlos stayed in Tijuana but joined his family in San Francisco. During his early years from the age of 10–12 he was sexually molested by an American man who brought him across the border. Living in the Mission District, graduating from James Lick Middle School, in 1965 from Mission High School. Carlos was accepted at California State University and Humboldt State University, but chose not to attend college. Santana was influenced by popular artists of the 1950s such as B. B. King, T-Bone Walker, Javier Batiz, John Lee Hooker. Soon after he began playing guitar, he joined local bands along the "Tijuana Strip" where he was able to begin adding his own unique touch to'50s Rock'n' Roll, he was introduced to a variety of new musical influences, including jazz and folk music, witnessed the growing hippie movement centered in San Francisco in the 1960s. After several years spent working as a dishwasher in a diner and busking for spare change, Santana decided to become a full-time musician.
In 1966 he gained all happening on the same day. Santana was a frequent spectator at Bill Graham's Fillmore West. During a Sunday matinee show, Paul Butterfield was slated to perform there but was unable to do so as a result of being intoxicated. Graham assembled an impromptu band of musicians he knew through his connections with Butterfield's band and with the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, but he had not yet chosen all the guitarists. Santana's manager, Stan Marcum suggested to Graham that Santana join the impromptu band and Graham agreed. During the jam session, Santana's guitar playing and solo gained the notice of both the audience and Graham. During the same year, Santana formed the Santana Blues Band, with fellow street musicians David Brown, Marcus Malone and Gregg Rolie, he was signed to Columbia where his band name, "Santana Blues Band" was shortened to, "Santana" that released a series of hit albums with an Afro-Cuban and Latin Rock feel thanks to Carlos' exquisite guitar playing, characterized by the self-sustaining melody that became his trademark.
With their original blend of Latin-infused rock, blues and African rhythms, the band gained an immediate following on the San Francisco club circuit. The band's early success, capped off by a memorable performance at Woodstock in 1969, led to him signing a recording contract with Columbia Records run by Clive Davis. Santana was signed by CBS Records and went into the studio to record their first album in January 1969, they decided changes needed to be made. This resulted in the dismissal of drummer Bob Livingston. Santana replaced him with Mike Shrieve, who had a strong background in both rock. Percussionist Marcus Malone was forced to quit the band due to involuntary manslaughter charges, the band re-enlisted Michael Carabello. Carabello brought with him percussionist Jose Chepito Areas, well known in his native Nicaragua, with his skills and professional experience, was a major contributor to the band. Bill Graham, a Latin Music aficionado, had been a fan of the band from its inception, arranged for them to appear at the Woodstock Music and Art Festival before their debut album was released.
They were one of the surprises of the festival. Graham gave the band some key advice to record the Willie Bobo song "Evil Ways", as he felt it would get them radio airplay, their first album, was released in August 1969 and became a huge hit, reaching #4 on the U. S. album charts. In 1969, the band's performance at the Woodstock festival introduced them to an international audience and garnered critical acclaim, although the band's sudden success put pressure on the group, highlighting the different musical directions in which Rolie and Santana were starting to go. Rolie, along with some of the other band members, wanted to emphasize a basic hard rock sound, a key component in establishing the band from the start. Santana, was interested in moving beyond his love of blues and rock and wanted more jazzy, ethereal elements in the music, which were influenced by his fascination with Gábor Szabó, Miles Davis, Ph
Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued as a collection on compact disc, audio tape, or another medium. Albums of recorded music were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78-rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have focused on CD and MP3 formats; the audio cassette was a format used alongside vinyl from the 1970s into the first decade of the 2000s. An album may be recorded in a recording studio, in a concert venue, at home, in the field, or a mix of places; the time frame for recording an album varies between a few hours to several years. This process requires several takes with different parts recorded separately, brought or "mixed" together. Recordings that are done in one take without overdubbing are termed "live" when done in a studio. Studios are built to absorb sound, eliminating reverberation, so as to assist in mixing different takes. Recordings, including live, may contain sound effects, voice adjustments, etc..
With modern recording technology, musicians can be recorded in separate rooms or at separate times while listening to the other parts using headphones. Album covers and liner notes are used, sometimes additional information is provided, such as analysis of the recording, lyrics or librettos; the term "album" was applied to a collection of various items housed in a book format. In musical usage the word was used for collections of short pieces of printed music from the early nineteenth century. Collections of related 78rpm records were bundled in book-like albums; when long-playing records were introduced, a collection of pieces on a single record was called an album. An album, in ancient Rome, was a board chalked or painted white, on which decrees and other public notices were inscribed in black, it was from this that in medieval and modern times album came to denote a book of blank pages in which verses, sketches and the like are collected. Which in turn led to the modern meaning of an album as a collection of audio recordings issued as a single item.
In the early nineteenth century "album" was used in the titles of some classical music sets, such as Schumann's Album for the Young Opus 68, a set of 43 short pieces. When 78rpm records came out, the popular 10-inch disc could only hold about three minutes of sound per side, so all popular recordings were limited to around three minutes in length. Classical-music and spoken-word items were released on the longer 12-inch 78s, about 4–5 minutes per side. For example, in 1924, George Gershwin recorded a drastically shortened version of the seventeen-minute Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra, it ran for 8m 59s. Deutsche Grammophon had produced an album for its complete recording of the opera Carmen in 1908. German record company Odeon released the Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky in 1909 on 4 double-sided discs in a specially designed package; this practice of issuing albums does not seem to have been taken up by other record companies for many years. By about 1910, bound collections of empty sleeves with a paperboard or leather cover, similar to a photograph album, were sold as record albums that customers could use to store their records.
These albums came in both 12-inch sizes. The covers of these bound books were wider and taller than the records inside, allowing the record album to be placed on a shelf upright, like a book, suspending the fragile records above the shelf and protecting them. In the 1930s, record companies began issuing collections of 78 rpm records by one performer or of one type of music in specially assembled albums with artwork on the front cover and liner notes on the back or inside cover. Most albums included three or four records, with two sides each, making six or eight compositions per album; the 12-inch LP record, or 33 1⁄3 rpm microgroove vinyl record, is a gramophone record format introduced by Columbia Records in 1948. A single LP record had the same or similar number of tunes as a typical album of 78s, it was adopted by the record industry as a standard format for the "album". Apart from minor refinements and the important addition of stereophonic sound capability, it has remained the standard format for vinyl albums.
The term "album" was extended to other recording media such as Compact audio cassette, compact disc, MiniDisc, digital albums, as they were introduced. As part of a trend of shifting sales in the music industry, some observers feel that the early 21st century experienced the death of the album. While an album may contain as many or as few tracks as required, in the United States, The Recording Academy's rules for Grammy Awards state that an album must comprise a minimum total playing time of 15 minutes with at least five distinct tracks or a minimum total playing time of 30 minutes with no minimum track requirement. In the United Kingdom, the criteria for the UK Albums Chart is that a recording counts as an "album" i
Angélique Kidjo
Angélique Kpasseloko Hinto Hounsinou Kandjo Manta Zogbin Kidjo, known as Angélique Kidjo, is a Beninese singer-songwriter and activist, noted for her diverse musical influences and creative music videos. Time magazine has called her "Africa's premier diva"; the BBC has included Kidjo in its list of the African continent's 50 most iconic figures. The Guardian has listed her as one of its Top 100 Most Inspiring Women in the World and Kidjo is the first woman to be listed among "The 40 Most Powerful Celebrities in Africa" by Forbes magazine; the Daily Telegraph in London described her as "The undisputed queen of African music" during the 2012 Olympic Games River of Music Festival. In March 2013, National Public Radio in America, called her "Africa's greatest living diva". Kidjo is listed among the "2014 Most Influential Africans" by New African magazine and Jeune Afrique. Forbes Afrique put Kidjo on the cover of their "100 most influential women" issue in 2015. On June 6, 2013, Kidjo was elected vice-president of the Confédération Internationale des Sociétés d´Auteurs et Compositeurs.
She now resides in New York City. Kidjo has received Honorary Doctorates from Yale University, Berklee College of Music and Middlebury College, she is the 2018 Harvard University Jazz Master In Residence. Her musical influences include the Afropop, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba, jazz and Latin styles, she has recorded George Gershwin's "Summertime", Ravel's Boléro, Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" and the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter", has collaborated with Dave Matthews and the Dave Matthews Band, Kelly Price, Alicia Keys, Branford Marsalis, Ziggy Marley, Philip Glass, Peter Gabriel, Carlos Santana, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Josh Groban, Dr John, the Kronos Quartet and Cassandra Wilson. Kidjo's hit songs include "Agolo", "We We", "Adouma", "Wombo Lombo", "Afirika", "Batonga", her version of "Malaika", her album Logozo is ranked number 37 in the Greatest Dance Albums of All Time list compiled by Vice magazine's Thump website. Kidjo is fluent in five languages: Fon, Yorùbá, English, she sings in all of them, she has her own personal language, which includes words that serve as song titles such as "Batonga".
"Malaika" is a song sung in the Swahili language. Kidjo uses Benin's traditional Zilin vocal technique and vocalese. Kidjo is the recipient of the 2015 Crystal Award given by the World Economic Forum of Davos in Switzerland and has received the Ambassador Of Conscience Award from Amnesty International in 2016 She is included in the exhibits at the National Museum of African American History that opened on Sept. 24, 2016 on the National Mall. Kidjo was born in Benin, her father is from her mother from the Yoruba people. She grew up listening to Beninese traditional music, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, James Brown, Manu Dibango, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder and Santana. By the time she was six, Kidjo was performing with her mother's theatre troupe, giving her an early appreciation for traditional music and dance, she started singing in her school band, Les Sphinx, found success as a teenager with her adaptation of Miriam Makeba's "Les Trois Z", which played on national radio.
She recorded the album Pretty with her brother Oscar. It featured the songs "Ninive", "Gbe Agossi" and a tribute to the singer Bella Bellow, one of her role models; the success of the album allowed her to tour all over West Africa. Continuing political conflicts in Benin prevented her from being an independent artist in her own country and led her to relocate to Paris in 1983. While working various day jobs to pay for her tuition, Kidjo studied music at the CIM, a reputable jazz school in Paris where she met musician and producer Jean Hebrail, with whom she has composed most of her music and whom she married in 1987, she started out as a backup singer in local bands. In 1985, she became the front singer of the known Euro-African jazz/rock band Jasper van't Hof's Pili Pili. Three Pili Pili studio albums followed: Jakko, Be In Two Minds and Hotel Babo. By the end of the 1980s, she had become one of the most popular live performers in Paris and recorded a solo album called Parakou for the Open Jazz Label.
She was discovered in Paris by Island Records founder Chris Blackwell, who signed her in 1991. While at Island she co-wrote the U2 song "Mysterious Ways" from their 1991 album Achtung Baby, she recorded four albums for Island until Blackwell's departure from the label. In 2000 she was signed in New York for which label she recorded two albums, her first album for Island Records was recorded between Miami and Paris and produced by Miami Sound Machine drummer Joe Galdo and features Branford Marsalis and Manu DiBango on saxophones. It was reached number one on the Billboard World Music chart. Music videos for the singles "We We" and "Batonga" were released and Kidjo made her first world tour, appearing at many festivals and headlining the Olympia Hall in Paris on October 31, 1992. Logozo is ranked number 37 in the Greatest Dance Albums of All Time list compiled by the Thump website. Released in 1994, the album Ayé was produced by David Z at Prince's Paisley Park Studio in Minneapolis and by Will Mowat at Soul To Soul studio in London.
It includes the single "Agolo". Kidjo and Jean Hebrail traveled all over Benin in 1995 to record the traditional rhythms that would f
All That I Am (Santana album)
All That I Am is the twentieth studio album by Santana and follow-up to the band's 2002 Shaman. It was released on October 31, 2005 internationally and a day in the United States. All That I Am follows the format of his previous two studio releases, consisting of collaborations with other artists; the album debuted at # 2 with 142,309 sales. The first single released from All That I Am was "I'm Feeling You" which featured Michelle Branch and The Wreckers, was released in October 2005 after it received radio airplay in the previous month, but only peaked at number 55 on the U. S. Billboard Hot 100; the second single was "Just Feel Better". The final single was "Cry Baby Cry" which featured Sean Paul and Joss Stone would only peak at number 71 in the UK. "Hermes" – 4:08 Written by Carlos Santana and S. Jurad Produced by Carlos Santana "El Fuego" – 4:17 Written by Carlos Santana, Jean Shepherd and Richard Shepherd Produced by Carlos Santana "I'm Feeling You" – 4:13 Featuring Michelle Branch and The Wreckers Written by Kara DioGuardi, John Shanks and Michelle Branch Produced by John Shanks and Kara DioGuardi "My Man" – 4:37 Featuring Big Boi and Mary J. Blige Written by Antwan Patton, Nsilo Reddick, Nicholas Sherwood and Rob Thomas Produced by Big Boi and The Beat Bullies "Just Feel Better" – 4:12 Featuring Steven Tyler Written by Jamie Houston, Buck Johnson and Damon Johnson Produced by John Shanks "I Am Somebody" – 4:02 Featuring will.i.am Written by will.i.am and George Pajon, Jr. Produced by will.i.am Additional Production Lester Mendez This song is considered by most as a tribute to "I Am - Somebody", a poem by Reverend Jesse Jackson.
"Con Santana" – 3:18 Featuring Ismaïla and Sixu Toure known as Touré Kunda Written by Carlos Santana, Ismaïla Toure and Tidane "Sixu" Toure Produced by Carlos Santana "Twisted" – 5:11 Featuring Anthony Hamilton Written by Dante Ross and Nandi Willis Produced by Dante Ross "Trinity" – 3:33 Featuring Kirk Hammett and Robert Randolph Written by Carlos Santana and Michael Brook Produced by Carlos Santana This song is a tribute to the Pakistani musician Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and is a cover of his song Tere Bina "Cry Baby Cry" – 3:53 Featuring Sean Paul and Joss Stone Written by Lester Mendez, Sean Paul, Kara DioGuardi and Jimmy Harry Produced and Arranged by Lester Mendez "Brown Skin Girl" – 4:44 Featuring Bo Bice Written by Jamie Houston Produced by Lester Mendez and Jamie Houston Vocal Arrangement by Jamie Houston "I Don't Wanna Lose Your Love" – 4:00 Featuring Los Lonely Boys Written by Henry Garza, Ringo Garza and Joey Garza Produced by Carlos Santana Additional Production by John Proter and Los Lonely Boys "Da Tu Amor" – 4:03 Written by Carlos Santana, Andy Vargas, Gary Glenn Produced by Carlos Santana Carlos Santana – guitar, background vocals Andy Vargas - lead vocals 1, 2, 7, 13 Chester Thompson – organ Benny Rietveld – bass guitar Dennis Chambers – drums Karl Perazzo – congas, percussion, background vocals Raul Rekow – congas, background vocals Jeff Cressman – trombone Bill Ortiz – trumpet This CD is thought to contain MediaMax CD-3 by SunnComm.
Some anti-virus and anti-adware programs are attempting to remove said clones and impersonators of said DRM. Sony has recalled all affected CDs and has re-released the album without the DRM. All That I Am at CD Universe All That I Am at Metacritic
Greece
Greece the Hellenic Republic, self-identified and known as Hellas, is a country located in Southern and Southeast Europe, with a population of 11 million as of 2016. Athens is largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe and Africa. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, Turkey to the northeast; the Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a large number of islands, of which 227 are inhabited. Eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres; the country consists of nine geographic regions: Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace and the Ionian Islands.
Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilisation, being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, Western drama and notably the Olympic Games. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as poleis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Philip of Macedon united most of the Greek mainland in the fourth century BC, with his son Alexander the Great conquering much of the ancient world, from the eastern Mediterranean to India. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, in which Greek language and culture were dominant. Rooted in the first century A. D. the Greek Orthodox Church helped shape modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World. Falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence.
Greece's rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The sovereign state of Greece is a unitary parliamentary republic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, a high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the tenth member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001, it is a member of numerous other international institutions, including the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. Greece's unique cultural heritage, large tourism industry, prominent shipping sector and geostrategic importance classify it as a middle power, it is the largest economy in the Balkans. The names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages and cultures.
The Greek name of the country is Hellas or Ellada, its official name is the Hellenic Republic. In English, the country is called Greece, which comes from Latin Graecia and means'the land of the Greeks'; the earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, in the Greek province of Macedonia. All three stages of the stone age are represented for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which farming spread from the Near East to Europe. Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilisation, beginning with the Cycladic civilization on the islands of the Aegean Sea at around 3200 BC, the Minoan civilization in Crete, the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland; these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek.
The Mycenaeans absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC, during a time of regional upheaval known as the Bronze Age collapse. This ushered from which written records are absent. Though the unearthed Linear B texts are too fragmentary for the reconstruction of the political landscape and can't support the existence of a larger state contemporary Hittite and Egyptian records suggest the presence of a single state under a "Great King" based in mainland Greece; the end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to the year of the first Olympic Games. The Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, which spread to the shores of the Black Sea, So
The Calling
The Calling is an American rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1996 by lead singer Alex Band and guitarist Aaron Kamin. They are best known for their hit single, "Wherever You Will Go", which topped the Adult Top 40 for 23 weeks, making it the second longest running number one in the chart’s history and named the number one song of the decade of 2000s on the Adult Pop Charts by Billboard magazine, their debut album Camino Palmero was a commercial success. Their second album Two, was released in June 2004, its lead single "Our Lives" was featured in the closing ceremonies of the 2004 Summer Olympics as well as the opening song of the 78th annual Academy Awards. The band broke up in 2005. In 2013, The Calling reformed with a new lineup and have announced new music to be released in 2018; the band was formed by Aaron Kamin when Kamin was dating Band's sister. Kamin and Band began jamming and writing songs as far back as 1996, began gigging under the band name "Generation Gap" with a drummer, twice their age.
At this stage, the band included saxophonist Benny Golbin, giving the songs a more jazzy sound reminiscent of Dave Matthews Band. Band and Kamin ditched the "Gap" lineup, switched their name to "Next Door", which itself was a nod to Ron Fair, a veteran music business executive and Band's neighbor, they found their own sound amongst radio rock acts of the early 21st century such as Matchbox Twenty, Third Eye Blind and Fastball. By 1999, Fair was impressed enough by the demos to sign them to a record deal with RCA, they changed their name to "The Calling". While the RCA deal was a huge boost, it created a new problem for Band and Kamin: they had no solid band and, had hardly toured and built a fanbase. Rather than putting them out on the road and building regional support, Fair worked intensely with Band and Kamin for over two years perfecting the debut album; the Calling's first album was recorded from 1999–2001, with Sean Woolstenhulme, Billy Mohler, Nate Wood. The Calling's first album, Camino Palmero, was issued in July 2001 and became a hit due to the strength of its single, "Wherever You Will Go", named the No. 1 Adult Pop song of the decade by Billboard magazine.
The song was featured prominently in the television series Smallville's first-season episode "Metamorphosis". It was featured in the 2000 film Coyote Ugly with the group performing in the background in the first club scene, in early trailers in 2001 for the Star Trek prequel series Enterprise. In an episode of the CBS television drama Cold Case, "Frank's Best", the song is played at the end of the episode. Camino Palmero sold more than five million copies worldwide and was certified gold in the United States. In June 2002, Woolstenhulme left The Calling, his replacement was Dino Meneghin. Mohler and Wood left in October 2002. In November 2003, former members Wood and Mohler sued Band and the group's management, accusing them of mismanagement and asking for an audit of the money, spent during their tenures in The Calling, they claimed that they were promised a share of the royalties and profits from touring and merchandise. Band and Kamin claimed. In June 2004, the group returned with Two; the album had three singles and accompanying videos: "Our Lives", "Things Will Go My Way", "Anything".
However, Two had disappointing sales compared to their first album. After a lengthy world tour in support of the album and Band decided to disband The Calling, they played a farewell show in Temecula, California on June 6, 2005. Alex began pursuing a solo career and played occasional shows. On August 15, 2013, Alex Band reformed The Calling with new members; the band performed their comeback gig at Bally's Atlantic City on August 17. On August 18, Band was abducted by two men that robbed him, beat him and dumped him on train tracks in Lapeer, Michigan, he was taken to an emergency room at a nearby hospital, where he was released. After only a few shows, the group broke up again. In October 2016 The Calling with a new lineup performed in Philippines the following month; the Australian company "Unbreakable Touring" announced that the band were to perform in areas such as Adelaide, Brisbane and Fremantle along with the rock band Juke Kartel and newcomer Mike Waters, but this was postponed due to visa issues.
In July 2017 it was announced that The Calling would be joining Lifehouse as support acts for Live's Australian leg of their world reunion tour. Band said in an interview with Australian music website "may the rock be with you" in November 2017 that The Calling will be releasing new music in 2018; the band has cited that their influences include bands such as Pearl Jam, Bon Jovi, Train, U2. Studio albumsCamino Palmero Two TBA The Calling on IMDb
