Check out this highlight video from the staff's trip to this year's Mid South Fair!

Merry Christmas from the Ardent Staffers. Enjoy.

Listen to the Ardent Sessions with Jump Back Jake:

http://www.breakthruradio.com/index.php/?show=5625

Image via Wikipedia

Mr. Bell notes that both the website and online radio station were launched as works in progress so that the consumer, the recorded music industry, entertainment industry, and businesses in general would know what he is doing. Bell insists that, during these changing times, he wishes to create an entity that can be “of service" to many.

The Al Bell Presents website is designed to function as an interactive Internet portal that offers users a variety of elements designed to “entertain, engage, excite, inform and educate." Within these parameters it serves as a fully integrated online experience that will be scalable and constantly updated in order to provide its audience the most up-to-date content possible.

Similarly, Al Bell Presents American Soul Music features musical selections hand-picked and programmed by Mr. Bell, including over two thousand classic tracks from Stax, Motown, Philadelphia International, and other record labels' catalogs. Mr. Bell has committed his expert ear and sense of radio formatics to develop this channel into the quintessential online listening experience for all fans of Soul, R&B, Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Neo-Hip-Hop, Neo-Rap, and Neo-Soul. In addition to the music, the channel will feature Al Bell's personal observations about the artists, the emotions, the history, and the heritage.

Both the online channel and the website can be experienced at www.AlBellPresents.Com

“It is my desire to provide a music experience that has not been enjoyed before," commented Al Bell, chairman and chief executive officer of Al Bell Presents. “It is my desire through this diverse mixture of music to provide a connection to the past and a life line into the future. I ask all who will listen to help me. Please give me your comments and recommend the music we should be playing. Make this your our radio station. Email me at al.bell@albellpresents.com."

“Mr. Bell came to our offices in Charleston to sit down with me and learn what our capabilities were," recalls Edward F. Seeger, chairman of American Media Services. “I showed him what we had done thus far with TheRadio.Com and our 'Stax Trax' channel, which featured the artists he worked with and the label he ran in Memphis. He then shared with me his vision of the future for music, programming, and sales, and it was a perfect fit with mine, so we came to the conclusion to make it work together. AMSI is proud to work with Mr. Al Bell, an icon of the music industry, and to take this concept into the digital realm. The site is outstanding with its streaming 24 hour music format and the plans for more and more features will make this a must-visit site for anyone who appreciates Soul music. There is a profound change coming no, it's already here and quickly growing from analog to digital. The venture between American Media Services-Interactive and Mr. Al Bell will be a front-runner in this new music era."

More About The Website
The Al Bell Presents website is being designed with a “contemporary-retro" look and state-of-the-art functionality that provides users a number of audio and visual features, including:

* On Air: Online radio.
* Artists: Up-to-date bios, photo galleries
, classic videos, and other information about dozens Soul, R&B, Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Neo-Hip-Hop, Neo-Rap, and Neo-Soul artists.
* Backstage Access: Exclusive artist interviews, behind the scenes stories, in-studio videos, etc.
* Screening Room: Artist videos, classic performances, movie trailers, and other visual representations of classic and contemporary music.
* Peoples Music: New music from unique, up-and-coming artists and musicians.
* Marketplace: Lots of great stuff available for free (and some for sale).

Each individual element of the website has an intrinsic value crafted to attract corporate co-branding and sponsorship opportunities. Because the website was designed so that features are changing constantly, it is believed that users will keep coming back on a regular basis allowing for advertisers to achieve significant “reach and frequency."

More About Al Bell Presents American Soul Music
Al Bell Presents American Soul Music provides a unique experience to a global audience that wants to listen to quality Soul, R&B, Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Neo-Hip-Hop, Neo-Rap, and Neo-Soul programming, something that currently does not exist on terrestrial radio or on the Internet. Mr. Bell used his 50 years' experience in the radio and recording industries to develop a sound unlike that heard on any terrestrial or Internet radio station, and it shows. Listeners have already found the station, and the “time spent listening" statistics demonstrate their unanimous love for the channel.




About American Media Services-Interactive
American Media Services Interactive is a digital media enterprise whose services include “leading edge" solutions for emerging media, engagement strategies for audio/video streaming, customized and branded music channels, HD radio formats, content management systems, custom application development, website programming and design and corporate/retail “storecasting" at point-of-purchase. AMSI is an affiliate company of American Media Services, an engineering and broadcast development firm that has worked with virtually every public radio group in the US, including Clear Channel, CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting, ABC Radio, Cumulus Media, Radio One, and Saga Communications. More information about AMSI may be found at www.AMSInteractive.Com.

Visit website

Here's wishing you and yours a safe and healthy holiday season. Merry Christmas from the crew at Ardent!

Painting by Lamar Sorrento.

Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story was chosen for Spin Magazine's "Best of 2008" issue, getting a special mention in the Best Reissues category. From the article:

British Invasion fans Jim Dickinson, Terry Manning, and engineer John Fry presided over a legendary Memphis studio that eschewed R&B and Rockabilly in favor of garage psych and power pop. They also happened to nurture a little band called Big Star. A model reissue, this double-disc anthology is both a transcendent trove and a heartbreaking story of overlooked brilliance.

Check out the Amazon buy link below for more!

Best Albums on Allmusic.com

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:3zftxzrjldje

No Depression Review

http://www.nodepression.com/articles.aspx?id=5071

San Francisco Bay Guardian - Best Albums of 2008

http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?page=5&entry_id=7720&catid=107&volume_id=398&issue_id=410&volume_num=43&issue_num=12

Uncut Magazine

http://www.uncut.co.uk/music/big_star/reviews/11322

Also listed as one of the best reissues of 2008 in this month's Spin Magazine

Christian Rocker Finishes 32 Tracks

Popular Christian rocker Todd Agnew has returned to Memphis' renowned Ardent Studios to track new songs and finish off previously recorded material for his forthcoming album, working with staff engineers Curry Weber and Adam Hill. Agnew tracked the new material with Weber, while Hill engineered overdub sessions. A total of 32 songs are being finished, the majority of which were recorded with Kim Trammel on drums and Dave Smith on bass. Additional tunes were tracked while touring with Agnew's road band, featuring Cody Spriggs on bass and Brian Wilson on drums.

Dallas native Agnew released his first album, "Grace Like Rain," in 2003, followed by "Reflection of Something" in 2005. In 2006, he crafted the epic retelling of the Christmas story for the album "Do You See What I See?" "Better Questions" was released in 2007, and featured the hit single, "Our Great God," a duet with Rebecca St. James. Agnew has sold more than 700,000 albums and his signature song, "Grace Like Rain," has sold nearly 2 million on his own albums and various compilations.

Agnew cites studio owner John Fry and engineers Curry Weber and Adam Hill as central in his career as a recording artist. The new album is expected as a Spring 2009 release on Ardent Records. Bonus material will be available as downloads.

It will be broadcast at 6-00pm (UK time) January 1st 2009 !!

This is a one hour show, by Stephen Foster, documenting The Oli Brown Band’s trip to Memphis, Tennessee at the beginning of 2008.

There is music and chat, so it is worth a listen.

For those of you that are not in the BBC Radio Suffolk region, here is their website where you can pick up the show AYWHERE in the world

http://www.bbc.co.uk/suffolk/local_radio/index.shtml

Ardent Session: Oli Brown Band "Played by the Devil"

via The Commercial Appeal

Thirty years ago today, the body of Chris Bell was laid to rest. But his music, his spirit, have yet to be buried.

It's been a banner year for the work of the late singer-songwriter and founder of Memphis' legendary cult band Big Star. This fall, "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" -- a Columbia Pictures film that grossed some $30 million at the box office -- blasted Bell's "Speed of Sound" over the opening credits. Millions of TV watchers heard Bell's songs on the syndicated program "That '70s Show," and critics raved over a CD compilation called Thank You Friends: The Ardent Records Story, which featured several of Bell's previously unheard recordings.
Chris Bell, founder of the band Big Star and a much revered figure in Memphis music history, died on Dec. 27, 1978, in a car accident.

Chris Bell, founder of the band Big Star and a much revered figure in Memphis music history, died on Dec. 27, 1978, in a car accident.

As it has periodically in the three decades since his death, Chris Bell's work has seen a kind of renaissance in 2008. That will continue next year when Rhino Records releases a Big Star box set and an expanded edition of Bell's lone solo work, I Am The Cosmos.

Read the rest...

via No Depression

Trying to pick the best among the Replacements' three mid-period masterpieces – Let It Be (1984), Tim (1985), and Pleased To Meet Me (1987) – is a bit like trying to select a favorite season. Springtime brings balmy temperatures and baseball, but then again, don't those fall colors look great?

Of the three, however, there's little doubt that on Pleased To Meet Me, the group that the late Musician magazine once called "the last best band of the '80s" rose to meet its greatest challenge. Having recently fired their goofy but talented lead guitarist Bob Stinson, the 'Mats trekked down to Ardent Studios in Memphis as a shaky but determined trio. With country-blues sage (and Big Star producer) Jim Dickinson gamely manning the boards, frontman Paul Westerberg, bassist Tommy Stinson and drummer Chris Mars managed to bang out a perfect pop-punk prototype for the grunge wave that would soon follow.

By 1987, Westerberg had found ways to make seamless (or at least less schizoid) the twin tugs toward ragged, heartrending balladry and careening, unhinged rock 'n' roll. The key, of course, lay in his songwriting prowess. Songs such as "The Ledge" and "Never Mind" – ferocious pop tunes, on the surface – brimmed with "teen angst" years before those words became a catch phrase. In fact, no matter how divergent the style – the poignant, almost James Taylor-like "Skyway" on the one hand, the scathing "I.O.U." on the other – a keen sense of melody prevailed throughout.

Like all the Replacements discs reissued in 2008, the updated version of Pleased To Meet Me contains a generous supply of outtakes and rarities. Most have long been available as bootlegs; nonetheless, the yearning "Birthday Gal", the vintage-Stones-like "Tossin' N' Turnin", and the bluesy, slide-guitar-infested "Election Day" still thrill. The last best band of the '80s? In retrospect, they may have been the best, period.