From my web ed. brother in Minneapolis, Jeff Shaw:
On the Dreamer's day, we offer up five divergent songs about Martin Luther King and the holiday that bears his name. They are upbeat and somber, they are angry and hopeful, they are old and new.
5. Ray Charles, "Abraham, Martin and John"
First recorded by Dion, the soulful Ray Charles version is my favorite. Penned in response to the assassinations of King and Robert Kennedy, artists from Marvin Gaye to Bob Dylan have lent their voices to the
In "War & Water" Matt Coker interviews Hasan Nouri, the developer who pitched plans to stabilize Aliso Creek and his native Afghanistan, but no one listened. News
has Matt Coker explaining why rising radio star Leyla Fatima is a patron saint for parents of drug addicts in "Lady Fatima."And R. Scott Moxley takes a look at the top 16 witnesses for the prosecution in the Mike Carona corruption trial in "Moxley Confidential."
Plus...
• The Weekly's standing columns, ¡Ask a Mexican!
A 25-track disc comprised of beats made by the late J Dilla is "dropping" (that's hip-hop for "being released") June 2 on Nature Sounds. Dilla was a much-heralded producer who gained fame in the late '80s with the group Slum Village. Many credit him for helping to place Detroit on the hip-hop map, but it was role in the production team The Ummah (with Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammed) that made him a hip-hop household name. Dilla's time with The Ummah saw him work on A Tribe Called Quest's two fin
