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ZEKE
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Allmusic.com The definative music website posted the following review of A Good Life
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Review by Mark Deming
Joe Grushecky writes like a regular guy for a good reason — he is one. While Grushecky has had a long career in rock & roll, including a brief flirtation with the major labels as frontman for the Iron City Houserockers, these days he earns his living as a schoolteacher and makes music on the side, which is doubtless why when he writes about the lives of working stiffs and ordinary Joes, the songs bear the ring of truth rather than a sense of condescension.
A Good Life is Grushecky's tenth album since the breakup of the Iron City Houserockers, and it doesn't break much in the way of new ground, but that isn't a bad thing — this is solid and heartfelt rust belt rock & roll played and sung by a man who has been doing this stuff and making it stick for quite some time, and he still hasn't lost his passion for what he does.
Grushecky also hasn't lost his knack as a songwriter — in fact, A Good Life is one of his strongest collections of new songs in years. Grushecky's tales of ordinary folks counting life's small blessings are smart and moving ("A Good Life," "Party Tonight"), he knows plenty about the uphill climb of life ("Code of Silence," "Searching for My Soul"), and his tale of a busted marriage ("The Other Shoe") sounds as honest as his story of a family that somehow held together ("Father and Son").
And while no one would ever peg Grushecky as a proud son of Louisiana, "Lake Pontchartrain" is a cry of pain and rage in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that sounds like he witnessed the tragedy up close and personal.
Grushecky's work is good enough on A Good Life that the presence of friend, fan, and genuine rock star Bruce Springsteen on four songs doesn't steal the show away from him; A Good Life is another chapter in the ongoing story of an underrated rock & roll hero who may never become a household name but who keeps on doing his work as well as he can, and there's a message in that almost as important as any in the songs he writes.
29 September 2006
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Mgt
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Review from Amazon.com (By the way, we invite you to go there and post your own review of "A Godd Life")
By now the story is almost a cliché: hardworking Midwestern rocker can't break into the mainstream despite a truckload of critical raves, impassioned live shows, and ties to kindred soul and superstar Bruce Springsteen, who works similar hardscrabble territory. But Grushecky, now a full-time teacher in his home town of Pittsburgh, still considers himself fortunate. "Daddy always told me, money don't mean everything / Consider yourself a lucky man, you got a guitar and you still can sing," he elaborates on the title track. It's one of 13 boldly honest slices of life on this terrific hour-long disc.
Disregard the rather deceptive cover photo of the relaxed singer, gazing out on a tranquil lake with an acoustic guitar by his side. One listen to the blistering opening "Code of Silence"--a co-write with Springsteen, who trades verses with Grushecky and tears into a typically slashing guitar lead--and you'll realize this is no introspective, acoustic folkie strummer. That shouldn't imply he's not reflective, though. Rugged ballads such as "Father and Son" and "The Other Shoe" view life from an honest middle-age perspective that is unflinching and never sappy. Springsteen adds his guitar or vocals to three other tracks, but this is all Grushecky's show, as his flinty voice and rocking songs mix poetry with passion in a volatile explosion of emotional intensity that can't be summoned up by less journeyman artists. He's abandoned the brass-ring grind of the music business and is content to release mature, edgy, quality work--that is what makes A Good Life such an unqualified success. --Hal Horowitz
28 September 2006 - USA
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Mgt.
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http://es.news.yahoo.com/23092006/24/foto/this-picture-released-by-hard-rock-cafe-pittsburgh-shows-joe.html
Check this picture out that was released in Spain!
28 September 2006 - Pgh
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Steve
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CNN radio also streams live on the net too. Go to CNN.com and it is about half way down the page.
I'll be listening!
27 September 2006 - columbus,oh
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Joe G
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CNN radio will be running a segment on "A Good Life" all day tomorrow, Thursday, Sept 28. The segment was produced by John Lorinc and will feature clips from songs and an interview. CNN has more than 2000 affiliates throughout the country. If you get to hear it, please long in and let us know where. Music segments run at the top of the hour.
27 September 2006 - Home
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Keith G. Kondrich
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Amateurs??? Nobody has "Rock & Real" on their list!!
27 September 2006 - Pittsburgh, PA
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Mark
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OK you amateurs, here's the real fantasy setlist:
1.No Man's Land
2. Angela (these two would be the best one-two punch opener since the Stones opened w/ Start Me Up and Bitch in '89)
3. Never Be Enough Time
4. Rockola
5. Hypnotized
6. You and Tonight
7. Turn it Up
8. Love So Tough
9. Oh Kathleen
10. I'm Not Sleeping
11. Memphis Queen
12. Talking to the King
Second Set
1. Born to Love You (acoustic)
2. When the Crows go Crazy (acoustic)
3. Our Little Room (acoustic)
4. ESTELLE
5. Idiot's Delight
6. Bad Dream
7. Safe at Home
8. How Long
9. Don't Let them Push you around
10. Ain't goin Down
11. Shape I'm In
12. Nothing WIthout You
13. Searching for my Soul
Encore...Pumping Iron
27 September 2006 - Greensburg
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Jimmy
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Zeke - I didn't have room for "How Long", or "What did you do in the War"
However, let's just say I would add them on!
27 September 2006 - Safe at Home
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ZEKE
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My fantasy set list
1. Dance With Me
2. Party Tonight
3. Shot of Salvation
4. Another Thin Line
5. I’m Not Sleeping
6. Searching For My Soul
UNPLUGGED SET
7. 1945
8. Don’t Give Up the Ghost
9. Innocence is Beautiful
10. Blondy
11. Touch The Rain
12. Blood on the Bricks
13. Idiots Delight
14. Pumpin Iron
SECOND SET
15. Everythings Gonna Work Out
16. Crazy World
17. Swimming With The Sharks
18. Angela
19. Unsafe at Any Speed
20. Safe At Home
21. Lake Pontchatrain
22. How Long
23. Fingerprints
24. Rebel Music
25. Code of Silence
26. Love is So Tough
27. Have a Good Time
28. What Did You Do in the War?
29. Down the Road
27 September 2006 - lunch
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Jimmy S.
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Fantasy Set-List
1. No Strings Attached
2. Dance w/ Me
3. Have a Good Time
4. Swimming w/ The Sharks
5. Lighten Up
6. Hypotnized
7. Dark & Bloody Ground
8. Love's So Tough
9. Talking to the King
10. I can't take it
11. Turn it Up
12. One Chance
13. Ain't Goin Down
14. Jr's Bar
15. Code of Silence
16. Searching for my Soul
17. Idiot's delight
18. Never Be Enough Time
19. (Encore) Hideaway
20. Pumping Iron
27 September 2006 - Biddle
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