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Ahhh, there’s that beautiful double rainbow after a spring or summer rain; there’s the fresh smell of that first blossoming rose, the allure of a first snow in winter—and then there’s a new Peter White CD. Isn’t that what it’s all about: Satisfying experiences? And has White ever failed to satisfy? As far back as I can go (way back in the early 90s), I’ve never experienced disappointment with the guitarist. O.k., o.k. So, there have been a couple CDs bloated with covers when I really, really wanted to hear and feel the magic of his original material…but even then, the covers were so Peter White in interpretation. So, they don’t count toward disappointing albums. Here we go again, this time with an album called…Here We Go, a project set for release on March 13 and so very full of Peter White passion and melody as only he can render.

For more on the review please click on the link and Here We Go! As always, enjoy the ride!

I am so beside myself. Whitney Houston is dead???? I can't even... Oh my God...

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Whitney Houston, who ruled as pop music's queen until her majestic voice and regal image were ravaged by drug use, erratic behavior and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown, has died. She was 48.
Houston's publicist, Kristen Foster, said Saturday that the singer had died, but the cause and the location of her death were unknown.
News of Houston's death came on the eve of music's biggest night — the Grammy Awards. It's a showcase where she once reigned, and her death was sure to case a heavy pall on Sunday's ceremony. Houston's longtime mentor Clive Davis was to hold his annual concert and dinner Saturday; it was unclear if it was going to go forward.
At her peak, Houston the golden girl of the music industry. From the middle 1980s to the late 1990s, she was one of the world's best-selling artists. She wowed audiences with effortless, powerful, and peerless vocals that were rooted in the black church but made palatable to the masses with a pop sheen.
Her success carried her beyond music to movies, where she starred in hits like "The Bodyguard" and "Waiting to Exhale."
She had the he perfect voice, and the perfect image: a gorgeous singer who had sex appeal but was never overtly sexual, who maintained perfect poise.
She influenced a generation of younger singers, from Christina Aguilera to Mariah Carey, who when she first came out sounded so much like Houston that many thought it was Houston.
But by the end of her career, Houston became a stunning cautionary tale of the toll of drug use. Her album sales plummeted and the hits stopped coming; her once serene image was shattered by a wild demeanor and bizarre public appearances. She confessed to abusing cocaine, marijuana and pills, and her once pristine voice became raspy and hoarse, unable to hit the high notes as she had during her prime.
"The biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy," Houston told ABC's Diane Sawyer in an infamous 2002 interview with then-husband Brown by her side.
It was a tragic fall for a superstar who was one of the top-selling artists in pop music history, with more than 55 million records sold in the United States alone.
She seemed to be born into greatness. She was the daughter of gospel singer Cissy Houston, the cousin of 1960s pop diva Dionne Warwick and the goddaughter of Aretha Franklin.
Houston first started singing in the church as a child. In her teens, she sang backup for Chaka Khan, Jermaine Jackson and others, in addition to modeling. It was around that time when music mogul Clive Davis first heard Houston perform.
"The time that I first saw her singing in her mother's act in a club ... it was such a stunning impact," Davis told "Good Morning America."
"To hear this young girl breathe such fire into this song. I mean, it really sent the proverbial tingles up my spine," he added.
Before long, the rest of the country would feel it, too. Houston made her album debut in 1985 with "Whitney Houston," which sold millions and spawned hit after hit. "Saving All My Love for You" brought her her first Grammy, for best female pop vocal. "How Will I Know," ''You Give Good Love" and "The Greatest Love of All" also became hit singles.
Another multiplatinum album, "Whitney," came out in 1987 and included hits like "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" and "I Wanna Dance With Somebody."
The New York Times wrote that Houston "possesses one of her generation's most powerful gospel-trained voices, but she eschews many of the churchier mannerisms of her forerunners. She uses ornamental gospel phrasing only sparingly, and instead of projecting an earthy, tearful vulnerability, communicates cool self-assurance and strength, building pop ballads to majestic, sustained peaks of intensity."
Her decision not to follow the more soulful inflections of singers like Franklin drew criticism by some who saw her as playing down her black roots to go pop and reach white audiences. The criticism would become a constant refrain through much of her career. She was even booed during the "Soul Train Awards" in 1989.
"Sometimes it gets down to that, you know?" she told Katie Couric in 1996. "You're not black enough for them. I don't know. You're not R&B enough. You're very pop. The white audience has taken you away from them."
Some saw her 1992 marriage to former New Edition member and soul crooner Bobby Brown as an attempt to refute those critics. It seemed to be an odd union; she was seen as pop's pure princess while he had a bad-boy image, and already had children of his own. (The couple had a daughter, Bobbi Kristina, in 1993.) Over the years, he would be arrested several times, on charges ranging from DUI to failure to pay child support.
But Houston said their true personalities were not as far apart as people may have believed.
"When you love, you love. I mean, do you stop loving somebody because you have different images? You know, Bobby and I basically come from the same place," she told Rolling Stone in 1993. "You see somebody, and you deal with their image, that's their image. It's part of them, it's not the whole picture. I am not always in a sequined gown. I am nobody's angel. I can get down and dirty. I can get raunchy."
It would take several years, however, for the public to see that side of Houston. Her moving 1991 rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" at the Super Bowl, amid the first Gulf War, set a new standard and once again reaffirmed her as America's sweetheart.
In 1992, she became a star in the acting world with "The Bodyguard." Despite mixed reviews, the story of a singer (Houston) guarded by a former Secret Service agent (Kevin Costner) was an international success.
It also gave her perhaps her most memorable hit: a searing, stunning rendition of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You," which sat atop the charts for weeks. It was Grammy's record of the year and best female pop vocal, and the "Bodyguard" soundtrack was named album of the year.
She returned to the big screen in 1995-96 with "Waiting to Exhale" and "The Preacher's Wife." Both spawned soundtrack albums, and another hit studio album, "My Love Is Your Love," in 1998, brought her a Grammy for best female R&B vocal for the cut "It's Not Right But It's Okay."
But during these career and personal highs, Houston was using drugs. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2010, she said by the time "The Preacher's Wife" was released, "(doing drugs) was an everyday thing. ... I would do my work, but after I did my work, for a whole year or two, it was every day. ... I wasn't happy by that point in time. I was losing myself."
In the interview, Houston blamed her rocky marriage to Brown, which included a charge of domestic abuse against Brown in 1993. They divorced in 2007.
Houston would go to rehab twice before she would declare herself drug-free to Winfrey in 2010. But in the interim, there were missed concert dates, a stop at an airport due to drugs, and public meltdowns.
She was so startlingly thin during a 2001 Michael Jackson tribute concert that rumors spread she had died the next day. Her crude behavior and jittery appearance on Brown's reality show, "Being Bobby Brown," was an example of her sad decline. Her Sawyer interview, where she declared "crack is whack," was often parodied. She dropped out of the spotlight for a few years.
Houston staged what seemed to be a successful comeback with the 2009 album "I Look To You." The album debuted on the top of the charts, and would eventually go platinum.
Things soon fell apart. A concert to promote the album on "Good Morning America" went awry as Houston's voice sounded ragged and off-key. She blamed an interview with Winfrey for straining her voice.
A world tour launched overseas, however, only confirmed suspicions that Houston had lost her treasured gift, as she failed to hit notes and left many fans unimpressed; some walked out. Canceled concert dates raised speculation that she may have been abusing drugs, but she denied those claims and said she was in great shape, blaming illness for cancellations.

Whitney Houston

Disc 1
1. The Pipettes - Call Me
2. The Like - Narcissus In A Red Dress
3. Rose Elinor Dougall - Come Away With Me
4. Cœur de Pirate - Ava
5. The Baseballs - Follow Me
6. Huey Lewis & The News - The Power Of Love
7. Foo Fighters - Arlandria
8. The Strokes - Machu Picchu
9. sphere - HIGH POWERED
10. eufonius - Megumeru -cuckool mix 2007-
11. Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Bittersweet
12. Diana Vickers - Kiss Of A Bullet
13. Oh Land - Human
14. The Asteroids Galaxy Tour - Heart Attack
15. Paula Abdul - Vibeology
16. Skrillex feat. Sirah - Bangarang
17. Swedish House Mafia vs. Knife Party - Antidote
18. Avicii - Levels
19. Cash Cash - Speed Highway Act 1
20. Miami Horror - Illuminated
21. She - Home
22. Ellie Lawson - English Way
23. Caro Emerald - I Know That He's Mine

Disc 2
1. Rosi Golan - Say It Anyway
2. Lena - I Like You
3. Emma's Imagination - Puddy Muddle
4. Imelda May - Bury My Troubles
5. Caro Emerald - Back It Up
6. Eduard Khil - I am very glad, because I'm finally returning back home (Trololo)
7. Will Smith - Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
8. Rizzle Kicks - Mama Do The Hump
9. The Wombats - Jump Into The Fog
10. The Vaccines - If You Wanna
11. White Lies - Is Love
12. Kasabian - Vlad The Impaler
13. blink-182 - Heart's All Gone
14. The Blackout - Hope (Scream It Out Loud)
15. Skindred - Nobody
16. Korn feat. Skrillex & Kill The Noise - Narcissistic Cannibal
17. Skrillex - First Of The Year (Equinox)
18. Chase & Status feat. Cee Lo Green - Brixton Briefcase
19. Naofumi Hataya & Masafumi Ogata - Stardust Speedway (Bad Future)
20. Jessie J - Who's Laughing Now
21. Nerina Pallot - Butterfly
22. Alice Gold - And You'll Be There
23. Charlotte Martin - Complications

Minha Coleção de Cds

1 The Simiths - The Very Best of The Smiths
2 Nirvana - Mtv Unplugged in New York
3 The Clash - London Calling
4 Nirvana - Nevermind
5 Radiohead - OK Computer
6 Green Day - Insominiac
7 Green Day - Shenanigans
8 Green Day - American Idiot
9 Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown
10 Foo Fighters - Greatest Hits
11 John Lennon - Power to the People The Hits
12 System of a Down - Toxicity
13 Nirvana - Live at Reading
14 Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Greatest Hits
15 The Beatles - Coletânia 1962 - 1966
16 The Beatles - Coletânia 1967 - 1970
17 The Beatles - Anthology 3
18 Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin
19 Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Californication
20 No Doubt - Tragic Kingdom
21 Green Day - Bullet in a Bible
22 Green Day - International Superhits
23 Green Day - Dookie
24 Silverchair -Neon Ballroom
25 Nirvana - In Utero
26 Foo Fighters - One by One special edition
27 Green Day - 1,039 / Smoothed Out Slappy Hours
28 Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound of Thunder
29 Alkaline Trio - From Here to Infirmary
30 Fresno - Redenção ( suahusashuah , eu gosto ... )

The CD Giveaway at The Ride (www.thesmoothjazzride.com) is back! Please listen to our Smooth Conversation with Michael Lington tonight on BlogTalkRadio (www.blogtalkradio.com/thesmoothjazzride) at 8:30 pm (ET) to learn how get one of three signed copies of Michael's new release, "Pure."