Catching Up With The Boys

The boys of ELP are still bopping along. Keith Emerson has and will be on BBC2 all this week, talking about the new album he's put out, The Three Fates
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Fates-Project-Keith-Emerson/dp/B009DJB7UQ/ref=ntt_mus_ep_dpi_2
Keith seems to be hale and hearty, and if this collaboration with Marc Bonilla is as good as his last, there should be joy in Progville. You can hear the Keith week at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01pgpty

Greg is busy scheduling his year. Rumours abound that he'll be touring the US again in the Spring after doing the Moody Blues' "Cruise to the Edge" in March. There's now a pretty reliable source saying Greg will be in Japan in June, which will make a couple gals I know happy. His long-postponed, promised, delayed autobio should be in print by then. The first part on audio "stick" had so many problems that he may not be going with the other 2 parts that way. Just speculating, there. After the European tour, he said in an interview that he's been working on a new album that will be released in the Spring. He's just put out a cd from his SOAL tour in the US,
http://www.amazon.com/Songs-Lifetime-Greg-Lake/dp/B00APPJNWG/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1357143106&sr=1-1&keywords=greg+lake+songs+of+a+lifetime
 which will drop in late February. A busy year ahead for our Greg. I hope he'll do a show in Springfield, MA.....

Carl Palmer has been continuously touring, with Asia and also his own band, Carl Palmer Legacy. In December he came down with a bad case of e coli and had to cancel the final shows of the UK tour with Asia. He's recovering well and expects to be back at it soon. He will be playing on the "Cruise to the Edge" also. He has a new dvd to celebrate 10 years with his own band that will be coming out later this year. In early February he'll be touring Japan, "followed by a few weeks in Europe in February into March, culminating in the Cruise to the Edge on 25th to 29th March from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The cruise offers many opportunities to hear the band as well as meet up for other events to be confirmed at a later date. Following the cruise we will be taking the Carl Palmer Legacy into South America and back into the United States in April into early May." he says on his website. And then they'll record a new album. Busy guy!

Even though no longer a working band, ELP has new releases. "Tarkus" and their first album, "Emerson Lake & Palmer", have been remastered and released by Shout Factory and it's expected that their whole catalog will be. I can't wait for "Trilogy" to be improved- never thought it could be. We'll see. At the end of 2012, Shout had just released another greatest hits, "Come and See the Show" ,and a seemingly underwhelming bootleg partial audio recording of the CalJam concert in 1974. The whole CalJam concert is supposedly owned by CBS, so until they feel like letting it be spruced up, we aren't going to get it. Until then, there are a few clips on YT and by reports, it's better to stick with them.

The ELP catalog is available on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_18?url=search-alias%3Dpopular&field-keywords=emerson+lake+and+palmer&sprefix=Emerson+Lake+and+P%2Cpopular%2C162

Damn! Almost forgot the book by Gary Freeman that recently came out. Do You Wanna Play Some Magic? is a concert-by-concert review, with descriptions and notes on each one covered. It's gotten some meh reviews. It's not everyone's cuppa. You have to be a dedicated fan and ELP nerd to like it. Sadly, there are no bootlegs or notes for some of their shows. Only one of the 4 shows I saw is in it and I came away thinking, "Wow, I was there on the wrong night" several times. 
http://www.amazon.com/You-Wanna-Play-Some-Magic/dp/095664208X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357145408&sr=1-1&keywords=do+you+wanna+play+some+magic

I think that covers all they're got going on. Not bad for 3 senior citizens. ;)