CD Review: Marcie “Spent”

The debut CD by Huntington singer Marcie Bullock is a powerful collection of original songs anchored by her dynamic vocals and arrangements that defy simple labels.  "Spent" straddles the worlds of blues, jazz, and rock, with a hint of country in the mix.  Bullock's versatility as a singer is on full display, as she alternately belts out blues/rock jams and tenderly delivers jazzy ballads.

"Spent" is nearly a concept album, with many of the tunes chronicalling a relationship from its beginning to its decay. The songs are striking, with sharp lyrics and killer musical backing.

Colan

Word came over the weekend that Gene Colan, the artist most associated with the Howard The Duck comic book, is hospitalized with liver failure. This is just a couple of months after the death of Howard's creator and writer, Steve Gerber (a major influence on your humble PopCult blogger).

While Colan made a huge mark with Howard, he had a long career in comics before and after. Most notably a lenghty run on Marvel Comic's "Tomb Of Dracula" in the 1970s. Colan also served stints as the main artist on Daredevil, Iron Man, and Dr. Strange, among many other Marvel stalwarts. Jumping to DC Comics in the 1980s, Colan lent his talents to Batman and Wonder Woman. It was around this time that he crafted two creator-owned series with writer Don McGregor: Nathaniel Dusk, a Private Eye comic, and Ragamuffins, about a group of children. These series were reproduced directly from Colan's pencilled pages, skipping the industry standard of employing other artists to "finish" the artwork in ink. Colan was legendary for the quality of his pencilled pages, which often were obliterated by less talented inkers.

For more information on Gene Colan and his current health crisis, check out Mark Evanier's blog. He reports that a benefit project is in the works. PopCult sends best wishes to Gene and his family.

Akon wasn't there.

Monday Morning Art will go up Tuesday Afternoon this week. I’m working on a project related to the Emily Gunter-Haynes benefit from yesterday, but the details won’t be finalized until tomorrow, so to tide you over, here’s a photo essay featuring some of the sights from yesterday’s show at the Blue Parrot. The show was rousing success and the vibes were amazing and positive all day long. We got to see friends like Sean Richardson and Karen Allen and local bloggers Jackie Lantern and Scarlett Tanager. Filmmaker Eamon Hardiman was there, and promised to contribute a short film to a future RFC. We even saw a few members of the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and “Symphony Idol” winner Ryan Hardiman.

Above you see The Spurgie Hankins Band. We recorded a few tunes by Spurgie that you’ll get to see on future episodes of Radio Free Charleston. Below is a shot of The Synergy Collective, who you can see on the most recent RFC.

More pics following the jump:

Here's some of the artwork and other cool things that were up for auction.

The VooDoo Katz turned in a great set, as usual.

Kai Haynes, from the Katz, delivered an astounding vocal during their finale.

The Tom Batchelor Band, from Morgantown, laid down a wonderful Reggae vibe, complete with steel drum.

Past RFC guest Mark Bates peformed with his band, The Vacancies.

Here’s another shot of Spurgie and the boys.

And we’ll leave you with another photo of The Synergy Collective, who used electric guitars for the first time that we heard them, and sounded great. Check PopCult tomorrow for art and more info on how to help Emily.