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Timeless Pop-Rock Singer-Songwriter Marshall Crenshaw

  • Broadcast in Entertainment
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Over a three-decade career that launched with one of the greatest pop-rock albums ever recorded, 13 albums and hundreds of songs later, Marshall Crenshaw is still rocking out with remarkably consistent melody, craftsmanship and passion.

His efforts have been rewarded with the devotion of a broad and remarkably loyal fan base.

“I wanted to think of a different way of working that would inspire me and keep me motivated,” Crenshaw says of his newest endeavor, a subscription-only service that addresses the recent seismic changes in the music-industry landscape by cutting out the record-company middle man to distribute his new recordings directly to fans.

The bespectacled Michigan-bred singer/songwriter/guitarist caught an early, and very telling, break playing John Lennon in a touring company of Broadway musical Beatlemania, He began his recording career with legendary indie single “Something’s Gonna Happen,” on Alan Betrock’s Shake label.

His wild popularity in NYC helped to win Crenshaw a deal with Warner Bros. Records, which released his still breathtaking self-titled 1982 debut album. With such classics as “Someday, Someway,” “Cynical Girl,” and "Mary Anne" that LP established Crenshaw as one of his era’s preeminent tunesmiths — a stature that was confirmed by subsequent albums Field Day, Downtown, Mary Jean & 9 Others, Good Evening, and on and on.

Crenshaw’s compositions have been successfully covered by a broad array of performers, including Bette Midler, Kelly Willis, Robert Gordon, Ronnie Spector, Marti Jones, and the Gin Blossoms, with whom Crenshaw co-wrote the Top 10 single “Til I Hear It From You.”

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