Michael Lydon

Amazon's Kindle Singles has just released "The Rolling Stones Discover America," Michael Lydon's exciting eyewitness report of the Rolling Stones tumultuous 1969 tour that ended in the murderous disaster at Altamont The e-book, priced at $1.99, is selling briskly at Amazon's Kindle site "Going on tour with the Stones was the high point of my rock 'n' roll reporting career," says Lydon, "and I'm thrilled that my writing on 60s rock is still finding an eager audience." Lydon was embedded with the tour,…

Sunday January 6, 2013 Michael Lydon and Dave Hofstra will celebrate two years of a steady gig at the Immigrant Wine Bar, a cozy bistro in New York's East Village "Dave is such a great player and such a good guy," says Lydon. "We have great fun together, and the crowd loves our romantic pop jazz." For the celebration Lydon and Hofstra will play many of their Wine Bar hits, including "Paris in the Rain," "Love at First Sight, and "A Little Song for You." Special guest stars will drop in: Ellen Mandel,…

Michael Lydon will speak on how he wrote Ray Charles: Man and Music at the "Inspired by Ray" conference, September 21-23 at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, Massachusetts The conference will include a concert starring Johnny Mathis and Ricky Skaggs, as well as many panels and presentations on various aspcts of Ray's music and career Lydon's presentation, "A Discussion of the Biography Ray Charles: Man and Music with the Author, Michael Lydon" will be at 1 pm Saturday September 22, in Room I A at…

For the eighth fall semester, Michael Lydon is teaching an undergraduate writing course, "The Music of Writing." In class the students write their response to exercises in word rhythm, alliteration, point of view, etc, then they read them aloud for feedback from Lydon and the other students."It's a lively class, says Stacey McIntosh, "we laugh a lot and we learn a lot."

Michael Lydon has a steady gig every other Monday at the Immigrant Wine Bar in Manhattan's East Village. The Immigrant is a cozy, romantic hideaway, and Michael--with bassist Dave Hofstra--suits the place, playing and singing jazzy love songs, originals and standards, as warm and rich as the red wines served at the bar. Show time: 8:30 to 10:30. Address: 341 East 9th St, between 1st & 2nd Aves, close to 1st.

Hachette Audio is releasing "The Rolling Stones Discover America," Michael Lydon's eyewitness account of the 1969 Rolling Stones tour of America that ended in the disastrous concert at Altamont, as an audio book. Lydon narrated the audio book and played the intro and transitional music Release date: December 3, 2013 "I'm thrilled about this," says Lydon. "Last year the same text came out as an ebook from Kindle Single, and now it's an audio book. That people still want to read and listen to my writing…

For years Michael Lydon has published numerous books of essays on writing and music, formating the books himself, pasting them up, and printing them at a nearby copy center This year Lydon is moving his publishing into the digital age. He has already published one book, Now What?, as an elegant, slim paperback; a song book, Sing the Song Again!, is due this month, and a third, Real Writing, will be out in November "I find this very exciting," says Lydon. "Now the books have bar codes and ISBN numbers.…

Ellen Mandel gave five concerts of her art songs in Ireland this past August, and Michael Lydon opened the show for three of the concerts. We had a great time driving through the green Irish countryside, meeting people, and playing our music for receptive audiences.

Michael Lydon gave the graduation address this May at the Washington International School, a well-known high school in Washington DC with students from all around the world. The core of Lydon's address was "All humans are equal," a theme he first developed in his 1993 book, Now What?. The students and their families cheered the speech and, when Lydon finished by singing his song, "Pass It On," everyone sang along.

Michael Lydon and Friends gave a sold-out concert October 2 at the Third Street Music School in NYC, and the music was sublime. Michael and the band--including Ellen Mandel on piano--debuted several new songs, including "Tell Me the Truth" and "September." The concert was videotaped, and soon selections will be on YouTube Michael is also teaching "The Music of Writing" at St John's University for the fifth straight fall. A good class of bright students are digging into creative writing Michael is also…