Norman's Rockwell

Last night, I went to see PURPLE RAIN on the big screen for what I believe to be only the second time. The first being in East Lansing back in 1984 with brother Nate and his best friend Craig. Back in the days when no one cared who walked into an R rated musical. First things, the event was sponsored by AFI (American Film Institute) and the print was shitty and the sound was OK . That out of the way, what a trip to see Prince and Co. 20 feet tall. The musical numbers are still groundbreaking. My favorites are The Beautiful Ones and I Would Die 4 U. The Time's cuts Jungle Love and The Bird brought back fond memories, too. Our crowd was a little sedate until the vamp of Let's Go Crazy. By the end of each number there was hearty applause from yours truly and the real diehards in the audience. Apollonia looked young and fresh and Prince was even more beautiful on camera. I was amazed at the way shots lingered on members of the "audience:" Apollonia , waitress Jill Jone

Hey All, I spent the wee hours of the morning upgrading normankelsey .com . Please be sure to check it out and try out all of the new pages. There's lots of cool stuff up and more coming. Lots of shopping opportunities. I am able to track the amount of traffic and sales from digital downloads as well as physical CD sales, so it's really helpful to know who I still need to get my music to. Probably you! :) Have a great weekend everyone. I'll be at the Avengers' game as they take on the Cleveland Gladiators (or something like that). Always have to represent Cleveland. LOL . Peace Be With You!

Last night was pretty exciting and I'm not talking about the NCAA title game. I hope you had a chance to tune into Soul Serenade on WICN , Mass for the FM debuts of "Everything My Heart Desires" and "A Talent For Loving." Check out DJ Tom Shaker's playlist . My sides were spun in between classics by Aretha, Bobby Womack and The J5. Help the cause and drop Mr. Shaker an e-mail or a request for next week. And it's perfectly fine to request either of the songs he played. In fact, those are the two songs I'm promoting to radio, blogs, etc as the singles. Rehearsals for the tour continue. The numbers are starting to gel nicely. We even had a discussion about some surprise cover versions. More on that later. Have a great Tuesday. Peace Be With You

Hey y'all. Just a reminder, in between jump shots and free throws, tune in to 90.5 FM tonight in the Boston area for the Soul Serenade . DJ Tom Shaker will be spinning the latest platter from yours truly. The show airs between 7-11 PM EST. You can also stream it online. The beauty of National Public Radio. Peace and Love! p.s. Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Hey all, sorry I haven't checked in with a blog in a few weeks. Easter was a very happy and busy time. I spent almost all day at church from sunrise service on. The choir sang lots of great music and it was a real blessing having my Mom in town for it. OK, here's the music news! I was interviewed yesterday by Folio Weekly from Jacksonville, FL. The article should be in print by the end of the month. The interview was short but sweet. It gave me a chance to talk about the place where my music career really began. For those of you from Northeast Florida, I even played at the legendary Einstein A-Go-Go, a CBGBs- type club out at the beach back in the day. So it was nice to reminisce about concert-going in high school and talk about making music today. Last night, I saw the new Martin Scorsese IMAX movie " Shine A Light " starring the Rolling Stones (thanks, Jen). It was mighty impressive. Not to mention huge. The Stones looked and sounded great. Charlie Watts, of cours