Craig's Pop Life Is Back!!!

Hey, party people! 

Hope y’all are doin’ well. Sorry I’ve been away so long. You know, life & sh*t. I’m gonna try to get back on a regular sked. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know about stuff I’ve been working on & what I’ve been revisiting lately.

My biggest news is that I’ve launched my membership site, Craig’s Pop Life Playhouse, where you can read the magazines and listen to the still-digitally-unreleased music that I’ve collected over the years. It’s $7/month, about the price of one CD single back in the day.

A really special one-of-a-kind offering on the site is my recording of the 2003 All-Star Essence Fest Tribute to Luther Vandross, whose birthday is 4/20. It includes Patti LaBelle, Gerald Levert, Faith Evans, Kelly Price, and more, all performing with Luther’s band & background singers. It was taped on a handheld cassette recorder, so the sound quality isn’t great. But you can clearly hear the vocals & feel the soul.

Below are some other selections on the site. I hope you take a visit to Craig’s Pop Life Playhouse. I truly appreciate the support. This is basically my job.

In addition to coming back with the newsletter, I’ve also started making podcasts again. The first new episode is a talk w/ musician/historian Tim Dillinger—who has his own great Substack, God’s Music Is My Life—about Lady T, Ms. Teena Marie. It was inspired by Tim’s great remembrance of Ms. Marie. This is a mostly complete list of all the songs we discuss.

You can listen to the podcast on your app of choice & you can get the podcast & playlist of the songs we mention on Spotify.

Lastly, I wanted to let you know about a piece I wrote about the critically ignored Peabo Bryson. Check it out!

NOW PLAYING

OL’ SKOOL

Remixed by Frankie Knuckles. Wish we coulda also gotten an extended clubbier mix.

CLUB VAULT

*Atlantic Starr cover. s/o Sharon Bryant

* Eurythmics cover

AMEN CORNER

The last song I sent my late friend, Valerie Boyd.

Thanks for hanging out again. I hope you enjoyed the letter.

Until next week, be cool, be kind, be creative, be yourself. Love, Craig