Neil Peart's News, Weather & Sports - "The Count of Words"

Neil Peart has updated his website with the latest "News, Weather and Sports", subtitled "The Count of Words". In it, he discusses the essay written for the new album, mentioning that at 3,300 words it is nearly half again as long as the essay written for Vapor Trails. Due to this fact the essay will not be included with the cd, but will be posted on Rush.com. He also discusses the purpose of his MySpace page, upcoming articles regarding the making of Snakes & Arrows for Modern Drummer and another article about his favorite motorcycle destinations on the R30 tour which will appear in the May issue of Motorcyclist. He concludes with notes on the dreaded upcoming tour, as well as a tease about his new touring kit, stating:

"As for the finish and hardware, that’s going to be a surprise. I’ll only say, 'Black is the new gold,' and 'Red is the new black.'" - Neil Peart, NeilPeart.net, Mar. 20, 2007

Alex Lifeson in "Wine Spectator"

Alex Lifeson is interviewed in the April 30th, 2007, issue of Wine Spectator. Subscribers can access the article online.

Drumhead Magazine Interviews Matt Scanell

This month's Drumhead Magazine includes an interview with Vertical Horizon singer, Matt Scanell. The article goes into detail of how Vertical Horizon was influenced by Rush, and Scanell also shares the story of his friendship with Neil Peart. Apparently Neil was in Texas selling his BMW car to a lady at a BMW dealership; her husband was Matt Scanell, who was also present and recognized Peart. They hit it off and became good friends.

Peart and Scanell's friendship has been documented by Neil in his recent books, Traveling Music and Roadshow. In June of last year, Neil Peart posted to his website that he will be appearing on the forthcoming Vertical Horizon album (release date unannounced):

"Late in 2005, Matt [Scannell] and I started working on a song together, with lyrics I wrote especially for Matt’s voice — literal and metaphorical. Matt suggested I might like to play drums on that song, and when I agreed to that, he started sending me demos of other songs he thought I might like to play on. (Trickster!). So while I was in Toronto working on Rush songs, I was also 'moonlighting' on three of Matt’s songs, playing to his demos and working out drum parts for them...Through the miracle of modern technology, I was able to e-mail those recorded sketches to Matt, and collect his comments as I went along. Thus it came to pass...on June 14, 2006, at Capitol Records Studio B in Hollywood (Hollywood and Vine, in fact), I recorded three songs for Matt’s upcoming Vertical Horizon album...The following day I told Matt that session had been one of the greatest challenges, experiences, and — now — rewards of my life. That’s the way I have always felt about making Rush albums, and I have every faith the same will be true when Alex, Geddy, and I reconvene in September." - Neil Peart, NeilPeart.net, June 17, 2006

The Updated Rush News Page

For some time now I've wanted to bring some interactive functionality back to Power Windows, ever since dropping my "guest book" back before the turn of the century (literally), which was followed by the death of my newsletter two years ago. With that in mind, I've converted my News page over to a Newsblog (my RSS news feed has been automatically replaced as well). I've tried to keep the format as close as possible to my original News page, and the frequency and number of my entries will essentially remain the same as in the past. Now, however, you have the ability to comment on each entry as well. The forthcoming release of the new album should make for some interesting talk in the next few weeks, so please speak up!

Geddy And Daughter on Gilmore Girls

Geddy Lee and daughter Kyla made a non-acting appearance in the final scene of a recent episode of "Gilmore Girls". The episode is titled "Will You Be My Lorelai, Gilmore?" (season 7 episode 16). In a recent MySpace blog entry, singer Sebastian Bach, who also starred in the episode, writes:

"Sure enough, when I get to the production office to rehearse the song we perform in the episode, there in the flesh is Mr. Geddy Lee & his beautiful daughter Kyla! Turns out Kyla has impeccable taste & never misses an episode of her favorite show, 'The Gilmore girls', right beside Dad who watches every one with her! Geddy told us that he was in LA listening to mixes of the new Rush CD, & set up a tour of the WB lot with Kyla, who had a great time meeting the cast & watching us work. I said to Geddy 'Well, hey ..... why don't you guys BE IN THE SHOW???'" - Sebastian Bach, MySpace blog (click here for more), Mar. 8, 2007