The big news of the past week was the announcement on Tuesday that Rush along with Quebec musician Robert Charlebois would be the 2010 songwriter inductees into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Rush will be recognized for their songs Limelight, Closer to the Heart, The Spirit of Radio, Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions. The 2010 inductees will be honored at the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame 6th annual Gala on Sunday, March 28th at the George Weston Recital Hall, Toronto Centre for the Arts. Canadian singer/songwriter Jacob Moon played his now internet-famous (among Rush fans at least) rooftop rendition of Rush's Subdivisions at the press conference announcing the induction. Here's a Canadian Press video news story which covered the press conference and includes a short interview with Jacob, and here's a CBC news story which includes a short bit of footage of Jacob's performance. One of the classic Canadian songs that will be honored at this year's Gala is Dolores Claman's The Hockey Theme. Neil Peart recently re-recorded a percussive-centric version of this iconic theme song which debuted last Thursday during the Philadelphia Flyers at Toronto Maple Leafs game on The Sports Network (video here and here). The song is now available for purchase on iTunes for Canadian customers at this link. A portion of the proceeds will go to the NHL's Hockey Fights Cancer cause. Neil's custom Drum Workshop NHL kit which he used for the recording sessions was on display at the 2010 NAMM show in Anaheim, CA last week, and will eventually be heading to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Reader Michael H was at the NAMM show and took a bunch of great pics of the kit which I posted online to share with everyone.

Also at this past week's NAMM show, sound development company Sonic Reality unveiled their Neil Peart Drums Vol. 1: The Kit sample library for Neil Peart's Snakes & Arrows kit as part of their Drum Masters series. I'd first reported that Sonic Reality had completed a Neil Peart drum sampling session engineered by Nick Raskulinecz way back in April of 2008 but it's taken nearly 2 years to develop the end product. For all the details check out this press release, and you can hear a demo sample at this link.

Earlier this week the Rush Petition website was re-launched in preparation for the upcoming 2010 Rush tour. The site was the brainchild of BOS Music co-founder, Rush fan and RIAB reader Skip Daly and his partner-in-crime Al Horta. The two created the site as a means for Rush fans to voice their opinion on which Rush songs they wanted to hear live. This time around they are asking fans to choose 5 songs that Rush has not played live in the past 20 years. As of this posting The Camera Eye and Jacob's Ladder are holding onto the number one and two spots respectively. The Rush Petition site was first launched prior to the Vapor Trails tour back in 2001 and has been re-launched prior to every tour since then. The band has admitted in interviews that they are familiar with the site and have taken it into consideration when building out their setlists.

Rush's Permanent Waves was the subject of an hour-long In The Studio with Redbeard rockumentary radio show which aired last week. The show featured interview segments with all 3 members of Rush from past In The Studio interviews where they discussed the album. Permanent Waves celebrated its 30th anniversary this past January 1st. The interview segments from the special (about 20-21 minutes) have been posted to the In The Studio website in the player on the home page.

Permanent Waves was also one of the albums featured in the February 2010 edition of the UK's Classic Rock magazine which celebrates the music of 1980. You can check out a scan of the one page article at this link. There's also a review of the Working Men live compilation in the issue. Thanks to Lara for the scans.

Reader Rob T let me know that Rush's Caress of Steel gets a mention in the February 2010 issue of Stereophile Magazine in the Records to Die For feature where writers and contributors list their favorite recordings to listen to on their high end audio systems. Writer Brian Damkroger's list included Rush's Caress of Steel. Here's what he said about it:

Caress of Steel, Rush's third album narrowly edges out their fourth, 2112, as my R2D4. The sparse arrangements showcase their playing; in particular, Alex Lifeson's chord-based guitar style is shown off far better here than on their later, more complex albums. With Caress and 2112, Rush exploited the album format with longer, more developed operettas than were possible with their later focus on radio-friendly singles. Yes, "I think Im going bald" is woefully out of place, the lyrics a little pretentious, and Geddy Lee's vocals are an acquired taste, but the music and sound are incredible. Rush at their very best.

Rush was a topic of discussion in the third hour of this past Wednesday's edition of syndicated sports talk show The Dan Patrick Show. The guys started discussing the movie I Love You, Man and Rush's involvement with it. They then got on the topic of Rush not being in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. At one point Dan says ... finding out Rush is not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is more egregious than finding out Troy Aikman is not in the Hall of Fame... (Troy Aikman was a guest earlier in the show). Dan went on to mention that he saw Rush on the 2112 tour. You can listen to the discussion online at this link. The Rush bit begins at around the 32-minute mark. Thanks to cygnusceo and Dave R for the heads up.

The current Pollstar.com homepage poll is asking readers who their favorite drummer is. Neil Peart is one of the choices available and is currently in the lead with nearly half the vote. To cast your vote go to this link. Thanks to AnalogKidAudioVideo for the heads up.

Artist Tom Noll specializes in oil paintings of famous musicians and is currently offering a 27" x 18" Neil Peart Soulscape giclee print from his original energetic oil painting. The print sells for $350 plus shipping and is available via Tom's website at this link. Thanks to rosmakloma for the heads up.

Reader Tom let me know that Geddy Lee was recently featured at the Totally Looks Like blog. They say Geddy totally looks like ... Ozzy Osbourne? They have similar hair and glasses, but I'd say that's where the resemblance stops.

UltimateGuitar.com recently posted an old interview with Alex Lifeson in their Rock Chronicles section. The interview was conducted by Steven Rosen back in the Summer of 1984 backstage at the Irvine Meadows in Orange County, California. It's a very well-done and in-depth interview. Thanks to RushFanForever for the heads up.

Here's the Canadian Press video news story which covered the press conference announcing Rush's Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame induction:

That's all for this week. Have a great weekend!

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