One More Night with Maroon 5 by Liz Cruciani I always look forward to the summer concert season. Who will be touring? How far will I have to travel, and will it be worth the money I’ll spend on a ticket and a tank of gas? These are just a few of the questions that Read more
Find Your Passion: Learn an Instrument by Michael J. Orr Like many of us, I grew up in the era of Rock and Roll—from Chuck Berry to Led Zeppelin, Hendrix to Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd to Mötley Crüe and all the great bands in-between. Also, like many of us, I wanted to be a guitar god. Read more
James Corden of the Late Late Show and Carpool Karaoke takes to the streets of Liverpool, London. If you’re not familiar with Corden’s Carpool Karaoke, it’s worth the view. And if you’re a fan of the Beatles – definitely check out this fun, emotional and fabulous video. There are some emotional moments and Sir Paul also provides some history Read more
Take everything you’ve ever heard about the Rolling Stones for the past two decades or so, which document a “band in decline,” and write it down on a list. They’re too old, they haven’t made a strong album in decades (I disagree), their best days are behind them, etc. Now, get yourself a copy of their latest outing, Blue & Lonesome, play it (loudly!), and see if you aren’t tempted to burn up that list in the sparks, smoke, and flame in the bonfire created by the band on this disc. Read more
Written by Stu O'Connor. Distributed by CD Baby & amazon.com. I once read an article that claimed the very best music for growing plants was the voice of Joan Baez; researchers claimed Baez’s golden pipes were even more beneficial than classical music for the growth capacity of our green co-inhabitants of this planet. I’d like to posit another fine voice in the Most Soothing category, one that will comfort both plant life (theoretically, since I haven’t actually tried it) and we weary human beings. Read more
How can we connect to this national mythology in the first part of the 21st century, where the once mighty rails appear to be an anachronistic, yet still-potent vehicle for moving freight from place to place? In the pursuit of a great idea, two fine musicians boarded a passenger train in Chicago in 2016 and rode those mythic American rails all the way to L. A. The result is the wonderful disc recorded by Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, entitled Shine a Light: Field Recordings From the Great American Railroad. Bragg, who is British, seems to understand the American psyche far better than most Americans. The evidence is in both his work here and with Wilco on the Mermaid Avenue series, where many unknown Woody Guthrie lyrics were put to music, a project which yielded three fine albums. Read more
Tom Petty, the Man & the Music October 20, 1950 – October 3, 2017 By Stu O’Connor The generation of musicians who were highly influenced by the Beatles’ first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 is long and illustrious. There are great singer-writers who were all witness to and have made reference to, Read more
