Bios and stories about the artists we feature
“‘That’s some tale, old timer.’ Yeah, and it gets better everytime I tell it.” Where this conversation came from doesn’t pop to mind immediately, but I know that it has served me well for several decades. Not the part about ‘getting better every time I tell it’, mind you. I use it to remind myself […]
When their first record came out on January 29, 1968, the eponymously titled Steppenwolf album turned heads mostly because Born to be Wild became such a massive hit. The album as a whole was one of the greatest ‘first albums’ released in a period when bands were kicking out music that would become the […]
To my knowledge, Cheap Trick has performed in the Upper Peninsula several times during their storied career. I have managed to miss them each time. The concerts I can find records for (and there maybe more I am not aware of) were in Marquette and at the casino in Harris. The first show was at […]
Been getting some awesome music in the past weeks – the video (below) featuring Sammy Hagar and a host of others makes me feel like conflicts aside, music can and does help heal wounds and unit people. The girl’s smiles are a universal statement of hope for the future. Check out The Miraculous Love Kids: […]
From the Vaults: America’s Heartbeat Mental music quiz time: Who is the connecting thread between the following hit songs? Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys); Be My Baby (The Ronettes); Return to Sender (Elvis); Strangers in the Night (Frank Sinatra); Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds); Mary, Mary (The Monkees); and The Way We Were (Barbra […]
From the Vaults: Rock ‘n’ Roll BEP My mother loved music so our house was always awash with records by The Kingston Trio, Burl Ives, Percy Faith, and a mixture of light classical favorites she played on our hi-fi record player/radio. There is a ‘that is a story for another day’ asterisk in the […]
We have visited Uriah Heep twice in past FTV’s. There was a feature focusing on guitarist Mick Box back in 2017 (FTV: Uriah Heep 11-15-17) and another featuring drummer Lee Kerslake in 2019 (FTV: RIP Lee Kerslake 5-8-19). In the 2017 piece, Box talked about the challenges of being the last original band member […]
Robert Weston Smith. Does the name ring any bells? No? How about Big Smith and the Records? Daddy Jules? I will give you a couple of hints: If you have seen the movie American Graffiti or reruns of the TV show The Midnight Special or heard Bob Smith’s, “Have Mercy!” catch phrase, then you might […]
Warning: I like Styx. I have always liked Styx. What happened to make them fragment, reassemble, and separate again into two distinct ‘camps’ the way they did was never quite clear to me. The memory of where and when I first heard Lady on the radio, however, pops into my head everytime I hear […]
We left Part 1 of The Smothers Brothers just as they had their first album in the can. They landed in New York during the brutal winter of 1961 for their first club dates on the East Coast. It must have been quite a shock to their systems having spent the majority of their […]