Bios and stories about the artists we feature
Browsing the books on sale at the local St. Vinnie’s, I came upon an interesting title. I never added it to my retirement book reading list because I couldn’t finish it. It was a collection of stories about the ways people remove themselves from the human race and are thus prevented from contributing their […]
When my issue of Classic Rock Magazine arrives, I always approach it like I do reading a newspaper. Dating back to the days when the Marquette Mining Journal ran their cartoons on the back page, I began a life-long habit of always starting on the back page of newspapers and magazines. The late Tom […]
Early in 2022, I started reminiscing about some of my favorite concerts (FTV: Live Shows Revisited – Part 1 2-23-22). Having asked for and received stories about some of your favorite shows as well, they were chronicled in Part 2 (5-11-22). In an article sandwiched in between Part 1 and Part 2, I added […]
Some weeks ago we concluded a two part series about bands doing cover versions of songs. A good number of bands continued the practice even after they became famous for their own compositions. The article was inspired by an issue of Classic Rock Magazine (Issue #298, March 2022) that devoted forty pages to the topic. […]
Yikes! As I scanned USA Today writer Melissa Ruggieri’s list in her article Timeless albums, tunes are turning 50 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (published 6-13-22), all I could say was, “Yikes!” How could fifty years have gone by since some of my favorite albums first began climbing the record sales charts? While some […]
Who doesn’t like stories about people being inspired to do great things? We all have moments in our lives when something adjusts our path in one direction or another. Not all are life changing moments like Jake and Elwood (The Blues Brothers) bathed in a ray of heavenly light watching Brother James Brown bring the […]
In guitarist-speak, RR has become a shorthand reference for the late Randy Rhoads. Though Rhoads passed away when the small airplane he was a passenger in crashed (while on tour with Ozzy Osbourne in Florida) on March 19, 1982, his legacy remains strong today. Volume 43, No. 07 of Guitar World commemorated the 40th […]
We last visited Levon Helm in a two part FTV back in April of 2020 (FTV: Mark L. Helm – Part 1 (4-15-20) and Part 2 (4-22-20)). Based on his autobiography This Wheel’s on Fire – Levon Helm and the Story of the Band (Levon Helm with Stephen Davis, updated 2013 for A Cappella […]
We left Part 1 with Jimmy Hendrix newly discharged from the 101st Airborne Division of the US Army. As soon as his bass playing buddy, Billy Cox, was turned loose, they changed the name of their band from the Kasuals to the King Kasuals. As Jimmy’s hair returned, he styled it into a ‘conk’ (see […]
Johnny Allen Hendrix lived anything but a charmed life in his early years. He was born on November 27, 1942 at Seattle’s Harborview Hospital while his father, Al, was stationed at Fort Rucker, Alabama. The Army feared he would go AWOL to see his new son so they locked Al in the stockade just […]