Frank Marino scoffs at the thought of being a ‘guitar god’. “I think it is ridiculous – You can either be a guitar god or you can be a musician.” For someone who influenced a lot of today’s guitar players like Marty Friedman, Joe Bonamassa, Steve Vai, and Zakk Wylde, it is even more amazing […]
Why is it that I do not like child prodigies? Jackie Evancho is a wonderfully talented young woman, but even at the ripe old age of 15, I can’t enjoy her music. Why? Because she was a child phenom. In trying to sort out my feelings about child prodigies, I have finally honed in […]
News travels slowly to the north end of US 45. Several weeks ago, I was looking at the doings of the Rusty Wright Band and noticed that our old friend Dennis Bellinger was not with the band any more. “Humph, I will have to check this out,” I said to myself. YouTube to the rescue […]
Greek Week Part 1 ended with my observations of Rick Derringer’s band, The McCoys. They were the headliners in the Greek Week Festival dance/concert held at NMU’s Hedgecock Fieldhouse in the spring of 1969 that also included the local band The French Church as the openers. Two years later, I got to witness a concert […]
Okay – I have seen it – The Best – a band with Joe Walsh and Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter on guitars, John Entwhistle on Bass, Simon Phillips on drums and a few assorted others . . . but this totally passed me by. Clip here was recorded in Japan in 1990 . . . Joe […]
Bar Scott is a singer, songwriter, and writer who has recorded seven albums of original songs, and has published one book. Scott engineers, records, and edits most of her vocals and piano in her home studio, but leans on Dave Cook for the heavy studio lifting. Some of her favorite gigs have been in living […]
Alligator Records recently announced their 45th Annivesary Compilation will be released on June 10, 2016. Alligator has been one of our consistant new music pipelines and it seems appropriate to share a little of their history with our listeners. I have read this info in various forms before, but it just hit me that label […]
Jack Spann is a multitalented singer and songwriter. His first solo release comes out on April 19, 2016. It is about time that the world hears his stuff and perhaps that was the genesis of the CD title: Time, Time, Time, Time, Time. Our friend and Milwaukee music scene pipeline Gary Tanin at Daystorm […]
How Nickelback Prepared The World For Postmodern Jukebox By Scott Bradlee Sometimes, inspiration comes from unlikely sources. This was one thought that ran through my head on Thanksgiving Day in 2011, as I found my name in online news outlets everywhere for the first time. It was the first time a video from what would […]
His real name is Brad. Brad Carlson. His father owned a roofing business in Rockford, Illinois and by all accounts, he probably should have ended up working in the family business. Back in 1927, his grandfather had helped put the roof on the building where Brad would eventually attend Junior High so it was certainly […]