Your Sound Choice
Bios and stories about the artists we feature
In several past From the Vaults I have talked about what a cool music town Marquette was to grow up in. Featured prominently in those memories was the band Walrus. I will come back to the mechanics of how guitarist Mike McKelvy and I reconnected in the next FTV. Mike sent me an extensive version […]
In the last few months I was still playing in a band with three airmen from KI Sawyer Air Force Base, our bass player loaned me an album by a band called Trapeze. Lee said, “There is a song called Black Cloud on it I really want us to learn. As was my custom, […]
Love, love will keep us together / Think of me babe whenever / Some sweet-talking girl comes along, singing her song / Don’t mess around, you’ve just got to be strong, just stop / ‘Cause I really love you, stop / I’ll be thinking of you / Look in my heart and let love keep […]
This is our old friend Al Jacquez and his wife Judy – Al was put in the Michigan Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Bay City in 2024. We have followed his career since Savage Grace, Measured Chaos, and most recently as a solo artist performing his ONE VOICE – ONE GUITAR set. The […]
Near the one year anniversary of getting to see Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band in Eugene, Oregon for the first show of their 2023 summer tour, it occurred to me that some of you probably don’t have enough Ringo memorabilia in your lives. Disclaimer: I am not promoting or suggesting you patronize the […]
The dawn of the 1980s had to be a revelation for Lita Ford. She was 22 years old, an outstanding but newly unemployed guitar player living back home with her parents in Long Beach, California. She had seen all the ‘lead singer drama’ she could tolerate before her old band, The Runaways, imploded. Lita […]
So much attention seems to be given to certain names in the music business, it is a wonder that the majority of artists out there even get the chance to get their music heard. All too often, some of the ‘big names’ in music put out sub-standard albums (in comparison to their own work) but […]
The day FTV: Name That Tune came out in the Ontonagon Herald (March 13, 2024), my phone rang. On the other end of the line was one of Ontonagon’s favorite singers, Jim Brogan. He said, “You know that little quiz in the paper? I can’t believe you couldn’t identify Under the Boardwalk!” For those of […]
Being one of The Beatles was not the be all/end all for George Harrison. Saying the name of the Fab Four usually sends people down Lennon and McCartney Lane, memory-wise. Even Ringo managed to garner more attention than poor George. Paul was always ‘the cute one’, John the ‘serious one’, and Ringo, the ‘fun […]
Everybody knows Eddie Van Halen invented a two hand guitar technique widely known as ‘tapping’. All one has to do is call up a video of Eddie shredding the neck of one of his iconic guitars and it is likely he will employ tapping in a solo. What is tapping exactly? According to Gunnar […]