Posts by Doug Collette

[rating=9.00] Hypnotic Eye is vintage Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. In fact, it may rank as one of the two or three best albums the veteran rockers have ever done. Firing on all pistons like a well-tuned automobile, the band is clearly inspired by songs in which Petty vividly renders his own personality and those […]

Galadrielle Allman still holds her father Duane close and near.. Listening to her speak regarding the late Duane Allman and the family by blood and kinship that means so much to her, she displays a deceptive pragmatism. It’s tempting to mistake her down-to-earth approach to writing as simply an exhibit of an honest work ethic […]

[rating=7.00] The greatest tribute Eric Clapton and Friends offer in their tribute to the late J.J. Cale on Call Me The Breeze is to so accurately emulate the low-key sound the late Oklahoman most often formulated on his own records. The brevity and economy of the tracks just begins to descend into sameness when the […]

[rating=7.00] John Hiatt has recorded with his band The Combo before (albeit not since bassist Nathan Gehri replaced Patrick O’Hearn), but he’s never worked so self-sufficiently as on Terms of My Surrender. The brilliant guitarist Doug Lancio assumed the role of producer on this, Hiatt’s twenty-second studio effort, and he helps maintain an earthy atmosphere […]

Doug Collette looks back on a high-profile live show with Jeff Beck and John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra in the spring of 1975.

[rating=8.00] As a means to simultaneously address their longevity as an ensemble (they just hit their thirtieth anniversary December of 2013) and the challenge facing a fundamentally improvisational unit recording in the confines of the studio, Phish began working on Fuego as a collective endeavor in composition. That original concept changed as Bob Ezrin (Alice […]

The word ‘eclectic ‘doesn’t really capture Tom Constanten’s approach to music or the career from which his unique perspective on playing and composing has grown. He had already set in motion a progressive approach for himself by the time he met Phil Lesh and the two subsequently engaged in a mutual expansion of their musical […]

Since their last visit to the Green Mountains in autumn of 2012, the Tedeschi Trucks Band has refused to rest on its laurels. Quite the contrary, at least on this beautiful early summer evening, they pushed the limits of the soulful rock R&B gospel mix that won them a Grammy (their 2010 studio debut Revelator), […]

The Chris Robinson Brotherhood’s appearance at The Rusty Nail on June 4th was notable for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that it constituted the first big-name show at the Stowe venue since booking began there through Nectar’s earlier in 2014. But it was an even more memorable performance as it […]

[rating=5.00] With his latest ‘new’ release, a novel collaboration with jack White, Neil Young continues to redefine the career path of the veteran rock musician, often eschewing formal releases of new original material within familiar concepts and styles (leaving those to archive titles) and instead aiming for the idiosyncratic likes of this rumination on his […]