Posts by Leslie Michele Derrough

For over the past decade, Jay Collins has been blowing his sax in the Gregg Allman Band. What you may not know is that Collins also has his own group called The Kings County Band and that their latest CD, Rivers Blues & Other People, features Collins not only doing what he does best but singing as well. His voice, tinted with a husky old-timer’s good-time vibe, brings new life to tunes by Bob Dylan and Robert Johnson as well as to foot-tapping originals like “Mighty Mississippi” and “Mary Ann’s.” He is a renaissance man in more ways than one. A master on horns, he has a jazz and blues shaded heart that compliments Allman’s southern blues rock almost perfectly. And his story of how he got this far is not well known.

“He was a beautiful man.” That is how Ozzy Osbourne remembers the young guitar player who joined his first solo band following Ozzy’s departure from Black Sabbath. Ozzy wanted the best players that he could find to prove to not only his former band-mates but to the music world in general that he was not washed up. It took only seconds for him to fall in love with Randy Rhoads, who at the time was in the popular LA band Quiet Riot, thus securing Rhoads one of the hottest spots in the metal establishment.

This is new territory for Jennings. Choosing not to cancel the show because of some unforeseen issues, he headed to the Crescent City after playing SXSW while his band headed on to the next shows in Florida. He has done solo before but never quite like this. It is just him, alone, except for the black guitar he whips into a frenzy during the first half of his set, and an old piano that the venue had on hand.

With a new tour recently kicking off in the States, Squire, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes and vocalist Jon Davison are bringing to life three of their most important albums of the seventies, playing them live in their entirety for the first time: The Yes Album, Close To The Edge and Going For The One.

If the name Jeff Scott Soto sounds familiar but you can’t quite place what band he played in, all one has to say is Yngwie and it should immediately click. Singing on the Swedish guitar shredder’s first two albums in the mid-80’s prepared him for life on the road and in the heavy metal spotlight. Probably his most lucrative project was Talisman with former Yngwie bandmate, the late Marcel Jacob, who passed away in 2009.

t was the hammer of the gods. The thunder of demons. And for a crowd of hard rock loving, fist-raising fans in Biloxi, it was heaven. Sevendust, a metal-leaning, powerdrill of a band out of Atlanta, is the epitome of hard work finally paying off. Formed in the mid-90’s by guitar player John Connolly, bass player Vinnie Hornsby and drummer Morgan Rose – with vocalist Lajon Witherspoon and guitarist Clint Lowery joining soon after – they forged ahead even when things looked bleak. That fierce tenacity mixed with a massive sound and eye-opening lyrics is what finally elevated them above all the hundreds of other young bands struggling to get their music heard.

Vivian Campbell who had a good career going even before he joined the British hit-making band, having played with Dio and Whitesnake, is revving up for several new projects on his musical horizon. First, he will be joining his bandmates for a rock & roll residency in Las Vegas, called Viva Hysteria, from March 22 to April 10. Playing the entire Hysteria album in it’s entirety is only part of the show.

They are young and wild and free and conquering the world. Stirring up the rock & roll waters with their previous hits “Rebel Love Song,” “Fallen Angels” and “Set The World On Fire,” Black Veil Brides have become the youth gone wild’s inner voice. Although chided for their smudged-up early Motley Crue look, their lyrics have enabled the band to step out of idolization and into a spotlight all their own.

It is the little label that could, Arhoolie Records, and all because one man had a passion for music that was rich and soulful, the kind of music that you feel deep down inside and that causes an uproar in your equilibrium. Whether it was coming from the Deep South or the Texas border, if it intrigued Chris Strachwitz, then he was off and running to the source – even when he didn’t have a nickel to his name. It was that kind of absorbing passion that led the German transplant to record musicians like Lightnin’ Hopkins and Clifton Chenier while others were busy rocking and rolling to Buddy Holly and The Beatles.

For Jordan, this is another fountain of youth moment that she hopes to keep drinking from. Having been in the business over thirty years, her bluesy voice and kinetic energy has brought her many highlights: singing with Joe Cocker on The Bodyguard soundtrack, being a judge on Canadian Idol, doing some acting and most notably belting out songs from her heart and her gut.With the S.U.N. album just hitting on February 12, Jordan was hanging out in California creating yet more music.

“It’s going to be a crazy year,” Devon Allman says with a smile as he works on his guitar before his show in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. Starting the year off with a bang with his bandmates in Royal Southern Brotherhood, Allman has been touring almost non-stop since. But we were able to catch the young blues man on a rare day at home in St Louis, fresh from the Rock Legends Cruise, to talk about his new solo album, which officially premiers tomorrow, February 12.

While Bowie remains silent amidst the flurry of excitement for the album’s release on March 12, producer Tony Visconti and guitar player Earl Slick have been the voices of Bowie.  On a laid back Monday afternoon, while Slick was “just hanging out with my dog today and doing a couple of interviews,” he is relieved that he can finally let the cat out of the bag after almost a year of keeping the secret protected.

For over a decade, the Canadian trio Triumph was the darling of its home country, eventually crossing over to break into the American music charts with “Lay It On The Line,” “Never Surrender” and “Somebody’s Out There.” But by 1988, vocalist/guitar player Rik Emmett was feeling the need to leave the band and do something fresh. Venturing out on his own, his first album, Absolutely, was a nice success, spawning the emotional ballad “When A Heart Breaks.”

Craig Chaquico should write a book. The former lead guitar player for Jefferson Starship, who now has a thriving solo career, has lots of great stories; some of which he shared with Glide when he called in to talk with me about his new album Fire Red Moon

If you want to know what it’s like to be young and following your dream in the music business, look no further than Texas-native Tyler Bryant. He is the epitome of youth with a grounded sense of who he is and how he can not only be the best guitar player he can be but be the best person he can be. With a solid foundation of family, friends and mentors, twenty-one year old Bryant has been able to go from wanting to be Elvis while in first grade to actually playing guitar like his idols Stevie Ray Vaughan and Lightnin’ Hopkins. He may be young at heart but his heart has been fermenting in the old blues.

Steven Adler could barely contain his excitement when he called in last month to talk about his new reconfigured band, simply called Adler, and the release of their first album, Back From The Dead. Full of catchy, rocking tunes, the former GNR drummer feels like he has finally found the band he has been looking for since his departure from the original Guns in 1990.

The Gregg Allman Band and the Royal Southern Brotherhood have more in common than just having a band member with the last name of Allman. Both share the distinction that if you took out their singers, you would still have one heck of a show. The musicianship is that good and it is what makes these bands stand out among their peers.

Steve Lukather is feeling good. He answers the phone for our interview with a jovial “Hellllooooo, Darling” and is ready and raring to talk: “Ask me anything. Nothing is taboo.” Actually, what he is really anxious to talk about is his new upcoming solo album Transition, which debuts next week on January 22.

He is the man with the golden fingers, the zen master of soul sacrificing chords that ruminate through the very aura of the human spirit

After a nice break for the holidays, MY ROOTS returns this week with something a little different to welcome in the new year. A few months ago, I sat down with the three musicians who make up the core of Slash’s solo band: bass player Todd Kerns, drummer Brent Fitz and newest member Frank Sidoris. But instead of doing an interview the old-fashioned way, we did a sort of round robin that was both serious and fun.