Posts by Leslie Michele Derrough

It is not easy being Pink Floyd. David Gilmour is a guitarist of unequaled expertise and trying to duplicate intricate machinations with the fingers is not to be taken lightly. You have to feel the music to be the music. And the Pink Floyd Experience has done a spritely job of weaving you into its British hallucinogenic lair … for a few hours, at least.

They have one of those names that makes you wonder what the heck they were thinking when they chose it but in actuality it fits them very well. The catchy jittery unrestrained songs that come from a happy jittery unrestrained singer that you can’t seem to well…. “cage."

Fresh out on the road to promote their new album All American Nightmare, Hinder lit a fuse under the crowd in Biloxi right from the beginning with the opening track, “2 Sides Of Me”, followed by “Up All Night”, “Use Me” and one of Austin’s current favorites to sing live, “What Ya Gonna Do”. “It’s one of my favorites on the record,” Austin told me a week later, calling from a freezing cold Providence, Rhode Island. “Its fun to see a lot of people singing that song that is not out yet.”

Say what you will about the prince of darkness, but the man knows how to put on a show, to get and most importantly KEEP the crowd involved. It is an experience. Yes, it may primarily be the same show he did last year but for the approximately two hours that Ozzy is on the stage, you sweat, you wave your hands, you clap, you sing, you hear the f-bomb a million times and you scream.

It may have been a cold night on the streets of New Orleans but inside the legendary Howlin’ Wolf, it was hot with the sounds of the soulful rocking of Devon Allman’s Honeytribe. Traveling approximately twenty-two hours just to rock Louisiana, you couldn’t tell that these guys were actually on the verge of exhaustion. Playing with an uninhibited fire, this is what rock & roll is all about. If this band didn’t cause a jolt of energy in your bones, you weren’t listening.

If you think you have heard their name before it’s probably because you have. With their 2008 full-length debut WRECKING BALL, they gained some noteworthy success with the song “The Rat”. Following that up with a moodily engaging opus called SUGAR, The Confederate has come back with more songs about not-so-happy things. Their goal is to make meaningful music that pleases not only their fans, but themselves as well.

Everyone is looking for their fountain of youth; a way to stay young if not physically then mentally. And I am here to tell you that it lives inside the heart of rock & roll. ALL rock & roll, no matter which way your tastes lean. As long as you’re rocking, you’re still like the kid you once were in a room full of posters and records. If you actually play rock & roll, it never stops beating. Witness two so-called hair metal bands whose heyday was back in the early 90’s – Kix and Slaughter. They were extremely popular with as many fans as the next band: hit records on the charts, sold out concerts.

Legendary Texas blues guitarist Johnny Winter took the stage recently to a loud revelry of respect, then quietly and calmly drove home some amazing licks that only proved how he has become an idol to just about every musician who has ever plucked some strings on an old guitar since 1969 when he released his first album.

Shreveport, Louisiana, native Kenny Wayne Shepherd has been listening to the blues since his early childhood. After discovering Muddy Waters in his father’s record collection, Kenny Wayne has been mixing some rock & roll with those blues and blasting out something that catches fire once he hits a stage, because that is where he comes alive. On his new CD, Live In Chicago ( which has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Blues Album), Kenny Wayne has been able to capture that spirit while playing alongside some of the legends of the blues.

“Now that’s rock & roll right there,” I overheard a young man tell his friend as they exited the concert. No, this is not 1977, but the band that once held the world in the palm of it’s hand throughout most of the seventies and early eighties has just played to another sold out venue.

what Scott Stapp actually did was pull himself up by the bootstraps and prove to the people standing in the Hard Rock that he was a man who has not always been a saint but who cares enough about them that he would sit on a stage and give them every ounce of energy he had to send them home satisfied.

With Pearl Jam taking a breather, Stone Gossard has had the opportunity to get back together with his friends in Brad, to finally release their fourth full length CD Best Friends?, and head out on the road for some shows across the United States. It’s a strong recording, with songs that are moody and spirited, a little funky here and a little psychedelic there.

If I can praise only one guitarist this year, I have to shout out Luther Dickinson. The man knows how to cause shivers to run up your spine with his slinky drop down blues riffs via a slide. The man has GOT IT. And lucky for The Black Crowes they are allowing him to plow the field with his on fire solos in such an unassuming manner you’d swear he wasn’t even there.

Born and bred in New Orleans in 1999, Voodoo Fest has grown into more than just music and food. It’s a way of life for three days. You live it, you breathe it, you puke it up and start all over again the next morning. Traditionally held around Halloween, this witches brew of eclecticity draws mostly the young to worship, but with performers like Ozzy Osbourne and a good feast of blues, jazz and rock, it is now growing almost as popular with the over-forty crowd as the hallowed Jazz Fest; although Voodoo will always be the undeniable wild little sister.

When BB King was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1987, Sting announced that “the thrill has not gone.” And so it is that twenty-three years later, an 85 year old Riley B. King is still touring the country and still thrilling audiences with his songs, his guitar playing and his stories.

The young man sitting in Ardent Studios on a cold Memphis afternoon has his head in his hands, listening intently to a playback of a song called “Salvation”. He is feeling every note, every rise, every sensation that comes from this rerecorded version of a Honeytribe fan favorite. His head bobs here, his fingers glide out a note there and an occasional chill crawls down his spine. This is good and the man is pleased.

Featuring three of the biggest bands in the thrash/speed metal genre, the Jagermeister Music Tour has been rumbling across the states like a hell-bent tornado, sweeping up fans and tossing them into a whirlwind frenzy. Loud, fast, sweaty music never sounded so, well, entertaining.

It’s one thing for a band to look like they are having fun on a concert stage; it’s something else when they actually are. And that is exactly what happened when The Goo Goo Dolls burst onto the stage at the Hard Rock in Biloxi. With smiles and guitars blazing, you knew immediately that a fun show was heading your way. “Come on everybody”, coaxed vocalist Johnny Rzeznik. “This is our night together”.

Just for a moment, lean your head back, close your eyes and let the music do all the talking. When Slash, who needs no introduction, leaned over his guitar and started going into a low down slow burn guitar instrumental just prior to ripping into his trademark “Godfather” theme, it swept over your skin like warm sunshine in an erotic shower.

“We’re going to rip this place!” announced a smiling Dave Pirner and he wasn’t kidding. The Minneapolis quintet kicked off their show in a rainy Biloxi with an energetic “Somebody To Shove” and never thought about letting up. Fans braving the nasty weather were treated to a band not exactly on the Billboard radar anymore, but you wouldn’t have been able to tell as Soul Asylum were, as lead vocalist Dave Pirner said, still ripping it up.