Posts by Leslie Michele Derrough

Cindy Blackman Santana is ready to get this party started. Although she had begun work on her new album, Give The Drummer Some, a few years ago, it finally dropped last week and at just the right time. With the world having been in lockdown, with no live concerts, having some new music that gets […]

“Being in the right place at the right time,” is how Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood sums up his good fortunes in the Mike Figgis directed documentary, Somebody Up There Likes Me. Releasing on September 18th as a Virtual Cinema Event in the US, with DVD and Blu-Ray to follow in October, the film chronicles […]

Back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the music scene was inundated by teen idols and swoonable dreamboat singers. It was before the Beatles but after Elvis. And songs were finger-snapping pop hits that the kids could dance to at sock hops and play on little record players in bedrooms across the nation. It […]

For those who thought Joe Bonamassa’s debut album, A New Day Yesterday in 2000, was the second coming of the blues, you have just been served an almost pure perfection update with A New Day Now to celebrate its 20th anniversary. With it, Bonamassa has done something so rare, which is to actually make a […]

When speaking with guitarist GE Smith, you get the distinct impression that he’s an everyday guy who just followed his passion. No big deal, right. Listening to tell him talk about his career, he shows no sign of braggadocio, although he’s played alongside Bob Dylan, Roger Waters and David Bowie, was the Musical Director for […]

Billy Zoom is in his shed. Chances are, though, his shed is a lot cooler than my shed or your shed. I’m picturing a room with lots of cool guitar gadgets, perhaps a TV and a comfy chair, away from the bustle of a household that includes teenaged twins. With coronavirus out there in the […]

Who better to soothe our frayed nerves in such chaotic times than Arlo Guthrie. He has been doing just that practically his whole life. Born to a dust bowl minstrel who fed the everyday people words of hope and truth, the son of Woody Guthrie spoke his mind in such a way that you connected […]

In these times of quarantines, face masks and no concerts, it’s wonderful to see so many musicians of every genre finding ways to share music with those of us missing it. If they’re not doing virtual performances from their living rooms, they’re digging through their archives for something “new” fans might enjoy hearing. For guitarist […]

He is the Zen Master of Tone. For Jack Casady, once he discovered it, he never stopped reaching for it and it has made him a legend. From a psychedelic folk rock band called Jefferson Airplane that turned on a generation of music lovers, to Hot Tuna and it’s bluesy-folk sizzle, Casady has done nothing […]

If you haven’t listened to Steve Howe outside of the records he has made with Yes, then you have been missing something extremely interesting, exotic, playful, soul-searching and even romantic; for Howe has been exploring guitar sounds since before puberty hit. A self-acknowledged Chet Atkins fanboy from the very beginning, Howe leapt into guitar wanting […]

“I’m in my wardrobe.” Jon Anderson, the unmistakable voice of Yes, is having a dilemma when I call in for our interview. He can’t find a certain jacket and he needs it ASAP. “I have to wear it for making a video for a song from my new album. But I can’t find it,” he […]

There are several things that make Willie Nelson a legend: his songs, his voice, his dueting expertise, his beat up acoustic guitar Trigger and his band. Not many singer-songwriters have surrounded themselves with such a long-lasting stellar ensemble of musicians as Nelson. For many, many years Paul English, Bobbie Nelson, Bee Spears, Mickey Raphael and […]

Dennis DeYoung is speaking his mind, loudly and clearly: about the band he formed in his basement with friends Chuck and John Panozzo; about politics and the news media; about the music business; about the state of rock & roll and radio airplay; about his new album and video. Whatever you ask him about, DeYoung […]

Brian Jones was many things. He was the founder and early leader of the Rolling Stones. He was a master musical craftsman, one who could pick up an instrument new to his hands and be playing it within hours. He was a pin-up boy for the youth of Britain whose hormones were raging to a […]

They were the cool band. Dressed in black leather with black hair when everyone else was squeezing into spandex and going broke buying hairspray, L.A. Guns were like the biker gang that scared you and infatuated you at the same time. Not as harsh as Slayer, the band fell somewhere on the edge of rock, […]

“Music to me, whatever kind it is, it’s inspiring to me, meaningful to me; it gives my life meaning and writing songs gives my life purpose.”  Willie Nile released his first album in early 1980, after New York Times music critic Robert Palmer had seen him playing in Greenwich Village and the resulting write-up garnered […]

At one point, after Cherie Currie had stepped out of the music spotlight and was focusing on marriage, motherhood and creativity of a different sort, she didn’t think about her former band, The Runaways. She actually didn’t think they had made much of an impact in rock & roll. But she was definitely in for […]

As Doug Clifford kicks back at his summer home in Arizona, he assures me he is not retired: “I’m in up to my neck in this record and loving it,” Clifford says about his solo album, Magic Window, which drops this week on the 24th of April. Although his Creedence Clearwater Revisited project with former […]

We are living in chaotic times. As social animals, we come alive in another’s presence. But with a virus spreading across the country, we are sequestered inside our homes going numb with boredom. But some of our favorite musicians have found a way to pump a bit of excitement into our isolation by doing virtual […]

The Go-Go’s were the soundtrack of 1981. If you were growing up then, their songs “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got The Beat” were all over the radio. You couldn’t get away from them if you tried. The girls’ fun feistiness was infectious, their style eclectic and groovy while their sound was boppy with […]