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.
