21 Year Old Zella Day Proves An “Old Soul” With Eclectic ‘Kicker’ LP & National Success (INTERVIEW)
“Every time I come to New Mexico I have to make it a point to order some black beans.” One thing you can say about Zella Day (21) is that she has retained her love and spirit for the southwest even though her music has now taken her around the world. Really starting to come […]
Guitarist Jared James Nichols Reignites The Blues In All The Purest & Rockin’ Ways (INTERVIEW)
Back in 2013, I heard about a young guitar player out of Wisconsin named Jared James Nichols. He had released a live EP in 2012 and his follow-up, Old Glory & The Wild Revival, was just starting to enter into music fans’ universes all across the nation. “We were just kind of getting our feet […]
Gerry Beckley of America – The Torchbearer of Memorable Soft Rock (INTERVIEW)
Forty-six years is a long time to maintain a healthy working relationship with someone but Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell have done it happily. Forming America in London in the early 1970’s, the two young Air Force brats were heavily influenced by folk-tinged harmonies and alongside Dan Peek brought their soft-rock melodies to #1 on […]
Stella Santana Takes Beat Soul Path on Debut LP ‘Selfish’ (INTERVIEW)
She is the new voice of Beat Soul. Marinating silky vocals over a beat-dominating rhythm, Stella brings a higher pitch to the soothing tranquility than more traditional R&B-based singers. But her swing comes naturally, as the daughter of Carlos Santana, whose Latin-hued guitar playing has been the admiration of many a music lover. But Stella […]
Legendary Drummer Carmine Appice Shares Wild Rock & Sex Tales In New Memoir ‘Stick It!’ (INTERVIEW)
You can always count on drummer Carmine Appice to tell it like it is. He doesn’t go down the frou-frou route with his stories of rock & roll rambunctiousness, groupies, gangsters, ill-fated marriages, a scary life-threatening incident and raids by the Sex Police led by Rod Stewart. As in person, his written word is just […]
Phil Campbell Takes The Temperance Movement To New Sonic & Artistic Levels (INTERVIEW)
The last time we met up with The Temperance Movement, they were fresh off an opening gig for the Rolling Stones and prepping a new record, the follow-up to their 2013 self-titled debut. “The first album was made when we were just friends doing a gig in a local bar in London once a month,” […]
Rock ‘n’ Roll Lifer Derek St. Holmes Writes Another True To Form Chapter (INTERVIEW)
When we last saw Brad Whitford and Derek St Holmes, they were speeding down some highway in Nashville in Whitford’s Mustang. “He loves to drive,” St Holmes said with a laugh. “We’re in this rocket ship and it’s super loud.” Ah, the rock star life … at 63. Rock & roll may have started out […]
Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues Opens Up As ‘Stage Door’ Solo Tour Hits The States (INTERVIEW)
Justin Hayward, the voice of The Moody Blues for the past fifty years, is quite happy about his current solo tour. Hitting intimate theatres across the US, Hayward is taking audiences on a history of his music. From “Nights In White Satin” to “Your Wildest Dreams” to a lovely new song called “The Wind Of […]
Troy Luccketta of Tesla On How Hard Rocking/Honest Band Outlasted Most Of Em All (INTERVIEW)
In 1990, Tesla was on the rise as a band, having released two albums and a couple of really cool hits, “Love Song” and “Modern Day Cowboy.” They were very hot on the touring trail, putting on concerts with so much energy and vitality it was knocking fans back in their seats. Tesla stayed grounded […]
Ally Dickaty of The Virginmarys Is Rock & Attitude (INTERVIEW)
If more people’s gears turned like Ally Dickaty’s then the world might be a better place. The front-man for the British punk rock band The Virginmarys takes his songwriting quite seriously, choosing to follow his heart by writing about the world around him. It’s a punk thing to do, to question and criticize the powers-that-be […]
Brian Fallon of Gaslight Anthem Goes Solo With ‘Painkillers’ & Shares Volumes With ‘Glide’ (INTERVIEW)
Brian Fallon had a good March this year. He released his first solo album Painkillers and played some shows, with more in the near future. Coming from a band with a good-sized fanbase, doing something without your normal bandmates by your side can seem a bit daunting, scary, stressful. But for Fallon, he felt just […]
Ricky Young of The Wild Feathers Mixes The Best Of Past Eras (INTERVIEW)
A band’s second album is often harder to conceive than their first, especially if that debut caught a lot of people’s attention. The pressure is on – should they keep metamorphosing or stay the same, write brand new songs or pull out some from their past to tweak, do they stay out on the road a […]
Debbi Blackwell-Cook Gives Off Unholy Groove With Phil Collen & Robert DeLeo in Delta Deep (INTERVIEW)
“We were on tour in Germany and a girl said to me, ‘Can you teach me how to sing like you?’ I said, ‘Girl, you got to get butt naked’ and she said, ‘What!’ (laughs) I said, ‘You have to get butt naked to bare the soul.’” For Debbi Blackwell-Cook, once you hear her voice, […]
Chad Cherry of The Last Vegas Talks New ‘American Hybrid Album’ (INTERVIEW)
You can’t really do the same thing over and over again,” vocalist Chad Cherry of The Last Vegas told me during an interview a few weeks ago, “because personally it would be boring.” For a young rock & roll band like The Last Vegas, they have tried to stay true to their harder-edged roots while […]
Lukas Nelson and Promise Of The Real Take Cowboy Hippie Surf Rock To Next Level On ‘Something Real’ LP (Lukas Nelson INTERVIEW)
“Music is like color,” explained Lukas Nelson recently. “When I listen to the musicians who affected me when I was growing you, I take from the primary colors to find my foundation. Then I apply secondary colors and the music becomes more and more complex.” For Nelson, music is a whole palette of colors, each […]
Uli Jon Roth Takes Listeners Upon ‘The Ultimate Guitar Experience’ (INTERVIEW)
About forty years ago, a German guitar player named Uli Jon Roth was in a band called the Scorpions. They had released an album titled Virgin Killer and were on the heels of releasing their follow-up, Taken By Force. But Roth was already venturing down a different path musically than his band0mates. His songs were […]
Bass Prodigy Tal Wilkenfeld Gears Up Opening For The Who (INTERVIEW)
She is the girl with the magical fingers, who won over a legend and has been thrilling audiences ever since with her prowess on the bass. Although beginning her musical journey on the guitar, it was someone else who actually pointed out to her that she was playing her instrument more like a bass and […]
Mark Mullins of Bonerama Keeps Trombones Hummin’ & Rockin’ (INTERVIEW)
It is a well-documented fact that when Bonerama hits the stage and those triple trombones start humming, an entire room full of people will stand up and start moving to the rhythm. There is something very electrical about this band full of horns, something magical and unique. Their brand of funkified brass quenches the thirst […]
Eliot Sumner Drops Coco & Offers Stellar ‘Information’ LP (INTERVIEW)
“Let’s get me to New Orleans, please,” Eliot Sumner says with a laugh that is more serious than joking. Upon learning that I am based near the historically musical Deep South city, she reveals her desire to one day play there for more than one reason. “I’ve never been there. I want to drink a […]
Graham Whitford of Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown Spills the Goods (INTERVIEW)
When Tyler Bryant released his first album with his newly-formed band the Shakedown, he “wanted to make a rock record for kids like me,” the then twenty-two year old Bryant explained in a 2013 interview with me shortly after Wild Child’s release. “I wanted to make a rock & roll record for my generation and […]