Columns

When your first album comes out of the barrel and receives very good reviews, it can be very exciting … and then quite stressful when you start thinking about making another one. But for Harper Simon, he didn’t exactly fall under the sophomore spell as some other newbies might have. If anything, it would have […]

There are very few singers who could simply be called “The Voice,” and Paul Rodgers is certainly one of them. His raspy, rascally blues-soaked emotations about love and lust and hearty adventures are legendary. From the quintessential bare-bones rockers by Free – “All Right Now” and “I’m A Mover” – to the more mature, deeper […]

The 1995 passing of musician and counter culture icon, Jerry Garcia, aka Captain Trips, left a void for fans of the Grateful Dead, the popular psychedelic rock band he fronted. San Francisco, the band’s home base, held a wonderful tribute for him at Golden Gate Park. But the then mayor of New York City declined […]

Check out our Top 10 Best Performances at this year’s Forecastle Festival

You want to impress somebody? Tell them that you played guitar on Alice Cooper’s Welcome To My Nightmare; or that it was you playing that solo on Aerosmith’s cover of “Train Kept-A-Rollin’” and not Joe Perry; or that you created the “Intro” to Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane;” that you have toured with Cooper, Reed, Tracy […]

Carmine Appice is a giant behind his drum kit. His pioneering thunderous approach to the rock beat has influenced many drummers, including Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham, and his tree trunk sized sound can be heard in such modern-day skin-men as Brian Tichy, Mike Portnoy, Mick Brown, Nicko McBrain and Carmine’s younger brother Vinny. The man […]

Next week, a wide spread of artists from around the country will descend on Louisville, Kentucky for one of the most anticipated festivals of the year – the Forecastle Festival. Check out our curated playlist of the Top 10 Acts we’re most excited about at Forecastle.

Just about 44 years ago, on a soggy wet farm in upstate New York, a little festival was taking place. It was originally supposed to be an “Aquarian Exposition, three days of peace and music” to celebrate the hunky dory enchanted freedom that the 1960’s had mythicized almost into reality. The last night, a Sunday, […]

If Jon Herington is anything, idle is not it. It may have taken him a little while to get to where he is today, playing guitar in Steely Dan since 2000 and fronting his own band, but he has never really stopped and piddled his time away. In fact, the gentleman from New Jersey with […]

The summer festival season is shaping up to be a crowded one, but if there is one  that stands apart from that pack  it’s Wilco’s Solid Sound Festival which will be held this upcoming weekend of June 21-23 at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCa)  in North Adams, Massachusetts. The festival which is presented […]

You may not be familiar with his name, but Marc Copely’s music has probably passed by you more times than you realize. Even I wasn’t familiar with the young man playing guitar with JD & The Straight Shot at Jazz Fest in New Orleans recently. Investigating a little further, these wonderful bluesy concoctions started filtering […]

This week Joseph Arthur unveiled The Ballad Of Boogie Christ. Fans of the chameleonic singer-songwriter have been waiting for this record, waiting to see what has been on his mind since early 2012’s Redemption City. With a cool Tom Waits vibe slinking in and out of the new tunes amongst the confusion and tranquility and […]

“Is this Valerie?” Whitesnake guitar player Doug Aldrich asks when I call for our interview. Realizing his mistake he apologizes with a laugh. “I’m sorry, Leslie. That’s what I meant.” It seems Aldrich has a good reason for being a bit confused, as right before our planned talk a friend stopped by with a surprise […]

This Memorial Day weekend in the city of Boston, the iconic concrete façade of City Hall Plaza will transform into a colorful, dizzying texture of music and celebration.  Over two days, 18 bands are scheduled to perform on two stages at Boston’s new multi-day music festival: Boston Calling.   Sold out of GA weekend passes, Boston Calling expects to draw almost 20,000 fans to fill a regional void and become the premier New England attraction for live music lovers, as well as the biggest and best acts in live music.

13 is a classic Sabbath album in every sense of the word. The recording features eight songs that come in at just under, sixty minutes, just like a record from the golden age of rock. The album features a blues drenched metal sound that is the closest sounding recording to the band’s first album, that the group has ever produced. Harkening back to the American black blues sounds of the fifties and sixties that influenced all of the top English rock bands (The Stones, Led Zeppelin) of their generation, there is even a bit of harmonica on one track. But make no mistake this is a heavy metal album in every sense of the word

A recent wave of announcements about the 2013 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival stoked anticipation for the 12th iteration of the event, with fans and performers alike getting in the spirit. In the span of just a couple of weeks, the festival announced the last round of artist additions, the late-night shows, the lineup for the cinema tent, the festival schedule, and the “café stage” schedule, sending online message boards into frenzy. After a miserable winter and loads of bad news, American music fans are hyped for festival season and the good times within. Bonnaroo, happening June 13-16 in Manchester, TN, is going to be a Summer solstice all its own, with an international lineup of music legends, a cavalcade of important bands from nearly every genre, comedians, cinema, and vaguely controlled chaos at every turn.

Of course, Jazz Fest 2013 is loaded with big boy headlining musicians: Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, Patti Smith, Maroon 5, BB King, the Black Keys, Widespread Panic, Earth Wind & Fire, the Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Ben Harper, Willie Nelson, George Benson, Dr John and Frank Ocean. But, there a few other less obvious ones… Glide took a look at the cubes and picked the top 10 other artists to see while at Jazz Fest.

With a light rail stop practically onsite and the bars, coffee shops and restaurants of the Roosevelt Row district just a block away, and high rise hotels looming a few more blocks further down,  this year’s McDowell Mountain Music Festival will prove you don’t have to be on a farm in Manchester, TN or on a polo ground in Indio, CA to have a memorable three day weekend of music, food and anything else you dare to conjure. 

Nashville singer-songwriter Brad Mackeson says that when it came time to release his first recording, one plainly called “Nostalgia, “ he confidently declared he wasn’t ready to introduce himself to the music world with that effort. “ I didn’t think Nostalgia was a pure expression of myself. I didn’t know who I was as an artist and you could tell” recalls Mackeson.

With a band name like Taddy Porter, you might picture a six pack of something seasonal that costs around $8.99. However, after listening to the hard rocking soul of a band rightfully coined Taddy Porter, you’ll think more of Otis Redding, Bob Seger and a little Alabama Shakes.  Not many bands can actually pull of sounding like their influences with sincerity and confidence, but this Stillwater, Oklahoma quartet nails it.   And what’s even more appealing, these youngsters look nothing like the aged veterans they sound with a polished groove/stomp atop earthy vocals that howl of legitimacy.