2009

The drama between lead singer Steven Tyler and the rest of his Aerosmith band mates exploded this past week. As of press time we’re still unsure as to whether Steven

The music of prog-rockers The Hue will be featured on WXRT’s Local Anesthetic tonight at 7:30 PM CST. Each week on Local Anesthetic, Chicago music guru Richard Milne looks at

Prog-jammers Umphrey’s McGee kicked off a four-show, three-night run at the Higher Ground outside of Burlington, VT last night with a rare songlist show. The Chicago-based sextet generally assembles a

Austin City Limits veterans Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel team up for this week’s episode of the legendary PBS program. The two acts collaborated for the recently released

Railroad Earth has confirmed to Hidden Track that bassist Johnny Grubb will leave the band at the end of the year. According to a spokesperson, Grubb’s last shows with the band will be its New Year’s Run concerts in San Francisco, CA (Dec. 27, 28) and Portland, OR (Dec. 30, 31).

[Photo by Lewis Cooper of GonzoShots.com]

Grubb first indicated he would leave Railroad Earth in a post to his personal blog on Wednesday. According to the bassist, the decision was one borne of a “medium-range plan that had me exiting RRE at the end of [2010]” and continuing into a career in production and computer programming.

“About a year and a half ago (as regular readers know), the flame of my creativity began lighting a different path than the one I was on with RRE,” Grubb wrote. “I’d always been pretty good with computers. I only recently realized that the main reason that I like recording and production so much was mainly because it involves using and being good with computers. It took an iPhone to spark the idea that I should take matters into my own hands and start learning how to program myself.”

Grubb writes that he accelerated his plans depart once it became apparent that Railroad Earth was about to sign a new record deal. The deal was hinted at by RRE’s Todd Sheaffer in an interview with Hidden Track earlier this week. READ ON for more on Johnny Grubb leaving RRE…