Alan di Perna is a Recording Academy/GRAMMY.com contributor.
In the years since his '80s debut as a child prodigy opening for the likes of B.B. King, Joe Bonamassa has established himself as one of the 21st century's foremost axe slingers and rock-inflected interpreters of the venerable blues tradition. A relentless touring schedule and dense back catalog of albums and DVDs have placed him at the forefront of a…
(The GRAMMY Museum will present a special screening of Super Duper Alice Cooper on April 22. The screening is sold out. For more information on the Museum, visit www.grammymuseum.org)Some rock documentaries follow an all-too-familiar trajectory as they plot an artist's meteoric rise, commercial downfall, personal adversity, and miraculous comeback. But Super Duper Alice Cooper — which premiered at the Tribeca…
A stand-up metal icon? Arguably there was no such thing until GRAMMY-nominated Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian started his Speaking Words tour in Europe in 2013. Up and down the metal highway with Anthrax for more than three decades, Ian has pretty much seen it all, and as you might expect, the straight-talking New Yorker has plenty of stories to share.…
Decades before the term "world music" had been coined, Carlos Santana broke down cultural, musical and stylistic barriers while forging his own impassioned and vibrant hybrid of rock, Latin, blues and jazz. Many rock fans owe their introduction to Latin music to Santana's groundbreaking work in the late '60s and early '70s, and hits such as "Oye Como Va," "Evil…
(Circa Zero will be featured in an installment of the GRAMMY Museum's The Drop series on March 26. For more information, visit www.grammymuseum.org.)Circa Zero — a new project comprising former Police guitarist Andy Summers and vocalist Rob Giles of the Rescues — are set to release their debut studio album, Circus Hero, on March 25. Ahead of the album's release,…
Often taken for granted, album liner notes have long enriched the experience of listening to recorded music, providing essential information, compelling insights, historical contexts, and engaging backstories to the sounds created by musicians.The Recording Academy has long recognized this unique genre of musical and literary discourse. In 1963 jazz critic Stanley Dance and jazz writer/composer Leonard Feather won the inaugural…
Five-time GRAMMY nominee Kenny Wayne Shepherd burst on the scene in the '90s as a hot young gun of blues guitar. In the years that have followed, he has matured into one of the foremost contemporary interpreters of the blues tradition, not to mention the fertile delta where the blues intersects with rock and roll.Goin' Home, Shepherd's new album released…
Hailed as yoga's "rock star," Krishna Das put sacred Sanskrit mantras on the music map. His resonant baritone voice and energizing East-meets-West take on traditional Indian devotional chanting has become the soundtrack for the growing worldwide yoga movement throughout the past two decades.Born Jeffrey Kagel, a baby boomer from suburban Long Island, N.Y., few artists in the kirtan (call-and-response chanting)…
In the 25 years since the Nov. 26, 1989, debut of MTV's "Unplugged," the television program has become a pop culture institution. The very term "unplugged" has entered the language as standard parlance for any performance involving acoustic guitars and other unamplified musical instruments. It is also shorthand for virtually any intimate, heartfelt form of musical presentation. A quarter century…
