David McPherson is the author of "The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern: A Complete History." Ever since attending his first rock concert in 1989 (The Who) and buying his first LP (Freeze Frame by The J. Geils Band), music has become "the elixir of his life." Over the years, his writing on music has appeared in No Depression, Paste, American Songwriter and Bluegrass Unlimited.
A nostalgic roller coaster filled with melodic elegies, Neko Case’s ninth LP, Neon Grey Midnight Green, is a tour de force. The first time one hears the GRAMMY-nominated artist's enchanting voice, it arrives unexpectedly and without warning, But when it departs, it leaves an impression, that once gone, is never forgotten. While this unmistakable contralto is the main attraction that…
Sarah McLachlan is not sure how many albums she has left in her — but she knew she had to make Better Broken. The pop rock veteran's first album of new material in 11 years is a cathartic exercise of finding beauty within the madness. While McLachlan has long used music to navigate her feelings — and the malaise and…
"Homegrown’s alright with me / Homegrown is the way it should be/ Homegrown is a good thing/ Plant that bell and let it ring." So sings Farm Aid co-founder Neil Young in "Homegrown," a song written in the early 1970s that has unofficially become the anthem of the annual fundraising concert. Farm Aid was born in 1985 after the 12-time…
When Bob Dylan released his seminal Highway 61 Revisited, on Aug. 30, 1965, the term "folk-rock" was not even in the lexicon. The adjective appeared for the first time just two months earlier when — writing for Billboard — journalist Eliot Tiegel used the word to describe the hybrid sound of bands like the Byrds and the Lovin' Spoonful. Dylan's…
Music offers a language and a palette to speak of untruths, to right wrongs in song, and to call people to rise up. Few modern artists are better at eliciting this collective meeting of the minds than Jon Batiste. The classically-trained pianist and 7-time GRAMMY winner — and first-ever recipient of Ray Charles "Architect of Sound" Award at the 2025…
At 58, Billy Corgan is filled with gratitude. He is at peace with his stardom and with his past — and that was not always the case. The two-time GRAMMY winner no longer needs the world's approval and music is not his everything. That's why, these days, the singer/songwriter is filled with more joy and happiness than melancholy and infinite…
You could not write a better ending for a larger-than-life character — and the godfather of metal music — who epitomized the excesses, eccentricities and stereotypes inherent in the life of a rock star. There will definitely not be another one like Ozzy Osbourne anytime soon. Just two weeks after holding court at Villa Park — sitting on a winged…
When it comes to Brandon Lake's music, what matters to the Contemporary Christian singer/songwriter more than anything are the messages he shares with fans and followers. Not the streams, not the sales, not the likes, and definitely not the celebrity. "I'm not doing this to try to be a rock star," the five-time GRAMMY winner says. "I genuinely want to…
God only knows if Brian Wilson was ever as happy as the feel-good summer songs he penned made others feel. What’s known is Wilson, who passed away June 11 at age 82, is now singing heavenly harmonies in that great gig in the sky with his younger brothers Dennis and Carl, who predeceased him. At a loss for words, Wilson’s…
Even four years before Napster started a digital music revolution, the midpoint of the 1990s left behind many music and tech touchstones. E-retail giants Amazon and eBay — which would each find their way into the musical ecosystem over time — both launched in 1995, as did the first widely-used Web browser (Netscape). It is no surprise that World Wide…
And then there were two. Phil Lesh, co-founder and innovative bassist for the Grateful Dead, passed away peacefully on Oct. 25 at his California home surrounded by family. He was 84. With Lesh’s death, Bob Weir and Bill Kreutzmann are the only remaining original members of the psychedelic rock band that formed in Palo Alto in 1965. Earlier this week,…
While others nursed hangovers on New Year’s Day, 2023, Nick Cave got to work. Picking up his brown bespoke notebook, the songwriter stared at the blank pages. Inspired by the Old Testament parable of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, a couplet eventually came: "Ushering in the week he knelt down and crushed his brother’s head in with a bone…
Mainstream rock or pop, Phish are not. While the foursome from Vermont are definitely a jam band, that label does not capture their unique sound and varied influences. Both on record and live, Phish's extended improvisations noodle from reggae and all forms of rock, to bluegrass and funk, with healthy doses of country, blues and jazz. Like the jam band…
For a dozen years now, Imagine Dragons have delivered melodic anthems that have resonated with audiences from Idaho to Italy. Whether you call the band’s sound arena rock, power pop or formulaic does not matter. What does is the effect these soundscapes have on the masses, album after album. The Las Vegas trio of Dan Reynolds, Ben McKee and Wayne…
Despite claims by surveyed CNN readers, 1974 was not a year marked by bad music. The Ramones played their first gig. ABBA won Eurovision with the earworm "Waterloo," which became an international hit and launched the Swedes to stardom. Those 365 days were marked by chart-topping debuts, British bangers and prog-rock dystopian masterpieces. Disenchantment, southern pride, pencil thin mustaches and…
A rite of passage for countless bands over the decades and a touchstone for myriad genres, Los Angeles venue The Roxy still rocks at 50. When the intimate club opened on Sept. 20, 1973 with a three-night stand by Neil Young and the Santa Monica Flyers (who had just finished recording Tonight’s the Night nearby at Studio Instrument Rentals), the…
Just because you never traded bootleg tapes with strangers or dropped acid to experience that Timothy Leary whacked-out feeling, you can still appreciate the Grateful Dead. When the Dead began their psychedelic trip back in the late 1960s, the media categorized their followers as lazy, counter-culture drop-outs. The reality: these devotees, known today as Deadheads, were just music-lovers that shared…
Few had a voice that compared to the eight-time GRAMMY nominee Sinead O’Connor. An artist and an activist, O’Connor wrote with conviction and pathos, packing a punch with both poetry and politics. Her voice was her main instrument and lifelong weapon — one she wielded well in a whisper or a wail. Born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor in Glenageary, County…
Flash back to December 1982: A band on the brink of breakup arrives on the volcanic island of Montserrat for six weeks to record what would become their final album. This six-week sojourn was bittersweet for the Police, whose days and nights spent holed up in George Martin’s AIR Studios resulted in Synchronicity. The British rock trio's fifth album took…
Bob Dylan, not one to give compliments lightly, was one of Gordon Lightfoot’s biggest fans. "I can’t think of any Gordon Lightfoot song I don’t like," he once said. "Every time I hear a song of his, it’s like I wish it would last forever." Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot possessed a rare talent to craft the right turn of phrase…
