Category Archives: Features

Bobby Whitlock: Domino, Solo, CoCo & Tellin’ The Truth

Bobby Whitlock and wife CoCo Carmel are riding a natural high – I can hear it in their voices when I call their Austin, TX home for our interview – and with good reason. This summer has seen two important releases added to their catalog; one a look back and the other a look ahead. […]

Ol’ Waylon Lets It Fly

April of 1978 it was, a Maine spring after a horrid Maine winter – the kind where the “Police Beat” column in the local paper is full of bizarre acts of gunplay and cannibalism and the funeral parlor gets overbooked with the weak who couldn’t make the long climb up what the older folks call […]

On The Road To Spearfish with Crazy Horse’s Billy Talbot

No doubt the first thing that comes to mind at the mention of Billy Talbot’s name is the legendary catalog of work he and his bandmates in Crazy Horse have created over the years with Neil Young. The studio collaborations between Young and the Horse began with 1969’s Everybody Knows This is Nowhere with the […]

Six Strings (Of Words) From ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons

The call I’d been waiting for came in the middle of the night. Yes, I was told: Billy Gibbons, ZZ Top’s legendary guitarist/vocalist/Right Reverend of the Gritty-Assed Blues was available for an interview, but it would be brief. The band was somewhere between Tennessee and Europe in a time-warping supercharged ’33 Ford coupe (don’t be […]

Bill Frisell Hits Big Sur

As big, bold, quirky, and lovely as its namesake (and birthplace) Bill Frisell’s new Big Sur album is destined to be a classic in the guitarist’s catalog. Frisell has made a career out of defying musical boundaries and shrugging off genre labels; you’ll most likely find his albums under “jazz,” but know that this man […]

When Wilco Came To See Us On The 3rd Of July

Officially, the 24th of May is the anniversary of Jay Bennett’s death, but I will always think of him on Memorial Day, as that’s when we received the news in 2009. In a way, it feels like Jay was partly responsible for me landing this writing gig with Jambands.com and Relix mag in the first […]

Jason Isbell Quits Screwin’ Around

The good folks at Hittin’ The Note magazine (get yerself on over to www.hittinthenote.com and subscribe!) have been kind enough to provide a download of my recent feature interview with the very talented Jason Isbell. Jason shares his thoughts on sobriety, songwriting, the Live From Alabama album with The 400 Unit and his upcoming solo […]

Show Review: Jim Weider’s Project Percolator at the Inn On The Blues

Jim Weider’s Project Percolator Inn On The Blues York, Me April 25 On the beach side of Ocean Avenue in York, Maine, the surf was thundering in off the Atlantic; on the other side of the street, a lucky crowd was packed into the Inn On The Blues enjoying the thunder of legendary guitarist Jim […]

The Rolling Stones – Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!

(With The Rolling Stones about to kick off their 2013 “50 & Counting” tour, I thought it would be appropriate to revisit one of my favorite Stones pieces that I’ve written. I was just a kid when I made my folks’ little house shake, playing Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! up in my room. I had […]

Paul McHugh: Teching for the Truckers and Picking for Pilgrim

I’ve always wondered when watching the techs and roadies do their thing prior to a concert how many of those folks are wishing/thinking/hoping that their turn in the spotlight is coming. In particular, it’s interesting to watch the various approaches guitar techs take in their on-stage gear checks: some are seen but never heard, listening […]