essay Archive
31 Aug 2019
George Clinton: Still Tearing the Roof Off the Sucker
There’s more to George Clinton than many fans realize. To most of the listening public, the Kannapolis, N.C.-born musician is the voice and face of Parliament-Funkadelic. A leading light of […]
10 Aug 2019
British Rock Nobility Convenes Onstage for “The Royal Affair”
Note: I’ve interviewed a bunch of these artists. Blue-highlighted hyperlinks will take you there. — bk In the concert business, package tours are nothing new; as far back as 1959, […]
28 Jul 2019
Another Enchanted Evening: Blue Öyster Cult is Still Burnin’ for You
Blue Öyster Cult is best-known for its smash hit, 1976’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” A winning combination of catchy riffage, hard rock arrangement and borderline-progressive rock composition style, the standout […]
19 Jul 2019
Still a Livin’ Thing: Jeff Lynne’s ELO
Serving up some good-timing musical nostalgia that hearkens back to a simpler time, Jeff Lynne’s ELO is currently on a major tour of the U.S. An international phenomenon of the […]
11 Jul 2019
Dwight Yoakam: Honky Tonk Man
Dwight Yoakam launched a life in music at precisely the wrong time. But over the ensuing decades, he helped bend country music – or at least a significant part of […]
21 Jun 2019
Gordon Lightfoot: 80 Years Strong
In some ways a reaction to the hard rock and psychedelic excesses of late 1960s pop music, the early 1970s ushered in the era of the singer-songwriter. Led by a […]
28 Apr 2019
The Whispers: A Half Century of Smooth
Smooth R&B vocal group the Whispers have been a fixture of the music landscape for a half century. With a sound that draws from vocal greats like the Temptations, the […]
15 Apr 2019
Elton John’s Well-deserved Victory Lap
It may be difficult to remember all the details after all these years, but on the occasion of what looks to be his farewell-to-touring tour, it’s worth taking a look […]
23 Mar 2019
Deep Purple’s Long Goodbye
If Deep Purple had done nothing more than record “Smoke on the Water,” the band would have earned a place of honor in rock history. Though the riff-based classic (with […]
20 Feb 2019
Herb Alpert: International Man of Music
It’s only a slight overstatement to call trumpeter Herb Alpert the king of 1960s easy listening music. Alpert, of course, led the staggeringly successful Tijuana Brass; if you’ve ever been […]