Charles “Keep A Knockin” Connor, original drummer for Little Richard, created the unique “Choo Choo Train” style of successive eighth notes with a loud back beat used by nearly all subsequent rock ‘n’ roll drummers. His drumsticks are on display at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio. In 1956, Little […]
by Steve Thorn Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.” […]
This is a story of how music has developed through time as a human art form. It expresses our deepest human feelings and gives us a window into our past, through the accumulated works of many master composers (well-known and lesser-known). Great musical works of art rely on expert composers, arrangers, and instrumentalists, but the […]
As I turn another year older — just a couple of clicks now away from 60 — I grow more and more convinced that the single-most destructive force to peace, beauty, humanity, and all that is good in the world is certainty. Or the presumption of it anyway, since all but the most foolish among […]
…And now for something completely different: an instrumental soul/funk band that records its songs on seven-inch, 45 RPM vinyl — and makes music that more than anything else plays like the soundtrack to wordless movie tour of San Diego’s neighborhoods. The Sure Fire Soul Ensemble seem to be onto something on their self-titled debut CD […]
Grab your hat, your sunscreen, your folding chair, and get ready for the West Coast’s premier bluegrass festival: Summergrass. From Friday August 14 through Sunday August 16 there will be top flight national, regional and local bluegrass bands on the main stage plus a Kids Music Camp, vendors, camping, workshops, a slow jam, a raffle, […]
“It’s ‘Monkey Wards’,” I tell him. No respectable six-year-old calls it “Montgomery Wards!” “I have a theory that’s what caused it,“Alan says. “When I fell off the toy swing set at Montgomery Wards… when I was six.” Alan and I grew up together. I remember when he fell off that Monkey Wards swing set. But, […]
The recipe: take authentic West Virginia bluegrass roots, add the musical sensibilities of a fifth-generation Californian. Blend thoroughly, obtaining original genre-jumping songs, then add four other veteran multi-instrumentalists, two Berklee trained, to play the results. Finally, add the secret ingredients: soul and the lonesome spirit of the open desert. Allow to cook on stage thoroughly, […]
