Stephen Stills adjusted his Martin flat-top closer to the mike, while Graham Nash and David Crosby glanced at each other, launching into the bridge of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” The crowd spread out on the grass below the stage was a sea of hippie humanity in the crisp 1969 air, mellow and quiet, settled on […]
Recently I was requisitioned to serve as host/announcer at two separate quasi-beauty pageants. The contestants were happily of the female gender. (Thank you, God.) My anticipation as the dates drew near turned me toward delirium even as my regular life threatened to collapse, rendering me all but oblivious of the army of authoritative berserkers who […]
Summer approaches and that means the high season for bluegrass festivals, camps, and concerts. Here is a quick rundown on what you can expect in the next couple of months: Huck Finn’s Jubilee. Held over the Father’s Day weekend of June 15-17, the Huck Finn Festival is without a doubt one of the premier bluegrass […]
The quixotic and irrepressible Gregory Page has released his 21st album since arriving in the United States in 1976. The fan-funded Shine, Shine, Shine is Page channeling a big band singer from the 1930s. Think Glenn Miller, Hoagy Carmichael, and Cole Porter. Page has long been influenced by Al Bowlly, a jazz crooner whose 78 […]
My friend Paul Vernon did a bit of a rant on the “Real Blues Forum” that I want to pass on to you, mixing in some thoughts of my own. It comes from an appearance by Jack White on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” when Steven C. quoted without any reference, and as if it were […]
The debut album from local artist Jeffrey Joe Morin is a dreamy love letter to the Great American Songbook. Six original numbers commingle with six classic standards, from Hoagy Carmichael to Hank Williams, as if at a neighborly barbecue in the Tower of Song. The arrangements are consistently understated: half the tunes find us alone […]
In this series we’ve covered some of the biggest songwriting successes to emerge from San Diego. Of course songwriting success isn’t just what makes it on the charts, but also what makes a lasting impression/influences future generations. Nowhere is this more evident than in the explosion of mod/powerpop/garage/punk groups that sprang up in the late […]
The singing and songwriting team of Seaholm Mackintosh has released their premier CD. Titled Monarchs, the disk features a dozen solidly written and performed songs and lets us anticipate more inspired work by this new duo. Both Mackintosh and Seaholm have previously distinguished themselves as performers. Brooke Mackintosh has been singing and writing original material […]
In summer we are drawn upward like ripening corn, feeling ourselves expanding, reaching, and unfurling into shapes our winter gestation and springtime birthing only imagined. If winter taught us to wait and spring awakened our possibilities, then summertime calls us in this present moment to fully come into our own. Summer is the season of […]
