The band was tossed together. Hired to play for a housewarming party, the group only planned to play once. They had a guitar, drums, and a bass. With the addition of an accordion, the musicians figured that they would play some zydeco, the fun music that had recently gained some popularity outside of its native […]
Danny Green has established himself as one of the best jazz pianists and composers in Southern California. His second CD with his trio, Altered Narratives, displays the individual talents of Green, bassist Justin Grinnell, and drummer Julien Cantelm as well as what this unit has evolved into since the band’s inception five years ago. The […]
2016 may just turn out to be a banner year for guitarist Wayne Riker, who has just released his ninth studio album, Blues Convocation. Aside from recording, the musician, who can now add the title “author” to his resume, has been putting the final touches on his book of memoirs slated for release sometime this […]
DakhaBrakha is an avant garde folk music quartet from the Ukraine that is making its San Diego debut as part of ArtPower’s “Global” series at UCSD. The music of this one-man/three-woman ensemble is acoustic, droning, dramatic, and distinctly eerie. Traditional vocal melodies are made to float uneasily over hand percussion, cello, and accordion, like wind […]
Hello Troubadourians! With proper respects to Paul Simon, this month I’d like to talk about what you don’t play. Most of us obsess over what we do play. The chords, notes, rhythms, every sound we make with our instruments becomes fodder for analysis and critique. As a result, do we judge our music too harshly? […]
Let’s Fall in Love Again is the latest from Gregory Page, and happily it is another trip to Nostalgia Town by the local singer/songwriter. The London transplant and one-time member of the Rugburns has been performing and releasing albums steadily since the late 1980s, mostly as a solo artist. His sound has been profoundly influenced […]
How do we say goodbye to our legends in American music? It’s a hard thing that fate asks for us to do. Especially when it’s an artist who has changed the musical landscape over the course of a six-decade career? For California country singer-songwriter, Merle Haggard, who died on April 6, on his 79th birthday, […]
This month I feel the need to eschew my grating frivolity in favor of something entirely true and, hopefully, interesting. You see, I’ve been rereading a lot of Lou Curtiss’ past columns—particularly the ones dealing with all the music festivals he’s fathered—and I’m splashing in a puddle of giddy nostalgia. Then I began wondering: If […]
