If, as pointed out in a previous post in this series, it’s rare for a local band to have their songs covered, having them used as a showcase for animation or puppetry is even rarer. For this month’s FYI, we’re showcasing ten, including a variety of art forms, from simple line drawings to monster / […]
Tom Petty made me think of the “emancipated minor,” an underage teen legally separated from his parents, becoming free to engage in adult activities that would otherwise require parental permission. The teen becomes a legal adult, free to sign contracts, enroll in trade school, rent an apartment, and is solely responsible for the future that […]
Few composers push so many musical moods onto their listeners—shifting from ecstatic to brooding on a dime—as much as San Diego’s Joe Garrison does. He interrupts his pieces with silence only to shock them awake with sonic surprise. His unconventionality is twin-engined: sound’s nature to vanish before us and music’s design to take us somewhere. […]
Now, there’s a great question! Here’s my take on the answer, having looked into the issue as a performer and as a board member of the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA) where I served two terms from 2006-2013. Bottom line, “yes,” but it is a bit like asking: can my high school kid make it […]
When writing a review column of roughly 800 to 1000 words on a regular basis, one is destined to come across a tool so complex and feature-laden that it defies succinct summation. This is not always the case, of course, as there have been plenty of instances where the pursuit of reader amusement has found […]
Chickenbone Slim is the alter ego of long time San Diego bluesman Larry Teves, bassist, vocalist, and songwriter who many remember as the leader of the popular area blues band the Boogiemen. The Boogiemen were a crackerjack jump blues band in the style of Little Charlie and the Nightcats and, a bristling, swaggering bunch of […]
Among the many goals achieved by the San Diego Jazz Festival—now in its 38th year—has been to bring music fans of all ages together, sometimes three generations at a time in one spot. Leading the youth brigade at the festival, (annually held from Wednesday through Sunday during Thanksgiving week) is New Orleans resident and former […]
A true San Diego original, Bart Mendoza has been a linchpin in the local roots music scene for what seems like forever, as a journalist—for the Troubadour and multiple other local as well as international publications—and as a songwriter and musician with contributions to over 30 recordings in a 30-plus year career. San Diego’s resident […]
Virginia and I kicked off the show at the reunion of the Heritage Coffeehouse last Saturday (Oct 14) and it got me to thinking about my early days in the San Diego scene. I started playing music on Dexter Sykes’ front porch in Imperial Beach. Mostly it was country music that we heard on XERB […]
