Bluegrass music was started in the 1940s by Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys. This great group is still the gold standard for bluegrass music today. At that time the vast majority of bluegrass music players, and all the stars, were men. The women were few and far between and almost always relegated to playing […]
I first heard the young bass virtuoso John Murray five years ago, when he was just 11 years old after fielding a phone call from his mentor, trumpet-master Gilbert Castellanos, who made the seemingly outlandish claim that he was “the next Scott LaFaro” (the legendary bassist for Bill Evans, who died in a car accident […]
My performances for the very macabre month of October tend to celebrate horror, fantasy, and sci-fi. And whether the venue is live radio drama, a silent film screening, or a steampunk convention, I always bring my Theremin along! It relays the otherworldly, easily. But keep in mind that it can take years to play standard […]
Jazz saxophone master McPherson has been making records under his own name since 1965 and has recorded for at least eight different labels, including Prestige, Xanadu, Discovery, and Capri in the intervening years. Curiously, though, his latest document, is self-released. A world in which an icon like McPherson does not have jazz labels beating down […]
We sat down in a quaint little restaurant to talk about happiness and some other inspiring things. He may have gotten a rough start in life, challenged with multiple disabilities, the kind of challenges that must be overcome in order to achieve his goals and aspire to new and exciting possibilities. Determination was his driving […]
Originally from Oceanside, country music artist Doc Elliot has spent years on the road, and in 2018 transplanted to Texas. There, the singer/songwriter scored a record contract and was soon co-writing songs for Kinky Friedman; now the 24-year old has released a debut CD, The Rowdy Kind. The new project is a ten-song set with […]
The Dillards did an album called Wheatstraw Suite, which is one of my favorite albums. The first thing I did when I came to America was to go and see them. —Elton John There is a friendly and inviting warmth to Rodney Dillard’s voice, a youthful enthusiasm that defies his 78 years on the planet. […]
California Dream is the debut album by Tom Sless. The New Jersey native headed to LA six years ago, to write and sing country songs, and his album includes some crossovers into heavily produced pop. An eight-track collection of tunes divided into two “sides,” the LA-recorded album scatter shoots its topics and styles as Sless […]
For literally centuries, the metronome has ruled the world of music with the iron-fisted persistence of time itself; unyielding, constant and when its passing is given the fullest of attention, well…boring. This is not to suggest that strict adherence to tempo is a bad thing, quite to the contrary. Keeping within the confines of a […]
