Steve Nichols
The Guitar Sounds of Steve Nichols
Steve Nichols is a commanding musician. The guitarist has performed with just about everybody. Among the top stars with whom he has shared the stage are jazz legend Barney Kessel, blues giant B.B. King, even the southern country-rock band Charlie Daniels. His local resume is equally impressive. Among others, Nichols has performed with Gypsy Groove, […]
Ken Lehnig
I Can Hear You Now!
Ken Lehnig’s newest music is a 15-track set of devotional songs, 13 of them originals. I Can Hear You Now! was put together by the same studio crew that has appeared on many of Lehnig’s secular albums, but this time the focus is on Faith, as he is all in on a batch of Christian […]
Todd Cochran Trio
Then and Again, Here and Now
Bay Area pianist and composer Todd Cochran has roamed far afield in his five-decade career, from writing cinematic scores to producing R&B artists, playing everything from progressive rock to New Age. While his studies were in classical music, he began his professional career in jazz, playing in a quintet with Bobby Hutcherson and former San […]
Wayne Riker
A Beatles Overture From A to Z
The Beatles changed everything. They let folks know that a rock song could have the harmonic structure and sweetness of a Rogers and Hart melody; that pop music could draw on Indian ragas, the classics of Beethoven, or the electronic music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. They intuited that record albums could be more than a collection […]
Chimpos
A Horse Splashes
Chimpos are a group of musicians who are “friends who grew up in Ocean Beach in the ’70s,” and they have released their second album, A Horse Splashes. The new disc follows in the steps of the group’s 2018 Flung Like a Horse, and it is another collection of 11 good-time rockers that don’t take […]
Last June, while the world was just getting used to being quarantined, Faunch released a nine-track disc, 80 Spheres. Then, even more recently, prolific guitarist/writer/singer Andy Faunch was back with another group of songs, Sodium Vapor. His L.A. band with quirky British prog/new wave influences has a San Diego connection—Fallbrook producer/multi-instrumentalist Dave Blackburn was a […]
Jane Lui
Surrija
Electro-pop singer/songwriter Jane Lui has a new album that is her debut under her new performance identity, Surrija. The former San Diego artist who now lives in L.A. wrote or co-wrote (with Albert Chiang) 11 of the 12 tracks as a concept album, inspired by the life and works of Picasso. The new disc is […]
San Diego County’s three greatest exports may be Ted Williams, Harold Land, and avocados. While most folks are familiar with the baseball Hall of Famer who crafted greatness with the Boston Red Sox, the equally gifted tenor saxophonist, Land too often is overlooked, even here in his hometown. Land was born in Houston, but his […]
Scott Samuels
Sunshine and Starlight
Scott Samuels is a San Diego singer/songwriter whose website tags his music as “powerpop.” Part of the SD scene since the late ’80s, he has been involved in several band projects, including Roxy Dioxide, Kitten Pharmacy, and other groups, including a stint in a Neil Diamond tribute act. As a solo, he has been busy, […]
