Over the course of his 30-year career, Chris Isaak’s smooth croon and unassuming attitude have made him the poster boy for honest, unaffected rock ‘n’ roll — the late ‘50s, early ‘60s variety that charmed America’s teenagers prior to synths, psych, and pretense. With a look and sound that positioned…
Those are people who died, died / They were all my friends, and they died That 1980 lyric, penned by the late Jim Carroll, prefigured a spate of celebrity deaths, and while the words describe the demise of junkies and the destitute, the song’s repeated refrain could easily be applied…
The band has drawn comparisons to Frank Zappa and jazz supergroup Return to Forever, according to the Miami Herald. But Aaron Lebos plays in a reality all his own. The music of the Aaron Lebos Reality isn’t easily defined. Specializing in their own original mix of styles and influences, the…
Steve Hackett is an overachiever. Forget the fact that he’s dabbled in practically every musical form, be it prog, blues, folk, classical, world, jazz, or, yes, plain old rock ‘n’ roll. There’s also that band Genesis, for which he made key contributions through much of the ’70s. Never mind that…
Tommy Castro is one of those intrepid road warriors whose devotion to the blues has been both unwavering and somewhat challenging. His new album, the appropriately titled Method to My Madness, is no exception. “I wanted to get back to basics,” Castro says. “I wasn’t trying to reinvent the wheel…
One group that often misses out on props for both its longevity and iconic status is the Commodores, originally formed when its members met at Tuskegee University and began playing the local club and college circuit. That was 1968. A year later, the band’s drummer and current singer, Walter “Clyde”…
In just under four years, Tortuga has gone from obscure upstart music festival to one of the most-talked-about gatherings in South Florida. The reason? Suffice to say pitching its tent on the sands of Fort Lauderdale Beach hasn’t hurt. Likewise, neither have the all-star lineups perking ears since the inaugural…
Most bands aspire to make music that’s joyful and celebratory, but not all succeed. Many get bogged down by their own headaches, heartaches, and frustrations, which, frankly, doesn’t provide much of a morale boost for the rest of us. The Outer Vibe takes a different tack, and if the name…
Of course, there were romance novels long before Fifty Shades of Grey started flying off bookshelves and ended up as a Hollywood movie. The tawdry tales that litter drugstore aisles have been around seemingly forever, distinguished mainly by cover photos featuring hunky, bare-chested,musclebound men who are about to ravish innocent…
The late Sir George Martin, who died this past Tuesday at age 90, is best known for steering the Beatles’ music throughout the course of the group’s prolific recording career. If that had been all he accomplished in his more than 60 years of active involvement in the music industry,…
Denny Laine has to be the most valuable wingman in Rock. Make that the most valuable Wings man, as well. That’s because he spent ten years working side-by-side with Paul McCartney in his seminal, post-Beatles band, Wings. And aside from Macca’s late wife, Linda, Laine served as McCartney’s sole collaborator…
While most people are well aware of the massive amount of hits Steve Miller scored on pop radio in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, fewer know of the storied history that began in the mid ‘60s and made him a star of the burgeoning progressive rock scene later on…
The two names have always appeared inseparable. Nevertheless, Daryl Hall and John Oates have other priorities these days. Hall’s Live From Daryl’s House has become a cable sensation, while Oates has turned his attention to writing, performing, and producing as part of a new Nashville collective of singers and songwriters…
For a band that’s always espoused the simple joys of growing up in idyllic innocence, replete with surf, sand, girls, hotrods, and whatever else it’s taken to share in the fun, fun, fun, the Beach Boys are no strangers to controversy. Brian Wilson, the band’s mentor and resident genius, suffered…
In a world of high tech and low ambitions, the basics of the blues aren’t always fully appreciated — or even understood. An opportunity to experience the complex and uniquely American form in its purest incarnation, to appreciate its essence and the relevance it still holds today, is thus reason…
With three massive worldwide hits — “Time of the Season,” “Tell Her No,” and “She’s Not There” — that positioned them at the top of the charts during the height of the British Invasion with a style encapsulating jazz, blues, classical, and progressive pop, the Zombies created a sound that…
Johnny Rawls is a decidedly old-school kind of guy. An award-winning singer, he takes his cues from classic R&B singers like Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Marvin Gaye, Al Green, and his personal mentor, O.V. Wright, the man he credits with launching his career. “I sing soul,” Rawls insists. “I stand…
It should come as no surprise that an entire enterprise, aptly dubbed Experience Hendrix, has been built up around the late guitar god’s name, now manifest in a traveling revue playing out all the classic Jimi Hendrix cuts in homage to a still-larger-than-life American legend. But by now, many of…
In 1947, conservationist Marjorie Stoneman Douglas famously dubbed the Everglades “The River of Grass,” using that handle as the title for her iconic book about the wetlands that are synonymous with one of Florida’s great natural treasures. Despite her warnings about the need to fight for its preservation, those vast…
Finishing his morning meal, Alan Parsons is remarkably amiable as he indulges in a chat about the clichés of his native country’s indigenous foods: “English muffins don’t exist in England at all. They’re more like a blueberry muffin over there,” he muses before diving into an in-depth talk on his…
When curator Jane Hart left the Art & Culture Center of Hollywood last year, it came as quite a shock. Over almost a decade, Hart had brought sophisticated, cutting-edge contemporary art to the quaint, unassuming space near Hollywood’s Young Circle. Shows here always stood out in Broward County’s otherwise bland…
Call it the mountain muse, the happiness of the heights, or maybe simply the cool mix of altitude and attitude. Yonder Mountain String Band has captured that freewheeling spirit for the better part of 17 years, a connection that has to do with more than just the imagery implied in…
