Recently I was lucky enough to score an interview with the great Eddie Floyd. As a major Soul fan interviewing Eddie Floyd is a big deal. Though when mentioning mister Floyd to friends I got a shocking amount of raised eye brows from people in their thirties, Floyd was at the cradle of what we […]
Bob Dylan, Tell Tale Signs
John Leland once called Dylan a trickster in his book Hip: The History. He saw Dylan as one of those enigmatic people who we are unable to capture, unable to get a real grasp of. A sense of understanding of Dylan, according to Leland, bestows us with a sense of hipness, even though in silence […]
Southside Johnny, Hearts of Stone under a Grapefruit Moon
Some 30 years ago, when Springsteen released his seminal Darkness on the Edge of Town, John Lyon, better known as Southside Johnny did the same with his Hearts of Stone. Though the album didn’t sell all that well at the time years later Rolling Stone magazine would vote it as one of the best albums […]
Tom Morello, The Fabled City
“The Fabled City†is Tom Morello’s second solo outing as the Nightwatchman. Though Morello admittedly performed a lot of these songs “amidst the tear gas attacks at the G8 protest,†there is, again, little common ground between this solo album and his work with Rage Against the Machine. Though in both projects Morello presents himself […]
The Legend of Sir Lattimore Brown
It’s Such A Sad, Sad World Who you might say? That’s what I thought when I first saw this name pop up over at the “B” Side, Red Kelly’s excellent blog. These days the net is swarming with Internet publications, blogging is so easily accessible that anybody with a half functioning computer can work it […]
Bronx River Parkway, A Different Perspective
From time to time I come across a CD that begs the question of what Americana actually is. Most people will define Americana as music derived from or associated with country music. The truth however is a little more complex. Americana, in the way the word originally was intended, was a term to describe American […]
Tom Waits, Glitter and Doom in Paris
Last week I was lucky enough to catch Tom Waits in Paris. One of the last truly hard tickets out there. Front row seats for the Grand Rex went for a whopping 140 Euros a pop. But because of a cunning ticket selling scheme, where tickets were printed with your name and entrance in the […]
William Bell, Stax and Soul
“(C)2008 Jelmer de Haas” July 19th – Waiting for William Bell at an Amsterdam hotel, I was sipping on some coffee while all the classic Soul hits played in the background. The records from Stax and Motown, that once shook the world, struck me as the perfect background to interview the man who was a […]
The Swingin’ Medallions
I first became familiar with the Swingin’ Medallions when I bought the Rhino Nuggets boxed set, a continuation of the infamous ’75 double LP with liner notes by Lenny Kaye, guitar player for the Patti Smith group. The box was filled with one-hit wonders and obscure R&R trail blazers I had never heard off. Though […]
Mark Wright, Takings Twists and Turns Through the Melting Pot
Some artists embody America’s rich music history in the strangest and most surprising ways. As a big Springsteen fan I first learned about Mark Wright when he announced a cover project of Springsteen songs. When I decided to investigate a little further I stumbled in one surprise after another. Aside from covering Springsteen, Mark Wright […]