Announcements and reviews about new music
When their first record came out on January 29, 1968, the eponymously titled Steppenwolf album turned heads mostly because Born to be Wild became such a massive hit. The album as a whole was one of the greatest ‘first albums’ released in a period when bands were kicking out music that would become the […]
To my knowledge, Cheap Trick has performed in the Upper Peninsula several times during their storied career. I have managed to miss them each time. The concerts I can find records for (and there maybe more I am not aware of) were in Marquette and at the casino in Harris. The first show was at […]
Been getting some awesome music in the past weeks – the video (below) featuring Sammy Hagar and a host of others makes me feel like conflicts aside, music can and does help heal wounds and unit people. The girl’s smiles are a universal statement of hope for the future. Check out The Miraculous Love Kids: […]
From the Vaults: America’s Heartbeat Mental music quiz time: Who is the connecting thread between the following hit songs? Good Vibrations (The Beach Boys); Be My Baby (The Ronettes); Return to Sender (Elvis); Strangers in the Night (Frank Sinatra); Mr. Tambourine Man (The Byrds); Mary, Mary (The Monkees); and The Way We Were (Barbra […]
We have visited Uriah Heep twice in past FTV’s. There was a feature focusing on guitarist Mick Box back in 2017 (FTV: Uriah Heep 11-15-17) and another featuring drummer Lee Kerslake in 2019 (FTV: RIP Lee Kerslake 5-8-19). In the 2017 piece, Box talked about the challenges of being the last original band member […]
Warning: I like Styx. I have always liked Styx. What happened to make them fragment, reassemble, and separate again into two distinct ‘camps’ the way they did was never quite clear to me. The memory of where and when I first heard Lady on the radio, however, pops into my head everytime I hear […]
The Christmas Cards sent out this year included the usual ‘Season’s Greetings’ but an added sentiment there are no emojis for: ‘Here is to a brighter 2021.’ Peggy James seems to have an uncanny knack for writing music to fit my feelings – think ‘musical emoji on demand’. Gary Tanin at Daystorm Music sent […]
Back in the fall of 2019, the last round of touring by Creedence Clearwater Revisited (or CCR2 as we referred to them) was chronicled in this space (FTV: CCR 10-16-19). The article included the following description of their interview with the original CCR and CCR2 rhythm section: “When CCR’s Complete Studio Albums Deluxe Box Set […]
My annual ritual of summarizing the backstage events of the Porcupine Mountain Music Festival dates back more than a dozen years. I was organizing some of the articles that I keep filed chronologically, so naturally I started re-reading some of these ghosts of PMMFs past. With the COVID-19 pandemic scuttling our favorite local festival this […]
Quick: Which of these names does not sound like it belongs on this list of iconic rock musicians? Keith Moon, Leslie West, Jimi Hendrix, Felix Pappalardi, John Lennon, Jack Bruce, or Laurence Gordon Laing? If you guessed the last one, you get a gold star, but note that I did NOT say ‘does not belong’ […]