On a June Saturday that felt unseasonably cool and more like early fall, Bonnie Raitt looked up to the lawn seats high on the hill of those we’ve lost at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap and seemed overcome with emotion. After being shut down during the pandemic, the joy of being back onstage at […]
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Stephane Wrembel photo by Casey Ryan Vrock Stephane Wrembel has been described as the greatest living acoustic guitar player alive. But when you speak with him, he seems less interested in talking about himself and more about the mystery of making music. In his native French accent, Wrembel passionately philosophizes about the irrational response we […]
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(Gareth Dunlop at the Birchmere. Photos by Kelly Wosahla) The path that took Gareth Dunlop to the US and a solo set at the famed Birchmere outside Washington, DC, can be traced back twenty years ago. There in the pubs of his native Belfast he and Lee Rogers, another aspiring singer-songwriter, spent time in pubs […]
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In the opening of the new documentary Where are you Jay Bennett?, we hear the voice of the onetime Wilco member not only philosophizing but somewhat laughing about the events that led to his infamous departure. “I can understand why he wanted to have his own band,” Bennett muses in measured calm before he expounds, […]
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The memorable melodies and harmonies of the Sixties-era band the Zombies are like an effervescent summer breeze that rushes by and instantly hooks you. For those of us who first heard “Time of the Season” and “She’s Not There” on 45 singles and tinny AM transistor radios, the same feeling persists to this day even […]
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About that “JRE thing.” That’s how Spotify CEO Daniel Eck referred to podcast host, Joe Rogan and his show the Joe Rogan Experience and recent events that forced a new corporate policy on COVID misinformation. On Spotify’s quarterly earnings call, Eck said it was too early to know whether there would be fallout from advertisers […]
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Caroline Vain On The Line Between Good and “Better” Caroline Vain, an American-born and London based singer-songwriter, is about to release a new single “Better” February 11 on No Room Records. The song was recorded and mixed by Rory O’Connor and mastered by Saw Rayment. The song is her third single and follows previous releases […]
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(Dallas Frazier with Marty Stuart and Connie Smith) Long before he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame at the young age of 36, Dallas Frazier was a late depression era child who made the migration to California like many of his fellow Oklahomans. Like a real life enactment out of The Grapes […]
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(Lilly Hiatt singing “Melissa”) In 2021, Trying To Get Back To Where We Once Belonged If you felt like you were in a time warp in 2021, you weren’t alone. All it took was watching eight hours of Get Back, the film documenting the Beatles’ fabled Let It Be sessions, revisiting Bruce Springsteen’s “No Nukes” […]
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Southside Johnny — Birchmere 12/11 Southside Johnny was a week removed from turning the young age of 73 but hadn’t set foot onstage to publicly celebrate it. Johnny Lyon’s visit to the Birchmere turned the first of two nights in the Washington DMV area into a birthday bash. After singing “I Played The Fool ” […]
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