ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? “So, are you experienced?Have you ever been experienced?Well, I have” “Are You Experienced” written by Jimi Hendrix Are You Experienced was the first studio album and title song released by the “Jimi Hendrix Experience.” The album hit the shelves in May of 1967 as a critical and commercial success. I remember clearly […]
The 5th Dimension’s original lineup has been compared to the Mamas and the Papas, whose songs it occasionally covered. Both were vocal groups, both featured male and female singers, both achieved major commercial success, and their heydays overlapped. But important differences explain why the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Mamas and the […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand August 2026 The Afghan Whigs, Soft Control. There really aren’t that many rock bands in 2026 as long-lasting and still-great as The Afghan Whigs. Leader Greg Dulli has been in the rock game a long time, and even when it’s disconcerting to realize time rolls on, he continues to get greater and greater. […]
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Two weeks ago, this column discussed singer Joe Brown, who is virtually unknown in the U.S. but has some fans in England, where several of his songs charted in the 1960s. Cliff Richard’s career offers a more extreme example of a similar dichotomy. Though he scored three Top 10 hits in America in the 1970s, […]
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Guitarist and singer Christian Parker and nearly a dozen of his pals, including Earl Poole Ball, Patrick Cleary, and JayDee Maness, are on a mission. They want to expose new generations to the so-called cosmic country pioneered in the late 1960s and early 1970s by acts such as the Byrds, Gram Parsons, and the Flying […]
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Have you watched Concert for George, the film of the memorial show held on the first anniversary of George Harrison’s death? If you have, you witnessed performances by some of popular music’s best-known acts, including Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. But you also saw a prominently featured artist whose name likely […]
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If you listen to oldies stations or are old enough to have tuned into rock radio in the late 1960s, you undoubtedly know of Strawberry Alarm Clock. The Southern California group, originally called Thee Sixpence, recorded a psychedelic pop song called “Incense and Peppermints” that became a huge hit. Its success, for which the band’s […]
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Teach Your Children “You, who are on the road Must have a code you try to live by And so become yourself Because the past is just a goodbye” “Teach Your Children,” written by Graham Nash Graham Nash wrote “Teach Your Children” in 1968 while still a member of the Hollies. It was first released […]
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Lance Cowan is on a roll. A music publicist for decades, he only recently reinvented himself as a folk/Americana recording artist. But he has now issued three excellent albums in as many years, and the latest of these is arguably his best. Called The Air That You Breathe, it cements his reputation as an affecting […]
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Bentley’s Bandstand: July 2026 Albert Castiglia, GRITS & GLORY. When it’s time to throw it all against the wall and get funky through the night, Albert Castiglia has the right idea. Take the whole gang to the Abbey Road studio in London and go for broke. And that’s exactly what Castiglia and his hopped-up crew […]
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