The tall and lanky Mick Fleetwood was the first member of Fleetwood Mac to appear onstage at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. As he waved to the crowd, he made his ceremonial counterclockwise circle to his drum kit and stretched out his arms to begin the traditional opening song of “The Chain.” John […]
By Jeff Burger There’s a modicum of truth to the notion that rock and roll hit a slump in the late 50s and early 60s—from around the time that Elvis entered the Army and Buddy Holly died until the Beatles-led British Invasion and psychedelia arrived to shake things up. But don’t believe anyone who tells […]
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It was 5:00 a.m. when Mac Wiseman heard a knock on his door. As he went to the door of his hotel room, there stood Johnny Cash. The night before Wiseman shared a bill at Carnegie Hall with Cash and the extended members of the Carter Family. In his hand, Cash held a copy of […]
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You can come home again. It was a very personal moment when Peter Cooper and Eric Bruce introduced the last song of their two sets with Thomm Jutz at Jammin’ Java outside Washington, DC. When the two were teenagers going to high school in the DMV area, they spent time at the Birchmere where they […]
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Robin Lane grew up amid L.A.’s Laurel Canyon scene and entered the music world as a folk-rocker. (She sang backup on a song on Neil Young’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere when she was 16.) But the punk/new wave movement—which embraced the Police’s Andy Summers, her husband from 1968 to 1970—clearly had an impact on […]
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By Jeff Burger I’ve been singing Tom Russell’s praises since 1977, when he sent me Ring of Bone, the excellent album he’d recorded with his then musical partner, Patricia Hardin. Nearly half a century and dozens of albums later, I continue to maintain that he’s a national treasure; and I remain baffled by the fact […]
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I’m pushing every scarf and purse out of my way as I inch closer and closer to the ticket table. There’s a line a mile long at C-Boy’s Heart and Soul in South Austin. I stand on my tiptoes to get a glance at Dale Watson’s signature-silver pompadour as he strums along on the back […]
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Bruce Springsteen’s Broadway show, which ran from October 2017 to December 2018 at the Walter Kerr Theater, will stand as one of the most powerful works of art that he has ever created. That’s saying plenty, given that his resume also includes some of the greatest concerts and albums of the entire rock era, not […]
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Asked to categorize the Eagles, most fans and critics would probably label them country rock, which is understandable, because they have strong roots in that genre. Original bassist Randy Meisner came from Poco while original guitarist Bernie Leadon did time with the Flying Burrito Brothers and guitarist/vocalist Glenn Frey and vocalist/drummer Don Henley both worked […]
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My fingers ache as they squeeze the steering wheel. Sweat drips from my palms and forehead as I desperately attempt to stay locked in place. Thirty-mile-an-hour winds bounce semi-trucks left and right, terrifying me as I stare at the mere inches left between my sedan and a concrete barrier. A screaming ambulance blasts past me, […]
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