One of the last words I expected to use in reviewing a Bob Dylan concert is “beautiful,” but that was my thought as I left the Bowl Wednesday night. No raspy voice, no primitive arrangements, no protest–and also no hits. Instead there were a lot of love songs, all performed by a swinging band that […]
Jeff Tweedy’s concert at the Ventura Theater was heavy on songs from his latest album, Twilight Override, which was fine by me as I had spent time with it and the songs were familiar. When I listened to it again at home, however, I realized that the songs all sounded much better on the record […]
Lookout Mountain launched their existence with a sold-out show at the Lobero. Featuring six top session musicians recruited by Steve Postell with Kip Lennon out front on vocals, their remit is songs from artists living in Laurel Canyon, outside L.A., in or around the early 1970s. What a treasure trove to choose from! They gave […]
The Goo Goo Dolls have been a background name on my Classic Rock stations since the late ’90s, so I thought worth checking out their show at the Santa Barbara Bowl last night (9/6/25). The first 40 minutes of their set left me untouched: it was five slightly middle-aged grungy guys making a lot of […]
From the Piano Man album in 1973 through Glass Houses in 1980, with a quick step back to 1971’s Cold Spring Harbor, each Billy Joel release was a marker in time in my Young Adulthood. Piano Man itself was wonderful, and was undoubtedly my introduction, but hearing Captain Jack and Ballad of Billy the Kid first […]
The death earlier this month of Brian Wilson brought out a welcome reconsideration of the Beach Boys’ legacy. They were one of my two favorite groups of my high school days, 1961-64. The other was the Four Seasons. These were the yin and yang of those years in rock’n’roll: the Beach Boys were the West […]
In addition to my Top 25 described in a post from 2009 I’ve decided to make a running list of up to 25 more songs that I’m enshrining in my Personal Rock Hall of Fame. I’m only including Classic Rock songs that get played, not obscure personal favorites. No descriptions or analysis, just a list. […]
The newly formed Crosby Collective vindicated, nay glorified, my devotion to Classic Rock with their highly musical performance of “mashups” last night at the Lobero, which they chose for their only (so far) Southern California appearance. Each mashup seamlessly combined two rock standards in leader Jason Crosby’s own arrangement, all played in a lushly harmonic […]
Maybe not really the “worst” rock lyrics ever, but here are lines I cringe at whenever I hear them: “My shavin’ razor’s cold, and it stings…” Whoever says “shavin’ razor”? And what is how a shaving razor feels doing in a love song? (Daydream Believer, The Monkees, courtesy of Neil Diamond) “Names have been changed, […]
A funny thing happened when Ronstadt Revival featuring Shannon Rae performed at the Lobero last night (9/14/24). After her second number, Ms. Rae confidentially told the audience they could ignore management’s request not to photograph or take videos of the artists. “Go ahead and take your pictures and share them on your social media account. […]
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