Jimi Hendrix: Five Decades Gone
It was 50 years ago, today. Attention, of course, must (and will) be paid, but the real question remains: what more can possibly be said, at this point, about Jimi…
It was 50 years ago, today. Attention, of course, must (and will) be paid, but the real question remains: what more can possibly be said, at this point, about Jimi…
Was Toots and his 1968 hit “Do the Reggay,” responsible for popularizing both the name and form of reggae that, a few years later — and in no small part…
Certain things are anathema to the mature writer: hyperbole, cliché, groupthink, money--just kidding, (mostly). Sometimes, and the instances are rare enough to be exceptions to the rule, one can speak…
RIP to a musician's musician, a complete and utter original, and icon of the underground. Beautiful tribute to Keith Tippett courtesy of The Guardian here. (I've written about him --and…
Happy 75th, Pete Townshend! Inspiring? Pete Townshend, arguably, is the ultimate rock hero. He had the Lennon & McCartney songwriting skills; he played the hell of those guitars he ultimately…
An absolute giant, musical genius, and the rarest of human beings has departed from a planet that could scarcely contain him. McCoy Tyner is, without question, one of the most…
Not a ton of people remember Opal (actually, to remember a band, you need to have heard of them in the first place, right?). It’s a shame, although admittedly, this…
He knows changes aren’t permanent, but change is. Taken from Rush’s most famous song, “Tom Sawyer,” this line might best illuminate the “elemental empathy” that came to define Neil Peart,…
Like, I know, many (many, many) others, it'll be impossible to succinctly or adequately convey my admiration for Neil Peart. (Full and semi-embarrassing disclosure: I wrote my graduate school thesis…
I'm honored to have my poem "Bud Powell's Brain" included in the new anthology Revisiting the Elegy in the Black Lives Matter Era. From the book's description: Revisiting the Elegy…