When you’ve been in a band for 26 years, everybody deserves a break. After years of relentless touring and thousands of big shed shows, The Dave Matthews Band decided to forego their annual summer tour for 2017. Don’t think for a moment, however, that the band members are currently idle. All of them are involved…
A year ago, a feature about Ajeva, the funk band from Gulfport, would have been about a quartet of young men who believed in their musical vision enough to live and work together toward that goal. They were an excellent four-piece band. And then they decided to ‘evolve’ to a sextet — with superb results —…
Photographer David Lee and I were covering The Big WHAT?, Big Something’s annual party, in Mebane NC in June. One of my great delights is in “discovering” bands I’ve never seen before, and that happened a dozen or more times while we were there, but perhaps none so much as Opposite Box. Here is what…
Bret Peretz had repeatedly told me about a band from Atlanta that his company, Don’t Fret Entertainment, was helping to book. This was going to be the first visit south of Georgia for Voodoo Visionary, playing several venues, the prime one of which was opening at the Crowbar in Tampa for Displace, holding their album…
I was looking back at some of my writing about music. I’ve been scribbling for a long time, but I didn’t really start posting show reviews on e-mail and Facebook until May of 2013, and things were percolating when my son gave me a blog for my birthday (May 2014). And that explosion paled compared…
My photographer partner David Lee and I were excited to attend The BIG What? for the first time this June. As we set up camp in the band area, we were immediately struck by the warmth and friendliness of the people we met. That was never more true than about the folks right next to…
The Dunedin Brewery is a fabulous place for a variety of reasons. Their food is very good, and their beer is outrageous. But it is the music that keeps bringing me back. They have music almost every night, from popular national acts to unknown locals… and everything in between. I have “discovered” so many great…
So what are YOU doing Fourth of July weekend? You don’t have a golden ticket to the Chicago festivities. You know you need to stay as far away from the insanity at the beach and the theme parks as possible. The annual PBS broadcast is a non-starter. There’s really only one sensible place to be:…
The message in the music of Christie Lenée is crystal-clear and unambiguous. And that message is a celebration of life, love and joy. The elation in her voice, the ever-present smile on her face, her warm and embracing lyrics, her wonderful between-songs anecdotes, and her brilliant guitar playing all point directly to that message. She…
We were at the Downtown River Jam last December 6th and while we were there went to the State Theatre to hear the Bobby Lee Rodgers Trio. Bobby Lee is an incredibly nurturing artist who seems to be constantly working with different musicians helping to promote and showcase them. In that evening with him, I…