< >> *** STEELY DAN SUNDAY INDEX *** Becker and Fagen dug “Sultans Of Swing” like the rest of us did when this first Dire Straits hit was making hay on the radio in 1979. It was beginning with this song where Mark Knopfler made fancy fingerpicking — by way of Chet Atkins — cool again in rock music.

For a spell there, the Chocolate Watch Band was remembered more for their loony name than their music. Although they were a popular live act in and around their stomping grounds of San Jose, California, their records stiffed, naturally limiting their profile. By the time the 70’s arrived, the Chocolate Watch Band were all but a dim memory until a [...]

A collaboration between jazz guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Matt Chamberlain, it must have seemed pretty straight-forward upon first inspection

Australian guitarist Peter J. Martin is a player of enormous technical capability but also much lyrical strength, twin talents that make Waltz for the Wicked a deeply listenable adventure.

I’ve never met Greg Brown (though I did once see my mom, all five feet and seventy-something years of her, run up to him to shake his hand after a show) …