by Mark Saleski To call this group of songs “The Lost Sessions” is to put a slightly misleading spin on things. We all know the story, the one of the huge volume of music that Bruce wrote post-Born To Run with some songs ending up on Darkness On The EdgeRead More

This world of digital sound can be quite tricky. The original line about CDs was that they would provide “perfect sound forever.” Yeah, sure. In their haste to get product to market, the early mastering jobs produced less than stellar results. In the intervening years, we’ve learned a lot aboutRead More

by Mark Saleski Springsteen fans have been waiting years for the 30th anniversary release of Darkness On The Edge Of Town. Waiting, and waiting, and… And then the anniversary passed, with rumours and speculation fueled by smokes signals emanating from Camp Springsteen about how the set was “nearly complete.” OfRead More

by Mark Saleski I don’t have the language to properly describe most pieces of classical music, so you will rarely (if ever) see me employ words such as “sonata,” “fortissimo,” and “canon.” Besides, with this week’s passing of Polish composer Henryk Górecki, many megabytes (and ink!) have been spilled withRead More

by Mark Saleski Time to return to one of my favorite topics: Why do I like that? Have you ever engaged in this kind of self-debate? There are all sorts of ways to play. There’s the Top-40 angle: “Come On Eileen…Bawitdaba!? Hmmm…I better not tell anybody,” the Angle of PureRead More

by Mark Saleski The Vanishing Voter Project conducted over 80,000 interviews during the year 2000 United States presidential campaign. The goal was to study the reasons behind the the fact that the United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates among industial nations. The resultant book, Thomas E.Read More

by Mark Saleski It’s the last great Rolling Stones album!! Sticky Fingers! Tattoo You! Exile On Main St.! Beggar’s Banquet! Goat’s Head Soup! Get Yer Ya-Yas’s Out! Uh, that one that Brian Jones was sort of on but not too much! Sure, it’s a silly argument. It’s also fun. SometimesRead More

by Mark Saleski The complete list of collaborators attached to pianist/composer/modern day Renaissance man Ryuichi Sakamoto could easily fill the space reserved for a full-length review. The short list includes Brian Wilson, Thomas Dolby, Iggy Pop, David Sylvain, Robbie Robertson, and Daniel Bernard Roumain. His film score resume, while somewhatRead More

Photo by Tommy Hazeltine by Mark Saleski It was many years ago, in the early 1990’s, that I had my first encounter with Ronnie Earl. He was playing at Raoul’s Roadside Attraction in Portland, Maine. I had never heard of him before but a friend of mine was sure thatRead More

Photo: Julieta Cervantes by Mark Saleski Not long after receiving Etudes 4 Violin & Electronix, I got up one morning before the alarm went off, and settled myself down to some coffee. The idea was to catch up on the reading material that had stacked up over the past fewRead More