Articles by: Nick DeRiso

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Billy Sherwood on Toto, Paul Rodgers, John Wetton + Yes: Gimme Five

Go inside the studio as Billy Sherwood enters the complex world of Yes, and find out how he came to work with David Paich on a signature Toto release.

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Billy Sherwood, formerly of Yes: Something Else! Interview

Billy Sherwood talks about his original hopes for Yes, how the association initially fell apart, and how it continued to inform his subsequent work.

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Half Notes: Kevin Crabb – Waltz for Dylan (2011)

There are couple of ways that Kevin Crabb’s all-original Waltz for Dylan could have gone wrong. Rangy saxophonist Kelly Jefferson and, in particular, pianist John Beasley (Miles Davis) might have completely overtaken this project, dedicated to the drummer’s son. Or, they might have become lost in the distracting bashing ofRead More

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Popa Chubby – Back to New York City (2011)

This is a script-flipped blues rock record, with a plugged-in emphasis on the rock part. Back to New York City, in many ways, is as loud as it is brash — a thundering restatement of Popa Chubby’s outsized persona and even outer-sized personality. You May Also Like: Chubby Tavares, “GottaRead More

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One Track Mind: Johnny Cash, "Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right" (2011)

It’s one thing to cover somebody, quite another to expose something fundamentally true about the original song through your interpretation — and that happens with Johnny Cash’s take on this Bob Dylan classic. You May Also Like: How Johnny Cash Challenged Convention Once Again on ‘American Recordings’ How Johnny Cash’sRead More

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One Track Mind: Ben Folds Five, "House" (2011)

Ben Folds, for all his blind-alley turns into jokes that go nowhere, retains a particular eye for the turn of phrase, for the precise word the opens your heart like a flower You May Also Like: Ben Folds Returned to Older Work on ‘Stems and Seeds,’ and Vastly Improved It

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One Track Mind: Peter Novelli with Dr. John, "Since the Hurricane" (2011)

Half a decade later, Hurricane Katrina still has this devastating power to inspire, as heard on Peter Novelli’s new self-titled release You May Also Like: No related posts.

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Styx, “Difference in the World” (2011): One Track Mind

There’s a world-weary melancholy, a hard-won realism, to Styx’s new song that didn’t exist in Tommy Shaw’s fun-rocking “Renegade” days, and that points the way out of the band’s more recent habit of backtracking You May Also Like: No related posts.

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Billy Sherwood,”Living in the Now” from Living in the Now (2011): One Track Mind

On an album boasting a number of dark ruminations on this digital age, Billy Sherwood takes a second on “Living in the Now” to contemplate the answers.

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Laura Ainsworth – Keep It To Yourself (2011)

Dallas, Texas-based Laura Ainsworth, though performing last-century throwback cocktail jazz, may have stumbled into a zeitgeist-defining moment with the opening title track here. Whether she knew it or not back in the recording studio, Ainsworth’s delicious tale of revenge exacted on a serial philanderer is perfectly of the moment YouRead More