Denny Laine — Fab, one time removed? — will forever be the other guy in Wings, the Paul McCartney-led 1970s successor band to the Beatles. Even if that belies Laine’s important earlier contributions to the Moody Blues (“Go Now,” a Wings concert staple), his occasional takeout moment with Paul’s bandRead More
Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson shared a stage in one of the most satisfyingly offbeat pairings from a regimentally segregated musical era.
NICK DERISO: Frank Sinatra, 10 years gone, would have been 93 this month. His mystery still lingers with me, as does the memory of a concert — one of Sinatra’s last — when he recaptured all of that complexity. Sinatra was both a pawn to his past and the kingRead More
by Nick DeRiso Coming as this debut rock release did, amidst the mid-1990s’ copy-cat grungery, it’s still a wonder “Weave” is any good at all. Chalk that up to Queen Sarah’s ceaseless woodshedding, said then to take place from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day in the basement ofRead More
by Nick Deriso There was no reason to believe that the Rolling Stones, 30 years into their dangerously debauched rock career, would make anything worth a damn out of the 1990s. In fact, the preceding decade — one in which, by far, the Stones’ best new thing was actually aRead More
For all his eccentricities, Rahsaan Roland Kirk could be a staunchly sensitive interpreter. This terrific Bill Withers cover is but one example.
by Nick DeRiso “Come Together,” a concert first envisioned as a benefit to raise anti-violence awareness through the work of John Lennon, was scheduled to be held on Oct. 2, 2001, at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall. Then came Sept. 11. This rangy event, featuring recorded snippetsRead More
The finest of the tracks here point to a musical sensibility that’s a touch too ribald for Crowded House. Tim Finn, who had recently left after a short association with brother Neil’s band, experiments with a number of far-out sounds: A processed background vocal on “Can’t Do Both”; the fuzzyRead More
NICK DERISO: “Whatever happened,” Van Morrison, erstwhile pop singer, old-soul blues gypsy, entertainer-slash-provocateur, sings here, “to the way it’s supposed to happen? And whatever happened to me?” Much, in fact, has happened. Morrison, it’s worth noting, could have settled in as a fixture on pop music’s hit-machine dead end afterRead More
by Nick Deriso Hall and Oates are, of course, the poster boys for what happens when hair gel meets R&B. Funny thing is, they were originally anything but polished. Hall had reportedly been in an early Philly band with Thom Bell, later a central figure in that city’s R&B legacy.Read More
