by S. Victor Aaron On prior columns I’ve made no bones about my affinity for early Chicago songs. Danny Seraphine’s comeback album is a triumph because the band’s founding drummer brought back the spirit of his old band. And singer/keyboardist/songwriter Robert Lamm’s openness for melding complex jazz with straightforward bluesRead More

by Pico Covering High And Mighty about a year and a half ago gave me a convenient excuse to pull out and listen to some of the prior Gov’t Mule CDs. Out of the one just prior to this one, Déjà Voodoo, came a tune that has lately been theRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Jazz trios that push the envelope are a lot of fun to listen to. With only two other players to be accountable for, each member gets to take more chances than they might be able to get away with in a larger setting. And when it’sRead More

With all the All Star albums of 2007 out of the way, there’s just one more piece of year-end business to take care of: my favorite song of the year. Like the top CD of the year, this one didn’t require much agonizing. It’s a song that puts me inRead More

?Among the blues musicians of today, you’ve got your stars like Robert Cray, Jonny Lang, Shemekia Copeland and so forth, and then you’ve got the remaining 98% who are toiling away at this blessed craft in relative obscurity, anonymous to all but the patrons who catch their shows in barsRead More

by Pico Here’s a One Track Mind that’s also a One Hit Wonder. Remember Dionne Farris? If you do, then this song must have made an impression on you, too. This is usually the part where I delve into the artist’s background and deliver the setup to the song ofRead More

by S. Victor Aaron There was a time during my carefree youth when I was listening to little else outside of jazz and fusion but funk. We’re talking Prince, Gap Band, The Time and several other lesser known acts on the scene at that time. Right up there with theRead More

by S. Victor Aaron Les Dudek is one of those guitarists you may have never heard of but you’ve certainly heard him. He was the harmony guitar part on The Allman Brothers’ first major hit “Ramblin’ Man.” He added slide and dobro to Steve Miller’s dual classics Fly Like AnRead More

by S. Victor Aaron As a nation is transfixed on the destructive fires going on in Southern California, the fate of millions living there seem to rest on something Man has no control over: those Santa Ana winds. Hot, dry gales that blow in from the desert to the eastRead More

by Pico Songs that I’ve known for a quarter of a century don’t tend to stay in my brain’s record rotation continuously for that long, but this song popped up out of nowhere in my consciousness once again. Maybe it’s a sign that it’s time to write about it. “ThatRead More