I know I’m supposed to prefer Jason Isbell. I know hipsters love rap and Beats 1. I know the way music used to be, with a mainstream and then an alternative that laughed at those not in the know. I know I live in the internet era where everybody with a bone to pick will […]

AIN’T TOO PROUD TO BEG This was during the denouement, when the Rolling Stones were the World’s Greatest Rock And Roll Band, but their recorded efforts were spotty, their rep was based on their live show, and the hits of yore. I’ll posit that “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll” is better than its predecessor, “Goats […]

All summer long, we spent dancin’ in the sand And the jukebox kept on playin’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band That’s your image of SoCal, I know. Beach bunnies and surfboards. Endless summer sunsets. But the truth is that’s not the way it’s been this summer. What has happened down here is the wind […]

The first album, not their whole oeuvre, because nothing thereafter was quite as good, and every Deadhead owned the initial LP. Jerry Garcia played with them, live and on record. He was into pedal steel. But the truth is the John “Marmaduke” Dawson-led New Riders opened the Dead gigs forty five years ago and it […]