The best band you’ve never heard. It matters what label you’re on, and whether you’re a priority. And being on RCA left the Silencers not a priority and with no career, as the label was in transition. But the only records I played more in the nineties were those of Shawn Colvin, although the sound […]

Forget the old guy with the challenged voice singing standards and marrying women half his age. Once upon a time, Rod Stewart was a god, our most riveting live performer, if you ever saw him with the Faces, you’ll never forget it. But I’m getting ahead of myself… SHAPES OF THINGS Forget the Yardbirds take, […]

I’m a sap. I’ve never owned a black leather jacket, never a skinny tie, I’m nothing if not unfashionable. But I’m human. What does it mean to be human? Anxious. Wondering if this or that is gonna work out. Lonely. Wanting to connect, but not knowing how to bridge the gap. Self-conscious. Worried if people […]

DOWN ON ME Nobody heard it until after “Cheap Thrills,” but despite distant, lame instrumentation and production, Janis’s magic shines through. At first, we in the hinterlands, i.e. not San Francisco, were thrown off by Joplin’s vocals, the same way we were years later with Rod Stewart’s, but we soon became enamored of her voice. […]