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Bret Adams
Dave Mason
Now We All Know
In his new autobiography, Only You Know & I Know, guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Dave Mason looks back on his incredible life, including becoming a founding member of Traffic, sitting in as a special guest on classic-rock favorites like the Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “All Along the Watchtower,” and enjoying a long solo career highlighted by the albums Alone
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Bret Adams
Pop ’N Hiss: The Police’s Synchronicity
Sonic Stamp
“Going out on top” is a common sentiment among artists and athletes hoping to end their careers at their best – not fade away. In rock and roll, one blueprint is The Police and their 1983 masterpiece, Synchronicity. The fifth album from vocalist/bassist Sting, guitarist Andy Summers, and drummer Stewart Copeland was a cultural phenomenon,
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Bret Adams
Dave Mason with Chris Epting
Only You Know & I Know
Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Dave Mason has endured the familiar rock-star highs and lows in his unusual career, and several unique experiences are covered in this autobiography. A founding member of the groundbreaking Traffic, Mason calls the band, “…an abstract idea – all gut and instinct.” Traffic, he believes, along with the Band and Grateful Dead, pioneered the
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Bret Adams
Review: “Gimme All Your Lovin’: The Blues, Boogie, and Beard of ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons”
In his prologue, author Christopher McKittrick acknowledges the difficulty of condensing Gibbons’ six-decade career into one book, partially due to the enigmatic vocalist/guitarist’s own “admitted tall tales.” In short, Gibbons is both an incredible musician and accomplished bullsh***er. Per engineer and longtime Gibbons collaborator Joe Hardy: “He will approve if I say this: [Billy] will
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Bret Adams
Deep Purple
=1
Fifty-seven years after its debut, Deep Purple keeps on rollin’. The hard-rock pioneers’ 23rd studio album, =1, is the first with new guitarist Simon McBride, who replaced Steve Morse. To hone their chops, vocalist Ian Gillan, bassist Roger Glover, drummer Ian Paice, and keyboardist Don Airey toured with McBride before recording, and it was time
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Bret Adams
Simon McBride
Purple’s Picker
Though he replaced Steve Morse two years ago, Belfast native Simon McBride is still Deep Purple’s “new” guitarist. The band’s latest album, =1, is his first with the hard-rock legends. Did songwriting for =1 work differently when you joined? The format was pretty much the same as when they worked with Steve. We had three
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Bret Adams
Paul Benjaman Band
My Bad Side Wants a Good Time
Raw, primal simplicity. A laid-back rock beat that’s rooted in country and blues. That’s what vocalist/guitarist Benjaman delivers here, a variant of the Tulsa Sound pioneered by J.J. Cale and Leon Russell. In fact, some of these songs were recorded in Tulsa’s restored The Church Studio, which housed Shelter Records, once owned by Russell. Blessed
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Bret Adams
Ross Valory
Maiden Voyage
After 50-plus years as a professional musician, bassist Ross Valory has released his first solo album, All of the Above. The San Francisco native is best-known as an original member of Journey, performing on a stream of beloved albums and hit singles. He also enjoyed early-’90s success with The Storm. On this mostly-instrumental album, Valory
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Bret Adams
Ross Valory
All of the Above
Many fans of Journey’s pop-rock may not realize their first three albums were experimental, with jazz-fusion and progressive-rock tendencies. Bassist Ross Valory was there from the start. Fifty years later, his first solo album brings eight instrumentals (among its nine tracks) that offer a reminder of those adventurous early days. “Wild Kingdom” is spirited jungle
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Bret Adams
Blue Öyster Cult
Ghost Stories
Two facets make this album from the “thinking man’s hard-rock band” newsworthy. First, all but one of its dozen songs are from studio and rehearsal tapes recorded between 1978 and ’83, nine featuring the original lineup of vocalist/lead guitarist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Eric Bloom, late keyboardist/guitarist Allen Lanier, bassist Joe Bouchard, and
