-
Dan Forte
The Fleshtones
It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves)
Frontman Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng have led New York’s Fleshtones for nearly 50 years. Drummer Bill Milhizer joined in 1980, with “new bassist” Ken Fox in ’90. A 2007 biography declared them “America’s garage band,” and spawned the documentary Pardon Us For Living, But The Graveyard’s Full, and 23 bands cut Vindicated! A…
-
Dan Forte
The Hot Club of San Francisco
Original Gadjo
Django Reinhardt is inarguably near the top of the most-influential jazz artists, considering how many ensembles (speaking globally) strive to emulate his Quintette du Hot Club de France 70 years after his death. On American shores, gypsy-jazz author and VG contributor Michael Dregni called the Hot Club of San Francisco “one of the first American…
-
Dan Forte
Check This Action: Folk Festival of Blues
I heard blues records earlier than I can remember. My dad had Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee albums, and a family friend had records by Lead Belly and Jesse Fuller. It was the Folk Boom of the mid/late ’50s, and blues was mixed in with commercial stuff like the Kingston Trio, so the acoustic, rural…
-
Dan Forte
Woodstock 1969
Ten Years After
Though he was a multifaceted guitarist, Ten Years After’s Alvin Lee had a reputation as a speed demon – not something he tried to dissuade. Never was it on display more than at 1969’s Woodstock mega-festival. Still, on the band’s set-opener “Spoonful,” he proved himself a worthy blueser. Per the fashion of the period, tunes…
-
Dan Forte
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo – Live!
Roger McGuinn & Chris Hillman with Marty Stuart
A premier folk-rock band morphing into psychedelia in the mid ’60s, the Byrds pioneered country-rock with 1968’s Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Personnel upheavals had seen David Crosby fired, Gene Clark going solo, and Michael Clarke replaced by drummer Kevin Kelley. Bassist Chris Hillman was one of only two original members standing, Roger McGuinn being the…
-
Dan Forte
Check This Action: George Bowen
Luthier George Bowen passed away August 19 from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). He was 69. In March of 2023, a tribute concert billed as the George Bowen Master Guitar Summit was held in Livermore, California. Featuring Arlen Roth, Bill Kirchen, Redd Volkaert, and Jim Soldi, it raised $75,000 for the ALS Research Project. Unable to…
-
Dan Forte
Faces
At the BBC: Complete BBC Concert & Session Recordings, 1970-1973
Rod Stewart & Faces were sloppy and raucous enough to make the Rolling Stones look like Air Supply. Okay, not really, but Stewart himself called them, “Five drunks who got away with murder under the guise of music.” Of course, Faces were also great rock and rollers, so it’s no coincidence the Stones hired Ian…
-
Dan Forte
Check This Action: Real Gone for a Change
“Hold it, fellas.” After languidly singing the first line of “Milk Cow Blues,” Elvis Presley halted the proceedings. “That don’t move me,” he exhorted his sidemen. “Let’s get real, real gone for a change.” And get real gone he did. Elvis strumming his ’42 D-18, Scotty Moore on an ES-295, and upright bassist Bill Black…
-
Dan Forte
Art Tatum
Jewels In The Treasure Box: The 1953 Chicago Blue Note Jazz Club Recordings
It’s a wonder how never-released recordings continue to emerge – in this case, an engagement led by jazz piano virtuoso Art Tatum. Upon seeing the pianist enter a club he was playing, the great Fats Waller once announced, “God is in the house” – so prodigious were Tatum’s technical skills and musicality. Having fronted a…
-
Dan Forte
Canned Heat
Finyl Vinyl
In the mid/late ’60s, the top American groups of the Blues Revival were Chicago’s Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Los Angeles’ Canned Heat. The latter’s original incarnation featured Bob Hite, Henry Vestine, and Alan Wilson – record collectors and blues scholars turned rock stars. Drummer Fito de la Parra joined for the 1968 sophomore release,…
