When Yoakam put the twang back into country music in the mid ’80s, his mere existence was a tribute to his chief influence, Buck Owens. And in 1988 he brought the then-retired Owens back to live performing – and, with their duet on “Streets Of Bakersfield,” the top of the charts. That Yoakam would record…

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Years ago, in a BBC documentary about his former bandleader, bassist Noel Redding held up all the albums that Jimi Hendrix released during his lifetime (five, not counting Cry Of Love, which he was working on at the time of his death) alongside a huge stack of posthumous releases of varying quality and provenance –…

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The story of the former singer of Texas’ 13th Floor Elevators was well known to rock fans, who’d given him up for lost prior to his miraculous comeback of the past few years. In fact, his already nebulous mental state was going from bad to worse, as illustrated in the documentary “You’re Gonna Miss Me.”…

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John Fogerty is the rare case of a songsmith who can use the same elements and devices repeatedly, even recycling and permutating earlier licks and melodies, without it ever wearing thin. Sure, it’s familiar; that’s why it feels so good. Which is not to say that he has nothing new to say. As he proved…

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In 1994, Nick Lowe released his best album in 10 or 15 years, the country-slanted The Impossible Bird, featuring ex-Commander Cody guitarist Bill Kirchen. After stellar albums for Black Top and Hightone, Kirchen essentially reunited the Impossible Birds, as Lowe’s studio and subsequent touring band was dubbed, for his Proper American debut. It not only…

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Dovetailing off our yearly rant when the nominations for the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame are announced, a fellow writer and I segued into our ritual of listing the glaring omissions who should be in the Hall and the questionable inductees who shouldn’t. When the Monkees entered the debate, my colleague argued, “They made…

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When Columbia/Legacy released the single-disc Listen My Friends! The Best Of Moby Grape, the label made the mistake of dubbing a career overview a “best of” – when nearly everything the band did that can be termed best or essential was on its self-titled 1967 debut. In fact, for 1993’s infinitely better two-disc anthology, Vintage:…

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In 1967, the 5th Dimension (Billy Davis, Jr., Marilyn McCoo, Florence LaRue, Lamonte McLemore, and Ron Townson) was launched into the Top 10 with “Up, Up And Away,” by then-unknown songwriter Jimmy Webb. The Summer Of Love may have been approaching, but this was neither rock nor soul; this was about as pop as you…

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Just as he did with his incredible solo version of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” on his 2006 CD, Gently Weeps, this 31-year-old ukulele maestro reinvents his instrument just as he reinvents the familiar songs he plays on it. His six-song EP, My Life, takes its title from another Beatles song (Lennon’s “In My Life”),…

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Anyone who saw Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band’s Letterman appearance several weeks ago can attest that he’s lost none of his power or edge during his decade-long hiatus. But, as his searing “Wreck This Heart” (not to mention Paul Shaffer & Co.’s solid string of Seger classics going into every commercial break) evinced,…

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