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Dan Forte
Full-Grown Rocker Comes Full Circle
In 1986, when singer/guitarist Webb Wilder and producer/songwriter R.S. “Bobby” Field pressed up 1,500 copies of It Came From Nashville, they could have just as easily called the debut It Came To Nashville – because it was as novel for a rootsy, hard-rockin’ band to invade Music City as to call it home. The album…
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Dan Forte
Johnny Bush – Kashmere Gardens Mud
Johnny Bush is a true Texas original and one of the best living examples of real honky-tonk music. Looking back on all aspects of his 50-year career, he cut much of Kashmere Gardens, appropriately, at Houston’s famed SugarHill Studios, as a companion to his autobiography, Whiskey River. SugarHill was the birthplace of hits by artists…
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Dan Forte
Bobby Broom – Song and Dance
When he was 25, Bobby Broom was picked by jazz legend Kenny Burrell to be part of his Jazz Guitar Band, whose stint at New York’s Village Vanguard resulted in two albums. By then, Broom had moved from his native New York to Chicago and already logged sessions with Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Turrentine, and Sonny…
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Dan Forte
Southern Culture On the Skids – Countrypolitan Favorites
Once again, Southern Culture On The Skids proves itself the ultimate party band with the ultimate party record. In other hands, the concept behind Countrypolitan Favorites (Yep Roc) might come off as sheer novelty or gimmick, but the kitschy SCOTS makes the genre-bending collection of covers work on its own terms. There’s humor, to be…
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Dan Forte
Spanic Boys – Sunshine
Celebrating their 20th anniversary as a band (and 38th as father and son), the Spanic Boys serve up a dozen originals on Sunshine, their eighth album, on their own Cinaps label, with plenty of tasty guitar from father Tom and son Ian. “What Will You Do,” with guitar-through-Leslie fills, has a Byrds/Burritos feel, while “Secret”…
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Dan Forte
Marc Ford – Weary And Wired
Shortly after announcing his retirement from the Black Crowes, the platinum-selling Southern-rockers he’d joined in 1992, Marc Ford reunited with bassist Mark “Muddy” Dutton and drummer Doni Gray, his late-80s bandmates from the L.A. retro-rockers, Burning Tree. “It felt natural and flowed,” he says of the first gigs they’d played in 17 years – as…
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Dan Forte
John Fogerty
The Life and Times of John Fogerty
It would seem that, for decades, John Fogerty has had his finger on the pulse of the record-buying public. After all, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the band he formed as the Blue Velvets in 1959, was considered the “American Beatles” for its ability to crack the Top 10 time after time. From 1969 to 1971, Creedence…
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Dan Forte
The Roches – Moonswept
Sibling harmonies are invariably sited for the unmatched quality that results from the close similarity of the voices – from the Everly Brothers to the Pointer Sisters. But the Roche sisters’ one-of-a-kind blend comes from three very dissimilar voices. Terre climbs the upper register, Maggie can hit low notes that would make Junior Brown jealous,…
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Dan Forte
Dick Dale – Surfer’s Choice
If you can get past the erroneous claim on the shrinkwrap’s sticker, not to mention Dick Dale’s enormous ego (in evidence in various ways), you’ll be glad you did. Because if you’re not familiar with the self-proclaimed (and unchallenged) King Of Surf Guitar’s early work, wax up your board; you’re in for a hell of…
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Dan Forte
Canned Heat – Live At Montreux
The story of Canned Heat has more twists and turns than Spinal Tap’s evolution from the Thamesmen to Spinal Tap, Mark II. Which is why some of the dramatic, lofty claims in the documentary contained in this double-DVD undermine the amazing tale of the band’s actual achievements and history. “In all history,” the narrator intones,…
