TOWNES VAN ZANDT: FOR THE SAKE OF THE SONG
Townes Van Zandt (1944-1997) was a singer-songwriter whose work was popularized by Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Merle Haggard...
John Kruth
RICHIE HAVENS REVISITED
Brooklyn born and raised, Richie Havens (1941-2013) began hanging out in Greenwich Village in 1959, as a street...
IN THE KEY OF LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS: THE MAN & HIS MUSIC
Texas bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins (1912-1982) played, sang and lived by his own rules. When a sideman once asked...
THE SKY DON’T HAVE NO ROOF: THE LAST ORNETTE COLEMAN INTERVIEW
Ornette Coleman (1930-2015), undoubtedly a great musician and composer who freed jazz from nearly all constrictions, was also...
ON THE WAY TO PARADISE: MY TRAVELS WITH JOHN PRINE
John Prine hit the ground running with his debut album in 1971, a seamless masterpiece of what seemed...
AL KOOPER REMEMBERS PART II
He was a participant in some of the great musical moments of the past half century, as musician,...
AL KOOPER REMEMBERS, PART I
He was a participant in some of the great musical moments of the past half century, part of...
THE MYSTERIOUS BARD: PETE BROWN’S JOURNEY FROM THE BEATS TO CREAM
Before Beatlemania and the British Invasion, Pete Brown was one of the UK’s few professional poets who made...
RAHSAAN ROLAND KIRK: A TORTURED LOVE AFFAIR WITH ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
Rahsaan Roland Kirk, the blind jazz visionary, inspired a who’s who of rock music, including Jimi Hendrix, Frank...
SHEL TALMY’S SONIC ODYSSEY
Shel Talmy. Just the sound of his name evokes a time when London was on the verge of...
ELLIOTT SHARP AT 70: STILL DOING THE DON’T
‘Musician’ seems a paltry way to describe Elliott Sharp because he is so many things—multi-instrumentalist (sax, clarinet, guitar),...
THE ORIGINAL GANGSTA: LEAD BELLY AND HIS LEGACY
Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, was a folk-blues giant whose music and persona transformed American culture....
ERIC ANDERSEN: BEAT SENSIBILITY IN A FOLKSINGER CROWD
Eric Andersen came to music through Rimbaud, Baudelaire, the Beats, and his own inveterate wanderlust. After a teen...
LAURA NYRO: THE MIRACULOUS MAGIC OF HER MUSIC
Though Laura Nyro’s songs are familiar to millions of people–through hit versions by Three Dog Night, the 5th...