Upcoming Shows

The Cash Box Kings

TodayFebruary 22, 20198:00pm $10 advance / $12 door

Without U2 - Midwest's Greatest U2 Tribute

TomorrowFebruary 23, 20198:00pm $10.00

Based in Chicago, Without U2 recreates the sight and sound of the legendary Irish rock band U2 in an incredible fashion. Without U2 performs at all types of venues all over the country, from small Irish pubs to outdoor festival stages, in full costume and using authentic gear. Just like a real live U2 show, we perform....

LIVE! ON STAGE JONATHAN RICHMAN featuring TOMMY LARKINS on the drums!

FridayMarch 1, 20198:00pm $20.00

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Carsie Blanton

WednesdayMarch 20, 20198:00pm $12.00

Tallan Noble Latz

SaturdayApril 27, 20198:00pm $12 advance / $15 door

This will be a one-time event. Tallan Noble Latz will be performing with 3 different bands, 2 of which are BRAND NEW. Tallan will take the stage at 8pm and not leave for the next 3 hours. Kicking off the night will be the band, which is the new face on the Milwaukee country scene called Throwdown. Throwdown is a....

Lee DeWyze, Elizabeth and the Catapult

WednesdayMay 1, 20198:00pm $15 adv / $18 door / $50 VIP

Session Americana

ThursdayMay 9, 20198:00pm $15.00

Session Americana (Boston) is a rock band in a tea cup, or possibly a folk band in a whiskey bottle. This band/collective of talented musicians craft an musical experience unlike any other. On stage is a collapsible bar table wired with microphones, a vintage suitcase recast as a kick drum, an old Estey field organ, a....

Jared James Nichols

FridayMay 17, 2019

The Fainting Room, The Watchbirds, The Devil In The Outhouse

SaturdayMay 18, 20198:00pm $10.00

Chris Barron of the Spin Doctors

FridayJune 7, 20198:00pm $20.00

Ana Popovic

TuesdayJune 11, 20198:00pm $25.00

Widely regarded as one of worlds very best female guitar-players, Ana’s career has been meteoric and shows no signs of slowing down! The 5x Blues Music Awards nominee blends smoking electric funk slide guitar, jazzy instrumentals and tight blues groove with soulful feminine vocals. Her incredible stage presence makes her....

Who's Who, Jailbreak

SaturdayJune 15, 20198:00pm $8 advance / $10 door

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American Music Tour: The Blasters, Supersuckers, Wayne 'The Train' Hancock, Clownvis Presley

TuesdayJuly 9, 20198:00pm $30.00

Chris Duarte Group

SaturdayJuly 20, 20198:00pm $20.00

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John Mayall

TuesdayJuly 30, 20198:00pm $35.00

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WednesdayAugust 7, 20198:00pm $40.00

Alternative Concert Group Presents

Celtic Tenors Present: The Irish Songbook

FridayMarch 1, 20197:30pm $50.00

At the Wilson Theatre at Vogel Hall at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at the Marcus Center box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, Ticketmaster.com or 414-273- 7206.

Gaelic Storm

WednesdayMarch 6, 20197:30pm $32 - $42

At the Pablo Center for the Arts, Eau Claire, WI.

Tickets on sale at pablocenter.org.

Under The Streetlamp

SundayMarch 10, 20197:30pm $47 - $59

At the Grand Theater, Wausau, WI.

Tickets on sale at grandtheater.org or at the Grand Theater box office Monday-Friday 9:00am-5:30pm and 9:00am-noon on Saturdays from September through May.

Gaelic Storm

WednesdayMarch 13, 20197:30pm $25 / $30

At UW-Stevens Point Laird Room, DUC.

Tickets on sale at the UWSP website.

Dream Theater: The Distance Over Time Tour

SundayMarch 31, 20197:00pm $38 / $55 / $75 / $95

At Miller High Life Theater, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at millerhighlifetheatre.com or at the box office Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Mott the Hoople '74

MondayApril 1, 20197:30pm $38 / $55 / $75 / $95

At Miller High Life Theater, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at millerhighlifetheatre.com or at the box office Monday-Friday 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.

Jon Anderson of Yes

FridayApril 19, 20198:00pm

At the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at the Marcus Center box office or Ticketmaster.com.

Buckethead

SundayMay 5, 20197:30pm

At The Rave, Milwaukee, WI.

Tickets on sale at therave.com or at The Rave box office.

John Prine

FridayMay 24, 20198:00pm

At the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center, Appleton, WI.

Tickets on sale at TicketMaster, the Fox Cities PAC box offices, or by phone 920-730-3760.

John Prine

SaturdayMay 25, 20198:00pm $73.50 - $103.50

At the Overture Center for the Arts, Madison, WI.

Tickets on sale at Overture.org, the Overture box offices, or by phone 608-258-4141.

Quick Calendar

With deep feeling and top-shelf talent, houserocking blues masters The Cash Box Kings play tough, real deal classic Chicago blues with boundless energy. They also deliver raw, passionate Delta blues, jumping proto-rock 'n' roll, and steamrolling "bluesabilly," their original mix of Chicago blues and Memphis rockabilly. As anyone who has ever been to one of the band's raucous performances will testify, The Cash Box Kings know how to throw a party. They're fueled by the powerhouse harmonica work of Madison, Wisconsin-based songwriter Joe Nosek and the huge, gritty vocals of Chicago bluesman Oscar Wilson. Their original songs range from humorous stories of Internet love to harrowing tales of Chicago's violent gun epidemic. Every song they perform--be it a striking original or a scorching Chess, Sun or Vee-Jay cover--explodes with contemporary authority and radiates old-school authenticity. According to Grammy Award-winning blues legend Charlie Musselwhite, "The Cash Box Kings play with real taste and feel. Not only is it good blues but it's a jumping good time, too! I ain't lyin'!"

Joe Nosek founded The Cash Box Kings in Madison, Wisconsin in 2001 and, since 2007, has co-led the band with the charismatic, larger-than-life vocalist Oscar Wilson. Over 20 years apart in age and coming from vastly different backgrounds, the two form an unlikely pair, combining Wilson's indisputably authentic inner city Chicago blues vocals with Nosek's harmonica, songwriting and singing talents. The music they create is brilliantly displayed on The Cash Box Kings' Alligator Records debut, Royal Mint. According to Wilson, "The Cash Box Kings is a throwback to the golden age of blues with some kickin' fresh young blood. Joe is my best friend in the music world--the band is a marriage made in heaven for both of us." "Oscar is godfather to my oldest son," says Nosek. "We have each other's backs. We're family."

Royal Mint features 13 hard-hitting songs, including six impressive originals. From the wry, politically-charged Build That Wall to the chilling Blues For Chi-Raq to the funny and too true If You Got A Jealous Woman Facebook Ain't Your Friend to the timeless versions of songs by Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Clifton Chenier, Amos Milburn and Jimmy Reed, Royal Mint shuffles, jumps and gets down and dirty, fueled by the band's unmatched musicianship. According Nosek, "Royal Mint is our strongest album. The band is at its absolute best."

Nosek refers to the group of top-notch traditional players who comprise The Cash Box Kings as "a blues collective." Live and on record, members of the "collective" appear in different combinations for different performances, creating an anything-can-happen experience. In addition to co-leaders Nosek and Wilson, the full ensemble includes world-class guitarists Joel Paterson and Billy Flynn, drummers Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith and Mark Haines, bassist Brad Ber with newest member Lee Kanehira (replacing their longtime pianist, the late Barrelhouse Chuck) rounding out the band.

In their first six years, The Cash Box Kings won a large and loyal audience across the Midwest. Wilson joined the band in 2007, bringing with him an instantly commanding stage presence and an authoritative vocal style that gives fire-breathing power to the music. A self-taught musician and singer with an encyclopedic knowledge of almost every blues song known to man, Wilson--standing 6'1" and weighing over 300 pounds--is a natural-born entertainer and a perfect foil for Nosek and the band. Born in 1953 on Chicago's 43rd Street (aka Muddy Waters Drive), Wilson grew up in the company of many famous blues artists. Junior Wells, Elmore James, Big Smokey Smothers and close family friend David "Honeyboy" Edwards were all regulars at weekly Friday night fish fries/jam sessions at the Wilson home. Throughout his adulthood, Wilson held regular jobs but was always welcome sitting in with Chicago blues mainstays Melvin Taylor and Johnny B. Moore. His vocal inspirations range from Muddy Waters, B.B. King and Albert King to Jimmy Reed, Jimmy Rogers and Little Walter but he mostly sings like Oscar Wilson. Award-winning harmonica giant and vocalist Rick Estrin (leader of Rick Estrin & The Nightcats) says, "That guy can really sing."

A self-described blues fanatic, Nosek, born in Wisconsin in 1974 and raised in Chicago, spent his youth soaking up as much blues music as he could hear, both live and on record. In his teens, he began sneaking into blues clubs to watch Junior Wells, James Cotton, Otis Rush, Jimmy Rogers, Sunnyland Slim and others. Nosek recalls, "Seeing those guys work made a huge impression on me and propelled me into wanting to learn how to play the blues." He took up harmonica, quickly cultivating his own aggressive, fluid style.

After moving to Madison in the early 1990s, he began sitting in with artists such as Clyde Stubblefield and Luther Allison. Finding like-minded musicians hell-bent on playing raw, rough-edged, hard-charging blues, Nosek formed The Cash Box Kings. They released their first album, Live! At The King Club, in 2003, instantly earning praise from critics and fans, and gaining a reputation as one of the hottest live bands on the circuit.

The Cash Box Kings have earned devoted fans in both Chicago and Madison, the two cities where band members live. They regularly headline Chicago venues like Buddy Guy's Legends and Rosa's Lounge, and have played major festivals across the U.S. and Europe. They've blown away audiences at the Chicago Blues Festival, the Tampa Bay Blues Festival, the Doheny Blues Festival, the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the Cincinnati Blues Festival, the Cambridge Folk Festival (UK), the Moulin Blues Festival (Netherlands), the Lucerne Blues Festival (Switzerland), the Baltic Blues Festival (Germany) and the Edmonton Blues Festival (Canada). They have also performed in Belgium, France, Spain and Uruguay.

With eight previous releases to their credit and hundreds of live performances under their belts, The Cash Box Kings have won widespread acclaim throughout the blues world. Their 2013 release Black Toppin' won the 2013 Blues Blast Music Award for Traditional Blues Album of the Year. It was also nominated for a 2014 Blues Music Award in the same category. Their last release, Holding Court, was nominated for two 2016 Blues Music Awards (Best Traditional Album and Album of the Year) and the band was also nominated for the Band of the Year Award. They've been featured on NPR Music as well as in the pages of No Depression, The Chicago Tribune, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Living Blues, Vintage Guitar, Blues Blast and many other publications. Living Blues said, "This accomplished band of musicians captures the vibe of traditional blues and flawlessly spins it in innovative ways."

According to Alligator president Bruce Iglauer, The Cash Box Kings are a natural addition to the label. "I love this band because they combine the classic Chicago blues style with contemporary lyrics, true blues vocals and terrific musicianship. Oscar Wilson's voice is a soulful roar like Muddy Waters' and Joe Nosek plays powerhouse harmonica in the James Cotton tradition. Billy Flynn and Joel Paterson are world-class blues guitarists. The whole band can deliver jumping party shuffles or down-in-the-alley gritty blues. Their fresh songs bring wry humor to subjects like current politics, the pitfalls of social networking and life on the tough streets of Chicago."

Nosek agrees, saying, "We're very happy about finding a new home with Bruce Iglauer and the good folks at Alligator Records. As blues musicians who grew up in Chicago, becoming a part of the Alligator roster is a great honor for us. It's the label that has released some of our all-time favorite blues records."

With blasting harmonica, soul-deep vocals, original songs and sizzling guitars, The Cash Box Kings boast an array of talent to satisfy blues lovers of every shape and size. On Royal Mint they make old blues new as they continue to create new blues classics, with, according to Elmore magazine, "just the right amount of juke joint grit." Living Blues says The Cash Box Kings are "straight from the golden era of the blues," boasting "an impressive line-up of A-list players. Joe Nosek feels Little Walter and Slim Harpo in the essence of his soul. Singer Oscar Wilson could be right out of [Chicago's famed] Checkerboard Lounge in its glory days. The Cash Box Kings are a dancing and listening pleasure."

Jonathan Richman has been writing songs, making records and performing live for most of his life, winning fans and making friends around the world with his guileless honesty and playfully catchy compositions. He's revered by countless fellow artists, and has built a remarkably loyal international audience through his tireless touring. His deceptively straightforward songs embody timeless qualities of humanity, optimism, emotional insight and a boundless sense of humor, untainted by cynicism or transient notions of hipness.

The records that Jonathan Richman has made over the past 30 years have long held a special place in the hearts of his fans. He began playing guitar at the age of 15, and in the early 1970s formed the Modern Lovers, whose raw, minimalist sound and emotionally forthright songs helped to lay the groundwork for punk rock. But by the time the group's landmark debut album (including the much-covered "Road Runner," a Top Five single in Europe) was released in 1976, Jonathan had already moved on to a quieter sound and a gentler lyrical focus. Since then, he's continued to record and tour prolifically, first with a series of Modern Lovers lineups, later on his own, and eventually as a duo with drummer Tommy Larkins. Over the years, Jonathan's music has absorbed a multitude of influences, from doo-wop to country to a variety of international styles, without sacrificing the artist's effervescent personality.

Jonathan's fans have remained fiercely devoted over the years, and his audience expanded substantially in the 1990s, thanks to his frequent guest spots on TV's Late Night with Conan O'Brien, his prominent appearance in the 1998 film comedy smash There's Something About Mary, and the inclusions of his Modern Lovers classics "Ice Cream Man" and "I'm A Little Airplane" on Sesame Street.

For much of his career, Jonathan has toured almost almost nonstop around the world. "Traveling and playing for new people in new places is one of my favorite things," he notes. "It's great playing places that are off the beaten track. You can learn a lot when you play in a little town in Holland or Western Australia, and you learn different things than you would learn playing a big city. This year we're going to try to play in Extremadura, which is the southwest of Spain--we might become the first American entertainers ever to play there. I'm hoping that we can able to play the Canary Islands soon.

"Playing shows and making records keeps been getting easier and more fun," Jonathan states, adding, "Me and Tommy play totally different than we played two years ago. We already play a different style than we played on that live DVD, and the way we played then was totally different from the way we played three years before that. I still feel like we're just starting out, and I still learn new stuff every night."

Greg Koch and the Koch-Marshall Trio consist of American guitarist Greg Koch, his son Dylan Koch on drums and Hammond B3 specialist Toby Lee Marshall. At the heart of this organ trio is a blues sensibility - but Koch's compositions are an amalgam of rock, funk, jazz and country served up with heavy grooves and dynamic improvisations delivered with no small dose of humor and occasional wild abandon.

Milwaukee native Greg Koch has forged a successful career as a guitar player's guitarist. He has been called "fiendishly talented" by author and former editor- in-chief of Guitar Player Magazine Tom Wheeler and "scary good" by guitar phenom Joe Bonamassa. In addition to his 15 releases on multiple record labels which feature his unique take on a variety of American guitar styles and his versatile compositions, Koch is widely known for his lengthy tenure as an international ambassador for Fender Guitars which listed him in their "Top Ten Unsung Guitarists" on Fender.com. He is also a best-selling author and video instructor for music publisher Hal Leonard. Greg is a contributing columnist for a variety of guitar magazines including Guitar Player Magazine which listed Greg's "Chief's Blues" in their "40 Badass Blues Solos You Must Hear" and Premier Guitar. For the last few years Greg is renowned for his wildly popular internet videos (which number in the thousands with views exceeding 50 million) originating from the legendary Colorado guitar shop Wildwood Guitars.

Dylan Koch gravitated to the drums early on in his life using kitchen utensils to play along with music as soon as he could walk. After digesting an early diet of Ginger Baker, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell and John Bonham, Dylan was mentored by the legendary Tom Brechtlein (Chick Corea/Robben Ford). In high school Dylan participated in the Jazz Institute at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and furthered his studies at the McNally Smith School of Music in the Twin Cities. While still in his teens he performed with young guitar guns Tallan Noble Latz and Jared James Nichols and has performed alongside his father with such artists as Robben Ford, Little Feat's Paul Barrere, Jon Cleary, David Grissom, Roscoe Beck and Malford Milligan. Dylan was recently nominated for drummer of the year by the Wisconsin Area Music Awards (WAMI).

Toby Lee Marshall's screaming B3 is the perfect compliment to the musical stew that is the Koch songbook. Hailing from the Twin Cities area he came from a musical family, playing piano for years until falling under the spell of the sound of the organ while at a baseball game at age seven. His fascination for the Hammond B3 took hold after his Dad took him to see Steve Cherewan playing with Dr. Mambo's Combo at their legendary residency at Bunker's in Minneapolis. Steve mentored Toby in the ways of the B3 and he hit the ground running landing a gig with bluesman Lonnie Brooks while still a teen. He would go on to travel the world as a member of Bernard Allison's band. After taking a hiatus to spend some family time, Toby is returning to music with a vehemence and the Koch-Marshall format gives him a long leash to let his freak flag fly, providing groovy bass lines, sinuous chordal work and incendiary solos.

The trio blends the explosive guitar manipulations of Greg, the groove-centric, power-pocket playing of his son Dylan on drums (who share many telepathic musical moments) and the glorious, Hammond organ stylings of the uber-talented Toby Marshall, Greg’s compositions are properly portrayed in the blues drenched, funk, chicken-fried, gospelly, jazz-rock panorama in which they were conceived.

Buck Up, the new studio album from singer and songwriter Carsie Blanton, due out February 15 2019, opens with a siren. The warning -- or call to (dis)arms -- segues into the first notes of "Twister." Finger snaps alone accompany Blanton's smoky vocals, before piano, upright bass, cello, trumpet, and drums join the proceedings. You're immediately drawn in to her riveting tale of natural -- and erotic -- disaster. Brimming with catchy hooks, sensual vocals, and lyrics boasting a gift for rhyme and meter, Buck Up is Blanton's melodic mandate for survival following the 2016 presidential election: passion, lust, and humor. "There are two themes on this record," says Blanton of Buck Up's ten electrifying tracks. "One is the feeling of catastrophe happening in American politics, and the other is this feeling of personal catastrophe": when you fall for "That Boy," for example, a reckless wild child, the type who populate her life and imagination. Though Buck Up may be "basically about being depressed," according to Blanton, "if there's not a sense of humor or playfulness, I don't want to listen to it. Music is about play."

Over the past dozen years, Blanton has been making music that personifies play. Her work has been called "impeccably catchy" by critic Robert Christgau, with musician John Oates admiring her songs' "sly wit and urbane imagery" that remind him of Cole Porter. She's toured across America and Europe sharing stages with Madeleine Peyroux, The Weepies and others. Though based in New Orleans since 2012, the self-described "proud socialist" has been on the road since her teens. As a child in tiny Luray, Virginia, she began playing piano at 6 and learned guitar at 13. The budding songwriter's life was forever changed when her grandpa sent her a batch of jazz recordings for her thirteenth birthday. "Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong -- that's when it started for me," Blanton says of the gift two decades ago that remains "the most inspiring to me as a songwriter and a singer. I'd started performing and he wanted to make sure my musical education was well rounded." She was deeply smitten with Holiday's recording of Irving Berlin's "How Deep Is the Ocean": "I just love him," she says of the composer, "and Cole Porter and Rodgers and Hart. They're all masters of music and words." Such influences would surface as Blanton began crafting her own witty lyrics and using jazz phrasing in her vocals.

Blanton left the Blue Ridge mountains an angst-ridden 16-year-old and began living within an artistic community in Eugene, Oregon, until she was 20. There, guitar in hand, "I realized by being creative, I could be a happier person and take care of myself," she says. After more travels, she settled in Philadelphia, where she worked at a nonprofit while recording her first album. She left her job to make music her life and has never looked back. By the time she was 23, she was touring solo and as an opener for such artists as the Wood Brothers. Vocalist/guitarist Oliver Wood, an early mentor who produced a previous Blanton album, lends his distinctive fingerpicking and vocals to Buck Up's exuberant title track.

Since locating to New Orleans, Blanton has "become more prolific as a songwriter," she says. "There's something about the spirit of the city. It's very musical but also very dark with a lot of pathos." Her last release, 2016's So Ferocious, documented her love affair with the city, and the Big Easy vibe imbues her new album. Sequestered in her NOLA home, she wrote the first song for Buck Up, "Bed," in November 2016: "I'm not gonna get out of bed today/I've tried to do it but what can I say/Every time I turn on the news it's a kick to the head/Why don't you wake me up when the president's dead." "That song shook loose a lot of feelings I had about the political landscape and growing up in America," Blanton reports. "If I can write one song that really captures the feeling of a project, then the rest come more easily." In fact, bed imagery trickles throughout the album's tracks.

For the recording, Blanton returned to the south Jersey studio of guitarist Pete Donnelly (the Figgs, Graham Parker), who coproduced Buck Up with Blanton. Joining them was her longtime bassist and sometime co-writer Joe Plowman, keyboardist Patrick Firth, and drummer Nicholas Falk.

While her lyrics grapple with some dark subject matter, Blanton's engaging, captivating vocals are relaxed and flirty on "Jacket," her ode to the female gaze and masturbation. She sounds wistful and sweet on the strings-and-accordion-accented "Harbor," and sex-drenched on "Desire," "an apocalyptic love story," one of her favorite genres, she says. "Lust and passion and romantic energy are a beautiful, joyful source of pleasure in life," says Blanton, "but also a source for heartache and devastation. It reminds you of how short life is, so it feels very connected to death and mortality to me. One of my major inspirations as a songwriter is feeling the erotic connection. When I get connected to the erotic force, I feel so turned on by life and also hooked up to death at the same point." Song ideas flow when she "goes out there and looks for some sexy young man who's a mess -- that's the muse that works for me. That's where I get my mojo." In addition to songcraft, her erotic life inspired her to invent "a sexy card game, The F'ing Truth," says Blanton, intended for "people who f' and tell" and deemed a "f'ing blast" by sex columnist Dan Savage.

Blanton's thing for bad boys can bring moody moments to her songs, but her cheeky takedown of male hipsters adds lighthearted fun to Buck Up. The upbeat "Mustache," a co- write with Plowman, asks, "why'd you have to grow that mustache," while its sonics, complete with calliope-sounding keys, is her homage to another musical favorite, The Supremes.

The heart of the album, says Blanton, resides within the pop-rock anthem, "American Kid." Its hummable tune camouflages Blanton's downhearted lyrics detailing disillusionment that comes with the realization that "we done them wrong": "It's my journey from being a standard liberal moderate to being really radicalized and losing my belief in American capitalism. I want to connect with this feeling of 'we can be compassionate and we can change what we're doing and not take it lying down.'"

At the crossroads of nihilism and determination -- the former described in the harrowing "Battle" ("I know I won't survive the battle in my heart") -- Blanton chooses to "Buck Up," which closes the album with mirth. "Buck Up" is a "rallying cry," says Blanton. "Enough with the sadness and wallowing about America. We have to get people together to make change, even though it's daunting." Paraphrasing Tom Waits, she quips, "I hope this album will help to improve the quality of our suffering." And with a feisty nod to the work of another hero, John Prine, she coos, "Make 'em laugh if you can't lick 'em."

Bonerama has always been hailed as "unlike anything you've ever heard before".

It's the best way to describe this 20 year old powerhouse touring band from New Orleans, LA.  In addition to changing the way people think about the trombone, the sound of  Bonerama has become an influence and contribution to the sound of New Orleans music today.  With newer acts such as Trombone Shorty and Big Sam's Funky Nation on the national music scene, it's New Orleans that has benefited with a newfound reputation as being a bonafide "Trombone Town". These bands all carry the trombone like the trophy it truly is in New Orleans. Bonerama helped cement this in present day New Orleans music culture.

The band has performed and recorded with countless national artists such as R.E.M., OK Go, Tom Morello, Wayne Kramer (MC5), Jill Sobule and so many more, all while bringing their distinctive sounds from New Orleans to a national spotlight. Festivals and events such as Monterey Jazz Fest to High Sierra Music Festival, Jam Cruise, Bear Creek Festival and of course the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival outline some of the extensive festival work this band is involved with. National television appearances on CBS (Late Show with David Letterman), HBO (Comic Relief, Treme) and CNN has further exposed Bonerama to a wide range of unsuspecting new viewers.

"I never knew the trombone could do that." -Audience members everywhere.

While enduring lineup changes, member displacement, tragedy and loss over the years, the song for Bonerama has remained the same; being centered around their beloved trombone, city and culture  while striving for greatness with a fun spirit.

Whether it's their inventive covers or funky, rocking originals, rest assured, Bonerama will take you on your most memorable RIDE ON THE SLIDE!

The new studio album "Hot Like Fire" was released on Oct. 6, 2017 on Basin Street Records.

This is Bonerama's seventh major release after Live at the Old Point (2001), LIVE From New York (2004), Bringing It Home (2007), You Are Not Alone (2008, OKGo and Bonerama), Hard Times (2009), Shake It Baby (2013).

In additional to being their debut release on Basin Street Records, the album features some fantastic robust and colorful packaging created by New Orleans artist and beloved musician Molly Reeves.

Bonerama. Now in their 20th year of changing the way you think about the trombone and New Orleans Music.

Early on, Roy discovered his love for the blues and slide guitar...and for making music that's "deep and funky." Born in Redding, California in 1950, Roy began playing guitar at twelve years of age. A year later at age 13, he was performing in a rock 'n' roll band that wore gold lame jackets and played Little Richard and Chuck Berry tunes. He discovered the great blues players early on, especially when his older brother brought home an album by Robert Johnson. Thus began his love of the blues, slide guitar in particular, which had an immediate effect on Roy, who was indeed named after the King of the Cowboys. Through the years he developed a distinctive style of playing slide guitar that not only emerged, but one that is instantly recognizable.

During the 1960's Rogers frequented the San Francisco rock clubs where he saw many of the blues greats who inspired him. Roy performed with various groups until 1976, when he and harmonica player David Burgin formed an acoustic duo and recorded an album Rogers And Burgin: A Foot In The Door for Waterhouse Records. They also played on the One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest movie soundtrack before the duet ran it's course. Rogers then formed his own band in 1980, the Delta Rhythm Kings, hit the club circuit, played a few more movie and television gigs, and toured Europe with the 1982 San Francisco Blues Festival Revue (recording an album with that Revue in Paris).

In 1985 he released his first solo album, Chops Not Chaps on his own label, which received widespread radio play and was nominated for a W.C. Handy Award. In 1987, Blind Pig released his second solo album, Slidewinder. It includes fantastic duets with Hooker and New Orleans piano great Allen Toussaint, as well as songs with his own band. The rave reviews in the national press and extensive radio play that followed further enhanced Roy's growing reputation. Roy's third solo release, Blues On The Range was also issued on Blind Pig in 1989 and continued to win new fans to his incredible slide guitar, arrangements and songwriting skills.

Shortly after returning from Europe, Rogers was asked to join John Lee Hooker's Coast to Coast Blues Band. During the four years he toured with Hooker as a featured guitarist/vocalist, Rogers established a strong personal and professional relationship with the venerated blues legend. Said Hooker, "I just can't say enough good things about Roy. He plays so good. Some of the best slide I've heard, best blues I've heard. He gets real deep and funky, and he masters whatever he plays." Near the end of his tenure in Hooker's band, Roy began to open shows as a solo act, giving him a chance to perform some of the classic country blues and original compositions he'd been perfecting for years. He then went on to produce the historically important four recordings for John Lee Hooker. "The Healer" "Mr. Lucky" "Boom Boom" "Chill Out" - some tracks involving co producer credits with Ry Cooder and Van Morrison.

Roy's musical talents were featured on the soundtrack for the 1990 film The Hot Spot, which he recorded with Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker and Taj Mahal and which also garnered a Grammy nomination. In 1991, Rogers hooked up with another Bay Area artist, harmonica virtuoso and vocalist Norton Buffalo to produce the highly acclaimed release R & B. The album is a true American array of acoustic tunes from blues to ballads capturing the incredible chemistry of these powerful performers. The cut "Song For Jessica" received a Grammy Award nomination in 1991 and another track, "Ain't No Bread In The Breadbox" was made into a performance video which received airplay on many outlets, including The Nashville Network.

The duo came back in 1992 with the Blind Pig release Travellin' Tracks, featuring live performances as well as studio tracks where they are joined by a rhythm section on several cuts. The dynamic interplay between the pair is undeniable and the release furthered the artist's already outstanding reputations.

The 2000's have been a VERY productive recording period for Roy, greatly expanding his collaborations with other artists, as well as his own solo recordings. In 2002, he recorded a last album with Norton Buffalo titled Roots of our Nature. In 2004 he released his first-ever live recording of his own band, featuring some very special guests (the video of which became part of the PBS TV series, Music Gone Public). The self-released Everybody's Angel was recorded with Shana Morrison who toured with Roy extensively in the early 2000s. In 2006 he collaborated with Reidar Larsen for a release in Norway of The Crossing. In 2009 he recorded Split Decision for Blind Pig records. Roy then teamed up with Ray Manzarek and their joint efforts produced three recordings in eight years -- Ballads before the Rain, Translucent Blues and Twisted Tales. Starting out as a duet, they soon formed a band together and toured throughout the U.S. and also in Europe. Their collaboration and friendship has been wonderfully captured in a documentary film to be released in 2017. Roy's 2015 release Into the Wild Blue (June 2015) proves he and The Delta Rhythm Kings are at the top of their game. StringShot, Rogers' additional band formed in 2015, features renowned Brazilian guitarist Badi Assad and harpist/violinist extraordinaire Carlos Reyes; their self-titled album debuted in August of 2018.

Whether he's squeezing out the deepest blues or playing the funkiest soul grooves, legendary blues and soul giant Tommy Castro knows how to ignite a crowd. Over the course of his still-unfolding career, the guitarist, vocalist and songwriter has released 15 albums ranging from horn-fueled soul and R&B to piping hot blues to fiery rock 'n' roll. He's performed all over the world, earning countless fans with his legendary, sweat-drenched, exhilarating live shows. Castro's band, The Painkillers--bassist Randy McDonald, drummer Bowen Brown and keyboardist Michael Emerson--have now been playing together over four years. After hundreds of live shows, they have coalesced into one of the telepathically tightest units Castro has ever assembled, making them one of the most in-demand live roots music acts performing today. Billboard says the band plays "irresistible contemporary blues-rock" with "street-level grit and soul."

With the group seemingly hitting new heights with every performance, Castro knew the time was right to answer his fans' demands for a live album. Killin' It--Live captures the band at the peak of their creative and improvisational powers, and features one unforgettable, unpredictable performance after another. "This is the best band we've ever had," says Castro. We really got something going on beyond just being good musicians. Every song we play live now has that right feel--all the dynamics. It allows us to jam out more on stage. Killin' It--Live is what you hear when you see us live."

Featuring songs from throughout Castro's career, Killin' It--Live was produced by Castro and engineer/songwriter Ron Alan Cohen and recorded at venues in Texas, New York, Michigan and California during 2018. The album includes eight Castro originals spanning his entire career and two Castro-ized covers, each showing a slightly different side of his multifaceted musical personality. From fan favorites She Wanted To Give It To Me and Make It Back To Memphis to newer classics like Lose Lose and Two Hearts to Taj Mahal's arrangement of Sleepy John Estes' Leaving Trunk (a song Castro has never recorded before but has been playing live for years), Killin' It--Live is a nonstop, spirited mix of blues, rock and soul, with rollicking, hypnotic grooves fueled by Castro's animated, fervent vocals.

Born in San Jose, California in 1955, Tommy Castro first picked up a guitar at age 10. He fell under the spell of Eric Clapton, Elvin Bishop, Taj Mahal, Mike Bloomfield and other blues-rockers. Almost every major rock and soul act, from Ike and Tina Turner to Janis Joplin to Elvin Bishop to Taj Mahal, toured through the area, and Castro was at every show. He saw John Lee Hooker, Albert King and Buddy Guy and Junior Wells at the same local blues bar, JJ's, where he often jammed, dreaming of one day busting out. Mixing the blues-rock he loved and the soul music he heard blasting out from his Mexican friends' lowriders, Tommy started to create his own personal sound and style. He honed his guitar skills and intense vocals, learning how to capture an audience as he performed on San Jose's highly competitive bar scene. As his reputation spread, Tommy played in a variety of Bay Area blues and soul bands, soon making a name for himself as a hotter-than-hot live artist bursting at the seams with talent. In 1985, he was recruited to become lead singer and guitarist for the regionally popular blues band NiteCry, gigging regularly throughout Northern California.

Castro joined Warner Brothers' artists The Dynatones in the late 1980s, performing all over the country. He formed the first Tommy Castro Band in 1991, releasing his debut album in 1996 on the Blind Pig label. In the mid-1990s The Tommy Castro Band served as the house band for three seasons on NBC Television's Comedy Showcase (airing right after Saturday Night Live), bringing him in front of millions of viewers every week. During the 1990s and into the 2000s, Castro recorded a series of critically acclaimed CDs for Blind Pig, Telarc and 33rd Street Records, as well as one on his own Heart And  Soul label.

Castro joined Alligator Records in 2009, releasing Hard Believer to massive acclaim. He won four of his six career Blues Music Awards, including the coveted B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year Award (the very highest award a blues performer can receive). His next release, 2011's Tommy Castro Presents The Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue--Live!, was a boisterous and searing collection of highlights from a series of live performances anchored by Castro and an all-star collection of blues giants, including Rick Estrin, Michael "Iron Man" Burks and Joe Louis Walker. His relentless road-dog approach--gig after gig, night after night--has won him loyal, lifelong fans everywhere he plays. The Washington Post says Castro is "phenomenal and funky" with "soulful vocals and inspired blues-rock guitar."

Castro formed the first incarnation of The Painkillers in 2012, and by 2014 (with Brown and Emerson taking over drums and keys respectively) they had become a lean, mean four-piece lineup, delivering soul-shaking, muscular music. The current band released Method To My Madness in 2015 and Stompin' Ground in 2017, with critics shouting praise and admirers cheering the group's every move. Castro had stripped his music down to its raw essence with the new, smaller band, creating a larger than life sound. Blues Revue said simply, "Tommy Castro can do no wrong."

Live on stage, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers' road-hardened musicianship brings an unmatched passion to Castro's blue-eyed California soul and hard-rocking, good-time songs. The San Francisco Chronicle describes Castro's music as, "funky Southern soul, big city blues and classic rock...silvery guitar licks that simultaneously sound familiar and fresh." No Depression says "Castro plays gritty, string-bending blues like a runaway soul train...a glorious blend that rocks the soul and lifts the spirits." Killin' It--Live captures the live power and raw passion of Tommy Castro & The Painkillers. It's the next best thing to being there.

No matter the form, when it comes to art, there are a number of different tacks to take. Some artists continually push their work across new horizons. Neil Young, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Joni Mitchell come to mind, in that regard. Others -- Claude Monet, Jason Isbell, and Bonnie Raitt, among them -- stand a bit more still in order to continually refine the capturing of their vision. Singer/songwriter Peter Bradley Adams falls into the latter category of perfectionists chasing their own perfection. With A Face Like Mine, he may well have caught it.

There's a confidence, a completeness in the song cycle that listeners have gleaned throughout Adams' illustrious career, but A Face Like Mine, his sixth solo effort, brings it all into sharp focus. As Adams sees it, "On the long plod of finding my voice as a singer and a writer, the singing has slowly developed from the sound of a scared guy to someone who believes what he's saying and the writing, I hope, has become less rigid -- both in the lyrics and the phrasing."

Less rigid, indeed. Adams' brand of Americana nestles his often delicate, always heartfelt voice in the warm embrace of gentle guitar, tasteful dobro, subtle banjo, supportive bass, and unhurried percussion. The result is a sonic scape that, in turn, wraps itself around the listener like a soft blanket on a cold day. With A Face Like Mine, Adams further refines the simple musical sophistication that has become his trademark.

Throughout the self-produced set, Adams tells tales of love and loss, homes and hearts. The territory he mines is a deliberate mix of fact and fantasy. "I feel like I'm, firstly, a storyteller, but it's inevitable that my own stuff gets in there deep. And it's funny how, sometimes, I don't realize it until the song is done," he offers. "At the same time, there are times where I take very directly from an experience or a relationship, but I try to be very careful when that happens. I don't want to ever sound like a journal entry."

Regardless of the details, there's always a philosophical bent that is often more under than on the surface, firmly grounding Adams' songs even as they stretch outward. By his own admission, Adams is a seeker who spends considerable time wrestling with matters of faith, though he's the first to admit he doesn't have any real answers. "I honestly don't know what the hell I'm doing... nor do I have the language for any of this stuff," he says with a laugh. "But there is a constant tug on me in that direction and, the older I get, the more present it becomes. Music can often be the most direct way to step into that river."

That seeker's heart is the tie that so often binds these songs together. Whether the search for place and purpose is of a spiritual or geographical nature, few writers capture the journey as thoughtfully as Adams. An Alabama native, Adams says he feels most comfortable in motion and doesn't have a strong sense of being Southern, even though his music is rooted in that world in so many ways. The first verse of the album's mesmerizing lead track, "Good Man," exemplifies his plight: "This old house is falling down. Every step I take makes a hollow sound. Should I walk away? Should I push on through? What in the world can a good man do?"

Even as Adams goes on to sing of "laughing eyes with a touch of grey" and walking "a mile across the kitchen floor" in order to set various scenes, he leaves room for the listener to crawl inside his stories and make them their own. Striking that balance is the songwriter's eternal struggle, but one Adams seems to have mastered after years of toiling on his own and collaborating with co-writers like Kim Richey, Caitlin Canty, and Todd Lombardo.

"I don't think I'm very good at co-writing because my process seems so weird and long and tedious to me," Adams confides. "It's hard to allow someone into that space, but there a few folks where our sensibilities are aligned and we're not just trying to bang out a song in a day. I want to feel as close to the songs I co-write as the ones I write alone. Writers like Kim Richey have such an economy and depth to the ideas that come out of their mouths and hands -- there's wisdom there. I want to be more like that."

In addition to this release, Adams is currently putting his classical composition studies to work on a piece for violin and piano -- an aspect of his craft and education that got set aside somewhere along the way to now. "I've wondered a lot why I spent all that time studying music in school and how my composer hat fits in with or hinders my songwriting," he says. "Some of it was definitely useless to me, then and now. But some of it has left its mark on how I listen, and how I think of arranging songs, and how I communicate with players who are playing on them. Also, writing in such an extremely simple and constrained musical language makes all your choices much more delicate, so I spend a lot of time crafting even the simplest melody."

A Face Like Mine's songs were composed all over the world, from Alabama to India, and they dig into topics are disparate as the desperation of addiction ("Lorraine"), the grappling of self-image ("Who Else Could I Be"), the vitriol of politics ("We Are"), and the genetics of suffering ("A Face Like Mine"). "We Are" and "Who Else Could I Be" were originally written for a dance piece that Gina Patterson choreographed for the San Angelo Civic Ballet. Even so, Adams made sure the songs could stand alone in their own world no matter what else was swirling around them -- confidence and completeness in action.

As a work of musical art, A Face Like Mine fulfills the promise of Peter Bradley Adams. And rarely has an artist's standing still sounded so divine.

Three good reasons why it's hard to remember a time when an album like Jeremy Enigk's Return of the Frog Queen sounded shocking:

1) At the time of its release in 1996, there was no other album like it.

2) In the 22 years between then and now, its marriage of seemingly opposing sensibilities--English folk and American punk; orchestral chamber pop and progressive rock; surreal, pastoral, fanciful lyrics that burn to express personal, emotional, and spiritual quandary--has become the blueprint for so much great music that a young listener can be forgiven for thinking that things were always just like that.

This isn't to claim some kind of Velvet Underground/Big Star status for the album, but it is to say that you can draw a straight line between Frog Queen and elements of Elliott Smith, Belle & Sebastian, Rufus Wainwright, Destroyer, the Decemberists, Fleet Foxes, Sufjan Stevens, Beirut, Grizzly Bear, Joanna Newsom, Bon Iver, and many, many other artists who have come to define the past two decades of indie music.

3) It's getting harder to remember anything anymore.

But Return of the Frog Queen is worth remembering. Or discovering. And most definitely celebrating. Though you rarely see it turn up on lists of 50 Best Things of Whatever Year We Wish We Still Lived in Because the Present Is Such a Consummate Drag, the album was an indisputable innovation in the world of '90s indie rock, rewriting a litany of unwritten rules about sound, subject matter, and solo identity for lead singers of successful bands.

THE BACKGROUND

As you probably know, Enigk was the singer/guitarist of Sunny Day Real Estate, the Seattle quartet widely credited as the Big Bang of the post-hardcore, indie rock variant of emo that would spend the next decade morphing into a massively commercial enterprise.

You can't blame Sunny Day Real Estate for that, though. They were just a young, powerhouse band who happened to be several years ahead of their time.

SDRE's debut album, Diary, and its first single, "Seven," was a seismic event, not least in the lives of the band members. It was released in May of 1994, one month and two days after Kurt Cobain's suicide was discovered. Diary became Sub Pop's biggest-selling album since Bleach--a distinction that lasted until the next decade.

The story of the band's splintering during the making of their follow-up album (LP2)--and triumphant reunion a few years later--has been well-told elsewhere. But for our purposes, it's worth bearing in mind that the break-up drama formed the background from which Return of the Frog Queen emerged.

In the space of about two years, Jeremy Enigk had joined a band with some friends, toured the world, sold way more records than anyone had anticipated, been heralded with hyperbolic--not to say unwarranted--praise, become a significant voice to a lot of young listeners, experienced a religious epiphany that he spoke of publicly, and watched the band buckle and fall apart, much to the dismay of a public that was only just starting to figure out how to broadcast its anxious speculations and judgments on the internet.

By the time the band broke up, he had been loved, respected, celebrated, criticized, vilified, and reproached. He was 21 years old.

One might expect a person might respond to all this sturm und drang by making noisy, chaotic, electric guitar-driven music of the kind his now-defunct band made its name with. One might expect someone whose character and even sanity had been widely debated in public might want to write a definitive statement about his identity, his ideology, his id.

But Jeremy Enigk didn't do either of those things. He made Return of the Frog Queen instead.

ENTER THE FROG QUEEN

The songs that formed the basis of Enigk's first solo album were about as far from the sound of Sunny Day Real Estate as you could imagine--unless all you'd heard of them was "Pheurton Skeurto," the little piano songlet that sounds (delightfully) out of place on Diary.

Spare acoustic guitar figures and solemn, almost plainsong melodies are the foundational elements, which Enigk and his two key collaborators, producer Greg Williamson and arranger/conductor Mark Nichols, build up into astonishingly dynamic worlds of sound. But for all the swoops and bends, the unconventional entrances and exits, the arrangements remain organic, and perfectly united behind the singular human voice at the center of it all.

From the very first strum on "Abegail Anne," the music is stately, mysterious, vaguely mystical, and not even remotely interested in the ironic detachment still popular in those days.

If anything, the arrangements, and the stupefyingly strong vocals, are flagrantly theatrical. Enigk sang hard over loud instruments in SDRE, but nothing prepared you for the versatility of his voice on Frog Queen. From a raspy whisper to conversational chest voice to clearly differentiated levels of high end--choked scream, melodic scream, head voice, falsetto, whatever you want. (And just a wisp of an unconscious British accent.)

But even at the peak of crescendo, as on the staggering climax of "Shade and the Black Hat," on which Enigk wails "WON'T YOU STAY TONIGHT?" at the top of his range while the orchestra whips up a maelstrom--this music feels unfailingly intimate, while somehow remaining intensely private.

This is the central enigma (enigkma?) of the album: How can a song be both intimate and private? How can music that feels like fearless personal revelation grow more opaque the more closely you examine at it? Consider the author, and what his life was like at the time these songs were written and recorded. It's easy to imagine a 21-year-old rock star manqué feeling overwhelmed, overexposed, overanalyzed, hungry for a kind of solace in which sound precedes meaning.

And yet, meaning is all over the record if you're looking.

In among the pleasing, suggestively abstract imagery--"dallow water," and "this dubious day," and "window morning dream paradise"--Enigk plants lines that don't require much interpretation at all if you've ever been anywhere near a break-up of a band or any other relationship, ever worried about what strangers might be saying about you, ever felt unseen, ever re-ran edited versions of old arguments in your mind, ever believed in something so fiercely that you were willing to lose friendships over it.

"Wait for, wait for me..."

"I've heard rumors..."

"No one knows my name..."

"What I've seen tears me inside..."

"Then the writing on the wall

said he is only the way
You said it was bad timing

at least we had timing at all."

These lines are crucial, but they're also non-sequiturs, there for you to discover if you're looking, but the songs still work beautifully if you never do.

But beyond the literal, there's a spirit of fabulism in the lyrics--hardly a surprise on a record named after amphibian royalty. Who is this "Abegail Anne"? Where is this sleepy, enchanted "Lewis Hollow"? What does "hi, hey" mean? And how does he proceed so artfully from idle, drowsy contemplation of a lizard in a castle, observing the tremors of its "dreary heart," to the roaring, soaring cascade of frustration bursting forth at song's end? Who is being addressed, and by whom?

Trying to tease out the puzzle of these artfully esoteric lyrics has proven to be one of the album's most durable pleasures (or possibly frustrations, if you prefer things spelled out). As time passes, the words might seem meaningless or profound depending on who you are, not who Enigk was.

It makes for an odd spin on the idea of self-revelation. The album unquestionably opens a window onto an unorthodox artist, pursuing an unorthodox process, to arrive at a most unorthodox production. But as with any great artwork, the real subject is the person looking at it.

ONWARD AND INWARD

Even after two decades, it's difficult to find a name for the atmosphere conjured by the album. There are traces of Incredible String Band pastoralia, but also a strain of Pink Floydish unease. Bowie between Man Who Sold the World and Hunky Dory. It's not dark exactly, but only because your eyes have adjusted to candlelight. It feels mystical, even metaphysical.

Emphasis on "physical."

Jack Rabid of The Big Takeover nailed it in two sentences from his review:

"He pounds a piano and howls like his wife just left him for his best friend, as the violins, violas, and cellos scrape at their strings as if to break them, and the flutes, piccolos, trumpets, trombones, French horns, and clarinets blow like they were hired by a wolf to blast a few recalcitrant pigs' houses down. The waves of classical countermelodies are extraordinary, adding on to each other to create an 1812 Overture anvil clarion call, a roar so dense, so overpowering, it's like gasoline exploding, even more so as they back Enigk's fevered wail as if he were long past desperation."

Return of the Frog Queen was the very last thing anyone would have expected to come out of the singer of Sunny Day Real Estate, or really, the Pacific Northwest at that time--which was not long past a different kind of desperation.

Without knowing or intending it, Enigk and his collaborators made a record that pointed the way out of Seattle's mid-'90s post-boom-years malaise, which had no shortage of talent and desire, but lingering ambivalence about ambition, and no clear sense of cultural direction.

And then all of a sudden, here came an utterly singular demonstration that when all else fails, the most reliable direction is usually inward.

It's unlikely that a generation of hopeful teenage garage bands formed as a response to eager suburban teens getting an earful of Return of the Frog Queen. Maybe it's just a coincidence then, that in the years following the record's release (and the breathtaking live shows Enigk played with a stripped-down version of the 21-piece orchestra that plays on the record), indie music from the Pacific NW outwards, got more expansive, more idiosyncratic, a little riskier, and a lot weirder.

But it was for sure never the same.

Awash in vintage synths, revved up by 21st century guitars, and swagged out in chic thrifted threads, Cherry Pools harness harmony between distinct eras. The Toronto, ON quartet--Martin Broda [singer], Matt Krumins [guitar], Talyn Prior [bass], and Sean Medeiros [drums]--introduce a style that would fit right in during an eighties-set teen love story or booming over North American festival fields on their 2017 debut EP [Weekday Records/Sony Music Entertainment].

"We wanted to write fun, summer anthems that are relatable," explains Martin. "They're primarily about relationships and the ups and downs that come from being in them. At the same time, there's a catchy vibe you can get down with. We wanted to marry our influences into something fresh."

Cherry Pools represents the culmination of a lifelong artistic journey for the musicians. Most recently, they operated under the moniker of Curses, built an international fan base through rigorous touring, and earned the endorsement of Alternative Press, Exclaim!, and more. In 2017, they underwent a pronounced progression. Martin turned his attention towards fusing the sounds that impacted him the most from his formative years through today. Under the influence of Phil Collins, Michael Jackson, Justice, MGMT, Tame Impala, and more, the four-piece arrived at a creative cross-section of inspirations. "It was about merging the modern and vintage," he goes on. "We wrote really catchy and rhythmic vocal hooks that people could easily digest. It's very simplistic and straightforward. That was the spirit."

The boys recorded in Toronto alongside Juno Award- and MMVA Award-winning producer Anthony Kalabretta. Together, they unlocked a cohesive and coherent vision that unfolds on the EP. On "Caught in the Stars," ethereal keys and handclaps entwine with lyrical conjurations of sharing kisses, chemicals, and cassette tapes as Martin's falsetto resounds to the heavens. "It's a summer romance," he explains. "You're trying to go back in time and relive this moment when you were madly in love." That sense of sonic intoxication carries through the energetic and enigmatic "Forever Young" punctuated by his cinematic lyricism. "It's about this mysterious girl who you never went past the whole flirty stage with," the frontman continues. "She's trying to recapture that passion by staying forever young. Physically, it's not going anywhere, but she thinks she can reach back to that feeling." Then, there's the clever and catchy "Hollywood," which doesn't sugarcoat "poking fun at the stereotypical Hollywood girls who are way to cool for school." "I don't get too metaphorical with my lyrics," he admits. "What you hear is what you get. These are my personal experiences I've encountered throughout the years. I don't hold anything back when it comes to getting a point across. I transfer that in a cool way." Every element coalesces into Cherry Pools. From the timeless sonic blend down to the mid-century inspired fashion aesthetic, the music ultimately functions as an escape. "We want everybody to have a good time in the end," Martin leaves off. "We're all about bringing positive energy. If we can pull people away from everyday life and leave them feeling inspired, that'd be amazing. If we can bring that joy out of someone, we're doing our job well. Come to our show and tell your friends about it."

New Wave Fest is proud to present an evening of high-energy retro future sounds from national and local bands that bring the 80s into today! The line up will include the SXSW, Van's Warped Tour duo The Fantastic Plastics, the legendary Xposed 4Heads, Dream Pop duo The Quilz and local New Wave favorites Radio Radio. The event is sponsored by WMSE.

THE FANTASTIC PLASTICS
Describing themselves as "The Future of The Future", The Fantastic Plastics mix new wave, synth punk, and electro elements with Orwellian and Sci-Fi inspired lyricism. The band is a two piece live act, consisting of Miranda Plastic on Moog Synth/Theremin, and Tyson Plastic on Guitar, as well as video installations, custom costumes, and more. Following a stint in Brooklyn, where they made an impact at stages like the Van's Warped Tour, CMJ Music Marathon, Northside Festival, the Chris Gethard Show, and the Kotaku/io9 Cosplay Ball.

XPOSED 4HEADS
The legendary Xposed 4Headsis a witty, social satire art rock band with high-energy and colorful performanceslike a mash up of B-52's and Devo.Lead by Mark G.E. and his 'band' of Milwaukee luminaries and veterans Kelp Chofs, Carter Hunnicutt, Andy Stilin and Greg Barta, which includesStar Girls Theresa and Linda. Xposed 4Heads headlined the 2017 DEVOtional Devo fan festival in Cleveland, OH and has songs playing on radio stations all over the US and abroadwith music from their latest album Urgency Squad.

THE QUILZ
The Quilz are an Indie Synth-Pop duo consisting of producer Sage Schwarm & singer Becky Heck. Despite rumors that Becky is an artificial being, created during a freak electrical accident while Sage was working on a cover of DEVO's "Girl U Want", nothing could be further from the truth. We assure you miss Heck is a real girl. Anyway, since the "incident", The Quilz have been busy writing, recording & performing throughout the Midwest. A seven-inch flexi-disc and a 9 song CD is available now, and their full-length LP, entitled "Fishing For Ketchup", is due to drop Spring/Summer of 2018.

RADIO RADIO
Great danceable music with a punchy rock and roll edge. That's New Wave. That's Radio Radio. Since 2009 this band of top MKE musicians has been playing songs no other band is covering, and in a way that makes you feel you are witnessing the real thing live for the first time. Artists like The Clash, Duran Duran, New Order, Elvis Costello & the Attractions, Devo, Talking Heads, Gen X, Flock of Seagulls, and a flock of b-sides and one-hit-new-wave wonders.

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers are musical beacons of the Southwest. Over the last fifteen years, the Arizona-based quartet has delivered vivid lyrics, addictive guitar riffs, and a full-bodied rhythm section on more than a dozen studio and live albums. The Independent marks the group's newest release and seventh studio effort, which raises a metaphorical glass to the road less traveled and champions the courageous.

After landing in the top ten of Billboard's Internet Sales Chart for six consecutive albums--all on independent labels and twice at number one--RCPM is poised to lead the charge for a Spanish-infused, roots rock revolution. The band's annual music festival in Rocky Point, Mexico, known as Circus Mexicus, is a testament to their growing fan base. What began as a rooftop show thrown together with extension cords and wooden pallets has blossomed into a pilgrimage that draws thousands of "Peacemakers" to the beach town every June. "There's something about our music that celebrates what's uniting versus what's dividing," says Clyne.

Irony played an integral role in the creation of The Independent, whose first track emerged from a stifling case of writers block. Armed with his guitar and battling creative blockades, Clyne unleashed the phrase "I ain't got the words for this" and as a result the first lyrics for the album were realized. "Ain't Got The Words" leads The Independent, exposing hearty vocal grit and liberating honesty.

The album features guitarist Jim Dalton, bassist Nick Scropos, drummer P.H. Naffah, and Clyne on vocals and rhythm guitar. While Clyne pens the bulk of the Peacemaker's tunes, a long stretch of Northern California highway set the stage for Dalton's lyrical debut. Traveling along the Causeway between Sacramento and San Francisco, RCPM's tour bus came to a screeching halt. "The bus driver screamed back at us and said, 'Guys I got nothing!'" recalls Dalton. "I grabbed my guitar and started strumming. The words 'Just another California breakdown' came tumbling out."

The inspiration behind Dalton's guitar-laden, hard luck tune "California Breakdown" remains one of the band's favorite memories to date. After alerting fans via Facebook to their sidelined 40 ft tour bus, The Peacemakers received more offers for a ride than they could accept. Devout fans piled RCPM's gear onto a landscape trailer, loaded the musicians into their cars, and headed into the sunset for the San Francisco show.

The title track off The Independent is a representation of the group's Southwest influences, delivering an instrumental collaboration that evokes desperado imagery and draws inspiration from old west greats like Sons of The Pioneers. Inversely, the track "Geronimo" is a radio-ready anthem that begins with dark undertones and mariachi roots before building into an uplifting call to arms that chides, "Time to sing a new battle cry, get up out of limbo, step into the blue sky, geronimo!"

The reoccurring themes of independence and chance arguably stem from RCPM's decision to record the album in Naffah's Somos Studios, which also found the drummer in the role of producer. Clyne is no stranger to Naffah's talents, as the pair originally began playing together in the celebrated 90's alt-rock act The Refreshments. Clyne credits Naffah for being a solid component in his 100+ song repertoire.

Riding into the music industry on their own terms has been a longstanding philosophy for the band, and in this case created a sense of freedom that allowed Clyne & company to make an unapologetic album that's pleasingly rough around the edges. Rich with commanding vocals, melodic bass lines, tambourine, and a hint of keys, The Independent embodies the spirit of RCPM.

"The Independent is a double entendre," says Clyne. "It represents the solo sojourner, but it also frames the idea of moving forward as a collective group in the name of independence."

Traveling off the beaten path works to the advantage of Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers. Clyne has successfully spearheaded the production of his own ultra-premium sipping tequila called Mexican Moonshine Tequila, orchestrated an out of country music festival, and guided a band whose fan base has grown exponentially over the last decade. Clyne notes that the lyrics off the track "Right Where We Want 'Em" sums up the sentiment of The Independent. The song speaks of encouragement and unlikely victory, stating, "Out numbered, out flanked, out muscled, out ranked and out gunned." Clyne sings, "Take another long trip off a short plank, at a dead run. We got 'em."

Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers "got 'em right where we want 'em now."

"I am a songwriter. I am a poet. I am a lyricist. I am a singer. I am an American Idol Winner," confesses the handsome, charismatic and introspective Lee DeWyze. "Some people have a hard time understanding how those things can go hand in hand." Collectively all of these gifts have coalesced to garner DeWyze a place as one of the most exciting singer/songwriter' s to emerge in the past decade. A Millennial troubadour, DeWyze' s depth as a songwriter along with his earnest ability to drive home a song with a delicate balance of deep emotion and subtlety, call to mind some of his earliest influences like Simon and Garfunkel, Yusef Islam (Cat Stevens) and Johnny Cash. DeWyze' s songs have spent several consecutive weeks in the top forty on the Billboard Hot AC Chart, been featured on the insanely popular gritty drama The Walking Dead, NBC' s musical drama Nashville, showcased in commercials and topped charts abroad in Ireland and Italy. In the six years since DeWyze has evolved from being crowned an American Idol winner, he has continued to refine his artistry. In numerology six is regarded as one of the most harmonious and stable single digits, representing balance, sincerity, love, and truth. Whether you believe or not, one thing for sure is that DeWyze seems to have arrived at such a place in his journey thus far. "I think for once I am making music that is just me. All the way through,"smiles Lee. February 12, 2016, Shanachie Entertainment will release Oil & Water, Lee DeWyze' s fifth solo effort and highly anticipated label debut. His resonant, soulful and at times raspy tenor combined with his prodigious guitar playing serve to underscore themes of the heart as ten songs unravel into compelling poetic prose and striking arrangements.

Randall Grass, Shanachie Entertainment General Manager states, "Lee DeWyze is a classic singer-songwriter with intensely personal lyrics that he delivers with a resonant, viscerally appealing voice. He communicates in a very direct, earthy way that is all too rare these days."

Oil & Water is an alluring evocative mix of songs that reflect the ease and comfort of where DeWyze is in his music and life. Each song is a revealing glimpse into Lee' s world and quest for truth and meaning. He is a powerful storyteller. "I didn't ' know' I could write music exactly but I knew at a young age I appreciated it. I read my first lyrics on the back of a Cat Stevens record and I recall thinking ' wow, he's telling a story. I want to do that' and I picked up a guitar when I was about 13." The songs on Oil & Water at times are deceptively simple and they possess a sincerity and authenticity that you cannot manufacture. All of the albums tracks are written, produced and recorded by Lee along with his friend and engineer Nico Grossfeld. "These songs really sum up a very particular part of my life over the past year or so." Describing his compositional process as 'somewhat chaotic,' DeWyze recorded the songs in his own Los Angeles based studio writing playing and recording the music on his terms. "I am grateful for the process which is this record," declares the young musician. Oil & Water is not a reinvention of Lee DeWyze but rather further discovery. "I think whether you have heard my music or not, people will find common ground on this record. Lyrically these songs speak to a wider audience and I am really excited for people to hear it."

"My goal was to simply make an album that speaks to who I am. About a year ago, which would have been six months into the making of this album, my vision kind of started to fall into place," explains Lee. "I have found my process to be one of writing, recording, sitting on it, then re-recording. Much of that comes from playing the songs live on the road and really letting the songs take on a life of their own."

"Sometimes I want the listener to say, ' I wonder what he means?" confides Lee. "That's the one thing that I think that really makes music powerful. It does not matter what you believe or what your religion or politics are. Everyone can sit and enjoy and be moved by a song. As a songwriter, I view it as a responsibility to move my listener."

Born in Mount Prospect, IL, one of four children, Lee DeWyze discovered music and quickly developed a passion at a young age. He cites Cat Stevens' Tea For The Tillerman and Paul Simons' Graceland as two of the albums that changed his life. As a teen Lee played guitar, piano and the drums and it was not long before he started to write his own songs. "I discovered that I could turn my thoughts and ideas into a clever song or line. I fell in love," recalls Lee. "I would sit around and write funny or witty songs to make my friends or family laugh." DeWyze was crowned the winner of American Idol's Season 9 in 2010, DeWyze had a stint working as both a paint salesman and trading floor clerk at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Before he was 20, he recorded two albums for an independent label in Chicago: So I'm Told and Slumberland. He made his major label debut in 2010 with Live It Up. His critically lauded Frames followed in 2013 and his song "Fight"reached the top 40 on the Billboard Hot AC charts for 10 weeks straight. The video, which Lee produced and created, won first place at the Los Angeles Indie Film Festival. 2014 was a banner year for Lee as he made major headway as a songwriter. His song "Blackbird Song" was placed in the show The Walking Dead. The song racked up more then 3 million YouTube views, 2 million Spotify streams and was selected as one of the Top 10 most influential placements in 2014 by the Music Writers Guild of America. The same year Lee landed a #1 song in Ireland with his song "Lullaby" which was covered by Ronan Keating. He also scored a #3 hit in Italy when his "Magnetic Heart" was recorded by Marco Mengioni.

Lee DeWyze will embark on an ambitious national tour in 2016 in support Oil & Water. "I love my fans. I truly do. They are the fuel to my engine. I want the audience to feel what I'm saying. To know it' s real and honest." With the release of Oil & Water Lee DeWyze takes a no holds barred approach and bares it all and the results are well worth the journey. "I write what I like to hear and how I feel. I am not defining what kind ofcomposer or artist I am. My audience can do that. Because the minute you start to concern yourself with what you're ' supposed' to be doing, you start to second-guess who you are. And that is one thing I am very sure of."

During the Seventies when disco and punk were the rage, only a handful of bands were daring enough to play hard rock and heavy metal music. "You could almost count those bands on one hand," said Starz lead guitarist Richie Ranno. "They were Aerosmith, KISS, Queen, Ted Nugent, Starz and Angel. We kept the flame alive between the original hard rock groups and heavy metal today."

All together Starz recorded four studio albums, Starz, Violation, Attention Shoppers, and Colesium Rock and gathered critical acclaim with their ability to mesh the smooth with the hard. "We loved pop melodies," admitted Ranno in retrospect, "and we also loved heavy guitars. We liked to combine hooks with a harder edge. Our singer Michael Lee Smith had a great sense of melody. In the course of four albums, we only used orchestrations or keyboards once, preferring to mix heavy rock productions with melodic overtones."

Their success has been documented in the historical chapters of hard rock and heavy metal. In Kerrang's critical listing of the 100 greatest heavy metal albums of all time, Starz was listed at #94, with Violation at #84. In a similar poll in Hit Parader magazine, Violation was listed at #82. Starz's greatest asset was their live performance and until a chance meeting between Metal Blade's founder and Starz guitarist Richie Ranno, one of rock's greatest secrets was buried in the archives. At the height of their career, Starz released a special "radio only" live record intended for broadcast, bot not liscenced for sale. It was called Live In Louisville and only a scant 2,000 copies were pressed. It was heralded by Kerrang as the greatest live record never released!

"One day" Richie said, "out of the blue, I got a letter from Brian Slagel, who wrote that he was a big Starz fan and was interested in re-releasing the Starz albums for the first time on CD. He asked if I owned the liscenses to any of the records, and I told him I had the rights to the live record." Starz Live In Action is a combination of the famous Live In Louisville performance recorded in 1978 with another concert taped in Cleveland in 1977. Together it is over sixty-five minutes of classic Starz music, covering songs from all four studio albums and the famous "Waitin On You/Colesium Rock" medley which includes a clever collection of the greatest rock guitar riffs of all time.

"We always considered ourselves a live band," Richie confessed. "In fact, we toured with Peter Frampton in major halls before we even had any product to sell! We felt confident that we could get any audience up on their feet and got encores wherever we played." This same spirit is captured on Starz Live In Action. If you are a Starz fan, this special recording is a must for your collection. If you are unaware of this great band, consider these thoughts. Many of the Eighties most successful bands were influenced by Starz, from Cinderella and Poison to Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe. Tom Keifer said the first concert he ever went to was a Starz show... "They really kicked ass," he remembered. Jon Bon Jovi met guitarist Richie Ranno backstage at a Bon Jovi concert in New Jersey and took the time to tell 30,000 screaming fans that when he was young, he looked up to Starz. They were the band he imitated when practicing in the garage. In Jon's words, "What ever your dreams may be, always shoot for the Starz!"

Tickets available at http://stevehofstetter.com/tickets.cfm?CalendarID=12252

Author, columnist, and comedian Steve Hofstetter is often called the hardest working man in show-business. With all due respect to the late James Brown.

Hofstetter's national TV debut came on ESPN's Quite Frankly, where Stephen A. Smith yelled at him for three minutes. Hofstetter has also appeared on CBS' "Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson", Showtime's "White Boyz in the Hood", VH1's "Countdown", Sundance's "On the Road in America", and ABC's "Barbara Walter's Special", where he thankfully did not cry. He is the host and executive producer of "Laughs" on Fox networks, where he only cries occasionally.

One of the top booked acts on the college circuit, the original writer for collegehumor.com has also released six albums. Hofstetter has written humor columns for the New York Times, SportsIllustrated.com, and NHL.com, where he publicly admitted to being a Ranger fan.

After hosting Four Quotas on Sirius Satellite Radio for two seasons, Hofstetter moved to broadcast radio, and his Sports Minute (Or So) was syndicated on over 170 stations and in over 30 newspapers. Hofstetter's second live comedy album ("Cure For the Cable Guy") reached #20 on Billboard's comedy charts. His third album ("Dark Side of the Room") was the first ever pay-what-you-want" comedy album, since people were going to steal it anyway. His fourth album consisted of an hour of 100% ad-libbed material, which is, frankly, nuts. And his fifth album hit #1 on iTunes' comedy charts, which is also a bit nuts.

Hofstetter's brutal tour schedule consists of over 100 colleges and dozens of clubs every year, and is fueled by an immense online popularity, tons of press, and a Prius with great gas mileage. He reached 200,000 friends on Facebook and 400,000 more on MySpace, and high shelves in grocery stores.

While Hofstetter's live shows are routinely sold out, he is best known for his writing, first published at age 15, mainly to impress girls. At 18, he co-founded "Sports Jerk of the Week", an irreverent website featured by press like USA Today's Baseball Weekly, Sports Illustrated and CNN. And at 20, Hofstetter took a year off of school to head up web content for the New York Yankees. The Yankees won the World Series that year, which would have been wonderful if they hadn't beaten Hofstetter's Mets. Yes, he's also a Mets fan. Poor kid.

While an undergraduate at Columbia University, Hofstetter was a well-read columnist for the Columbia Daily Spectator and a voice of the Lions. After a summer writing for Maxim, ESPN, and Sports Illustrated for Kids, Hofstetter syndicated his column in several newspapers.

Without his glasses, Hofstetter also looks a great deal like Michael Rappaport.

You can't teach the blues. It's not something that can be codified in music books or learned on YouTube. It goes much deeper than that and it comes from the inside. It's about the way the guitar strings are bent and the sound gets transmuted directly from a player's soul. It's simple at the end of the day. Either you've got it, or you don't. JARED JAMES NICHOLS has definitely got it. The Wisconsin-born, Los Angeles-based singer, writer and guitarist's new EP Old Glory & The Wild Revival channels blues grit and gusto through bombastic arena-size rock 'n' roll. It's raw, raucous and righteously real. As soon as he got his first guitar at 14-years-old, the stage immediately called to Jared. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he grew up minutes away from The Alpine Valley Resort--where Stevie Ray Vaughan performed his last show. However, no divine coincidence could truly foreshadow just how adept at the six-string he would eventually become. He personally traces the beginning of his story back to a blues jam that his mother brought him to. "Two weeks after I got an electric guitar, I was on stage with all of these old cats from Chicago playing the blues," he recalls with a smile. "The music immediately resonated with me. It was all about the feeling and the soul behind it. None of these guys were music nerds. They were true blues guys playing what they felt. That power and reality struck a chord in me." Soon, he found himself practicing for twelve hours every day. Hitting up the local jams, he ended up sharing the stage with legends including Buddy Guy, "Honeyboy" Edwards, and "Big Jim" Johnson as well as opening for Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Derek Trucks. By his 21st birthday, he had logged over 500 gigs. After a short stint at Berklee School of Music in Boston, he headed out to Los Angeles where he garnered numerous accolades at the world-renowned Musicians Institute, winning the 2010 Jerry Horton guitar contest, the 2011 Les Paul tribute contest, and the 2011 "Outstanding Guitarist" award. 2012 saw him release his debut EP, Live at the Viper Room, gaining the notice of both Guitar World and Guitar Player and inking a deal with Sony/MTV's Hype Music Publishing. However, everything simply laid the groundwork for Old Glory & The Wild Revival. Teaming up with Aerosmith engineer Warren Huart, Jared began working on the five-song set in early 2013. Honing his voice as a guitarist, songs like the first single "Let It Go" speak through a delta-style soul with the right amount of rock bravado. "That one is a blues rock song about love and give and take," he reveals. "It's got its own style and it opens the door to what I'm doing". Elsewhere on the EP, "Blackfoot" charges forward with a riff as sharp as a tomahawk and a whole lot of spirit punctuated by Jessica Childress of The Voice's backing harmonies. "In Wisconsin, I was surrounded by Indian reservations and culture," he continues. "I'd do casino and reservation tours as a kid. When I wrote the song, I was reading about all of these badass tribes. I love that spirit and vibe inherent in Native American culture. The Blackfoot were truly bad motherfuckers. That lick is what I feel their culture represented." On stage, it truly comes to life. Jared's presence becomes amplified with guitar in hand. Audiences have experienced that everywhere from his performances at NAMM and SXSW to the iconic Sturgis Buffalo Chip Festival where he will play alongside ZZ Top and Kid Rock and the Harley-Davidson 110th Anniversary in Milwaukee this summer. Ultimately, he lives up to that idea of Revival in the EPs title. "I want people to get excited," he concludes. "I want them to feel like anything is possible in this music. I want them to know great blues rock exists. If I can give someone the same inspiration I was blessed with, I've done something right."

Est. 2011 in Milwaukee, The Fainting Room's sound is acoustic singer-songwriter meets Americana twang and harmonies meets screaming rock guitar solos. It's a potent and dynamic mashup of the genres that influence the band as individuals and as a group.

Frontwoman Lisa Ridgely's singer-songwriter heroes include the brave, the sassy and the honest -- particularly Kristin Hersh, Kathleen Edwards, Neko Case, Sharon Van Etten, Nathaniel Rateliff and Mason Jennings. The band's influences are wide ranging, from Loretta Lynn and Nirvana to Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

A full-length album, Dusk, was released in May 2018. The group released its second EP, Heart Hot, in May 2014. Their debut EP, Wine in Bed, was released in 2012.

The Fainting Room enjoyed nods from WAMI (Best New Artist, 2012) and Radio Milwaukee, with five nominations for the 2012 Radio Milwaukee Music Awards (Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Solo Artist of the Year, Catchiest Song of the Year, Best Live Show).

Performance highlights have included playing at Milwaukee's Chill on the Hill and Summer Soulstice; opening for Katrina of Katrina and The Waves at Shank Hall, Madison's Count This Penny at Club Garibaldi, Kristin Hersh at Shank Hall, and Caroline Smith at the Riverwest Public House; and playing at the Porcupine Mountains Music Festival in Michigan's upper peninsula. The band has split bills with some of their favorite local groups, including Testa Rosa, Field Report, the Crooked Keys, Hello Death, Caley Conway, Derek Pritzl and the Lyric Advisory Board.

Lisa Ridgely started performing as a singer-songwriter in 2009, and had collaborated with local musicians including Sigmund Snopek and Chris DeMay before starting The Fainting Room.

Ryan Elliott, 2012 WAMI Award-winning Guitarist of the Year, has played with local bands for more than two decades, including The Form and Great Lake Drifters.

Sara Moilanen, 2011 WAMI Female Vocalist of the Year, plays bass and does heavy lifting on vocal harmonies. She is also a member of the vintage Americana trio The WhiskeyBelles.

After a nearly decade-long hiatus from music, Dan (guitar) returned to songwriting as a creative outlet and therapeutic exercise. He revisited the folk music of his childhood; moved by the deep simplicity of the genre. Taking cues from Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, and Leonard Cohen, the lyrics are grounded in the harsh but ineffable realm of reality. The music, however, blurs the lines of folk, country, and rock from the 60's, 70's, and 90's. By exclusively playing acoustic guitar, Dan explores the boundaries of "acoustic rock", while giving the band its signature twang.

Emma (piano) began playing piano at age six and continued studying classical piano through college. After moving to the Waukesha area for work, she began looking for new opportunities to be involved in music and build community. The Watchbirds were the perfect fit! Since she studied mainly classical piano for most of her life, jumping into the band provided exciting new challenges and possibilities like improvising and song-writing. She is having fun adding layers and depth to the group and exercising her creativity.

Influenced early on by Led Zeppelin and sampled drumbeats of 1980's hip-hop, Josh (drums) played in various blues and reggae groups which helped him develop a loose, groovy style akin to The Band's Levon Helm. Josh has always been drawn to playing music with more focus on lyrics and storytelling. He joined The Watchbirds after hearing a sampling of early practice recordings; he knew he would fit in perfectly as a member of a collaborative group, and his crafting/art skills add a personal and unique aesthetic.

Tom (bass) began playing drums at 15 and acquired his first bass guitar shortly thereafter. He soon found that progressing with one instrument informed his understanding of the other. Acting solely as a drummer whenever he joined a band, Tom continued to teach himself bass at home by studying virtuosos such as Les Claypool and Brian Ritchie. The basslines in The Watchbirds are a collaborative effort between Dan and Tom. Using a bouncy bass guitar to drive the rhythm as well as help carry the melody eliminates the need for a second guitar and creates a solid link between all the instruments.

After discussing it with her very surprised yet supportive husband, Jenny (vox) auditioned and immediately helped shape The Watchbird's sound and demeanor. As a marathon runner, Jenny is used to pushing herself when training. Yet she considers singing the most challenging endeavor she's ever undertaken. Being in a band is a new experience for her, but Jenny's incredible work ethic continues to drive the band forward as well as grow her skills as a singer.

Is it country blues, folk rock, or neo-traditional acoustic Americana? It's hard to say -- and anyway it wouldn't be true. Certainly you will hear echoes of everything from blues to country, both traditional and homemade, but do we really have to put a label on it? Let's just say it's good honest American music played by good honest American men -- and you just might just like it.

Devil in the Outhouse is composed of the surviving members of the largely overlooked and mostly mythical band "Syd Hartha & the Monkeyminds" that swept through Fort Atkinson beginning in the winter of 2010. After Syd decamped to India to seek enlightenment, Scott bolted to Colorado to find Nature, and Brian fled from Elkhorn to escape responsibility, it seemed like nirvana was pretty much out of the question. The image of Martin Luther grappling with Satan while in his own port-a-potty (look it up) seemed like suitable inspiration for the name of a band of lost and tortured souls -- creating music from the space between the yearning to be good and the hankering for a good time.

The Surviving Members of the Band:
Greg - guitar, vocals
Looper - harmonica, guitar, vocals
Blaine - fiddle, vocals
Dave - bass
Dan - washboard, suitcase, & kitchen utensils

Not successful enough to play music full time, all slog through menial day jobs specializing in mental fabrication -- i.e., making up stories about themselves to justify and romanticize their otherwise empty existences. Don't ask...

It you are still reading this far down the page we have to wonder about your reading priorities...and suggest you pick up a good book -- and maybe explore how to best use your rapidly dwindling days. Or perhaps seek counseling.

Terry Reid, 'Superlungs' as he's affectionately known, is without doubt one of the greatest rock/soul voices this country has ever produced or is indeed likely to. A Terry Reid concert should be a cherished memory for any self-respecting fan of the greats of British music.

Terry turned down the front man's job with Led Zeppelin, recommending his mate Robert Plant instead, a similar offer and rebuff to Deep Purple. Aretha Franklin's stated that The Beatles, Rolling Stones and Terry Reid were the best England had to offer in 1968. He underwent two World Tours with The Rolling Stones, US tours with Cream, UK tours with Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac, The Isle of White Festival in 1969 and Glastonbury in 1970, played at Mick Jagger's wedding, before soured record deals resulted in Terry leaving Britain for America nearly 40 years ago.

All true, but the full story includes numerous collaborations with Graham Nash, covers of Reid songs by Marianne Faithfull, The Hollies, The Raconteurs (the hugely popular 'Rich Kid Blues'), film soundtracks, including a song in George Clooney's recent film 'Up In The Air', and a catalogue of 6 studio albums, including the seminal album 'The River', re-released to critical acclaim in 2002 and the 1976 Nash produced 'Seed of Memory'. A Reid song 'Horses Through a Rainstorm' also features on CSN's box set.

More recently, Terry's been working with up and coming French band Shine and The Alabama 3. Following a Glastonbury return in 2009, he played a three night residency at Ronnie Scott's in London, one of only a handful of non-Jazz artists invited to help mark the legendary venue's 50th Anniversary. He played to packed houses, critical acclaim, and returned in 2010 and 2011 to sell out 3 consecutive nights.

In May 2011, he toured Ireland for the first time in 30 years and released a new live album 'Live In London' which included several previously unreleased tracks. Uncut Magazine presented a show featuring Terry at The Jazz Café and he toured England, including several sell-out shows. A return to Glastonbury, headlining the Spirit of 71 stage followed.

2012 turned out to be an important year for Terry Reid. In May 2012, Rumer featured Terry's song 'Brave Awakening' on her new album Boys Don't Cry, (which entered the UK Album Chart at No3). Terry returned to the Isle of Wight Festival for the first time since 1971 in June. In August 'America's Got Talent' Winner in 2010, Michael Grimm, included Terry's song 'Without Expression' on his latest album, Gumbo. In the spring, DJ Shadow had invited Terry to write the lyrics to a new track for his forthcoming 'Reconstructed' album -- This became the song 'Listen' and the official video got 400,000 plays on Youtube in late 2012.

Joe Richter sings from the heart, emotes his truth with sweet melodies and telegraphs no pretensions in his approach to the microphone. He loves the songcraft of his musical idol Billy Joel as well as Ryan Adams. Richter's early inspirations included Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Jack Johnson and, well, Elvis.

Richter's songs are personal yet hold broader meaning. A song to his wife, Emily, also rings true to a world wracked with violent events.

"We look around and we hear the sound of a world so down, the pain the hurt and the fear, our love drowns it out, I love the love that I feel for you, I love the way you love me too, I can't get over you."

Richter's first-ever full-band recording "Revival" showcases the sound he envisioned when entering the studio in 2017 with some of Milwaukee's finest session players. Joe's Milwaukee music pal Willy Porter lends solo guitar support on the lead single "Happy Tears" that dropped February 26th.

"I wanted to put a full band behind the music," says Richter.

Richter released a solo acoustic album in 2012 entitled "Grace." The title track of that EP was taken from a recording session in Nashville, TN at Castle Recording Studios in 2008. He also formed a band called Joe Richter and Those Fabulous Tremtones to play Milwaukee night club gigs.

Since then, the former factory assembly worker has applied himself tirelessly to gigs around southeast Wisconsin performing his own material as well as in-demand covers. He's willing to play "Piano Man" but he'd rather go deeper into the Joel library.

The new album's title connotes gospel, and Richter is fine with that, but says it's more about his musical transformation, improvement and growth. His day job changed as well when he returned to school to learn respiratory therapy, a skill he employs at a hospital in Milwaukee's central city.

In 2017, Richter debuted as lead vocalist in the Daryl Stuermer Band performing the songs of Genesis and Phil Collins. Stuermer has been a member of the Genesis and Collins touring bands for decades.

Not bad company for singer-songwriter Richter, who one Milwaukee radio disc jockey described as delivering songs "full of pure wonder, delivered with exquisite pop sensibility and lyrical phrasing like a heart-warming conversation."

Richter's "Revival" received several nominations in 2018 at the Radio Milwaukee Music Awards which included album of the year, artist of the year, and song of the year for "Wisconsin Fall", which finished as a finalist in the top 5.

He is poised to share his musical talents and heartfelt songs through a wider audience that gets just how much he wants to reach them with his songs.

The zeitgeist is a moving target, and Chris Barron has always been a crack shot. The New York songwriter is no longer the debutant who set out on the circuit's sharp end in 1988 with $100, a battered acoustic and a headful of the alt-rock anthems that would elevate Spin Doctors to global stardom. He's a veteran approaching 50, living in a world changed beyond recognition, compelled to write the music that chronicles the here-and-now. As far back as he can remember, he's had a hunger driving him onward, towards something just out of reach. In 2017, it propels him to Angels and One-Armed Jugglers (due out October 20 on Chrysanthemum Records), the culmination of a lifetime's craft and a record both contemporary and classic.

Ask Barron for a pivotal moment from his journey and he'll rewind the reels to a high-school music theory class, where a cherished teacher advised him to "learn the rules so that you can break them." Almost four decades later, that same irreverent wisdom hangs over Angels and One-Armed Jugglers. In a cynical era of songwriting by committee, these eleven songs rip up the verse/chorus template, eschew the stock lyrical themes and crash thrillingly among genres, as this fascinating songwriter acts entirely on instinct. "I've taken stock of everything I've learned about music," says Barron, "and I've got to a point now where I'm just following my nose. These songs range from old jazz standards to funky beer-hall folk tunes. But I've never really been that interested in genres. I'm just interested in songs. I think the reason it's so eclectic is because the songs were chosen more thematically than based on genre."

If the concept of Angels and One-Armed Jugglers began anywhere, it was born on the 59th Street Bridge, as Barron drove home from Queens. "I wrote that title track on the steering wheel," he reflects. "With that first line -- 'Angels and one-armed jugglers, sword-swallowers and smugglers' -- I was thinking about this woman who once lived next door to me, this old chorus girl. She was in her 80s at the time, always plying me with limoncello, telling me great stories about Broadway in the '40s. And I always find, if you fall in with the title early on, you start to make a record that's very thematic. But then, weirdly enough, I had a paralyzed vocal cord and I lost my voice. So I'm the one-armed juggler. Art imitates life.

"I guess this record is like the tray of oysters on a side table of the soirée they throw the evening before the comet hits the earth," Barron considers. "Y'know, thematically, it's about the cocktail party at the apocalypse, the decline of the American empire and just a bunch of lemmings in neck-ties going over the edge. But it's very personal, too, and there's a lot of my own sadness in there. Anybody can see the world is a deeply unfair place. It's the responsibility of the artist to give some kind of consolation. Yes, the world is fucked up. But there is still wonder. And there's still a twist of comedy."

When Barron returned from medical treatment to resume the project, he moved with all the urgency of a man sharply aware that life was short and health fragile. As it gathered pace, the album shifted shape and slipped categorization, evolving from the stripped-down solo acoustic approach that Barron had originally envisaged to the more ambitious production conceived by co-producer Roman Klun. All they needed now was the greatest studio band on earth. "So it was like, let's get Shawn Pelton," recalls Barron. "He's iconic in the United States as the drummer for Saturday Night Live and a renowned studio drummer as well. Then I went to see Jesse Murphy play bass with a friend. You play music for 40 years, you only need one look to know: this motherfucker can play. I played all the songs into my iPhone and sent those guys the files. The two of them show up with these charts they'd drawn up, with all nuances of my playing, all the funky little fills. It was such a musical compliment. I can't give enough credit to the players on this record."

Bolstered by a crack squad of first-call New York musicians, Angels and One-Armed Jugglers paints its immersive soundscapes in full Technicolor. And yet, Barron reminds us, beneath the multi-instrumental dazzle lie the kernel of songs that can be served raw with an acoustic guitar and voice alone. "They were written just me and a guitar, so they lend themselves to being interpreted just by a singer and guitarist. This record is really a return to what I started out doing. Y'know, I set out as a kooky, gawky kid with a guitar, and I'd like to go out and tour this record, just me and a guitar. It's come full circle."

Barron remembers those hardscrabble early days well, and he wouldn't change a moment of them. Rewind to the late-'80s, and having left a music and ceramics course at Bennington College, the fledgling songwriter was living above a New Jersey music store, toiling at a restaurant by day, before working all night on the songs that would shortly become alt-rock standards. "I wrote 'Two Princes' when I was 19," Barron says of the hits that powered the Spin Doctors' ascent, "and 'Little Miss Can't Be Wrong' when I was 21."

At the encouragement of local heroes, close friends and sometime flatmates Blues Traveler, Barron moved to New York and took on the bear-pit live circuit. No gig was too grisly, no hole-in-the-wall too humble. Life and limb were risked playing everywhere from the city's subway to its most bristling biker bars. Then came a happy twist of fate, as Barron fell in with guitarist Eric Schenkman, assembling the classic Spin Doctors line-up with Aaron Comess (drums) and Mark White (bass) and infiltrating the airwaves. With 1991's five-times-platinum Pocket Full of Kryptonite album, the band duly exploded, and while millions screamed those solid-gold choruses, there was more going on beneath the surface. "I'm so proud of Pocket Full of Kryptonite," says Barron. "We really captured the times we were living in. Historically, I think the Spin Doctors were perceived in the landscape of grunge and alternative music as this happy-go-lucky band, but in my mind, all of our songs are sad lyrics with happy music. If you delve into the lyrics, there's a lot of pain and longing in there."

With the ever-questing Barron at the bow, the Spin Doctors were bound to have a fascinating evolution. A four-album hot streak in the '90s established them as a heavyweight of the era, and since the line-up reconvened in 2001 (a reunion sparked by the imminent closure of the iconic Wetlands club, where they cut their teeth), there's been acclaim for 2005's Nice Talking to Me, before 2013's If the River Was Whiskey reconnected them with the Delta-inspired tunes from early days in New York's blues clubs. "I love being in the Spin Doctors," says Barron. "We've been playing together a very long time -- thousands of stage hours, time in the studio, time in vans -- and I feel like we're now in this really cool phase of our career. I have no intention of leaving the group. This solo project is really about learning and just expressing the broadness of my musicality. Because as a composer and a lyricist, I can't fit everything I do into the Spin Doctors."

You suspect there's no canvas large enough to capture the endless light bulbs pinging above the head of Chris Barron -- but the thrilling Angels and One-Armed Jugglers is the closest we'll get to a portrait of this visionary songwriter as a mature artist. "I'd be lying if I said that the response to this album doesn't matter to me," he considers. "I would like a lot of people to enjoy this record. It would mean a lot to me for it to be well received. Because in my heart of hearts, I really believe it's a beautiful record. I got lucky with this one. It's better than I could have imagined or hoped for. But whatever happens, I have the satisfaction of knowing I've made the best record that I'm capable of ..."

From early days growing up in the southeast Los Angeles suburb of Downey, California under the tutelage of T-Bone Walker and Big Joe Turner to their emergence as central figures in the eclectic LA punk/rock scene of the early '80s to their current status as internationally-renowned influences in their own right, the Blasters have spent their lives exploring and expressing the deep and diverse musical legacy that is best described by the title of their first album: American Music.

A performance by today's Blasters--vocalist-guitarist Phil Alvin, drummer Bill Bateman, bassist John Bazz, and guitarist Keith Wyatt--reflects influences that range from George Jones and Carl Perkins to Howlin' Wolf, James Brown and Bo Diddley. The band's 1980 debut album American Music (Rollin' Rock) was a powerful collection of fresh, distinctive performances that shattered the artificial boundaries between blues, rockabilly, country, R&B and rock & roll. The next three albums for Slash/Warner Bros. (The Blasters, Non-Fiction, and Hard Line) increasingly featured the unique songwriting voice of original guitarist Dave Alvin as the band's lineup expanded to include pianist Gene Taylor plus saxophonists Steve Berlin and New Orleans legend Lee Allen ("the man who put a saxophone in rock & roll"). As the Blasters' fame grew, they began to draw accolades from artists as diverse as Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton and Queen, and in turn the band encouraged and supported still up-and-coming LA musical peers such as Dwight Yoakum and Los Lobos

In 1986, Dave Alvin left the band to pursue a solo career, and over the next decade a series of renowned guitarists including Billy Zoom, Michael "Hollywood Fats" Mann, Greg "Smokey" Hormel, and James Intveld filled the position. Phil Alvin simultaneously expanded his own musical efforts with the release of two acclaimed solo albums, Unsung Stories (Slash/Warner) in 1986 and County Fair 2000 (Hightone) in 1994.

In 1996, current guitarist Keith Wyatt joined the lineup and the Blasters continued touring steadily in the US and Europe before returning to the studio in 2004 to record 4-11-44 (Rainman). After the departure of drummer Jerry Angel, the band reunited with original member Bill Bateman and subsequently released their 2012 CD Fun on Saturday Night (Rip Cat). Meanwhile, the Blasters' catalog was renewed with reissues of American Music along with two Slash/Warner compilations (Testament and The Blasters Collection) and the live recordings Trouble Bound and Going Home Live (Shout Factory).

Blasters shows have been described as "a cross between Creedence and the Clash," with a display of passion and energy only deepened by decades of experience. For all of the ways in which the world has changed in the past few decades, one thing is still guaranteed: the Blasters play American Music.

You've heard our name, you've seen our records, our t-shirts and our stickers. We're probably the favorite band of someone you know and yet maybe we're still a mystery to you. Well my friend, that's okay, you're at the right place to get to know the greatest rock-n-roll band in the world, The Supersuckers.

And the next time you see the 'Supersuckers' name, whether it's in the record store, online somewhere, or on the marquee at your local rock club, know that there's some quality, honest, ass-kicking, hard working individuals behind it all trying to make your life a little better through the "Evil Powers Of Rock-n-Roll" (and the occasional detour into the country music, of course) and we'd love nothing better than to have you there with us as! Just remember to wear clean underwear, because we're gonna rock your pants right off of you.

Since his stunning debut, Thunderstorms and Neon Signs in 1995, Wayne "The Train" Hancock has been the undisputed king of Juke Joint Swing - that alchemist's dream of honky-tonk, western swing, blues, Texas rockabilly and big band. Always an anomaly among his country music peers, Wayne's uncompromising interpretation of the music he loves is in fact what defines him: steeped in traditional but never "retro;" bare bones but bone shaking; hardcore but with a swing. Like the comfortable crackle of a Wurlitzer 45 jukebox, Wayne is the embodiment of genuine, house rocking, hillbilly boogie. Wayne makes music fit for any road house anywhere. With his unmistakable voice, The Train's reckless honky-tonk can move the dead. If you see him live (and he is ALWAYS touring), you'll surely work up some sweat stains on that snazzy Rayon shirt you're wearing. If you buy his records, you'll be rolling up your carpets, spreading sawdust on the hardwood floor, and dancing until the downstairs neighbors are banging their brooms on the ceiling. Call him a throwback if you want, but all Wayne Hancock wants to do, is simply ENTERTAIN you, and what's wrong with that?

The LA Weekly calls Clownvis Presley "Better than the real Elvis". A bold statement indeed, but when it comes to quick wit, incredibly catchy songs, and genuine showmanship, its safe to say Clownvis has earned the title "The King of Clowns". From the sideshow at Coney Island to the hottest comedy events in Los Angeles and everything in between, Clownvis is consistently brining his unique blend of comedy, song, and magic to stages across America.

Thanks to a controversial appearance on NBC's America's Got Talent, Clownvis is now familiar to millions of people around the planet. His phenomenally outrageous audition is a must see (check Youtube). Following this sensational break through, Clownvis has appeared on Comedy Central, The Tom Green Show, Sirius XM, and top FM stations across the country. He tours and performers regularly with such high profile acts as Mac Sabbath, Unknown Hinson, Insane Clown Posse, Neil Hamburger, Tim Heidecker and more.

For over 50 years, John Mayall has served as a pioneer of blues music, rightly earning him the title, "The Godfather of British Blues".
In 2013, John signed with producer Eric Corne's label, Forty Below Records, and has since been experiencing a true artistic and career renaissance.

The revival continues with the release of a brilliant new studio album Talk About That, produced by John and Eric at the famed House of Blues Studios in Encino, California. Joining Mayall (vocals, keyboards, harmonica and guitar), Greg Rzab (bass), Jay Davenport (drums) and Rocky Athas (guitar) as special guest is legendary guitarist Joe Walsh, who plays on two tracks, "The Devil Must Be Laughing" and "Cards on the Table," both John Mayall compositions. "We got a message through the studio owner that Joe wanted to come by and possibly play on a track or two as a guest," recalls Mayall. "Who was I to say no to that idea! So, he turned up at noon on the second day and with only a quick listen, plugged in and we did the song in one take. The second song closely followed, and with a smile and a quick photo, he was done and on his way. What a kick for all of us that day!"

For Joe Walsh, playing on a session with one of his musical heroes also held a special place. "It has been a bucket-list item since 1970 to play with John Mayall," he states. "John had a run of GREAT British guitarists (one after another) with his 'Bluesbreakers' albums, and that's how many of us in the States became aware of them. Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor - I studied them all for hours and became a much better guitarist as a result. The albums were legendary stuff and I have wanted to work with John for years and years, wondering what it would be like."

"Finally got the chance - and he was the complete gentleman and fine, fine musician I had always hoped he would be. When you meet a hero who helped shape your career - it's a wonderful feeling to find they're even cooler than you always thought they were." The album contains eleven tracks: eight originals, plus covers from Memphis soul music songwriter Bettye Crutcher ("It's Hard Going Up"), blues great Jimmy Rogers ("Goin' Away Baby") and rock singer/songwriter Jerry Lynn Williams ("Don't Deny Me"). It also showcases a three-piece horn section that adds extra punch on several tracks, including the infectious New Orleans-flavored "Gimme Some of that Gumbo."

The release of Talk About That comes on the heels of Mayall's internationally-acclaimed, Find A Way To Care in 2015. "Listeners who value a diverse, lyrical taste and a heavy dollop of classic blues music enjoyed Find a Way to Care, an album that fulfilled on every level." (Blues Rock Review), and A Special Life released in 2014. "I'd easily put this one among Mayall's best efforts - and that includes 'Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton,' 'A Hard Road' and 'Blues from Laurel Canyon!'" (about.com)

In April 2015, John and Forty Below thrilled the blues world with the release of the historical Bluesbreakers album, Live In 1967, featuring the three original members of Fleetwood Mac: Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood. "Sunken treasure doesn't get much better" (Classic Rock Magazine). Live in 1967 - Volume Two followed in 2016 and was hailed as a "welcome second helping" by Rolling Stone, and "essential listening" by Blues Music Magazine.

John Mayall was born on the 29th of November 1933 and grew up in a village not too far from Manchester, England. It was here as a teenager that he first became attracted to the jazz and blues 78s in his father's record collection. Initially it was all about guitarists such as Big Bill Broonzy, Brownie McGhee, Josh White and Leadbelly. However once he heard the sounds of boogie woogie piano giants Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis, his desire to play in that style was all he could think of. At the age of 14, when he went to Manchester's Junior School of Art, he had access to a piano for the first time and he began to learn the basics of this exciting music. He also found time to continue learning the guitar and, a couple of years later, the harmonica, inspired by Sonny Terry, Sonny Boy Williamson and Little Walter.

After his two years at art school, he joined the art department of a major department store while starting to build up his own record collection that was to be his source of inspiration. At age eighteen, when he was due for National Service, he spent three years in the Royal Engineers as an office clerk in the south of England and in Korea all the time playing whenever he got a chance. As no one seemed to be interested in this type of music, John felt pretty much of an outsider throughout his twenties up until 1962 when the news broke in the British music magazine Melody Maker that Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies had opened a club in Ealing devoted to blues music. After Britain's ten year traditional jazz boom had about run its course, a new generation was ready for something new. Out came the amplifiers, guitars and harmonicas and out came young enthusiasts from all over the country eager to form their own groups.

This was all the encouragement thirty-year old John needed and, giving up his graphic design job, he moved from Manchester to London and began putting musicians together under the banner of the Bluesbreakers. Although things were rough at first, the music quickly took off thanks to the popularity of the Rolling Stones, Georgie Fame, Manfred Mann, The Animals and Spencer Davis with a young Steve Winwood. John also backed blues greats, John Lee Hooker, T-Bone Walker, Eddie Boyd and Sonny Boy Williamson on their first English club tours.

After a couple of years and many personnel changes, Eric Clapton quit the Yardbirds and John quickly offered him the job as his new guitarist. Although John had previously released a couple of singles and a live LP for Decca, the now classic collaboration between Eric and John resulted in the all-time best-selling classic album, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton. However, by the time it was entering the charts, Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce had left to form Cream. So began a succession of future stars who would define their roots under John's leadership before leaving to form their own groups. Peter Green, John McVie and Mick Fleetwood became Fleetwood Mac. Andy Fraser formed Free, and Mick Taylor joined the Rolling Stones.

In 1969, with his popularity blossoming in the USA, John caused somewhat of a stir with the release of a drummer-less acoustic live album entitled The Turning Point, from which his song, "Room To Move" was destined to become a rock classic. Attracted by the West Coast climate and culture, John then made his permanent move from England to Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles and began forming bands with American musicians. Throughout the '70s, John became further revered for his many jazz/rock/blues innovations featuring such notable performers as Blue Mitchell, Red Holloway, Larry Taylor, and Harvey Mandel.

In 1982, motivated by nostalgia and fond memories, John decided to re-form the original Bluesbreakers. Mick Fleetwood was unavailable at the time so John hired drummer Colin Allen to join with John McVie and Mick Taylor for a couple of tours and a video concert film entitled Blues Alive. Featured greats were Albert King, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells and Etta James. By the time Mick and John had returned to their respective careers, public reaction had convinced Mayall that he should honor his driving blues roots. In Los Angeles, he selected his choices for a new incarnation of the Bluesbreakers. Officially launched in 1984, it included future stars in their own right, guitarists Coco Montoya and Walter Trout.

Throughout the '80s and '90s, John's popularity went from strength to strength with a succession of dynamic albums such as Behind The Iron Curtain, Chicago Line, A Sense of Place, and the Grammy-nominated Wake Up Call that featured guest artists Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Albert Collins and Mick Taylor.

In 1993, Texas guitarist Buddy Whittington joined the Bluesbreakers and, for the next ten years, energized the band with his unique and fiery ideas. Making his recording debut on Mayall's Spinning Coin album, he proved to be more than equal to following in the footsteps of his illustrious predecessors. Other modern classics followed; Blues For the Lost Days and Padlock On The Blues, the latter featuring a rare collaboration with his close friend, John Lee Hooker. On Along For The Ride, Mayall re-teamed with a number of his former mates, including Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Mick Fleetwood and John McVie, as well as ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, Steve Miller, Billy Preston, Steve Cropper, Otis Rush, Gary Moore and Jeff Healey. The younger generation was well represented by teenage guitar sensations Shannon Curfman and Jonny Lang. In 2002, Stories debuted the Billboard blues charts at #1.

At a 70th Birthday celebration in aid of UNICEF in Liverpool a concert was filmed, recorded and released as a DVD and double CD in December 2003. Along with the Bluesbreakers, it featured old friends Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Chris Barber. The BBC also aired an hour-long documentary on John's life and career entitled The Godfather of British Blues to coincide with the release of Road Dogs. In 2005, John was awarded an OBE on The Queen's Honours list. In the Spring of 2007, John Mayall's 56th album release, In The Palace Of The King, was an entire studio album that honored and paid tribute to the music of Mayall's long-time hero of the blues, Freddie King. All garnered great reviews, critical and popular acclaim and represented Mayall's ongoing mastery of the Blues and his continuing importance in contemporary music.

In addition, over the last ten years, Mayall released live recordings on his own online label, Private Stash Records. (Some still available from his website johnmayall.com.) They included Time Capsule (containing historic 1957-62 live tapes), UK Tour 2K, (from a 2000 British tour), Boogie Woogie Man, (a selection of solo performances), Cookin' Down Under, (a live DVD from Australia) and No Days Off, (another British live show) and a 3 volume CD set of live performances covering the years 1970 to 1998 entitled Historic Live Shows.

In October 2008, John made the decision to permanently retire the name "Bluesbreakers" and move on to make a brand new start. It was a sad occasion to say farewell to Buddy and the guys after twenty years of great music and camaraderie but things had reached another turning point. This caused quite a stir in blues circles and led to rumors about total retirement. Happily for the fans, early in 2009 Eagle Records called upon John to come up with a new album. Feeling much revived after a couple of months off the road, he put together a new band for the project.

A few years ago, Buddy Whittington had introduced John to a fellow Texas guitarist, Rocky Athas and he recalled how impressed he'd been at the time. Luckily he answered John's call and was eager to come on board for the proposed album. With the need for a rhythm section of dynamic strength, John turned to bassist Greg Rzab who recommended his fellow Chicagoan Jay Davenport on drums. Finally, the three guys were put together with keyboardist Tom Canning and within two days of meeting up in Los Angeles, the album Tough was in the can. It had taken all of three days in the studio and ever since its release, and a growing schedule of world tours, a new era was born. Soon after its release Tom left to pursue other projects.

A leaner four piece line-up gave John more room to stretch out as an instrumentalist and the band's chemistry hit new heights. For the next seven years, John and the band continued to tour extensively throughout the world, and racked up their usual target of over a hundred shows per year. In 2010 a concert in London was filmed, and Live in London was released as a double CD and DVD through Private Stash.

After being invited to do a guest spot on Walter Trout's latest album, John met engineer/producer Eric Corne. John was so impressed that he asked Eric to record his new album A Special Life. Greg, Jay and Rocky flew in for the sessions which took less than a week to record and the end result was one of John's best albums ever, with it's deep devotion to blues and roots music. The album was released in 2014 to rave reviews, followed by an extensive tour of North America, Europe, and The UK to celebrate John's 80th birthday Find A Way To Care followed in 2015 and was equally well received.

Early in 2016 the co-producing team of John Mayall and Eric Corne assembled at the House of Blues studio in Los Angeles to record the new album Talk About That. This time around John wrote most of the songs that cover a wide range of exciting new material and are enhanced by some rock solid horn arrangements. The album with special guest Joe Walsh was released in January 2017.

2016 brought yet another change in the evolving Mayall history when serious Texas thunderstorms prevented Rocky Athas from making a festival date and John, Greg and Jay were compelled to perform as a trio. As fate would have it, the sound they came up with lent an amazing new slant to John's music and subsequently led him to explore the possibilities of making music as a trio. Unfortunately, this would mean a guitarist would now not be required as John was heading in a new direction. A sad parting of the ways, but Rocky has been supportive of John's decision. For information on what's happening next for him please check his website at: www.rockyathas.com.

So with a very full calendar of touring booked from coast to coast and all over the world, the John Mayall saga continues with his music as vital as it has ever been.

The Dick Dale Phenomenon. His style is something different and unique. Since his first appearances Balboa, Ca. at the famed Rendezvous Ballroom, he has set and broken attendance records everywhere he's performed. His appearances at the Rendezvous Ballroom broke every existing record for the Ballroom by drawing capacity crowds of over four thousand screaming dancing fans every weekend each night down on the Balboa peninsula.

Dick Dale invented surf music in the 1950's. Not the '60's as is commonly believed. He was given the title "King of the Surf Guitar" by his fellow surfers with whom he surfed with from sun-up to sun-down. He met Leo Fender the guitar and amplifier Guru and Leo asked Dale to play his newly creation, the Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar. The minute Dale picked up the guitar, Leo Fender broke into uncontrolled laughter and disbelief, he was watching Dale play a right handed guitar upside down and backwards, Dale was playing a right handed guitar left handed and changing the chords in his head then transposing the chords to his hands to create a sound never heard before.

Leo Fender gave the Fender Stratocaster along with a Fender Amp to Dale and told him to beat it to death and tell him what he thought of it. Dale took the guitar and started to beat it to death, and he blew up Leo Fender's amp and blew out the speaker. Dale proceeded to blow up forty nine amps and speakers; they would actually catch on fire. Leo would say, 'Dick, why do you have to play so loud?' Dale would explain that he wanted to create the sound of Gene Krupa the famous jazz drummer that created the sounds of the native dancers in the jungles along with the roar of mother nature's creature's and the roar of the ocean.

Leo Fender kept giving Dale amps and Dale kept blowing them up! Till one night Leo and his right hand man Freddy T. went down to the Rendezvous Ballroom on the Balboa Peninsula in Balboa, California and stood in the middle of Four Thousand screaming dancing Dick Dale fans and said to Freddy, I now know what Dick Dale is trying to tell me. Back to the drawing board. A special 85 watt output transformer was made that peaked 100 watts when dale would pump up the volume of his amp, this transformer would create the sounds along with Dale's style of playing, the kind of sounds that Dale dreamed of. BUT! they now needed a speaker that would handle the power and not burn up from the volume that would come from Dale's guitar.

Leo, Freddy and Dale went to the James B. Lansing speaker company, and they explained that they wanted a fifteen inch speaker built to their specifications. That speaker would soon be known as the 15'' JBL -D130 speaker. It made the complete package for Dale to play through and was named the Single Showman Amp. When Dale plugged his Fender Stratocaster guitar into the new Showman Amp and speaker cabinet, Dale became the first creature on earth to jump from the volume scale of a modest quiet guitar player on a scale of 4 to blasting up through the volume scale to TEN! That is when Dale became the "Father of Heavy Metal" as quoted from Guitar Player Magazine. Dale broke through the electronic barrier limitations of that era!

Dale still wanted to go further, and as the crowds increased, Dale's volume increased, but he still wanted a bigger punch with thickness in the sound so that it would pulsate into the audience and leave them breathless. The JBL-D130 was doing its job until Dale froze it in the frame that held the speaker, the speaker cone would twist from the heavy playing from Dale and it would soon twist and stop to fluctuate back n forth.

Leo, Freddy and Dale went back to the JBL speaker company and told them to rubberize the front ridge of the speaker allowing it to push forward and backward from the signal of Dale's guitar without cocking and twisting. The new updated version was called the JBL D-130F; the F stood for Fender.

Leo, Freddy and Dale designed a speaker cabinet and in which they installed 2 -15''-JBL-D130F's. This caused Leo Fender to have to create a new and more powerful output transformer, they would call it the Dick Dale Transformer and it was made by the Triad Company.

This became the 100 watt output transformer that would actually peak 180 watts. Nothing like this had ever been done before in the world of guitars and amplifiers. This became known as the Dual-Showman Piggy Back Amp. This is why Dick Dale is called the Father of all the power Players in the world!

It is a Phenomena, that Dale is still playing with not only the same vengeance as he did in the 50's, but his playing is unleashed and shredding into the 90's with a focus and power as if from mother nature. He shares the stage with fellow players of all generations up into the alternative's of the 90's. Being completely self taught, Dick Dale plays left handed upside down which was a result of holding the guitar left-handed. The strings became upside-down, chords are designed for right handed players making it very difficult for a left handed player unless he were to change the strings for a left handed guitar, something that Dale never did.

Dale is also a master at the Acoustic, Electronic, Bass and Spanish Guitars'. As well as the Ukulele, Banjo, Drums, Piano, Organ, Electronic Keyboard, Harpsichord, Trumpet, Trombone, Saxophone, Harmonica, Xylophone and, believe it or not... the Accordion!

Dale was also responsible for another creation to the world of guitar players, "The Fender Tank Reverb". As Dale sang in his shows, he found that he did not have a vibrato in his voice, and he did not like the straight flat dry sound. to sustain his vocal notes, he turned to an old Hammond organ and found a reverb unit and showed it to Leo Fender and together they came up with the "Fender Tank Reverb". Dale then plugged a Shure Dynamic Bird cage Microphone into it and as Dale sang, his voice took on a very rich, sexy and full sound. Later, Dale then plugged his Fender Stratocaster guitar into the Reverb Tank to sustain his guitar notes which became Dale's trademark sound.) (NOTE) Dale had already been titled "King of the Surf Guitar" by his surfer friends before his creation of the Fender Reverb, Dale's first album called "Surfer's Choice" was the first Surfing album to be commercially sold with a picture of Dale surfing by the pier in San Clemente, Ca. with a surfing title on it. This album alone sold over eighty-eight thousand albums in the late 50's and today in the 90's it would be like 4 million. There was not one song on that album that had a Reverb for effects, everything was played with nothing but Dale's sheer force and power. A bit of trivia, Dale's recording of "Miserlou" became the title song for Quentin Tarantino's Blockbuster movie "Pulp Fiction".

Dick Dale has been called one of the hardest working men in show business. In the past five years he has maintained a heavy concert tour and public appearance schedule throughout the world. Focusing in Europe, Australia, Japan, Canada, South America and the U.S.

Doug Stone, a contemporary country star, found his mark in music as a lonesome baritone balladeer, although he was very adept at hard-up-tempo country. Doug began at age five learning guitar from his mother an avid singer and guitarist. At age seven he was given the opportunity, by his mother, to open for Loretta Lynn. Life presented Doug a drastic change with the divorce of his mother and father. Doug, as result, moved in with his dad. As his youthful years past, Doug played at skating rinks, local bars or any money making project to help his father make ends meet. In the daytime Doug worked as a mechanic, something else that came to him naturally.

Doug had already past the age of 30 when a Nashville manager paired him up with Epic, his first record label. He debuted in 1990 with the single, "I'd Be Better Off (In a Pine Box)," the first release from his 1990 self-titled debuted album "Doug Stone" for Epic records. This album produced a handful of chart-topping singles. Following these songs was his first number one, "In a Different Light". In addition, the single was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Country Song. Both this album and its successor, 1991's I Thought It Was You, earned a platinum certification from The Recording Industry Association of America for U.S. shipments of one million copies. Two more albums for Epic, 1992's From The Heart and 1994's More Love, were each certified gold. Stone has charted --twenty-two singles on Hot Country Songs, with his greatest chart success coming between 1990 and 1995. In this time span, he charted eight Number Ones including: "In a Different Light", "A Jukebox and a Country Song", "Too Busy Being in Love", "Addicted to a Dollar, and "Why Didn't I think of That" to name a few, plus fifteen more Top Five singles.

In early 1992, Stone found that one of the arteries in his heart was almost entirely blocked. He underwent quadruple bypass surgery and took time off to recover, just as his third album, "From the Heart," was released. With a gold certification for shipments of 500,000 copies, "From the Heart" included two Number Ones among its four singles: "Too Busy Being in Love" and "Why Didn't I Think of That." The other two singles were "Warning Labels" and "Made for Lovin' You," at No. 4 and No.6 respectively. One month later Stone released an album titled "The First Christmas."

In June 1994 Stone discovered that he was having breathing problems, which were affecting his singing. Doctors at Vanderbilt University's medical center failed to find any problems in his throat. A second consultation revealed a lump in his nostril but amazingly it was not cancerous. While Stone was undergoing treatment, his Greatest Hits, Vol.1 compilation was released in late 1994.This album included the new song "Little Houses, "which debuted on the charts in October 1994 and peaked at No. 7 in early 1995.

Stone made his acting debut in the 1995 film "Gordy." "Gordy," a heartwarming story featured Doug as Luke McAllister, a struggling musician. Gordy paved the way for stone's acting career and as well featured several of his songs. In 2011 Doug moved on to another movie role, "When the Storm God Rides," a Thomas E. Kelly film.

Always the adventurer, in 2000 Doug suffered a broken ankle and a cracked rib after crashing his ultra light plane in Robertson County, TN. An experience that would put him back in the studio recording the self-inspired single "Caught Dead Living", based off of Doug's "larger than life personality", and love for living life to it's fullest.

In April 2012 Doug Stone and Dr. Gerald Murray of Muscle Shoals, Alabama signed a management contract. Murray is the former manager of George Jones and the late Vern Gosdin. In 2014 Doug released the album "Doug Stone 'The Demo's': 20 Years of Life".

Now- 28 years, 8 #1 singles, 15 Top 5 singles, and millions and millions of album sales later- the singer of timeless country hits like "A Jukebox with a Country Song" and "In a different Light" is still running the roads hard performing to dedicated fans all across the nation. With a new record slated for release in the Fall of 2018, Doug Stone continues to produce pure country gold.

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