In 1969 and 1970 I saw Jethro Tull in concert three times. Looking back on the first show, the venue seems so unlikely given their later worldwide success. It was in a small club under a Pegnataro’s Supermarket just off the highway in downtown New Haven, Connecticut. The place was called The Stone Balloon and was fashioned … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 7: Jethro Tull
The first in a series that will focus on concerts I’ve seen and serve as companion pieces to the Connecticut rock ‘n roll scene posts I started with Connecticut’s Own and Pulse, Part 2. I’ve been to quite a few concerts over the years, many influential, some inspiring. The earliest big venue shows were in the … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 1
I had always wanted to see Les Dudek in concert but never had the opportunity during the time he released four of the best solo albums of the late 1970s and early ’80s. Thursday night at The Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk, Conn., I got my chance. Dudek, a somewhat unheralded and almost forgotten guitar … Continue reading Les Dudek blazing a trail on tour
Experience Hendrix, the group headed by Janie Hendrix, the adopted daughter of Jimi Hendrix’s father Al, oversees Hendrix’s body of work and recently struck a new agreement with Sony after years of working with MCA. The first joint venture from the two entities is Valleys Of Neptune, 12 previously unreleased tracks by Hendrix, most recorded … Continue reading Jimi’s legacy lives on
Poco, one of the first country-rock bands to achieve artistic and some commercial success in the late 1960s and early ’70s, is certainly not completely under the radar. But their early catalogue to some extent apparently is. The group that came from the splintering of Buffalo Springfield, with singer/songwriter-guitarist Richie Furay and guitarist-producer Jim Messina from … Continue reading Under The Radar: Poco
From the opening double guitar lines of the Blind Faith classic Had To Cry Today, Steve Winwood’s and Eric Clapton’s performance on their recently released CD/DVD Live From Madison Square Garden is electrifying. Not electrifying in a showy, glitzy, glamorous sense, but in a musical sense. The two giants whose careers started in the 1960s … Continue reading Winwood, Clapton after all these years
In response to a previous post about Blind Faith, a friend expressed interest in the genesis of the infamous 1969 album cover, how it all came about. Below is a rather long excerpt from an even longer note about the creation of the Blind Faith cover by Bob Seidemann, the photographer who came up with the concept … Continue reading The story behind the Blind Faith cover