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
Thanks For Thinking Of Me But It’s Alright is the closing track of Side 1 from the self-titled Pulse album from 1969. After it was written and we arranged it in late 1968, it was also almost always Pulse’s opening tune in concert. The group Pulse was based in New Haven, Connecticut, more specifically Wallingford at … Continue reading Pulse: Thanks For Thinking Of Me …
About six months after writing a series of pieces in 2009 on Cream concerts I’ve been to, I was contacted by Ken Melville. Ken was in the band Catharsis in Boston in September, 1967 and opened for Cream for their one-week run of concerts at the Psychedelic Supermarket in Kenmore Square, just a stone’s throw … Continue reading Cream at the Psychedelic Supermarket, 1967 & more
After the breakup of Cream in 1968, it became a point of fascination to see what was next for the three members. Eric Clapton got together with Steve Winwood to form Blind Faith, which lasted from late 1968 to the end of the summer of ’69, producing one album and an ill-fated tour. He then … Continue reading Concerts, Vol. 12: Jack Bruce and Friends
John Mayall has been an ambassador of the blues for parts of seven decades. At 76, Mayall is still rocking and commandeering yet another blues outfit of accomplished musicians. At the Infinity Music Hall in Norfolk Sunday, Mayall ran through a two-hour set after quietly selling CDs and graciously signing anything from tickets to album covers … Continue reading Mayall still living in the blues
At various times in his career, Steve Winwood had gone extended periods during which he rarely played live, the most recent from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. But since his exceptional return album, About Time in 2004, he has toured relentlessly in the States and Europe, including stints with Eric Clapton. I’ve seen … Continue reading Return engagement for Steve Winwood
Winter and spring of 1968 in Boston was a particularly memorable and remarkable time for me as far as the music to which I was exposed. My group Pulse opened for the Lovin’ Spoonful at the Back Bay Theatre; I saw Michael Bloomfield’s Electric Flag at the Psychedelic Supermarket, where I had earlier first seen … Continue reading Concerts Vol. 11: Traffic
Last year I picked five albums I considered the best of the year. This time I’m upping it to 10 with a few bubbling under and some added tidbits. 1. Already Free, The Derek Trucks Band: Traditional blues with modern sensibilities and influences from jazz, roots and world music, all played by an array of accomplished … Continue reading The 10 best for ’09
Bonnie Bramlett came back to singing in earnest in the early 2000’s after years of pursuing an acting career. She started as the first white Ikette with Ike and Tina Turner in the mid-1960s, then played a big role in the highly influencial Delaney & Bonnie and Friends with her husband at the time Delaney Bramlett. The … Continue reading Track of the week: Bonnie Bramlett
It’s not common that a gifted songwriter is also an excellent interpreter of other’s songs. Sure, many of our great songwriters will occasionally record cover versions and quite well, but few do it on a consistently wide-ranging basis and do it with few peers. Rosanne Cash does that, perhaps as well or better than anybody. … Continue reading Rosanne Cash and The List