New Orleans being the musical hotbed that it is, it’s not surprising when you hear of a band coming out of the Crescent City. It’s even less surprising when the band in question plays a style of funky acid-jazz. What is shocking is that a group of such disparate souls…
Combine the most nauseating aspects of Florida kitsch — things like pink flamingos, pastel buildings, and seascape paintings — and extreme amounts of drugs, massive gunfights that result in staggering body counts, and good old, stark-raving insanity and you have… well, actually, you have the state of Florida. But no…
It’s that time of year again, the beginning of May, when thousands flock to the shores of the Intracoastal in West Palm Beach to hear more bands than you can shake a mic stand at. This year’s SunFest features national acts ranging from blues rockers Bonnie Raitt and Edgar Winter…
Three years ago, Sean LaPierre was toolin’ around Fort Lauderdale, just minding his own business, when he was rear-ended by a semi truck that seemed in no hurry to slow down. Now, in most situations, that would be the end of the story. But LaPierre didn’t wind up a grease…
Summer evening in South Florida and the setting sun beats down like the last angry glare in a dying man’s eyes. But this wasn’t any summer’s eve, nor was this any angry glare — there was a mystery to be solved. You could feel it in the air, thick as…
Since dropping out of the Nighthawks in 1987, unable to take the strain of their admittedly ludicrous 300-night-a-year touring schedule, Jimmy Thackery has offered hard-driving blues rock that appeals to fans of everyone from Stevie Ray Vaughan to Muddy Waters to Bruce Springsteen. His guitar work is on par with…
With DDT, brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson, along with bassist Paul Taylor, created heavy thrash-rock that was a dozen generations removed from blues and early rock. But then a sax, a female vocalist, and a keyboardist were added. The DDT Big Band was born. And when Taylor left to join…
In what must be just a strange coincidence, a recent rash of big-name comedians have given up the television world that made them household names to hit the stage and get back to their roots. Jerry Seinfeld had a staggeringly successful comedic tour recently. At National Car Rental Center, it…
What with most reggae legends either deceased (Peter Tosh, Bob Marley), retired (Toots Hibbert, Leonard Dillon), or a mere shadow of what they once were (Black Uhuru, Third World), it’s nice to see a living legend who’s still right on the money. Beres Hammond has been regarded as one of…
Fans of backwoods, down-and-dirty swamp funk and soul have a new savior in Florida’s own Mofro, even if they don’t realize it yet. And according to Mofro’s lead singer and songwriter, J.J. Grey, the masses’ ignorance is hardly surprising. “The only thing you hear on the radio is teen rock…
The Reverend Horton Heat brings his traveling rockabilly revival to South Florida this week, with disciples Nashville Pussy working up the crowd to a fervent rush before Heat’s sermon. The whole white-trash, gearhead greaser crowd that has grown slowly yet steadily over the past decade — with perhaps a bit…
For a lot of people, the name Joan Baez is a bit like that of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars movie: Young people have never heard it, and older people nod their heads knowingly and say things like, “Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long,…
Some might say Boynton Beach doesn’t have a lot going for it. Like Lake Worth or Delray Beach, it’s one of those stopover points between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, a small part of the great South Florida megalopolis. But Boynton Beachers (Beachites? Beachians?) would say otherwise. The city…
When Daddy is recognized as one of the primary purveyors of jazz-rock, you’d expect a little of that fusion dust to rub off on the kiddies. But though Larry Coryell’s place in history is secure as a founder of the genre, son Murali Coryell seems content to pursue the same…
Is there anything in the world of jazz-funk that Robert Walter can’t do? Following a five-year stint as keyboardist of the seminal club/dance/acid-jazz/impossible to categorize Greyboy Allstars, Walter tossed out a deceptively simple solo album, Spirit of ’70, which featured the unfortunately underrated sax skills of Gary Bartz on such…
Those who spent the past couple of decades wondering whatever happened to Dan Hicks finally got their answer a few years back when Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks released Beatin’ the Heat, their first studio album since 1978. The guitarist, drummer, singer, songwriter, and bandleader first put together the…
You know you’re listening to a bona fide, dyed-in-the-wool, old-school bluesman when he’s got a cool nickname. Usually, it involves some combination of blindness, geography, size, and instrument of choice, such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy, Little Walter, Guitar Slim, Pinetop Smith, and a host…
After years of constant touring, the fine folks from Southern Culture on the Skids have ascended to become the kings (and queen) of white-trash rock. Surprisingly, considering the band released its first full-length album in 1991 and remained well under most all radar until 1996’s Dirt Track Date, the recorded…
By definition, nostalgia is hopelessly uncool. After all, whatever’s hip is usually whatever’s new — unless the current hip trend is retro, in which case what’s hip is what people think might have been cool a few decades ago. Confusing, huh? But being trendy is a full-time job. In the…
Pity that most people’s knowledge of Irish rock ‘n’ roll begins and ends with U2. This week’s Irish Fest 2002 demonstrates that the Emerald Isle has a lot more to offer than grandiose arena rock, particularly Saturday on the main stage, where the evening’s lineup includes the Saw Doctors. Never…
There’s an old joke about Deadheads that if anyone ever took their pot away, they’d wonder why the music was so crappy. The same could be said of Parrotheads, only with alcohol instead of weed. (Well, maybe just a little weed.) Both concert events have a “scene” — the parking…
Bob’s been gone for more than 20 years now, but thanks to a brood almost as large as his song list and, for all practical purposes, a canonization in his homeland of Jamaica, the man’s music lives on. The Bob Marley “One Foundation” Caribbean Festival this weekend features both a…
