The BoDeans came rolling through Cleveland last fall for a mother of a show that featured legendary drummer Kenny Aronoff behind the kit. At that time, I spoke with longtime BoDeans vocalist/songwriter Kurt Neumann and I was interested to find out what it was that was bringing them through town. As it turns out, the […]
Tag: Interviews
Del Amitri’s Justin Currie Explores The ‘Lower Reaches’ With His New Album
It’s been a good year for Del Amitri fans. The Scottish alternative rock group played a series of highly anticipated reunion shows in support of expanded reissues of three of their finest albums from the ‘90s, Waking Hours, Change Everything and Twisted (with each album adding a second disc of bonus tracks). Prior to that, frontman Justin Currie had spent a month […]
Interview: Howard Jones On Retro Futura + Continuing To ‘Engage’ With His Audience
For fans of ‘80s pop music, the current Retro Futura tour is a dream bill, featuring a lineup of Katrina (from Katrina and the Waves), China Crisis, Midge Ure of Ultravox fame, Howard Jones and Thompson Twins frontman Tom Bailey. I had the chance to see the tour when it came through Cleveland last week […]
Matthew Sweet On The Legacy Of “Girlfriend” + His Upcoming New Album
For the past few years, Matthew Sweet has been celebrating his classic ‘90s release Girlfriend with a series of full album performances. The shows which initially came about to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the album’s release proved that Girlfriend remains one of the more well-crafted releases from the decade. It holds up well, which […]
This Ain’t No Cheap Trick…
I had the chance to speak with Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen for this week’s issue of Scene. The band is in town Thursday night for a show at the Hard Rock Live. Check out Rick’s thoughts on pizza and more right here. In that same issue, you’ll also find a conversation with Rachel Bolan […]
Chicago’s Robert Lamm On Winning Over The Critics, New Music + 47 Years Of Rock And Roll
Earlier this year I had a chance to speak with Robert Lamm, founding member of Chicago, the legendary “rock and roll band with horns.” The veteran keyboardist/vocalist is always an engaging chat and on this particular occasion, there was plenty to talk about. The band had just performed on the Grammy Awards, melding the old […]
Guitarist Marty Friedman: “I Wanted To Be Sure That I Wasn’t Looking Back And Repeating Something I Did Before”
Shred is not dead. That’s one thought that comes to mind as you’re listening to Inferno, the brand new album by guitarist Marty Friedman. As Friedman himself tells us during our conversation, it’s been a long time since he’s released an album in this vein and beyond that, he’s been away from the metal community […]
Richard Marx On Songwriting And His ‘Beautiful Goodbye’
I spoke with Richard Marx in early March for a story that ran locally prior to his show here in Cleveland in April. For those of you who are regular readers of the blog, it will come as no surprise that I’m a lifelong Marx fan. Even if I wasn’t a fan, just learning that […]
Out On The Open Road With Willie Nile And His Great New ‘American Ride’
I’ve got all of this life experience and my work has benefited from it. As a person, I’ve benefited from it, so I don’t have any regrets and fortunately, I never got a chip on my shoulder. There’s too much of that going around. So it’s been a really interesting ride, you know? Singer/songwriter Willie […]
Dan Hartman on “I Can Dream About You”
How’s your falsetto voice holding up these days? Because if you’re like me, it’s very likely that you’ll be singing the chorus of Dan Hartman’s “I Can Dream About You” as soon as you start reading this interview. And of course, the next logical step after that is to listen to “I Can Dream About […]