For over a decade now--at least on record--guitarist/pianist {{Ralph Towner = 10866}} has worked exclusively in two contexts: solo guitar albums under his own name for ECM, including Time Line (2006), and collaboratively with his longstanding group Oregon, last heard on 1000 Kilometers (Cam Jazz, 2007). Though never less than satisfied, many of his fans have hoped he'd participate in other contexts,...
Below are four links to some pretty decent guitarists, mostly acoustic, that I thought might be worth a listen. Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed Jerry’s Breakdown Ralph Towner, the guitarist for the group, “Oregon” Jamaica Stopover
Singers who have climbed the rock charts rarely make the transition to a jazz-tinted, vintage-pop repertoire as smoothly -- or as subtly -- as Boz Scaggs did at Blues Alley on Wednesday night. It was strictly a soft-sell performance, soulful and relaxed, free of self-consciously hip flourishes and...
Review: Curious Theatre's entertaining regional debut of Stephen Karam's youthful teen-angst comedy "Speech & Debate" loses many of its arguments, but turns out to be a winning evening nonetheless on the strength of its energy and originality. Rating: ***
There's a high-school musical opening at a theater near you this weekend, and it has something not even that ubiquitous Disney megamovie franchise has to offer: Nerds. Bona fide dorks. Geeks. Misfits. The kind who try out for the high-school musical . . . and can't even get in.
The way I listened to music changed dramatically my sophomore year in college. Not only was punk approaching its zenith, but I was being exposed to a tremendous variety of music via roommates and friends’ record collections. Two years prior, I had purchased Peter Frampton's I’m In You with some pride. Now I was deep into Graham Parker, Santana, The Clash, X, Talking Heads – and getting...
In an old joke, a Buddhist monk walks up to a hot dog vendor and says, "Make me one with everything." For reasons that I understand but I'm not sure I can adequately articulate, this joke came to mind as...
Before his death from lymphoid cancer in 1992, Jim Pepper had accomplished more in only 51 years than most people will accomplish in twice as many. As a Jim Pepper tribute site puts it, "throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Pepper...
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