ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JULY 10, 1997 By Steve Newton Talk about a rock-guitar freak’s dream gig! Three American masters of the electric six-string unite for a tour […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 10, 1992 By Steve Newton As much as I admire Kim Mitchell as a musician and songwriter, I must say that he […]
By Steve Newton He was freakin’ awesome! photos by Kevin Statham
By Steve Newton Joe Satriani has long been known as one of the most technically proficient rock guitarists around, a speedy fretburner and masterful creator of—to use the title of […]
By Steve Newton Last month I went and saw Uli Jon Roth’s Ultimate Guitar Experience in Vancouver, and man–the things the German guitar wizard and ex-Scorp can do on his 32-fret […]
By Steve Newton Last week I interviewed one of my fave guitarists, Joe Satriani, in advance of his show at Hard Rock Casino Vancouver on April 24. I’m always curious […]
By Steve Newton (photo too) I’ve been a huge Joe Satriani fan since the first time I heard him, back in ’87 or so, around the time of Surfing With the […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, MAY 13, 2009 By Steve Newton Any self-respecting rock-guitar freak has at least a couple of Joe Satriani CDs in his or her collection. The Bay […]
By Steve Newton Earlier today I interviewed guitarist Guthrie Govan, who–while not nearly as well known as the Satrianis and Vais of the world–is equally monstrous when it comes to technical […]
By Steve Newton Tomorrow is a big day for fans of electric guitar: that’s the day that legendary guitarist, inventor, and innovator Les Paul would have turned 100. The celebration […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 23, 2003 By Steve Newton Will Bernard may be one of the best guitarists you’ve never heard of, but they sure know about […]
By Steve Newton Twenty-five years ago last month–on January 25, 1990–Joe Satriani made his Vancouver debut, performing at the 86 Street Music Hall on his Flying in a Blue Dream Tour. I […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 21, 2002 By Steve Newton Joe Satriani named his latest CD Strange Beautiful Music, although the music on it isn’t much stranger or […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MAY 18, 2000 By Steve Newton I’ve yet to be bitten by the techno bug. You won’t find any discs by the Chemical Brothers […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, SEPT. 25, 1997 A concert by Bay Area guitar wizard Joe Satriani is usually all it takes to transport his followers to instrumental-rock heaven, […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 29, 1992 By Steve Newton Joe Satriani doesn’t do anything halfway. Whether writing, recording, or playing live, the New York-born, San Francisco-based guitar […]
photo by the Newt By Steve Newton The Joe Satriani show at the Vogue last year was one of my fave gigs of 2013, no surprise since Satch has been consistently blowing […]
PHOTO BY THE NEWT ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, OCT. 20, 2013 By Steve Newton Guitar freaks go to Joe Satriani concerts to hear the Bay Area musician speedily blast out […]
By Steve Newton The day before yesterday I had a nice 20-minute chat with German guitar maestro Uli Jon Roth, who plays Vancouver next Saturday (March 19). As we were […]
By Steve Newton The most popular story I ever posted on Ear of Newt was the one from 2014 with the headline Yngwie Malmsten calls Ibanez guitars “a bad copy” of […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, MAY 8, 2003 By Steve Newton You might think, since the current version of the Yardbirds includes only two founding members of the pioneering […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 22, 1994 By Steve Newton Rock-guitar wizards just keep getting younger and younger. Last year I thought I’d seen the littlest guitar […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, NOV. 28, 1991 By Steve Newton “Hey, hey, hey, hey…hey stoopid!” Why do I keep singing that line to myself when people are within […]
Aerosmith: Honkin’ on Bobo (2004) Eric Clapton: Me and Mr. Johnson (2004) Jimi Hendrix: Axis Outtakes (2003) ZZ Top: Mescalero (2003) Nickelback: The Long Road (2003) Joe Jackson Band: Volume […]
By Steve Newton Man, I sure have been lucky as far as interviewing great guitarists go. Sometimes–in the case of guys like Joe Satriani, Buddy Guy, Dickey Betts, and […]
By Steve Newton Back in January of 2013 when I started planning the Ear of Newt website–which I launched on Halloween night that year–I knew I had to get my […]
By Steve Newton Google “100 greatest guitarists” these days and what shows up at the top is a total joke. It’s the high ‘n’ mighty Rolling Stone‘s list of the […]
By Steve Newton Way back in October of 1991 I did an interview with bassist Stu Hamm, a giant of the four-string who was best known for his work with […]
By Steve Newton Some guy named Fretfire did not totally agree with my review of the Generation Axe show in Vancouver the other night. Here’s his comment: Pathetic, Steve. I thought you […]
By Steve Newton Went to see the Generation Axe show in Vancouver last night–featuring Steve Vai, Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt, and Tosin Abasi–and, as expected, there were a […]
By Steve Newton Masterful rock guitarist Uli Jon Roth made his Vancouver debut last night (March 19), and for local fret freaks, it was well worth the wait. Scrape Records […]
By Steve Newton When Uli Jon Roth called me up the other day to promote his upcoming Ultimate Guitar Experience show in Vancouver, we ended up chatting about some of […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 10, 2008 By Steve Newton I still like the sound of guitars the best. Martone Clean Local rock-guitar instrumentalist Dave Martone aims for the stratosphere with […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 20, 2006 By Steve Newton Throughout 2006, as in the previous few years, an American idiot named George inspired recording artists everywhere to lambaste his […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 15, 2010 By Steve Newton Drive-By Truckers The Big To-Do “Birthday Boy” has to be the greatest rock song of the year, and it’s no surprise it […]
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON STRAIGHT.COM, DEC. 11, 2013 By Steve Newton Whatever happened to the Gangnam style? Gov’t Mule Shout! Mule fans got a double dose of their favourite southern-flavoured blues/jam-rock outfit […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 12, 2002 By Steve Newton My fave recorded music this year, as listed below, ranges from garage-y, instrumental prog-metal to fingerstyle acoustic-guitar wizardry, […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 14, 2000 By Steve Newton Sometimes I feel like I don’t know anything at all about popular music. Maybe you feel that way […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 17, 1998 By Steve Newton Yee-hah! I managed to make it through yet another year without having to listen to anyone named DJ […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 18, 1997 By Steve Newton There were a lot of things that sucked the biggie in the world of music this year. From […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 1996 By Steve Newton Neither of my two favourite recording artists released any music in ’96, but even though I had to suffer […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 1995 By Steve Newton I must have gotten tired of listening to rock vocalists in 1995, because the majority of my top picks […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 23, 1993 By Steve Newton Popular music hit an all-time low this year with the outbreak of something called gangsta rap, an ugly, […]
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, DEC. 1992 By Steve Newton I was really hoping that I’d be able to praise 1992 as the year that rap “music” finally dried […]
By Steve Newton The more I see pictures of headphone-wearing DJs alone on-stage, dickin’ around with laptops and turntables, the more I think: fvck off. Bottle Rockets South Broadway Athletic Club […]
By Steve Newton When you’re a legendary heavy-metal guitarist like Marty Friedman you don’t really need no stinkin’ guests on your albums, but for his latest one, Inferno, Friedman got some […]
By Steve Newton Guthrie Govan is the type of generous guitar wizard who’s more than happy to reveal his tricks to budding pickers. That’s why, 24 hours before talking to […]
By Steve Newton My feature story on Guthrie Govan and the Aristocrats will be posted in a day or two, but there wasn’t room in that one to include all […]
By Steve Newton Google “100 greatest guitarists” these days and what shows up at the top is a total joke. It’s the high ‘n’ mighty Rolling Stone‘s list of the […]
photo by Kevin Statham ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JAN. 26, 1990 By Steve Newton If Alice Cooper’s concert at the Coliseum last Thursday (January 18) were a horror […]
