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 putrid foreign policies. Others just wanted to rock out. Neil Young Living With War Although it includes a couple of duds, Young’s antiwar offering is … Continue reading Newt’s Top 10 albums of 2006
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 more beautiful than what the Bay Area guitar wizard has been conjuring over the past few years. The story behind the title has more to … Continue reading Joe Satriani’s Strange Beautiful Music grew from a cathartic Hendrix experience
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 a local angle, the major disappointment was the continued vacancy of the once-fabulous Commodore Ballroom. Nationally, the lack of a new studio album from the … Continue reading Newt’s Top 10 albums of 1997
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 7, 1986 By Steve Newton Yessongs. Brain Salad Surgery. Selling England By the Pound. Do those album titles ring a bell? They should if you remember back to 1973. At that time, ‘progressive’ rock was big around the world and its foremost practitioners were British bands such as Yes, Emerson, Lake … Continue reading Marillion moves beyond cult status with Misplaced Childhood and “Kayleigh”
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, from improvisatory jam bands to North Mississippi hill-country blues. Everything involves guitars; I still haven’t come to grips with how a turntable can be anything … Continue reading Newt’s Top 10 albums of 2002
me ‘n Roy at the Town Pump, February 10, 1986 ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON FEB. 7, 1986 By Steve Newton Not many guitarists can say they were invited to join the Rolling Stones. Not many can say they turned the offer down either. But Roy Buchanan–quite possibly the best white blues guitarist in the world–can say … Continue reading Roy Buchanan on turning down the Rolling Stones, loving Van Halen, and being flattered by Jeff Beck
By Steve Newton In a few hours I’m heading out to see Louisiana slide-guitar ace Sonny Landreth play a gig in Vancouver. If you’re a fan of Sonny, you may know that his latest album, Bound By the Blues, features a tribute to one of his musical heroes, Johnny Winter, called “Firebird Blues”. You may also … Continue reading Sonny Landreth says he’s sure Johnny Winter will make it into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame one day
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 19, 1990 By Steve Newton Just as almost everyone can recall where they were when news broke of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, a lot of rock fans can vividly remember that day in 1970 when the news of Jimi Hendrix’s death came down. Joe Satriani was in high school at the … Continue reading Joe Satriani explains how he overcame pain and suffering to fulfill his new Blue Dream
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 21, 1987 By Steve Newton Fans of the Georgia Satellites who were expecting to see the hard-rocking Atlanta band open for David Bowie at the scheduled time of 7 pm last Saturday (August 15) were in for a rather nasty surprise. The Satellites’ gig was pushed ahead to 6:30 pm so … Continue reading David Bowie’s Glass Spider tour bites Georgia Satellites fans in Van
By Steve Newton Finally got around to watching the 2014 documentary Super Duper Alice Cooper for the first time the other night, and it was awesome: except for the part where they refused to even mention the name “Michael Bruce”. For the uninitiated, Bruce was the rhythm guitarist for the Alice Cooper Band during its first … Continue reading Michael Bruce’s deletion from Super Duper Alice Cooper is a bloody travesty
@shotbykevin 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 movie–and in a way it nearly was–it might have been called The Return of Alice, Part 10: The New Blood. On his latest tour, the king of nasty … Continue reading Alice Cooper’s youthful band breathes fire into the shock-rock king’s classics in Vancouver
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 15, 2016 By Steve Newton When Sonny Landreth connects his glass slide to the strings of his Strat, there’s always a good chance a blues-drenched tone will emerge—perhaps blended with zydeco strains befitting the guitarist’s home state of Louisiana. A blues freak since day one, Landreth composed a love letter to … Continue reading Sonny Landreth on first hearing Johnny Winter: “Holy shit, man, this is awesome!”
By Steve Newton Since 1982 I’ve been chatting with famous rock stars and collecting the interviews on cheap cassette tapes. Even now I refuse to use a digital recording device, as most of my more intrepid colleagues do. Like Joe Walsh, I’m an analog man, I guess. Lucky for me, most of those ancient cassettes … Continue reading That time Stevie Ray Vaughan sang me a couple of lines from one of Jimi Hendrix’s fave tunes
