ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 7, 2003 By Steve Newton Two years ago the Drive-By Truckers took the music world by surprise with Southern Rock Opera, a sprawling, two-CD concept album about ’70s rock and southern U.S. culture that focused on the legend of doomed Dixie rock act Lynyrd Skynyrd. The independent release garnered the group … Continue reading Drive-By Truckers tone down the Skynyrdisms on Decoration Day
photo by Markus Hagner ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 16, 2015 By Steve Newton Savoy Brown was one of the top British blues-rock acts of the early seventies, making a mark with such albums as Raw Sienna (1970), Looking In (’70), Street Corner Talking (’71), and Hellbound Train (’72). For some reason the band was off my … Continue reading Savoy Brown guitarist Kim Simmonds always comes back to the Les Paul
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 6, 2003 By Steve Newton Unless you’re really up on your rock guitarists, Walter Trout may be the biggest guitar hero you’ve never heard of. In a 1993 BBC Radio 1 poll of the top 20 players of all time, Trout came in sixth, ahead of such six-string legends as Stevie … Continue reading Walter Trout has a spiritual bond with his Strat of 30 years
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 21, 2003 By Steve Newton If you liked catchy, hook-infested pop-rock back in 1979, there’s a good chance you tapped a toe or two to Joe Jackson’s debut album, Look Sharp!. From the cynical hit single “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” to the postpunk rave-up “Got the Time”, the … Continue reading Joe Jackson thinks about 10 percent of music is really good stuff
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 1, 2002 By Steve Newton Seventies hard-rockers Mountain didn’t waste any time in getting famous. The band—best known for the lineup of guitarist and vocalist Leslie West, drummer Corky Laing, keyboardist Steve Knight, and bassist-vocalist Felix Pappalardi (who was shot dead by his wife in ’83)—played its first gig at L.A.’s … Continue reading Leslie West recalls Woodstock and his band Mountain’s old warmup act, Black Sabbath
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 26, 2003 By Steve Newton Judging by the photo montage in the booklet of David Lee Roth’s new CD, Diamond Dave, it’s clear the former Van Halen howler hasn’t jettisoned the boisterously cheesy persona he cultivated during his early-’80s solo career, when flamboyant videos for “California Girls” and “Just a Gigolo/I … Continue reading There’s always hope for Van Halen as long as Diamond Dave can bang that high note
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 15, 1985 By Steve Newton Metallica are the type of band that puts the “heavy” in heavy metal. Actually, drummer Lars Ulrich–who called me from L.A. last week–prefers to call his band’s music “speed metal” or “thrash metal”. Their sound crew are known as “The Sonic Decapitation Team”, and local metal … Continue reading My first Metallica interview, back when they were too heavy for me
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 26, 2001 By Steve Newton When Yes guitarist Steve Howe calls from Reno, Nevada, it’s not to brag about how well he’s been doing at the blackjack tables. Although he and his bandmates—vocalist Jon Anderson, bassist Chris Squire, and drummer Alan White—have been holed up in the gambling mecca for two … Continue reading Yes guitarist Steve Howe says Chet Atkins was–and is–his number one
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 3, 2002 By Steve Newton Buddy Guy spent a good portion of his concert at the Commodore last Friday (September 27) paying tribute to the legends of the blues, performing in the various styles of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, and Stevie Ray Vaughan. It was … Continue reading Buddy Guy brings me down when he forgets to just be Buddy
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 29, 1993 By Steve Newton One day about a year ago, I bumped into a guitar-playing acquaintance who was visiting the office to put a free musician’s ad in the paper. He started raving about this “wicked” guitarist he’d seen the night before at Jake O’Grady’s, a guy from Saskatchewan named Jack … Continue reading Jack Semple’s Guitar Warz win delivered confidence and a hook
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 30, 2003 By Steve Newton It doesn’t seem likely in today’s musical climate that any band would record a 90-minute concept album about 1970s rock and southern U.S. culture, focusing on the legend of doomed Dixie rock act Lynyrd Skynyrd. It’s even more unlikely that such a CD would get critical … Continue reading Patterson Hood on the Drive-By Truckers’ Southern Rock Opera and the true meaning of Skynyrd
On September 1, 1989, Johnny Winter played the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver. The chance to witness the underrated Texas guitar legend in the confines of one of Vancouver’s finest concert venues (for the second time) was not one I was about to pass up. Besides, at the time I was really grooving on his latest album, … Continue reading Johnny Winter is white, hot, and blue in Vancouver
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, OCT. 31, 2002 By Steve Newton For more than 10 years I rented a dumpy old house near 58th and Main that was known as the Rock Palace because of the all-night rock-’n’-roll parties held there. The best thing about those cop-attended bashes was when these pot-lovin’, hard-rock musicians … Continue reading Reviewing Nickelback in honour of pot-lovin’, hard-rock musicians from Alberta
