ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MAY 20, 1999 By Steve Newton I like John Mellencamp, but my sister Julie and cousin Cory are crazy about him, so I did some serious scroungin’ and wangled three backstage passes to meet the Indiana rocker before he went on stage at GM Place last Saturday (May 15). Now, for those … Continue reading Perfecting the lost art of the backstage meet ‘n’ greet at John Mellencamp in Vancouver
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT, JUNE 17, 1999 By Steve Newton Ya gotta like interviewing those old blues guys, ’cause they’ve seen some things and have a few tales to tell. Often all it takes to get them going is an innocent little query like: “So, when did you pick up your first guitar?” … Continue reading Sonny Rhodes’ journey to the lap-steel guitar started with a one-stringed Stella
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON AUG. 26, 1999 By Steve Newton Mike Campell is the curly-haired guitarist who has been knocking off tasty solos alongside Tom Petty for nearly three decades. In 1970, Campbell was two years out of high school and living in Gainesville, Florida, when the musical partnership that would shape his life took form. … Continue reading Mike Campbell is much more than just the guitarist for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPT. 8, 1989 By Steve Newton Seeing a destined-to-be-huge band in a small venue can make for one of the most memorable nights in any rock fan’s existence. Kiss at the Commodore, Jeff Healey at the Yale, Living Colour at the Town Pump, Metallica at the New York Theatre–those are just a … Continue reading Bass god Billy Sheehan pooh-poohs Mr. Big’s supergroup status
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 2, 1995 By Steve Newton Some music-crazy kids will do anything to get their youthful paws on their first electric guitar. They’ll beg, borrow, or steal. Or, if they’re like Duke Robillard, they’ll pull a fast one. As a 14-year-old in Providence, Rhode Island, he came up with a highly original … Continue reading Duke Robillard finds a sense of balance with Temptation
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPT. 12, 1996 By Steve Newton When you think Seattle rock, you picture plaid shirts, baggy shorts, vein-bulging vocals, and propulsive guitar noise comin’ at you in heavily amplified blasts. You don’t necessarily envision a guy like Pete Droge, whose rootsy, laid-back style has more in common with Tom Petty’s breezy, melodic … Continue reading Pete Droge’s Pearl Jam connection led him to Find a Door
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON APRIL 30, 2014 By Steve Newton When you interview rockers on the road you always try to find out where they’re located, so you can write “When so-and-so calls from wherever” and establish a setting for the conversation. But when I contact blues-rocker George Thorogood–who plays the Hard Rock Casino Vancouver this … Continue reading Muddy Waters didn’t want George Thorogood’s “Bad to the Bone”, but Bo Diddley did
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON DEC. 3, 1998 By Steve Newton When Susan Tedeschi’s cell phone rings in an L.A. hotel room, a female voice answers, but it isn’t the one I’m looking for. It’s actually Tedeschi’s mom, who, in a very motherly way, explains that her daughter’s in the bathtub. Sounding concerned that her child might … Continue reading Susan Tedeschi just enjoys being a musician, pretty much
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON NOV. 7, 1991 By Steve Newton Tom Cochrane wasn’t kidding when he told me a couple of weeks back that his new rhythm section worked like a high-performance engine. The former Streetheart team of drummer Matt Frenette and bassist Spider Sinneave was scary last Monday night (November 4), with Frenette being especially … Continue reading Tom Cochrane dedicates “Big League” to Stan Smyl in Vancouver on the Mad Mad World Tour
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPT. 28, 1995 By Steve Newton On the cover of Ian Moore’s 1993 self-titled debut, he is pictured hugging his worn Stratocaster, perched on a beat-up Fender amp, a drum kit and large speaker cabinet looming in the background. That simple shot of the longhaired, cowboy-booted dude set the impression of Moore … Continue reading Ian Moore’s social commentary stings like his Strat on Modernday Folklore
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON MARCH 21, 1996 By Steve Newton Everyone’s heard the stories of starry-eyed youths who journey to Tinseltown with visions of glory and not much else, but they might not have heard about the kid from Richmond who hopped a bus for Hollywood with the dream of becoming a professional guitar player. Mark … Continue reading Jeff Beck freak and knowledge junkie Mark Fitchett leads Cult of the Wrong Note
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JAN. 14, 1999 By Steve Newton Guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan had a profound effect on a lot of people, and 21-year-old blues-rock whiz kid Kenny Wayne Shepherd is one of them. As the story goes, Shepherd developed his Stevie Ray obsession at the age of seven when the Texas Strat-strangler sat … Continue reading Texas Strat-strangler Kenny Wayne Shepherd goes all Stevie Ray on Vancouver’s ass
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JUNE 14, 1990 By Steve Newton If you listened to rock radio at all last year, most likely you came across Concrete Blonde’s hit tune, “God Is a Bullet”, a fuel-injected tirade against the proliferation of guns, particularly in the drug- and gang-infested core of urban L.A. Over a thundering backbeat and … Continue reading Gun violence and AIDS misery inspire Concrete Blonde’s dark Bloodletting
