Not everyone in Knoxville, Tennessee, knows exactly what to make of Big Ears. “I’ll admit it. I’ve never heard of a single artist on this festival,” reads the top comment on last December’s lineup-announcement post on the city’s Reddit forum, a recurring sentiment among much of the city’s non-music-head contingent …
Read More »Van Morrison's Vast Catalog Shines at All-Star Carnegie Hall Tribute
“I know he doesn’t like this version,” Patti Smith said, with a grin, of Van Morrison before launching into her iconic transformation of “Gloria” for the finale of Thursday’s Carnegie Hall tribute to the Belfast singer. “But I’m thanking him anyway.” The same could probably be said of many of …
Read More »Bruce Springsteen Plays Smoldering Blues Set at New Jersey Bowling Alley
Walking onstage at an Asbury Park, New Jersey, bowling alley and concert venue crammed with Bruce Springsteen fanatics desperately waiting for a glimpse of their hero when your name is anything other than Bruce Springsteen is an act of true bravery. But that’s the situation that Danny Clinch’s Tangiers Blues …
Read More »New Orleans Jazz Fest 2018: David Fricke's Favorite Sets
It was a sobering way to enter the weekend. On April 26th, the day before the 49th annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival opened at the Fair Grounds race track, the news broke around town of the death of Charles Neville, the saxophonist and second eldest of the Neville …
Read More »John Cale Stages Roaring, Guest-Filled Tribute to Velvet Underground
In the program notes to his scruffy, roaring Velvet Underground tribute at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last night, John Cale, 75, noted he’s “reluctant to spend too much time on things past.” Fair enough. But as foundational member and key sonic architect of a band that ranks with rock’s …
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