Fourteen months ago, on Halloween, Umphrey's McGee played one of the most impressive shows I'd ever seen. The buzz surrounding the event was undeniable and the actual show was religious. At the time the band was on the precipice of some major changes. Light design artist Jefferson Waful was ...view article
Anticipation builds as we wind through the mountains along highway 70 from Denver to Aspen on the way to see arguably the best live band on the circuit today: Umphrey's McGee. It is somewhat trademark of Umphrey's to not just play these remote venues, but to make everyone who came all the way out ...view article
An acoustic moe. show at the Belly Up Tavern possesses a certain double dose of rarities. On the one hand, just to have moe. play there is downright unique in its own right. Their first visit here wasn’t until about seven years into their career in 1997, but they haven’t returned since ...view article
With the epidemic-like spread of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band video games, Rock and Roll music has been packaged neatly into five little buttons as mind numbing, modified studio versions of classic hits are practically put on repeat in households throughout the world. Perhaps to counterbalance this ...view article
We rose some time after dawn in a small bed and breakfast lodge in Sacramento and I was still suffering a bit of barrel fever from all the whiskey I'd drowned myself in the night before. We had traveled East from San Francisco through the night to get a jump on the day. We'd be riding plum through ...view article
Any moderately warm, sunny day spent in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is bound to be a good day. This past weekend proved to be no exception to this general rule as people young and old packed the park for the 18th annual four day long Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.17356
Led by drummer José Medeles (Breeders, 1939 Ensemble, Revival Drum Shop), Railroad Cadences & Melancholic Anthems is a drummer’s tribute to guitarist and DIY iconoclast John Fahey. Joined for a series of guitar and drum duets with M. Ward, experimental guitarist Marisa Anderson, and Chris Funk (Decemberists, ...view article
The Northbound drive across the Golden Gate Bridge, as the sun set to the West and the nearly full moon beamed like a spotlight to the East, set the mood for a relaxed and cheerful celebration of the life and music of Bay Area musician: Jim McPherson.17356
McPherson, a blues inspired musician ...view article
It is nearly 2 a.m. in a gleaming warehouse perched at the Northeast edge of the San Francisco Bay. On the dock, infernos rage from steel barrels, spewing molten fireflies by the dozens with the wind’s every frigid breath as the building’s vibrations and rumbles only hint at the possibilities ...view article