I confess that my first thought upon hearing of this collection was: “A three-CD ‘legacy’ release of ‘rare and unreleased recordings’ from Dave Ray?? I’ve never even heard of the guy.” But it turns out that I was in fact well acquainted with his music, though not with his first name. Instead, I knew him as the “Ray” in Koerner,...
A Chat With The Knick Writer-Producer Steven Katz
In today’s world there are numerous medical breakthroughs that have become commonplace and are used in treating patients. One hundred years ago, however, many of these methods either did not exist or were on the cusp of being invented, tested and perfected. Set in 1900 New York City, Cinemax’s period TV medical drama The Knick finds the staff at the...
Interview: Luca Perasi – Author of Paul McCartney Recording Sessions (1969-2013)
Now readily available in the United States, Paul McCartney Recording Sessions (1969-2013) was a labor of love for über McCartney fan and music journalist Luca Perasi. The book examines the recording of each McCartney song, in chronological order, from the year The Beatles ceased to exist as a working band right up to last year’s triumphant album New. Mr. Perasi...
New Music for Old People: Bahamas, Allen Toussaint, Linda Ronstadt, Max Frost and More
This column is like the title says — its intention is to fill the gap for those of us who were satiated musically in the ’60s and then searched desperately as we aged for music we could relate to and get the same buzz from nowadaze. iTunes was the answer for me in 2003 and I have been following the...
Survival Instinct: Interview with The Knick’s Chris Sullivan
Actor Chris Sullivan cannot help but chuckle when asked about his first professional acting job in front of a camera. “I’m pretty sure the first on-camera thing I did of any note was a TV pilot that was never picked up called Pleading Guilty,” says Sullivan. “It starred Jason Isaacs [Malfoy’s father in the Harry Potter feature films] as one...
Bentley’s Bandstand: September 2014
Paul Butterfield’s Better Days, Live at Winterland Ballroom. “Without Paul I don’t know if a lot of us would be here tonight…” That’s the way Bill Graham introduced Butterfield and his then-new band Better Days at this 1973 concert in San Francisco. Truer words were never spoken. When the Paul Butterfield Blues Band first burst onto the scene in 1965,...
Life After American Idol: The Evolution of Sanjaya Malakar
Back in 2007, when American Idol was a more formidable force than it is these days, season six Idol finalist Sanjaya Malakar took the nation by storm. Then only 17 years of age, his Stevie Wonder-influenced vocals were sometimes upstaged by a series of outlandish hairdos and, in one memorable instance, an emotionally overwhelmed young girl (Ashley Ferl, who was...
Man of Destiny: Interview with Tyrant ‘s Ashraf Barhom
As children, most people have no idea what they want to be when they grow up. However, in some parts of the world, a child’s future is determined the moment he or she is born. With the powerful and privileged Al-Fayeed family in the FX TV drama Tyrant, Khaled Al-Fayeed, the long-serving dictator of the (fictional) Middle Eastern country of...
New Music for Old People: My Musical Foundations, Part 9 – Twenty Sweet Soul Singles That Changed My Music
This column is like the title says — its intention is to fill the gap for those of us who were satiated musically in the ’60s and then searched desperately as we aged for music we could relate to and get the same buzz from nowadaze. iTunes was the answer for me in 2003 and I have been following the...
New Music for Old People: NRBQ, Bill Champlin, Big Wreck, Andreas Varady and More
This column is like the title says – its intention is to fill the gap for those of us who were satiated musically in the ’60s and then searched desperately as we aged for music we could relate to and get the same buzz from nowadaze. iTunes was the answer for me in 2003 and I have been following the...