Verse 1
Minneapolis is under siege
No tanks yet, but the day is still young
All is calm, the streets look calm
Everybody’s trying to get along Continue reading →

I have a lot of photos that have never seen the light of day, and I’m processing them now. Some are going to need slight restoration, most won’t, but could stand colorization to make them easier to see (read). Continue reading →

Electric Ghost did not “form” in the usual sense. There were no flyers, no ads for a drummer, no accidental garage rehearsals that turned into destiny. Instead, the band was assembled deliberately, with intent, inside a space that most artists still pretend doesn’t exist.

Electric Ghost was designed. Not fabricated — designed. Continue reading →

Standing Still While the World Moves

A Conversation with Rob Zillon, E.J. Gold,  & Rolling Stone

The kitchen is quiet except for the rustle of a newspaper and the soft click of a coffee cup being set down. Rob Zillon sits at the table, his guitar leaning against the wall within easy reach. E.J. Gold is sitting nearby, not so much participating as occupying the room the way a tuning fork occupies air. Nothing feels staged.

Rolling Stone: You’ve been described as a protest singer, a folk revivalist, and lately as “troubling.” Which one bothers you the least?

Rob Zillon: Troubling is fine. It means something’s working. Continue reading →

“The Songs Never Left” — Janice Returns to the Road
A backstage conversation with Janice of Janice & Lost Horizons, on the current comeback tour

When Janice walks into the room, there’s no announcement. No entourage drama. Just a calm, warm presence — like someone who knows exactly who she is and no longer feels the need to defend it. The stage lights may still burn bright, but offstage she radiates something steadier: confidence without urgency. Continue reading →

Sister Sara Simmons

LINER NOTES

There are some voices that don’t belong to a person. They belong to a room. Sister Sara Simmons is one of those voices.

No one can quite agree when she first sang in public. Some say it was in a borrowed church with folding chairs and a piano missing three keys. Others insist it happened outdoors, under a stormy sky that wouldn’t make up its mind, with people gathering because they heard something before they saw anything. What is agreed upon is this: when Sister Sara opened her mouth, the room leaned in. Continue reading →

WINESTOCK: A FESTIVAL THAT FERMENTED

Winestock began, according to every reliable source, by accident.

It started as a small end-of-season grape harvest gathering at a Northern California vineyard whose owners believed—incorrectly—that inviting a few friends, a few musicians, and a few cases of unfinished wine would result in a quiet afternoon. Someone hung a handwritten sign that said “Music Later”. Someone else added “Bring a Bottle.” No one remembers who added “Free.”

By mid-afternoon, the parking problem had become purely philosophical. Continue reading →

Polly Barton was born already late for chores.
That’s how she tells it, anyway. According to family legend, she arrived one humid morning in eastern Tennessee while her mother was halfway through hanging laundry and her father was fixing something that didn’t need fixing yet. From day one, Polly had a way of appearing right when work was underway, smiling as if to say, “Don’t stop on my account.” Continue reading →

THE MINKEEZ

An Unauthorized Biography, Authorized by Nobody

The Minkeez did not form the way bands are supposed to form. Continue reading →

Gorby’s Barbershop Backstory:

Gorby’s Barbershop Quartet insists they did not form on purpose. They say the group assembled itself one afternoon when four men reached for the same chair, missed, and instinctively harmonized their apologies. A chord locked. No one sat down. History was made. Continue reading →