If you think that Don Ho is the voice of Hawaii, Keola Beamer has something to say: “It’s like me watching a Tarzan movie and thinking I’m hearing African music,” Beamer says of the Hollywood stereotype applied to Hawaiian music. Beamer traces the roots of his musical family back to the 15th century, and his […]
Grant Britt
Posted inNews
Bull Durham Blues Festival: Lonnie Brooks
Lonnie Brooks wrote a song last night. But that doesn’t mean he’s willing to share it just yet. “They got songwriters out there, once you get a good hook, man, a good writer hear it, he beat you to it,” Brooks explains. “So I couldn’t say anything about this until I done cut it, and […]
Posted inNews
Guitar Shorty
“I would like to be recognized as one of the greatest guitar players ever to hit the stage.” Guitar Shorty, nee David Kearny, doesn’t waste much time on false modesty, especially since the 64-year-old Texas native has been hounding the same ambition since touring with Ray Charles at 18. Shorty learned from Charles as well […]
Posted inMusic
Back to work
Don Dixon is a take-charge guy. When he discovers his publicists have not responded to a writer’s pleas for help, he takes care of the problem. “Well, we’ll just have ’em killed,” he cracks. Dixon has always had the confidence of his convictions, evident even with his teenage band, appropriately called Arrogance. “We actually would […]
Posted inMusic
Chatham County Rock
It started as a theater in the woods, a celebration of the summer solstice. Structures soon sprang to help the sun worshipers welcome the longest day of the year. But Stonehenge is a few thousand miles off. Rather, this one’s in rural Chatham County. In 1981, architect James Carnahan started the Rock Rest Amphitheater to […]
Posted inNews
Herring, Rodgers, Sipe and Fountain
Bobby Lee Rodgers can make murder funny. As chief songwriter for The Codetalkers, the jam band he started in 1999 with Col. Bruce Hampton, his songs like “Body In The Lake” combined bluegrass, funk, rock ‘n’ roll and jazz with a sense of humor. “We really don’t have any control over it,” Rodgers says of […]
Posted inMusic
Filling frames
After spending a night hanging out with Steve Earle, Doug Sahm and Neil Young at Farm Aid in 1996, Daniel Coston figured out his true calling. “After photographing Neil, I realized, ‘I don’t know how to do this, but it’s a lot of fun.’” Coston’s photojournalism has taken him all over the world and landed […]
Posted inMusic
If the song fits…
He’s the most prominent bayou howler ever to come out of Berkeley. John Fogerty’s swampy odes and backwoods rhythm guitars were the backbone of Creedence Clearwater Revival, an early, rockin’ version of Americana. But Fogerty and Creedence were more than just rockers: Fogerty’s songs became the voice of a generation as it questioned authority and […]
Posted inMusic
Harping on the blues
If you’re looking to make a rep for yourself in the blues world, the fastest way is to grab a guitar. But according to up-and-coming West Coast harpist John Nemeth, it’s the harmonica handlers that are keeping traditional blues and its shuffle alive. His theory is that traditional blues lends itself to harmonica more than […]
Posted inNews
Steve Howell Band
Steve Howell has toned it down a bit since his days playing breakneck honky-tonk in the late 90s with Chip Robinson in the Backsliders. Its fun to rock out, Howell says. Nobodys afraid to get a little rowdy, but were not doing that. I dont know what to call it, just the out-of-control punk style […]
