Houston Press
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127 articles
List of articles in the library
Joni Mitchell: Hits and Misses
Review by Susan Whitall, Houston Press, 26 December 1996
IN A POP WORLD where female musicians are designed, micromanaged and as carefully positioned in the marketplace as a new brand of air freshener, how ...
Van Morrison: The Healing Game
Review by Susan Whitall, Houston Press, 27 February 1997
THE NEWS THAT there's a new Van Morrison CD out should be thrilling. But for some of us, there have been so many Morrison discs ...
Grand Funk Railroad: Funk Revival: An Interview with Mark Farner
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 19 March 1998
IT'S EASY TO forget now just how huge Grand Funk Railroad was during its '70s heyday. ...
Van Halen: Steady Eddie Van Halen
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 7 May 1998
IT'S AFTER 2 A.M. on a Monday morning, Houston time, when Eddie Van Halen calls for a thrice-scheduled interview. But the guitar virtuoso of the ...
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 30 July 1998
IF BEETHOVEN and Mozart were the pop superstars of their day, and the melodies of Lennon and McCartney are destined to survive for centuries, then ...
Lucinda Williams: Breaking Through to the Mainstream
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 3 December 1998
IT'S ALWAYS a bittersweet day for music fans when their cult favorite finally breaks through to the mainstream. On one hand, there's happiness that the ...
Robert Earl Keen: Rise Up, Texas
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, May 1999
Robert Earl Keen leads Texas acts on tour ...
Gregg Allman: Midnight Riders: Gregg Allman
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 9 November 2000
YOU WOULDN'T normally associate the phrase "jacket required" with a concert titled "Gregg Allman and Friends," but the gravelly-voiced singer and keyboardist hopes to find ...
Journey, Poison: Party On, Dude: Rock Package Tours
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 24 May 2001
GET READY, Houston, 'cuz here they come – rolling into town in waves all summer long. No, not the Bayou City's infamous mosquito swarms, but ...
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 4 October 2001
IT HAS BEEN less than a week since the terrorist attacks, and Ray Davies just doesn't have his mind on music. ...
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 18 October 2001
LIKE ONE OF his ballad's gently lolling melodies, William Royce "Boz" Scaggs takes an easygoing approach to recording. Never one to give in to a ...
Wayne Kramer: The Real Motor City Madman
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 18 July 2002
BY ITS VERY nature, rock and roll is all about youth. Writing, performing and producing mostly for those to whom the terms "mortgage" and "cholesterol ...
Little Feat: Groupie Grooves: Little Feat's Bill Payne
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 August 2002
TO PARAPHRASE George Carlin, people love to accumulate "stuff". Through the years, lots of it accrues in dusty boxes, dark attic spaces and basement cabinets. ...
Chris Robinson & the New Earth Mud: Chris Robinson: Mud Boy
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 21 November 2002
"HOUSTON, WOW. I have the best and the worst stories on the road from Houston," says Chris Robinson, former front man, lyricist and lightning rod ...
Dio, Ronnie James Dio: Ronnie James Dio: Soaring on the Wings of a Demon
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 14 August 2003
IT'S A UBIQUITOUS sign for the ages. Whether thrown in rapture or irony, the pinky-and-index-finger extended "devil horns" might mean something different to UT sports ...
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: Angry Young Men
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 11 September 2003
ROBERT TURNER is apologizing profusely. The soft-spoken singer-bassist for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is admittedly "scatterbrained" at the moment. It's the night before the trio ...
Paul McCartney: Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard
Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 17 November 2005
SOMETIMES EVEN royalty needs a kick in the ass. That's what Sir Paul McCartney got for himself by pegging Beck/Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich to helm ...
Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 23 November 2006
WOLFMOTHER, the bombastic trio of Andrew Stockdale (guitar/vocals), Chris Ross (bass/keyboards) and Myles Heskett (drums), have been performing together since 2004. Then in 2006 their ...
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 19 September 2007
SHE IS PERHAPS rock's most famous muse: Pattie Boyd Harrison Clapton. This lithe, leggy, blonde fashion model directly inspired a troika of classic rock's most ...
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 12 October 2007
WITH ONE OF the most soulful and distinctive voices in rock history, Paul Rodgers has fronted not one but two of the genre's great bands ...
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 14 December 2007
TO HIS CHAMPIONS, Gram Parsons was a cult-hero musical genius and the primary inventor of "country rock". But he was also a tragic figure who ...
Blue Cheer: Be of Good (Blue) Cheer
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 12 March 2008
FOR MORE THAN 40 years he's been making eardrums ring and, according to his physician, growing calluses on his own. But Blue Cheer founding bassist/vocalist ...
Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 26 March 2008
ON THEIR FIRST studio release since re-forming in 2005, the Black Crowes show how a little time off from each other can work wonders. ...
Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt: Q&A: Little Steven Van Zandt
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 14 April 2008
WITH JAMES BROWN no longer around, Steven Van Zandt might just have the title of the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. ...
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 23 April 2008
WHILE THE NAME "Lowrider Band" may not be familiar, their set-list certainly is, as a sweet harmonica riff wafts through funky material like 'The Cisco ...
Kansas: Q&A: Rich Williams of Kansas Talks History, Houston and Will Ferrell
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 May 2008
IN THE REALM of classic rock warhorse bands, few have managed to straddle genres like Kansas. Fist pumping FM rock anthems ('Carry On Wayward Son', ...
Judas Priest's Screaming Seer Rob Halford
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 20 August 2008
"I'M IN BUCHAREST, Romania, right now, about to leave for a festival gig," relays Judas Priest lead singer Rob Halford. "We're in Turkey tomorrow – ...
Alice Cooper: Born-Again Shock Rocker (and Golfer) Alice Cooper
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 27 August 2008
AS HE WRITES in his highly readable autobiography, Alice Cooper, Golf Monster, the father of shock rock credits the game for helping him maintain his ...
Thom Bell and the Sound of Brotherly Love
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 8 December 2008
WHILE THE ubiquitous songs of Detroit's Motown get anthologized and commercialized ad infinitum, and the critics salivate over the gritty southern soul of Memphis' Stax, ...
Retrospective by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 10 December 2008
Who Dat? ...
Graham Nash: Classic Rock Corner: Graham Nash Interviewed
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 4 January 2009
THERE ISN'T MUCH mystery to Graham Nash. Not that that's a bad thing at all. In fact, if you want to know how the British ...
Led Zeppelin: Down the Tracks: The Music That Influenced Led Zeppelin (dir. Stephen Gammond)
Film/DVD/TV Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 6 January 2009
EVEN THE MOST naïve and surface Led Zeppelin listener tell you at least that they were influenced "by the blues." But this insightful and surprisingly ...
The Frost: Lost Tuneage: The Frost
Retrospective by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 14 January 2009
Who Dat? ...
Yes: Chris Squire on 40 Years of Prog Life
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 4 February 2009
PROG-ROCK KINGS Yes are known for their intricate and multi-movement songs, ethereal lyrics and harmonies, and fantasy-fuelled album-cover art (mostly by Roger Dean, who also ...
Thin Lizzy: Classic Rock Corner: Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy Interviewed
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 3 March 2009
WHEN L.A.-BASED guitarist Scott Gorham flew to England in the early '70s, he was just hoping to score an audition with the band his brother-in-law ...
Ian Gillan: Classic Rock Corner: Ian Gillan's Deeper Shade of Purple
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 31 March 2009
THOUGH BEST KNOWN as the talented tonsils behind British hard-rock legends Deep Purple, Ian Gillan has also found the chance to log in some serious ...
Comment by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 April 2009
WOW. FOR ONLY being "New Zealand's fourth most popular novelty folk duo," singer/guitarists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement must be pretty ambitious to book Jones ...
Crosby Stills and Nash: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Report by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 26 August 2009
THOUGH THE HOOPLA surrounding Woodstock's 40th anniversary has (mostly) subsided, one of the most anticipated performances at that little outdoor festival came from this trio, ...
Crosby Stills and Nash: Crosby, Stills and Nash: Demos
Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 28 August 2009
Crosby, Stills & Nash's skeletal, primitive Demos ...
Kings of Leon: Joel McIver: Holy Rock 'n Rollers – The Story of Kings of Leon (Omnibus Press)
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 25 October 2010
JUST IN TIME for the release of their fifth record, Come Around Sundown, comes the second biography (after Michael Heatley's Kings of Leon: Sex on ...
Jimi Hendrix: Steven Roby and Brad Schreiber: Becoming Jimi Hendrix
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 November 2010
Jimi Hendrix, before he was experienced ...
Chicago: Mobsters, Crime And Jazz: Danny Seraphine's Chicago Story
Review and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 16 December 2010
FROM THEIR 1967 founding to his unceremonious ouster from the group in 1990, Danny Seraphine provided the pounding backbeat for Chicago, both for the early, ...
Chris Hillman: Byrds, Burritos, and Bluegrass: Chris Hillman Interviewed
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 3 February 2011
OFTEN OVERSHADOWED by flashier, more volatile, or more tragic bandmates, singer and multi-instrumentalist Chris Hillman's cred as a pioneer of country-rock is nonetheless impeccable. As ...
Boz Scaggs: Your Mom Loved Him... And Still Does
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 16 February 2011
THESE DAYS, it's good to be the Wizard of Boz. In recent times, Boz Scaggs has been recording and touring as he pleases, including a ...
Paul Revere & the Raiders: From Batman to Manson
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 15 March 2011
WITH THEIR BRIGHT Revolutionary War-style outfits, tri-cornered hats, and energetic antics, Paul Revere and the Raiders were certainly one of the most visual pop/garage rock ...
Thin Lizzy: Guitarist Brian Robertson Loves Thin Lizzy, Texas Women
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 March 2011
AS ONE HALF of Thin Lizzy's legendary "twin guitar" classic lineup in the mid- to late '70s, Scottish guitarist Brian "Robbo" Robertson started to make ...
Derek & The Dominos, Bobby Whitlock: Bobby Whitlock: Derek's Main Domino Dishes On Layla and More
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 25 May 2011
IT'S BEEN AN active, and retroactive, time for singer-songwriter/keyboardist Bobby Whitlock, best known as one of the playing pieces in the Eric Clapton-led group Derek ...
Spin Doctors' Houstonian Bassist Talks Grooves, Kryptonite
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 26 May 2011
THOUGH THEY'VE often been unfairly characterized as strictly a "jam band", the Spin Doctors were in fact one of the more underrated acts of the ...
Humble Pie: Jerry Shirley: A Slice of the Pie Has His Say
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 15 November 2011
ENGLISH LAD and budding drummer Jerry Shirley was all of 16 years old in late 1968 when he received the phone call that would change ...
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 13 March 2012
A BOON FOR classic-rock fans in recent years has been an increased activity in vault-mining, as record labels are discovering, polishing up, and releasing a ...
Colin Blunstone, The Zombies: When Zombies Attack: The Colin Blunstone Interview, Pt. 1
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 7 March 2013
IN TODAY'S pop culture, zombies are hot. Their lumbering, slack-jawed forms are moving (albeit slowly) on TV and in movies, video games, and off the ...
Colin Blunstone, The Zombies: When Zombies Attack: The Colin Blunstone Interview, Part 2
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 8 March 2013
MUCH OF THE Zombies' music, even early on, was original material mostly written by Rod Argent and Chris White. It's something that Colin Blunstone still ...
Dust Never Sleeps: Lost '70s Power Rock Trio Reemerges with Reissues
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 28 March 2013
WHEN YOU THINK of classic rock power trios, names like Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, Blue Cheer, Grand Funk Railroad, and Mountain come to mind. ...
The Turtles: The Raunchiest Band of the '60s?
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 6 June 2013
EVEN THE MOST voracious reader or rock-music biographies and autobiographies would be hard-pressed to find a better opening sentence than Howard Kaylan, lead vocalist of ...
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 10 June 2013
"JEREMIAH WAS A BULLFROG!" That odd, simple and urgent declarative sentence from Three Dog Night's 'Joy to the World' is one of the most famous ...
Three Dog Night: Chuck Negron, Pt. 2: "I Would Love to Sing Harmonies With Those Guys One More Time"
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 11 June 2013
WHEN CHUCK NEGRON comes to the Stafford Centre tonight at part of the Happy Together '60s-music package tour, he says it will remind him of ...
Bad Company, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Paul Rodgers: How Lynyrd Skynyrd Hooked Up Bad Company's Paul Rodgers
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 10 July 2013
"PLAYING WITH Skynyrd was always in the cards. We go back a long way, and I toured with them as a solo artist," Bad Company ...
Living Colour: Don't Call Living Colour a "Cult" Band, Please
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 24 July 2013
LIVING COLOUR vocalist Corey Glover knows it. He knows that, despite putting out five studio albums of criminally underrated rock, mention their name and the ...
The Runaways: Evelyn McDonnell: Queens of Noise – The Real Story of the Runaways (Da Capo)
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 21 August 2013
ANYONE WHO has seen either the Hollywood film The Runaways or the documentary Edgeplay may think they know the story of this band of five ...
The Clash, Joe Strummer: Don Letts on the legacy of the Clash and the girl Joe Strummer Stole Away
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 August 2013
FILM AND VIDEO director Don Letts has a lengthy and varied resumé, but is most associated with the Clash. The new all-compassing band box set, ...
Jeff Beck, Brian Wilson: Brian Wilson and Jeff Beck On Tour: Where Cars Meet Guitars
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 30 September 2013
ON PAPER, it seems like at odd pairing for a joint tour: Brian Wilson, Head Beach Boy and pop-music chronicler of sunny California life, with ...
The Beach Boys: For Brian Wilson and Al Jardine, Life's a (Busy) Beach
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 1 October 2013
HE MAY BE 71 years old, but Head Beach Boy Brian Wilson might be busier today than at any point in his career. Having already ...
Gov't Mule: Warren Haynes: This Mule Is a Real Workhorse
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 8 November 2013
IN ANOTHER ERA, James Brown was the Hardest Working Man in Show Business. Today, that title crown might just fall upon the hirsute head of ...
Mountain, Leslie West: Mountain Man Leslie West Once Had Houston at His Fingers
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 19 November 2013
"YOU'RE IN HOUSTON, so let me ask you something," a gravelly, low voice asks on the other end of the phone. "Is the bed you're ...
Megadeth's Dave Mustaine Back In the Day: "We Were Probably a Little Snotty"
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 12 December 2013
WHILE METAL MASTERS Megadeth arrive in Houston tonight as part of the tour to promote their most recent record, Super Collider, this year the band ...
Jon Anderson: Former Yes Man Jon Anderson Gets Close to the Edge... and the Audience
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 20 February 2014
CLASSIC-ROCK FANS might not see the connection between intricate, musically adventurous progressive rock and all-you-can-eat shrimp and shuffleboard tournaments. But increasingly, fans of this genre ...
Gary Numan's Life Beyond the "Long Shadow" of 'Cars'
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 12 March 2014
WHILE HIS latest record, the dark and evocative Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind) is giving him some of the best reviews of his 35-plus-year ...
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 18 March 2014
MAKE NO MISTAKE. While only two of the six original members of the Allman Brothers Band were actual biological siblings, the fraternal ties of Duane ...
Eric Carmen: "I Wanted to Find Where the Magic Was"
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 26 March 2014
VERY FEW articles about Eric Carmen (including, sadly, this one) do not include the term "power pop" somewhere to describe the music he's made with ...
KISS: Paul Stanley: Face the Music – A Life Exposed (HarperOne)
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 9 April 2014
WITH THE publication of this glitter-, greasepaint- and leather-slathered tome, all four original members of KISS have now penned their autobiographies. ...
Bill Medley: Still Having the Time of His Life
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 April 2014
BILL MEDLEY IS speaking to Rocks Off from the back of a car somewhere on the streets of New York City, on the way to ...
Wishbone Ash: Prog-Rock Legends Wishbone Ash: Nostalgia "Not the Whole Story"
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 23 April 2014
ONE OF THE greatest prog-rock albums ever, Wishbone Ash's 1972 epic Argus also remains the English band's best-known and definitive sonic statement. ...
Jack Bruce: Ultimate Power-Trio Bassist Jack Bruce Steps on the Silver Rails
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 6 May 2014
HE'S BEST KNOWN to the average classic-rock fan for the scant time in the '60s, fewer than three years, that he spent singing and playing ...
Dave Mason, Traffic: Traffic Jammer Dave Mason Peers Into His Future's Past
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 14 May 2014
MOST OF THE TIME, a traffic jam is a wholly unpleasant experience and something to avoid at all costs. But when the said confluence of ...
The Eagles, Don Felder: Don Felder Surprised at Ex-Eagles Mates' Ill Will Toward Him
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 16 May 2014
WHEN GUITARIST Don Felder joined the Eagles in 1974, he was seen by many as a sort of bridge member, as the band was morphing ...
Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull: The Fast-Moving Mind (and Mouth) of Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 2 July 2014
IT SEEMS THAT Gerald Bostock, the noted writer and lyricist, is at it again. ...
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 25 August 2014
OFTEN, MUSICIANS doing multiple phone interviews from a hotel room or publicist's office will try to open the door with journalists by throwing out some ...
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 5 September 2014
WHILE THERE are plenty of musicians, record collectors and journos who will argue (as only musicians, record collectors and journos can) that all rock is ...
Lightnin' Hopkins, John Sebastian: John Sebastian & Lightnin' Hopkins: The Odd Couple
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 25 September 2014
"HOUSTON HAD A special message for me as a young musician, and it came directly through Lightnin' Hopkins," John Sebastian says from his home in ...
Bachman Turner Overdrive, The Guess Who: Randy Bachman Is Forever Takin' Care of Business
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 8 October 2014
IN HIS CAREER as a co-vocalist/guitarist/songwriter for not one but two pretty successful classic-rock bands, the Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Randy Bachman has sold ...
Gary Wright: Dream Weaver Gary Wright Was Best Friends With a Beatle
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 15 October 2014
THERE AREN'T many more concrete instances of one singer being so clearly connected to one song in the classic rock canon than Gary Wright with ...
Survivor: Jim Peterik Still Has That Eye of the Tiger
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 28 October 2014
AN ANSWERING-MACHINE message not only changed Jim Peterik's life forever, but led to the creation of one of the '80s biggest anthems that can still ...
Anthrax's Scott Ian Spins Tales From the Thrash Side
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 5 November 2014
LIKE MANY MEN currently in their mid-to-late forties, Anthrax co-founder/rhythm guitarist Scott Ian was a huge, practically obsessive KISS fan growing up. ...
The Derek Trucks Band: Derek Trucks Keeps It All in the Family Band
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 12 November 2014
FOR MANY A bluesman, standing at the Crossroads is a mostly apocryphal experience, the stuff of myth and legends. ...
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 3 December 2014
New books explore Fleetwood Mac's vast appetites ...
The Ramones: Marky Ramone Gabba Gabbas Away in New Memoir
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 January 2015
IN HIS BAND of Bruddahs, Marky Ramone's primary role was that of drummer, the pounding heartbeat and engine of so many of the legendary punk-rock ...
Drive-By Truckers: Patterson Hood Touts Drive-By Truckers' New Unity
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 5 March 2015
OVER A discography of work, some rock bands become closely identified with their frequent record cover artists be it Ken Kelly with KISS, Jim Fitzpatrick ...
Styx: For Dennis DeYoung, It's Still the Best of Times
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 9 April 2015
TO MANY classic-rock fans, it would seem a bit of unnecessary clarification to bill a Dennis DeYoung show as "Dennis DeYoung: The Music of Styx". ...
Boz Scaggs: The Venerable Boz Scaggs Is Nobody's "Fool"
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 6 May 2015
THROUGHOUT HIS LENGTHY recording career — now clocking in at five decades — Boz Scaggs has been a tireless sonic alchemist, whose output is the ...
Susan Tedeschi's "Wheels of Soul" Speed On to Houston
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 9 July 2015
DURING THE SUMMER months, audiences in recent years are used to seeing multi-act package tours, especially of the classic-rock and '80s vintage. The format allows ...
The Doors: Mick Wall: Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre
Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 7 October 2015
Put those other Doors bios on the funeral pyre ...
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Warren Zanes: Petty – The Biography (Henry Holt)
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 11 November 2015
YOU WOULD THINK that Tom Petty had it all in the mid to late '90s. On the backside of his forties, he had already enjoyed ...
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 December 2015
WELL, AS Guralnick clarifies shortly into his foreword, if Sam Phillips didn't exactly "invent" rock and roll, he at least discovered it. Or so it ...
Dion: The Wanderer Pens a New Love Letter to the Big Apple
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 19 January 2016
OFTEN, EARLY rock and roll artists were tied to a certain geographical area, becoming something of unofficial (and unelected) city representatives. Elvis meant Memphis. Buddy ...
Lita Ford, The Runaways: Lita Ford: Living Like A Runaway – A Memoir (Dey Street)
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 6 April 2016
SHORTLY BEFORE hitting her commercial peak in 1988 with her third solo record, Lita, and its two monster singles and videos – 'Kiss Me Deadly' ...
Megadeth Singer Goes From Thrashing Guitars to Threshing Wheat
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 24 October 2016
IN THIS UNPRECEDENTED and pretty bizarre period of U.S. Presidential politics, pundits still pull out the hoary old line that goes "which candidate would you ...
The Jayhawks Soar Back Into Houston
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 26 October 2016
THEY INITIALLY CAME to prominence under the alt-country/No Depression banner in the mid '90s. But no listener to the whole discography of the Minnesota-bred Jayhawks ...
Skid Row: Sebastian Bach: 18 and Life on Skid Row (Dey St. Books)
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 13 December 2016
FOR ANYONE WHO has seen an interview with Sebastian Bach, he of the motor-mouth, hellzapoppin', frenetic energy and a constant stream of verbal non sequiturs, two ...
Justin Hayward's Endless Nights in White Satin
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 3 March 2017
OF ALL THE HITS that the Moody Blues have charted over the past 50-plus years of existence, the one big calling card for the English ...
The Sonics' Backstory Blows Their Better-Known Beer Ad Away
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 5 April 2017
THE MODELO beer commercial that ran for a couple of years beginning in 2013 still seems fresh in the memory. A guy and his two ...
The Zombies Still Have That Hunger — For Music, Not Brains
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 26 April 2017
THE YEAR 2017 is a good time to be a Zombie — of the musical singing and playing kind, not necessarily the walking dead variety. ...
Doobie Brothers: The Doobie Brothers' Long Train Is Still Runnin'
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 6 June 2017
RELEASED AS A single in the summer of 1973, 'China Grove' became one of the biggest and most recognizable hits for the Doobie Brothers. The ...
Chicago's Robert Lamm Knows What Time It Is
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 14 June 2017
SINGER/KEYBOARDIST Robert Lamm has been part of a particular band of brothers for decades as Chicago, the group he co-founded, celebrates its 50th anniversary this ...
The Eagles, Don Felder: Classic Rocker Don Felder Prefers "Pros" to ProTools
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 7 July 2017
"IT SHOULD BE illegal to have so much fun and get paid for it!" singer/guitarist Don Felder says from a hotel in St. Louis, a ...
Living Colour's Fierce New Record Throws Shade on Lesser Bands
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 26 July 2017
WHILE EARLY reports have pegged Living Colour's upcoming sixth studio release, Shade, as "a blues-based record", let's be clear about something. It is not an ...
William Bell: The Musical River of Memphis: Deep, Wide and United
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 27 September 2017
WRITTEN BY singer William Bell and keyboardist Booker T. Jones specifically for their Stax Records labelmate Albert King to record, 'Born Under a Bad Sign' ...
Ray Padgett: Cover Me – The Stories Behind the Greatest Cover Songs of All Time
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 10 November 2017
Songs get a second chance of life with cover versions. ...
The Bee Gees: Simon Spence: Staying Alive — The Disco Inferno of the Bee Gees
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 10 November 2017
The Bee Gees and Their Decades-Long "Fever" ...
Joe Hagan: Sticky Fingers – The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 17 November 2017
JOE HAGAN IS one smart guy. ...
Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks: Stephen Davis: Gold Dust Woman – The Biography of Stevie Nicks
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 24 November 2017
Stand Back! New Bio on Stevie Nicks Has Plenty of Gold-and-Fairy Dust ...
Dixie Dregs: The South Rises Again on Dixie Dregs Reunion Tour
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 13 March 2018
IT'S BEEN JUST a week since the Dixie Dregs launched their reunion tour when guitarist Steve Morse is on the line. The trek called 'Dawn ...
Journey's Jonathan Cain: Still Believin' in Music and Other Higher Powers
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 1 May 2018
YOU COULD practically hear the piercing screams of millions of HBO viewers across the land on the night of June 10, 2007 as they were ...
Violent Femmes: These Daddies Haven't Gone Anywhere
Profile and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 29 June 2018
BRIAN RITCHIE says that he gets asked a certain question often. Maybe somebody sees him with his long blond hair. Or that he's carrying a ...
Wayne Kramer: MC5's Wayne Kramer Testifies about Music, Drugs, and Not Being "Revolutionary" Enough?
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 13 August 2018
IT'S HARD TO fathom today that the FBI would be interested in the daily activities of, say, the Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons, or Fall Out ...
Booker T & The MGs: How Stax Records Merged the Music and the Message in 1968
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 October 2018
AS BOTH THE history books and an endless stream of 50th anniversary documentaries have taught us, 1968 was an Especially Important Year in the United ...
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Doug Clifford Drums Up Memories of CCR on Massive (Vinyl) Box Set
Retrospective and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 7 December 2018
WHILE IT'S EASY to assume that the Year in Rock 1969 was wholly dominated by English acts like the Beatles (Abbey Road), the Rolling Stones ...
The Lovin' Spoonful: Steve Boone Offers Another Taste of The Lovin' Spoonful
Report and Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 6 February 2019
IT WAS THE evening of August 23, 1966. In the bowels of New York's Shea Stadium – though only they knew it – the Beatles ...
The Black Crowes: Steve Gorman's Explosive Memoir Tells Wayward Flight of the Black Crowes
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 18 September 2019
THROUGH THE entire career of the Black Crowes — from when they were known as Mr. Crowe's Garden, to their 1990 hit debut record Shake ...
The Go-Go's: Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go's Reveals All She Ever Wanted
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 27 March 2020
FOR KATHY Valentine, it was a Christmas gift that not only kept on giving, but in many ways came to define her life and music. ...
Jimi Hendrix: Philip Norman: Wild Thing – The Short, Spellbinding Life of Jimi Hendrix
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 11 September 2020
Wild Thing: the Latest — and best? — look at the Life of Jimi Hendrix ...
Bob Gruen: Right Place, Right Time – The Life of a Rock and Roll Photographer
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 October 2020
Bob Gruen's Life Through the Lens of Rock and Roll ...
Firefall, Gram Parsons: Classic Rockers Firefall Drop First New Record in Two Decades
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 30 November 2020
IT WAS, according to guitarist/singer Jock Bartley, not only one of the highlights of his musical career, but of his life. And it happened onstage ...
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 3 December 2020
PETER GURALNICK didn't set out to be a music journalist. The occupation didn't really exist at the time when a combination of luck and bluster ...
Kim Fowley, Jan & Dean: California Eden: Sun, Surf, Sex, and Some Great Music
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 22 March 2021
THE OLD ADAGE goes that high school is the place to experience "the best years of your life." And while that's hardly a universal feeling, ...
The Black Crowes, Dirty Honey: The Black Crowes/Dirty Honey: The Woodlands Pavilion, Texas
Live Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 15 August 2021
WHEN IT HIT record store shelves in February 1990, the Black Crowes' debut album Shake Your Moneymaker somehow seemed both familiar and out of place. ...
Book Review by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 10 December 2021
Book asks (and answers): what happened to your fave '90s alt rockers? ...
Little Feat: It's Columbus Day Every Day for Little Feat
Interview by Bob Ruggiero, Houston Press, 25 February 2022
According to The 1970s Rock Rulebook, every performer or band was required to release a double live record album. ...
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