Bill Bentley
Bill Bentley began writing about music in Austin, Texas during the 1970s. He started as a typesetter at the Austin Sun in 1974, and soon became the music editor at the new alternative newspaper. As the city exploded with music he got to cover every style. In 1980 he became the music editor at the recently established L.A. Weekly: another city, and another vibrant music scene. He has continued writing after a twenty-year career as publicist for Warner Bros. Records, with regular contributions to the Austin Chronicle. His one assignment for the Los Angles Times on Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1983 was killed when Vaughan walked out as lead guitarist in David Bowie's band the day before the tour began. Bentley is now director of A&R for Vanguard Records and writes the weekly column "Bentley's Bandstand" for online site The Morton Report, and drummer in ex-Moby Grape Peter Lewis' band the Lucky Brothers.
Bill interviewed in Magnet (August 2011)
56 articles
List of articles in the library
Interview by Bill Bentley, DownBeat, June 1984
They've got the Louisiana boogie and the Delta blues, country swing and rockabilly too, jazz, country western and Chicago blues, it's the greatest music that ...
The Long Ryders: Long-Haul Ryders
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 20 December 1984
IF ROCK & roll were baseball, the Long Ryders would surely receive the Most Improved Players award. Two years ago, the group was little more ...
Big Mama Thornton: Willie Mae Thornton: Big Mama to the end
Obituary by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 16 August 1984
WILLIE MAE Thornton, called Big Mama by friends and fans, sang the sort of boisterous blues that made one want to roll around in the ...
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 23 December 1982
LET'S COME clean and confess that nowadays Christmas has about as much to do with baby Jesus' birthday as E.T. does with the Pope. Consumerism ...
John Cale: Still Ready For War
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 10 April 1980
"THERE'S GOING to be trouble." The Welsh rock 'n' roller, a seasoned vet of 15 years on the front line, is quietly emphatic about it ...
Lone Justice: Country Not For Clods
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 14 July 1983
THERE'S A scene in The Last Picture Show in which Ben Johnson confronts a crowd of kids who, as a prank, have set up a ...
The Neville Brothers: Roxy, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 13 June 1980
Neville Brothers: The fire this time ...
Rick Nelson: The Irrepressible Ricky
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 27 October 1983
RICK NELSON is not an easily understood rock & roller, and even he's not sure why. Maybe it's because his initial prominence came from The ...
John Hiatt: Rock 'n' Roll Or Else
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 29 August 1980
HE'S OUT there, in his old white Volvo, trying to come in from the cold. It's not an easy job, and the odds of ever ...
Shirley Caesar: Thanksgiving Gospel Caravan, Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 16 December 1982
GOSPEL MUSIC, that great conveyer of soul that expresses every emotion as a joyous affirmation, has come to my rescue. Many's the time I've yearned ...
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 28 November 1985
THE EAGLE-eyed crew in the music business is predicting hard times for country music, saying that instead of selling millions of albums, Nashville superstars will ...
Trouble Funk: Go-Going in Style
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 5 December 1985
Getting Small With Trouble Funk ...
The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Dennis Wilson, 1944-1983
Obituary by Bill Bentley, Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 12 January 1984
Give The Drummer Some by Bill Bentley ...
Garland Jeffreys: A Fan Meets the Ghost Writer, Garland Jeffreys
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 21 May 1981
Airborne, May 7, 1981 ...
Simply Red: Up the English Soul
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 31 July 1986
Mick Hucknall in L.A. ...
The Sir Douglas Quintet: Sir Douglas: Still Moving
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 30 January 1981
THE MAN that producer Jerry Wexler, himself tagged the "godfather of rhythm & blues," recently described as the "best all-around rock musician" playing, is one ...
T Bone Burnett: Born Again, But Still Looking
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 8 August 1980
IT HAPPENS nearly every year, and usually when you least expect it. From left field, you find a new record and end up with a ...
Obituary by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 16 April 1981
DEATH HAS no mercy. It's a blues line that applies to everyone, naturally, just as it did to Bob Hite, 38, leader and "Bear" extraordinaire ...
Jerry Lynn Williams: Jerry Williams, Forever Man
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 5 September 1985
WHEN ERSTWHILE English guitar hero Eric Clapton came out for his first encore number on opening night in L.A. a few weeks ago, he dedicated ...
George Thorogood & The Destroyers: Visitors: George Thorogood
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 14 October 1982
IF GEORGE Thorogood didn't exist, a true-blue rock & roll fan would be tempted to invent him. The guy obviously believes Chuck Berry created the ...
Little Richard, Earl Palmer, Bruce Springsteen: Earl Palmer: Palmer Days
Profile by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 1 November 1984
WAY BACK when rock & roll radio was first coming into its own, stuffing listener's ears with the likes of Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Fats ...
The Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Good Word
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 20 June 1980
THANK GOD, I guess, for reality. ...
Chuck E. Weiss: Chuck E.'s On Wax
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 26 November 1981
NOT SURPRISINGLY, Tom Waits provides the best introduction to his erstwhile running partner, Chuck E. Weiss, giving him a snappy street-smart hello in song. It's ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 1 May 1980
THE LATE sixties were a time for guitars, and five musicians — fifty fingers — appeared to naturally jump to the center of attention: Jimi ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 17 April 1980
A YEAR AGO, Etta James stopped time as surely as if she had point-blanked a Timex with a .357. ...
Captain Beefheart Kids Himself Gracefully
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 2 December 1982
SEARCHING FOR the sense of Captain Beefheart is a lot like taking a ride on Mobius strip. Once you get used to the fact that ...
Profile by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 8 September 1983
IF MUSICAL pioneer Roy Milton had never put soul to sound, we might all have had to become insurance salesmen. And though that may be ...
Elvis Costello: Every Day A Different Book
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 22 September 1983
THE SCENE: Austin, Texas. The overbearing Texan had buttonholed Elvis Costello's flamboyant manager, Jake Riviera, at a party in Los Angeles a couple of years ...
B.B. King: A True Blues Christmas
Memoir by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 29 December 1983
HOW MANY memories can one man have? My own mind often feels like an overworked runway at LAX, with a million details buzz-bombing the brain, ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 25 July 1980
THEY'RE EVERYWHERE, and it is beginning to feel a little bit like old home week as they get together to show they're still around. Ruth ...
Ruth Brown: Miss (Ruth) Brown To You
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 28 June 1984
IT HURTS the heart to have to drive by the remains of the Parisian Room, festering in the summer sun like some fenced-off sore on ...
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Double Your Trouble, Double Your Fun
Profile by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 25 August 1983
AS THE irascible rhythm & blues guru of New Orleans, Ernie K-Doe, is wont to say when seized by a philosophical spirit, "It's not understanding ...
The Velvet Underground: Sterling Morrison, 1942-1995
Obituary by Bill Bentley, Musician, December 1995
STERLING MORRISON was one of the prime architects of modern rock 'n' roll, and very few people know it. As guitarist — with Lou Reed ...
Obituary by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 21 July 1988
JESSE ED Davis was the only person I ever saw who smiled while he sang. Some shut their eyes. Others grimace or maybe grin. But ...
Charles Brown: Brown Christmas
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 30 December 1982
THERE ARE a lot of ways to tell when it's time for Santa's sleigh to make its annual orbit. In black nightclubs across the country, ...
Sandy Nelson: The Beat Goes On
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 11 April 1985
QUICK. HOW many rock & roll drummers had two Top-Ten hits? If you guessed none, you wouldn't he far wrong, because only one has ever ...
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 22 November 1984
EVEN WITH the so called cow-punk semi-stampede started in '82 by Rank & File, country music hasn't made any significant inroads into the life of ...
The Velvet Underground: Sterling Behavior
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 18 April 1985
An Interview With the Most Hermetic Velvet, Sterling Morrison ...
Phast Phreddie & Thee Precisions: Phast Phreddie Finds His Calling
Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 27 February 1981
PHAST PHREDDIE, one of rock & roll's die-hard enthusiasts and actual true believers in the power of American jungle music to transform workaday stiffs to ...
The Neville Brothers: Shaking Off Limbo
Profile and Interview by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 4 November 1982
MAY 1981: ART Neville and I stand outside his home in uptown New Orleans. The annual Jazz & Heritage festival is just now over, and ...
James Booker, 1939-1983 — "Piano Prince" of New Orleans
Obituary by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 1 December 1983
JAMES BOOKER cut a broad swath. As a piano-playing fool, he had no equal in New Orleans — which is somewhat like saying there wasn't ...
Paul Butterfield Blues Band: The Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Essay by Bill Bentley, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, December 2014
THE PAUL BUTTERFIELD Blues Band rocketed the blues straight into the stratosphere. One of the first integrated blues bands with mass appeal, the Paul Butterfield ...
Powell St. John, 13th Floor Elevators: The Kingdom of Heaven: It's time you knew Powell St. John
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 22 December 2006
THE BAND'S been playing at least an hour, but it feels like five minutes. Besides 'You Really Got Me', 'Roll Over Beethoven' and Bob Dylan's ...
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 23 May 2003
DESIGNATED DRUMMER. IF YOU'RE GOING to hang a tag on the able shoulders of Ernesto "Ernie" Durawa, that would be the one. For almost 50 ...
Joe "King" Carrasco: The Ballad of Joe "King" Carrasco and El Molino
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 11 October 2002
IN TEXAS, it's damn near impossible to start a band so unscrewed that even hardcore fans shake their heads in wonder at the absurdity of ...
O.V. Wright: The Soul of O.V. Wright
Sleeve notes by Bill Bentley, MCA Records, 1992
OVERTON VERTIS Wright sang straight to the soul. As a child, Wright called the church choir home, and turned his voice to God. As he ...
O.V. Wright: The Wright Stuff: O.V. Wright
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Oxford American, December 2013
NOTE: This is the original, previously unpublished version of Bill's article. ...
Jim Dickinson: Fishing with Charlie & Other Selected Readings
Sleeve notes by Bill Bentley, Birdman Records, 2006
THERE AREN'T MANY shamans still in our world. Most have been ground down to dust, and those left are laying low, hoping to dodge the ...
This Be an Empty World Without the Blues – So Clifford Antone filled it
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 26 May 2006
THE FIRST TIME I met Clifford Antone, he sold me a sandwich. He had opened a shop on Guadalupe, right around the corner from the ...
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 28 October 2005
TIME IS A CONTINUUM that's sometimes hard to trace. Look too far back and things get hazy. Try gazing into the future and it's all ...
Red Krayola: The Other Sixties Garage Gods: Red Krayola
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 27 December 2002
GARAGE ROCK is a hard elephant to describe, in the light or in the dark. In some ways, almost everything qualifies. In others, nothing quite ...
Jerry Lynn Williams: The Lone Ranger: Jerry Lynn Williams
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 27 January 2006
You say you want it and you want it bad And that you'd sacrifice all you ever had And that you'd be happy instead of ...
The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Jimmie Vaughan: Beacon Blues: Jimmie Vaughan's Lifelong Song
Retrospective and Interview by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 16 July 2010
THE ONE KNITE was an oasis of soul. The room was a little box, sitting at the corner of Red River and Eighth Street. Cut ...
Dennis Wilson: The Mayor of Washington Boulevard: Dennis Wilson's California Dream
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, Austin Chronicle, 1 August 2008
The first Beach Boys solo album, Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, washes back ashore after more than three decades. ...
New Orleans: The Heart of the Matter
Retrospective by Bill Bentley, L.A. Weekly, 8 September 2005
"I'm not sure, but I'm almost positive, that all music came from New Orleans."–Ernie K-Doe, 1979 * ...
Velvet Underground: Up From The Underground: Sterling Morrison
Interview by Bill Bentley, Austin Sun, 19 October 1975
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND was often accused of being ahead of their time. Not true. The band was very much of their time. But it was ...
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