Music News aka Houston Music News aka Texas Music News

OCTOBER 2022

Hi Folks, Hello Music News readers. I hope everybody had a great September. If you look carefully at the cover of this issue, you can see that we have now started our 41st year of production. That’s right, as of this issue, we have brought you four solid decades of Music News. It’s certainly been a wild ride. We would have never guessed that we would have lasted so long, but we did. We’ve undergone a few changes along the way. We started out in print and utilized that form for 38 years until the pandemic hit. Now we are totally online. When we first went online in 1993, I never thought that it was the wave of the future, but it certainly is. Everything is online right now and unfortunately free print magazines seem to be falling by the wayside. We are certainly happy that we were among the first to utilize this new technology and we implore all of you to continue reading Music News at http://www.houstonmusicnews.net. Thanks everybody for you’re support and here’s to another 40 years of Music News aka Houston Music News.

Now, on to the new issue. In this issue, as usual, we have some great stories and information to pass on to you. Check out stories in this month’s issue on The Black Keys, Stevie Nicks, Carolyn Wonderland, Steve Vai, Post Malone, Yes, Michael Schenker, GWAR, W.A.S.P., The Legendary Pink Dots and another installment of the original story, THE BIKER along with a lot more! Also in this issue are a ton of great pictures of bands performing around the Houston area. I’m sure you’re going to be familiar with a lot of these bands. If you have pictures of local bands performing, please email them to us. I would really appreciate it and I know the bands do as well. Keep it up... We would like to see more pictures from you.

We’d also like to invite you to check out our Spanish music section. Not only does it support the Spanish music community, it does so in Spanish. It would appear that Music News has now become the only bilingual music publication in Houston. Check out great stories in it this month on Los Angeles Azules, Fuerza Regida, and La Mafia. We hope you like them.

I sincerely hope that everybody reading this new publication finds something here that they like and I would like to encourage you to let your friends and colleagues know about us. Just look for us every month at http://www.houstonmusicnews.net. I would also like to encourage you to email us for a free subscription to Rock And Blues International as well. Just email us at musicnew@airmail.net and in the subject line simply put “Sign Me Up” and we’ll email you a copy each month when it is published. For your convenience, Music News is also now downloadable. You can download the issue into your computer or storage device and save it and read it at your convenience without having to get logged on to the internet every time. Try it now and save every issue. It will make things a lot easier for you.

Kevin Wildman Editor and Publisher

Kevin Wildman

Editor and Publisher

Web Address http://www.houstonmusicnews.net

Mailing Address Box 1162, League City, TX 77573

Phone 281-650-1953

For Advertising email us at musicnew@airmail.net or call 281-650-1953

For A Free Subscription email us at musicnew@airmail.net and in the subject line put “Sign Me Up Now”

Kevin Wildman

Page 6

The Black Keys

The Black Keys Bring Their “Dropout Boogie” Tour To The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion October 15

Page 10

Radney Foster

Radney Foster Performs At The Heights Theatre in Celebration of the 30th Anniversary Of Del Rio, TX, 1959

Page

Trout Fishing In America

Trout Fishing In America Perform at Dosey Doe Big Barn On October 23

Page 8

Carolyn Wonderland

Carolyn Wonderland To Perform At The Last Concert Cafe This Month

Page 12

Steve Vai

Steve Vai Brings His “Inviolate” USA Tour To The House Of Blues October 12

Malone

Post Malone Performs At Toyota Center Oct. 25th

Yes

In The

At The Arena

The Black Keys Bring Their “Dropout Boogie” Tour To The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion October 15

The Black Keys have officially announced their 32-date “Dropout Boogie” North American Tour. This is the band’s first string of shows since touring in support of their 2019 Nonesuch album “Let’s Rock.” Band of Horses will support on all dates; Ceramic Animal (July 9–30), Early James (August 24–September 9), and the Velveteers (October 2–18) will open at select performances.

The Black Keys are singer/guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney. Last year, the duo received its 14th Grammy nomination, this time for Best Contemporary Blues Album for Delta Kream, which was released in May 2021 by Nonesuch Records. The project, which features 11 Mississippi hill country blues

songs by artists such as R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, was the band’s fifth consecutive top 10 debut on The Billboard 200. Pitchfork said of the album, “By spending the time playing the blues that’s buried deep in their soul, the Black Keys reveal how far they’ve gone in a space of 20 years,” while the UK’s Independent said, “The blues flow through The Black Keys’ music as steady as the Mississippi River. Now they’re going right to the source on Delta Kream, a sweltering collection of some of their favourite hill country blues standards. The fact they’re exploring such familiar territory is to the album’s benefit. The Black Keys know this music as well as their own. Delta Kream celebrates true musicianship. A soundtrack for those hot and heady nights of late

summer. It’s brilliant.” Delta Kream also made Best of 2021 lists from several publications, including both Uncut and Mojo.

Most recently, The Black Keys released the Super Deluxe 10th anniversary edition of their landmark seventh studio album, El Camino in late 2021. El Camino was produced by Danger Mouse and The Black Keys and was recorded in the band’s then-new hometown of Nashville during the spring of 2011. The Black Keys won three awards at the 55th annual Grammys for El Camino—Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song, and Best Rock Album— among other worldwide accolades.

continued on next page

The Black Keys

(continued from previous page)

Formed in Akron, Ohio in 2001, The Black Keys have been called “rock royalty” by the Associated Press and “one of the best rock ‘n’ roll bands on the planet” by Uncut. Cutting their teeth playing small clubs, the band have gone on to sell out arena tours and have released nine previous studio albums: their debut The Big Come Up (2002), followed by Thickfreakness (2003) and Rubber Factory (2004), along with their releases on Nonesuch Records, Magic Potion (2006), Attack & Release (2008), Brothers (2010), El Camino (2011), Turn Blue (2014), and “Let’s Rock” (2019), plus a 10th anniversary edition of Brothers (2020).The band has won six Grammy Awards and a BRIT and headlined festivals in North America, South America, Mexico, Australia, and Europe.

Originally a raw, visceral blues-rock outfit inspired by the likes of such juke joint rockers as Junior Kimbrough, the Black Keys expanded their purview after mastering their garagey roar with Rubber Factory in 2004. Making the leap to the major-label Nonesuch, the duo of guitarist/ vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney dove into heady psychedelic territory, sometimes assisted by producer Danger Mouse. The band’s collaborations with the adventurous hiphop producer opened the doors to a variety of sounds, colors, and textures, a broadened palette they’d channel onto sharp songs on their platinum-selling albums Brothers and El Camino, both arriving in the early years of the 2000s. After the trippy 2014 album Turn Blue, the Black Keys took an extended hiatus through the back half of the 2010s, during which time Auerbach set up his Easy Eye Sound studio and label. The duo returned with renewed vigor on 2019’s Let’s Rock, maintaining that momentum through the blues covers album Delta Kream in 2021 and the rollicking Dropout Boogie in 2022.

Natives of Akron, Ohio, Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney formed the Black Keys in 2001. They released their debut, The Big Come Up, in 2002, receiving strong reviews and sales, and leading to a contract with Fat Possum by the end of the year. That label released Thickfreakness, recorded in a 14-hour session, in the spring of 2003, and the Keys supported the album with an opening tour for Sleater-Kinney. Their momentum escalated considerably with their 2004 album Rubber Factory, which not only

received strong reviews but some highprofile play, including a video for “10 A.M. Automatic” featuring comedian David Cross. The band’s highly touted live act was documented on a 2005 DVD, released the same year that Chulahoma — an EP of blues covers — appeared.

The Black Keys made the leap to the major labels with 2006’s Magic Potion, a moodier record that continued to build their fan base. The band capitalized on that moodiness with 2008’s Attack & Release, whose production by Danger Mouse signaled that the Keys were hardly just blues-rock purists. Salvaged from sessions intended as a duet set with Ike Turner, who died before the record could be finished, the album was the Black Keys’ biggest to date, debuting in the Billboard Top 15 and earning strong reviews. Following the duo’s second live DVD, they spent 2009 on side projects, with Auerbach releasing his solo album Keep It Hid in the beginning of the year, and Carney forming the band Drummer, in which he played bass. At the end of 2009, Blakroc, a rap-rock collaboration between the Keys and producer Damon Dash, appeared.

Brothers, released in 2010, became their biggest album yet, generating the hit singles “Tighten Up,” “Howlin’ for You,” and “Next Girl.” It also saw the Keys returning to their tough blues roots with a new grandness, earning three Grammy Awards, landing on year-end lists from NPR to Rolling Stone, and going gold. The band offered a more straight-ahead rock & roll sound with 2011’s El Camino. On the strength of the hit single “Lonely Boy,” El Camino debuted at number two on Billboard’s Top 200 and the Black Keys worked the album hard throughout the next year, releasing “Gold on the Ceiling” as the record’s second single and touring heavily. In the fall of 2012, the Tour Rehearsal Tapes EP — a brief collection of live-inthe-studio run-throughs of 2012 material — was released.

Once again tapping Danger Mouse

to produce a follow-up, the duo went back into the studio in summer 2013 to record. Standing in contrast to the short, spiky rock & roll of El Camino, Turn Blue had a psychedelic undercurrent that could be heard on its preceding singles “Fever” and “Turn Blue.” The album appeared early in May 2014 and promptly debuted at the top of the pop charts.

Following the promotional cycle for Turn Blue, the Black Keys went on an extended hiatus. Auerbach kept himself busy with plenty of production gigs, along with forming a second band — the soulinflected the Arcs —and delivering a second solo album, Waiting for a Song, in 2017. Carney also worked as a producer, notably collaborating with Michelle Branch on her 2017 album Hopeless Romantic.

The Black Keys returned to action in March 2019 with the release of the single “Lo/Hi,” the first song from their ninth album, Let’s Rock. Upon its release in June of that year, the set debuted at four on Billboard’s Top 200 and three on the U.K. charts. In 2021, they spotlighted their longstanding love of Mississippi blues performers like R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough with their Grammy-nominated covers album Delta Kream. Included on the record was a rendition of the classic Big Joe Williams and John Lee Hooker song “Crawling Kingsnake.”

For their 11th album Auerbach and Carney went back to their roots, stripping back their writing process to how they originally wrote in their early days before taking the songs into Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound studios to record. The sessions also saw the duo collaborating with ZZ Top’s Billy F. Gibbons, Kings of Leon’s Angelo Petraglia, and the Reigning Sound’s Greg Cartwright. The first fruits of the sessions appeared in early 2022 with the release of the single “Wild Child” before the album, Dropout Boogie, was issued in May.

Carolyn Wonderland To Perform In Houston This Month

Photo credit: Gil Lesage

Award-winning Texas guitar slinger, singer, songwriter, and multiinstrumentalist Carolyn Wonderland will perform at the Last Concert Cafe in Houston on Saturday, October 29, 2022. Wonderland’s latest release is her Alligator Records debut album, Tempting Fate. The album, her 11th, was produced by famed master roots musician Dave Alvin, and features Wonderland’s signature, blistering six-string and lap steel playing, her intense vocals and her original songs melding blues, rock and Americana. Wonderland recently won two top 2021/2022 Austin Music Awards. In addition to winning for Best Blues Artist, she took home the award for Best Guitarist.

Tempting Fate is the next chapter in Wonderland’s remarkable career, one that is already overflowing with countless, colorful, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. She spent the last three years as lead guitarist in blues legend John Mayall’s Blues Breakers, and has now joined the Alligator Records family as the first female guitar hero in the label’s storied 50-year history. But that’s not all. Her spine-chilling, soul-deep singing matches her guitar prowess note for note. And she has a knack for writing songs that sound like instant classics.

Tempting Fate finds Wonderland delivering ten riveting songs, including five fiery originals and one co-write. Her vocals range from raw and fierce to subtle and gentle. Her guitar work, on both six-string and lap steel, is often explosive and always melodic. According to Dave Alvin, “Carolyn is unique, strong, soulful and sincere. She can pick and belt out the blues with the best of them, but her powerful, melodic vocals and six-string stylings are truly her own.

Traditional yet innovative, tough yet tender, Carolyn always sounds like no one else but herself.”

Wonderland has been performing professionally since the age of 15. Her music is a bold mix of timeless original songs and reinventions of some of her favorites, ranging from blistering electric blues to deep, heartfelt ballads to cosmic country to soulful Tex-Mex. Every song is fueled by Wonderland’s forceful yet melodic Texas-flavored guitar work and

her full-throated, heart-on-her-sleeve vocals. She has been a road warrior for over 20 years, and has played all over the U.S. and in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Panama, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Austria, Slovenia, the Canary Islands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Japan. She just concluded a three-year stint as the lead guitarist in British blues master John Mayall’s iconic Blues Breakers. In addition to his legendary musical skills, Mayall is among the world’s greatest blues-rock guitar talent scouts. He personally chose Carolyn for the role formerly filled by Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor, Peter Green, Walter Trout, Coco Montoya, and more six-string luminaries.

The Boston Herald describes Carolyn as “a dollop of Janis Joplin, a slice of Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a big load of soulful individuality. That’s Wonderland, a seething-hot Texas singerguitarist. And she can write, too.” Now, with Tempting Fate , Carolyn Wonderland is excited to get back out on the road and reconnect with her fans and friends. “We will play dang near anywhere that’ll have us,” she says. Of her chosen profession, the effervescent Wonderland told NPR Music’s Mountain Stage, “I wouldn’t recommend it for the faint of heart, but it sure is a good time.”

Radney Foster Performs At The Heights Theatre in Celebration of the 30th Anniversary Of Del Rio, TX, 1959

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of his iconic solo debut, Radney Foster launches a tour that kicks off in Nashville on October 6 and continues through Summer 2023. “Thirty years ago, Radney Foster opened up his heart, wrapped it in lap steel and Fender guitars, shouted it from a microphone mountain in a voice of bluebonnet twang, and created a work of riotous loss along the lines of Merle Haggard or Buck Owens, says author/historian Peter Cooper. “Del Rio, TX 1959 is an album that mines the personal to unearth the universal.”

The album produced five singles on the country charts: “Just Call Me Lonesome,” “Nobody Wins,” “Easier Said Than Done,” “Hammer and Nails,” and “Closing Time,” and became a touchstone for other artists. Foster will be performing the album top to bottom,

with later hits at the end of the set.

An early stop will be Darius Rucker’s Riverfront Revival in Charleston. “Del Rio, TX, 1959 is what inspired me to sing Country music,” says Rucker. “It’s the ultimate album.” Legendary steel guitarist Steve Fishell (who coproduced the album with Foster) will be joining the band on select dates.

Radney Foster first gained attention as half of the duo Foster & Lloyd (who, with “Crazy Over You” became the first duo in history to top the country charts with their debut single). His solo debut was on the upstart record label Arista Nashville, where his labelmates included Alan Jackson, Diamond Rio, Pam Tillis and Brooks and Dunn.

Foster’s discography contains countless cuts by artists ranging any-

where from country (Keith Urban, The Chicks, Brooks and Dunn, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) to contemporary (Marc Broussard, Hootie & The Blowfish, Kenny Loggins, Los Lonely Boys, George Benson). Foster has appeared in film, TV and stage including as host of CMT Crossroads, in the feature film Beauty Mark, on stage in the acclaimed musical “Troubadour. “

His most recent project For You To See The Stars is in two parts, a book of short fiction, and a companion CD of the same name. Foster, who produced the first three Randy Rogers Band albums, recently reunited with them to produce Homecoming. He’s currently working on a second book of short fiction, and a side jazz project with his sons, The Space Cadet Quintet.

Steve Vai Brings His “Inviolate” USA Tour To The House Of Blues October 12

Hey Folks… Well, I didn’t realize how much I was missing touring, feeling that stage under my feet, swimming in the atmosphere of your vibe, and all those other delights of being with my band and traveling from city to city. So it gives me great joy to announce my upcoming “Inviolate” USA tour. We will be kicking it off in late January, 2022. Just looking at these tour dates invigorates me. I also so much enjoy the EVO (special packages) where I get to sit for an hour and chat with you in an intimate setting. Pre-sale begins tomorrow, so stay tuned and thank you for the support! I really am chomping on my whammy bar to get out there and feel your energy again.

S.

Along with his onetime teacher Joe Satriani, Grammy Award-winning sixstring wizard Steve Vai set the standard for rock guitar virtuosity in the ’80s. From his stints as a sideman for such

rock royalty as Frank Zappa and David Lee Roth to his work as a sessionman for a number of diverse acts like Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, Public Image Ltd., and Joe Jackson — all capped with an impressive solo résumé — Vai has dominated the scene as a true “guitar god” since the 1980s.

Born on June 6, 1960, and raised in Carle Place, New York, Vai became interested in the guitar via such legendary artists as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Alice Cooper as a teenager and, upon starting high school, took lessons with an older player from school, Joe Satriani. Playing in several local bands, Vai quickly picked up on the instrument, and by the age of 18 was attending the renowned Berklee School of Music in Boston. As a student there, he transcribed several of Frank Zappa’s most technically demanding compositions for guitar, and even sent a copy of one such transcription, “Black Page,” to Zappa himself. Zappa was so impressed with

the young guitarist that upon meeting him, he invited Vai to join his band.

Subsequently, Vai toured the world with Zappa (giving Vai the nicknames “Stunt Guitarist” and “Little Italian Virtuoso”) and played on such albums as 1981’s Tinsel Town Rebellion and You Are What You Is, 1982’s Ship Arriving Too Late, 1983’s Man from Utopia, plus 1984’s Them or Us and Thing-Fish, before leaving to set out on his own. First off was a pair of self-financed, recorded, and released solo albums in 1984, Flex-Able and Flex-Able Leftovers, both of which showcased Vai’s guitar playing and songwriting talents, which were still heavily influenced by Zappa.

With Van Halen all the rage by the mid-’80s due to their massive hard rock/ pop crossover success, Vai replaced Yngwie Malmsteen in a similarly styled

on next page

Steve Vai

(continued from previous page)

outfit called Alcatrazz (which featured former Rainbow vocalist Graham Bonnett), playing on their overlooked 1985 release Disturbing the Peace. The same year, Vai made a cameo appearance in the movie Crossroads (playing the Devil’s guitarist and shredding away in a guitar duel with Ralph Macchio) and got an invitation from his friend/bass master Billy Sheehan to try out for the guitar spot in singer David Lee Roth’s solo band (Roth had just split from Van Halen), and eventually landed the gig. The debut release from Roth and his stellar solo band, Eat ‘Em and Smile, arrived in 1986 and went on to become one of the year’s top hard rock releases. Both Vai and Sheehan were catapulted to superstardom due to their instrumental talents, and they took top honors in numerous guitar magazines for years afterward.

Although the quartet showed great promise, Sheehan jumped ship just after their sophomore effort, Skyscraper, was issued in 1988. Although the album was more pop-based than its predecessor, it became another sizable hit — with Vai earning a co-producing credit on the album along with Roth. The same year, Vai issued his own line of snazzy guitars, the Jem 777 series, with the Ibanez company. After the ensuing tour with Roth wrapped up in late 1988, it was Vai’s turn to jump ship. In addition to working on another solo album, he was invited to join chart-topping popmetallers Whitesnake, an offer he accepted. His one and only album with Whitesnake, Slip of the Tongue, was issued in 1989, as was his third solo album overall, Passion and Warfare, a year later. The largely instrumental album was based on dreams that Vai experienced as a teenager, and it became a sizable hit, earning gold certification and solidifying Vai’s standing as one of the top guitarists of the day. It was also around this time that Vai created a sevenstring guitar with Ibanez. Although the instrument didn’t initially catch on, it would by the mid- to late ’90s, when guitarists in such metal acts as Korn and Limp Bizkit would utilize the instrument to achieve super-low tunings.

After an extended hiatus, Vai formed his first conventional rock band (not surprisingly called VAI) along with newcomer Devin Townsend on vocals, T.M. Stevens on bass, and Terry Bozzio on drums — offering their one and only

album in 1993, Sex & Religion. When the album proved to be a disappointment both critically and commercially, Vai returned to all-instrumental work with the 1995 EP Alien Love Secrets. For the remainder of the decade, he continued to issue solo releases, including 1996’s Fire Garden, 1998’s Flex-Able Leftovers (a re-release of his long out of print second solo album, with added tracks), and 1999’s The Ultra Zone. It was also during the late ’90s that Vai and Satriani reunited for an annual co-headlining tour (with a different third artist added each year), called G3, unleashing a live album, G3: Live in Concert, in 1997.

The early 21st century saw a flurry of releases from Vai, including a compilation of instrumentals, The 7th Song: Enchanting Guitar Melodies Archive, in 2000, and his first full-length live release, Alive in an Ultra World, in 2001, as well as his mammoth career-encompassing ten-disc box set The Secret Jewel Box. In 2002 he collected several pieces that he had contributed to films through the years, including the guitar duel from Crossroads and the theme to Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, and put them together in a 40-track collection called The Elusive Light and Sound, Vol. 1. A series of compilations came next, and after a five-year hiatus from the studio, Vai returned in 2005 with Real Illusions: Reflections. A tour with the Metropole Orchestra followed and he released an ambitious double live set documenting his performances, titled Sound Theories, Vols. 1-2, in 2007. In 2010, he performed with the North Netherlands Orchestra, debuting several new compositions that fused rock music with orchestral arrangements, dubbed the “Evo Era.” Vai also made several television appearances

in 2010, performing on The Tonight Show, and on American Idol with Mary J. Blige, Orianthi, Travis Barker, Ron Fair, Orianthi, and Randy Jackson. In 2012, his eighth studio album, The Story of Light, arrived, continuing the new age themes first put forth on Real Illusions: Reflections, and including unexpected twists such as a rootsy blues cover backed by a full gospel choir as well as a duet with Aimee Mann. In 2015, Vai signed with Sony/Legacy; his first album for the label was Stillness in Motion: Vai Live in L.A., a recording of an October 2012 concert by the guitarist. 2016’s Modern Primitive saw Vai bridge the past and the present with pieces culled from sketches of songs penned shortly after the release of his 1984 debut FlexAble, while 2022’s Inviolate featured a taut, fusion-funk set played almost exclusively on a Gretsch hollow body guitar.

Over the years, Vai has guested on countless albums by other artists, including Gregg Bissonette’s self-titled debut and Submarine, Alice Cooper’s Hey Stoopid, Randy Coven’s Funk Me Tender, Al di Meola’s Infinite Desire, Public Image Ltd.’s Album, Joe Jackson’s Symphony 1, Billy Sheehan’s Compression, and releases from Mike Stern, Ozzy, and Meat Loaf. He can also be heard on such additional Zappa releases as Jazz from Hell, Shut Up ‘n Play Yer Guitar, Guitar, and on several volumes of the ongoing You Can’t Do That on Stage Anymore series and the live tribute disc Zappa’s Universe. As if his busy schedule weren’t full enough, Vai pursued a lifelong interest when he began harvesting honey among five bee colonies in the backyard of his home.

Post Malone Performs At Toyota Center October 25th

by Neil Z. Yeung

Within five years of his debut, American rapper and singer/songwriter Post Malone went from genre novelty to certified superstar, amassing a string of Top Ten singles with a hybrid style that combined his unique vocal delivery, pained lyrics, and hiphop production inspired as much by Tim McGraw as Kanye West. After the release of his 2015 quintuple-platinum single “White Iverson,” off debut Stoney, he quickly ascended to the top of the pop mainstream in the late 2010s with a succession of multiplatinum hits that included chart-toppers “Rockstar” with 21 Savage and “Psycho” with Ty Dolla $ign from 2018’s number one Grammy-nominated album Beerbongs & Bentleys, and the Grammy-nominated “Sunflower” with Swae Lee from 2019’s Hollywood’s Bleeding. His fourth longplayer, Twelve Carat Toothache, appeared in 2022.

Raised in Dallas, Austin Post loved a wide range of music from a young age and planned on joining a band thanks to the video game Guitar Hero. When his dad gave him a copy of Terror Squad’s hit “Lean Back,” though, Post decided to become an MC. He hung with Dallas crew the IRAS until a move to the West Coast dropped him in Los Angeles. After putting some braids in his hair, he coined the term “White Iverson,” and when he posted the track in early 2015, he hit

a million views within a month. Post signed with the Republic label later that year.

In 2016, he released the single “Go Flex” along with his official debut mixtape, August 26th. Months later, his first studio effort arrived. Stoney featured guests ranging from Justin Bieber to Migos’ Quavo to Kehlani, peaking at number four on the Billboard 200 and later achieving multiplatinum certification. Following the success of his debut, Post issued the chart-topping singles “Rockstar” with 21 Savage and “Psycho” with Ty Dolla $ign, which reached a combined total of 13-times platinum. Those hit tracks landed on his sophomore follow-up, Beerbongs & Bentleys, which dealt with his rapid climb to fame and all its trappings. The set reached number one upon release and was later nominated for Album of the Year at the 2019 Grammy Awards. Along with producers Scott Storch, PartyNextDoor, Louis Bell, and London on da Track, the dark, introspective affair also featured guest rappers Nicki Minaj, YG, and G-Eazy, as well as the additional radio hit “Better Now.”

In between official full-lengths, Post capitalized on his steady ascent in the mainstream, hopping onto the Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse soundtrack with previous collaborator Swae Lee. Their duet, “Sunflower,” topped the charts across the globe and marked a slight pop-smart shift in

Post’s production. “Wow,” “Goodbyes” with Young Thug, and “Circles” all followed, firmly planting him in the Hot 100’s upper reaches for much of 2019. This quartet of hits all appeared on his third effort, Hollywood’s Bleeding, which recruited guests Da Baby, Future, Halsey, Meek Mill, Lil Baby, SZA, Travis Scott, and even Ozzy Osbourne. His second number one album, the set topped the Billboard 200 for at least five non-consecutive weeks, the most for any artist that year. While “Circles” became his fourth Hot 100 chart-topper at the close of the year, he received a pair of Grammy nominations for his other 2019 number one, “Sunflower,” including Record of the Year. Post’s 2020 output mainly consisted of guest appearances including on Tyla Yaweh’s “Tommy Lee” and Big Sean’s “Wolves.” He returned to solo work in 2021 with a cover of Hootie & the Blowfish’s “Only Wanna Be with You” for the Pokemon 25 album, and his own track, “Motley Crew.” The following year, he released his fourth full-length effort, Twelve Carat Toothache, which featured guest spots from Doja Cat, the Kid Laroi, and Fleet Foxes’ Robin Pecknold. Dealing with the pressures and pitfalls of fame and fortune, the oft-dour set included hit singles “Cooped Up” with Roddy Ricch and “One Right Now” with the Weeknd.

Trout Fishing in America is the long-standing musical partnership of Keith Grimwood and Ezra Idlet. The name taken from a Richard Brautigan novel, seems almost as incongruent and intriguing as a picture of this musical duo - Ezra Idlet (guitar) stands six feet nine inches and Keith Grimwood (bass), five feet five and one half inches. What is more intriguing is the musical career these two have carved out in three decades of writing, recording and performing together. Trout Fishing in America can look back at a body of work that is impressive and know they are just hitting their stride. On the heels of their fourth Grammy nomination Big Round World, and the release of their second children’s book/cd Chicken Joe Forgets Something Important, it is no wonder that Trout Fishing in America sees the future as the brightest part of their successful career.

A brief history of Trout Music: Grimwood’s professional musical experience began when, as the precocious teenage bass player, he began

sitting in with jazz musicians who had socks older than him. Always the good student, he earned a degree in music from the University of Houston and then quickly landed a position with the Houston Symphony. By that time Idlet had given up his spot on the bench of a local junior college basketball team to pursue a life of rock & roll. It was shortly thereafter that Idlet and Grimwood met as members of the Houston based eclectic folk/rock band St. Elmo’s Fire which became the perfect percolator for Trout Fishing in America. As St. Elmo’s dissolved in 1979, Trout Fishing in America was officially born. Idlet and Grimwood had become best of friends and musical partners.

Success happens when opportunity meets preparation. After years of accumulating original songs and polishing their performance TFIA was ready when the CD revolution took place. TFIA was in the first wave of artist owned labels (Trout Records) to successfully record and market their own music. Their infectious mix of folk/pop and

family music is tempered by the diverse influences of reggae, latin, blues, jazz and classical music. TFIA recordings have garnered three National Indie Awards and multiple Parents Choice Gold and American Library Awards as well as 4 Grammy nominations. TFIA has also expanded their touring territory to over forty states and several Canadian provinces.

Sharing knowledge and encouraging art has become another musical mission of TFIA. In the past few years they have developed a variety of song writing workshops for teachers and students which illustrate how art and music come from the fabric of everyday life. Their willingness to make fun of our most annoying and sometimes disgusting habits in one song then touch our hearts with tender and passionate images of family life in the next is what makes the connection between Trout Fishing in America and their audience so real.

Big Al & The Heavyweights Perform Two Shows In The Houston Area

October 13 @ Katie’s In Bacliff and October 14 @ Green Oaks Tavern In Humble

Big Al and the Heavyweights originally formed in 1996 as the Unknown Blues Band, with founding members Al Lauro, Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band and Gov’t Mule), and pianist Rick Gergen (Sweethearts of the Rodeo). Of course, Warren is no longer in the band but Big Al has formed a solid array of musicians that features Louisiana Music Hall of Fame pianist vocalist, Wayne Lohr along with guitarist vocalist extraordinaire Marcel Anton and renowened California bassist vocalist

Mark Parsons.

The latest recording “Love One Another” (Vizztone Label Group) includes special musical guests Luther Dickinson of the North MS Allstars and former Heavyweight and harmonica virtuoso, Jason Ricci.

“Love One Another” was recorded at famed Suite Mix Studios in Slidell, LA with George Curreau Jr engineering and producing who is noted for Funky Meters guitarist Brian

Stoltz’s numerous recording projects. The album charted at # 19 on the Living Blues Charts and #15 on The North American College & Community Radio Chart and # 8 on the Roots Music Blues Chart .

Big Al and the Heavyweights’ live performances are family oriented, energetic and most of all fun. This is a show you don’t want to miss!

Yes Celebrates The 50th Anniversary Of Their Iconic Album Close To The Edge With A U.S. Tour

Yes Will Celebrate In Houston With A Performance At The Arena Theatre On October 20th

Prog rock pioneers YES will stop in Houston at Arena Theatre on Thursday, October 20 as part of “The Album Series Tour 2022,” celebrating the 50th anniversary of their 1972 iconic album, Close To The Edge. As with “The Album Series Tour 2022,” which started off in the UK this past June, the U.S. tour is dedicated to the late Alan White—the band’s legendary drummer—following his passing this past May (see the band quotes below about Alan).

The “Close to the Edge” show will comprise full production and a high-definition video wall directed by Andy Clark and featuring the artwork of Roger Dean.

Prog rock pioneers and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees YES have revealed the dates and details

for the U.S. leg of their “The Album Series Tour 2022,” celebrating the 50th anniversary of their 1972 iconic album, Close To The Edge. This marks the band’s first trek in the U.S. since 2019 and will kick off with two shows in Glenside, PA at the Keswick Theatre on Friday, October 7 and Saturday, October 8 and wrap in New York at the NYCB Theatre on November 19. Tickets will begin to go on sale on Friday, September 2; check local listings for information. See the full tour dates below.

As with “The Album Series Tour 2022,” which started off in the UK this past June, the U.S. tour is dedicated to the late Alan White—the band’s legendary drummer—following his passing this past May (see the band quotes below about Alan). Before the tour gets underway, a

special tribute concert—“Alan White—Celebrating His Life and Music”—will be held October 2, 7:00pm at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle: https://www.stgpresents.org/ calendar/13566/alan-white-celebrating-his-life-and-music

Alan White joined YES in June 1972, just days before their “Close To The Edge” Tour began. Over the following 50 years, Alan would appear on every YES album including 2021’s The Quest. Following the global pandemic, he had been looking forward to this tour and rejoining his bandmates on stage, something he lived for, in the run up to his 50th anniversary of joining YES.

continued on next page

Photo credit: Mike Ainscoe

Yes Celebrates The 50th Anniversary Of Their Iconic Album Close To The Edge

Sadly, that was not be, but Alan’s towering presence will be omnipresent on the tour. Alan’s good friend, drummer Jay Schellen, will join YES for the forthcoming tour, alongside Steve Howe (guitars & backing vocals), Geoff Downes (keyboards), Jon Davison (lead vocals) and Billy Sherwood (bass guitar and backing vocals).

The “Close to the Edge” show will comprise full production and a high-definition video wall directed by Andy Clark and featuring the artwork of Roger Dean.

Following the release of The Yes Album and Fragile in 1971, YES released what is widely considered one of the most defining albums, not only for YES but for the whole progressive movement. Close To The Edge became an inspiration for their contemporaries and for successive generations of musicians. The album is saluted with a cover story in the September 2022 issue of the national magazine Guitar Player, for which Steve Howe was interviewed. He recalls: “We were young, enthusiastic, and adventurous, and we had this incredible breakthrough success with Fragile. We saw our next album as a real opportunity to prove our worth as a band. The door had been opened and we weren’t going to go backward. We wanted to sharpen our skills as far as writing and arranging.”

Journalist Joe Bosso wrote about the album’s place in rock history in Guitar Player (September 2022):

“Vast, enigmatic, full of moments of spectacular grandeur and ever-changing hues, Close to the Edge is the ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ of progressive-rock albums. Comprised

of just three tracks – the dizzying side-long, 18-minute title track, the equally sprawling mini epic “And You and I,” and the whacked-out, hyperactive jazz-funk album closer “Siberian Khatru” – Close to the Edge documented Yes operating at the peak of their musical powers.”

YES Quotes About Alan White (June 2022)

Steve Howe: “It is with great sadness that I join with the other members of Yes to acknowledge the passing of our dearest friend and drummer, Alan White. He gave so many of his best years to the band and was a true believer and determined professional til the very end. Being a kind and loving human being just came naturally to him, with his mellow, non-confrontational personality and abundant generosity, which made him so popular with his friends and everyone he met.”

Geoff Downes: It is with the utmost sadness I have received the news of the passing of my dearest friend and bandmate Alan White. He was truly one of the greatest men I have ever met. Honest, loyal, passionate, caring, kind, generous, considerate, charitable, funny – so many superlatives, too many to mention – simply, an all-round top guy and one of the best. And despite living for many years in his adopted hometown of Seattle, he never lost that Geordie wit, irony and charm. As a musician he was unique in every way, and his powerhouse technique influenced whole generations of drummers and percussionists – an absolute legend in the true sense of the word. He was a joy to share the same stage with, often glancing over at the keyboard riser with a wink and a smile, but still laying down that solid, yet intricate groove

as only he could. This was Alan – a genius who never took himself too seriously. We had some great laughs together, became very close, and always looked after each other to the point where they started referring to us as ‘The Odd Couple’!”

About YES

Formed in 1968 by Jon Anderson and the late, and much-missed, Chris Squire, YES have been one of the most innovative, influential and best-loved bands in rock music history. Their 1970s albums The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Yessongs (a triple live album set), Tales From Topographic Oceans, Relayer and Going For The One were ground-breaking in musical style and content. Their music also became synonymous with artist Roger Dean whose distinctive YES logo design and artwork adorned the lavish gatefold presentation sleeves of many YES albums.

With sales of over 50 million records, the Grammy-award winning YES were inducted into The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017 where they performed Roundabout from the album Fragile and the FM radio-friendly Owner Of A Lonely Heart from the 1985 album 90125. In 2021 YES released their 22nd Studio album, The Quest, produced by Steve Howe, which went to No.1 in the UK rock chart and entered the Official UK Album Chart at No.20.

YES Online:

http://yesworld.com/ https://www.facebook.com/ yestheband/ https://twitter.com/yesofficial https://www.instagram.com/ yesofficial/ https://www.youtube.com/user/ yesofficial

(continued from previous page)

Michael Schenker Performs At White Oak Music Hall November 2nd

by Greg Prato

An influential songwriter and protometal guitar virtuoso, Michael Schenker played with hard rock legends Scorpions and UFO before finding success as a solo artist in the late 1970s with the Michael Schenker Group. With his signature half-black, halfwhite Gibson Flying V, Schenker spent the next four decades at the fore of the melodic hard rock scene, releasing a string of acclaimed solo albums while occasionally rejoining UFO both as a player and a producer. In 2021 he celebrated his 50th anniversary as a working musician with the release of the star-studded MSG effort Immortal. A solo effort, Rock Shock, and another MSG outing, Universal, appeared just one year later.

Schenker was born on January 10, 1955 in Sarstedt, West Germany, and it was his older brother, Rudolf, who sparked the youngster’s interest in guitar at an early age. Entirely self-taught, Michael picked up a thing or two from such hard-rocking acts as

Wishbone Ash and Mountain, as well as his older brother, who would offer the youngster money if he would transcribe certain songs for him while he was at work. As a result of constant playing, it wasn’t long before Schenker showed immense talent with the instrument and, by the early ’70s, joined Rudolf’s group, the Scorpions. Michael appeared on the group’s 1972 full-length debut, Lonesome Crow, and toured with the outfit (all at the age of 17). But it was during the album’s supporting tour that another upand-coming outfit, UFO, took a keen interest in the young Schenker and managed to pry the guitarist away from the Scorpions.

Although a language barrier existed between Schenker and his new bandmates (he barely knew any English at the time), the guitarist let his playing do the talking, especially on his first recording with the group, 1974’s Phenomenon, which spawned such metal classics/Schenker showcases as “Doctor Doctor” and “Rock Bottom” (also of note was the instrumental “Lipstick Traces,” a tune that Schenker played entirely with his

feet). It was also around this time that Schenker began playing an instrument that he would become synonymous with for the rest of his career, a Gibson Flying V (which would eventually be decorated with a halfwhite/half-black paint job). Heavy-duty touring and a pair of further releases, 1975’s Force It and 1976’s No Heavy Petting, perfectly set the stage for what UFO hoped would be a global commercial breakthrough.

The late ’70s saw the band issue a trio of classic hard rock albums — 1977’s Lights Out, 1978’s Obsession, and especially 1979’s outstanding live set, Strangers in the Night — all of which made strong showings on the U.S. charts. But UFO’s time in the limelight would be fleeting, as alcohol/substance overindulgence and erratic behavior drew a wedge between Schenker and the rest of UFO (the guitarist also became famous for disappearing from the group without any notice, leaving them high and dry mid-tour). The year 1979 saw Schenker’s exit from

on next page

Credit: Christiaan Mikey

Michael Schenker

(continued from previous page)

UFO (who were never the same afterward) and reentry into the Scorpions. But, as with his first go-round with the group, Schenker’s tenure was a fleeting one, only lasting for a single album, 1979’s Lovedrive, before he exited once more.

The same year, Schenker was invited to take the place of the just-departed Joe Perry in Aerosmith. Despite a few jam sessions between Schenker and the others, nothing ever materialized of the SchenkerAerosmith union (the interesting meeting was discussed by the group in their 1999 autobiography Walk This Way). Now free of any other obligations, Schenker set his sights on a solo career, forming the Michael Schenker Group immediately thereafter. While the group got off to a promising start with such strong releases as 1980’s Michael Schenker Group, 1981’s MSG, plus 1982’s Assault Attack and One Night at Budokan, interest eventually evaporated, as it became obvious with each subsequent release that Schenker had set his sights at the top of the charts rather than sticking to good oldfashioned hard rock/heavy metal. Constant lineup fluctuation didn’t help, either.

Schenker got an invite from Ozzy Osbourne to join his group immediately after Randy Rhoads’ tragic death in 1982, but like the Aerosmith bid several years earlier, it didn’t pan out. Despite failing to issue a big commercial breakthrough on his own (although 1989’s pop-metal outing Save Yourself, credited to the McAuley-Schenker Group, came close), the guitarists in such renowned groups as Metallica and Def Leppard were quick to voice Schenker’s influence. The early ’90s saw Schenker appear with Ratt on a best-forgotten episode of MTV’s popular Unplugged series, in addition to participating in a one-off popmetal “supergroup,” Contraband (which included members of such groups as Shark Island, Vixen, Ratt, and L.A. Guns), who issued a lone self-titled debut in 1991.

Throughout the ’90s, Schenker continued to issue solo albums, including 1993’s acoustic-based Thank You and 1999’s more rock-based Unforgiven, but the real story of the ’90s for Schenker was his reenlistment in UFO in 1993. Predictably, Schenker’s second go-around with UFO was short-lived, yet it did spawn a world tour as well as an all-new studio effort, 1995’s Walk on Water. Schenker’s pace of issuing solo albums only increased during the early 21st

century, as such titles as 2000’s all-instrumental Adventures of the Imagination, plus a staggering three albums in 2001 alone (MS 2000: Dreams and Expressions, Odd Trio, and Be Aware of Scorpions) saw the light of day. In 2002, Schenker signed on with UFO once more for a new album, Sharks. The reunion was short-lived, however, and after his exit from the group, rumors began to circulate about his health. The doubters were quickly silenced by the eighth release of the Michael Schenker Group, Arachnophobiac, in 2003. He also managed to complete yet another solo album in the same year, Thank You, Vol. 4, as well as a collaborative album with Amy Schugar entitled Under Construction.

The Michael Schenker Group returned in 2005, if only in name, for Heavy Hitters, which featured a revolving cast of guest musicians accompanying Schenker playing covers. To celebrate the group’s 25th year of activity, 2006 saw the release of Tales of Rock’n’Roll, which featured a new vocalist, Jari Tiura. Many of the group’s past singers also contributed lyrics and vocals to the album. The band would return in 2008 for In the Midst of Beauty, their tenth album, which boasted the return of their original vocalist Gary Barden. A new Schenker project, Michael Schenker’s Temple of Rock, would surface in 2011 with a self-titled debut album.

The band would go on to release a live album the following year, and then return to the studio for 2013’s Bridge the Gap, co-written with former Rainbow frontman Doogie White. The band would release another studio album in 2015, Spirit on a Mission.

This was followed by the audio-video concert package On a Mission: Live in Madrid in 2016, recorded the previous November at the historic Joy Eslava Theatre. The concert not only included tracks from the charting Spirit on a Mission, but also proved to be a career retrospective, including songs from MSG, the Scorpions, and UFO. Upon release, the deluxe package immediately hit the hard rock and metal charts. Schenker got his 2016 touring musicians together under the name Michael Schenker Fest for 2018’s Resurrection. Revelation, a second effort from the same group, was released a year later, and in 2021, Immortal came out and featured Joe Lynn Turner, Ronnie Romero, and Derek Sherinian, under the MSG banner. A solo LP, Rock Shock, featuring Pete Way (ex-UFO), Chris Slade (ex-AC/DC), and Herman Rarebell (ex-Scorpions), arrived the following year. 2022 also saw the release of Universal, a reliably anthemic MSG outing that saw Schenker and company joined by special guests Michael Kiske (Helloween), Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), and Tony Carey (Rainbow), among others.

Blackie Lawless and W.A.S.P. Perform at White Oak Music Hall November 2nd

by Eduardo Rivadavia

One of the heavier bands to come out of the 1980s L.A. metal scene, W.A.S.P. quickly rose to national infamy thanks to their shock rock image, lyrics, and live concerts. Led by firebrand vocalist, bassist, guitarist, and sole constant member Blackie Lawless, the band released a string of successful studio albums, including the gold-selling W.A.S.P. (1984) and The Last Command (1985), before briefly ceasing operations in the early ’90s. Lawless assembled and disassembled multiple lineups as the years progressed. Still, the band remained prolific and surprisingly potent, issuing well-received efforts like 9/11-inspired Dying for the World (2002) and the biblically themed Babylon (2009) and Golgotha (2015) that eschewed the debauchery of their early material for a more contemplative, though no less boisterous, approach to the genre.

Leader Blackie Lawless (bass/ vocals) was already a rock & roll veteran when he relocated to the West Coast and

founded W.A.S.P. with guitarists Chris Holmes and Randy Piper and drummer Tony Richards. The band soon established a reputation as a ferocious live act, thanks in large part to Lawless’ habits of tying a semi-naked model to a torture rack and throwing raw meat into the audience. And with the release of their self-explanatory independent EP, Animal (F**k Like a Beast), W.A.S.P. became impossible to ignore.

They signed to Capitol Records, and with songs like “I Wanna Be Somebody” and “L.O.V.E. Machine” leading the way, their self-titled 1984 debut was an instant success. W.A.S.P. took their horror show on the road, and their momentum continued to build with the following year’s The Last Command, which featured new drummer Steven Riley and the band’s biggest hit, “Blind in Texas.” Later that year, W.A.S.P. gained even more prominence as one of the biggest targets of Tipper Gore and the P.M.R.C. (Parents’ Music Resource Center), a Washington social agenda group leading a crusade against violent, sexist song lyrics. Though

the incident (which included Senate hearings on the issue with guest speakers as disparate as Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Dee Snider from Twisted Sister) would cause more publicity than actual results, it served to make W.A.S.P. a household name.

Ironically, the band toned down its act for 1986’s Inside the Electric Circus, a more commercial album that saw Lawless switch to guitar (replacing the departed Piper) and hire bassist Johnny Rod. The blood and guts were largely gone, and despite releasing a strong live album entitled Live...In the Raw the following year, the band’s popularity began to wane. The release of Penelope Spheeris’ searing heavy metal “rockumentary” The Decline of Western Civilization 2: The Metal Years, an exposé about the L.A. metal scene, also didn’t help matters.

Released in 1989, Headless Children (featuring ex-Quiet Riot sticksman Frankie Banali) was a return to form, but it couldn’t reverse the band’s slump, and W.A.S.P. disbanded soon after. Lawless eventually returned as a one-man show for 1993’s The Crimson Idol, an ambitious rock opera/ concept album billed as Blackie Lawless & W.A.S.P. Resurrecting the band’s old shock rock antics, but alas, not their fame and fortune, the following year’s greatest-hits set, First Blood...Last Cuts, seemed like W.A.S.P.’s last chapter.

But the resilient Lawless returned once again, luring guitarist Chris Holmes back into the fold and recruiting bassist Mike Duda and drummer Stet Howland for 1996’s well-regarded Still Not Black Enough. This lineup continued to tour and record for a number of independent labels, with their albums including 1997’s K.F.D., 1999’s Helldorado, and 2001’s Unholy Terror. The band released Dying for the World in 2002, an exceptional collection of unusually serious material inspired by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was followed in 2004 by the conceptual Neon God, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2, with the likeminded Dominator arriving in 2006. Issued in 2009, Babylon saw the group drawing inspiration from the biblical visions of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse, while 2015’s Napalm-issued Golgotha, their 15th studio long-player, would be the last LP to feature longtime drummer Mike Dupke, who left the group prior to the album’s release. In 2017, W.A.S.P. toured to commemorate the 25th anniversary of The Crimson Idol. In February 2018, Napalm Records released ReIdolized: The Soundtrack to the Crimson Idol, which included both a concert film and the original LP, the latter of which added four previously unreleased cuts.

Evelyn Rubio

It’s a Wrap! Evelyn Rubio Completes Location Shoot For Music Role in Motion Picture Slated for 2023 Release

“Ocean Child” will hit the Academy Awards Qualifying Film Festival Circuit in the fall of 2022

Evelyn Rubio recently wrapped on the production of “Ocean Child” where she was cast in the role of ARIA with the School of Mermaidology and Neptunism. She portrays a music teacher for the merchildren. The scene was shot by the Atlantic Ocean in a beach cove at Plymouth Beach Massachusetts. “Ocean Child” follows a young girl’s mystical journey towards her dreams and destiny of becoming a mermaid while confronting her mother’s fears as she attends an underwater school for merchildren. “Ocean Child” was co-written and co-produced by the team of Marilyn Swick and Laura Koons. The early rushes reveal a distinct possibility of an easy entrance from the big screen and into a television streaming series that could be picked up by one of the major youth networks. Evelyn comments, “Everyone on the set was really nice and professional, I felt right at home. This made the work easier to accomplish. It was a great experience. From the moment I was met at the airport until my return flight Marilyn was with me all the way through the experience.

Evelyn being greeted at Logan International Airport Boston

Now I am really anxious to see it on the big screen.” “Ocean Child” will hit the Academy Awards Qualifying Film Festival Circuit this fall with the international release scheduled for 2023. Ms. Swick remarks, “Music is a critical element when it comes to the production of a motion picture. Laura and I invest hours exploring what could work and why. We had been looking for the perfect combination of actress / musician when I met Evelyn Rubio. I was hosting the annual Women Songwriters Hall of Fame Awards Ceremony and John in Houston PR had booked Evelyn to be the opening act. As soon as this woman began performing it caught my eye and ear. I approached John later that night and in no time flat schedules were arranged and Laura and I had finalized our search.” Marilyn Swick is an accomplished producer, writer, and director having been awarded major recognition at the annual Cannes Film Festival. For 2023 Marilyn is currently working on three movies and looking forward to negotiating the streaming rights for “Ocean Child” with a major children’s television network. You can learn more about Ms. Swick at Marilyn Swick - IMDb Evelyn Rubio has just completed a television interview with show host Skip Reeves on Sparkx TV and recently her original saxophone became part of the international museum of Women Songwriters. Evelyn continues to perform as the lead vocalist and sax player in Fever Production’s “Candlelight Tribute To Selena” which makes it Nashville debut on November 18th. Learn more about Evelyn Rubio at Evelyn Rubio - Houston’s Singer + Saxophonist Official Site

Learn more about Ocean Child at Ocean Child (Short) - IMDb

Evelyn with Producer Cannes Film Winner Marilyn Swick

Sunday, Oct 2, 3:00 – 7:00 pm

The Hawg Stop Bar & Grill

11335 Sheldon Rd - Houston, TX 77044

Saturday, October 8, 8:00 pm – 12:00 am

Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Que Pasa Lounge

794 Lucky Eagle Dr - Eagle Pass, TX 78852

Friday, October 14, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

Andy’s Bar & Grill

27200 Hwy 290 - Cypress, TX 77433

Friday, October 21, 8:00 pm – 11:00 pm

3 Doors Down

102 20th St - Galveston, TX 77550

Saturday, October 22, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

BB Wolf’s

12220 Murphy Rd - Stafford, TX 77477

Saturday, October 29, 8:00 pm – 12:00 am

*Happy Halloween!!!

Backwoods Saloon 230 Lexington Ct - Conroe, TX 77385

Saturday, November 5, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

Aspens Bar & Grill 817 Clear Lake Rd - Kemah, TX 77565

Friday, November 11, 9:30 pm – 1:30 pm

Pennison’s Sports Pub Sugar Land 2446 Settler’s Way - Sugar Land, TX 77479

Sunday, November 13, 1:00 – 5:00 pm

Drifter’s Icehouse 29293 FM 149 - Richard’s, TX 77873

Friday, November 18, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

The Abbey Pub 2002 N Fry Rd - Houston, TX 77084

Friday, November 25, 9:00 pm – 1:00 am

Texas Thunder Stubby’s Bar & Grill 29460 FM 1488 - Waller,TX 77484

Sunday, November 27, 3:00 – 7:00 pm

The Hawg Stop Bar & Grill

11335 Sheldon Rd - Houston, TX 77044

Open 6 Days A Week Tuesday thru Sunday

Saturday, October 1 - Chris Castaneda

Sunday, October 2 - Katie’s Blues Jam featuring guest host Paul Ramirez

Thursday, October 6 - Hugo Jamz Trio

Friday, October 7 - Mark May

Saturday, October 8 - Jerk Water

Sunday, October - Katie’s Blues Jam featuring guest host Chris Castaneda

Thursday, October 13 - Big Al and the Heavyweights

Friday, October 14 - Dave Scher

Saturday, October 15 - Pee Wee Bowen

Sunday, October 16 - Katie’s Blues Jam featuring guest gost Mark May

Thursday, October 20 - James Wilhite and John Calderon

Friday, October 21 - Mighty Orq

Saturday, October 22 - Keeshea Pratt

Sunday, October 23 - Katie’s Blues Jam featuring guest host Chris Castaneda

Thursday, October 27 - Eric Demmer

Friday, October 28 - Paul Rimirez and Jamie Entenza

Saturday, October 29 - Funksion

Sunday, October 30 - Katie’s Blues Jam featuring guest host Hugo Jamz

Stevie Nicks Performs At The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion On October 9

Legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Stevie Nicks has announced the second leg of her highly anticipated 2022 tour, adding 12 dates to her run this fall. Produced by Live Nation, the second leg starts Tuesday, September 13th at Pine Knob Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI, making stops across the U.S. in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Charlotte, and more before wrapping up on Friday, October 28th in West Palm Beach, FL at iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre. Singersongwriter Vanessa Carlton acting as support on all dates. These shows are in addition to her previously announced performances at JAS Aspen Snowmass,

Ravinia Festival, Sea.Hear.Now Festival, Sound on Sound Festival, and Ohana Festival this September. Her tour will touch down in Houston on October 9yh at The Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion.

Famed for her mystical chanteuse image, singer/songwriter Stevie Nicks enjoyed phenomenal success not only as a solo artist but also as a key member of Fleetwood Mac. Possessed of a raspy croon, Nicks had a duo with Lindsey Buckingham in the early ’70s, releasing an excellent folk-pop album as Buckingham Nicks before the pair were absorbed into veteran U.K. group

Fleetwood Mac. Nicks’ and Buckingham’s talents helped steer the band to superstardom with the enormous hit albums Fleetwood Mac and Rumours. In the ’80s, Nicks ventured out on her own, scoring numerous hit singles and ultimately leaving the band. In the late ’90s, however, she reunited with her Fleetwood friends, who began performing and recording with renewed vigor.

Stephanie Lynn Nicks was born May 26, 1948, in Phoenix, Arizona; the granddaughter of a frustrated country singer, she began performing at the age of four, and occasionally sang at the tavern owned by her parents. Nicks started writing songs in her midteens, and joined her first group, the Changing Times, while attending high school in California.

During her senior year, Nicks met fellow student Lindsey Buckingham, with whom she formed the band Fritz along with friends Javier Pacheco and Calvin Roper. Between 1968 and 1971, the group became a popular attraction on the West Coast music scene, opening for Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Ultimately, tensions arose over the amount of attention paid by fans to Nicks’ pouty allure, and after three years Fritz disbanded; Buckingham remained her partner, however, and they soon became a romantic couple.

After moving to Los Angeles, the duo recorded its 1973 debut LP, Buckingham Nicks. Despite a cover that featured the couple nude, the album flopped, but it caught the attention of the members of Fleetwood Mac, who invited Buckingham and Nicks to join their ranks in 1974. In quick time, the revitalized group achieved unparalleled success: after the LP Fleetwood Mac topped the charts in 1975, the band recorded 1977’s Rumours, which sold over 17 million copies and stood for several years as the best-selling album of all time.

Major hit singles like “Dreams” and “Rhiannon” made Nicks a focal point of Fleetwood Mac, and in 1981 she took time off from the group to record

on next page

Stevie Nicks

(continued from previous page)

her solo debut, Bella Donna, which hit number one on the strength of the Top 20 hits “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” (a duet with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers), “Leather and Lace” (a duet with Don Henley), and “Edge of Seventeen (Just Like the White Winged Dove).”

After a return to Fleetwood Mac for the 1982 album Mirage (which featured her hit “Gypsy”), Nicks released her second solo effort, The Wild Heart, highlighted by the Top Five smash “Stand Back.” Rock a Little, which featured the single “Talk to Me,” followed in 1985.

After a long hiatus (during which time Nicks was treated for a chemical dependency problem), Fleetwood Mac reunited for the album Tango in the Night; The Other Side of the Mirror, Nicks’ first solo record in four years, followed in 1989. After a series of lineup changes and dropping sales figures, she left Fleetwood Mac in 1993 and issued

Street Angel a year later. In 1997, she rejoined the reunited Fleetwood Mac on tour and on the album The Dance. In 1998 Nicks, along with her Fleetwood Mac bandmates, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the same year that her three-disc Enchanted box set landed in stores.

Nicks returned to the studio in 2001 with friends Macy Gray, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, and Dixie Chick Natalie Maines for the solo album Trouble in Shangri-La, and again in 2003 for the Fleetwood Mac reunion album Say You Will. Reprise released the CD/ DVD Crystal Visions: The Very Best of Stevie Nicks in 2007, but it wasn’t until 2011 — almost a decade to the day after Trouble in Shangri-La’s release — that Nicks returned with a new solo album. Produced by Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard, In Your Dreams found her singing a mix of Bob Dylan-inspired folk songs, Italian love ballads, and rock anthems. In Your Dreams debuted at six on Billboard’s Top 200 and generated an adult contemporary hit in “Secret Love.” Nicks rejoined Fleetwood Mac in 2013

for the Extended Play release and a reunion tour that eventually blossomed into a full reunion with Christine McVie. In 2014, Nicks released 24 Karat Gold: Songs from the Vault, a collection of newly recorded versions of old songs; it debuted at seven on the Billboard charts. In 2015, she continued to tour with the reunited Fleetwood Mac and the following year her first two albums, Bella Donna and The Wild Heart, were given deluxe reissues.

In 2016 and 2017, Nicks toured with the Pretenders. As Fleetwood Mac was gearing up for a 50th Anniversary tour in 2018, the group parted ways with Lindsey Buckingham, replacing him with Neil Finn and Mike Campbell. Nicks was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a solo act in 2019, making her the first woman to be inducted twice. To accompany her induction, Rhino/WMG released the anthology Stand Back: 1981-2017. In October 2020, she released the song “Show Them the Way,” which featured contributions from Dave Grohl and Dave Stewart.

GWAR Perform At Warehouse Live October 15

by Steve Huey

GWAR has announced a long North American tour for Fall 2022 as part of their “Black Death Rager World Tour”. The tour will touch down at Warehouse Live on October 15th

The tour will begin on September 10 in Alton, Virginia, and will continue until November 3 in Baltimore. Light the Torch, Nekrogoblikon and Crobot will join the band. The presale is already open for certain dates with the codes ELECTRIC or DARKAGES. Get tickets here and don’t forget to enhance your experience with GWAR’s Bud of Gods line of CBD products, including gummy teddy bears, Delta 8 cartridges, hemp flowers and more in the Consequence store, with a 30% BOGO deal on all “Bud of Gods” clothing. You can also buy a new “Bud of Gods” white T-shirt for your next GWAR show directly under the tour dates.

Thrash metal’s answer to the more mainstream satire of Spinal Tap, GWAR is known for its grotesque costumes and blood-soaked, controversy-baiting live performances. Their elaborate mythology describes the group as all-powerful interplanetary warriors who came to Earth to enslave and slaughter the human race. Founded in Richmond, Virginia, in 1984, GWAR utilizes a rotating cast of musicians, artists, and filmmakers, known collectively as Slave Pit Inc. The band issued 13 studio albums, including fan

favorites Scumdogs of the Universe (1990), Violence Has Arrived (2001), and Lust in Space (2009), before going on a short hiatus in 2014 after the death of frontman Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie). With bassist and co-founder Beefcake the Mighty (Michael Bishop) at the helm, GWAR reconvened in 2017 and released The Blood of Gods. The New Dark Ages appearing five years later.

All members perform under aliases that illustrate the band’s dark humor; the initial group consisted of Oderus Urungus (vocalist Dave Brockie), Balsac the Jaws of Death (guitarist Steve Douglas), Flattus Maximus (guitarist Peter Lee), Beefcake the Mighty (bassist Michael Bishop), and Jizmak the Gusher (drummer Brad Roberts). Meanwhile, auxiliary characters included Techno-Destructo (occasional vocalist Hunter Jackson), Slymenstra Hymen ( Danyelle Stampe), the Sexecutioner (Charles Varga), and Sleazy P. Martini (the band’s manager, Don Drakulich).

GWAR quickly established a unique identity as the members performed in bizarre costumes made of latex and papiermâché, while the stage show itself featured fake pagan rituals, corpses spewing washable bodily fluids on the audience, and sometimes a mechanical giant maggot. Not surprisingly, authorities in several locations didn’t take kindly to GWAR — Charlotte, North Carolina, fined Urungus on an obscenity charge and banned the

group for a year, while police in Athens, Georgia shut down a concert in 1993. With the help of the ACLU, however, GWAR sued and settled out of court, donating the resulting award money to charity. GWAR are perhaps best appreciated for their visual affects, which have historically been far more creative than the actual music; indeed, the group received a somewhat stunning Grammy nomination in 1993 for its long-form home video Phallus in Wonderland.

GWAR has survived numerous personnel changes over the years, a potential problem that has been mitigated by the fact that the band’s “characters” never change, only the musicians playing them. Despite a decline in media attention, GWAR have also proven to be a consistent live act and continue to record a new album with each new stage act. Unlike most career bands, however, GWAR has released almost as many full-length videos as they have albums. Along with Phallus in Wonderland, the group assaulted the eyes with Skulhed Face (1994), Rendezvous with Ragnarok (1997), Dawn of the Day of the Night of the Penguin (1998), It’s Sleazy (2001), and a slew of subsequent films.

Musically, GWAR’s early gem Scumdogs of the Universe (1990) is considered to be one of the band’s most entertaining works. Subsequent albums, including This Toilet Earth (1993), We Kill Everything (1999), and Violence Has Arrived (2001) have repeated many of the shock themes that gained GWAR notoriety early on. After a few GWAR-less years, the band returned in 2004 on a new label, DRT Entertainment, with a new album, War Party. The concert recording Live from Mt. Fuji (which, despite its name, was taken from a performance in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) was released the following year, and the band returned to the studio in 2006 for Beyond Hell, a rock opera/concept record about the band’s journey into Hell. In 2009, after celebrating their 25th year and resigning to Metal Blade, GWAR took a similar conceptual approach and left Earth’s surface again to battle their enemy Cardinal Sin in space on Lust in Space. In 2014, however, Urungus died at the age of 50 from a heroin overdose, leaving the band without any of its founding members. In 2017, the group re-formed with original bassist Michael Bishop behind the mike — portraying a new character called “Blothar the Beserker” — and released The Blood of Gods. 2022 saw the release of the band’s 15th long-player, The New Dark Ages, which was accompanied by a graphic novel, GWAR in the Duoverse of Absurdity.

The Legendary Pink Dots Perform At Warehouse Live October 30th

by Steve Huey

The Legendary Pink Dots are an influential, staggeringly prolific group led by enigmatic frontman Edward Ka-Spel. Emerging from the early-’80s post-punk underground and sometimes categorized as industrial due to associations with bands like Skinny Puppy, the group’s music is nearly impossible to pin down, drawing from Krautrock, ambient, folk, synth pop, and numerous other styles. The Dots’ music is by turns melodic pop and exotic psychedelia, with classical influences, sampling, and relentlessly dark, violent, apocalyptic lyrics. Ka-Spel’s rhotacistic vocals are instantly recognizable, and somewhat resemble a cross between Syd Barrett and Coil’s John Balance. Aside from the group’s only two constant members, Ka-Spel and keyboard player Phil Knight (also known as the Silverman), the Dots have consisted of a shifting supporting cast over the years, including Canadian dub reggae producer Ryan Moore (Twilight Circus), engineer Raymond Steeg, and guitarist Erik Drost. The group has toured relentlessly since its inception, and has released well over a hundred albums, EPs, and compilations on dozens of labels, including numerous limited cassettes and CD-Rs. Early releases such as 1982’s Brighter Now consisted of quirky, minimal synth pop, and their work grew more ambitious and mystical, with expanded instrumentation and more adventurous, free-form song structures. The group released some of their bestknown releases, including 1988’s The Golden Age and 1991’s The Maria Dimension, on Play It Again Sam before switching to Soleilmoon with 1995’s From Here You’ll Watch the World Go By, additionally releasing material on ROIR, Beta-lactam Ring, and other labels

throughout the coming decades. An increasing number of digital releases appeared during the 2010s, including live recordings and archival collections, while studio albums appeared on Rustblade (10 to the Power of 9, 2014) and Metropolis (Pages of Aquarius, 2016).

Formed in London in 1980, the Legendary Pink Dots began contributing to underground compilations and issuing cassettes of dark, twisted synth pop in 1981, including Chemical Playschool 1+2 and Kleine Krieg, both on Mirrordot. Official debut LP Brighter Now was released by In Phaze Records in 1982. Curse followed in 1983, as the group continued releasing cassettes and further volumes of Chemical Playschool. Politically fueled LP The Tower appeared in 1984, and Ka-Spel has regarded the album as one of the group’s most significant works; when the album failed to make a significant impact in the Dots’ home country, they moved to Amsterdam, where they remained, incorporating many musicians from the Dutch underground music scene.

Also in 1984, Belgian label Play It Again Sam signed LPD; the label’s first release was the group’s mini-album Faces in the Fire. The band remained on PIAS into the ’90s, releasing much of its best material (1988’s The Golden Age, 1990’s Crushed Velvet Apocalypse, 1991’s The Maria Dimension) on the label. The group’s sound evolved significantly, embracing non-electronic instruments such as saxophones and strings, as well as live drums. Ever prolific, Ka-Spel also issued numerous solo albums and experiments on smaller labels, and participated in many side projects, most notable the Tear Garden (with Skinny Puppy’s cEvin Key) and

Following 1994’s 9 Lives to Wonder, the Pink Dots ended their association with Play It Again Sam. Released in 1995, From Here You’ll Watch the World Go By was their first release on Soleilmoon. Several more albums would appear on the label, as well as its sublabel Caciocavallo, which reissued much of the band’s back catalog. Even as the Legendary Pink Dots neared their two-decade anniversary, the group continued to tour Europe and America quite consistently, appreciated by several generations of dark industrial/goth audiences (and documented by the 2000 live album Farewell, Milky Way). The 2002 album All the King’s Horses was KaSpel’s direct response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, and was one of the group’s most melancholy releases. Its sister album, All the King’s Men, was the Dots’ first release on R.O.I.R., which would release a few of the group’s more accessible releases. Poppy Variations appeared on Terminal Kaleidoscope in 2004, with the vinyl edition issued by Beta-lactam Ring Records, which has released much of KaSpel’s solo output since 2000.

After releasing Your Children Placate You from Premature Graves on R.O.I.R. in the spring of 2006, the band embarked on its 25th anniversary tour. The more experimental Alchemical Playschool surfaced on Caciocavallo that year. After two more albums for R.O.I.R. (2008’s Plutonium Blonde, 2010’s Seconds Late for the Brighton Line), the group released Chemical Playschool 15 on Rustblade and two CD-R releases, The Creature That Tasted Sound and Taos Hum. The Dots remastered and digitally reissued nearly their entire back catalog in 2013, including several solo albums and side projects as well as several new releases of outtakes, live performances, and other archival material. A few more limited albums appeared on Beta-lactam Ring and Rustblade that year, while Metropolis issued the group’s proper studio effort The Gethsemane Option. 10 to the Power of 9 appeared on Rustblade in 2014. The label also released The Shock Exchange, LPD’s limited split LP with kETvECTOR, in 2015. Studio album Pages of Aquarius was released by Metropolis in 2016, while The Maria Sessions appeared on Soleilmoon that year. Mini-album The Tunnel was issued by Noise Noise Noise Records in 2018, and Dutch label Des Astres d’Or released 8118 the same year. In 2019, Cleopatra released LPD’s 2015 limited album Five Days along with its instrumentals as Five Days... Complete, in addition to issuing an expanded CD version of 2013 digital release Come Out from the Shadows II.

Mimir (with Christoph Heemann).

Steve Martin & Martin Short Bring their You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today Tour To Smart Financial Centre

Join two of the most genuinely silliest, funny men on the planet – Steve Martin and Martin Short are re-uniting to tour together this year and will be bringing laughter and ridiculousness to America. You can catch them together at Smart Financial Centre on October 21st.

Icons, collaborators, and dos amigos Steve Martin and Martin Short have teamed up once again for a tour called You Won’t Believe What They Look Like Today, and they’re bringing it to venues across North America in 20222023 and beyond! Promising a bit of music, plenty of new sketches, and tons of laughs, the duo’s new show is a delight for comedy nerds and casual fans alike — and should absolutely be on your schedule. After all, how often does a hilarious Steve Martin tour costarring his rubber-faced friend Martin Short come along?

Each of these “Martins” could fill a room the size of Dreyfoos Hall on their own. But together? It’s a match made in comic heaven where anything goes, a joint appearance predicated on the unpredictable. Favoring an off-the-cuff, friends-shooting-the-shit vibe, the actors’ nightly conversations are expected to take aim at Hollywood and address the “fickle nature of celebrity,” but every night is different—that’s what makes the tour so special. And, as is the norm for any Steve Martin tour, a banjo/bluegrass concert is part of the program too.

Steve Martin and Martin Short starred together in the film ‘Three Amigos’ and a genuine friendship blossomed as they filmed, sparking off each other with gags, laughs and jokes. 35 years later and a deep, meaningful, yet still silly friendship has endured the years. They have reached iconic status as individuals, but their collaborations

always tickle the funny bones of audiences, their delightful daftness a muchneeded relief from the heaviness of life. Their 2018 comedy special ‘An Evening You Will Forget for the Rest of Your Life’ was a success and showed the true respect, affection and fun between the actors that translated into laughs. They are delighted to be on the road together with their ‘The Funniest Show in Town at the Moment’ 2022 tour, proving that their silliness and light humour is still loved and needed right now. Their material avoids humour with an edge or a political message, believing that people need respite from the weight of life. Their pure humour and giddy foolishness are a joy to experience, and they’re right in knowing that people sometimes need a break and a chance to be silly. So, make sure you join the dos amigos for an evening full of laughs and have a break from life.

1006 McGowen 713-650-1006

Leon’s Lounge Is Now Available For Private Parties!

Make Your Reservations Now!!

This October at Leon’s Lounge

Saturday, October 1 - Leon’s Jazz Trio

Sunday, October 2 - The Lab with Arlo - Comedy Open Mic Night

Monday, October 3 - Industry Night

Tuesday, October 4 - Mark & The Misphits

Wednesday, October 5 - Kris Collins Singer/Songwriter Song Swap and Open Mic @ 8:00 pm

Thursday, October 6 - Ruben Velasquez

Friday, October 7 - Jazz Organ Trio with Ben Clifton

Saturday, October 8 - Sasha Lukashin’s Jazz Trio w/ Jimmy Smith (Guitar) & Pelayo Parlade (Bass)

Sunday, October 9 - The Lab with Arlo - Comedy Open Mic Night

Monday, October 10 - Industry Night

Tuesday, October 11- Mark & The Misphits

Wednesday, October 12 - Kris Collins Singer/Songwriter Song Swap and Open Mic @ 8:00 pm

Thursday, October 13 - Bombs Over Leon’s Comedy Night @ 7 - 10 pm

Friday, October 14 - (3 Bands ) The Turnaways, Sad Allen, Rental Space

Saturday, October 15 - Sasha Lukashin’s Jazz Trio w/ Jimmy Smith (Guitar) & Pelayo Parlade (Bass)

Sunday, October 16 - The Lab with Arlo - Comedy Open Mic Night

Monday, October 17 - Industry Night

Tuesday, October 18 - Mark & The Misphits

Wednesday, October 19 - Kris Collins Singer/Songwriter Song Swap and Open Mic @ 8:00 pm

Thursday, October 20 - Ivan and Sonya Lugo

Friday, October 21 - To Be Announced

Saturday, October 22 - Kim Foushee and The Alliance

Sunday, October 23 - The Lab with Arlo - Comedy Open Mic Night

Monday, October 24 - Industry Night

Tuesday, October 25 - Mark & The Misphits

Wednesday, October 26 - Kris Collins Singer/Songwriter Song Swap and Open Mic @ 8:00 pm

Thursday, October 27 - Bombs Over Leon’s Comedy Night @ 7 - 10 pm

Friday, October 28 - (Trick And Treat Bar Crawl) Big Blue Thumb

Saturday, October 29 - (Trick And Treat Bar Crawl) Leon’s Jazz Trio

Sunday, October 30 - The Lab with Arlo - Comedy Open Mic Night

Monday, October 31 - (Trick And Treat Bar Crawl) Industry Night

Hosted by Kris Collins

The Biker, The Blues and Gettin’ Down Out Of Town

Now really how many times have you been driving along and you look into a graveyard and see what’s on the left side of this paragraph? It’s enough to make a person take a second look and wonder if those mushrooms are coming back around. Ok so here I was in early October last year it’s late in the afternoon in a place named Edinboro Pennsylvania. I was scooting along route 6N going east and as I approached this downhill slope there it was this apparition or whatever it was just standing there in a graveyard. A man should not drink regional ale at a college bar named Fat Willie’s and head east. But I was more than a little curious and so I slowed down as I approached a four corners intersection coming up turned left and made a U-turn. Back up the hill and now the graveyard was on my right. Hmm no apparition. That was odd but ok maybe it was a quick camera shoot because after all it was the second week of October. Yes that must have been what it was so I remember turning around which isn’t that easy when you are running fourteen over tubes with a forty degree rake on the neck on a one thousand plus pound Harley-Davidson. But I digress. So here I was heading east again looking for an exit that was, now get this, as told to me at Fat Willie’s, just passed the graveyard, passed the empty corn field on the right and then hang a right onto the dirt road. Well as you might guess at eighty miles per hour I flew right by the turn and then down a really big hill that ended up at a crossroads. But I was in luck because as I sat at the light there on the left hand side up the road just a bit was a log cabin bar. Cool looking place, plenty of parking named Creekside and they were open. That’s my favorite part - they were open. Found a solid piece of ground by the front door for my kickstand, set her down and went inside. It was even cooler inside as just about everything had been built in regional Pennsylvania wood and flagstone. I went to the can and left some of the last place’s beer behind and came out and ordered a PA favorite named Yuengling Beer which is actually quite good from the pretty bar maid on duty. The place was nice but boring so I did my usual pick me up routine and made my way to the jukebox and choose a Halloween favorite with some spice to it, Monster Mash. I heard a couple of groans and then some laughter so the choice wasn’t too bad. After all the graveyard experience had set the tone for the day and it really is a cool seasonal song. Written by Bobby “Boris” Pickett and released in 1962 on the Garpax Record label. Now what’s really cool is that by night Pickett performed with a band named the Cordials and one night he just uttered some Boris Karloff kind of sentences and the audience went nuts. Soon he was writing “Monster

continued on next page

Page 2 - The Biker, The Blues and Gettin’ Down Out Of Town

Mash” and people loved it. Gary Paxton of Garpax Records decided to include on a Halloween compilation and the rest as they say is history. Now getting back to Creekside Bobby’s song had played and I still had four songs to go. So it was a nice afternoon and I chose Albert Collins and his “Cold Cuts” blues number with its killer bass intro. Then the horns come in with Albert’s unique rocking blues style. Foot tapping get down way cool music. The place began to get into the groove, someone even bought me a beer. We have lift off Houston! I had went back to the bar and grabbed my glass of suds and returned to the box where I just had this big time craving to punch up Lonnie Mack’s famous “Oreo Cookies Blues” and then you should have heard the conversation and seen the smiles. We be rolling now Jack. Back to the bar and I found another beer sitting there. A man could really get to liking this place but it was time to make tracks. I settled up and headed for the door. October weather in Northwestern Pennsylvania can turn quickly but not today. Perfect riding weather with the leaves on the trees slowing falling to the ground in various hues of reds, oranges, and yellows. A good day to be out and about. Oil tank was full, my gear was anchored well and so off I went headed for a small town named Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania. From Creekside you just head south on 19 and take the cutoff route 1019 and you are now in sleepy community of many bars and a grocery store. But Cambridge Springs was not where I wanted to end up. Nope, I was making tracks for a place I had been before, Sprague’s Brewery, Bar, and Kitchen. A couple named Woody and Minnie used to farm this land but farming isn’t always the best form of income. Then one day they wondered if they could grow hops and brew their own beer and soon they were out of the farming business and smack dab right in the center of attraction in a village known as Venango. The farmhouse became a one family overnight spot which visiting bands began to rent and when bands were not renting it newlyweds were taking advantage of this cool location. The silo became a huge neon outlined beer stein that could be seen for miles, especially at night. The barn became a combination brewery downstairs and a restaurant and night spot featuring live music. People would drive for up to fifty miles, some from even further like Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The attraction? The coolness of not going broke farming and figuring out a way to make use of the land and

continued on next page

Page 3 -

The Biker, The Blues and Gettin’ Down Out Of Town

have fun doing what you like to do. However, on this day I wasn’t there yet and would not make it. I got side tracked by a damsel looking as hot as her bike who was all smiles sitting on her dresser outside a place named The Villa. What’s more there were other motorcycles close by and a neon sign that read “Rockin Roadhouse Rockers Blues”. Now that had my attention. So I parked the shovel, smiled nicely at the young lass and went inside. Once inside I saw a sign that read “Halloween Party October 29th”. Cool, the place must be the place in Cambridge Springs. Friendly gal behind the bar, busy, but friendly. She brought a menu with her and a coaster, smiled, and before she could say anything I said I would like a local beer. She asked me to define local since they are such a small community and said something out of Pittsburgh maybe. She recommended a New York beer named Genesee. I said I would try one then she asked pilsner or cream ale? So like the smart ass I am I said both. I tasted both and whatever was in this cream ale it tasted smooth and a bit creamy. The pilsner was stout but not overwhelming in bitters. It was about five in the afternoon and the place wasn’t packed but it wasn’t full either. When the gal came back by I asked her if they sold cigars and she said no. So I was out of luck on that count but just the same the place was cool, a bit old town, little community cool. The music was hot, laying down Johnny Winter and Eric Clapton performing “Sweet Sixteen”. Look out now that is slow blues at its best and the place got quite real quick. That was cool too. These crazy cats and cool mamas knew real blues when they heard it and appreciated it you could tell instantly. The good looking gal outside on the dresser came in and walked back behind the bar. She spoke to the other gal there and then began to wash glasses and put them into the rack. The music stayed on Johnny and Friends - this time it was Johnny Winter and Billy Gibbons performing “Where Can You Be”. Definitely a small town local pub with a good following. Pretty cool to be somewhere where the biggest argument was over which local high school football could be drafted over another. Until Next time - Below - From this to that...four years and $15,000 to finally find peace and solitude touring the USA…...

Come In For The CoffeeStay For The Music - Dosey Doe!

Just north of Houston Texas there is this thriving community known as The Woodlands. On their major freeway, I-45, that runs through the heart of that community sits this really cool barn. Yes, a barn. A barn that pours one of the best cups of coffee around. Dosey Doe The Big Barn is known for class A touring acts by those who have not attended but for those that go there the coffee is to die for…. It’s interesting, when you attend a music event there and you look out over the audience you notice a sea of coffee cups. Yes they have the usual choices of beverages but how often do you see a sea of coffee cups at a major music event? That’s how good it is. The structure itself is a re-construction effort that required

a barn in Kentucky to be disassembled and then reassembled in Texas. Go figure. Who does that? The result is what the state of Texas has described as possibly the best acoustically perfect music hall in the state. In fact act after act that performs there does in fact rave about the acoustics. Additionally, Dosey Doe The Big Barn only seats 410 audience members but the major stars love the place because unlike a major arena they can actually see the audience beyond the lights. That bit of intimacy is what creatives crave and a good listening room offers them the choice to get back to the neighborhood so to speak. So many times the talent buyer and the owner are complimented on the behind the scenes support but also on the acoustics and the artists ask for a bag of coffee to go. An evening out is supposed to be for those that are looking to enjoy themselves and when they leave for home they should have something nice to talk about on the drive. Just as the stars appreciate Dosey Doe so too do those that take in their events. Already the Dosey Doe Big Barn’s upcoming shows are gaining holiday reservations as their list of winter 2022 and most of the new year acts are feeling increased traffic. What a nice way to say Happy Holidays with a gift certificate to one of the upcoming events. By the way Dosey Doe is conveniently located on a major highway with major hotels, shopping, and George Bush International Airport close by. The Woodlands Texas is the chic place for sure. Then a big ole barn smack dab in the middle of all this glitz go figure but it works and it works well. If you are visiting Texas soon put Dosey Doe on your list - chances are someone you enjoy listening to will be on stage while you are in Texas. By the way they ship that coffee too.

Dosey Doe - The Big Barn (doseydoetickets.com)

Friday, October 14

Fuerza Regida Bring Their Del Barrio Hasta Aqui Tour To Smart Financial Centre October 14

As one of the founding fathers of regional urban music and one of the most influential bands on the West Coast, Fuerza Regida stormed the Internet with more than 5,2 million monthly listeners on Spotify and countless followers on social

media platforms. Building on their incredible success, which sold out at Ontario’s Toyota Arena, CA, earlier this spring, Rancho Humilde members announced their highly anticipated 2022 American tour, produced by Live Nation. The tour kicks off on July 23 at the SAP Center in San Jose, CA, and will take the awardwinning band across the United States with over 17 stops in several

major cities, including New York City, San Antonio, Austin and Las Vegas, until the end of the year. Fans can expect a spectacular show filled with incessant dances, thrills and, of course, the contagious and revolutionary music that has made Fuerza Regida’s international reputation.

Having started in San Bernar-

on next page

Fuerza Regida

(continued from previous page)

dino by playing covers during private evenings, Fuerza Regida has since developed a unique musical style that mixes classical elements of Mexican regional music with urban music and which, through honest lyrics, tells stories about the street, the love and experiences young Latinos have growing up in the United States today. In 2020, the band won the Billboard Latin Music Award in the Mexican Regional Album of the Year category for their album “Del Barrio Hasta Aquí”, which began in first place in Billboard’s Mexican Regional Album Ranking and quickly rose to the top 10 in the Best Latin Album Ranking, becoming the third Mexican regional band to reach the top places in the Billboard rankings.

Fuerza Regida are a Mexican regional quartet from Sinaloa who are currently based in California. Alongside Rancho Humilde labelmates Legado 7, they are progenitors of the “requinto urbano” style: acoustic music played in rural vernacular with gritty urban lyrics. Fuerza Regida’s songs focus on the hardships, joys, and sufferings of urban Latinos. Their debut longplayer, En Vivo Puros Corridos, was issued in 2018. 2019’s Pisteando con la Regida was released in two EP installments, with the album Del Barrio Hasta Aquí following in November. The conceptual Adicto was one of four releases in 2020; the others included Otro Pedo, Otro Mundo, and the 19-song Pisteando con La Regida, Vol. 3. On December 31, 2021, they surprised fans with the charting Del Barrio Hasta Aqui, Vol. 2. The following March, the single “No Le Aflojo” charted, as did April’s “La Bicicleta.”

Fuerza Regida is fronted by the charismatic, outspoken Jesus Ortiz

Paz (aka JOP), they create sweet melodies but also offer raps atop funky dance tunes played by spiky requinto guitar vamps. Though originally from Sinaloa, they reside in California. The band’s sound is unique, but so is their approach to creating a public image: Long before playing together, Fuerza Regida developed a sophisticated social media strategy centered around YouTube.

The quartet formed in 2017 with the lineup of vocalist Paz, lead guitarist and second vocalist Samuel Jaimez, rhythm guitarist and harmony singer Khrystian Ramos, and the tuba player known only as José. Ortiz’s evocative baritone is at once declamatory and vulnerable as he relates believable tales of urban life. The band began posting videos to YouTube almost immediately and registered millions of views before releasing a record. By year’es end, they signed with Rancho Humilde, a label at the forefront of the requinto urbano sound.

Their debut album, En Vivo Puros Corridos, appeared in January of 2018, followed by a slew of video and digital singles including “Radicamos en South Central” and “Ya Se Fue Manuel” that garnered 100 million views between them. Fuerza Regida toured Southern California and Northern Mexico, and their bouncy, outlaw stage presence, consummate musicianship, and youthful good looks got the quartet massive exposure on radio, television, Instagram, and Twitter. Their video for the song “Sigo Chambeando” also included musicians from Legado 7, and it racked up more than 100 million views on its own that November.

Fuerza Regida kept the flow of videos and streaming singles up as 2019 commenced. In the spring, they delivered the six-track Las Romanticas Favoritas, followed by the seven track EP, Pisteando con la Regida. In July, Rancho Humilde issued the band’s sophomore longplayer, Del Barrio Hasta Aqui. It debuted at number one on Billboard’s

Regional Mexican Albums chart and peaked at number eight on the Top Latin Albums list.

Though recorded in 2019, January 1st of 2020, saw the quartet release Pisteando con la Regida Vol. 2, followed by their third full-length, Adicto in April, that included featured performances from Grupo Codiciado, Natanael Cano, and Herencia de Patrones. The LP again bowed at number one on the Regional Mexican Albums chart and debuted at number four on Top Latin Albums. In September they issued the ten-song Otro Pedo, Otro Mundo and in December the holiday EP, Feliz con Feurza Regida as well as Pisteando con la Regida Vol. 3 containing 19 songs. All were recorded during the COVID-19 pandemic while in quarantine.

After a year away from stages, Fuerza Regida were keen to tour again in 2021 and did whenever possible. They issued the single “No Esa Pa Presumir” in February. In March, they appeared as featured guests on Adriel Favela’s hit “Al Millon” and followed it with their own “Que Esta Pasando” featuring Calle 24. “Lo Vieron Pasar (09)” followed in August, the ballad “Descansando” in October, and the revue-style “Los Mire con Talento” with Calle 24 and Luis R. Cornriquez at year’s end. They shocked fans and industry critics alike with the release of Del Barrio Hasta Aqui, Vol. 2 on New Year’s Eve; it entered the Regional Mexican Albums chart at number three and peaked at two during the first weeks of 2022.

Following the release of “No Le Aflojo” with Los Gemelos de Sinaloa in March, Fuerza Regida issued six singles before July 1. Both “La Bicicleta” and “Chingas Du Madre” charted. So did several collaborations, including their cobilled appearances with Aldo Trujillo on “La Despedida” and Victor Cibrian on “Mi Porvenir.” In June, Del Barrio Hasta Aqui, Vol. 2 entered the Top Latin Albums chart at number 14.

Los Angeles Azules Perform At Smart Financial Centre October 9

by Drago Bonacich

Family band Los Ángeles Azules are the progenitors of “future Cumbia.” Their sound, categorized as “Cumbia Sonidera,” is an urban, gritty, workingclass expansion of the Cumbia Colombiana style that exploded in Mexico during the 1970s. Their adaptation relies on rich harmonies, call-and-response vocals, and a meld of organic and electronic instruments/ treatments. Los Ángeles Azules’ 1982 debut album, Ritmo... Alegría... Sabor!, Vol. 1, united Cumbia rhythms with romantic ranchera melodies executed in perfect five-part vocal harmony. The group recorded constantly through their early years, adding more urban production to their recordings. The 1996 single “Como Te Voy A Olvidar” from Inolvidables,

marked their Hot Latin Songs and Latin Airplay chart debuts. Three years later, the number four single “El Liston de Tu Pelo” earned a Premio Lo Nuestro award for best Cumbia song. In the 21st century, Los Ángeles Azules became Cumbia royalty. They toured the world playing sold-out concerts everywhere from clubs to soccer stadiums. 2003’s Alas Al Mundo netted a Mexican Oye award. In 2006, Interpretan Excitos de Juan Gabriel was the first Cumbia tribute to the songwriter; it topped the album charts at home. 2013’s Como Te Voy A Olvidar for Sony found the band recording with a new generation of Latin indie musicians, including Lila Downs, Carla Morrison, and Toy Selectah. 2016’s charting De Plaza en Plaza: Cumbia Sinfonica was comprised entirely of musical collabora-

tions (Natalia Lafourcade, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Miguel Bose, and Gloria Trevi among them) and registered the band’s profile with the Coachella festival. Los Ángeles Azules were subsequently booked for the 2018 festival, making them the first Mexican band to ever perform there.

Los Ángeles Azules were formed in the early ’80s by brothers Elías, José, and Jorge Mejía Avante. Playing a Latin style known as onda grupera, the band became a chart-topping act after issuing Inolvidables in 1996, soon achieving platinum status in Argentina, where they successfully performed live in 1998. Later, singer Carlos Becíes decided to leave the group, forming his own band called Los Ángeles de

continued on next page

Los Angeles Azules

(continued from previous page)

Charly. In 2001, Los Ángeles Azules were nominated to the Billboard Latin Music Awards; that same year, they toured the U.S. to celebrate their 20th anniversary and released Historia Musical, which peaked at number two on the Latin albums chart and hit number 161 in the Top 200. In 2002, the group introduced audiences to Becíes’ replacement, singer Erick de la Peña, via the charting single “Por el Amor a Mi Madre,” from the album Alas al Mundo. The full-length peaked at number six on the Latin albums chart and hit number three on the Regional Mexican Albums list. A live album and two compilations followed over the next two years, each placing on the charts.

Though Los Ángeles Azules drew large audiences wherever they played, their next studio offering, 2004’s Nunca Te Olvidaré, didn’t resonate as well and peaked at number 49 on the Latin albums chart. They continued to tour, playing soccer stadiums in Mexico and South America, and even at Yankee Stadium. When they reentered the studio in 2006, they recorded their first allcovers disc at the suggestion of Disa. Because of the similarity in pitch and timbre of de la Peña’s voice to Juan Gabriel’s, they cut ten of his songs for the album Interpretan Éxitos de Juan Gabriel. It was their last album for Disa. More personnel changes occurred and the band signed with Discos Musart/Balboa Records. Their debut, Tu Juguete, was issued in 2008; two singles followed, but neither the album nor its track picks charted. Citing lack of promotion, Los Ángeles Azules left Discos Musart immediately thereafter. They toured the United States and Argentina, and the South American nation became a second home for the band due to the popularity of their

particular style of Cumbia.

In 2009, Los Ángeles Azules were invited to perform at the first El Paraíso de la Cumbia, where they shared a stage with Mexican Institute of Sound (Camilo Lara) and Argentina’s El Hijo de la Cumbia. The meeting with Lara would prove fateful. Without a label, the group continued to tour, but they had difficulty finding a home label in the music industry, given the difficulty of the latter’s everchanging nature with narcocorridos, hip-hop, merengue, and pop emerging as dominant forms. The band cut the independently released album A Ritmo de Cumbia in 2012 for the production and distribution label Casete Mexico, but given limited distribution and little promotion, it didn’t sell. Los Ángeles Azules refused to surrender, though they probably felt like it.

In 2013, they were invited to play the Vive Latino festival. That performance proved a rousing success, and a reversal of their (mis)fortunes. They were signed by the Sony-distributed Ocesa. The label enlisted Lara and Toy Selectah to produce a new album. Entitled Cómo Te Voy a Olvidar, it showcased Los Ángeles Azules rerecording their hits in duet with guest vocalists including Carla Morrison, Lila Downs, Ximena Sariñana, and many more. A television program called Cumbia Fuzion followed, which featured the group in performance backed by the Mexico City Symphony

Orchestra. The previous album was rereleased as Cómo Te Voy a Olvidar Edición de Super Lujo and included a bonus disc with the symphony performance. It eventually landed at number five on the Regional Mexican Albums charts.

In 2014, the band went to Cuba to record, with Lara and Toy Selectah co-producing. They released Viernes Cultural. Its title track single featured Haydée Milanés in a duet. Other guest vocalists included Gilberto Santa Rosa, Gustavo Parisi, and Banda Bastón. Its success in the Caribbean and Mexico, and throughout Latin America, offered them an opportunity to perform in Cuba and tour with its national symphony. Various American dates were booked and recorded as Los Ángeles Azules re-signed with Disa. The album De Plaza en Plaza: Cumbia Sinfonica was issued in September 2016, debuted at number 12 on the Hot Latin Albums chart in October. The group’s compilation album Vision 20 20 Exitos arrived in 2018, as did studio outing Esta Si Es Cumbia, which included appearances from Lafourcade, Fito Paez, Ha*Ash, Pepe Aguilar, and Los Claxons. The charting set was celebrated by Anglo and Latin critics for its seamless integration of modern styles — indie pop, nuevo ranchera, rock, nuevo canción, et al. — with a particularly electronic brand of Cumbia Sonidera. 2020 saw the May release of the concert offering En Vivo Desde Phoenix.

La Mafia Perform At The Arena Theatre October 21

La Mafia is among the most versatile Latino bands. Hailing from Houston, they are largely responsible for the resurgence of the “norteño sound,” which has some basis in country and western music. The group was founded by Oscar and Leonard Gonzalez, both of whom were raised in the north end of Houston. The other group members are drummer Michael Aguilar, bass player Rudy Martinez, and keyboard players Armando Lichtenberger, Jr. (he also plays accordion) and David de la Garza. La Mafia released their eponymous debut album in 1986 for Sony. Extensive touring of the U.S. and Mexico brought them renown. Their second album, Estas Tocando

Fuego, came out in 1991 and sold nearly 1 million copies. Their 1993 album Ahora y Siempre went triple platinum. La Mafia has also won numerous awards including an award for Top Regional Mexican Album and Song of 1992; other releases included 1993’s International, 1995’s Exitos en Vivo and 1996’s Un Millon de Rosas.

Oscar De La Rosa and Armando Lichtenberger Jr have been able to reach the World with their original POP GRUPERO style, a style that combines their influences of Spanish music as well as English rock and Pop music.

Winners of 2 American Grammys and 3 Latín Grammys ( the most recent in 2020 with (“Live In Mexico”), .

On keyboards and second voice an integral part of La Mafia, David De La Garza III has been with the band since 1989, on electric bass Rudy Martinez , Robbie Longoria on bajo-sexto & percussion and on guitar Viktor Pacheco

La Mafia along with a loyal fan base continue to appeal to new generations of music fans throughout the world.

Los Angeles Azules Se Presentan En El

Smart Financial Centre El 9 De Octubre

por Drago Bonacich

La banda familiar Los Ángeles Azules son los progenitores de la “cumbia del futuro”. Su sonido, categorizado como “Cumbia Sonidera”, es una expansión urbana, arenosa y de clase trabajadora del estilo Cumbia Colombiana que explotó en México durante la década de 1970. Su adaptación se basa en ricas armonías, voces de llamada y respuesta y una combinación de instrumentos/tratamientos orgánicos y electrónicos. El álbum debut de Los Ángeles Azules de 1982, Ritmo... Alegría... ¡Sabor!, vol. 1, unió ritmos de cumbia con melodías rancheras románticas ejecutadas en perfecta armonía vocal a cinco voces. El grupo grabó constantemente durante sus primeros años, agregando más producción urbana a sus grabaciones. El sencillo de 1996 “Como Te Voy A

Olvidar” de Inolvidables, marcó su debut en las listas Hot Latin Songs y Latin Airplay. Tres años más tarde, el sencillo número cuatro “El listón de tu pelo” obtuvo un Premio Lo Nuestro a la mejor canción de cumbia. En el siglo XXI, Los Ángeles Azules se convirtió en la realeza de la cumbia. Recorrieron el mundo tocando conciertos con entradas agotadas en todas partes, desde clubes hasta estadios de fútbol. Alas Al Mundo de 2003 obtuvo un premio Oye Mexicano. En 2006, Interpretan Excitos de Juan Gabriel fue el primer homenaje de cumbia al cantautor; encabezó las listas de álbumes en casa. Como Te Voy A Olvidar de 2013 para Sony encontró a la banda grabando con una nueva generación de músicos independientes latinos, incluidos Lila Downs, Carla Morrison y Toy Selectah. La lista de 2016 de De Plaza en Plaza: Cumbia Sinfonica estuvo compuesta en su

totalidad por colaboraciones musicales (Natalia Lafourcade, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Miguel Bose y Gloria Trevi entre ellos) y registró el perfil de la banda en el festival de Coachella. Posteriormente, Los Ángeles Azules fueron reservados para el festival de 2018, lo que los convirtió en la primera banda mexicana en presentarse allí.

Los Ángeles Azules se formaron a principios de los años 80 por los hermanos Elías, José y Jorge Mejía Avante. Tocando un estilo latino conocido como onda grupera, la banda se convirtió en uno de los actos más importantes después de publicar Inolvidables en 1996, y pronto alcanzó el estatus de platino en Argentina, donde tocaron con éxito en vivo en 1998. Más tarde, el cantante Carlos Becíes decidió

Continúa en la página siguiente

Los Angeles Azules

(Continuación de la página anterior)

dejar el grupo, formando su propia banda llamada Los Ángeles de Charly. En 2001, Los Ángeles Azules fueron nominados a los Premios Billboard de la Música Latina; ese mismo año, realizaron una gira por los EE. UU. para celebrar su 20 aniversario y lanzaron Historia Musical, que alcanzó el puesto número dos en la lista de álbumes latinos y alcanzó el número 161 en el Top 200. En 2002, el grupo presentó al público al reemplazo de Becíes, el cantante Erick de la Peña, a través del sencillo “Por el Amor a Mi Madre”, del álbum Alas al Mundo. El álbum alcanzó el puesto número seis en la lista de álbumes latinos y alcanzó el número tres en la lista de álbumes regionales mexicanos. Un álbum en vivo y dos compilaciones siguieron durante los siguientes dos años, cada uno de los cuales se ubicó en las listas de éxitos.

Aunque Los Ángeles Azules atrajeron a grandes audiencias dondequiera que tocaron, su próxima oferta de estudio, Nunca Te Olvidaré de 2004, no resonó tan bien y alcanzó el puesto 49 en la lista de álbumes latinos. Continuaron de gira, tocando en estadios de fútbol en México y Sudamérica, e incluso en el Yankee Stadium. Cuando volvieron a entrar al estudio en 2006, grabaron su primer disco de versiones por sugerencia de Disa. Debido a la similitud en el tono y el timbre de la voz de de la Peña con la de Juan Gabriel, cortaron diez de sus canciones para el álbum Interpretan Éxitos de Juan Gabriel. Fue su último álbum para Disa. Ocurrieron más cambios de personal y la banda firmó con Discos Musart/Balboa Records. Su debut, Tu Juguete, se emitió en 2008; Siguieron dos sencillos, pero ni el álbum ni sus selecciones de pistas figuraron en las listas. Citando falta de promoción, Los Ángeles Azules dejó Discos Musart inmediatamente después. Hicieron una gira por Estados Unidos y Argentina, y la nación sudamericana se convirtió en un segundo hogar para la banda debido a la popularidad de su

particular estilo de cumbia.

En 2009, Los Ángeles Azules fueron invitados a presentarse en el primer El Paraíso de la Cumbia, donde compartieron escenario con el Instituto Mexicano del Sonido (Camilo Lara) y El Hijo de la Cumbia de Argentina. El encuentro con Lara resultaría fatídico. Sin un sello, el grupo continuó de gira, pero tuvieron dificultades para encontrar un sello propio en la industria de la música, dada la dificultad de la naturaleza siempre cambiante de este último con narcocorridos, hip-hop, merengue y pop emergiendo como formas dominantes. La banda grabó el álbum lanzado de forma independiente A Ritmo de Cumbia en 2012 para el sello de producción y distribución Casete México, pero dada la distribución limitada y la poca promoción, no se vendió. Los Ángeles Azules se negaron a rendirse, aunque probablemente les dio la gana.

En 2013 fueron invitados a tocar en el festival Vive Latino. Esa actuación resultó ser un éxito rotundo y un revés para sus (des)fortunas. Fueron firmados por Ocesa, distribuida por Sony. El sello reclutó a Lara y Toy Selectah para producir un nuevo álbum. Titulado Cómo Te Voy a Olvidar, mostró a Los Ángeles Azules regrabando sus éxitos a dúo con vocalistas invitadas como Carla Morrison, Lila Downs, Ximena Sariñana y muchas más. Siguió un programa de televisión llamado Cumbia Fuzion, que presentó al grupo en una actuación respaldada por la Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de México. El álbum anterior

fue relanzado como Cómo Te Voy a Olvidar Edición de Super Lujo e incluía un disco extra con la interpretación sinfónica. Eventualmente aterrizó en el número cinco en las listas de álbumes regionales mexicanos.

En 2014, la banda fue a Cuba a grabar, con Lara y Toy Selectah como coproductores. Lanzaron Viernes Cultural. Su sencillo principal incluía a Haydée Milanés a dúo. Otros vocalistas invitados incluyeron a Gilberto Santa Rosa, Gustavo Parisi y Banda Bastón. Su éxito en el Caribe y México, y en toda América Latina, les ofreció la oportunidad de actuar en Cuba y hacer una gira con su sinfónica nacional. Se reservaron y grabaron varias fechas estadounidenses cuando Los Ángeles Azules volvió a firmar con Disa. El álbum De Plaza en Plaza: Cumbia Sinfonica se publicó en septiembre de 2016, debutó en el número 12 en la lista Hot Latin Albums en octubre. El álbum recopilatorio del grupo Vision 20 20 Exitos llegó en 2018, al igual que la salida de estudio Esta Si Es Cumbia, que incluyó apariciones de Lafourcade, Fito Paez, Ha*Ash, Pepe Aguilar y Los Claxons. El conjunto de las listas de éxitos fue celebrado por los críticos anglosajones y latinos por su perfecta integración de estilos modernos: indie pop, nueva ranchera, rock, nueva canción, et al. — con una marca particularmente electrónica de Cumbia Sonidera. El 2020 vio el lanzamiento en mayo de la oferta de conciertos En Vivo Desde Phoenix.

La Mafia Se Presenta En El Arena Theatre El 21 De Octubre

La Mafia es una de las bandas latinas más versátiles. Provenientes de Houston, son en gran parte responsables del resurgimiento del “sonido norteño”, que tiene alguna base en la música country y western. El grupo fue fundado por Oscar y Leonard Gonzalez, quienes se criaron en el extremo norte de Houston. Los otros miembros del grupo son el baterista Michael Aguilar, el bajista Rudy Martinez y los tecladistas Armando Lichtenberger, Jr. (también toca el acordeón) y David de la Garza. La Mafia lanzó su álbum debut homónimo en 1986 para Sony. Una extensa gira por los Estados Unidos y México les dio renombre. Su segundo álbum, Estas Tocando

Fuego, salió en 1991 y vendió cerca de 1 millón de copias. Su álbum de 1993 Ahora y Siempre fue triple platino. La Mafia también ha ganado numerosos premios, incluido un premio al Mejor Álbum y Canción Regional Mexicana de 1992; otros lanzamientos incluyeron International de 1993, Éxitos en Vivo de 1995 y Un Millón de Rosas de 1996.

Oscar De La Rosa Y Armando Lichtenberger Jr han podido llegar a todo el mundo Latino con su estilo original de POP GRUPERO , un estilo que combinan sus influencias de música en Español igual que la música ingles Rock y Pop.

Ganadores de 2 Grammys Americanos y 3 Grammys Latinos , (el mas reciente en 2020 “Live In Mexico”)

En los teclados y segunda voz, David De La Garza III integrante desde 1989 sigue siendo una parte integral dentro del grupo, en el bajo eléctrico desde Rudy Martinez, Robbie Longoria en bajo sexto y percusciones , y en guitarra Viktor Pacheco.

La Mafia sigue capturando siempre nuevas generaciones de fans y a podido continuar por sus fiel seguidores de siempre.

Como uno de los padres fundadores de la música urbana regional y una de las bandas más influyentes de la costa oeste, Fuerza Regida irrumpió en Internet con más de 5,2 millones de oyentes mensuales en Spotify e innumerables seguidores en las redes

sociales. plataformas Sobre la base de su increíble éxito, que se agotó en el Toyota Arena de Ontario, CA, a principios de esta primavera, los miembros de Rancho Humilde anunciaron su muy esperada gira estadounidense de 2022, producida por Live Nation. La gira comienza el 23 de julio en el Centro SAP en San José, CA, y llevará a la galardonada banda por los Estados Unidos con más de 17 paradas en varias ciudades importantes,

incluidas la ciudad de Nueva York, San Antonio, Austin y Las Vegas. , hasta fin de año. Los fanáticos pueden esperar un espectáculo espectacular lleno de bailes incesantes, emociones y, por supuesto, la música contagiosa y revolucionaria que ha hecho la reputación internacional de Fuerza Regida.

Continúa en la página siguiente

Fuerza Regida llevará su gira Del Barrio Hasta Aquí al Smart Financial Center el 14 de octubre

Fuerza Regida

(Continuación de la página anterior)

Habiendo comenzado en San Bernardino tocando versiones en noches privadas, Fuerza Regida ha desarrollado desde entonces un estilo musical único que mezcla elementos clásicos de la música regional mexicana con la música urbana y que, a través de letras honestas, cuenta historias sobre la calle, el amor y las experiencias de los jóvenes. Los latinos han crecido en los Estados Unidos hoy. En 2020, la banda ganó el Premio Billboard de la Música Latina en la categoría Álbum Regional Mexicano del Año por su álbum “Del Barrio Hasta Aquí”, que comenzó en el primer lugar en el Ranking de Álbumes Regionales Mexicanos de Billboard y rápidamente subió al top 10 en el Ranking de Mejor Álbum Latino, convirtiéndose en la tercera banda regional mexicana en alcanzar los primeros lugares en el ranking de Billboard.

Fuerza Regida es un cuarteto regional mexicano de Sinaloa que actualmente tiene su sede en California. Junto a los compañeros de sello de Rancho Humilde, Legado 7, son progenitores del estilo “requinto urbano”: música acústica tocada en vernáculo rural con letras urbanas descarnadas. Las canciones de Fuerza Regida se enfocan en las dificultades, alegrías y sufrimientos de los latinos urbanos. Su debut de larga duración, En Vivo Puros Corridos, se publicó en 2018. Pisteando con la Regida de 2019 se lanzó en dos entregas de EP, seguido del álbum Del Barrio Hasta Aquí en noviembre. El Adicto conceptual fue uno de los cuatro lanzamientos en 2020; los otros incluyeron Otro Pedo, Otro Mundo, y Pisteando con La Regida, Vol. 19 de 19 canciones. 3. El 31 de diciembre de 2021, sorprendieron a los fans con el chart Del Barrio Hasta Aquí, vol. 2. En marzo siguiente, el sencillo “No Le Aflojo” llegó a las listas de éxitos, al igual que “La Bicicleta” de abril.

Fuerza Regida está liderada por el carismático y franco Jesús Ortiz Paz (también conocido como JOP), crean melodías dulces pero también ofrecen raps sobre melodías de baile funky tocadas por vampiros de guitarra puntiagudos de requinto. Aunque son originarios de Sinaloa, residen en California. El sonido de la banda es único, pero también lo es su enfoque para crear una imagen pública: Mucho antes de tocar juntos, Fuerza Regida desarrolló una sofisticada estrategia de redes sociales centrada en YouTube.

El cuarteto se formó en 2017 con la formación del vocalista Paz, el guitarrista principal y segundo vocalista Samuel Jaimez, el guitarrista rítmico y armonista Khrystian Ramos, y el tuba conocido solo como José. El evocador barítono de Ortiz es a la vez declamatorio y vulnerable mientras relata historias creíbles de la vida urbana. La banda comenzó a publicar videos en YouTube casi de inmediato y registró millones de visitas antes de lanzar un disco. A finales de año firmaron con Rancho Humilde, sello a la vanguardia del sonido requinto urbano.

Su álbum debut, En Vivo Puros Corridos, apareció en enero de 2018, seguido de una gran cantidad de videos y sencillos digitales que incluyen “Radicamos en South Central” y “Ya Se Fue Manuel” que obtuvieron 100 millones de visitas entre ellos. Fuerza Regida realizó una gira por el sur de California y el norte de México, y su presencia escénica dinámica y fuera de la ley, su consumada maestría musical y su apariencia juvenil le dieron al cuarteto una exposición masiva en la radio, la televisión, Instagram y Twitter. Su video de la canción “Sigo Chambeando” también incluyó a músicos de Legado 7, y acumuló más de 100 millones de visitas por sí solo ese noviembre.

Fuerza Regida mantuvo el flujo de videos y transmisión de sencillos al comienzo de 2019. En la primavera, lanzaron Las Romanticas Favoritas de seis temas, seguido por el EP de siete temas, Pisteando con la Regida. En julio, Rancho Humilde publicó el segundo año de la banda, Del Barrio Hasta Aquí. Debutó en el número uno en la lista de

álbumes regionales mexicanos de Billboard y alcanzó el puesto número ocho en la lista de los mejores álbumes latinos.

Aunque grabado en 2019, el 1 de enero de 2020, el cuarteto lanzó Pisteando con la Regida Vol. 2, seguido de su tercer largometraje, Adicto en abril, que incluyó actuaciones destacadas del Grupo Codiciado, Natanael Cano y Herencia de Patrones. El LP nuevamente se inclinó en el número uno en la lista de Álbumes Regionales Mexicanos y debutó en el número cuatro en Top Latin Albums. En septiembre lanzaron el disco de diez temas Otro Pedo, Otro Mundo y en diciembre el EP navideño Feliz con Feurza Regida, así como Pisteando con la Regida Vol. 3 que contiene 19 canciones. Todos fueron grabados durante la pandemia de COVID-19 mientras estaban en cuarentena.

Después de un año fuera de los escenarios, Fuerza Regida estaba ansiosa por volver a hacer una gira en 2021 y lo hizo siempre que fue posible. Lanzaron el sencillo “No Esa Pa Presumir” en febrero. En marzo, aparecieron como invitados destacados en el éxito “Al millón” de Adriel Favela y lo siguieron con su propio “Que Esta Pasando” con Calle 24. Le siguió “Lo Vieron Pasar (09)” en agosto, la balada “Descansando” en octubre. , y al estilo revista “Los Mire con Talento” con Calle 24 y Luis R. Cornriquez a fin de año. Sorprendieron a los fanáticos y críticos de la industria por igual con el lanzamiento de Del Barrio Hasta Aquí, vol. 2 en Nochevieja; ingresó a la lista de álbumes regionales mexicanos en el número tres y alcanzó el puesto dos durante las primeras semanas de 2022.

Tras el lanzamiento de “No Le Aflojo” con Los Gemelos de Sinaloa en marzo, Fuerza Regida emitió seis sencillos antes del 1 de julio. Tanto “La Bicicleta” como “Chingas Du Madre” llegaron a las listas. También lo hicieron en varias colaboraciones, incluidas sus apariciones co-facturadas con Aldo Trujillo en “La Despedida” y Victor Cibrian en “Mi Porvenir”. En junio, Del Barrio Hasta Aquí, vol. 2 ingresó a la lista Top Latin Albums en el número 14.

RANDOM SHOTS

ZZ Top Perform At The Cynthia Wood Mitchell Pavilion

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

RANDOM SHOTS

The Return Of Kiss Alike At The Concert Pub North (Photos by Brian Lambert)

RANDOM SHOTS

Houston’s Own Metallica Tribute, Hardwired To Kill ‘Em All At Rise Rooftop (Photos By Brian Lambert)

RANDOM SHOTS

The Scorpions

Toyota

Photos By Kevin Wildman

RANDOM SHOTS

The World’s Only Female Tribute To Iron Maiden, The Iron Maidens Perform At Rise Rooftop (Photos By Brian Lambert)

RANDOM SHOTS

‘Lectric Eye Perform At The Concert Pub North

The Concert Pub North was filled with the sounds of David Bowie this night as Houston’s premiere David Bowie Tribute Band, ‘Lectric Eye performed at The Concert Pub North. It was really a great night and the crowd there really got into hearing all their favorite David Bowie hits. (Photos by Kevin Wildman)

RANDOM SHOTS

307 Departure Perform At The Acadia Bar And Grill

This band has an enery that is really hard to explain. They really rock and from the moment they hit the stage they seem to hold the audience in the palm of their hands. This night we saw them at The Acadia Bar And Grill and the audience just went wild the moment they hit the stage, before even hitting their first note. It was an unbelievable sight and one that most bands would relish to have. First rate performs, they put on a fantastic show that more than pleased all the people there to see them. 307 Departure is Kellen Moore on lead guitar and vocals. Grayson Moore is the bassist and second vocalist of the band. And last, but certainly not least is drummer Josh Russell who keeps the band in time with a great beat (Photos By Kevin D. Wildman)

RANDOM SHOTS

Aaron LaCombe and Oliver Steck Perform At Green Oaks Tavern

Singer-songwriter Aaron LaCombe from Kerrville teamed up with multi-instrumentalist Oliver Steck from Austin to put on a really great show this night at Green Oaks Tavern in Humble. Performing only with guitar and acordian, the two of them performed a lot of great songs and really entertained us this night. It was truly a delight to see the two of them together. And, by the way, Aaron has a new album out called Breaking Ground that you really need to check out.

(Photos by Kevin Wildman)

RANDOM SHOTS

Chasing Amea Perform At The 19th Hole

Photos by Kevin D. Wildman

RANDOM SHOTS

Cris Crochemore

Perform At The Big Easy

Brazillian Blues guitarist and his fine band of musicians put on a really good show this night at The Big Easy in Houston. Cris started out as a youngster performing in a Classic Rock band called Garotos Da Rua, but now his heart belongs to the Blues. He performs with his own style of Blues tinged with a hint of rock that really made for a great evening of msic this evening. (Photos By Kevin D. Wildman)

RANDOM SHOTS

Dirty Perform At The 19th Hole

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

RANDOM SHOTS

Hardluck

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

RANDOM SHOTS

Marzi Montazeri

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

RANDOM SHOTS

The

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

RANDOM SHOTS

The Kendall Mason Band Perform At The 19th Hole

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman

RANDOM SHOTS

Lucid

Photos By Kevin D. Wildman