If you think about it, Joanne Shaw Taylor really had no choice in her career path. She was born in the West Midlands region of the UK near Birmingham. Musically, that's hallowed ground. It's the same area of the country that gave us Ozzy, Stevie Winwood, Christine McVie, Joan Armatrading and Robert Plant. "I'm not quite on that level." Joanne laughs while I make a mental note about her two previous chart-topping projects, then she adds, "But I'm definitely from a very historic musical place."

It's not every day you can sing someone's praises about singing someone's praises, yet here we are. The Blind Boys of Alabama along with friend and fellow musician, Charlie Musselwhite commanded the stage at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido recently and converted about 500 people in the process.

Since the release of Sight & Sound magazine’s 2022 Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time critics poll, some of us agreed, others were appalled; in particular with the absence of masterworks by Luis Buñuel, Ernst Lubitsch and Howard Hawks. But the positive is that it opens pathways for lists by other cineastes which keeps the importance of cinema on the front burner. …

Ziggy Marley took the stage around 8pm and proceeded to dance with his backup singers to the song “Change Your World” which is on his new album  Rebellion Rise.. As he was dancing and getting into the flow of his music, I realized that the show wasn’t just about him, but it was about the reggae music.  The crowd and I had come expecting to capture a feeling of unity through the music. So, as Ziggy grabbed the microphone and started singing a new song, I wondered what magic he was going to conjure to unite us all. I heard his lyrics loud and clear and they were perfect for the moment. 

I miss Willie Dixon. I had the tremendous good fortune to sit and talk with him on several occasions during the 1980's, and he never failed to amaze, entertain and enlighten me. During those years you couldn't go into a Southern California club, blues venue or attend a music festival without seeing the man surrounded by an entourage of adoring friends and fans.

I am an unabashed enthusiast of idolatry and hero worship and homages and there’s nothing I can do about it. Perhaps color me a patron of the arts, with the closest I’ll ever come to certain artists is by seeing their rooms or suites where they had once slept. Of course, the obvious way to enter the world of an …

Christmas carols originated in Italy, where history tells us that the earliest Christmas hymns took place in Rome in the 4th century. Later, St. Francis of Assisi helped popularize Christmas carols in the 12th century, as well as creating the first symbol devoted exclusively to Christmas with the advent of the Nativity Scene, complete with living figures.

Primer has been amazingly productive over the years; he's recorded and toured with everyone from Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon to Junior Wells and James Cotton. I lost track of the number of albums he's listed on at around 87 or 88. John just smiles at me "probably more than that." From a sharecropping family to a legendary blues man, John Primer is the real deal so we started our conversation with his first instrument.

Nathan James is a work-aholic! Yeah for us! His latest release is entitled ‘I May Crawl’ and it is everything you’d expect from the San Diego musician. Eleven original songs; some reflective, all meaningful, but always looking at life through an open and more positive lens. His style of play is so eclectic, incorporating blues with a cadenced funk, an acoustic flair or a dreamy slide. James plays all the instrumentation, guitars, percussive footboards, washboard, kazoo, harmonicas and he does it ‘all at once!’

T-Boy’s Critics: Michael Rand, Jim Gordon, Brent Campbell, Raoul Pascual & Ed Boitano rate their favorite Horror films of all time.