After listening to the mini-album 18 Steps I begun to question Trey Anastasio's choice of track listings for the release Bar 17, his latest studio project distributed this October.  There are some real gems here that probably should have made the cut for the major release, and may have been better received choices that some of the sleepers on Bar 17.

Standing a few feet from the stage as the smoke machine rolls in the fog, I turn to survey the crowd and immediately feel like Chief Broom standing in the Cuckoo's Nest with the rest of the asylum inmates.  But soon the music is grabbing my soul and I realize it's just another Disco Biscuits show in Los Angeles, California.

It just wouldn't be a December night in Boulder, Colorado without a cold snap and the accompanying snowfall.  However, that didn't seem to deter over two hundred fans from packing the legendary Fox Theater last Friday night to see Minnesota-based jamband, The Big Wu.

The year that was 2005 was definitely the breakout year for San Francisco rock 'n' roll outfit Tea Leaf Green.  They released the very well-received studio project "Taught to Be Proud", which even earned them a Jammy award for Best Song of the Year, and garnered a huge fan base by spreading their sound through more than two-hundred performances.

Tony Furtado's new album, Thirteen, streets January 23 and features Jim Dickinson (Big Star, Replacements ), Dusty Wakeman (Anne McCue, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam ) and producer Craig Schumacher (Neko Case, Calexico, Iron & Wine ). Tony is presently conducting phone interviews from his home base of Portland, Oregon.

I never understood the notion of the critic.  Who takes the time and effort to write about something they don't like?  I have always tried to use the written word to elevate, not dissect or discredit.  So it's with some trepidation that I set out to discuss RatDog's two night stand at (to borrow from the great Neil Peart) the "obnoxious local bank" theater (near Westbury Music Fair) on October 31st and November 1st in Westbury, NY.

It's a wet and cold Friday Night in Denver Colorado. Outside the sleet it turning to snow and inside Cervantes' Masterpiece Ballroom the stage is melting into the eclectic sounds and sights of Banyan. The west coast based Banyan was created by Stephen Perkins, the long-time drummer of Jane's Addiction.

Almost an afterthought to a long weekend in 2000, Particle was born on a boat cruise in the San Francisco Bay to commemorate what ended up being Phish's first hiatus.  The then-unnamed Particle ended up surprising everyone on the boat cruise with their fresh sound and original compositions. 

You may have heard already, or maybe you sensed it someplace inside your bones. Tom Waits is touring. This rare treat began down south on August 1st and gallops toward the Midwest while I write this. The tour, with only eight performances, is promoting Waits' yet-to-be-released three-disc set called, Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards.