Reviews

Mid-May, Billy Strings and his incredible gentlemen of the acoustic tale closed out their three-night Colorado run with a bang. Leading with an end-of-days meteorological event at night one of Red Rocks Amphitheatre that would have had most performers and fanbases ducking for cover and postponing their best laid plans, the band and the devoted dug in and drank deep under the deluge of precipitation and sound.

The name Melvin Seals is synonymous with the Jerry Garcia Band. Seals spent fifteen years playing keyboards with Jerry Garcia and helped define the sound of the JGB Band. Seals is a gifted player and his love of all music has presented him with many open doors in the music industry. From performing to producing and recording Seals has been on the scene for over three decades and shows no signs of slowing down.

Buffalo, NY's moe. returned to the Brooklyn Bowl in Brooklyn, NY on May 18, 2023 for the first time in four years to kick off a rare three night run at the storied venue. This band has seen their ups and downs lately, particularly with the untimely medical hiatus of guitarist Chuck Garvey after suffering a stroke in 2021. Thankfully Garvey has recovered, and the band is on the upswing having just wrapped up a stacked Spring tour. They were all smiles while delivering moe.

In this 50th year of Pink Floyd’s certifiably mad 1973 masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon, and with every Floyd-themed band known to Man going all out to honor its Golden Anniversary, you could conceivably be able to hear the album played live all year long. And, thanks to an endless supply of PF tribute bands, you can bet it will be played again and again and again, well into the distant future.

In February, Free Dirt Records announced new supergroup Mighty Poplar and sent shock waves of excitement throughout the acoustic world. Composed from the camps of Watchhouse, Leftover Salmon, The Punch Brothers, and Billy Strings, the bluegrass community got the goosebumps not only from the proclamation of a new album full of ear candy, but also a subsequent tour.

The 2023 concert series opened on Sunday, May 14th, at the Vina Robles Amphitheatre, with a spectacular light and music performance by French electronic music group M83. The venue provided a fantastic setting for the concert, nestled among the vineyards of Paso Robles, California. The natural acoustics and open-air amphitheater added a layer of magic to the evening.

It was a family affair at the Westville Music Bowl in New Haven, CT for Joe Russo's Almost Dead on May 13, 2023, as the daughters of both Joe Russo and Marco Benevento joined the band on stage during this late spring, pre-Mother's Day event.

No moments are ever guaranteed in life. No band has felt that harder than Lotus recently, having lost their longtime percussionist Chuck Morris, along with his son Charley, in a tragic kayaking accident on March 16, 2023. The remaining members of Lotus, along with many friends, gathered at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY on May 6, 2023 to honor the lives of Chuck and Charley.

Few acts catapult their way to the forefront of modern rock music the way Boston-based quartet Neighbor has over the past few years. Sparking from faint whispers and circulating primarily through word of mouth, rumors began to swirl about four eccentric musicians from the East Coast creating stand-alone euphoric melodies with shades and flavors of the 1960’s & 70’s, blended seamlessly through modern psychedelia.

In later-2021, British guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Amanda Lehmann released a diverse, nine-song album of all-original art and prog/rock music titled Innocence and Illusion. The album – her first official collection under her own name in a 30-plus-year career, but not her first effort – has reached many ears and hearts along the way.

Archived news