Jimmy Webb, an Oklahoma native best known for his continuing career as one of America’s most highly regarded and prolific popular songwriters, is accustomed to performing in venues of all sizes. However, he said he has a special regard for performing in the intimate surroundings of small spaces that place him close to the audience. […]
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No singers wanted in Maserati
The members of Athens, Ga., four-piece Maserati forego vocals in favor of bringing their expansive melodies and muscular, yet intuitive percussion to the spotlight. They blend ambient rhythms and modern dance rock with a Seventies groove to create highly emotive tracks on its latest release, “Inventions for the New Season.” “When we have an idea […]
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Countrybilly’ band Two Tons of Steel drops into Oklahoma
For 11 years, San Antonio-based Two Tons of Steel has held down the fort at the legendary, un-air-conditioned Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas, for its annual Tuesday-night summer concert series, averaging 12,000 fans each year. Yet despite trips to Europe and Cuba, they’ve never played in Oklahoma. “We go east and south, but we […]
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Fountains of Wayne
Traffic and Weather Virgin In the fourth and latest offering from the Fountains of Wayne, the band doles out more of the amusing storytelling and blimp-sized hooks that have made them America’s reigning deities of power-pop. And yet the approach is starting to wear thin. It starts out promising enough. “Someone to […]
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The Hold Steady gets personal in lyrics
With little to no love from radio or television, Hold Steady cracked the charts at 124 with its latest album, “Boys and Girls in America.” On this third disc, the self-described bar band rambles and soars through 11 tracks about drugs, infatuation and the complexities of young love. “One thing I love about Craig (Finn)’s […]
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Rocky Votolato
yle=”MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt”>Track three, “Before You Were Born,” is more upbeat, with a country shuffle, fast guitar picking and a reverby vintage Telecaster twang. The last song on the CD, “Silver Trees,” is beautiful and lonesome, with a crying harmonica punching and piercing through acoustic guitars. At least half the songs on the disc […]
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David Bowie
The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987: Sight & Sound Virgin By now, the amount of hits compilations released by David Bowie must outnumber his various personas in his long, storied career. But each successive one seems to up the ante, if not in terms of track selection, then certainly in the crispness of […]
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Touring makes The Gunship homesick for Norman
Norman’s The Gunship set out to play 50 shows in two months, and that’s just what they did. From one coast to the next, the Okie rockers have been firing off round after round of its own brand of post-punk vintage rock and finding out just how special home is. “We didn’t realize just how […]
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Hellogoodbye builds following with online popularity
California-based indie-pop band Hellogoodbye began at Huntington Beach High School during 2001, when lead vocalist/guitarist Forrest Kline teamed up with keyboardist Jesse Kurvink to produce its brand of heart-on-sleeve synth-pop songs. “I wasn’t a bro or a surfer, and that’s what was the primary at the school,” Kline said. “The first couple years of high […]
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George Benson hopes to keep jazz alive
George Benson already was one of the best guitar players in the history of jazz before he finally achieved his 1976 breakthrough with “Breezin’.” Currently he’s on tour with his latest album, the Grammy-winning “Givin’ It Up,” a collaboration with legendary vocalist Al Jarreau which includes covers of some jazz classics. By stocking up with […]