| On a rock 'n' roll
Theyre at Summerfest, church carnivals, raucous nightclubs, lively Jewish weddings, crowded coffeehouses, gubernatorial parties, swank yacht clubs, corporate shindigs, barnlike college auditoriums and any other place imaginable where professional musicians are required. There is an enormous gulf between the wanna-be dreams of the garage band hobbyist and the dedicated grind needed by full-time performers to pay dental bills and mortgages, juggle family obligations, keep tax records, deal with club owners and be sure there are extra guitar strings packed. .
Rock critic Paul Nelson dies at 70
Paul Nelson, a pioneering rock critic whose interest in folk music led to an early connection with fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, has died. He was 70. Nelson was found dead July 4 in his New York apartment. The cause of death was heart disease, according to the New York medical examiner's office. An editor and reviewer for Rolling Stone, Circus and Creem music magazines in the 1960s and 1970s, Nelson started the Little Sandy Review folk music journal while he and Dylan were students at the University of Minnesota in the early 1960s. Nelson was known for his eclectic music tastes, evidenced by his bold signing of early punk rockers the New York Dolls when he worked for Mercury Records in the 1970s. Unlike other early influential rock critics such as Greil Marcus, Robert Christgau and Dave Marsh, Nelson had faded from the music scene in recent years, only to reappear last year in Martin Scorsese's PBS television documentary on Dylan, "No Direction Home." Nelson was interviewed extensively in the film about the singer's roots in Minnesota and Dylan's breakout performances after moving to New York.
A declaration of independence from San Angelo’s blues-rock trio
Heaven, the brothers have put together an album thats just so bursting with musicianship that the lyrical cliches are excused. Blues rock, after all, is not the forum for budding Baudelaires.
As with gospel songs, the material on Sacred generally starts calm, introspective, then works itself into a fiery jam of emotion. Henry Garzas guitar-playing borders on spectacular, as he steps out of the shadows of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Carlos Santana to rock to his own tone at the end of Living My Life. Besides being a flat-out ripper, the eldest Garza displays a great sense of melody in his solos. His resurrection of the electric blues guitar hero is quite stunning.
The knock on Sacred is that it sounds too much like it was made on purpose. Hitting stores a year later than originally projected, it comes off like a record toiled on and fussed over, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
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