Stuntman : A Few Words On My Friend Mark Hutchins

I woke up to the news that one of my good friends was dead. Before coffee, before the full brunt of the new day had come into focus, before I’d even put on socks I sat in my chair and saw posts on social media from friends and acquaintances talking of a great loss in […]

Jaki’s Groove

It feels a little disingenuous of me to sit here and wax ecstatic about an artist I don’t really know that much about. In fact, my knowledge only covers three albums he played on. And those three albums have only been rummaging around in my head for the past 6 years or so. I admit […]

No Plan

Tomorrow, January 10th, David Bowie will have been gone a year. His boundless creativity and hats-a-plenty that he wore through his nearly 50 year career boxed up and shoved away into the back of the closet. His last gift to the world of the living was Blackstar, a beautiful and haunting record about mortality and […]

Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher, umm,…I mean Princess Leia was my first crush. I saw Star Wars in 1978 when it had come back to play in theaters after a monster run the year before. I was 4 years old and the movie made an indelible mark on my psyche. At that young of age I felt the […]

Greg Lake : 1947-2016

So I have to say right off the bat that I wasn’t a huge fan of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer or King Crimson growing up. I’d heard things on AOR stations like ROCK104 out of Fort Wayne, IN and 95.3 WAOR out of Niles, MI. Brain Salad Surgery was an album I cherry picked from in […]

Call Me A Dog

In the fall of 1990 I picked up a cassette by Mother Love Bone called Apple. I’d heard their song “Stardog Champion” and felt I needed the album. After arriving home from the mall and giving the case a good once over I noticed on the back of the cassette cover it said “In Memory […]

A Song For All Of Us

Election week was a bit rough. Not only did we end up electing in, well, you know who, but we lost Leonard Cohen. A guy that I never truly explored but felt his reverberations through Jeff Buckley and his breathtaking cover of “Hallelujah”. Of course, I loved “Everybody Knows”, “If It Be Your Will”, “Suzanne”, […]

Dream Baby Dream

Alan Vega of Suicide died on Saturday July 16th, 2016 in his sleep. He was 78. I didn’t find myself getting into Suicide until just a few years ago. Before that I’d only heard “Ghost Rider” a few times and always found myself drawn to the dark vibes and propulsive synth, as well as the […]

Judy

Judy was my mother-in-law. Judy died on May 19th, 2014 in her apartment from complications due to alcoholism and subsequently Cirrhosis of the liver. It was the solitary life for her because that’s what her alcoholism required. She was alone most of the time I’d known her, which was 23 years when she died. When […]

R.I.P., Christopher Tracy

I begrudgingly became a Prince fan. Why? Well, when you’ve got a best pal that listens only to Prince and you’re hanging out with him nearly every weekend it’s inevitable that the “Purple One” is going to rub off on you. Prior to meeting this best pal in the third grade I can remember hearing […]