Q&A

Musician: STEPHEN BENNETT

Musician:  STEPHEN BENNETT Video:  “Reverie” Video Produced by TrueFire Stephen Bennett is one of the most prolific and original finger-style guitarists of his generation. He is also a leading exponent of the harp guitar. A challenging teacher, a gifted composer, and a performer of great sensitivity, the Toronto Fingerstyle Guitar Association once referred to him as “the Jedi Master of Fingerstyle Guitar.” Bennett has performed around the... 

Tom Petty

First published in 2015. “I was born a rebel,” Tom Petty once sang, and he wasn’t kidding. As a certifiable legend of rock music who has sold tens of millions of albums and filled countless arenas, he still takes a passionate stand about the things he believes in.  Take the environment, for example. Standing at the plate glass window of his Malibu beach house, he points out a spot where several dolphins are about to appear. “You’ll see... 

Eat|See|Hear Outdoor Movie presents Depeche Mode: 101

Eat|See|Hear Outdoor Movie presents Depeche Mode: 101 Movie Screening:  Depeche Mode: 101 Special Guest:  DJ Richard Blade When:  This Friday, August 25, 2017, from 5 PM to 11 PM Where:  Rose Bowl Stadium, 1001 Rose Bowl Drive, Pasadena, CA Info:  https://eatseehear-depechemode101.eventbrite.com Video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFZlwfilWWU   Depeche Mode: 101 “The grabbing hands. Grab all they can. Everything counts in large amounts.” Hot... 

GLEN CAMPBELL

GLEN CAMPBELL – Feature from Jul/Aug 2011 Issue GLEN CAMPBELL A pop and country legend wraps up an astonishing career on his own terms Glen Campbell was recording his new album, Ghost on the Canvas, when producer Julian Raymond handed him a guitar he’d never played before. The Country Music Hall of Famer cradled the Gibson 335 and “whipped out the solo like he’d been playing it his whole life,” says Raymond, looking at Campbell with a sense... 

SESAC Signs Global Superstar Adele

SESAC Signs Global Superstar Adele Multiple GRAMMY®-winning Artist Joins Nation’s Only Music Rights Organization GRAMMY® award-winning, multi-platinum recording artist and songwriter Adele has moved to SESAC Performing Rights for representation in the United States—announced by John Josephson, chairman and CEO, SESAC Holdings, Inc., the only Music Rights Organization in the U.S. Adele, whose chart-topping singles include “Rolling in the Deep,”... 

LINKIN PARK

LINKIN PARK High-energy heavy hitters finally discover the perfect mix of rock and rap Linkin Park is on a roll. After releasing albums sporadically for most of their first decade, the Los Angeles rap-rockers have picked up the pace with two more since 2010, including Living Things, their latest. “We want to put out more music, more often,” says singer Chester Bennington. “The first six years of our career we released two records that took... 

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS A big lineup change brings renewed energy to the multiplatinum rockers   “We’ve gotten more done in the past few months than we have in years,” says Stone Temple Pilots bassist Robert DeLeo. He’s talking about the group’s resurrection after booting singer Scott Weiland and replacing him with Linkin Park vocalist Chester Bennington. Weiland had been on a downward spiral of addiction for nearly 20 years, and the quartet—DeLeo,... 

EXPERIENCE VINYL—BRAD HAMMONDS & JAKE FISHBEIN

VIDEO FEATURE & WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW EXPERIENCE VINYL Experience Vinyl is more than a record a month club. It’s a total customer experience with special concerts and unique member-only benefits. Each month, members will receive a selection of the featured artist-curator’s essential “Desert Island Disc.” Accompanying the record will be a personal description written by or for the artist about why the record is so important. In addition... 

CHRIS CORNELL

Photo Credit: Carlos Ramos CHRIS CORNELL Going solo means going acoustic for the Soundgarden frontman When he plays with Soundgarden, the seminal Seattle alt-rock outfit he formed in 1984, Chris Cornell knows pretty much where things stand. The band makes genre-pushing hard rock revered by punk fans and metalheads alike, and with albums like the 1994 blockbuster Superunknown, the quartet has pushed its big, artsy sound into the mainstream. As a solo... 

LOGAN BRILL

Logan Brill LOGAN BRILL HOMETOWN: Knoxville, Tenn. INFLUENCES: Bonnie Raitt, Alison Krauss, Britney Spears ALBUM: Shuteye, out now WEBSITE: loganbrill.com Logan Brill was introduced to music literally at birth, when her parents brought a boom box into the delivery room. “Growing up, our house was always filled with music—if we weren’t listening to it, we were making it,” says Brill. “Rock, country and blues really speak to me because they... 

DELON

HOMETOWN: Pasadena, Calif. INFLUENCES: N.W.A., Tupac Shakur, Outkast ALBUM: Awake, 2016 WEBSITE: delonmusic.com No stranger to the stage, rapper-producer DeLon has been a fixture on the underground hip-hop scene—and now he hopes to move into the mainstream with his latest release Awake. The 28-year-old cut his teeth in the clubs of L.A., but what sets him apart are his Sri Lankan roots and straightedge ways. “It’s hard to get away from drugs... 

MIGGUEL ANGGELO

Photo credit: Nico Iliev HOMETOWN: Valencia, Venezuela INFLUENCES: Luciano Pavarotti, Freddie Mercury, Björk ALBUM: La Casa Azul, out now WEBSITE: migguelanggelo.com “My songs are poetry,” says performer Migguel Anggelo, who blends everything from pop and jazz to opera and Spanish boleros into his music. “I’ve always been obsessed with music—my father, a chef, would sing while cooking, and my mother, a ballerina, often danced around the... 

IVA

Photo credit: David Norbu HOMETOWN: Wilmington, Del. INFLUENCES: Joni Mitchell, Aimee Mann, Norah Jones ALBUM: Leap, out now WEBSITE: ivavoice.com An early brush with fame—performing alongside noted opera company Opera Delaware when she was just 9 years old—led IVA to New York, where she bounced from Juilliard to the Manhattan School of Music to Princeton University before receiving a Fulbright scholarship to study Scandinavian classical music... 

CHER

  Photo Credit: Norman Seeff CHER ARRIVED UNANNOUNCED AT PHOTOGRAPHER Norman Seeff’s L.A. studio for this session for her 1976 album, I’d Rather Believe in You. “Her management and I had been discussing doing a shoot,” recalls Seeff, “and she just showed up with one of her girlfriends. I assumed she was there to check me out.” Seeff seized the moment. “My strobe was set up,” he recalls. “There was just the bare floor and a backdrop—very... 

GRACE POTTER

GRACE POTTER On her solo set, the rocker is happy her pop roots are showing  Taking a sharp musical detour, Grace Potter—frontwoman for Grace Potter and the Nocturnals for more than a decade—has swapped her trademark jam-band sound for pop on her new solo album, Midnight. The change may seem drastic to fans of the Nocturnals’ rootsy rock, but understandable when you discover the pop classics that were among the staples Potter was raised on.... 

INDIGO GIRLS

INDIGO GIRLS Decades after their first hit, they’re still close—and even closer to fine Although it’s been 26 years since the Indigo Girls scored with their 1989 folk-rock hit “Closer to Fine,” the Georgia-based duo—Amy Ray and Emily Saliers—has never stopped making music. In fact, their longest hiatus between studio albums—four years—ended with the release of their latest, One Lost Day. “At this point we know what will work for... 

JOE SATRIANI

JOE SATRIANI                         One of guitar’s greatest instrumentalists unleashes his inner extrovert Playing guitar with his teeth during the final performance of his previous tour, Joe Satriani had an epiphany. “I thought, ‘What am I doing? What part of me rears its head and starts doing stuff like this?’” he recalls. “Normally I’m a shy, retiring type of musician, but when I get onstage, I find myself feeling like... 

NATE RUESS

NATE RUESS His latest project proves that going solo is fun, too  After nearly three years of supporting Some Nights—the platinum-selling, 2012 breakthrough album by his Grammy-winning band fun.—Nate Ruess was feeling good. So good, in fact, he opted to temporarily step away from the trio and go solo. It was a bold move for the singer-songwriter, but it’s paying off. His album, Grand Romantic—a fittingly titled set of massive-sounding earworms... 

MERLE HAGGARD

MERLE HAGGARD After beating lung cancer, “The Hag” still is who he is Merle Haggard’s new album is called I Am What I Am, but that title could have been affixed to almost anything he’s recorded during his nearly half-century as one of America’s most stubbornly self-possessed singers and songwriters. He has built a body of work unequaled in the country genre, one created on clear-eyed slice-of-life classics like “Okie From Muskogee,”... 

SCOTT WEILAND

SCOTT WEILAND                         The former STP frontman returns to rock ’n’ roll on his latest solo set Blaster is Scott Weiland’s third solo album and his first under the moniker Scott Weiland and the Wildabouts. But whatever the name, any music Weiland releases lines up with the unforgettable output of his former bands: ’90s alt-rock greats Stone Temple Pilots, and supergroup Velvet Revolver, with Slash and Duff McKagan.... 

DONNY OSMOND

DONNY OSMOND His latest celebrates the former teen idol’s biggest musical influences  In the 50 years since Donny Osmond made his debut alongside his brothers on The Andy Williams Show, he’s recorded 60 albums, including his latest, The Soundtrack of My Life. The album features songs that were significant in the 57-year-old performer’s life, from the Beatles’ “The Long and Winding Road” to the Supremes’ “Baby Love.” Stevie Wonder... 

JONI MITCHELL

JONI MITCHELL One of music’s greatest singer-songwriters creates an inspired box set Joni Mitchell is an eight-time Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer who’s influenced everyone from Courtney Love to Taylor Swift. So it’s only fitting that her new box set has been crafted with care. It isn’t her first retrospective, but Love Has Many Faces: A Quartet, a Ballet, Waiting to Be Danced is something special. The 53 tracks on these four... 

THE DECEMBERISTS

THE DECEMBERISTS The indie folk favorites take their time to create a compelling new album It’s been four years since the Decemberists’ sixth studio album, The King Is Dead, shot to the top of the Billboard 200 chart. Finally, the Portland, Oregon-based folk-rock band—frontman Colin Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, bassist Nate Query and drummer John Moen—follows up with What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World.... 

SOUNDGARDEN

SOUNDGARDEN Eclectic tracks from the past find new life on the band’s box set   Kim Thayil isn’t big on loose ends. For years, the Soundgarden guitarist had thought about rounding up all of his band’s B-sides, covers, live tracks, soundtrack cuts and other stray recordings, and now it’s done. The Seattle grunge pioneers released Echo of Miles: Scattered Tracks Across the Path, a triple-disc box set that delivers precisely what the title... 

ROBBY KRIEGER

ROBBY KRIEGER The innovative Doors guitarist wants fans to know the band’s real story Director Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic The Doors offered many insights into the legendary group’s music. Now, with the release of the Doors’ self-produced 1968 film documentary Feast of Friends, fans have access to a more realistic depiction of band members’ lives and their creative process. At its center is Robby Krieger, whose dazzling guitar work helped... 

SMASHING PUMPKINS

SMASHING PUMPKINS Billy Corgan’s latest features familiar-but-fresh sounds and a new Crüe Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan doesn’t mean to burst your bubble—but if you’re thinking “hopeful and positive” when you hear “Monuments,” a standout track on the new Smashing Pumpkins album Monuments to an Elegy, then you’re mistaken. Speaking from Chicago, Corgan says that the line “I feel all right tonight” is “kind of meant... 

JOE BONAMASSA

JOE BONAMASSA The dedicated bluesman mines Music City talent for an album of originals When Joe Bonamassa started work on his 11th solo release, Different Shades of Blue, the guitarist-vocalist knew he needed to shake things up. So Bonamassa teamed up with top Nashville songwriters—including Jonathan Cain, James House and Jerry Flowers—to pen original tunes. “I owed it to my fans to do an all-original record, and I owed it to myself to prove... 

ANNIE LENNOX

ANNIE LENNOX The Scottish soul diva soars on a singular standards set Annie Lennox—the wonderfully eccentric, madly soulful former Eurythmics singer—has released a decidedly nonstandard standards album. Nostalgia, the follow-up to 2010’s critically lauded A Christmas Cornucopia, came about totally by accident after Lennox performed some jazz tunes with Herbie Hancock at the 2012 International AIDS Conference. “It struck me that I had this... 

LENNY KRAVITZ

LENNY KRAVITZ The rocker-turned-actor turns rocker again with a new studio album In the 25 years since Lenny Kravitz released his debut album Let Love Rule, he has released 10 studio albums, won four Grammys, and scored hits like “It Ain’t Over ’Til It’s Over,” “American Woman” and “Fly Away.” After recent star turns in such films as Precious, The Butler and the Hunger Games franchise, the 50-year-old singer-songwriter returns to... 

THE FLAMING LIPS

THE FLAMING LIPS                         Putting their own spin on a landmark Beatles album   For many musicians, approaching the crown jewel of the Beatles catalog would take a lot of nerve—but for the Flaming Lips, reimagining Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was less about intimidation and more about wonder. “Out of sheer curiosity, we picked  some Beatles songs and thought, ‘How are they doing that?’” says frontman... 

ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO

ANGÉLIQUE KIDJO African music’s premier diva celebrates the power of women Afropop star Angélique Kidjo has been a force in African music for more than two decades. With her new album, Eve, she narrows her focus to capture the sounds and spirit of African women. Produced by Patrick Dillett (David Byrne, Fatboy Slim), Eve is a sunny, pulsing celebration of the resilience of the feminine spirit, sung in various West African languages by women’s... 

JENNY LEWIS

JENNY LEWIS Taking her time pays off for the Rilo Kiley singer on a new solo set  After taking three years to write, record and re-record her third solo album, The Voyager, Jenny Lewis cut the final version in a week and a half with producer Ryan Adams at his Pax-Am Studio in L.A. “Once we started rolling, we just ran through all the songs,” she says. While working on the album, the former Rilo Kiley frontwoman—and half of Jenny and Johnny—stayed... 

JASON MRAZ

JASON MRAZ                   Enjoying the creative freedom that comes with multiplatinum success   “I’m still riding on the success of ‘I’m Yours,’” Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Jason Mraz admits as he winds through the streets of Tokyo. He’s on his way to the airport after promoting his fifth studio album, YES!, in Japan. “Thanks to that song, my bills are paid, I get to travel the world—and now I’m able to make... 

COUNTING CROWS

COUNTING CROWS Frontman Adam Duritz phoned in the inspiration for their latest album In the years following 2008’s Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings, Counting Crows toured, released a couple of live records, and paid tribute to their heroes with a covers album. One thing they didn’t do: make a lick of new music. Frontman Adam Duritz took a break from penning Crows material to collaborate with writer Stephen Belber on the play Black Sun. Meantime,... 

AIMEE MANN & TED LEO

AIMEE MANN & TED LEO                        Creative chemistry turns songwriting buddies into new duo the Both   She’s a Grammy- and Academy Award-nominated songwriter; he’s a socially conscious punk-rocker. Together, Aimee Mann and Ted Leo turned a friendship honed online into a new project they’re calling the Both. What began as an onstage collaboration grew into plans for an EP, which then expanded into a self-titled album... 

RODNEY CROWELL

RODNEY CROWELL For the veteran songwriter, patience is the key to creative success   In 2010, Rodney Crowell began the album that would become Tarpaper Sky, recording half a dozen songs before getting sidetracked with other projects: Kin, a collection of songs he wrote with memoirist Mary Karr, and last year’s Grammy-winning Old Yellow Moon, a collaboration with longtime friend Emmylou Harris. “Those beautiful women got my mind off my work,”... 

CONOR OBERST

CONOR OBERST  The Bright Eyes frontman releases a new solo album More than a decade ago, Omaha native Conor Oberst—as Bright Eyes—ignited the neo-folk movement and put Nebraska indie label Saddle Creek on the map. Since then the singer-songwriter has recorded as part of a number of different groups, including Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band. But for his latest, his Nonesuch Records debut Upside Down Mountain, Oberst goes it alone. The... 

JACK BRUCE

JACK BRUCE The legendary bass ace returns with his first solo album in a decade Jack Bruce cemented his legacy when he composed one of rock’s most enduring riffs—the signature bassline of “Sunshine of Your Love.” But his many contributions to the 1960s supergroup Cream—which he formed with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker—comprise but a fragment of a career that’s veered from jazz to metal to R&B. In the years since Cream broke up,... 

NICKEL CREEK

NICKEL CREEK The bluegrass trio reunites with a new album that defies categories   Grammy-winning Nickel Creek took an indefinite hiatus in 2007 to pursue solo projects. Now the trio—mandolinist Chris Thile, fiddler Sara Watkins and her brother, guitarist Sean Watkins—has returned with a new album, A Dotted Line, which coincides with their 25th anniversary. Featuring eight originals and two covers—Sam Phillips’ “Where Is Love Now” and... 

JAKE E LEE

JAKE E. LEE The ace guitarist gets back in the hard rock game with a melodic new set  Veteran guitarist Jake E. Lee hadn’t recorded an album of original music since his acclaimed solo A Fine Pink Mist in 1996. Like a proverbial metal Moses, the ex-Ozzy Osbourne axeman wandered in a self-imposed musical exile. “I outlived my shelf life as far as being cool,” says Lee, 56. “The only calls I got were from bands that loved Ozzy and wanted his... 

KAISER CHIEFS

KAISER CHIEFS                         With a new lineup, the British rockers set out to get an Education     It would have been easy for Kaiser Chiefs to simply call it quits. Following the departure of drummer and primary songwriter Nick Hodgson in late 2012, the remaining four members had doubts about carrying on—before deciding to prove to their fans, and to themselves, that they were capable of continuing. The result is Education,... 

DOLLY PARTON

DOLLY PARTON A country treasure showcases her many colors on her latest album Dolly Parton wears many impressive hats: singer, actress, producer, musician, author, entrepreneur, philanthropist. But first and foremost, the Tennessee native is a songwriter, penning more than 3,000 compositions, including smash hits “I Will Always Love You,” “Jolene” and “9 to 5.” “I love writing songs—I always have,” she says. “Telling stories... 

LEA MICHELE

LEA MICHELE Glee fans’ favorite leading lady tries on a new role: pop star     For more than four years, millions of Americans watched Lea Michele belt out a broad range of hits on TV’s Glee. On her debut solo album, Louder, she shifts effortlessly between luxurious ballads and uptempo numbers that showcase her vocal and songwriting talent. The Emmy-nominated actress and singer tapped a stable of hit collaborators including Christina Perri,... 

DIERKS BENTLEY

DIERKS BENTLEY Life throws the country star a heart-tugging batch of inspiration  Dierks Bentley’s new album, Riser, reflects the emotional roller coaster he endured beginning with his father’s death two years ago and concluding with the recent birth of his first son. “That definitely changed my perspective,” says Bentley. “A lot of the heavier material on Riser wouldn’t have come about without those things happening.” Bentley, 38,... 

THE FRAY

THE FRAY The piano-pop rockers regroup and set out in new musical directions  After a disappointing commercial reception for the Fray’s third album, 2012’s Scars and Stories, the Denver foursome found themselves wondering—after 10 years and three records—if they wanted to carry on. “Those are the defeats that make you do the math and figure out whether this is something you really want to do,” says singer and pianist Isaac Slade. After... 

NEON TREES

NEON TREES Time off to recharge leads to a new perspective and a colorful album    Success can exact a price. It’s something alt rockers Neon Trees learned after scoring with their 2010 debut album Habits, powered by their breakout single “Animal,” and their follow-up two years later, Picture Show, which included their first Top 10 hit, “Everybody Talks.” Hitting it big brought unexpected demands for touring and promotion, and pressures... 

WILLIE NELSON

WILLIE NELSON The projects keep coming for the Red Headed Stranger      Willie Nelson knows how to throw a party. He marked his 80th birthday last April with the release of two albums: Let’s Face the Music and Dance, covering material from the Great American Songbook and gypsy jazz pioneer Django Reinhardt, and To All the Girls, a collection of duets with female artists. Over the course of his career, Nelson has recorded more than 60 studio... 

THE CRSYTAL METHOD

THE CRSYTAL METHOD Celebrating 20 years together with TV, radio and recording projects   Electronic music duo the Crystal Method—Scott Kirkland and Ken Jordan—is hitting a series of milestones at once. They’ve been together 20 years, they’re about to release their fifth studio album, their weekly SiriusXM radio show, Community Service, is approaching its 100th episode—and they’re the musical masterminds behind the score of J.J. Abrams’... 

ROSANNE CASH

ROSANNE CASH                           Her latest album captures the heart and soul of the South in song   Though Rosanne Cash leads a richly textured urban life in New York, the South has always haunted her. Born in Memphis but reared in Southern California, at 58, she realizes that there is no such thing as separating yourself from something that is part of you. From her earliest recordings, she has always been at once part of the... 

CELINE DION

CELINE DION                         Her latest showcases an earthy approach to recording her inimitable vocals    After selling more than 200 million albums and enjoying 25 years of global success, five-time Grammy Award-winning Celine Dion might be inclined to take it easy. But the powerhouse singer refuses to slow down, and while she continues her Las Vegas residency at Caesars Palace, she’s recorded a new album that challenges... 
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