Heart - US Cellular Center - March 21st, 2015

Take a look back the music of your youth for a moment.  Be honest with yourself and reflect back on the bands that have such power behind them that you can remember their songs and specific moments in your life.  Regardless of your age, regardless of your musical taste, regardless of the sweater you wore in that horrific school picture you wore in sixth grade, its possible.  Do you remember that song?

Joan Jett and The Blackhearts - US Cellular Center - March 21st, 2015

As we pulled our "concert van" out of the driveway on Thursday I began to get excited.  There are a few reasons why that excited me, one was the fact that it had been stored all winter long which leads to a well deserved number two.  It's interesting when I think to myself that number two should be number one but for it to be number one in importance would require number one to actually have happened before number two.  Confused?

Joan Jett - America's River Fest June 14th, 2014

Within the fabric of modern music it is easy to pick out female artists that have left an indelible mark upon the threads of that fabric.  The tapestry of music that has formed using that fabric is massive.  It is beautiful and and resilient but despite that, the fabric has flaws.  Inside that tapestry can be found the threads made up by women in jazz, R&B, popular music, soul, gospel and the blues.  Although those threads have solidified the fabric with its sheer volume it can be said that the earliest threads of rock music are as fine as spider web.  Huh?

Gin Blossoms - Kevin Costner & Modern West - America's River Fest, June 14th, 2014

The year 1989 was one of tumult for me and with that opened more than just one chapter of the book of my life.  Musically we were in the midst of the "era of hair metal", so many bands formed nationally and locally that appeared to sound manufactured while in the shadows lay "college music" and its subset culture.  During that year the world was confronted by a movie about baseball and a band from the southwest released its debut album "Dusted" which in a way is a bit ironic.  Why?