Author. Educator. Musician.
It wasn’t until I saw the Avett Brothers live that I understood the big fuss surrounding this stripped-down roots band. The recorded songs I liked from 2009’s I and You and Love I attributed to Rick Rubin’s studio wizardry, not to the magic of two North Carolinian brothers. After giving a good vinyl listen to …
Continue reading “Concert Review: Avett Brothers at the Cumberland County Civic Center (3.3.14)”
To some people, the title of this blog might be blasphemy. Like when Mick Jagger sang through those big puffy lips, “I know, it’s only rock and roll, but I like it.” A lot people were up in arms. Only rock and roll?! How can Mick be saying this only five years after Woodstock? How?! …
My copy of the now infamous Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Rolling Stone cover photo has been on my desk for a week. Living in Maine, it got to me days after it initially hit news stands, so by the time I pulled it from my mailbox, this country was in a full throttle yelling match over the …
The name Lake Street Dive doesn’t exactly invoke classy connotations. The band name makes me think of smoky bars in backwoods towns where shiftless people drink cloudy beer and think shiftless thoughts. The band that hit LL Bean’s outdoor stage on Saturday night (7.20.13) was anything but shiftless. With lush, tasteful harmonies, beautiful pop grooves, …
Continue reading “Concert Review: Lake Street Dive at the LL Bean Concert Series (7.20.13)”
We all ache at our own frequency. Maybe it’s the suffering Buddhism talks about. Maybe it’s Christianity’s Original Sin. Maybe it’s simply the pain of being on a lone planet in an ever-expanding universe. Whatever you want to call it, the important fact is that it’s there at the edge of all our moments of …
Continue reading “Album Review: American Kid, Patty Griffin”
Tribute albums can be the saddest damn things. Music executives shamelessly trying to squeeze every last gold nugget out of beautiful music. Aging rock stars with plastic faces struggling to hit notes they once reached with ease. Flat duets with a new top ten sensation. Tribute albums reek of the cheap perfume of sloppy nostalgia …
Continue reading “Album Review: Wrote a Song For Everyone, John Fogerty”
If you’ve found yourself on my blog before, then you most likely read the post where I gush over Josh Ritter. Gush might be too minor a word. Lyrically, the guy can ne’er do wrong in my ears. I’m even willing to let slide the occasional musical shortcoming because atop that shortcoming is usually a …
Continue reading “Concert Review: Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band Reach New Heights”
I wanted to hate Dawes. Badly. Before I heard a note from leadman Taylor Goldsmith’s guitar marinated in Neil Young fuzz, I only knew that they were the darlings of the rock and roll old guard. They’ve received nods from Jackson Browne and Heartbreaker organist Bentmont Tench who both play on Nothing is Wrong. Chris …
DAVE PATTERSON 