What do you get when you combine a gentle classically trained Czech female pianist with a gritty-yet-melodic brooding Irishman? Although it sounds like a joke waiting for a witty punchline, it’s anything but.

The “punchline” is The Swell Season: A sublime combination of two profoundly talented artists, who are the…

“Coming from a small southern town [in Georgia] and being given the opportunity to travel the world opened my eyes. So many different countries and cultures were great for me at that time in my life,” Dean Roland explains. Although currently 36, the Collective Soul rhythm guitarist and baby brother…

NEW YORK, NY—Few guitar players can flow from heavy and thunderous shredding to soft and sweet sliding within seconds, using the utmost level of melody and never letting it diminish. There is absolutely nothing that Jeff Beck cannot play on his loyal Fender Stratocaster. You think Jimmy Page is a…

MONTCLAIR,NJ—On record, Ray LaMontagne’s music is filled with melody and raw passion, and a poetic, soothing voice unlike any other. He has a unique approach to the folk genre, writing hauntingly beautiful songs that touch the soul, but it doesn’t seem he’s yet mastered the art of portraying them live…

NEW YORK, NY—For the past three holiday seasons, Twisted Sister has illuminated the tri-state area with their own brand of Christmas cheer. First it was displayed at Starland Ballroom in 2006 after they released their very own Christmas album, then Irving Plaza in 2007, and this year they were bumped…

It’s a warm afternoon in late July, almost one month into the American Idols Live! Tour 2008, and David Cook is seated diagonally across from me at a rectangular folding table in the backstage area of Newark, New Jersey’s newly built Prudential Center, just hours before show time. Next to…

WESTBURY, NY—Long Island’s Capital One Bank Theater at Westbury doesn’t have a bad seat in the house, and it’s certainly at the top of my list of venues to see anyone. On Wednesday, Aug. 13, it was Collective Soul, opened by Blues Traveler and closed by Live.

Though Blues Traveler…

NEW YORK, NY—Valentine’s Day 2008 certainly was a magical night. I had the ability to witness Matchbox Twenty light the Garden on fiyah with the warmth they have rekindled since reforming late last year. The killer support from Alanis Morissette and Mute Math—with the fact that each artist opened with…

NEW YORK, NY—Throughout the years, many a genre has been created, from emo (“They bitch and they moan about how life sucks sooo bad!”), to screamo, to flat out sucky, but Twisted Sister will always remain good old-fashioned rock-n-roll. Dee Snider—who crept onto the stage mirroring a maniacal Santa Claus…

NEW YORK, NY—Only one sentence reminded me that indeed the members of Collective Soul hail from Atlanta, Georgia, not California: “Southern gentlemen getting that Northern hospitality, man.” Though, even that remark ended with “man,” something lead singer Ed Roland says more often than not, in addition with “dude.”

Either way,…