Mike Greenblatt’s Rant ‘n’ Roll Mike Greenblatt August 21, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Bad-Ass Piano-Playing Hipster The 11 originals that constitute the free-flowing multi-genre solo piano of Baltimore hipster Lafayette Gilchrist’s self-released Dark Matter range from jazz, go-go, blues, pop...
Mike Greenblatt’s Rant ‘n’ Roll Mike Greenblatt August 14, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Stranger Things One of the more entertaining aspects about the first two seasons of Stranger Things is the music. The soundtrack for season three is a mixed bag that interlocks into a mesmerizing 16-track w...
Mike Greenblatt’s Rant ‘N’ Roll Mike Greenblatt July 30, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Alto Sax & Trombone with Good Vibes The sound of an alto sax/trombone frontline—with vibraphone underpinning instead of piano—hearkens back to an earlier era of classic Blue Note records and, indeed, th...
Mike Greenblatt’s Rant ‘n’ Roll Mike Greenblatt July 24, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll The Guitar Is the Star Canadian guitarist Kevin Breit named his second Stony Plain Records solo album Stella Bella Strada, which loosely translates to “beautiful star of the road,” after his new guitar, spe...
Mike Greenblatt’s Rant ‘n’ Roll Mike Greenblatt July 9, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll 2 Meet Me On Southern Avenue I’ll be on Southern Avenue for a while because I Keep On (Concord Records) playing this Memphis band’s second album. Their 2017 self-titled debut had me up nights dancing by mysel...
Mike Greenblatt’s Rant ‘n’ Roll Mike Greenblatt July 3, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll 7-3 Mike Greenblatt’s Rant’n’Roll Advice From Waylon Somewhere between roots rock and no-frills hard-country, singer-songwriter Bryan Haraway grinds it out on this self-titled gem (Part Time Criminal Mus...
Mike Greenblatt’s Rant ‘n’ Roll Mike Greenblatt June 19, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll The 2019 Blast Furnace Blues Festival is FREE This Year! Bethlehem, Pennsylvania—It’s always one of my favorite events of the year. This time it’s free. And all outdoors. The 2019 Blast Furnace Blues Festiv...
Rant ‘n’ Roll: Oz Noy, William Steffey, Professor Louie, and more! Mike Greenblatt April 17, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll In the nineteen-sixties, Latin audiences in New York City went wild for what was known as boogaloo, a hybrid dance sound of funk, salsa, jump blues, and mambo, that went national when Dick Clark introduced it o...
Rant ‘n’ Roll—Pete Seeger: Centennial of an American Hero Mike Greenblatt April 10, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Pete Seeger should be celebrating his 100th birthday May 3. We lost him January 27, 2014 at the age of 94. Upon his death, President Barack Obama said, “Over the years, Pete used his voice—and his hammer—to str...
Rant ‘n’ Roll: Dina Hall — Ballad of a Singer-Songwriter Mike Greenblatt April 2, 2019 Columns, Rant 'N' Roll Dina Hall wears a lot of hats. Songwriter. Guitarist. Bandleader. Activist. Mentor. Graphic designer. Yet listen to her sing John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery” or his “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” and yo...
