TV Review: “Genius: Aretha”

Mar 25, 2021 | Music, Television

I watched the Aretha Franklin bio-series on NatGeo this week and didn’t love it. I have nothing bad to say about Cynthia Erivo’s performance as Aretha. I’ve admired her work in “Harriet” and “Bad Times at the El Royale,” and...

POTD: The Best

Mar 1, 2021 | Music, Picture of the Day

Here’s a piece of classic rock history I was unaware of until recently. It’s about what may have been the shortest-lived supergroup ever: The Best. The members included Joe Walsh (The Eagles), John Entwistle (The Who), Keith Emerson (ELP), Jeff...

Chick Corea

Feb 11, 2021 | Music

I’m saddened to hear of the death of keyboard legend Chick Corea at the age of 79. I hadn’t even heard of him until I went away to college in 1975 and started working at the campus radio station, WUSB. It was there that my ears were opened to all sorts of...

POTD: Tim Minchin

Feb 5, 2021 | Music, Picture of the Day, Skepticism

Tim Minchin is a brilliant singer/songwriter whose work I have been a fan of for at least a decade. It’s not easy remaining topical, funny, and entertaining while also not-so-subtly promoting skepticism and atheism, but Minchin pulls it off like a direct...

Bruce Springsteen’s “Letter To You”

Nov 17, 2020 | Music

“Letter To You” is a documentary about the making of Bruce Springsteen’s latest album, his first with the E Street Band since 2014. Much of the project was inspired by the recent death of George Theiss, a bandmate of Springsteen’s in The...

Movie Review: A Harry Chapin Documentary

Nov 10, 2020 | Movies, Music

Harry Chapin was a singer, songwriter, and activist whose motto was, “When In Doubt, Do Something.” He was also one of music’s greatest storytellers, a fact that his contemporaries Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen attest to in this documentary about...