Chances are, you’ve never heard of the greatest, most successful band of the rock era. But if you listened to music at all from the late 1950s through the mid-70s, you heard them; if you were a fan at all, you bought their records. They played the soundtrack of your life. They were The Wrecking Crew. And at last, their story is going public, thanks to a marvelous documentary created by the son of one of the members of the band. The Wrecking Crew were a group of studio musicians in Los Angeles, but to call them “studio musicians” is […] Read more »

Everybody has a story, but not everybody is good at telling their story. Kelly Bosworth has an incredible story, and tells it in such a way that you’ll probably want to add it to your music collection. Born in New York but raised in Oregon, Bosworth grew up on classical piano, music lessons with her dad, and eventually jam sessions that became tradition with family and friends alike. But in 2011, Kelly’s father, Mark, had a rapid and unexpected resurgence of cancer in his brain, a cancer he had battled on and off for several years. Mark was on a […] Read more »

“Parchman Farm: Photographs and Field Recordings, 1947-1959” is at once beautiful and horrifying. Many of the photographs are stunning, and give people a glimpse into a world that they know nothing about, and never want to experience. And the 44 songs are outstanding examples of traditional and original tunes; it’s not difficult to see how these pieces of music made their way into songs that would be considered “modern.” And yet, the pictures are all of prison life at Mississippi’s notorious Parchman Farm, and all of the songs are sung by prisoners, many of them violent criminals, and many who […] Read more »

Visit the Caffe Lena Facebook page and you are greeted with a quote from Dave Van Ronk, “Caffe Lena is the best damn acoustic music club in the world!” The list of artists who have taken the stage of the upstate New York coffee house goes a long way to supporting the assertion. In addition to Van Ronk, Tom Paxton, David Amram, Rosalie Sorrels, Utah Phillips, Jerry Jeff Walker, Arlo Guthrie, Kate McGarrigle, Pete Seeger, Patty Larkin, Bill Morrissey, Christine Lavin, and John Gorka only scratch the surface of the luminaries who have made the trek to Saratoga Springs in […] Read more »