
His coat is torn and frayed, it’s seen much better days But as long as the guitar plays, it’ll steal your heart away -Rolling Stones “Torn and Frayed” On December 18 Keith Richards will be seventy-four years old, a feat…
His coat is torn and frayed, it’s seen much better days But as long as the guitar plays, it’ll steal your heart away -Rolling Stones “Torn and Frayed” On December 18 Keith Richards will be seventy-four years old, a feat…
Let’s put some perspective on the news from yesterday: Freddie Freeman’s wrist is broken. Chris Cornell is dead. Freddie will be coming back to baseball in a few weeks. Chris is never coming back. Freddie’s injury was an unfortunate accident. …
If you tried to give rock and roll another name, you might call it “Chuck Berry.” -John Lennon He lit up our teenage years, and blew life into our dreams of being musicians and performers. -Mick Jagger Charles…
Welcome to the ninety-ninth edition of Friday Night with Guitar George, the next-to-last regular post in the series. During my hundreds of hours searching the internet to get material for FNWGG, my two favorite discoveries were R. L. Burnside and…
Dear friends, tonight is the ninety-eighth edition of Friday Night with Guitar George. Barring any unforeseen calamities, two weeks from tonight—May 20, 2016—will be the 100th edition, and the last regular installment in the series. I won’t say that it…
A recent television appearance by a heavy metal band featured an impressive cover version of a well-known pop song half a century old. This got me thinking about other unlikely cover versions—the White Stripes’ rendition of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” came…
Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today To get through this thing called life Electric word life It means forever and that’s a mighty long time –from “Let’s Go Crazy” A day and a half after the shocking news broke,…
It’s difficult to talk about rock & roll because it’s essentially a category and a category which embodies something which transcends the category. –Pete Townsend, 1968 Thus spake rock music’s resident philosopher in a 1968 interview. While the Beatles were…
Merle Haggard passed away Wednesday on his seventy-ninth birthday. Entertainers don’t get any more genuine than Merle the Pearl. He could talk the talk because he had walked the walk. In and out of trouble, in and out of prison,…