How to Become Clairvoyant is, thus far, Robbie Robertson‘s most blatantly personal solo release, taking on his split with the Band, nostalgia for his generation’s spent idealism, and the realization of a dark aftermath for the era’s hedonistic excesses.

Photo from RobbieRobertson.com by Nick DeRiso “He Don’t Live Here No More,” the edgy lead single from Robbie Robertson‘s upcoming album How To Become Clairvoyant, is a rollicking rebuke of the dark demons that stole too many friends. “I was higher than a lost kite — too far gone,” Robertson wails, channelling lost souls like Richard Manuel and Rick Danko, [...]

by Something Else Reviews Gary Moore, former guitarist with Thin Lizzy and Skid Row, has died at age 58. The Belfast-born Moore, perhaps most famous for his 1979 hit “Parisienne Walkways” with the late Phil Lynott, was found dead in a hotel room Sunday while vacationing at the Costa del Sol, Spain. The cause of death was not immediately known. [...]

Photo from Todd Christoffel’s ReverbNation.com page by Nick DeRiso Seattle-based folk-rockers Don’t Ask have a fondness for the comfy sounds of 1970s pop, though they are careful not to get too caught up in nostalgia. They simply use that era’s singer-songwriter-inspired prose, its soaring symphonic pop structure and its feel-good ethos as a springboard. In fact, the album-closing “My Memories” [...]

Face Value is a fulcrum for fans of both Phil Collins and the band he had just begun leading, Genesis. Thought of, if its thought of at all anymore, as a divorce record (thanks to its two hits, “I Missed Again” and “In the Air Tonight”), Face Value is something much different in the listening. Rather than wallowing in what [...]

by Nick DeRiso Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads Blues” remains one of the most terrifying, wonder-filled songs, even if you don’t know the oft-told tale of how the doomed Mississippi bluesman became so proficient so quickly at playing his guitar. It’s one of the reasons that, despite the brevity of his time on this earth — born about 1910 and dead by [...]

“The Guitar Hero” moves away from the tabloid side of the Jimi Hendrix myth, instead delving into the American guitarist’s sweeping impact on rock music and the instrument. That makes director Jon Brewer’s film not so much a biography, per se, as it is tone-poem love letter to Hendrix’s muse, and how it finally ignited. I think, at this late [...]

by Mark Saleski If you have a few hours to spare, and are looking for some cheap entertainment, search for one of those “Best Guitarists” lists on the Internet. Oh dear, the comments will absolutely slay you with their hilarity. Just about everybody can find a way to be offended that their “Best” has been slighted in one way or [...]

by Nick DeRiso An honorable, if ultimately somewhat superficial, tribute to the thing that makes Robert “Jr.” Lockwood such an important element to modern blues. Lockwood was something of a stepson to Robert Johnson. The doomed Delta bluesman would stop in to stay with Lockwood’s mother in Helena, Ark., during early 1930s road trips along the chitlin’ circuit, and they [...]

by Nick DeRiso The question for rock musicians has always been how they might navigate into middle age, and later. No previous format — from country pickers to down home blues men to doomed jazzmen — was so inextricably tied into youth. That makes the lasting relevance of J.J. Cale, 70 now, all the more notable: “Who knew?” he admits [...]