Andy Powell

Over a quick cup of coffee at Ramone’s recently, I had a chance to sit down and chat music with Humboldt County 4th District Supervisor Virginia Bass. I was curious about her experience with the local music scene and shows she had seen while growing up in Eureka. Although she shyly admitted that she didn’t […]

There’s the old saying “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach.” There’s also a more recent addition: “Those who can’t teach, teach gym.” Leaving that last one aside, I don’t know if the saying is meant to put down teachers — perhaps specifically those damned liberal university professors — but we, as enlightened individuals, […]

In my brief musical career, I’ve always been a part of the rhythm section, far from “frontman” status. Partly due to my lack of charisma and over-active sweat glands, I’ve never had a problem with this. Occasionally I’ll feign that I’m giving the lead a run for his or her money, but that’s just to […]

In a previous Setlist, I mused on what qualifies a band as local. Now, I won’t wade into those waters again, but on a somewhat related note, I’ve been wondering why it matters where a band is from. Unsure of exactly how much that information matters, I will admit it scratches an itch. The question […]

There are two Neils near and dear to my musical heart. The first I would hear cranking out of my father’s car when my sister and I were small. I have vague memories of him singing along to certain songs loudly, which implied that these were damn fine songs. The second Neil I didn’t really […]

We all have daily struggles in our modern lives, trying to scrape by and hustle a living out of the crushing jaws of the free market. Money issues aside, it’s easy to overlook the small things in life that we find meaningful and create joy. Stop and smell the roses, it has been said. The […]

Some music will always hold a dear spot in our lives. It could be a song that we listened to obsessively for days on end after a high school break up, it could be a full album, it could be the first live concert we ever attended, it could be “your song” shared with a […]

A couple of music festivals are now behind us with the Folklife Festival and Northern Nights having just wrapped up. But with upcoming festivals on the horizon such as the Roll on the Mattole and the Reggae On the River festivals, we don’t have too much time to relax and put our feet up before […]

A memory from the 20th century recently found its way back into my mind. During my somewhat unremarkable final two years in high school, I was able to leave campus for lunch. This was a big deal for us upperclassmen. It was also a prime time for many students to get in their cars and […]

We’re a county of music lovers, are we not? Here in Humboldt, we have our fair share of summer music festivals, which probably outdoes many counties with much larger populations. We’re also unique — if I may — as we have a high concentration of local musicians who make the pickings for a local festival […]

The Fourth of July is nearly upon us and, as a red-blooded patriot, I quested to write something about music, America and perhaps Brexit. After long thoughts about John Phillip Sousa, Donald Trump and David Cameron, I realized I was not up for the task. My mind wandered to a scene I came across last […]