Thursday Electric-acoustic “mayhem” are on the bill this evening at the Mad River Brewery Tap room in Blue Lake at 6 p.m. Returning to the outdoor stage is Kaptain Kirk’s Kosmic Koncoction, which will be jamming the eclectic tunes free of charge. Three hours later, David Dondero — whom NPR hailed as one of “the […]
Andy Powell
Andy Powell is a congenital music lover and hosts The Album of the Week Show on KWPT 100.3 FM Tuesdays at 6 p.m.
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Rock Rock
Where did “Southern Rock” come from? The easiest answer is “The South” but you already knew that. Things get a bit more complicated after that. With a measure of the blues (from the South), early rock ‘n’ roll (built off the simplicity of the blues) and country music, Southern Rock has mutated and changed over […]
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Entertained to Death
Technology giveth, and technology taketh away. I’ve been pondering this thought for a while now. I won’t claim to be a fully out-of-the-closet Luddite, but compared to many — my children especially — I am far more wary of the trade off between what we get from technology and what we give to technology. Specifically, […]
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About Bob
My freshman year in high school, I’d hitch rides to school with my friend Cameron and his mother. Cameron and I would groggily listen to cassettes his older brother gave him: Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Bob Dylan. We listened to Dylan from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan up to Blood On the Tracks and anything […]
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Tropicalismo
It’s never easy nail down a music genre. As with many things ineffable, the more you describe them, the more elusive they seem. Much like quantum physics, the more microscopic your view, the more you see, ad infinitum. This paradoxical quandary hit me while trying to pin what it was about Sugar Candy Mountain that […]
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Pandemic
There’s a lot that makes Humboldt stand out among the other 57 rather bleh counties in our great state. (OK, Mendocino is pretty cool. And Trinity has the Trinity River, so that’s awesome.) I don’t want to make this a long list of what Humboldt has going for it, but rather to point out one […]
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Looking for America
Among the few American songwriters who have profoundly impacted the American Songbook as I hazily define it, most would agree Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan are somewhere toward the top of the list. I wouldn’t be alone in putting Paul Simon way up there, too. With his early songwriting career rooted in folk music and […]
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4 + 20 More
Humboldt has its own complicated and multifaceted relationship with its best-known cash crop. Whether you are hip enough to call it cannabis or still call it “the dope,” it’s tough to fully appreciate the extent of its influence on our county. I don’t have the space/time/patience to go into depth here in this column but […]
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There and Back Again, a Musician’s Tale
We here in Humboldt are lucky. It’s easy to forget but deep down we know that. We live in a rural part of the state that’s hard to get to and have a low average median income for a family of four compared to much of the rest of California, if my memory is correct. […]
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Parties, Pre-Parties and Celebrations
Thursday Get your string thing on tonight — sounds dirtier than I planned it — down at The Jam in Arcata where local string bands Thursday Night Bluegrass and The Gatehouse Well take the stage around 9 p.m. for a $5 show. Be prepared to cut a rug. At the famous Logger Bar in Blue […]
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The Godfather
Just like many of you, I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard James Brown. I was a kid riding along in my mother’s car in the morning with the radio on. Her favorite station would play what they called “golden oldies,” which didn’t mean much to me as an 8-year old. […]
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Music in the Time of Crisis
Every year it’s harder to tell the next generation borrowing money for college is a good idea. Tuitions are on the rise — imagine them ever going down! — and student loans linger longer and longer. However, one tremendous benefit of college remains: being surrounded by peers who share the sensitivities to the overwhelming and […]