Ricky Skaggs andBruce Hornsby**Sunday, Oct. 7, 2007*HSU Van Duzer*Theater The last time I saw Ricky Skaggs was inside one of those megachurches in Southern Nevada. And he was a very different Skaggs from the man on stage Sunday night in the Van Duzer, where he and his band, Kentucky Thunder, played with Bruce Hornsby. Back […]
Music
Coverage of the music scene in Humboldt County with upcoming shows from locals and out-of-town acts, reviews, interviews and more.
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Take Something Old
A sticker on the new live CD byHillstomp describes them as a “bucket and slide duo,” a phrase that might be confusing, unless you’ve seen them play. Guitarist Henry Christian bars chords with a slide made from a metal tube. Drummer Johnny “Buckets” Johnson has a kit made mostly from plastic buckets, the kind you […]
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Tokyo Year Zero
Tokyo Year Zero by David Peace Alfred A. Knopf There’s nothing like an occupying army to stir desperation into the chaos of defeat. Just ask Detective Minami, chief of one of the two murder-investigation units operating in Tokyo during “Year Zero” — the first year after Japan’s surrender to and occupation by the United States. […]
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All My Loving
directed by Tony Palmer Isolde Films Director Tony Palmer’s examination of the world of rock ’n’ roll in 1968 serves as a fascinating time capsule. Broadcast on the BBC 39 years ago, All My Loving , “a film of pop music,” was not shown in the U.S. and hasn’t been released on DVD until now. […]
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The Original Patriots: Northern California Indian Veterans of World War Two
by Chag Lowry Self-published In Ken Burns’ new documentary series about World War II, which began airing on PBS Sept. 23, only one Native American voice is included. When the series was first announced last spring, there were none at all. After public protest and a quick reedit, Burns added two Latinos and a token […]
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This Different Rhythm
He doesn’t lay claim to inventing reggae, but Frederick “Toots” Hibbert says he gave the Jamaican music style its name. Born in a town called May Ten in the hills far from Kingston, Toots headed for the lights of the city when he was still a teenager. As he tells the tale, “I’m from the […]
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Whatever It Is We Do
They’re back. The Redwood Jazz Alliance , that is. The collection of jazz educators and fans intent on bringing a wider range of improv music to Humboldt started with two concerts their first season. The RJA kicks off a more ambitious six show season Thursday, Sept. 27, with two shows at the Morris Graves Museum […]
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La Jetée/Sans Soleil
Once again the Criterion Collection has rescued the work of a masterful director from the annals of obscurity. Here they couple two key works by French director/photographer/activist Chris Marker, La Jetée and Sans Soleil , vastly different films that still clearly stem from the same artistic vision. Marker is a notoriously enigmatic figure. He’s never […]
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Love Is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970
The Summer of Love still casts its patchouli-scented shadow on the Bay Area forty years later, a legend blessed and cursed by old hippies and academics who weren’t even alive at the time. One thing you can’t refute is the Bay Area’s revolutionary impact on the music business. It gave birth to psychedelia, jam bands, […]
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Breaking the Silence
The great jazz keyboardist Joe Zawinul died last week. News of his passing spurred me to dig out my copy of In a Silent Way , the sublime Miles Davis album that took its name from one of Zawinul’s tunes. I bought the record when it came out at the end of the ’60s — […]
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ELFS Family Night at The Alibi
For me, getting ready for a queer dance party usually means donning a sleek black outfit and pounding a few beers to get in the zone. This past Sunday started a little differently, however, since I had to skip the pre-drink. (I had ‘partied-a-bit-too-hardily’ the night before. Walking, drunk, down Fickle Hill in the middle […]
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The Case for Literature
The Case For Literature is the title of Gao Xingjian’s address accepting the 2000 Nobel Prize for Literature, and also of this slim but powerful collection of his essays. Gao achieved his first success in China in the early 1980s with plays, and continued to write for the theatre, as well as fiction and literary […]