Riveting Riffs Magazine

Interview with Arrica Rose

“I always try to come up with a way to say something that would not be your first choice. I think that it helps the listener to understand what I am trying to express. I think it gives them a new perspective, a perspective that I have, but that they may very well relate to. I think of it as painting a picture and using colors that maybe quote unquote aren’t the proper colors, but somehow you still feel what the person is trying to paint and you see even more of what they are trying to paint based on the choices that they make,” says Southern California singer-songwriter Arrica Rose.

Some of Arrica Rose’s songs such as “Microscope,” and “I Wasn’t Done Dancing,” from her new EP Lucky, explore the side of relationships and life that is not always fun and yet when set to ethereal vocals and more upbeat music listeners never find themselves bogged down in gloominess.

“It is by design. I really enjoy that juxtaposition (in a song). They do have dark lyrics that you don’t necessarily notice. You can enjoy a song on one level and then all of a sudden you listen closely and you say wait, is that what the song is really saying? That is something that I do play around with. It is no accident that you would notice that with my songs.

(The song) “Microscope,” began with me saying to someone else, just put away the microscope and let’s not dissect this thing. That just stayed in my brain, put away the microscope and to the point that I ended up writing it down on one of the many pieces of paper that I write things on. Really what I was saying is look at the big picture, don’t try and over analyze every tiny little detail to the point where everything is just this big mess. That’s where “So put away the microscope, let's live in a big picture that paints us lucky,” came from. From that point on I had the idea of a microscope, so I wanted the rest of the song to have scientific references too, to (express) this feeling I had that you would get the bright side, the bigger picture. I needed the scientific terms to describe being Read More

Billy Alexander Interview

Billy Alexander who makes his home in Lake Forest, California knows what it takes both in the studio and on stage to be a good performer and to build a solid career in the music industry. The Fairfax, Virginia native, who grew up in Maryland and Massachusetts was lead guitarist, keyboardist and sang vocals with the late nineties and early 2000s with the band FEEL, which also consisted of Scot Sax (guitar, lead vocalist), bassist Mark Getten and drummer Dave Schaffer. FEEL was formed after the band Wanderlust broke up. Getten and Sax were both members of Wanderlust, a band that toured with The Who and Collective Soul and which had their own hit single, “I Walk.” Getten and Sax then collaborated for a song “Summertime,” that became part of the American Pie soundtrack and they recorded it under the name Bachelor Number One. The duo expanded into FEEL and had two memorable hit songs, “Won’t Stand In Your Way,” (# 18 National Radio Charts) and “Got Your Name On It,” (# 28 on Billboard).

We will revisit FEEL in a few minutes, but when the band eventually went separate ways and amicably Billy Alexander says, “I started doing a lot more writing and co-writing and one particular co-writing session was with a girl called Ginger Reyes (now Ginger Pooley) who later became the bassist for Smashing Pumpkins. She was an Orange County gal. People were telling me that a lot of my writing was reminding them of what was called then, New Country. Bands like Sugarland and Keith Urban were coming on the scene. It was Country Music, but it had a lot of Rock and Pop fused into it. I think “Mutt” Lange and Shania Twain really helped fuel that, because they took the whole Pop Rock thing and brought it into Nashville. They did a real fusion number and that opened the door. That was great for me, because I had never really been (traditional country). I listened to Johnny Cash and a lot of the Rolling Stones records that were influenced by some Country music and I loved that stuff. I just liked that some of the ear candy Pop melodies and cool guitar riffs were allowed to happen in Country. I dove into the world of writing, producing, doing demos and making trips to Nashville.” Read More

Mercedes Benz Fashion Week - Madrid

Fashion Designs by Ion Fiz and Sara Colleman

Photos courtesy of Getty Images protected by copyright © all rights reserved

Interview with Beverly Leech Part II

In Part I of our two-part interview with acting coach, author, stage and television actress Beverly Leech we introduced you to her career and her book ACTOR MUSCLE A Professional Guide to the Business of Acting. In Part II of our interview with Beverly Leech she talks about her book and particularly the scams that seek to take advantage of young actors and the provisions that have been put in place to protect actors. She also takes us back to her early days in the entertainment industry.

“My goal was to (write a book) about how to go about a career in sequential steps and how to actually do it. There are really good books on how to do an interview, how to do a commercial audition and how to read for TV, but they are separate. I was teaching all of (those things) and teaching them in a semester long course, as the academies wanted me to cover everything, so I thought this is great, now I can go ahead and make my teaching materials available to fifty or one hundred kids in my class. I wanted to make it available to everyone in the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles markets, because they are also inundated with a lot more shysters. It is very important for me to take them through each step of the process and teach them how to look at a contract and to know what you are looking at. Most of the kids don’t know anything about contracts when they are starting out. Managers appear to be very similar to agents in their responsibilities and their take of the commission, but they are very, very different and if you don’t pay attention to the fine print, you are going to get hurt.

The city attorney here in Los Angeles is really clear about what an agent can and can’t do in the city of California. The Krekorian Scam Prevention Act prevents agents who still try to sign actors to contracts, which aren’t Read More

Ricky Z Interview

He was listening to Beck, Bogert & Appice (Jeff Beck – The Yard Birds; Tim Bogert – Vanilla Fudge and Cactus; Carmine Appice – Vanilla Fudge and Cactus) when he was in grade school and he performed at the White House with Gloria Estefan as an adult. Ricky Z born Ricky Zahariades, in Phoenix, Arizona, but a native of California from the time he was three years old and his family moved to, in his words “a small dusty town” called Fontana (San Benardino County). He has also worked with artists such as, The Sweet (also known simply as Sweet), Michael Buble, Lauryn Hill, Josh Groban and Jessica Simpson. Ricky Z sat down with Riveting Riffs Magazine to discuss his new album The Long And Dusty Road, which features all original songs, his career and his musical journey.

Discussing his childhood in Fontana he says, “It was a great place to grow up and there was all of this music around, so that was kind of cool. I had older brothers and I started getting access to their great music and I was soaking it up.”

Whenever his brothers would bring a new record home he recalls, “I would just sit there. I loved Keith Emerson, Zeppelin, (Black) Sabbath, Peter Frampton, the Stones and The Yard Birds. I was a music aficionado by the sixth grade. It encompassed my whole world and I hadn’t even thought about playing it. The summer before the eighth grade my brother’s best friend brought over a guitar with a little Silvertone amp and he left it there all summer. If I played it, nobody knew, so I just ran and in there and started making noise. I played it whatever way it was tuned and only the three big strings on the top. I played along with the records to find the ones that fit. I bugged my mom, mom please can I get some lessons. She hooked me up with a local teacher in town and I studied with him Read More

Diane Marino Interview

On the eve of releasing her new album Loads Of Love it was to Riveting Riffs Magazine’s delight that we had the opportunity to chat once again with Jazz singer, arranger and pianist Diane Marino from her home in Nashville, Tennessee. Ms. Marino who grew up in Queens, New York City was reunited with her friend and saxophonist extraordinaire Houston Person who played on ten of the rejuvenated standards that are featured on Loads Of Love.

Diane Marino possesses impeccable phrasing, her voice has beautiful colors and tones and the new arrangements are lush without detracting from yet another wonderful recording from a truly magnificent vocalist.

The album opens with Cole Porter’s “Get Out Of Town,” written for his 1938 Broadway musical Leave It To Me! The song is introduced on Loads Of Love by Frank Marino’s upright bass, eventually joined by Diane Marino accompanying herself on the piano. Houston Person has an extended melodious solo, followed by Ms. Marino’s lively piano solo. For those not familiar with the song, the singer’s former beau arrives on the scene and she bids him to go quickly, before she falls in love again and has her heart broken once again.

Acknowledging that she is definitely a romantic, Ms. Marino says, “I didn’t really set out to do an album about love songs, but if you look at it, it is all about love. Subconsciously I guess that is what I was thinking of (she is laughing). I wanted to do an album of good vocal standards, but standards that haven’t been done a zillion times. I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to bring something fresh to that concept of the Great American Read More

Jon Herington Interview

Jon Herington’s current album Time On My Hands is a departure from previous solo albums Like So and Shine Shine Shine, because he decided to make his guitar the centerpiece of the songs. That might sound odd at first, because he is solidly entrenched as one of the music community’s most highly regarded guitarists, who has been the guitarist for Steely Dan for the past thirteen years and who also regularly tours with Madeleine Peyroux. Add to his resume past tours with Bette Midler and with The Dukes of September (Boz Scaggs, Donald Fagen and Michael McDonald) and it may sound incredulous that until Time On My Hands his guitar has not played a more prominent role on previous albums.

Jon Herington says, “I got many comments from a lot of listeners, after Like So and Shine Shine Shine saying they were surprised and disappointed that the records didn’t sound like typical guitar player records. I think they meant the guitar was less in the spotlight than they expected and there was maybe less of a featured role for the guitar. They were exactly right and that was my intention. I was thinking about the songs and I wasn’t thinking about the guitar playing so much. I certainly wanted to play the guitar and I wanted to play well, but the songs seemed to call for a short eight bar guitar solo in the middle, like on a Beatles’ song or something like that, so I would do what the song seemed to call for. It seemed like the natural thing to do and to make those records sound good.

I started thinking about it and I wondered could I make a record that people wouldn’t say that about it and they wouldn’t say this is a Read More

Barbara Payton On Tour

One might suppose that a person whose parents were music teachers and who grew up in the Salvation Army, playing a brass instrument and going to music camps, might have a better than average chance of having their adult life closely linked to music. What might come as a bit of a surprise for someone growing up in that somewhat conservative environment is when you learn that Detroit singer and songwriter Barbara Payton, in addition to carving out a splendid solo career, has also toured extensively (as a background singer) and recorded (Face The Promise – 2006) with Rock and Roll legend Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band, as well as Kid Rock. Payton has also opened for Joe Cocker, Pat Benatar, Lou Gramm, Eddie Money, Jonatha Brooke and Terri Clark.

“I grew up in a musical family in Port Huron (Michigan) and part of my family is still there. All of my cousins, uncles and grandparents are (musical). It was not expected necessarily, but it was a flow to go right into music, learn how to read music and to pick an instrument. I grew up in the Salvation Army, which had a brass band, so playing a brass instrument was very appealing to me. I picked up the equivalent to a French horn, an alto horn. The alto horn is an upright and it almost looks like a small baritone. It is not the sexiest instrument to play for Rock and Roll. I wish I had picked something else,” she says laughing lightly, “but it was what I was drawn to at the time. I played the French horn in the band in high school and I had my dad as a teacher, but he certainly didn’t play favorites. In fact I think he may have Read More

Adrienne Pierce - My Heavens

It was about five years ago in the West Coast Canadian city of Vancouver that we first met Adrienne Pierce who was opening that night for Jane Siberry, who has since renamed herself Issa. Although, the audience that night had come mostly to see Issa they had completely embraced Adrienne Pierce by the time she had completed her solo set, accompanying herself on guitar. Over the years Ms. Pierce has firmly established herself as a good songwriter whose melodies and lyrics flow more like well written poetry that is further enhanced by her ethereal soprano vocals. If you are looking for a genre label, something for which this magazine has little regard, Adrienne Pierce could best be described as soft Pop.

Adrienne Pierce is back with a brand new album My Heavens and she wrote the music and lyrics for six of the ten songs and collaborated with her hubby musician / songwriter Air Shine on the title song “My Heavens,” “Oh Well,” our favorite tune “If Ever,” and “Something Silly.” The duo also self-produced, recorded and mixed the record.

If commercial radio was not mostly driven by money instead of good taste “If Ever,” would be a chart stopper. This is the best song that Adrienne Pierce (in collaboration with Ari Shine) has ever written or recorded. Nicholas Allen Johns’ accompaniment on keys is marvelous and his drumming adds another layer. The arrangement and the orchestration are simple but pretty and Adrienne Pierce has never sung better than she sings “If Ever.” This is a song about a relationship, but it is more than that, it is about two people who are forever Read More

Alaina Blair Interview

Twenty year old Alaina Blair’s debut full length self-title album opens quietly or so it seems until at the thirty-eight second mark of the opening song “Sweet Talkin’ Lola,” when she launches into a Rock number driven by thundering guitar riffs and Blair’s edgy vocals with lyrics that have a bite to them turn her into a Rock temptress. Ron Blair (no relation to Alaina) of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is featured on slide guitar, vibes, keys and bass, Billy Alexander who also produced the album plays electric and acoustic guitar and Tony Morra backs Alaina Blair, playing drums. Ron Blair, Alaina Blair and Billy Alexander co-wrote “Sweet Talkin’ Lola.”

Alaina Blair talks about writing “Sweet Talkin’ Lola.” “I talked to Ron and I asked him if he was interested in writing a song with Billy and I and he was yes for sure, come on over. We were all sitting around in his living room and he got all of these random instruments that he could find. His whole house is just filled with music and it is so awesome. Every time that I go in there I feel like a kid in a candy store. He got a mic set up. We recorded everything that we had been working on and we didn’t have any lyrics until the next time that we got together. Our working title was “Oh The World Didn’t End After All,” because the day that we wrote it was the day the world was supposed to end. The next time that we got together Billy had the idea of “Sweet Talkin’ Lola,” he brought it to the table and we talked about it. A friend of his was in a situation where this kind of sleazy girl was always getting what she wanted and there was not a man she couldn’t manipulate kind of a thing. I loved that idea (for the song), because there is always that girl who knows just what to say and how to just get the guys to do what she wants. Not many girls sing about a girl, but the idea behind it was something that I liked and something I wrote about. We laid down a Read More

Cherie Currie - Rock Legend

In 1975 when Cherie Currie was fifteen years old and sitting in the Sugar Shack, a popular Los Angeles nightclub for those twenty-one years of age and younger she was approached by sixteen year old guitarist, singer and songwriter Joan Jett and her producer / manager Kim Fowley, about being the lead singer in a band that would later become known as The Runaways. The band also featured the late Sandy West on drums, guitarist Lita Ford and bassist Jackie Fox (during Currie’s time with The Runaways). The fifteen year old Cherie Currie, a native of Encino in the San Fernando Valley had already built a reputation with her classmates as being edgy and having a chip on her shoulder. For the next two years of her life she would tour the world as the lead singer of an aggressive all-girl Rock band whose signature song “Cherry Bomb,” as well as “Queens of Noise,” and “California Paradise,” would capture the imagination of teenagers worldwide. Some of the bands that opened for The Runaways included Cheap Trick and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Recently, Cherie Currie from her home in California took time out from her busy schedule, which includes a soon to be released new album and her chainsaw art business, as well as being mom to her twenty-two year old son, producer, musician and singer-songwriter Jake Hays, to talk to Riveting Riffs Magazine. In recent years, there has been somewhat of a renaissance, a renewal of interest in The Runaways and the role that they played in terms of paving the way for women musicians who would follow them. The feature film The Runaways starring Kristen Stewart as Joan Jett and with Read More

Carolyn Striho In Concert

Photo by Lynn Maslowski, protected by copyright, All Rights Reserved
Visit the Carolyn Striho website

Jaime Wyatt - "Believe"

You have only listened to a few bars from the song “Believe,” the new single by American singer-songwriter and guitarist Jaime Wyatt, when it becomes apparent that you are listening to a very gifted artist. From where we sit, we do not think you are going to hear anybody on your favorite radio station sing a song better than what Jaime Wyatt sings “Believe.” While listening as Wyatt plays her guitar and sings the song that she wrote, you cannot help but think that you may just be listening to a very special artist, who before very much longer is going to be a star.

Noting that her fans sing the words to “Believe,” back to her at her concerts, Jaime Wyatt said, “It is a good chorus and a positive chorus. It is the best feeling (when I hear my fans singing my songs). That’s when it works. That’s always the goal for me. It is to write something that people can relate to, that they understand, and that they use the song as catharsis, to use it in a way that is emotionally satisfying. It is when people understand the feeling and they relate it to their own lives.

I fully realize that performing is such an honor and a pleasure. You have to earn it and for people to show up at your (concerts) you have to earn it and you have to appreciate that too. It is the best feeling in the world, for people to sit and listen to you get out your emotions and (for them) to get the feeling of it.”

As for her songwriting, Jaime Wyatt says, “I keep lots of journals and I write pretty much every day. I try to compile throughout the day when I get an idea I write it down immediately. I write everything down and then I go through the lyrics and I always keep that going. I will read it, work on it and I will try and work on one theme. Then there are times when there is this feeling, this perception and this idea of something that is going on in my life and that I need to describe in a song. Those are great things too. I will sit down and write a bunch of lyrics. Sometimes a song is strong enough that I feel I really need to write this song, because this is what I am feeling right now and this is what a lot of people feel.”

Jaime Wyatt has three musical avenues through which to express herself, Read More

Guy Gilchrist and Nancy

You only have to talk to artist, author and singer-songwriter Guy Gilchrist for a short while and to learn about the work that he has done on behalf of charities such as St Jude Children’s Hospital and you begin to understand that he is a man of integrity with a big, generous and warm heart. His accomplishments are many. For the past eighteen years he has been the artist and the writer of the Nancy comic strip whose central character Nancy was originated by Ernie Bushmiller in 1933. The comic strip is syndicated in nearly 400 newspapers in 80 countries. He also contributed to the following comic strips, Jim Henson’s Muppets, Your Angels Speak, Screams, Night Lights & Pillow Fights and Today’s Dogg. Guy Gilchrist was the co-creator of The Muppet Babies, authored 48 children’s books and contributed to cartoons such as Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Looney Tunes and The Pink Panther. He is an accomplished singer and songwriter who has shared the stage with Charlie Daniels, The Marshall Tucker Band, Tommy Cash and Little Jimmy Dickens and he has played at the The Grand Ole Opry.

Recently, Guy Gilchrist took time out from his very busy schedule to talk to Riveting Riffs Magazine.

“I look at the work in Nancy as an ongoing story that never ends, because it just keeps on going, every single day. There is a bit of similarity (between creating a comic strip and a song), as you have to be a good editor. When you are writing a comic strip, sometimes you have to go through a whole bunch of garbage and you will be writing down pages and pages and pages of stuff until you finally hit that one thing that is going to work. Read More

42 : A Film Review

42 the movie that opened on April 12^th and that is based on the life and career of Jackie Robinson the first African American to ever play in Major League Baseball is a film that deserves to be seen by a lot of people. It says here that this Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures picture should garner actor Harrison Ford an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Branch Rickey the President of the Brooklyn Dodgers who brought Jackie Robinson first to the Montreal Royals and later to the Dodgers. Chadwick Boseman is solid in his role as Jackie Robinson, but we believe Nicole Beharie as Rachel Robinson, Jackie’s wife, was just as good and that should not be construed as a knock on the performance of Chadwick Boseman, but this is simply a movie that has several outstanding performances.

Brian Helgeland who wrote the screenplay did an outstanding job of directing 42: The True Story Of An American Legend. He painted a realistic and unfortunately sad commentary on the racism that Jackie Robinson and blacks in general faced in 1947, the year in whichRobinson became the first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers (in later years Jackie Robinson would play second base, third base and outfield). What makes Helgeland’s screenplay and the film work so well is he does not attempt to make a statement nor does he try to try to turn this into a political film he simply lets the events of the day tell the story. That becomes the best commentary that anyone can make about the injustice of prejudice of any kind. Denying Robinson in one scene and Rachel Robinson in another scene the right to use a bathroom that was reserved for whites only or the refusal to let the Dodgers Read More

millie jackson photo charleston sc

Millie Jackson performing in Charleston, South Carolina

D. Henry Fenton is Turnin'

D. Henry Fenton an Australian singer-songwriter from Sydney, who has been living in the United States for several years, chose an appropriate title for his current album Turnin’, because the listener will be continually turnin’ back the dial so to speak to listen to his songs over and over again. The affable New Zealander whose family moved to Australia when he was two years old possesses deliciously smooth vocals and his songs have melodies that remind one of a gently flowing stream, never hurried, never meandering, but always with a peaceful vibe.

New Zealand singer-songwriter Jackie Bristow who has been touring America regularly in recent years and now makes Austin, Texas her home says of D. Henry Fenton’s music, “D. Henry Fenton has hooky charismatic songs with beautiful melodies that soothe your soul. Henry is a real talent and his soulful voice speaks from the heart.”

Fenton’s original songs such as “Sweet Virgina,” which opens with strong, but not thundering guitar rifffs and his trademark vocals that never seem strained, never seem blemished invite the listener to sing along on the chorus “I miss you sweetheart mine / I’ll make it back this time / Just to tell you that I love you.” The musicians and vocalists, with Fenton leading the way on guitar, Luke Herbert on drums, Kristian Attard (bass), Jeff Young’s organ, Stuart Mathis (Lead guitar / pedal steel), Kelsey Collins (percussion and background vocals), Andy Clockwise (background vocals) and Jorgen Carlsson (percussion) are very, very good. These are solid players and singers.

The success of “Sweet Virginia,” has Read More

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