Lindy LaFontaine Sings I Do

American Singer – Songwriter Lindy LaFontaine draws inspiration for her music from her personal experiences such as relationships and the many parts of the world in which she has lived. As the daughter and the only child of parents she describes as being hippies and who have spent their lives involved in humanitarian work on behalf of women and children in numerous countries, Lindy LaFontaine and her music are like a kaleidoscope.  Those colors and reflections are beautifully displayed in the songs that will appear on Ms. LaFontaine’s new album, This Too, In Time, Shall Pass that will be released September 21^st.

The Pop / Trip Hop / Alternative artist collaborated with producer Stewart Myers (Rachael Yamagata, Jason Mraz, Rhett Miller), keyboardist Patrick Warren (Stevie Nicks, Macy Gray, Beth Hart, Fiona Apple, Melissa Etheridge), guitarist Mark Goldenberg (Al Stewart, George Jones, Linda Rondstadt, Chicago, Peter Cetera, Melissa Etheridge) and drummer Brian Jones, to weave beautiful musical tapestries such as “Free To Breathe,” a song that showcases Lindy LaFontaine’s incredible vocal gifts.

“Everybody is going to translate “Free To Breathe,” differently. It was definitely about a relationship. I think most of my songs have a little bit about relationships in them.  It is about relying on other . Read More

Interview with U.K.'s Maxi Dunn

After spending almost nine years away from the music scene so she could devote her attention to her son and daughter, singer – songwriter Maxi Dunn returned in 2010 with her debut solo album Welcome To Soonville, a deeply personal collection of songs that reflect the Liverpool, U.K. native’s eclectic musical influences. She fronted a number of bands during the 1990’s including the Trip-Hop band CS Drift. Prior to spending time fronting CS Drift, she also served as the lead singer for groups that ranged from what she describes as Jangly Guitar Pop to possessing a heavier Rock / Pop sound.

Alluding to her eclectic influences, Maxi Dunn says, “I think that it now comes out in my writing. I often get told that all of the songs are very different, but there is also the added Maxi Dunn sound. I like to keep the songs fresh and different. I like a wide range of music and while I can be diverse, I am making the most of it.”

There is also the influence of the city in which she has lived all of her life, “From an early age we were aware that Liverpool had a musical history, because our parents were into The Beatles, so we were always listening to Beatles’ songs and my dad was always playing them on his guitar. You couldn’t get away from it, because they were always on TV.  As a young girl growing up during the early eighties in Liverpool, it was again exploding. We had a big club where all the bands used to hang out, like Pete Burns from Dead Or Alive   Read More

 New Zealand's Jackie Bristow

Late in 2007 New Zealand singer – songwriter Jackie Bristow released her second album, Crazy Love, a collection of love songs that followed her debut album Thirsty, from 2002. On February 15^th   of this year, Jackie Bristow launched her third album Freedom and it is her best foray into the North American music scene yet, with songs that offer more texture, more color and rock out a bit more than her previous outings. The album opens with a disarming, low key guitar riff, before Bristow energizes the listener with vocals that blur the lines between country, and what she refers to as white girl Blues and Gospel, on the title song “Freedom.”  It is a high impact original song penned by Jackie Bristow and gone are the more mellow vocals which populated Crazy Love and in their place are phrases that have a bite, “I’ve been on a rollercoaster, it’s been up and down / But I am learning to trust in the universe / I am learning to trust myself.” Hammond B3 player Clayton Doley is an artist extraordinaire, as his fingers paint vivid colors on this musical canvass and background singers; Gary Pinto, Natasha Mousuff, Mahalia Barnes and Rob Woolf answer Jackie’s Bristow with a soulful response, “Freedom.” 

When we talked to Jackie Bristow, a few days after the release of Freedom, she was in the Read More

Bobby Thompson Interview

His name is Bobby Thompson and he grew up in Arlington, Virginia, where he still lives. He is a very good Blues Rock guitarist – singer – songwriter, who channels Eric Clapton vibes from the Cream and Blind Faith era. In February of 2011, Bobby Thompson released his album By The Hand, a ten song collection, which features eight original tunes and two covers, the Eddie Floyd / Steve Cropper song “Things Get Better,” and Albert King’s “I’ve Made Nights By Myself.” The album may represent a significant turning point in the career of Thompson who has toured with a number of Blues and Reggae / Funk influenced bands during his career, for By The Hand, features his own solid guitar licks, complimented by the drumming of Gary Crockett, some solid bass players (Steve Wolf, Mike Echols, Jeff Frank) and the funk master of the tenor saxophone, Ron Holloway, whose performance credits include; Gov’t Mule, Susan Tedeschi, Taj Mahal, Allman Brothers Band, Peter Frampton and Little Feat. Benjie Porecki is awesome on the keyboards and the icing on the cake is the background vocals served up by Angie Head and Dusty Rose.

Recently, Bobby Thompson took time to sit down with Riveting Riffs Magazine to talk about his new album and the circuitous route that he took to arrive at this point in his career. He is proud of his southern heritage, his father was from Athens   Read More

From the Peppermint Lounge to the Apollo Theatre

Billy Vera, may best be known to music fans for his bigger than huge hit “At This Moment,” which was boosted up the charts long after its original release in 1981, when the song was featured in two episodes of the iconic television series Family Ties during the mid 1980s.  Eventually, Billy Vera and the Beaters released the song again and it shot up the Hot 100 and the Adult Contemporary charts to # 1.  At the time, Billy Vera was forty-two years old and although it may have appeared to some that he was a late bloomer, those in the music community knew that he had already tasted success as a songwriter many years earlier, with songs recorded by, Ricky Nelson, Dolly Parton, Barbara Lewis, Fats Domino and others and as a singer with two top forty songs in the late 1960s. Recently, Billy Vera, whose father Bill McCord was an announcer for NBC and whose mother Ann Ryan performed and recorded with Ray Charles, Perry Como and Chet Baker, spoke to us from his home in Southern California. Read more

Matt Sorum Beating a Different Drum

Matt Sorum is known to music fans as one of the best drummers on the rock scene, because he is a former member of Guns N’ Roses and The Cult and he is the drummer for his current band Velvet Revolver. That however only begins to scratch the surface of this multi-instrumentalist and multi-faceted man, who it was our pleasure to interview recently. Matt Sorum as we discovered, plays other instruments and sings, and he is a noted producer, likes to design and he has had and will again in the future have, an exciting fashion line that he developed. Sorum along with his partner Lanny Cordola founded the philanthropic project named Global Sound Lodge and he is also a member of the musical project Camp Freddy. In addition to all of that, he put into place the various pieces of the puzzle, in terms of management, marketing, publicity and development of the band Darling Stilettos, which has as one of its members, Sorum’s girlfriend Ace Harper.  During our interview with Matt Sorum, we discovered a man who is relaxed, at peace with the world, is well spoken, personable and genuinely loves the direction that his life is taking right now. Read more