Copper
Things Change With Time
Things change with time, as my very close friend likes to say. Here’s my New Year’s wish: that things change for the better in 2021. A new year brings new...
Ballroom Blitz
How was your New Year’s Eve? New Year’s Eve, ring a bell? Someday this pandemic will end and we will return to celebrating the end of the old year and...
The Stranglers Come Stateside
I met them as they came off the plane at JFK in New York. About three weeks after the Stranglers’ UK 1981 tour ended (see my article in Issue 111) the...
Mic-Boggling: Sylvia Massy's Microphone Museum
Producer, engineer, author and educator – these are just some of the roles that can be attributed to Sylvia Massy. Her work with Rick Rubin, Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers,...
To Test or Not to Test, That is the Question, P...
In the last two installments of this series, I discussed measurements of the two components most prone to developing or causing problems, namely our ears, and room acoustics. The rest...
Music and the COVID-19 Era
In 1968 we learned about Revolution 9; in 2020 we met COVID-19. Both disruptive, chaotic and confusing, but only the latter delivered unprecedented health and economic duress for so many,...
My Massive Income From Streaming
Our Paul McGowan asked me to recount the truly massive amount I’ve made from streaming sources. So here it is. But first, while I won’t reveal the figure, I will say that...
January's Most Memorable Concerts
When you run through a list of the biggest rock concerts of all time, one thing you’ll notice is that most were held during the summer months. I guess this...
Hanging With Les Paul
Les Paul was a tremendous influence not only on guitar players but anyone who’s ever listened to music recorded after around the late 1940s. Aside from being a dazzling guitarist...
Mission Girl
Photographed in Tucson, Arizona.
In Memory of Leslie West
Leslie West, like Albert King, just knew how to play one note with feeling. It sounds so simple. It isn’t. The guitar world was just dealt another blow in 2020....
Vintage Tube Amplification During a Lockdown, P...
In Part One, (Issue 127), J.I. told us about being suddenly locked down and without an amplifier for his music system, necessitating his purchase of a vintage H.H. Scott 299...
John Legend: A Modern Twist on R&B
It’s no surprise that John Legend wasn’t born with that name, but it’s a bit surprising how recently he started using it. In 2003, at age 25, he was still...
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Italian Elegance in 1...
Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) boasted two key requirements for a successful musical career in late 17th-century Paris: a well-connected father who could introduce him to potential patrons and two years’ worth...
We Are the NuTones
And you thought they only made intercoms! 1966 NuTone ad. My parents bought me an RCA Victor Model 1-EMP-2E phonograph when I was a kid. I was able to find...
When You Wish
Dear readers: as I write this, Christmas is over, the New Year soon to arrive. Happy 2021, everyone! To welcome in the New Year properly, let’s not talk about a...
A Cool Remix, and Three Interesting EPs
This is the time of year when traditionally there aren’t too many new releases, but there are quite a few new ones on the horizon. The artists I’ve chosen for...