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THE BLACK CROWES
Shake Your Money Maker @ 30
“With Shake Your Money Maker   we thought we would make our one album, you know, and then talk about it the rest of our lives”, sardonically says Black Crowes  singer, songwriter Chris Robinson about the unheralded January 1990 debut which, for fifty-four consecutive weeks, punched way above its weight class until peaking in the Top Five best-sellers in America. MORE>>   

To quote David Lee Roth himself in this lengthy 1991 conversation, "You can’t stand what he says but you LOVE the way he says it!” MORE>> 

METALLICA
Too Heavy For Halftime- Super Bowl 50
Metallica reminds us that the last time that San Francisco was involved in a Super Bowl was not as a team but as host to the landmark Super Bowl 50 in February 2016. MORE>>

LED ZEPPELIN
Physical Graffiti @ 45
By the time of its late February 1975 release, Led Zeppelin‘s sixth album, Physical Graffiti, signaled a fundamental change in the popular music and media equation that began with IV.  MORE>>   

“Rockabye sweet baby” James Taylor is still recording wonderfully satisfying albums like the new American Standard and being chosen to open brand new live music venues as he will in Ft. Worth in May, fifty years after the album Sweet Baby James captured the country’s attention. MORE>> 

DAMN YANKEES
"High Enough" Dallas March 1995
The singing, harmonizing half of the separate project Damn Yankees, Tommy Shaw and Jack Blades, also recorded a fine album in March 1995 entitled My Hallucination, and while promoting that effort Tommy and Jack took their musical comedy act on the road calling themselves the “Neverly Brothers”. MORE>>

PHIL COLLINS
No Jacket Required @ 35
Whenever I think of Phil Collins and his third blockbuster solo album No Jacket Required, funnily it triggers a flashback regarding another superstar effort. MORE>>   

In the Summer of 1985, the band Tears for Fears displaced Bruce Springsteen‘s Born in the USA, Phil Collins’ No Jacket Required and Dire Straits‘ Brothers in Arms at the top of the US sales chart with only their second effort, Songs from the Big Chair. MORE>> 

JAMES TAYLOR
"Sweet Baby James" Dallas, March 1992
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of James Taylor‘s landmark release Sweet Baby James this month, here is an acoustic performance of the title song which JT did during one of his several visits.MORE>>

AEROSMITH
Toys In The Attic @45
Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic  was the foothold to climbing the sales charts on their way to becoming America's most popular and influential hard rock band. MORE>>  

This is the most highly-detailed oral history of Jethro Tull's first formative years from the "Inside" by Ian Anderson that exists anywhere, with some stories he's never previously revealed, such as why Mick Abrahams exited Jethro Tull after the debut This Was; how the late Joe Cocker was involved in Tull's #1 success with Stand Up in the UK; and which member of the band YES wore paper underpants on tour! MORE>> 

TODD RUNDGREN
"Black Mariah"  Ridgefield, CT 2015
Todd Rundgren performed a stunning version of "Black Mariah", one of my all-time TR faves (originally found "when the kid gets heavy." on Something/ Anything?  almost fifty years ago) when he played Ridgefield CT back in 2015. MORE>>  

THE WHO
Live At Leeds @ 50
The Who Live at Leeds may have been the first live album I ever bought, but it's safe to say that it has  since remained a benchmark with which to compare a half century of live performance pretenders to the throne of anything demonstrably better. MORE>>

In 1982-83 Night Ranger was the first American band to break out simultaneously on rock radio as well as the new 24 hour music video channel, MTV, in America. MORE>> 

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN
"Cold Shot" Austin 4/15/84
When Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble welcomed Jimmie Vaughan to join them on stage April 15, 1984 at the Austin Opera House to help them perform "Cold Shot", Stevie's big brother was actually a bigger star then by virtue of anchoring the butt-rocking guitar slot in the Fabulous Thunderbirds. MORE>>  

QUEEN
The Game @ 40
Funny how "Bohemian Rhapsody" and its accompanying album, A Night at the Opera, stands so firmly in collective memory, but in fact it was The Game five years later that crowned Queen #1 worldwide. MORE>>  

TRAFFIC
John Barleycorn Must Die @ 50
The love and affection between my guests Steve Winwood and the late Jim Capaldi is clearly on display in this classic rock interview exploring one of rock's most eclectic efforts, Traffic's third album, Summer 1970's John Barleycorn Must Die. MORE>>

BUCKINGHAM NICKS
"Crystal" 1973
This version of "Crystal" will sound uncannily familiar to millions of Fleetwood Mac fans, yet those same people will swear that they have never seen or heard the album Buckingham Nicks.  MORE>>  

THE POLICE
Zenyatta Mondatta @ 40
On their first U.S.tour in early 1979 the three members of The Police, Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers, & Sting arrived for their first interview at my Memphis radio studio in a station wagon. Barely 15 months later they returned to take me to lunch, except this time they were in a chauffeur-driven limousine. MORE>>           

THE POLICE
"Driven to Tears" Buenos Aires 2007
If any fans in the massive audience witnessing the reunion tour by the Police in Buenos Aires back in December 2007 were literally "Driven to Tears", then no doubt they were tears of joy. MORE>>  

PINK FLOYD
Wish You Were Here @ 45
"You try following up Dark Side of the Moon. Go on, just try it!" playfully admonishes Pink Floyd guitarist, singer David Gilmour. "We've been trying to do it ever since!", laughs drummer Nick Mason. MORE>>           

Last Fall 2019 when I made what felt like a pilgrimmage to a suburban Dallas movie theater with very dear friends to see Neil Young and Crazy Horse's film of making their latest album, Colorado, I could not resist the comparisons to Ragged Glory  three decades earlier. MORE>>

OZZY OSBOURNE
"Iron Man" Medley Memphis 1982
To get you primed for the fiftieth anniversary of Black Sabbath's Paranoid, here's a live medley of "Iron Man" plus "Children of the Grave" performed in concert by Ozzy Osbourne April 28, 1982 at Memphis Mid-South Coliseum. MORE>>  

STING
The Dream of the Blue Turtles @ 35
Not since the Beatles had a band exited the international stage at the zenith of their popularity like The Police following 1983's Synchronicity album and eighteen month tour, so to say that Police singer, songwriter Sting's first solo album, The Dream of the Blue Turtles, was highly anticipated is quite an understatement.  MORE>>

Beginning in 1979 and continuing all the way until 1987 with Crest of a Knave, Jethro Tull's fate and fortunes would be quite unlike their first decade of success when the unique amalgam of blues rock, Scottish Highlands folk, and hard rock, led by Ian Andersonand exemplified by Aqualung and the worldwide #1-seller Thick As a Brick, packed arenas. MORE>> 

PORCUPINE TREE
"Blackest Eyes"  Los Angeles 7/30/03
By leading off with this torrid performance of "Blackest Eyes" from In Absentia in July 2003 at House of Blues in Los Angeles, Porcupine Tree led by Steven Wilson left no doubt that the neo-prog rockers were not just studio nerds. MORE>>  

LED ZEPPELIN
III @ 50
The second Led Zeppelin album had been a surprisingly mass appeal hit in America, and truth be told we had not really waned in our ravenous repeated plays of it when Led Zeppelin III appeared October 5, 1970 with surprisingly little notice. MORE>>           

JOHN MELLENCAMP
"Seventh Son" Chicago 1989
John Mellencamp and his wonderfully talented band left his garage in Central Indiana back in early May 1989 and headed north by northwest to  legendary Chicago Chess Studio and cut this live version of the Willie Dixon song made famous by Johnny Rivers , "Seventh Son", straight off the studio floor, no overdubs. MORE>>  

MOODY BLUES
A Question of Balance @ 50
The Moody Blues' sixth album, A Question of Balance, released fifty summers ago, unfolded like a sweeping cinematic epic playing in the panorama between your ears. MORE>>           

COLLECTIVE SOUL
Collective Soul @ 25
The success of three million-seller Collective Soul Collective Soul twenty-five years ago, coming on the heels of a no-name shot in the dark literally from the basement of Stockbridge Georgia songwriter and preacher's son Ed Roland's parents' house, was in no way a" lock" in 1995. MORE>>

RORY GALLAGHER
"Tattoo''d Lady" NYC 1978
Instead of the dregs, the quality of Rory Gallagher live and even previously unreleased studio recordings, this many years after his too-early death in June 1995, is truly remarkable. MORE>>  

SANTANA
Abraxas @ 50
In more than 1600 documentary episodes spanning over thirty years, I can honestly say that we never featured a more influential, important, essential album than Santana''s second effort, Abraxas released in October 1970. MORE>>           

RUSH
"Big Money" Dallas 2012
I never liked the old adage, "Familiarity breeds contempt", but I must admit that may explain why I had grown to take Neil Peart's Mt. Rushmore of talents for granted over these many years. MORE>>

CROSBY, STILLS, NASH & YOUNG
Deja Vu @ 50
After Neil Young sat in with David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash at the trio's second gig, some people noticed. The fact that the gig was the Woodstock Festival in 1969 might have had something to do with it.  MORE>>  

Gazing at the cover for the third Lynyrd Skynyrd album Nuthin' Fancy from March 1975 elicits mixed emotions. Clearly I recall the anticipation for it after the success of its predecessor, Second Helping. MORE>> 

REDBEARD ROCKS
St. Patrick''s Day Playlist
With so many St. Patrick's Day parades cancelled this year from Dublin to Dallas, you probably will need a lengthy playlist of Irish rock more than ever to power your private party. MORE>>  

DEF LEPPARD
"Rock Of Ages" Medley 
This fabulous "Rock of Ages" medley was unavailable in the U.S. for about twenty years, so to blow up the request lines at Dallas/Ft.Worth radio station Q102, I used to throw on this live mashup consisting of Def Leppard's "Rock of Ages" plus Buddy Holly's "Not Fade Away", "My Generation" from The Who, "Radar Love"  from Golden Earring, "Come Together" from the Beatles & Led Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" all done by Def Leppard! MORE>>  

''SHOT IN THE DARK'' HALLOWEEN PARTY
Hosted by AC/DC''s Brian Johnson & Angus Young
Halloween is the perfect pandemic party time because everybody already wears a mask. So to Power Up your Halloween party playlist, I invited those monsters of rock, AC/DC's Angus Young and Brian Johnson, to join me here IN THE STUDIO to share stories from Halloweens past while putting together a playlist of haunted hits. MORE>>           

AEROSMITH
"Draw the Line" Halloween 1993
Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler has a wide reputation for being a notorious trickster, but Halloween 1993 in Brussels it was all musical treats for the audience when the band, clearly at the peak of its powers, conjured up ear candy from all eras of their long career, including this wicked version of "Draw the Line". MORE>>

HEART
Heart (1985 album) @ 35
We have done over five hundred rockumentaries in three decades with the first-person stories of the greatest albums in rock history, and two of my all-time faves remain the cinderella story beginnings of Heart in 1976 with Dreamboat Annie and the "comeback" album almost a decade later in 1985, Heart. MORE>>           

GARY WRIGHT
The Dream Weaver @ 45
Gary Wright by 1975 had returned to his native New Jersey with a handful of songs and an idea to arrange them with only electronic keyboard, organ and synthesizer for his third solo album, The Dream Weaver. MORE>>

CHARLIE DANIELS (1936 - 2020)
Every year while I worked in Memphis following the October 20, 1977 plane crash which killed the road manager, pilots and three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd  including their lead singer and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, the father figure of the whole Southern Rock family, Charlie Daniels, would visit or call Memphis rock radio station ROCK 103 on that date to pay his fond respects. Here is one of those tributes circa October 1980.

AC/DC
"Back In Black" Landover, MD 12-21-81
This should get you pumped for the fortieth anniversary of AC/DC Back in Black this month here IN THE STUDIO the band stomping through the album's title song during a tour stop in December 1981. MORE>>  

WHITESNAKE
Live Donington 1990
Whitesnake was never more powerful or impressive than thirty years ago this past week when they headlined the storied Castle Donington grounds of England, home to the Monsters of Rock Festival. MORE>>           

JOE COCKER
Mad Dogs & Englishmen @ 50
Here are the first-person accounts by Joe Cocker and Leon Russell of a remarkable multi-media event, the Joe Cocker Mad Dogs and Englishmen US tour, concert film and soundtrack double album on its fiftieth anniversary. MORE>>

QUEENSRYCHE
"Best I Can" London 1990 
In November 1990 Queensryche planted the flag of smartly conceived and played all-American rock in the heart of the British Empire, London's venerable Hammersmith Odeon theater. MORE>>  

GRAND FUNK
Closer to Home @ 50
By June 1970, the three man hard rock'n'soul locomotive from Flint, MI known as Grand Funk Railroad had already recorded and released three studio albums in barely eighteen months, the latest being Closer to Home.  MORE>>  

FREE
Fire And Water @ 50
June 2020 marks the fiftieth anniversary of a remarkably influential album, Fire and Water , by the very young erstwhile teenage London band Free. MORE>>

QUEEN
"Spread Your Wings" London 1977
Queen always was one of those top-tier bands who could really sing and play their highly arranged material live, and here is ample proof of that fact in a rare live-in-studio performance of "Spread Your Wings" from Autumn 1977 in a London studio. MORE>>  

OZZY OSBOURNE
Blizzard Of OZZ @ 40
It has been four decades since the unheralded release in the UK of Ozzy Osbourne''s first post-Black Sabbath solo album, The Blizzard of Ozz in September 1980, and in that lengthy time in rock music Ozzy has always been the big kid who got caught with his hand in the Cookie Jar of Life. MORE>>           

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
"In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" Los Angeles 1992
What this live acoustic version of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" lacks with the unplugged format, eliminating Gregg Allman's magic carpet of Hammond organ as well as the dual trap drums, it gains immensely in revealing the bold boundary-expanding eclecticism of composer Dickie Betts and the original Allman Brothers Band. MORE>>  

DIRE STAITS
Brothers In Arms @ 35
"It's like someone pulling at a thread, unraveling your sweater, except the sweater is you," former Dire Straits bandleader Mark Knopfler tries to explain the phenomenon of Brothers in Arms thirty-five years ago and modern super-celebrity here IN THE STUDIO in this classic rock interview. MORE>>

It was 1983's The Principle of Moments, Robert Plant's second solo album, which first convinced us that Plant could sustain a viable solo career outside of the legendary Led Zeppelin which he fronted for twelve fabled years, but for me personally it was Shaken 'n' Stirred served pre-release onboard a Boeing 747 on a Walkman at 40,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean that began my professional relationship with the complicated singer. MORE>> 

VAN HALEN
"Poundcake"  Dallas 12-4-91
The biggest urban legend in Dallas/ Ft. Worth rock history over the last thirty years is that Van Halen once blocked off downtown Dallas city streets at 4 pm on a sunny December weekday afternoon in 1991 and played a free concert. MORE>>  

GEORGE HARRISON
All Things Must Pass @ 50
It is the golden anniversary of the first Beatle to fly solo to the peak position high atop the charts with All Things Must Pass from the late George Harrison, the self-described "dark horse", alluding to the youngest, quietest of the four moptops who surprised everybody by becoming the most popular maker of solo music for the first five years after the Beatles called it a career. MORE>>   

MARK KNOPFLER
"Romeo & Juliet" Grand Prairie, TX Sept 2019
When Mark Knopfler rolled into the Dallas-Ft.Worth in September 2019 carrying a really large band (I counted fourteen musicians), it was in stark contrast to the way the world had been introduced to his talent and brand of storytelling in Autumn 1978 with Dire Straits. MORE>>

BILLY JOEL
Glass Houses @ 40
After back-to-back multi-million sellers The Stranger and 52nd Street, Billy Joel could do no wrong.but that didn't stop him from trying in March 1980 on Glass Houses. MORE>>  

Lots of significant changes reflected in Steely Dan's fourth album, Katy Lied, and that's the truth: first time recording without the band; first time without Jeff "Skunk" Baxter's guitar; first release without a supporting tour; and last recording on the West Coast before Fagen and Becker would return to New York City. MORE>> 

LYNYRD SKYNYRD
"Working for MCA" Memphis 10-30-73
Rare live-in-the-studio performance of unreleased "Workin' for MCA" (their record label) by Lynyrd Skynyrd in Memphis' Ardent Studio in late October 1973 between their debut but before their second album, Second Helping . MORE>>  

VAN MORRISON
His Band and Street Choir @ 50
The enigmatic Irish singer Van Morrison, who has taken us from seminal garage rock with "Gloria" to rock'n'roll ("Brown Eyed Girl") to ballads ("Crazy Love"), to jazz ("Moondance") to soul ("Domino") and then "Into the Mystic" has another one of his classic albums, His Band and Street Choir, turn fifty this month, released in Fall 1970 barely six months after the timeless Moondance. MORE>>   

KING CRIMSON
"Epitaph" San Francisco Dec 1969
What no one realized, at the time, was that this performance would be the last ever by the original King Crimson line-up of Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Michael Giles and Greg Lake. MORE>>