It was a strange night in a strange week. At a time when it appeared that the world had (temporarily, one hopes) gone mad, “Kaddish,’’ Allen Ginsberg’s lament for his mad mother was being presented at the San Francisco Jazz Center, in an unusual collaboration between protean hipster music producer Hal Willner (no relation to yours truly, although we both probably have roots in the same Lithuanian village), with music composed and conducted by the multi-talented guitarist Bill Frisell, in a…

Live Club Review –Elephant Revival at The Independent, San Francisco

So I picked up today’s New York Times to read about the sale, at an auction in Paris, of some sacred Hopi artifacts, over the objection of tribes people (and the United States Ambassador to France.  The auction house made over $1 million, but the loss of treasured items including a “headdress known as the Crown Mother’’ is irreplaceable – the Hopis believe the treasured Katsinam artifacts, were stolen from tribal…

Founder of Crawdaddy, polymath, brilliant and humble guy. I didn't know the man, but everything I've heard or read about or by him was good.

Some people are talented and lucky; others have the talent, but less luck. He seemed to fall into the latter category. He was lucky in the family who surrounded him with love, as seen in the posts below, and his many admirers - writers who were inspired by his example, musicians who were appreciative of his intelligent appreciation, fans who got…

This is a ridiculously good book of music writing – though, that’s an injustice, it’s a book about soul, and life, and America as much or more as it is about “just" music, by the great Stanley Booth.

As many of you no doubt know, Booth is also the author of “The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones, ‘a harrowing account of high times and low roads with the motley crew in Villa Nellcote, the Deep South and Altamont, that makes “Gimme Shelter’’ look like “The Yellow…

For those of you who haven't heard, Slick Aguilar, the Jefferson Starship's great guitarist, is facing dire health problems. 

Recently diagnosed with hepatits C, the 58-year-old musician is planning to move to Florida, where he stands a better shot of getting the liver transplant he needs to survive. 

He needs money for all this to happen, and he's too sick to tour, so some friends of his are trying to help out.

A Benefit for Slick Aguilar, billed as an acoustic evening…