Legendary rockabilly crooner Robert Gordon will return to the Turning Point on Sunday, making one of his regular appearances at the cozy Piermont venue that has hosted everyone from Bo Diddley and Johnny Copeland, to Hot Tuna and Roger McGuinn.

If you’ve ever had a chance to see him you know he puts on a fun [...]

As lost tunes go, Ian Lloyd’s “Slip Away” was a pretty successful one.

It was also a departure for Lloyd, who first made a name for himself as the lead singer of the Stories with an impressively soulful voice. His best known performance was the Stories’ 1973 cover of the Hot Chocolate song, “Brother Louie,” which [...]

How does someone spend five years playing with the world’s most famous rock band and still make it onto a list of guitar players “under the mainstream radar?”

Because Mick Taylor never got the credit he deserves.
(courtesy of Fred the B-slinger/jimsatten.com)

Taylor’s jazz/blues guitar playing revitalized the Rolling Stones after he was hired to replace Brian Jones [...]

They weren’t the first band to rise out of the L.A. club scene, but they probably rose the highest.

And that’s no surprise, because hit rockers Guns N Roses grew out of two of the best known and most successful West Coast glam bands of their day.L.A. Guns took its name from lead guitarist Tracii Guns, [...]

Sad news out of England today with word that Lucy Vodden passed away this weekend.

You might not recognize the name, but Vodden is the “Lucy” in the Beatles’ classic “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds,” off their legendary Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

She had been battling lupus.

The Listening Room last checked in on [...]

Some of you have already heard that Bob Dylan has a new Christmas album this year—something we hear Iggy Pop was planning earlier this year.

Well, you can indeed now hear the legendary folk singer/songwriter take a stab at the Holiday season.

I’m not exactly a Dylan-head, but I have tons of respect for the man and [...]

Loud. That was kind of the thing with The Dickies.

And, back then, loud was how I listened to all my music, so it was a perfect marriage.

The L.A. punk band first came to my attention with their first album, The Incredible Shrinking Dickies, in 1979. Since, as I have pointed out before, I love covers, [...]

Grammy winning guitar great Larry Carlton is hitting the road, his management company announced this week.

Carlton, best known for his work with Steely Dan, has established himself as one of the most sought-after guitar players on the planet, with credits that include everybody from Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones to Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt.

Unfortunately, [...]

Chris Duarte was just 15 when he auditioned for the talent contest at Jefferson High School in San Antonio, Texas. But the young, burgeoning guitar players was turned down flat.

Boy, did he show them.

Duarte has since earned top honors from Guitar Player magazine, being named its “Best New Talent” in 1995, and finished fourth in [...]

Sometimes YouTube can pull something out of obscurity for you.

Here’s an example: Back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, when punk was turning into New Wave, there was tons of experimentation going on with music. Adam and the Ants were doing Antmusic, Ten Pole Tudor finished his brief stint with the Sex Pistols and [...]

It’s not exactly surprising news, but it sure is a damned good thing they’re doing it again.

Gov’t Mule will be playing the New Year’s Eve show at the Beacon Theater, marking their return for the gig that they’ve headlined since 2002 — missing only last year since then because of the renovations to the historic [...]

Years before he was a ‘70s rock icon, before his larger-than-life poster adorned thousands of suburban teenagers’ bedroom walls, Peter Frampton was part of one of classic rock’s most underrated — and overlooked — bands.

Frampton was just 18 when he teamed up with rock screecher Steve Marriott to form Humble Pie.

Their partnership lasted five years, [...]

The on-again, off-again reunion of The Faces is back on again — but Hall of Fame rocker Rod Stewart remains determined not to join his former bandmates for the event.

The word from contactmusic.com is that guitarist Ronnie Wood, keyboard wiz Ian McLagan and drummer Kenney Jones will nonetheless reunite and put the legendary rock band [...]

“I go where the guitar takes me,” Angus Young once said.

In that vein, since Feb. 25 the Listening Room has gone where the guitar players have taken us. That was when we started doing our weekly series, “Guitar Players You Should Know.”

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed it, and hopefully you’ve joined us in our deep-seeded love affair [...]

Heavy metal stalwarts Metallica just kicked off it’s latest U.S. tour, which will bring them to Madison Square Garden three times starting next month.

The band will first play the Garden on Oct. 30, as part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary bash.

Then they’re back on Nov. 14 and 15 for two [...]

Jim Carroll was one of the great New York City bohemians.

He bridged the great literary circles dominated by Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, and the New York City punk music scene with Patti Smith and the Velvet Underground. He also became a fixture in the Big Apple art world, working for Andy Warhol and [...]

Now you can call him Dr. Vai.

Guitar wizard Stevie Vai will be will be receiving an honorary Doctor of Music degree from California’s Musicians Institute as part of the school’s graduation ceremonies next week, contactmusic.com reports.

Well, if anybody deserves a doctorate for the guitar it’s Vai.
(Courtesy of vai.com)

The honors are part of a big month [...]

I first heard Frank Marino when my brother came home with an album by Mahogany Rush, the band founded by the Canadian-born Marino. Before long I picked up Mahogany Rush Live and played it endlessly.

A couple of years later I saw Marino and MR at the Jersey Meadowlands, part of a four-band stadium show headlined [...]

Leave it to CNN to steal my thunder.

As loyal Listening Room readers know, we post a guitar player profile every Wednesday as part of our “Guitar Players You Should Know” series. Wouldn’t you know it that this week’s installment was due to be guitar master Richard Thompson.

Until, of course, CNN came up with this feature [...]

The jury’s still out on how Alice in Chains will do with new frontman William DuVall.

But according to Spin magazine’s review of their D.C. show, which launched the band’s world tour, fans may soon forget that DuVall wasn’t there all along.

The Washington state rockers were part of the grunge movement that swept through the music [...]

The 32nd anniversary of Marc Bolan’s death and birth are coming up, and fans are lining up a series of commemorative events.

Unfortunately you’re going to have to fly to London to be part of it.
(photo courtesy of Jorgen Angel Photography)

Bolan, the brainchild behind legendary rockers T.Rex, died in a car wreck on Sept. 16, 1977. [...]

Eric Clapton once said Rory Gallagher was “the man who got me back into the blues.”

It was emblematic of the respect Gallagher earned among his peers — he was among the first choices to replace Mick Taylor in the Rolling Stones, and no less of a rock icon than Queen’s Brian May credited Gallagher with [...]

Singer/songwriter Steve Forbert will be making a sweep through the Lower Hudson Valley, with scheduled dates at the Turning Point in Piermont on Sept. 13 and a show at the Towne Crier Cafe in Pawling Oct. 17.

Forbert, best known for his 1980 hit “Romeo’s Tune,” will be swinging by the northern ‘burbs as part of [...]

This is basically one of those wild developments that you’d expect to see in a conspiracy theory book or documentary.

But, in fact, police are now reviewing the initial findings in the ‘accidental’ 1969 death of Brian Jones, the founder of The Rolling Stones and the troubled musical genius behind their early success.

Jones (far left) was found dead [...]

Long before he became an electric guitar god, Jimi Hendrix made a living – and a name for himself – backing up some of Motown’s and early rock’s biggest names.

James Marshall Hendrix was fresh out of an unimpressive stint in the 101st Airborne when he headed to Tennessee with his guitar, where he played gigs for [...]

The upcoming release of Orba Squara’s second album will be something of a multimedia affair, while showcasing the depth of the Big Apple singer/songwriter’s creativity.

Due for release Oct. 27, The Trouble With Flying will be launched on the heels of an accompanying web project that includes a travel memoir, photo exhibit and song lyrics — [...]

It seemed clear early on that Tom Morello was going to be a musician, even if his first gig was as the singer in a Led Zeppelin cover band – and not with a guitar in hand.

When he did take up the guitar full-time, the Harvard-educated, Grammy-winning Morello made the most of the instrument, creating a unique metal-based [...]

The splintering of the Beatles wasn’t a single event – the demise of rock’s most famous quartet was a lingering process that took months, if not years.

But the final decision to end the Fab Four is best marked sometime in September, 1969. And this appears to be the news hook for Mikal Gilmore’s analysis of the event [...]

Some 35 years after they formed as the most unusual of rock acts, legendary rockers Kiss are going back on the road, the band announced on its website.

Before you become skeptical about the aging foursome, keep in mind that anything they’ve touched for decades has turned into gold.

The gand’s clownish makeup and excessive stage shows [...]

Sammy Hagar has put together quite a rock and roll resume, and continues to add to it with his current gig in the supergroup Chickenfoot.

But long before the California-born rocker made a splash as a solo artist or fronting Van Halen, he was a teen-aged front man for Montrose, a hard rock band put together [...]