Email Author Bob Ruggiero

2013 Stories by Bob Ruggiero

• New Eagles Doc Shows Feathered Friends Didn't Always Have Peaceful Easy Feelings

  published May 07, 2013

  History of the Eagles Jigsaw Productions, 3-DVD, $34.99 Originally shown as a two-part special on Showtime earlier this year, History of the Eagles arrives for home consumption in a variety of format... More >>

• Midnight Oil Reopens the Blue Sky Mines On Essential Oils

  published Apr 30, 2013

  In the U.S., Midnight Oil are probably best known for their single "Beds are Burning." The video helped define late-'80s MTV by showing the group (most notably tall, gangly, bald singer Peter Garrett)... More >>

• UPDATED: Last Night: The Black Crowes at House of Blues

  published Apr 29, 2013

  UPDATED (Tuesday, 9:55 a.m.) to correct the mandolin player on "She Talks to Angels." The Black Crowes House of Blues April 26, 2013 Over the past nearly quarter-century, Chris Robinson's lyrics hav... More >>

• Yet Another Springsteen Book, This Time In the Boss' Own Words

  published Apr 23, 2013

  Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters Edited by Jeff Burger Even editor Burger himself poses this question in his intro: Does the world really need another book on Bruce Sp... More >>

• Paul Anka, Ladies' Man and Sinatra Worshipper, Tells It His Way

  published Apr 09, 2013

  My Way: An Autobiography By Paul Anka with David Dalton St. Martin's Press, 384 pp., $29.99 Currently celebrating his 55th year in show business with this autobiography and the new CD Duets -- which... More >>

• Dust Never Sleeps: Lost '70s Power Rock Trio Reemerges with Reissues

  published Mar 28, 2013

  When you think of classic rock power trios, names like Cream, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Blue Cheer, Grand Funk Railroad, and Mountain come to mind. But only hardcore music nerds may remember the ... More >>

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  MFAH Offers Rare Screenings of Infamous Stones Doc This Week

  published Mar 25, 2013

  It is the most infamous rock documentary of all time that the fewest people have actually seen in its entirety -- and even then mostly through third-generation VHS dubs or grainy DVDs. And its legend ... More >>

• Saturday Night: Eric Clapton at Toyota Center

  published Mar 18, 2013

  Eric Clapton, the Wallflowers Toyota Center March 16, 2013 As the house lights went up on the near-capacity crowd at the Toyota Center, there was an audible collective gasp. Thousands of concertgoers... More >>

• Mississippi-Bred the Weeks Hope That You Know Bo

  published Mar 15, 2013

  When the Beatles were signing acts to their Apple Records label, it proved to be both advantageous and not so much for Badfinger. For while that band got great exposure, they were also tagged as the "... More >>

• Opening for Clapton Makes the Wallflowers Glad All Over

  published Mar 15, 2013

  When listeners first heard the hypnotic, disco-inflected "Reboot the Mission," the first single off the Wallflowers' recent Glad All Over CD, they could probably be forgiven for the momentary shock. B... More >>

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  Hates Singer Looks Back on 35 Years of Houston Punk Rock

  published Mar 08, 2013

  As the singer, guitarist and chief songwriter for the Hates -- Houston's most enduring punk rock band and a local institution -- Christian Kidd (nee Christian Arnheiter, Christian Oppression and Chris... More >>

• When Zombies Attack: The Colin Blunstone Interview, Part 2

  published Mar 08, 2013

  Much of the Zombies' music, even early on, was original material mostly written by Rod Argent and Chris White. It's something that Colin Blunstone still marvels at today. "Our first album was going t... More >>

• When Zombies Attack: The Colin Blunstone Interview, Part 1

  published Mar 07, 2013

  In today's pop culture, zombies are hot. Their lumbering, slack-jawed forms are moving (albeit slowly) on TV and in movies, video games, and off the pages of books. So it's sort of appropriate that -... More >>

• Here's the Lowdown: The Boz Scaggs Interview, Part 2

  published Mar 06, 2013

  Summoned to San Francisco by school friend Steve Miller to join his band on a couple of albums, Scaggs set out on his own with 1969's Boz Scaggs, produced by Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner. It set ... More >>

• Here's the Lowdown: The Boz Scaggs Interview, Part 1

  published Mar 05, 2013

  From his earliest records and concerts to his most recent discs and tours with buddies Michael McDonald and Donald Fagen as the Dukes of September, Boz Scaggs has always shown a reverence for music hi... More >>

• Sometimes Uncomfortable Doc Resurrects '70s Superstar Paul Williams

  published Feb 19, 2013

  Paul Williams: Still Alive A Film by Stephen Kessler Virgil Films, 84 mins, $19.99. In the 1970s the diminutive Paul Williams was everywhere. And I mean, everywhere. The singer-songwriter was best ... More >>

• Nazi Deception Leads to Rediscovery of Venetian Jewish Artifacts

  published Feb 18, 2013

  As Germany's Nazi soldiers invaded countries throughout Europe during their height of their powers, they would - like armies throughout the centuries - also plunder. So it was not uncommon for famil... More >>

• Miles Runs the Voodoo Down on New "Bootleg Series"

  published Feb 18, 2013

  Fans of jazz giant Miles Davis were overjoyed in 2011 to hear that Columbia/Legacy had tapped the artist as the next subject of their Bootleg Series, offering rare live recordings of performances only... More >>

• MFAH Delivers Vibrant Art with "Picasso Black and White"

  published Feb 11, 2013

  Throughout his lengthy career, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) experimented with wildly divergent styles, techniques, subject matter, and mediums. But over the decades, he would continually r... More >>

• An Animal Roars Again: The Eric Burdon Interview, Part 2

  published Feb 07, 2013

  In Part 2 of Rocks Off's interview with Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Eric Burdon, he talks about a surprise call from Bruce Springsteen at last year's SXSW, how he feels about ever reuniting with The A... More >>

• An Animal Roars Again: The Eric Burdon Interview, Part 1

  published Feb 06, 2013

  As lead vocalist for the '60s British Invasion band the Animals, Eric Burdon fronted what was perhaps the toughest R&B-influenced group from the era (sorry, Stones fans), and had a second incarnation ... More >>

• Testament's Dark Roots of Thrash Run Deep

  published Feb 05, 2013

  If classic thrash metal's "Big Four" (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer) ever decided to expand to a "Big Five," then that slot would certainly be taken by California's Testament (sorry, Exodus fan... More >>

• Latest Springsteen Book Digs Deep Into Songs

  published Jan 23, 2013

  E Street Shuffle: The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band By Clinton Heylin Viking, 352 pp., $27.95. Capping a trilogy of recent, impressive Springsteen bios that also includes Marc D... More >>

• New box sets revisit the legacies of Duke Ellington, Charlie Christian

  published Jan 07, 2013

  Perhaps no musical genre has benefited more from reissues of older material and CD technology than jazz. Artists both famous and obscure and LPs long, long out of print have found new life in recent... More >>

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  It Came From the Bowery: Punk Magazine Returns

  published Jan 02, 2013

  The Best of Punk Magazine Edited by John Holstrom It Books. 372 pp., $30. While the thought of a hardcover, slick-papered, coffee-table book anthologizing the decidedly low-rent, ragtag Punk magazine... More >>