Archives for Inquiring Minds | Houston Press | The Leading Independent News Source in Houston, Texas

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Peter Green's Swan Song in Fleetwood Mac Plays On

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 21, 2020

When English singer/guitarist Peter Green passed away last month at the age of 73, the obits, of course, led with his role as the founder of Fleetwood Mac. This no doubt came as a surprise to general fans who either assumed that title belong to Mick Fleetwood, or the group...
Steve Hackett: A Guitarist's Genesis and Beyond

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 13, 2020

A Genesis in My Bed: The Autobiography By Steve Hackett 208 pp. $29.99 Wymer Publishing While his name may not be as familiar to casual classic rock fans has his former bandmates in Genesis, guitarist Steve Hackett has had a surprisingly long and varied (and still evolving) musical career with...
America: 50 Years of Golden Music and Nameless Horses

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 10, 2020

If you’re a fan of the band America – the trio behind such classic rock warhorses as, well, “A Horse with No Name” along with “Sister Golden Hair,” “Ventura Highway,” “Tin Man,” “Lonely People,” “Sandman,” “I Need You,” and “You Can Do Magic,” you have one organization to thank: The...
New Book Digs Deep on the Bitter End of the Beatles

By Bob Ruggiero
Aug 5, 2020

And In the End: The Last Days of the Beatles By Ken McNab 320 pp. $28.99 Thomas Dunne Books By the summer of 1969, the finely-tuned motorcar that was the Beatles was nearing “E” on its collective gas tank. There was a grimness that had fallen over their company (Apple),...
Liberty DeVitto: Billy Joel's Big Beat Man Remembers

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 31, 2020

For nearly 30 years, he provided the big backbeat behind Billy Joel as a core member of his band for hundreds of concerts around the world and on a string of hugely successful records. The two also formed a deep personal relationship, enjoying good times and the vast fruits of...
Mary Chapin Carpenter's Evolution of Education

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 23, 2020

Like all musicians in the Age of Coronavirus, singer/guitarist/songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter has been forced to alter her usual professional life. Instead of being on tour right now opening up for Sugarland or playing duo dates with Shawn Colvin and promoting her upcoming record The Dirt and the Stars, she’s...
New Book Shows The "Quiet Beatle" Was Anything But Silent

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 16, 2020

George Harrison On George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters Edited by Ashley Kahn 573 pp. $30 Chicago Review Press The “Quiet” Beatle? Ha! While that particular sobriquet dogged George Harrison for nearly 40 years, here’s tangible proof that moniker was more in need a for quick nickname or (lazy journalism!). The...
Can '90s Alt Rockers The Incoherents Get It Together One More Time?

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 13, 2020

Music heads are generally suckers for movies about “Getting the Band Together” or “Getting the Band Back Together.” Titles of varying quality featuring fictional groups run the gamut from Eddie and the Cruisers, That Thing You Do!, and The Commitments to more independent fare like Garage Days and Still Crazy...
Mark May Confronts His Demonic Side

By Bob Ruggiero
Jul 9, 2020

If there was any single event in recent history that has given the people of Houston the most of collective case of the blues, it would have to be Hurricane Harvey. And while it’s been almost three years since that most unwelcome guest arrived at the city’s proverbial doorstep, it’s...
New Doc Finally Gives Suzi Quatro Her Due

By Bob Ruggiero
Jun 25, 2020

In the mid 1970s, she was a pioneering female rocker at a time when that term was nearly nonexistent, a hugely popular record and concert attraction, and a style icon. That is…in much of the non-U.S. world. Here in her own home country, the singer/bassist born and bred in tough...
Blackberry Smoke Revisits Ground Zero for Southern Rock on New Covers EP

By Bob Ruggiero
Jun 15, 2020

During the 1970s, most of the major rock recording studios were in well-known cities like New York, Los Angeles, Miami, and Memphis. But down in Macon, Georgia, a little upstart operation called Capricorn Studios made a surprising impact, particularly with the raucous sounds of Southern Rock. Founded in 1969 by...
Evelyn Rubio is Crossing Borders - Musical and Otherwise

By Bob Ruggiero
Jun 2, 2020

In the Age of Coronavirus, musicians all over Houston (and the world) are understandably itchy to get back onstage—even under new rules and restrictions for live venues. And for artists who also happen to have new records to promote, there’s an extra twist of the metaphorical knife. That’s how Houston-based...
Rocker Joe Grushecky's Iron City Serenade at 40

By Bob Ruggiero
May 29, 2020

It hard to fathom in a time when the push of a button can send the music of an album to the entire country at the same time. But from the ‘60s through the early ‘80s, local rock scenes thrived around the country. Midwest and East Coast towns like Boston,...
Dennis DeYoung Goes Back to the Basement Where It All Began

By Bob Ruggiero
May 15, 2020

Like all musicians of varying ages, genres, and stages in their career during the Age of Coronavirus, Dennis DeYoung is stuck at home. He’s got a new solo record coming out, but has put a planned tour on ice. So he finds himself at walking the floors with his wife...
The Black Moods Add a Little Sunshine to Their Demeanor

By Bob Ruggiero
Apr 30, 2020

In the Age of Coronavirus, the music industry – like so many others – has had to change plans, lower expectations, and pivot to unchartered territories. We’ve seen any number of Virtual Concerts where band members are Zoomed in from their own homes or studios and—through the magic of technology—perform...
Sass Jordan and the Coronavirus Blues

By Bob Ruggiero
Apr 17, 2020

Screens and screens of digital ink have already been spilt opining about the fate, recovery, and dissolution of the music industry in the Age of Coronavirus. From clubs and concerts to record stores and touring, things look…not good. Like a lot of artists right now, Canadian blues rock singer Sass...
Stone Crush Revives "Lost" era of Memphis Soul & Funk

By Bob Ruggiero
Apr 3, 2020

When most people think of Memphis Soul, it’s the era from the mid-‘60s to mid-‘70s where labels like Stax and Hi put out the massively popular – then and now – music by artists like Otis Redding, Al Green, Booker T. and the MG’s, Sam and Dave, Carla Thomas, and...
Storied Producer of Doobies, Van Halen, and More Tells His Own Story

By Bob Ruggiero
Mar 31, 2020

Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life in Music By Ted Templeman as told to Greg Renoff 450 pp. $19.95 ECW As an introduction to the often misunderstood art of record production, young Ted Templeman could not have found a better session to observe. Through friends in the music biz, the...
Kathy Valentine of the Go-Go's Reveals All She Ever Wanted

By Bob Ruggiero
Mar 27, 2020

Note: Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the book signing/meet and greet with Kathy Valentine scheduled for April 26 at Cactus Music has been postponed indefinitely. For Kathy Valentine, it was a Christmas gift that not only kept on giving, but in many ways came to define her life and music...
With the Travails of 2020, the Mastersons Have No Time for Love Songs [UPDATED]

By Bob Ruggiero
Mar 12, 2020

It’s the morning after the city of Austin announced the complete cancellation of the SXSW festival when Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore are on the phone from New York City. The day prior also marked the release date for their new album, No Time For Love Songs, and they’d played...
The Road of Southern Avenue Leads to Blues, Soul, and Funk

By Bob Ruggiero
Feb 25, 2020

When he landed in Memphis, Tennessee in 2013 to compete in the annual International Blues Challenge and represent his native Israel, it was a dream come true for guitarist Ori Naftaly. And while victory in his category eluded him, he quickly made some contacts, formed a band, and went on...
Southern (Rock) Man: Marshall Tucker Band's Doug Gray on Their Rich Past and Busy Present

By Bob Ruggiero
Feb 21, 2020

For many people, remembering where they were and what they were doing on any given New Year’s Eve is an effort hampered by time, memory, or alcohol. But Doug Gray recalls exactly where he was more than four decades ago when the year 1978 rolled into 1979: Onstage at the...