In a little over a week, on March 29, veteran roots-rock band O.A.R. will release their ninth studio album, The Mighty. In a career pushing past two decades that has seen them sell out both Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks, the alternative-rock leaders seem to be striding confidently ahead, with this new record that meets their more classic musical tastes with a new, exciting sounds.

Nearly past his bedtime, this tween prodigy opened for B.B. King. Who then could have guessed that decades later, guitarist Joe Bonamassa would illuminate that statesman’s “Nobody Loves Me Like My Mother’ in front of the sold-out Chicago Theatre?

I get asked a lot about the current crop of young (as in, never saw Jerry Garcia live) Dead Heads and whether they’re “real.”  And no question, they are.  They get the music, the code of ethics behind the music, the reason we do this stuff.  There is, however, one thing that reveals the passage of time.  Many—not all, but quite a few—members of the younger generation suffer from P.D. – Pigpen Deficiency.

Texas Blues Guitar slinger Gary Clark Jr. returned to the Fillmore Miami Beach on Saturday March 9th, off the heels of a Saturday Night Live performance in the middle of February.  Clark and his 4- piece backing band, are out on the road promoting his latest release and third studio album “This Land” (Warner Brothers Records).

Jam scene visionaries Joe Russo’s Almost Dead are underway on their current 2019 winter tour, and this past week performed at Penn’s Peak in Jim Thorpe, PA, the following night at College Street Music Hall in New Haven, CT, and last night at The Wellmont Theatre in Montclair, NJ.