GUITARIST’S DREAM COMES TRUE AT PENN’S PEAK
By Michael Lester Mountain Top native Jay Baab spontaneously jumped on stage recently at Penn’s Peak, grabbed an electric guitar from the hand of Robert Randolph, and jammed — quite capably — with Ra...
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THE BEAT STILL BUILDING UPON TWO-TONE LEGACY
By Michael Lello At the forefront of Britain’s two-tone ska movement alongside bands like The Specials and Madness, The Beat – or The English Beat, as they are known in the U.S. due to a San Francisc...
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WOOTEN BROTHERS TAKE FAMILY AFFAIR TO KESWICK
By Michael Lester By the time Joseph Wooten was 8 years old, he and his four musically gifted brothers were already spending weekends on stage as an opening act for bands like War, of “Low Rider,” “W...
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GRETCHEN LOHSE RELEASES ‘PRIMAL’ DEBUT ALBUM
By Michael Lello As a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and arranger, Gretchen Lohse has been a prolific member of the Philadelphia music community for some time. Despite all of that activit...
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IT’S A MIXTAPE LIFE FOR UNTIL THE RIBBON BREAKS
By Michael Lello Pete Lawrie Winfield – who records as Until The Ribbon Breaks – is such a student of American music and film, the Welshman had to see for himself what makes the country tick and move...
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MUSIC, WORDS and PLAYING IN ‘THE BAND’ FOR BENEVENTO
By Michael Lello Of all the eclectic sounds on Marco Benevento’s albums, there was one thing you were guaranteed not to hear: vocals. That changed, however, the keyboardist said, when he was writin...
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TEEN MEN EMBARK ON AUDIO/VIDEO ODYSSEY
By Michael Lello Teen Men, featuring Nick Krill and Joey Hobson of Wilmington, Delaware's The Spinto Band, as well as Albert Birney and Catherine Maloney, is an audio/video project as much as it is a...
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NEEDLE POINTS SPREAD THE LOVE
By Michael Lello When Colin Holloway and Dave Ulrich's band Bunnie ran its course, the duo decided they wanted to do something more psychedelic. The result is Needle Points, a band that has certainl...
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TOAD THE WET SPROCKET’S “NEW CONSTELLATION”
By Michael Lello When Toad The Wet Sprocket released its last studio album, Bill Clinton was president. Babies born that year are now old enough to drive. "The English Patient" won Best Picture at ...
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YONDER HALLOWEEN: “IT’LL BE CRAZY”
By Michael Lester When Yonder Mountain String Band hits the stage for its Halloween show at the Theatre of Living Arts Thursday, the assembled crowd down on Philly’s spirited South Street can “expect...
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