He tells me he can walk on water. And for a split second, I believe him. This is Robert Finley after all, a musician whose career cackles in the face of predictability, and instead redefines the trope of the artist playing the long game. A sharecropper’s son who as a boy missed school to work […]
“Ride this train to Roseburg, Oregon,” says Johnny Cash in his gravelly intro to “Lumberjack,” the third track of his 1960 concept album, Ride This Train. Over the blare of a rail whistle, Cash continues: “Now there’s a town for you — and you talk about rough.” Rough this southern Oregon town still can be, […]
“There’s really only two things you can count on in this world: songs and dogs. Those are the two things that never will let you down.” This is the central belief of comedian and lifelong music fan Christian Finnegan. However, he also knows the “songs” half of this equation is complicated by one of life’s […]
Portland, Oregon, is a major city without a major tourist destination. New York City has the Statue of Liberty and countless museums. Chicago has Millennium Park, while Los Angeles is brimming with iconic places. People who visit Portland come for its access to nature and excellent restaurant scene. Visitors may flock to Powell’s Books, but […]
Rush will celebrate a milestone anniversary by hitting the road next year for the first time since the 2015 death of legendary drummer Neil Peart. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, who are both now 72, will be joined for the shows by new drummer Anika Nilles, who previously played with Jeff Beck and has released […]
Eric Nally is starting to like the idea of not wearing shoes. “There’s some kind of energy from the earth that just makes me feel recharged,” Nally says from Cincinnati, where he’s lived almost his entire life. He’s backlit in a soft purple glow in his home studio, with a couple of pillar candles sitting […]
Richard Ashcroft is always dressed for the occasion. When he appears on my screen from his home in the U.K., he’s wearing a leather jacket with a sheen to it and the requisite shades covering a third of his face. He has an instinct for wardrobe that makes for vivid descriptions. The last time I […]
David Segal was born with arthrogryposis, a rare birth disorder that limits movements in multiple joints and ligaments in the arms, legs, hands, and feet. In Segal’s case, he was born with legs that were two different lengths, his feet backwards, hips out of alignment, and no muscles in parts of his body. Prior to […]
In the rock-meets-cinema hall of fame, nothing rocks harder (or funnier) than track four on the Waterboys’ 2020 album Good Luck, Seeker, “Dennis Hopper.” And now Mike Scott, the group’s leader and sole constant member since its inception 42 years ago, has devoted an entire album to his celluloid hero. Titled Life, Death and Dennis […]
Bad Boy Records mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced to 50 months in jail today (Oct. 3) on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution — the only two charges still standing from his sex trafficking and racketeering trial this year. Combs, who previously pled not guilty to all charges, faced a maximum of […]