Eric Clapton, courtesy Warner Music. Eric Clapton, you guys. I know it’s hard to believe from a guy who’s built his entire career around cultural appropriation while being so racist he inspired the Rock Against Racism protest movement in the ’70s, but Clapton’s kind of a jerk. If he…

Sting, “Duets.” At 69 years of age and over 7 million monthly listeners on Spotify, English musician Sting would appear to have a fair amount of pull in the music industry. A look at the guest performers on his new compilation album, Duets, confirms the distinctive vocalist’s tenured clout as…

The Yardbirds in 1966. Left to right: Jeff Beck, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page and Keith Relf. Courtesy. Way, way back in the early ’00s, when I was at Diablo Valley College (that’s in the East Bay), I took a lot of random and unnecessary classes to keep…

Tedeschi Trucks Band performs at the Fox Theater in Oakland on May 11, 2019. Photos: Karen Goldman. OAKLAND — Tedeschi Trucks Band‘s Susan Tedeschi stood in front of fans Saturday night—the second of two shows at the Fox Theater—and asked if anyone had been there the night before. “It’s going…

Jonathan Coulton likes big butts, and will sing about it. Turns out this whole coming up with a column idea every week thing is, like, really hard. Like… really hard. Have you ever had to come up with a thing every week? It’s crazy, man. To think Snoop does it…

So you know how when I started this endeavor I set rules? Five songs per year, one song per band, qualifies in year of release, listed in chronological order? Pretty straightforward, right? For 1970 I’m breaking that first one. I didn’t realize it until this exercise but 1970 was…

When Zucchero Fornaciari first visited the United States in 1984, the Italian musician was on the cusp of greatness in his native Italy. The singer-songwriter, now Italy’s most famous bluesman, was just beginning to blend the American genre into his own Mediterranean style. Zucchero 7:30 p.m., Sunday, March 19 The…