Tom Petty, courtesy. As regular readers of my column and anyone who’s sat near me for any length of time know, my musical tastes are stuck in the ’90s, along with my fashion sense. It’s the second best decade of music in American history behind the ’60s, and I…

Tim Booth of James, courtesy. The pandemic has forced artists to turn inward, writing about the ways in which COVID has kept them locked in, without shows to play and a livelihood taken away. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg that Tim Booth touches on “Recover,” off…

James’ vocalist Tim Booth dances with a fan at the Stern Grove Festival in San Francisco on Aug. 4, 2019. Photos: Martin Lacey. SAN FRANCISCO — Pop and rock stalwarts The Psychedelic Furs and James brought their co-headlining tour to the Stern Grove Festival Sunday, playing to a standing-room-only crowd…

Messing around with COIN at BottleRock Napa Valley on May 25, 2018. Photo: Roman Gokhman. I think this column is morphing into more of a “my favorite Roman stories” list, but what still holds true is that memorable interviews still lead better stories. I tell the RIFF staff, which…

By the time Manchester rock band James wanted to make a video for “Coming Home (Pt. 2),” off their new album, Living In Extraordinary Times, Tim Booth and his bandmates had run through all of the money their label had allocated for the record. Booth, 58, had a plan…