Not since Robbie Robertson‘s “The Night They Drove Ol’ Dixie Down” had anyone written and sung ( in the first person, no less ) about the American antebellum South so richly, so believably as Neil Young and Crazy Horse with “Powderfinger”, originally on the 1979 essential Rust Never Sleeps album. Here they are from the Cow Palace in 1986. – Redbeard
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Boz Scaggs- High Sierra- Dallas 5-97
Let this gorgeous, soothing live performance by Boz Scaggs on my Q102/Dallas-Ft Worth radio show, which accurately captures the beauty, majesty, and mystery of the “High Sierra” Nevada mountains of California, serve as both tribute to and prayer for the hundreds of firefighters who battled catastrophic wildfires in record drought conditions all over that state, Oregon, and Washington recently, unfortunately consuming Boz Scagg’s home and vineyards. –Redbeard
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Michael Penn “Try”- Dallas 7-28-97
Brilliant singer/songwriter Michael Penn probably needs a publicist just to attend family functions: both of his parents are accomplishedactors, his younger brother Sean Penn is an Academy Award-winning actor and director, and Michael’s wife is uber-talented singer/songwiter Aimee Mann. But as you will hear, Michael Penn needs only an acoustic guitar and a willing audience to entertain with his smart compositions, as he did in July 1997 at Q102/Dallas while promoting his third album, the excellent Resigned. –Redbeard
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John Mellencamp- Martha Say- Dec 1991
With John Mellencamp I spent part of my Christmas holiday 1991 in an A-frame cabin with a wood-burning stove in the still, snow-covered woods among the hills and “hollers” of Central Indiana’s Brown County, there to record the private rehearsal for the upcoming John Mellencamp 1992 tour.This live performance of “Martha Say”, which appears originally on 1989’s Big Daddy , was recorded at Mellencamp’s rural studio with the band in the garage – literally – and features guitarists Mike Wanchic and David Grissom (now of Storyville), bass player Toby Myers, peerless drummer Kenny Aronoff ( Smashing Pumpkins, John Fogerty, Chickenfoot ), Lisa Germano on violin, Pat Peterson and Crystal Taliefero on backing vocals, and the late John Cascella on accordian . -Redbeard
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Tom Cochrane- Calling America- Dallas 1989
Leave it to the Man from Manitoba, Tom Cochrane, to use his adjacent perspective vantage point from America’s northern neighbor to take an impassioned, affectionate, yet unflinching look at a post-Reagan US in this stripped down 1989 live performance of “Calling America”. During my live Friday afternoon broadcast on Q102 in a Dallas Mexican restaurant, Tom is supported impressively by tasty electric guitarist Peter Mueller. – Redbeard -
Eric Johnson- Europe Live
The kind of gushing, jaw-dropping reaction to Austin guitarist/singer/songwriter Eric Johnson has been pretty much consistent since he started attracting heady praise in the mi-1970s as guitarist in the Austin-based Electromagnets. By 1980 Eric Johnson was already developing an almost mythical reputation as a spectacular player, enough to garner the cover story of Guitar Player magazine… without any record deal! This was 15 years before technology made it possible for an indie musician to compete with “the bigs”.It was 1990 that Eric Johnson broke out of cult hero status among simply guitar cognescenti and nabbed those two universally recognized standards of success in popular music: Eric sold over 1,000,000 copies of his Ah Via Musicom album and won a Grammy Award for 1991.
For the first twenty-five years of his solo career, Eric Johnson was famous (or notorious ) for disappearing into the recording studio for years at a time, but since his albums Bloom in 2005 and Up Close five years later, EJ has had a major musical epiphany which he shares with us while discussing the rippling “Zenland”, the tasty cosmopolitan Wes Montgomery nod “Manhattan”, the heavy 12-step anthem “Last House on the Block”, the dizzying instrumental from the Tones album entitled “Zap”, and the hit song “Cliffs of Dover” all from his Europe Live . –Redbeard
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Ann Wilson- Hope and Glory
On Ann Wilson’s birthday in 2007, here was a present from her : a highly personal solo album of carefully chosen covers, Hope and Glory, at a time when US wars were raging in two separate countries with no end in sight. And the “A” guest list of performers with whom Ann sang duets included no less than Elton John, k.d.lang, Alison Krauss, Wynonna Judd, even sister from Heart, Nancy Wilson. Always one of my favorite conversationalists, you will hear in my rock musician interview that Ann Wilson is intentional, whether choosing which classic songs to cover like “Darkness, Darkness” and “Where to Now, St. Peter?”, or which socio-political issues to champion. – Redbeard
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Charlie Sexton-Wishing Tree-Dallas May 1995
Austin Texas-based musician Charlie Sexton’s career arc resembles more an electrocardiogram, with stops as a Bob Dylan protege, solo in the mid-’80s, then the probably too-good-to-last Arcangels with Double Trouble’s Chris Layton, Tommy Shannon, plus Eric Clapton acolyte Doyle Bramhall II. But Charlie Sexton can write and sing with just the most basic of accompaniment, as we fortunately found out at the Dallas Oak Lawn Mattito’s restaurant, patio singing “Wishing Tree” back in May 1995 live on my Q102 Dallas/Ft. Worth afternoon radio Friday broadcast. Pass the Bob Armstrong dip!- Redbeard
( Me interviewing Charlie Sexton on Q102 in Dallas May 1995 )
( Charlie is the one not wearing a hat! )
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Steve Earle- Copperhead Road- Dallas 1988
In 1988 Texan Steve Earle and I were sitting by the pool on the patio of Dallas’ former Greenville Avenue Country Club bar/restaurant when he put this acoustic guitar with the huge sound on his knee and belted out “Copperhead Road”, his five minute movie-in-your-mind. – Redbeard
Steve Earle in 1987 (right), and with me twenty years later (below).
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Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes- The Fever- Asbury Park 8-8-79
After being released by his record company following delivery in 1978 of the essential Hearts of Stone (rated 4.5 stars by AllMusic.com, a perfect five stars by me), Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes’ next label decided to celebrate the 1979 release of The Jukes with a promotional concert on the boardwalk. Here John Lyon fronts Miami Steve Van Zandt and the Jukes through an extended version of Bruce Springsteen’s gift,”The Fever”. –Redbeard 
