Day 2 started off well-balanced: on one hand, I nabbed a great parking spot in less than ten minutes of arriving in the neighborhood. On the other, it was quite chilly all day. Thankfully, I’d dressed comfortably and had a hoodie with me, so it wasn’t the end of the world. Besides, it threatened rain [&hellip
Ahhh, summer. What better time is there to put on your strangest clothes get out to the nearest park, desert, or fairgrounds for a festival of cool tunes, lovely weather, and all kinds of interesting food, wine, and beer choices? It’s one of my favorite things of the season, and this year I was invited [&hellip
Okay, I’ll be the first to admit my folly: I was tardy to the Gavin DeGraw party. I mean really tardy. It’s not that I’d never heard of him or didn’t enjoy his music. It’s just that, for some reason, while my friends were all obsessing over him back in 2004 when he first came [&hellip
After full days Friday and Saturday, you might think I’d have been a little worn out by Day three of BottleRock Napa Valley. Not me: I was ready with bells on, and perched directly in front of the Sprint stage early in the day for Noah Gundersen to kick it all off. His set began [&hellip
Day 2 of BottleRock Napa Valley 2014 got off on the right foot for me with Napa Point Brewing‘s BottleRock IPA and a special, very acoustic treat: local reggae band Pion 2 Zion were playing with absolutely no electricity (unless you count a battery-powered megaphone that died partway through). I’ve known members of this band [&hellip
Ahhh, BottleRock. Last year, it was surreal that my tiny hometown had put together such a terrific festival. And then the bottom fell out. While I won’t go into the specifics of why most of the year was a matter of “will they or won’t they?”, I will say that there were more than a [&hellip
First things first, I’ll come clean right off the top: I was laaaaate to the game when it came to Gavin DeGraw. It’s not that he flew under my radar or I didn’t hear much about him; it’s much worse than all that. He was one of those artists who all my friends were obsessed [&hellip
You can’t believe a word Eric Hutchinson says. Don’t believe me? See for yourself: his new album even admits it’s all Pure Fiction. Tall tales or no, I wanted to hear just what Mr. Hutchinson’s been up to since I saw him last, so I rounded up a couple girlfriends last night and headed out [&hellip
Over the past three decades, I’ve called many a band my favorites, but of course over time, preferences change and so have I. For me, the ones that “stick” are those that tend to have qualities I can’t find elsewhere: a voice so unique I recognize it even a new song, a melody I can’t [&hellip
