We are not there yet, but we are getting closer. Can you feel it?

If you’ve never tried to name a band, let me just tell you that it can be a difficult challenge.

It’s time once again to wake the dog, gather the kids, and let’s throw down some trivia. Winner gets lunch on Richard Whiting (I haven’t mentioned it to him yet, but I’m sure he will be fine with this). Keep score and let me know how you did. Answers (at least in the print edition) should be…

I’m on drugs right now.

One of my resolutions for the new year is to teach myself a new way to play guitar.

In a year that historians will surely point to for ages to come, I’m wondering if we’ve been too hard on ol’ 2020. She came in with such hope and so much promise.

So, can you make me a playlist?

I have an old box of records given to me by a dear friend.

There is good news for analog audiophiles.

“This was different. It shifted the lay of the land. Four guys, playing and singing, writing their own material…Rock ‘n” roll came to my house where there seemed to be no way out and opened up a whole world of possibilities.” — Bruce Springsteen

One thing that I love about music is that you can dip your toe in the water sometimes and get a glimpse or a snapshot of songs, albums, or genres that other people are extremely passionate about.

If you’re like me, opening social media in September of 2020, especially Twitter, can feel a bit like when you open up that pressure packed cannister of Pillsbury crescent rolls. You know, the one that explodes once you poke it a little bit. Terse partisan political rage, blatant racism, hat…

For this week’s column, I am formulating music trivia questions pulled from the book “The Rock Snob Dictionary,” which has been in my personal library since receiving it as a gift back in the mid 2000s.

My friend died this week and I’m grieving.

“As he embarks on his hero’s journey, he reminisces about the actual records, the music, and the people he listened with – old girlfriends, high school pals, and, most poignantly, his father and his young son.”

“Who lives, who dies,

Phil Spector wrote a song in 1958 that seems to sum up the opinion many people have about Austin Woodard, bass and keyboard player for the Greenwood-based band, The Mezz.

“There’s gold in them thar hills.”

I saw the title of this week’s column posed as a question in an online discussion thread this week and, for a moment, it stopped me in my tracks. Seriously, how does one begin to answer that question?

If you’re an audiophile like me, there is nothing quite like stumbling across a piece of recording history captured on video to be preserved for all time.

True confession: Sometimes I go to bed at night just so I can wake up and drink a cup of coffee.

“Sometimes in our lives we all have pain, we all have sorrow. But, if we are wise, we know that there’s always tomorrow.” — “Lean On Me”

“Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you.” — Stealers Wheel

If you’re like me, you keep an emergency pandemic playlist always at the ready. And, unfortunately, there’s never been a more appropriate time to maintain social distancing while still finding solace in melody and lyrics. As you process the seriousness of our present situation, music can eas…