Kirk Silsbee
Kirk Silsbee has long been recognized as a journalist who writes about jazz and culture from a Southern California point of view. Before he heard the call to musical prayer from Louis, Duke, Billie, Bird, and Miles, however, he grew up in the middle of the Los Angeles Renaissance of 1960s pop music. He heard rock, pop, rhythm ‘n blues, soul, surf, folk, garage, folk-rock, psychedelic and even jazz over radio stations KRLA, KFWB, KBLA, KHJ, KGFJ, KDAY and XERB. Deejays like B. Mitchell Reed, Dave Diamond, Humble Harve, Wolfman Jack, Emperor Hudson, Tom ‘Master Blaster’Reed, Ted Quillan, The Real Don Steele, The Magnificent Montague, Sam Riddle, Johnny Hayes, Reb Foster, Larry McCormick, Gene Weed, Roger Christian, Dick Biondi, and Jimmy Rabbit, among others, were his conduits to the music. Local television offered shows like The Cinnamon Cinder, The Lloyd Thaxton Show, Shindig!, Shivaree, 9th St. West, Hollywood a Go Go, Groovy and Shebang.
Pic: Steve Appleford "Silsbee learns not to cramp The Hamp"
List of articles in the library by artist
Billy Boy Arnold: Back Where I Belong (Alligator)
Sleevenotes by Kirk Silsbee, Alligator, August 1993
SPEAK FACE to face with bluesman Billy Boy Arnold and you have the feeling that something about him doesn't quite add up. He looks to ...
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Hank Ballard: A Talk With Mr. Twister
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, August 1993
If you not movin' your hips, it just ain't happenin'. – Hank Ballard on dancing ...
Beach Boys, The: David Anderle's California Nights
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Life after 50, May 2007
"WATCH YOUR HEAD," cautions David Anderle. The retired record industry executive-turned-painter is leading the way down a steep, narrow stairway in his classic Spanish-style home ...
Live Review by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, November 2006
OUT OF CURIOSITY and love of a good story, I've had a longstanding parlor question for jazz-minded friends on the far side of 60. What ...
Bob Dylan: Stories and Questions
Comment by Kirk Silsbee, Life after 50, March 2008
Well I'll be damned; here comes your ghost again... (Joan Baez, 'Diamonds and Rust') ...
Report by Kirk Silsbee, Los Angeles Downtown News, October 2011
JAMES BROWN HAD a signature piece of stagecraft that he honed over the years, beginning in the 1950s when he worked his way up through ...
James Brown: Caught in The Act: James Brown's Soul on Top
Live Review by Kirk Silsbee, Downbeat, December 2006
WHEN SOUL shouter James Brown released his big band album – Soul on Top – in 1970, it was received as neither fish nor fowl ...
Buffalo Springfield: R.I.P. Buffalo Springfield's Dewey Martin
Obituary by Kirk Silsbee, Goldmine, March 2009
68 YEAR-OLD Dewey Martin, the steady percussive hand behind the drums in Buffalo Springfield, one of the most legendary 1960s rock bands, died Feb. 1 ...
John Densmore: Opening New Doors
Live Review by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, December 2006
SANTA MONICA'S THIRD STREET PROMENADE got an extra measure of holiday cheer last Wednesday evening. Drummer John Densmore's Tribaljazz convened in front of the ...
Dionne Warwick, Burt Bacharach: Déjà Vu: The Unstoppable Dionne Warwick
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Arroyo Monthly, June 2010
You could be a good singer from now 'til hell and back and if you haven't got material, you're just standing there with your mouth ...
Comment by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, October 2007
HOW MANY of us wish we could have seen and heard Ellington's Jump For Joy musical at the Mayan Theatre, Charlie Parker at the Finale ...
Roy Gaines: Backside of the Blues: Roy Gaines at the Chalkboard
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Senior Life, March 2003
IF EDUCATORS WERE to design a college course on the history of the blues, they could do a lot worse than study Roy Gaines. ...
Geoff Muldaur: Nightstick: Geoff Muldaur
Profile by Kirk Silsbee, New Times Los Angeles, February 1999
AN UNSUNG GIFT from a bygone era, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band had many things to recommend it: Kweskin's anachronistic, roughhouse vocals; Mel Lyman's stirring, ...
Duke Henderson: Get Your Kicks (Delmark)
Sleevenotes by Kirk Silsbee, Delmark Records, May 1994
ASK THE handful of remaining African-American performers and entertainers who were active during Los Angeles' Central Avenue heyday in the 1940s about blues singer Duke ...
Rick Holmstrom: Gonna Get Wild (Tone Cool)
Sleevenotes by Kirk Silsbee, Tone Cool, October 1999
IF YOU'VE partaken of the thriving blues scene in Los Angeles in the last 15 years, you've probably crossed paths with guitarist Rick Holmstrom. ...
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, November 1990
AN OFT-REPEATED myth about American popular music is that the early 1960s were a fallow period, dominated by greasy teen idols named Bobby. Supposedly, domestic ...
King Cotton: Bad Acid, the Bonedaddys and the Blues! King Cotton Has Lived Through 'Em All
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, BAM, July 1997
IF YOU happen to find yourself at B.B. King's at the Universal Citywalk on a Sunday night, you'll encounter an unusual musical aggregation. ...
Laura Nyro, Mark Winkler: Mark Winkler Finds Healing in the Songs of Laura Nyro
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal, June 2013
ASK JAZZ SINGER and songwriter Mark Winkler which of his parents he favors and he's unequivocal. "Oh, I'm definitely my mother's son," he grins. "My ...
Lonnie Johnson: The Unsung Blues Legend (Blues Magnet)
Review by Kirk Silsbee, New Times Los Angeles, July 2000
SO THOROUGHLY has the myth of the hell-bound Mississippi Delta bluesman captured the public's imagination that it's narrowed the definition of just what constitutes a ...
Love: Caught in the Act: Love Reprises Forever Changes
Live Review by Kirk Silsbee, Downbeat, September 2003
Love: Royce Hall, UCLA, Los Angeles ...
Love: Orange Skies Over the Castle
Retrospective by Kirk Silsbee, New Angeles Monthly, October 2008
"Love – featured tonight in the Diamond Mine! On display in the psychedelic department store!" –Dave Diamond, KBLA, June 16, 1967 ...
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, February 1995
VOCALIST DARLENE Love's career is filled with ironies. She is most closely identified with Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" recordings, made in Los Angeles in ...
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, February 2005
THE BAR AT THE RITZ-CARLTON in South Pasadena has hand-rubbed wood on the walls and a copious amount of plush sofas and chairs. Bookcases ...
Maria Muldaur: Sweet and Sassy, Bawdy and Blue
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Detroit Metro Times, August 2007
WHEN SINGER Maria Muldaur takes the stage at this week's Detroit Jazz Festival, it will be a culmination of a chain of events that run ...
Otis Rush: Peoples is Peoples: The Otis Rush Interview
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, House of Blues Online, January 2000
THERE WERE three young guitarists in 1960s Chicago who moved the blues forward to new areas of expression: Buddy Guy, the late Magic Sam (Samuel ...
Seeds, The: Real Gone: Sky Saxon
Obituary by Kirk Silsbee, MOJO, September 2009
SKY SAXON, the colorful lead singer and sometime bassist of the Seeds, one of the great Sunset Strip bands of the 1960s, died June 25 ...
The Malibooz: John Zambetti's Endless Summer: The Malibooz
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Senior Life, August 2005
MOST OF US HAVE keepsakes from our youth. A toy, a doll, a baseball glove – some 'Rosebud' object that once meant the world to ...
Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, August 2003
WHEN BRUCE Springsteen slipped into his Baptist-preacher mode and acknowledged E Street Band members at the Forum in Inglewood last year, he concluded his round-robin ...
Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson: Eddie 'Cleanhead' Vinson: Folks Called Him Mr. Cleanhead
Obituary by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, September 1988
TWO YEARS ago Eddie Vinson took part in a sax summit show at the Music Machine in West Los Angeles. In the artist's lounge before ...
Ian Whitcomb: The Troubadour Of Lost Time
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Arroyo Monthly, January 2009
POET HOLLY PRADO once observed: "A city either wants you or it doesn't." Ian Whitcomb was a history student at Dublin's Trinity College with ...
List of genre pieces
After 40 Years, the Homeboys Are Still Cruisin' With Dick "Huggy Boy" Hugg
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, November 1994
AT LAST SUMMER'S Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona, one of the most popular attractions wasn't a thrill ride, exhibit, installation or culinary offering. ...
At Hatikvah Music, the Whole World is Jewish
Report and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal, December 2006
BOXES ARE SCATTERED around the floor of Hatikvah Music International at 436 N. Fairfax Avenue. Stacks of CDs, reams of packing plastic, mounds of ...
Cholly Atkins: The Man Who Taught Motown How to Dance
Retrospective and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA Reader, January 1995
CHARLES "CHOLLY" ATKINS has had two careers, and he has flourished in both. In the golden age of tap, he was half of one ...
Excello: It Came From the Swamp
Overview by Kirk Silsbee, Huh, September 1995
ONE OF the hallmarks of a great regional record label is the ability to define a time and place in the mind's ear. Think of ...
Shooting Stars: Denny Bruce Produced Plenty Of Legends – But Never Became One
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, LA New Times, September 1997
STROLL THROUGH Denny Bruce's home on a hillside north of Sunset Boulevard, and you wander through mementos of a career spent nurturing greatness. ...
Stardust and Sawdust Nights: Los Angeles Bars of a Bygone Age
Guide by Kirk Silsbee, LA CityBeat, December 2005
Martoni's ...
Up From the Ashes: Ed Pearl's Art and Activism
Profile and Interview by Kirk Silsbee, Jewish Journal, April 2008
IT'S ELEVEN A.M. and Ed Pearl is the first customer at Masa, his restaurant of choice in Echo Park. The owner, Tom, greets him warmly, ...
back to LIBRARY
Best Databases: RBP is Runner-up in Best Niche category
Video: Johnny Marr talks about Rock's Backpages
download eBooks and audio interviews
RBP on Spotify: The genius of Judee Sill
RBP Album Club in Chicago, June 30th: Paul Yamada and Liam (Plush) Hayes celebrate a Curtis Mayfield classic
Essential Listening: Roy Trakin meets the Replacements in '87
Essential Reading: Andrew Smith's history of the first dotcom boom
RBP Album Club, July 11th: Nick Hornby and Nick Coleman celebrate Southside Johnny's debut
Join the Facebook group now