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Peter Stone Brown

Peter Stone Brown

Peter Stone Brown was a singer-songwriter and freelance writer. He was music editor for a Philadelphia alternative weekly, and hosted radio shows. He wrote for CounterPunch and the Muddy Waters Magazine and contributed to Gadfly and Bobdylan.com. His debut album Up Against It was on the Americana Chart and featured on roots-music stations across the U.S and Europe. Peter died of pancreatic cancer on 5th October, 2019.

38 articles

List of articles in the library

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George Jones, August 1976, at Sunset Park, West Grove, PA

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, August 1976

NOTE: Originally broadcast on the country/bluegrass show "Sunnyside" on WXPN, FM Philadelphia, in August 1976. ...

John Lee Hooker: Interview: John Lee Hooker, October 1977, at the Main Point, Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, October 1977

JOHN LEE HOOKER was one of my all-time favourite blues singers. This interview was done between shows in the basement of the Main Point, a ...

The Band, Rick Danko: Interview with Rick Danko, December 21, 1977

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 21 December 1977

I WAS A RICK Danko fan from the first note of the first song he sang on Music From Big Pink, 'Caledonia Mission'.  There was ...

Muddy Waters: Interview with Muddy Waters at the Temple Music Festival, Ambler, PA

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 31 July 1978

I GUESS I FIRST heard Muddy Waters in 1965 when my brother bought The Best of Muddy Waters. ...

Carl Perkins: Interview: Carl Perkins, October 31, 1978 at the Bijou Café, Philadelphia, Pa.

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 31 October 1978

THIS INTERVIEW took place backstage at the Bijou Café right before Carl Perkins was to do his first show in Philadelphia in years with a ...

Fats Domino: Interview: Fats Domino, November 9, 1978, Palumbo's Restaurant, Philadelphia, Pa.

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 9 November 1978

IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE to escape Fats Domino's music growing up.  'Blueberry Hill', 'I'm Walkin'," and 'Walkin' To New Orleans' were staples of Top 40 radio.  ...

Dr. John: Interview: Dr. John (Mac Rebennack), November 14, 1978

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 14 November 1978

THIS INTERVIEW TOOK place on Dr. John's tour bus right before a show at the Bijou Café in downtown Philly.  I'd been a fan of ...

Professor Longhair: An Interview with Professor Longhair

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 10 June 1979

MAKE NO MISTAKE about it, New Orleans R&B would not have been what it is without Professor Longhair, Henry Roeland Byrd, and there are some ...

Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: Interview: Hank Ballard at the Locust, Theater, Philadelphia, PA. February 23, 1980

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, 23 February 1980

THERE WAS THIS company in Philadelphia called Sherjam and in the winter of 1979-1980 and maybe the following year they put on a series of ...

Levon Helm: An interview with Levon Helm

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, March 1981

NOTE: Originally broadcast on the country/bluegrass show "Sunnyside" on WXPN, FM Philadelphia, in March 1981. ...

The Band: The Other Side: Richard Manuel

Obituary by Peter Stone Brown, The Welcomat, 12 March 1986

IT WAS MANY YEARS ago, July. Psychedelic music was still happening. After Bathing at Baxter's. The Doors were huge. Hendrix alive. I brought home the ...

Al Kooper: Interview: Al Kooper, WMMR Studios, PA.

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, unpublished, March 1994

THIS INTERVIEW was done the last week of March in 1994 at what at the time, the studio of WMMR, once the number one FM ...

Bob Dylan: Howard Sounes: Down the Highway – The Life of Bob Dylan

Book Review by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, April 2001

BOB DYLAN HAS been the subject of innumerable books. In this (the fifth) full-scale biography, British reporter Howard Sounes tracked down people previously unknown and ...

Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Richard and Mimi Fariña: David Hajdu: Positively 4th Street – The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Fariña and Richard Fariña (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)

Book Review by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, 28 May 2001

A SIMPLE TWIST of Fate might have been a more appropriate title for this book, which is essentially a biography of Richard Fariña in disguise. ...

Howard Tate: The Return Of A Soul Music Master

Interview by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, 22 October 2001

"Last I heard about him he was in New York, and Jerry Ragovoy used to produce him. He made all these demos with the guy ...

Bob Dylan: Dylan in Concert

Live Review by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, December 2001

"Things should start to get interesting right about now." – Bob Dylan, 'Mississippi' ...

John Lee Hooker: An Appreciation

Memoir by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, Summer 2001

JOHN LEE HOOKER'S death is tragic not so much for the loss of one of the greatest blues artists, but because there are so few ...

Bob Dylan: Love and Theft

Review by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, Fall 2001

"Some day everything's gonna be different /When I paint my masterpiece" – Bob Dylan, 1971 ...

John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt: Mississippi John Hurt: Live/John Lee Hooker: Live at Newport (both Vanguard)

Review by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, 2002

EARLY IN 1963, two blues collectors, Tom Hoskins and Richard Spottswood, pulled into a town in Mississippi that wasn't on the map, called Avalon. ...

Dave Van Ronk: The Life (and Death) of Dave Van Ronk

Retrospective by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, 11 February 2002

THE HEADLINE February 10 announcing Dave Van Ronk's death in Reuters said, "Folk Pioneer", but I always thought of him as more than that. First ...

Jim Lauderdale, Ralph Stanley, James Talley, Uncle Tupelo: Alt Country, Old Country and New Country: Uncle Tupelo, James Talley, Jim Lauderdale and Ralph Stanley

Review by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, April 2002

NOW WAY BACK in 1966, Bob Dylan at the suggestion of his producer decided to record in Nashville. The result of course was Blonde On ...

Roy Acuff, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Merle Travis, Doc Watson: A Circle Still Unbroken: Doc Watson and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

Retrospective by Peter Stone Brown, Gadfly, Spring 2002

THIRTY YEARS BEFORE T-Bone Burnett gathered a bunch of excellent musicians in a Nashville studio to re-create early country music for the O Brother soundtrack, ...

James Brown: Please Don't Go

Memoir by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 26 December 2006

LATE LAST NIGHT, or more accurately early this morning doing my final email check, I noticed the headline: "James Brown hospitalized with pneumonia." I immediately ...

John Fogerty: Revival

Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 5 November 2007

ON REVIVAL (Fantasy Records), John Fogerty comes to terms with and maybe even makes peace with his past. In doing so he's created one of ...

Levon Helm: The Return of Levon Helm

Comment by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 12 November 2007

THE FIRST TIME most people heard Levon Helm sing was way back in 1968 when The Band released Music From Big Pink. ...

Solomon Burke: Brother Solomon Burke

Obituary by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 11 October 2010

THE ROLLING STONES introduced me to Solomon Burke when they covered his classic, 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love', on their third album, released in the ...

Bruce Springsteen: Wrecking Ball

Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 24 February 2012

IN 1944, WRITING a script for a radio show Woody Guthrie wrote: "I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any ...

Van Morrison: Born To Sing: No Plan B

Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 12 October 2012

FOR VAN MORRISON, first and foremost, it's always been about the music, and finding that magic place inside the music that takes you someplace else, ...

George Jones: Farewell to the King of Heartbreak

Retrospective by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 26 April 2013

THIS MORNING while finishing my first cup of coffee and checking my Facebook notifications, an email came from a good friend of mine.  The title ...

Garland Jeffreys: Truth Serum

Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 27 September 2013

FOR MORE THAN four decades, Garland Jeffreys has been playing, writing, performing, always close to the top, but somehow remaining the invisible man who never ...

The Everly Brothers, Phil Everly: Remembering Phil Everly

Memoir by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 3 January 2014

I PROBABLY FIRST heard the Everly Brothers when I was a real little kid about six or seven, playing in the driveway behind my family's ...

Jackson Browne: Standing in the Breach

Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 21 October 2014

IN 1974, JACKSON BROWNE released his third album, his masterpiece Late For The Sky, a record that was brilliantly constructed in every way from the ...

Jackson Browne: Chronicling the Daze Between Washington and Wall Street

Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 21 October 2014

IN 1974, JACKSON Browne released his third album, his masterpiece Late For The Sky, a record that was brilliantly constructed in every way from the ...

Merle Haggard: Keswick Theatre, Philadelphia

Live Review by Peter Stone Brown, peterstonebrown.com, 5 June 2015

WHEN I HEARD that Merle Haggard was going to play the Keswick Theatre just outside Philadelphia, I knew I had to go. I'm a firm ...

Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger: Elijah Wald: Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night That Split the '60s

Book Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 3 July 2015

THIS YEAR IS the 50th Anniversary of Bob Dylan armed with an electric guitar, taking the stage at the Newport Folk Festival, backed by a ...

Asleep at the Wheel, Howlin' Wolf, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley: Peter Guralnick: Sam Phillips – The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll/ Ray Benson & David Menconi: Comin' Right At Ya

Book Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 26 February 2016

SAM PHILLIPS, the man behind Sun Records was easily one of the most important figures in the history of American popular music. ...

Merle Haggard: a Rebel To The End

Obituary by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 8 April 2016

I GUESS IT WAS sometime in early 1969, in some Morningside Heights apartment, when a friend sang a song about a death row prisoner on ...

Ian and Sylvia, Tom Russell: Tom Russell: Folk Hotel/Play One More – The Songs of Ian & Sylvia

Review by Peter Stone Brown, CounterPunch, 29 September 2017

IT WOULD BE easy to say that Tom Russell's new album Folk Hotel (Frontera Records) is a tribute to the Greenwich Village folk music scene ...

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