John Swenson
John Swenson began writing about popular music in 1967. He edited the award-winning website jazze.com for Knit Media and worked as an editor at Crawdaddy, Rolling Stone, Circus, Rock World, OffBeat magazine and was published in virtually every popular music magazine of note over that time. He was a syndicated music columnist for more than 20 years at United Press International and Reuters. Swenson wrote 14 published books including biographies of Bill Haley, the Who, Stevie Wonder and the Eagles and co-edited the original Rolling Stone Record Guide with Dave Marsh. He is also the editor of The Rolling Stone Jazz and Blues Album Guide. In another role, Swenson was a veteran sports writer who covered the New York Rangers for 30 years, writing pieces for outlets from Rolling Stone to the Associated Press. Swenson was also a veteran horseracing columnist and handicapper who covered the New York racing scene as a columnist for the New York Post and the New Orleans Fair Grounds meet for The Daily Racing Form. His profile on jockey Steve Cauthen, "Rise To Stardom, Fall From Grace" in Spur magazine was nominated for an Eclipse Award.
John died in March 2022.
John Swenson's 'Music on My Mind' blog
126 articles
List of articles in the library
Comment by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, 5 December 1971
WHO NIGHT. The crowd waits reverently, attention vaguely focused on the massive half-ton fortress of amplifiers looming in the shadows of the dimly lit stage. ...
Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, August 1972
THE NEW Tull package is clever, very, and complicated enough to sustain interest over an extended series of listenings. Most albums can be assimilated in ...
Interview by John Swenson, Beetle, 30 November 1972
THE JAMES Gang is currently suffering from the growing pains involved in a major personnel shakeup. The loss late last year of Joe Walsh, the ...
Memoir by John Swenson, Beetle, 30 November 1972
As has been stated in the past. Beetle is not a magazine for everyone. We attempt to appeal to specific tastes. It was with this ...
Humble Pie: Lost And Found — The Tasty Tale of Humble Pie's Softest Slice
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Circus, December 1972
Once upon a time a raunchy shouter named Steve Marriott used to stand shyly in the wings asking if it was time to go onstage. ...
J. Geils Band: "All The Kids Get Turned Into Peanut Butter"
Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, December 1972
It wasn't Flash Gordon and Doctor Zharkov descending from the spaced ship, but rather the leering members of The J. Geils Band setting foot on Bronx soil, ...
John Entwistle, The Who: John Entwistle: Exile On Times Square
Interview by John Swenson, Beetle, 31 December 1972
JUDGING FROM its state of neatness one would never guess that a member of the who was occupying a suite of rooms in the stately ...
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Beetle, 31 December 1972
AS THE SINGLE version of 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and Who's Next prepared the way for them, The Who swept halfway across the country in ...
Stevie Wonder: Talking Book (Motown)
Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 25 January 1973
STEVIE WONDER possesses a unique vision that has enabled him to encompass a wide range of influences without being controlled by any of them. Coming ...
Chicago: What Do You Think They'll Call Their Seventh Album?
Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, February 1973
It all began when, after my particularly scathing review of Chicago V appeared in the October Crawdaddy, I received the following telegram from Bobby Lamm, ...
Manassas, Doug Sahm: Manassas, the Academy of Music; Doug Sahm: Max's Kansas City, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 1 March 1973
HOT AND COOLED OFF ...
Joe South: A Look Inside (Capitol)
Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 12 April 1973
BEFORE HE recorded his first album, Joe South spent years honing down his material — from the age of 15 he had been playing steadily, ...
Old And In The Way, Doug Sahm: Old & In the Way, Doug Sahm: Capitol Theatre, Passaic NJ
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 14 June 1973
ON THE strength of the fact that Jerry Garcia would be playing there, the Capitol Theatre in Passaic was jammed full last Wednesday night with ...
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 9 August 1973
It was about music too ...
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 27 September 1973
ELTON JOHN is the embodiment of pop consciousness. Few performers have an on stage personality that so totally reflects their audience, a fact that was ...
The Rolling Stones: The Stones: Still rolling, slowly
Comment by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 11 October 1973
THE ROLLING Stones currently occupy a unique position in the music world — the only veteran supergroup left from the early '60s that has captured ...
Profile by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 25 October 1973
DURING THIS past summer a work of uncompromising brilliance by a relatively unknown composer on a fledgling independent label has shaken the British rock industry. ...
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 29 November 1973
I DOUBT IF anyone has ever taken a poll, but Blonde on Blonde seems to be recognized in a lot of circles as Dylan's "best" ...
Keef Hartley: Lancashire Hustler (Deram)
Review by John Swenson, Zoo World, 6 December 1973
THE BRITISH Blues Process is an ongoing phenomenon with its share of well publicized superstars, but for every Ten Years After and Savoy Brown are ...
Bachman Turner Overdrive: BTO II (Mercury)
Review by John Swenson, Zoo World, 28 February 1974
BACHMAN TURNER Overdrive emerged as one of the best new groups of 1973, and their debut album was the best work to come out of ...
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, March 1974
Genesis combines surreal songwriting with an interesting instrumental and visual approach. Lead singer Peter Gabriel notes: "We all took courses in pretentiousness." ...
The Who Plunge Into Madness With Quadrophenia
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Circus Raves, March 1974
GIVEN THE SITUATION that the average life span of a successful rock group is less than two years, the Who have set some kind of ...
The Dillards: Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 7 March 1974
Who was top at the Bottom? ...
Canned Heat: One More River To Cross
Review by John Swenson, Zoo World, 14 March 1974
CANNED HEAT is one of those groups who hang on by the skin of their teeth, jumping over a spate of mediocre albums from success ...
Larry Coryell: Eleventh House: Larry Coryell's Supergroup
Interview by John Swenson, Zoo World, 14 March 1974
ROSLYN, NEW York, 1974. Larry Coryell's Eleventh House returned to My Father's Place, the Long Island club where the band was born six months earlier, convinced that they ...
The Band, Bob Dylan: Dylan and The Band Return with Planet Waves
Report by John Swenson, Circus, April 1974
When Dylan took the lid off the box he was hiding in, he made the conditions for peeping in very difficult. Now Bob Dylan doesn't ...
Chick Corea, Return to Forever: Chick Corea's Pop Renaissance
Interview by John Swenson, Zoo World, 11 April 1974
"I GREW UP in a musical environment," states Chick Corea matter of factly as he sits cross legged in the main room of the apartment ...
Sly & the Family Stone, Stevie Wonder: Stevie Wonder: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 11 April 1974
In synch with the shaman ...
Tom T. Hall: For The People In The Last Hard Town (Mercury)
Review by John Swenson, Zoo World, 11 April 1974
TOM T. HALL is unquestionably one of the finest country music songwriters ever to pick up a pen or belt down a double shot of ...
Herbie Hancock, Return to Forever: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 25 April 1974
Casting pearls before whines ...
Jerry Butler: Power Of Love (Mercury)
Review by John Swenson, Zoo World, 9 May 1974
JERRY BUTLER is unquestionably the King of Chicago-style cool R&B (the name Ice Man didn't come for nothing – at a time when Pickett epitomized ...
Review by John Swenson, Zoo World, 9 May 1974
LES McCANN can do no wrong as the bluesy boss purveyor of R&B piano — he easily out-funks every pretender who shows his face and ...
Ray Charles: The Empire Room at the Waldorf Astoria, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 9 May 1974
Falling on swank ears ...
Boz Scaggs: Slow Dancer (Columbia)
Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, June 1974
SLOW DANCER is Boz Scaggs' fifth album, and you have to wonder when he's going to start repeating himself, because none of them sound the ...
Daryl Hall & John Oates: Abandoned Luncheonette (Atlantic SD 7269)
Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, June 1974
ATLANTIC RECORDS has the habit of taking original material and placing it in the context of an incredible array of session musicians. When they're working ...
Dr. John: Dr John: Finally In The Right Place
Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, June 1974
From Gris Gris to Gumbo to the Top of the Charts, with "goofer dust an' powders an' oils an' sachets an' lotions an' candles an' ...
Interview by John Swenson, Zoo World, 6 June 1974
VIBRAPHONE VIRTUOSO Roy Ayers slouches in a scoop chair in a loose fitting tweed coat, talking with great animation about his latest album, Virgo Red. He smiles ...
Mott the Hoople: The Hoople (Columbia)
Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, July 1974
IT'S TOUGH being a rock and roll star these days. Ask Ian Hunter, Mott the Hoople's lead singer and group dictator. After five years of ...
John Lennon, Harry Nilsson, Ringo Starr: Harry Nilsson: Do You Want To Know A Secret?
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, September 1974
HIS BANKING days securely behind him, Nilsson recorded an incredible debut album, Pandemonium Shadow Show. A serious-looking figure on the album's cover in his closely ...
Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, November 1974
Stevie & Sly: Invention and Pretension ...
Led Zeppelin: Physical Graffiti (Swan Song SS 2200)
Review by Bruce Malamut, John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, June 1975
The Zeps Runneth Over ...
Al Kooper, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mose Jones: Southern Rock: Gone With The Trend
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, July 1975
Al Kooper may not give a damn, but with Lynyrd Skynyrd hot and the Atlanta Rhythm Section burnin', Southern Music is rising again. ...
Toots & The Maytals, The Who: The Who, Toots & The Maytals: Summit Hockey Arena, Houston TX
Live Review by John Swenson, Sounds, 29 November 1975
THE WHO began the American portion of their world tour in characteristic fashion – opening up Houston's Summit Hockey arena to rock 'n' roll. ...
Queen: Does Queen Out-Led Zep — Or Out-Uriah Heep?
Comment by John Swenson, The Village Voice, 16 February 1976
TWO MONTHS ago Warner Communications pulled its latest executive shakeup, moving David Lessen from Elektra/Asylum to the board of directors and replacing him with former ...
Rock Dreams/Schemes: The History of Crawdaddy(!)
Retrospective by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, March 1976
YOU ARE looking at the first issue of a magazine of rock and roll criticism. Crawdaddy! will feature neither pin-ups nor news briefs; the specialty ...
Live Review by John Swenson, Sounds, 27 March 1976
YOU WON'T find a better textbook example of what's gone wrong with R&B over the past few years. Ticket prices, scaled from $10.00 down, were ...
The Who: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Sounds, 27 March 1976
IT'S AN old joke, but it's still happening so it must mean something. There we were eating the meat loaf special at the local watering ...
Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, May 1976
PUB ROCK BREAKDOWN ...
Peter Frampton Comes And Gets It
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, May 1976
NEW YORK – Peter Frampton seems an unlikely hero. Soft-spoken, he projects something of a folk ambiance, not the glitter/stud machismo characteristic of so many ...
Santana: The Ice Cream Man Cometh
Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, July 1976
LACROSSE, WISC – "Everything OK with the Dip?" ...
Jeff Beck: Wired (Epic PE 33849)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 July 1976
All Wired Up: Beck's Best Yet ...
Review by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, August 1976
DA RAMONES: NO MERCYBEATS ...
Jesse Winchester: Studio Six Concert, Montreal, Quebec
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
THE ATMOSPHERE AT the small Montreal studio was so much like a living room's that it was hard to believe it was anything more than ...
John Mellencamp: Johnny Cougar: Chestnut Street Incident (MCA-2225)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 16 December 1976
JOHNNY COUGAR is a comically inept singer who unfortunately takes himself seriously. His debut album is full of ridiculous posturing with virtually nothing to back ...
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 11 February 1977
THIRTEEN YEARS after the Beatles played their first American concert at Carnegie Hall, the Electric Light Orchestra pads a headlining set at Madison Square Garden ...
Return to Forever, Stanley Clarke: Stanley Clarke Returns To Forever (For Now)
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 24 February 1977
NEW YORK — Stanley Clarke sits attentively behind the mixing board in Electric Lady's Studio B, concentrating a dispassionate producer's gaze on Roy Buchanan in ...
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 21 April 1977
ROCK & ROLL HAS this bad habit of being unpredictable. You never can tell when a band will undergo that alchemic transmigration from lead to ...
Iggy Pop: The Idiot (RCA APL1-2275)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 5 May 1977
IGGY POP has always been the greatest rock comedian. As leader and frontispiece for that most extreme wing of rock nihilism represented by the Stooges, ...
Atlanta Rhythm Section: Back to the Classics
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 2 June 1977
BOSTON — THREE months ago the Atlanta Rhythm Section had reached the nadir of their career. After making five good albums that sold only sporadically ...
Lowell George, Little Feat: Lowell's retreat from Little Feat
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1977
WASHINGTON DC. — "When we really get going we can play music as complex as Weather Report or Herbie Hancock," Little Feat pianist Bill Payne ...
38 Special: 38 Special (A&M SP-4638)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 11 August 1977
38 SPECIAL IS the second rock band in the Van Zant family, but any similarity between Donnie Van Zant's group and his older brother's Sturm ...
Betty Wright: The Rhythm & Blues Gospel According To Betty Wright
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 25 August 1977
NEW YORK — Just a few years back, Betty Wright was a candidate for Aretha Franklin's Queen of Soul crown. But now the brassy singer ...
Bad Company: Madison Square Garden, New York City
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 6 October 1977
Bad Co. gives N.Y. the business ...
Patti LaBelle: Patti LaBelle (Epic PE 34847)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 6 October 1977
IF THIS record is any indication, the solo albums prompted by LaBelle's dissolution are going to make everyone forget about the trio. Patti LaBelle's solo ...
The Beach Boys, Dennis Wilson: Beach Boys: no more fun, fun, fun
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
NEW YORK — After sixteen years together and the triumphant comeback of leader Brian Wilson, the Beach Boys recently came perilously close to disbanding completely. ...
James Brown: Mutha's Nature (Polydor PD-1-6111)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 20 October 1977
ELVIS' DEATH exploded the myth of his senescence with the fury of a surprise eruption from a long-dormant volcano. It had been easy to laugh ...
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Marley Beats the Devil
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 17 November 1977
A Rasta recovery ...
Lynyrd Skynyrd: Ronnie Van Zant: Requiem for a Simple Man
Obituary by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1977
I LAST SAW Ronnie Van Zant, Lynyrd Skynyrd's leader and prime mover, a year ago on a rainy Monday night in New York City. Van ...
Ralph MacDonald: The Sound of a Syndrum
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 9 February 1978
RALPH MACDONALD has done for percussionists what McDonald's did for hamburgers. In a short time his collection of congas, bongos, cowbells, shakers, triangles and countless ...
Linda Ronstadt, Female Vocalist of the Year
Profile by John Swenson, Circus, 16 February 1978
At the top in Her Field, She Becomes an American Heroine ...
George Duke Reaches for the Sky
Interview by John Swenson, Circus, 2 March 1978
Crossover Success Comes Easily for Keyboardist ...
Overview by John Swenson, Circus, 16 March 1978
International Technical Geniuses Discover Disco's Possibilities ...
Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock: Carnegie Hall, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 23 March 1978
Corea and Hancock go full circle ...
Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter: Muddy Waters: The Bottom Line, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 6 April 1978
Muddy Waters' mojo is still in working order ...
Grateful Dead, Bob Weir: Alone again gratefully: Bob Weir proves he's more than Dead
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 20 April 1978
"THIS DOESN'T represent me correctly," Bob Weir complains to a photographer as he gestures at the half-empty dishes before him. "I hardly ever drink tea, ...
Journey: No Longer an Uphill Road
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 June 1978
NEW YORK — Journey's recent performance at New York's Palladium theater was the kind of show careers are built on. Led by Neal Schon's searing, lightning-fast ...
Fleetwood Mac, Steve Miller: Fleetwood Mac, The Steve Miller Band: JFK Stadium, Philadelphia PA
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1978
Fleetwood Mac clicks despite Nicks ...
REO Speedwagon Makes Its Own Way
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 5 October 1978
Riding the Seger circuit ...
Chicago: Getting Stronger Every Day
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 14 December 1978
NEW YORK — Larry is a professional ticket scalper, and business at Central Park's outdoor concert series this past summer had been so good that he ...
The Marshall Tucker Band: Marshall Tucker Band: Madison Square Garden, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 23 January 1979
Marshall Tucker plays Dead ...
Dire Straits: Of Sultans and Kinks: Dire Straits Speak Up
Interview by John Swenson, Crawdaddy!, April 1979
SHEFFIELD, ALA. — Mark Knopfler keeps getting these compliments, and they make him nervous. Ever since his classic British R&B quartet, Dire Straits, came to ...
Frank Zappa: The Myth Of Joe's Garage
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1979
I'M STANDING ON the loading platform at L.A. International Airport at 2:30 in the morning, listening to a prerecorded voice that keeps repeating "...the white ...
The Eagles: Boston Garden, Boston
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 13 December 1979
The Eagles: takin' it easy in Boston ...
B.B. King: Thirty years on the road
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 21 February 1980
LOS ANGELES — B.B. King sat quietly in the American Bandstand dressing room, sipping a diet soda and staring at the words to a song ...
Frank Zappa: America's Weirdest Rock Star Comes Clean
Interview by John Swenson, High Times, March 1980
FRANK ZAPPA is probably the most misunderstood man in the history of popular music. ...
Rush: Permanent Waves (Mercury)
Review by John Swenson, Creem, April 1980
IN THE PAST Rush has been an easy target for trigger-happy critics looking for something so colossally bad it could absorb a double load of ...
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 12 June 1980
DEPARTURE OFFERS ample proof that the Seventies hard-rock genre so many people have been trying to bury for the last few years just doesn't want ...
Def Leppard Breaks the Heavy-Metal Mold
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 2 October 1980
KANSAS CITV, Missouri — Oblivious to the sticky heat and the rancid aroma of animal fat from the rendering plants across the Missouri River, the ...
Neil Young: Hawks and Doves (Warner Bros.)
Review by John Swenson, Creem, February 1981
I DON'T KNOW what Neil Young had in mind when he made this record, but its timing is so weirdly appropriate it's spooky. ...
John Lennon, Yoko Ono: John Lennon & Yoko Ono: Double Fantasy (Geffen Records)
Review by John Swenson, Creem, March 1981
CRY FOR A SHADOW ...
The Beat, The Specials: The English Beat: Wha'ppen? (Sire); The Specials: 'Ghost Town' (EP)
Review by John Swenson, Musician, November 1981
TWO TONE is not merely the introduction of a black sensibility in British pop for the first time, it's a true melding of the interracial ...
Frank Zappa: The Frank Zappa Interview
Interview by John Swenson, Guitar World, March 1982
FRANK ZAPPA was at the Palladium in New York for his perennial Pumpkin Day concert celebration with his most loyal fans. ...
Rush: Lifeson Arrives Stage Center With Rush
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Circus, 31 March 1982
ALEX LIFESON, the lanky blond guitarist whose playing is the cornerstone of Rush's live sound, is relaxing in his midtown Manhattan hotel room after a ...
A Flock Of Seagulls: Listen (Arista)
Review by John Swenson, Creem, September 1983
THERE ARE two ways to look at seagulls. You could take the testimony of ancient mariners, who know more about the subject than you'd probably ...
Bob Dylan: Infidels (Columbia)
Review by John Swenson, Record, February 1984
BOB DYLAN is the most consistently misunderstood figure in pop music history. Dylan's approach to songwriting, and to his public persona in general, has always ...
Paul Simon: Hearts and Bones (Warner Bros.)
Review by John Swenson, Record, March 1984
THE ARTIST RETURNS ...
Christine McVie: Christine McVie (Warner Brothers)
Review by John Swenson, Creem, May 1984
FOR YEARS Christine McVie has been Fleetwood Mac's hidden strength. Though the addition of the carbonated California pop of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in ...
Review by John Swenson, Spin, June 1985
"I find the popularity thing a bit hard to relate to." — New Order's Peter Hook. ...
Womack and Womack: Radio M.U.S.C. Man (Elektra)
Review by John Swenson, Spin, October 1985
THE WOMACK FAMILY is giving the Jacksons a run for their money. Radio M.U.S.C. Man is, in fact, the most impressive musical reunion since the ...
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Hip Deep in the Blues
Review and Interview by John Swenson, Record, December 1985
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN IS ABOUT NOTHING BUT MUSIC, WHICH SETS SOUL TO SOUL DRAMATICALLY APART FROM ITS COHABITANTS ON THE 1985 ALBUM CHARTS ...
Obituary by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 4 October 1990
STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN has died, and with him goes the spirit of Jimi Hendrix once again. Vaughan was linked to Hendrix throughout his playing life. ...
The Vaughan Brothers: Family Style (Epic)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 November 1990
Brothers Beyond Tears ...
ZZ Top: Recycler (Warner Bros.) ****
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 November 1990
ZZ Top Recycles the Blues ...
Jimmie Vaughan, Stevie Ray Vaughan: Jimmie Vaughan: Picking Up the Pieces
Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 7 February 1991
After the death of his brother, Jimmie Vaughan carried on ...
Kentucky Headhunters: Hard-Rock Hoedown
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 19 September 1991
The Kentucky Headhunters serve up their own style of Southern fare. ...
Fabulous Thunderbirds: The Fabulous Thunderbirds: Walk That Walk, Talk That Talk (Epic)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 3 October 1991
IT'S HARD TO imagine the fabulous Thunderbirds without founding member Jimmie Vaughan. ...
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 20 February 1992
MUSICIANS WHO live in New York City have often learned the hard way that the music industry can he short-sighted when it comes to recognizing ...
Buckwheat Zydeco: On Track (Charisma) ***½
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 19 March 1992
STANLEY DURAL JR. made an error in choosing the stage name Buckwheat Zydeco. ...
Etta James: The Right Time ****
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 26 November 1992
THERE IS no greater living blues singer than Etta James, and no producer more attuned to the right setting for a blues diva than Jerry ...
Obituary by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 4 February 1993
Blues master dies at age sixty-nine ...
John Lee Hooker: Boom Boom (Pointblank/Charisma) ***½
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 April 1993
JOHN LEE HOOKER is the last ofthe classic Mississippi Delta blues guitarists, the unaccompanied bards who could generate more energy sitting on a low stool ...
Billy Ray Cyrus: It Won't Be the Last (PolyGram)
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 16 September 1993
IT SHOULD come as no surprise that the new Elvis arrives sans pompadour or leisure suit. Billy Ray Cyrus is an Elvis for the '90s, ...
G.E. Smith & the High Plains Drifters: The Stephen Talkhouse, Amagansett, N.Y.
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 28 October 1993
AMAGANSETT, A rustic hamlet at the eastern tip of Long Island, is the site of one of America's best-kept club-land secrets, the Stephen Talkhouse. Named ...
Spin Doctors: Turn It Upside Down (Epic) ***½
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 14 July 1994
AT THE beginning of the 1990s, lower Manhattan was a rock & roll paradise. New York was an oasis for free thinkers, and the crumbling ...
Junior Brown: The Mercury Lounge, New York NY
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 1 December 1994
JUNIOR BROWN is an institution among the guitar-playing aficionados of Austin, Texas. And judging from the number of people unable to squeeze their way into ...
Live Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 23 February 1995
A THREE-DAY tribute to the ultimateguitarist's guitarist figured to be a fret-heavy hurricane of hot licks, but Danny Gatton brought down a monsoon of flying ...
Review by John Swenson, Rolling Stone, 29 June 1995
THE ALLMAN Brothers Band live on because live performance is what they're about. The call of the road and the thrill of collective improvisation are ...
Profile and Interview by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 May 2000
ON AN UNSEASONABLY warm December afternoon, Wardell Quezergue walks carefully into the Musicians Union meeting hall on Esplanade Avenue. ...
Louis Armstrong: Navigating the Swamp of Louis Armstrong Releases
Discography by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 August 2001
ONE OF the happiest side effects of the Louis Armstrong centennial celebration is the reconfiguration of this master musician's catalog. For many years, much of ...
The Holmes Brothers, Joan Osborne: Fest Focus: Holmes Brothers
Interview by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 May 2003
NOT ALL THE gospel music at Jazz Fest takes place in the Gospel Tent, a fact that will be brought home with great spirit by ...
James "Blood" Ulmer: James Blood Ulmer: No Escape From the Blues
Interview by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 November 2003
THE SEPTEMBER release of James Blood Ulmer’s No Escape From the Blues: The Electric Lady Sessions is a milestone event in this centennial Year of ...
Retrospective and Interview by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 May 2005
"A lot of people don't know who the Meters are, but they sure know the songs." – Leo Nocentelli ...
Irma Thomas: Best of the Beat Lifetime Achievement in Music: Irma Thomas
Retrospective and Interview by John Swenson, Offbeat, January 2006
IN 1960, ALLEN Toussaint and Irma Thomas showed up to audition at WYLD studio in New Orleans for Joe Banashak and Larry McKinley of Minit ...
Aretha Franklin, King Curtis: Aretha Franklin/King Curtis: Live at the Filmore West
Review by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 August 2006
THIS IS Aretha Franklin at her absolute peak, fronting a supercharged band led by King Curtis and featuring the Memphis Horns with special guests Ray ...
Little Feat: Rooster Rag (Rounder)
Review by John Swenson, Offbeat, 1 August 2012
THE HISTORY BOOKS say that when guitarist Paul Barrere, bassist Kenny Gradney and percussionist Sam Clayton joined Little Feat for the band's third album, Dixie ...
Bobby Charles, Shannon McNally: Small Town Talk: Shannon McNally's tribute to Bobby Charles
Report and Interview by John Swenson, Oxford American, 2 July 2013
DURING A VISIT to New Orleans twelve years ago, Shannon McNally, a talented young vocalist from New York with a critically acclaimed pop debut to ...
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