Kings of Leon supported its enormously successful album "Only by the Night" with a stop at Darien Lake last Friday night. The Stills opened the bill with a short but impressive set. The songs had an enticing and ephemeral flavor --- that...

I was just a kid when The Majestics were making the scene here in Rochester, and was just making the scene myself when Majestics guitarist Rudy Valentino was rockin' it in Hard Rain. Valentino has been gone for a spell --- first Jamaica, then...

The Party in the Park festival site has gotten some great shows so far this year. But as a venue, it blows. It's a parking lot; there's no shade and no vibe. OK, maybe the Freddie-Sue Bridge in the background is kind of cool. But remember the...

Mitch Miller, a Rochester native and music-industry pioneer in the 1950's and 60's, died Saturday in New York City at the age of 99. Miller got his start playing the oboe at Washington Junior High and went on to graduate from the Eastman School...

I wasn't surprised to walk into the Bug Jar early last night and find it almost completely empty. It was a Thursday, the Bug Jar's "Indie Dance Night," which usually starts around 11:30 p.m. and means nothing of importance happens beforehand....

Off the top of my head I can think of two punk anthems that were made to be strummed. Rock --- and more specifically, punk rock - guitar is more often about the slash and burn, the abuse, the down stroke, the attack. But two songs, The Velvet...

At the final round of the Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition, which took place Saturday night at Hochstein, I found not one, but two pianists who I expect to be following for years to come.
First on my list is the Gold Medal...

It was a blues triple bill Wednesday night at CMAC, starring George Thorogood, Robert Cray, and The Fabulous Thunderbirds. Despite an entirely new line-up and a lack of the hipster grease that once defined the band's persona, the night belonged...

It was back down that same stretch of 5 & 20 Friday night for Sheryl Crow and her guest Colbie Caillat at CMAC. While mosquitoes feasted on my blood, Caillat came out in a sparkly go-go dress that glinted in the setting sun. Her first hit,...

Made my way downtown to The Club @ Water Street Wednesday night to dig The Fools and The Deep Blue Dream get on down. I was initially a little worried that I was only going to hear The Fools play one song, because as I walked in the joint, the...

When an artist splits from a group, or a group disbands (as bands will do), the artist often has to work harder, especially when trying to stake his or her own claim in roughly the same genre. The Blue Avengers are no more, and yet singer Alana...

Carolyn Mark's body language indicated a full band in her head, even though it was just her and a fiddle player set up by the Abilene jukebox Thursday night. Mark is half of The Corn Sisters, a countrified duo whose other half is wailin'...