Knock and Knowall

  Concert Review 9th Annual Jackshit Christmas Show  McCabe's Guitar Shop December 14, 2018 https://www.jackshittheband.com/band.php https://www.mccabes.com/ https://www.mhopus.org/ I can honestly say that, until the evening of December 14th, 2018, I didn't know Jackshit. I was invited by Mike Berman (my erstwhile partner in this little opining venture) who could scarcely contain his excitement at securing two tickets...something about Elvis' rhythm section, some Scottish guy and guest stars? Heck, I'd go see William Hung if it was at McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. I've never once looked at my watch during a show at McCabe's. Now it's the morning after and boy do I know Jackshit. You ignorant fools! I've been a devoted fan for years! I have all their albums! Look, one is signed by all three of them! But seriously, folks, there is nothing serious about Jackshit except for their astonishing musical ability and their obvious sh...

Jackson Browne benefit concert for Exposher November 16, 2018 All Saints Church, Pasadena, California Jackson Browne with Chavonne Stewart, Alethea Mills, and Greg Leisz, with Mai Leisz Jackson Browne, Chavonne Stewart, Alethea Mills  Of all the boomer-era Los Angeles musicians, Jackson Browne has always been special to me. Most of the musicians in the Los Angeles scene came from other places - Roger McGuinn from Chicago, Gram Parsons and Tom Petty from Florida, Mama Cass from Baltimore, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell from Canada, Linda Ronstadt from Arizona. But Jackson was an L.A. boy, had been the places that I'd been, driven the same freeways. His picture was always on the wall at McCabes guitars, and I could always imagine he'd just left a little while before I walked in, which was entirely possible. And he sang of Silver Lake, and a house by the freeway, and the lights on the hills. He made me imagine that if I tried hard perhaps I could do what he did, make...

The Ocean Blue The Echoplex, Los Angeles, CA October 28, 2018 In my capacity as a buyer for an LA based retail music chain in the late 80s and early 90s, a lot of promo CDs landed on my desk. If you've ever dug through the $1 CD bins in your local cool record store, you've seen most of them. Toad The Wet Sprocket, Spin Doctors, Bush, Creed, Limp Bizkit, Spice Girls, Hanson, Ace Of Base, Savage Garden, The Offspring, Everclear, The Presidents of the United States of America, Smash Mouth...the end is listless. Of all the hundreds of CDs that I received only a handful made it into my music collection and remain there to this day. There's The Odds, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Collective Soul (actually they're really good) and The Ocean Blue. From the first moment in 1989 that I heard the shimmering, single-note guitar riff of "Between Something And Nothing" followed by the soft, charming voice of frontman David Schelzel, I knew that the debut a...