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The band St. Lucia was featured on the Oct. 10 edition of the Devo Rock Show, including an interview with lead singer and songwriter Jean-Philip Grobler.

Click here to listen to an archive.

St. Lucia just released their fourth album, Utopia (Netwerk Records). The band features Grobler’s wife, Patti Beranek, on vocals and keyboards, Ross Clark (bass), Nick Paul (keyboards) and Dustin Kaufman (drums). They have a distinctly 80s sound with lots of rocking guitars and synthesizers.

Grobler was born and raised in South Africa and currently resides in Germany, but spends a lot of time in the United States focusing on his own music and production work with other artists including, Foster The People, Passion Pit and Wykclef Jean.

His current album is an upbeat take on the sound of the 80s with impeccable production and stunning vocals. Devo caught up with the band at the opening night of their tour, Oct. 7, at The Paradise in Boston. In the interview, Grobler describes his journey through the pandemic and how his new album came to be.

Interviews with noted author Marc Myers and Grammy-winning trumpeter Arturo Sandoval were featured on the Oct. 6 edition of Fifty Shades of Jazz with Lou Pomales.

Check out the archive by clicking here .

Sandoval appearrs at Eastern Connecticut State University on Oct. 15 for a pair of concerts with David Foster & The Shaboo All-Stars supporting.

Myers, who posts daily at  JazzWax, is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal where he writes about music and the arts. His books include: Anatomy of 55 More Songs (Grove Press), Rock Concert (Grove Press), Anatomy of a Song (Grove Press) and Why Jazz Happened (University of California Press). Based in New York City, Myers is a three-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Association’s award for Jazz Blog of the Year.

A protégé of Dizzy Gillespie, Sandoval recently released Rhythm & Soul (MetaJAX Entertainment). He has won 10 Grammy Awards, six Billboard Music Awards and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The Sept. 24 edition of Greasy Tracks featured a tribute to legendary jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis who passed away at the age of 87 on Sept 12 as well as an interview and profile of the versatile guitarist Scott Metzger.

A native of Chicago, Lewis’ career spanned seven-plus decades, yielded more than 80 releases as well as three Grammy Awards. Despite his love of blues and jazz, Lewis was, thanks to his parents, exposed to classical and gospel at an early age.

Check out the archive by clicking here, while a playlist is here. 

He’s credited with being a catalyst of bringing jazz to an audience that traditionally listened to pop music, opening what would become a massive market, especially years later with smooth jazz, boosted again, this time by Lewis’ release of the blockbuster Sun Goddess in 1974.

In The Crowd, released in 1965, was the first of Lewis’ five Gold records. The single of the same name from the album went to No. 2 on the R&B chart and No. 5 on the Hot 100 chart that year. A year later, it won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by an Individual or Group.

One of the keys to Lewis’ early success was what would become a decade-long collaboration with bassist Eldee Young and drummer Isaac “Red” Holt blended who helped give the music a harder edge with a funky, “roll-your-sleeves-up” feel, despite still being acoustic.

The Brooklyn-based Metzger, best known as a member of Joe Russo’s Almost Dead (JRAD), released his debut, solo album, Too Close To Reason (Royal Potato Family), earlier this year.

Between road dates with JRAD, Metzger’s focus as turned to WOLF!, a “Telecaster rock trio” he’s been part of with bassist John Shaw and drummer Taylor Floreth for the past six years. Their second album, Adult Entertainment, (Royal Potato Family) will be released Oct. 28. WOLF! plays The Sultan Room in Brooklyn on Oct. 7; Stage One in Fairfield on Oct. 7; and Soundcheck Studios in Pembroke, Mass., on Oct. 8.

There will be tickets given away to the Stage One show.

In addition to discussing life as a musician during and post-Covid, Metzger talks at length about how WOLF!’s new album came about as well as his love to playing the Telecaster, an instrument not really suited to his JRAD job, but perfect for WOLF!’s approach to making music.

A career overview of and an interview with legendary guitarist Leo Nocentelli was featured on the Sept. 17 edition of Greasy Tracks.

Check out the archive by clicking here, while a playlist is here. 

The New Orleans-based Nocentelli, best known as a founding member of The Meters, plays Infinity Hall in Hartford on Sept. 22.

Nearly a year ago, Nocentelli released  Another Side ( Light In The Attic Records), an album of solo material he recorded in 1971, but would not see the light of day for nearly half a century.

Backed by such Crescent City studio luminaries as Allen Toussaint (keyboards), George Porter, Jr. (bass) and drummers James Black and Zigaboo Modeliste, the effort is a massive departure from the style of The Meters, the iconic band Nocentelli co-founded in 1965. Nocentelli described it as “his Country & Western album.” Another Side is a current Grammy Nominee.

Nocentelli appeared on the Aug. 8, 2019 edition of Greasy Tracks which featured a tribute to the then-recently departed Art Neville.

WRTC recently interviewed Nocentelli and will present segments throughout the program, including the fascinating backstory of his solo album; great memories of working with musicians such as the aforementioned Toussaint, Dr. John and Little Feat’s Lowell George who did several sessions with The Meters when Nocentelli, Modeliste, and Porter were playing with the definitive lineup with Art Neville.

Robin Lane talked about her career and new album on the Aug. 29 edition of the Devo Rock Show.

The interview and career retrospective covered her beginnings in Los Angeles in the late 1960s through her just-released Dirt Road to Heaven (Red on Red Records).

Check out the archive by clicking here.

The daughter of musician and songwriter Ken Lane who worked with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra and who wrote the song “Everybody Loves Somebody” which was recorded by Sinatra, Peggy Lee and others before becoming a No. 1 hit for Dean Martin.

She started writing and singing her songs in the late 60s and became part of the Laurel Canyon artist community where she met future Crazy Horse guitarist Danny Whitten. Whitten was friends with Neil Young who invited her to sing on his second studio album Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere in 1969 with Crazy Horse making its first appearance backing Young. Lane provided harmony vocals on “Round and Round (It Won’t Be Long)”. Lane lived with Young for a short period of time.

Later that year, she met her future husband Andy Summers who later became the guitarist of The Police. He had previously done stints with Soft Machine, Dantalian’s Chariot, Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band and a brief spell with a version of Eric Burdon and The Animals. Their marriage only lasted a few years and she decided to move to the east coast where the story takes a turn to Boston.

It was in Boston where she met Asa Brebner and Leroy Radcliffe who had been in The Modern Lovers. She recruited them for her new band The Chartbusters in 1978. Influenced by the new wave of rockers from Boston and New York, The Chartbusters merged her west coast sound with a harder edge. They had a regional hit with “When Things Go Wrong” which became a Boston radio staple. They were signed to Warner Brothers records and started receiving national airplay. The video for “When Things Go Wrong” has the distinction of being the 11th video played when MTV began broadcasting on Aug. 1, 1981, and remained in heavy rotation for the rest of the year.

The Chartbusters had three releases on Warner Brothers before being dropped in 1983 after which the band broke up. Lane’s first effort as a solo artist was a four-song EP, Heart Connection, released by the short-lived Boston independent label, Recon. Records in 1984.

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Lane continued to write songs and produce albums while performing with different lineups of The Chartbusters.

In 2003, Piece Of Mind (Windjam) was released by The Chartbusters.

In 2010, she founded  Songbird Sings which is dedicated to helping people work through and recover from traumatic experiences by writing and recording their songs.

Two years ago, she released Instant Album and continued to write songs which later became part of her current release — decidedly more country and Americana in style, yet still echoing her folk and rock past.

The program included a wide selection of music from Neil Young, The Chartbusters and Lane’s later releases.

The Aug. 20 edition of Greasy Tracks spotlighted the legendary WattStaxx concert which marked its 50th anniversary as well as paying tribute to Kal David who passed away Aug. 16 at the age of 79.

Check out the archive by clicking here, while a playlist is here. 

One-off concerts or recording sessions by musicians who have never played together are nothing new in the music world, what is rare is when the outcome is a truly remarkable performance.

Such is the case of Greg Anton & Friends and their new double live album, Starfire, which got its on-air debut during the June 25 edition of Greasy Tracks.

Check out the archive by clicking here, while a playlist is here. 

In 2020, San Francisco Bay-area drummer Greg Anton collaborated with a group of crack Hartford-area musicians to do a one-off concert at the TELEFUNKEN Soundstage in South Windsor, Conn., only weeks before the Covid pandemic shut music venues around the world.

The concert was Anton’s way of bidding a musical “good-bye” to Marty Levine, a lifelong friend who had passed away less than two months before.

Coincidently, Toni Fishman — TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik founder and visionary — was also very close to Levine and considered him a key mentor when he began his career in all sound-related things. Fishman was also very familiar with Anton’s primary band, Zero, a group he had followed and recorded in concert dozens of times over the years.

The two discussed presenting a special concert at TELEFUNKEN and agreed on a date. Anton, a Hartford native, enlisted Fishman with gathering “the best musicians” he could find as a backing band. Fishman deferred to Scott Medeiros, TELEFUNKEN’s sound stage and studio manager who had done time as road manager for the band Kung Fu

The task was easy for Medeiros who brought in such Kung Fu-related players as guitarist Tim Palmieri, keyboardist Beau Sasser, tenor saxophonist Robert Somerville and bassist David Livolsi. Based on their varied backgrounds — not just as live players, but their studio chops — Medeiros had complete confidence in the line-up.

In the run-up to the show, the musicians agreed on several dozen tracks to draw their live sets from, a combination of Anton-penned selections that had been played by Zero as well as an impressive list of covers.

Minus a brief rehearsal before the concert, Anton had never played with the musicians before. The show was recorded to archive the performance, but upon listening the tapes following the concert, Anton was blown away and felt there was enough good material to do a proper release.

Fishman embraced the idea and proposed putting it out on TELEFUNKEN Elektro Records, the recently introduced part of the company portfolio.

What followed was nearly two years of work to mix and master what would become TER-003, the third release by the label.

The project would take on an additional bittersweet tone as only months after the band’s performance, Levine’s son, Jordan — who was a close friend to Fishman — also passed away.

The album is dedicated Marty and Jordan Levine.

In comparison to such famed one-off 1968 performances such as the Dirty Mac in the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus or the Plastic Ono Band’s appearance in Toronto, Greg Anton & Friends at TELEFUNKEN paled in magnitude.

Starfire, however, towers over the aforementioned when it comes to the level of musicianship, concert recording and the all-important production and mixing.

In addition to playing the entire release, including tracks not part of the two-album collection, the feature had interviews with musicians and those part of the final production of the project who help tell the story about how Starfire became a reality.

The June 11 edition of Greasy Tracks spotlighted musicians who use the Echoplex or a similar tape delay effect, with attention being paid to recordings made in the 1950s through the modern era.

Check out the archive by clicking here, while a playlist is here. 

As part of the feature, an interview with a local guitarist and effects aficionado was included. The person, who asked not to be identified, spoke about different styles of tape delay effects that have been used over the years and spotlights specific models and musicians who have taken them to the studio or out on the road.

The innovative guitarist Les Paul is widely acknowledged as the first-known example of capturing an “echo” in 1951 on his “How High The Moon”. Producer Sam Philips helped mainstream the technique when he worked with Elvis Presley.

The pre-cursor to the Echoplex was the Ray Butts-designed and built EchoSonic which first appeared in 1953. The amplifier had a built-in tape echo effect feature which gave musicians the ability to get a “slapback” that effectively doubled that sound, but did so between 60 and 240 milliseconds.

This was most noted in 1950s rock, especially rockabilly stylings. Chet Atkins, Scotty Moore and Carl Perkins were noted guitarists who used the EchoSonic and Atkins purchased the second one produced. The sound it creates has been described as “thicker” and “fatter”.

The Echoplex was designed by Mike Battle and first appeared in 1959. It used magnetic tape which could be played back at different speeds with a feedback variable to create a range of different echoed repeats.

Even when he was alive, bluesman J.B. Lenoir was highly regarded, but sadly all but unknown. More than a half century after his untimely passing, Lenoir hardly registers a blip on the radar, at least until guitarists Henry Kaiser and Rome Yamilov took up his cause.

The duo, backed by some crack studio players, have done Lenoir’s legacy proud with their just-released The Lenoir Investigation (Little Village).

The story of this interesting recording was recounted on the May 28 edition of Greasy Tracks which featured interviews with Kaiser and Yamilov as well as the new album and music from across the short career of Lenoir.

Check out the archive by clicking here, while a playlist is here. 

Lenoir did the bulk of his recording in Chicago, where he moved in 1949 after a short stint in New Orleans where he started working after leaving his birth place, Mississippi.

Unlike his contemporaries, Lenoir took a keen focus on the Korean War and civil rights when it came to his songwriting. Lenoir passed away in 1967 at the age of 38.

Veteran guitarist/producer Kaiser and Yamilov, a relative new-comer on the scene, were commissioned by The Little Village Foundation to do the album and part of their preparation was an in-depth study of Lenior’s music.

The pair would go on to record 11 tracks, all but one — an interesting version of Bo Diddley’s “Rollarcoaster — are Lenior originals.

Instead of taking a straight blues approach to recreating Lenior’s work, Kaiser and Yamilov opted for an anything-goes attitude.

Kaiser has long been recognized as a master at coaxing cool sounds out of guitars so there are some incredible explorations on offer from the album. Yamilov, an admitted fan of the style of late Funkedelic guitarist Eddie Hazel, paid tribute to Hazel while paying tribute to Lenoir on one track, while another was a direct nod to late-period Meters, according to Kaiser who stoked the creative directions that include influences ranging from ska to North Africa and South America.