If It's Too Loud...

Harlis Sweetwater is a Southern California rock n' roll/blues/soul musician. His latest single, "Won't Be Satisfied," is just a pure no nonsense rock n' roll song. It has a little bit of a hyped up blues and Southern rock thing going on, but more in a ZZ Top way than anything else. Or it's like a heavier/more punk version of JD McPherson. "Won't Be Satisfied" also features guitar from David Hidalgo of Los Lobos and John Doe from X on bass. If that doesn't make you want to listen, I don't even know who you are any more. Harlis Sweetwater says of his new song: "I wanted to write a real rocker. A song that had an old school rock n' roll vibe but with a more aggressive kind of punk rock feel to it...something that had a lot of movement. David was recording at the same studio in Santa Ana that I was and of course I've loved everything he has done with Los Lobos, so I thought, why not take a shot and ask him if he would rock a guit...

I'm a fan of bands like The Pogues, Flogging Molly, and Dropkick Murphys, but I always avoid Irish music in the month of March. I dislike the whole St. Patrick's Day thing, I'm just a grump like that. But yesterday Deer Tick released a cover of the Irish folk song "Muirsheen Durkin" and brought together an all-star crew of guest stars for it. The "Friends" are Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), James Felice (The Felice Brothers), Spider Stacy (The Pogues), MorganEve Swain (The Huntress & Holder of Hands, Brown Bird, The Devil Makes Three), and Spencer Swain (Flogging Molly, The Devil Makes Three). Deer Tick and these guests doing a traditional Irish folk song sounds exactly like what you'd expect, and truly demand. It's an upbeat, fast paced ode to being sick of working and just wanting to court ladies and head out to California to make it rich. It's pure fun and joy in musical form, and it's enough to have made me lift my snobby self-imposed ...

Last year was the year I finally was able to make it to the Green River Festival in Greenfield, MA after a few years in a row of false starts. Everything about the festival blew me away, from the music, the variety of food available, hot air balloons, the incredibly laid back environment, etc. You really get the feeling that the festival is organized by huge music fans that somehow tricked a bunch of bands into playing a show for them by opening it up to the public. This morning, the line up for the 2016 edition (which also happens to be their 30th anniversary) was announced, and this is their best one yet. While all three days boast an incredible array of bands (Friday has Peter Wolf and NRBQ and Sunday features the Wheels of Soul Tour which features Tedeschi Trucks Band, Los Lobos, and North Mississippi All Stars plus Madisen Ward and the Mama Bear,) Saturday is the day I'm personally looking forward to the most. Any festival that has Dawes, Shakey Graves, Shovels and Rope, T...