by Pat Craig / Contra Costa Times – Jul. 17, 2006 Cathy Richardson isn’t Janis Joplin, but she comes hauntingly close to capturing the personality and spirit of the tortured Texas blues singer in “Love, Janis.” The show opened Sunday at San Francisco’s Marines Memorial Theatre, arriving in the city where Joplin found fame in […]
by Sam Hurwitt / sfgate.com – July 9, 2006 Janis Joplin has been away a long time. Having helped define the sound of the late ’60s with a voice like a hurricane hurling steamrollers, the powerhouse hippie-blues singer died in October 1970 of a heroin overdose at age 27. But the piece of her heart […]
by Lee Hildebrand / Living Blues – May/June 2005 Patricia Wilder cuts a striking image with a black Stratocaster strapped over the shoulders of her sapphire satin suit, her blonde locks pulled tightly to the back of her head–yet she stood on stage rather stiffly at the beginning of her March 18 performance at Biscuits […]
published in SF BAY GUARDIAN 4/6/05 – 4/12/05 Patricia Wilder @ Biscuits and Blues, March 18 PATRICIA WILDER CUT a striking image, a black Stratocaster strapped over the shoulders of her sapphire satin suit, her blond dreadlocks pulled back tightly, yet she stood onstage rather stiffly at the onset of her Biscuits and Blues performance. […]
by Richard Defendorf / The Oakland Tribune – July 15, 1998 Berkeley saxophonist George Brooks is eminently qualified to discuss the connection between jazz and North Indian classical music. Hi CD “Lasting Impressions,” released last year, combined both forms into a swinging, shimmering, exotic hybrid. That album, and the concert performances that celebrated its release, […]
by Derk Richardson / San Francisco Bay Guardian – July 15, 1998 Although John Coltrane pioneered the metaphorical modern jazz pilgrimage to India in the mid-1960s and his widow, Alice Coltrane, took the journey several steps further by integrating East-West instrumentation, Indian-Jazz fusion has made relatively few breakthroughs in the ensuing 30 years. Shakti – […]
by Kathleen Fairweather – June 4, 1998 Heavy Breathing – Charlie Musselwhite Pushes the Limits Call a man a “blow hard’ and most likely he would take offense. To Charlie Musselwhite, harmonica player extraordinaire, that word is both a compliment and a way of life. Musselwhite, who has established himself as one of the living […]
by Jon Pareles / The New York Times – April 16, 1998 Five singers were on the bill for “Divas Live,” a concert at the Beacon Theatre that was telecast by VH1 on Tuesday night, and six women performed. Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Gloria Estefan, Aretha Franklin, and Shania Twain were joined by Carole King […]
by Bruce Haring / USA Today – April 16, 1998 NEW YORK – “Meet my newest girlfriend,” says Aretha Franklin, bringing out Mariah Carey at Tuesday night’s VH1 Divas Live concert. The duo, who “talked a little girl talk” backstage, according to Franklin, teamed on the R&B classic Chain of Fools in one of the […]
by Philip Elwood / San Francisco Examiner – March 26, 1998 Last weekend, singer Joe Williams, enduring persistent respiratory problems, canceled his participation in NPR’s Saturday evening tribute to Marian McPartland as well as his scheduled gig at Yoshi’s this week. By Monday, Jason Olaine of Yoshi’s had lined up a remarkable pair of bookings […]