Remembering Nanci Griffith, 1953-2021
Though I spent my days as a small town news reporter in Eastern Connecticut in the mid-80s, I got my foot into the features writing at the Hartford Courant by…
That Time I Interviewed Rush Limbaugh
The mistake I made when I met Rush Limbaugh 30 years ago was that I thought he was just kidding. The bluster, the self-promotion, the exaggerated outrage of the radio…
Remembering Larry King, 1933-2021
It’s hard to imagine a broadcast world without Larry King, who died Saturday at 87. He made his name as a radio and TV interviewer with bottomless curiosity that was…
Remembering Charley Pride, 1934-2020
It was just last month that country music pioneer Charley Pride was honored at the CMA Awards. Saturday, at 86, he was one of the more than 298,000 Americans who…
Remembering Mac Davis, 1942-2020
Lost in the news this week is the death of Mac Davis Tuesday at 78. A songwriter (“I Believe in Music” who was hitmaker in his own right (“Baby Don’t…
Remembering Little Richard, 1932-2020
There was no doubting that excitable voice on the phone 25 years ago. He was coming around for a club gig in in New Haven, but it was much more…
Virus Takes Adam Schlesinger, 52
It’s clear COVID-19 will mow us all down, spiritually if not literally, decimating every aspect of life. The music world is already being cut down from every genre. I just…
Wisdom from Terrence McNally, 1938-2020
Theater suffered a loss this week when the playwright Terrence McNally died at 81, of complications of our current plague, the coronavirus. It was a sad irony since many of…
Remembering Kenny Rogers, 1938-2020
I feel kind of bad now that I pressed Kenny Rogers a few years back on whether a tour he was calling “The Gambler’s Last Deal: Final World Tour” would…
Remembering Sleepy LaBeef, 1935-2019
Sleepy LaBeef, the rockabilly figure who played and toured for more than 60 years, died the day after Christmas. He was 84 and had played his last concert in September.…