Follow MisplacedStraws -   Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Insta Few musicians can boast of the career Steve Hackett has enjoyed. Now celebrating his 50th year in music, Hackett has guided effortlessly from his prog roots with Genesis through his rock-oriented solo work and classical, nylon string guitar pieces.  He has once again returned to the latter for his new record Under A Mediterranean Sky , a beautiful album that takes the listener on a guided audio tour of some of the most beautiful places on Earth.  Steve recently took some time to return to the site and talk about this new record and his 50th anniversary in music. Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws.com Conversation with Steve Hackett: On returning to classical guitar throughout his career - It's probably once every few years, usually, there's 10 years between these albums, that's what tends to happen. I mean, we'll get on with things (that are) perhaps more commercial and saleable and all th

  Follow MisplacedStraws -   Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Insta Ricky Warwick is a veteran of the rock scene.  He burst out of Scotland in the early '90s with his band The Almighty, since then he has released solo records, occupied the vocal spot in various incarnations of Thin Lizzy, and fronted the mighty Black Star Riders.  Ricky is about to release his new solo record, titled When Life Was Hard and Fast, in February and recently took some time to talk about it and much more! Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Ricky Warwick: On the decision to release a solo record now - This year, Black Star Riders, we were supposed to be out the whole year touring Another State of Grace that came out of the tail end of 2019, and obviously with this current situation that that just got decimated. But the plan was always to release the (solo) record February of 2021 spend next year promoting it. That was set in stone before the pandemic was even coming around

Follow MisplacedStraws -  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Insta    The pandemic has hit everyone hard, perhaps no group more than touring musicians and their road crews.  Rock legends Foreigner have seen how hard it's been for their crew and are stepping up to do something about it.  Bassist Jeff Pilson recently joined me to talk about a brand new selection of merchandise the band is selling with all proceeds going to help their crew. Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Jeff Pilson: On setting up a webstore to help their crew -  What we're trying to do is we're trying to auction off things to raise money for our crew. And we're doing things like I got a guitar donated by Breedlove Guitars and it's a beautiful acoustic guitar, sounds and plays wonderful. We will autograph that to whoever buys it personally, and then we will send it to them. What we're trying to do is just raise money for our poor crew. This is, what they do, they

Follow MisplacedStraws -  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Insta   Although 2020 has been a bust musically, it is worth looking back at some of the highlights, there were definitely more than you think! Live music may have been non-existent since mid-March (my last show was March 11) and there really haven't been many new bands on the scene this year but there really was a lot of great music released.  To celebrate all that music, this year's list will be the Top 15 of 2020. 1.  Kansas - The Absence of Presence  Sixteen studio records and more than 45 years into their career Kansas created a true masterpiece.  I've always been a Kansas fan but even I was worried about what the band would be once Steve Walsh left, however the first post-Walsh record, 2016's The Prelude Implicit , showed signs of promise with new singer Ronnie Platt and new guitarist Zak Rizvi.  It's the addition now of the brilliant keyboardist/songwriter Tom Brislin (Yes, The Sea Within) that propels this b

 There are bands that wear their influences on their sleeve.  It takes a special band to combine those influences into a fresh and exciting sound, The Compulsions have done that on their third full-length record, Ferocious .  Frontman Rob Carlyle recently took some time to talk about the record and the story behind this band. Please press the PLAY icon for my conversation with Rob Carlyle - Much like the bands that influenced them (The Rolling Stones and Guns N' Roses), the history of The Compulsions is a long and sorted tale. The original line up of this NYC-based band featured Sami Yaffa (bass) of Hanoi Rocks and New York Dolls and Guns N' Roses members Richard Fortus (guitar) and Frank Ferrer (drums) in addition to Rob Carlyle on vocals.  Carlyle explains that the Yaffa/Fortus/Ferrer lineup began to disintegrate over time, "It didn't happen all at once", says Carlyle, "I think Sami moved first...the relationship (with Fortus) was never awesome to begin wit

 Follow MisplacedStraws -  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Insta   As we've seen in each episode of My Favorite Christmas Songs, there are a lot of Christmas songs and records that mean something to people for different reasons.  One of the big themes is the songs we hear as kids tend to stay with us.  That's the case with Kansas keyboardist Tom Brislin.  Tom and I talked about the impact The Ventures' Christmas Album has had on him, his early experiences playing with established performers, a special Kansas show in NYC around Christmastime, and much more! Please press the PLAY icon below to hear  My Favorite Christmas Songs - Tom Brislin: For me, I'm thinking of a specific Christmas album and it's The Ventures' Christmas Album . Anybody who knows me knows that I talked about this album all the time. It's actually a desert-island disk for me year-round. Because you know Christmas memories, it's about childhood, right? So I think about the music that was in the

 Follow MisplacedStraws - Facebook  | Twitter  | Insta It's that time of year again! Here at MisplacedStraws there is an obsession with Christmas music. From the early days of rock right up to brand new releases, there are so many great Christmas songs and records.  Each year we check in with some top artists and see what their favorite Christmas songs are.  Michael Sweet, best known as the singer, guitarist, and songwriter with Stryper, recently took some time to talk about his favorites as well as details on his upcoming Christmas live stream on 12/19! It's a fun conversation! Please press the PLAY icon below to hear My Favorite Christmas Songs - Michael Sweet -  5 - Elvis Presley "I'll Be Home For Christmas"/"Blue Christmas" I grew up listening to those songs, many, many, many times and I grew up being a huge Elvis fan. My dad is probably the biggest Elvis fan on the planet. 4 - Chuck Berry "Run Rudolph Run" A big influence of mine, believ