Email Author Rick Mason

2010 Stories by Rick Mason

• Charles Neville Quartet

  published December 29, 2010

  Charles is the saxophone-wielding sibling of the Neville Brothers, New Orleans's First Family of second-line funk. He was in town a month ago... More >>

• Los Straitjackets

  published December 29, 2010

  Just in time to nurse that holiday hangover by catching a wave of vintage surf-rock, Los Straitjackets rocket in from sunny California, likely... More >>

• Michael Johnson

  published December 29, 2010

  "Bluer Than Blue" is fondly remembered locally for his many years living here before shuffling off to Nashville and scoring a slew of hits on the... More >>

• Christmas with Alexander O'Neal

  published December 22, 2010

  The lead singer of the Time before Morris Day, Alexander O'Neal was once so integral a part of the Twin Cities scene and key contributor to the... More >>

• The Bad Plus

  published December 22, 2010

  Wickedly clever iconoclasts the Bad Plus, returning to their Minnesota roots for their annual Christmas week residency at the Dakota, have veered... More >>

• Ronnie Spector's Best Christmas Ever

  published December 15, 2010

  For nearly five decades, it simply hasn't been Christmas until the sweet and sultry, siren-like voice of Ronnie Spector rolls out of the speakers... More >>

• Roma di Luna Christmas Show

  published December 15, 2010

  Riding high following the release this fall of their fine new album, Then the Morning Came, local alt-folkies Roma di Luna will perform... More >>

• Tower of Power

  published December 15, 2010

  "What Is Hip?" is among the most enduring hits of Tower of Power, the muscular, horn-driven funk, R&B, and soul outfit that began in Oakland in... More >>

• Dee Dee Bridgewater & Irvin Mayfield: Yuletide Jazz

  published December 15, 2010

  "Yuletide sizzle and jazz chestnuts" are promised for this summit featuring superbly adventurous jazz singer Dee Dee Bridgewater, New Orleans... More >>

• Katie McMahon's Celtic Christmas

  published December 8, 2010

  Just in time for her annual Christmas show, local singer Katie McMahon has issued her second holiday album, Christmas Angels, a couple of... More >>

• McCoy Tyner Quartet

  published December 8, 2010

  Continuing the celebration of the landmark jazz club's 25th anniversary, the Dakota lined up two evenings with seminal jazz pianist McCoy Tyner,... More >>

• Jenny Scheinman's Mischief & Mayhem

  published December 1, 2010

  The dizzyingly eclectic, ever resourceful Jenny Scheinman has been a key player in the avant-garde and experimental jazz realm for more than a... More >>

• Ravi Coltrane Quartet

  published December 1, 2010

  The son of one legend (saxophone colossus John Coltrane) and named after another (sitarist Ravi Shankar), Ravi Coltrane managed to adeptly hurdle... More >>

• Rogue Valley

  published November 24, 2010

  Local singer-songwriter Chris Koza renamed his band Rogue Valley last spring and launched a dauntingly ambitious plan to issue four new albums in... More >>

• Mavis Staples

  published November 24, 2010

  When she was 11 years old, Mavis Staples was singing lead for her family gospel/soul/pop group the Staple Singers, whose music not only provided... More >>

• Black Dub

  published November 24, 2010

  Black Dub is the latest project from production wizard, musician, and composer Daniel Lanois, whose studio work has resulted in landmark albums... More >>

• Christmas with the Aaron Neville Quintet

  published November 24, 2010

  Aaron Neville ranks right up there among the myriad singular phenomena of New Orleans music. Taking just one facet of his many talents, Neville is... More >>

• Leo Kottke

  published November 24, 2010

  If turkey, sweet potatoes, and cranberries are dominating every menu in sight, it must be time for Leo Kottke's annual ramble into town for his... More >>

• Os Mutantes

  published November 17, 2010

  When the counterculture was challenging the status quo in much of the world in the late 1960s, musicians and artists in Brazil were formulating... More >>

• KT Tunstall

  published November 17, 2010

  "Nature techno" is the way Scotland's KT Tunstall describes the sound on her third studio album, Tiger Suit. As such, she helps... More >>

• Loudon Wainwright III

  published November 17, 2010

  Gleefully enduring dozens of self-inflicted wounds over the years courtesy of his rapier wit, withering cynicism, and apparent willingness to air... More >>

• John Mellencamp

  published November 17, 2010

  The remarkable metamorphosis of Johnny Cougar, whose derivative meanderings were the sound of a brash youngster thrashing away in his own raw... More >>

• Luisa Maita

  published November 10, 2010

  Hailed as "the new voice of Brazil," São Paulo native Luísa Maita in fact is the latest in a long, impressive line of sultry female... More >>

• Beausoleil 35th Anniversary Concert

  published November 10, 2010

  When Michael Doucet avec son frère et ses amis founded Beausoleil in 1975, the Cajun renaissance was just getting underway,... More >>

• B.B. King

  published November 10, 2010

  His name synonymous with the blues, certainly the genre's leading ambassador for at least half a century, Indianola, Mississippi's Riley B.... More >>