“That timeless place in music is what I live for”: In three interviews with American Blues Scene’s Don Wilcock, Bob Weir discussed mysticism, intuition, and the lived experience behind the Grateful Dead’s long, strange trip.
Author: Don Wilcock
Don Wilcock
Now into his second half century as the warrior music journalist, Don Wilcock began his career writing “Sounds from The World” in Vietnam, a weekly reader’s digest of pop music news for grunts in the field for the then largest official Army newspaper in the world, The Army Reporter. He’s edited BluesWax, FolkWax, The King Biscuit Times, Elmore Magazine, and also BluesPrint as founder of the Northeast Blues Society. Internationally, he’s written for The Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards program, Blues Matters and Blues World. He wrote the definitive Buddy Guy biography 'Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues,' and is currently writing copy for a coffee table book of watercolor paintings of blues artists by Clint Herring.
With humility, hard work, and a fierce love of the blues, Samantha Fish charts her own path — guided by collaborators, the road, and the music that came before her.
Pierre Lacocque: intellect, history, and the harmonica at the heart of a life bridging continents and the Chicago blues.
Jim Weider of The Weight Band discusses new music, touring, and the state of America, including his upcoming song ‘Why Are You Sleeping?’ and the challenges inspiring his creativity.
Billy Branch didn’t hear the blues until 18, but decades of experiences, influences, and collaborations make ‘The Blues Is My Biography’ (Nov. 7, Rosa’s Lounge Records) a fitting reflection of his life in music.
Tom Rush at 84: still writing songs and working on four books. Boston Symphony Hall, take note—this guy plans to play your stage on his 100th birthday. Connection > perfection, every time.
Mark Wenner has led The Nighthawks for over 50 years, delivering rootsy, heart-on-the-sleeve blues that never waver. In our latest conversation, he talks music, motorcycles, and why he’s still playing as much—and as well—as ever.
Written at age 14, Janis Ian’s “Society’s Child” confronted the racial taboos of 1960s America. In this interview, she reflects on the cultural impact of that moment, the evolution of artistic voice, and the enduring energy required to create with integrity—an outlaw artist still chasing the truth in melody, memory, and the spaces between, as she continues to tour nearly six decades later.
Alexis P. Suter is one of my favorite artists because she contradicts most of the blues cliches. Suter defies expectations — a powerhouse Black woman fronting an all-white band that’s been playing together, on and off, for over two decades. She mixes and matches originals with titles like “Love Always Wins” and “Big Girl Panties” on her new album, Just Stay High, with covers by artists as disparate as Ron Davies and Leon Russell. One of eight children whose mother was a minister and gospel singer, she mixes the secular with gospel in a repertoire that in 20 years has…
With juré rhythms in his bones and eight generations of heritage at his back, two-time Grammy-winning Creole Zydeco artist Terrance Simien turns every stage into a front porch where the whole world is invited.