Frets with DJ Fey

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. The dB’s debut album Stands for Decibels was released in 1981, the album was praised by critics and over time, came to be loved by many fans who consider it a landmark power pop jangle classic. Stands for Decibels has now been reissued through Propeller Sound Recordings digitally and on CD, but also for the first time in the US on vinyl. My guest today on Frets is...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Brinsley Schwarz met Nick Lowe at school  in the 1960s. They played in various bands with different group names and different members. In 1969, the band took the name of their lead guitarist, Brinsley Schwarz. On their studio albums, all from the 1970s, the band was made up of Brinsley along with Bob Andrews, Nick Lowe and Billy Rankin, with the addition of Ian Go...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. In 1968, St. Louis band The Aerovons were getting noticed in clubs around town. Still in high school, their leader and singer, Tom Hartman, was composing their songs. The band was being managed by Tom’s mother, Maurine. She was determined to see her son and his bandmates make it big. Tom was 16 years old when he, his band and his manager mom made their first pilgr...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Rick Holmstrom has played guitar in and with many bands over the years, backing West Coast blues and soul bands including William Clarke, Smokey Wilson, Johnny Dyer and Booker T.  – He’s also enjoyed a very long run with the great Mavis Staples, who he’s touring with again this year. An amazing guitarist.  Hope you’ll enjoy my interview with Mavis Staples’ great g...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. You might know her from some of the bands she’s been in or collaborated with, Pink Slip Daddy,  The Friggs, Bubble Gun, Palmyra Delran and the Doppel Gang, The Coolies and more as well as her solo songs and albums. You also know her from her very fun and fantastic radio show Trash Pop Treasures on Little Steven’s Underground Garage. On the show today – the one and...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. A founding member of the profoundly influential band Television, Richard Lloyd has led a fascinating life. He covers a lot of that life in his book Everything Is Combustible: Television, CBGB’s and Five Decades of Rock and Roll: The Memoirs of an Alchemical Guitarist . In addition to his time with Television, he played on albums by Matthew Sweet and John Doe and h...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Tyler Armstrong grew up in Springfield, Illinois and as a young kid, started banging on pots and pans, developing a love for percussion. Through his parents, he was exposed to both Contemporary Christian music and also secular music. Through his older sister, he also heard a great mix of pop and punk. Tyler appreciated good music, no matter what the genre. His dad...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. In the early 1980s, Rick Miller formed the first lineup of Southern Culture on the Skids. Rick had grown up dividing time between his father’s home in North Carolina and his mother’s home in California. Mary Huff, from Roanoke, Virginia was a cello major who also played bass guitar. Upon hearing that Rick’s band was looking for a replacement bass player, Mary join...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Obeid Khan, founder of Khan Audio , has been building high quality recording audio devices since 1991. He’s the man behind St. Louis Music’s Ampeg revival and Vintage Club series,  Reason Amplifiers and the highly successful Magnatone revival. Throughout the years of his career as a guitar amplifier designer, Obeid has always had an appreciation for the recording...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. If you’ve either listened to, or experienced live performances by Midwest area bands including Stillwater, Waterloo, Magnolia Summer, Rough Shop and Cave States, you’ve heard music by Chris Grabau. Chris has composed songs and provided guitar work and vocals for all of those groups and his band Cave States is now in its tenth year of recording and performing. Ther...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Before her family moved from the Philippines to California, a teenage June Millington heard a girl playing guitar at school. Soon after, June and her sister Jean were playing acoustic guitars and ukuleles at variety shows. Before long, they were playing in bands, now with electric guitars. After several personnel changes and band names, The Svelts and Wild Honey,...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. After moving from the Chicago suburbs to St. Louis in the late ’80s, Adam Reichmann met Todd Schnitzer at Washington University. Both were wanting to form a band. They did just that, and the two became an early version of what would become Nadine, a group that would not only get a lot of attention in the Midwest, but in Europe as well. Nadine received critical acc...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Over the last couple decades, Sarah Borges has built a loyal following, playing live shows and releasing several albums. Her first record, Silver City , was praised by NPR’s David Dye for showcasing “an unusual knack for mixing alternative rock with country” She stays very busy writing, recording and touring – but in early 2020, Sarah, like many musicians, became...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. In the early days of the World Wide Web, former Rolling Stone senior writer and associate editor Michael Goldberg published an online music magazine. Addicted to Noise , or ATN was the first online magazine to include audio samples with new album reviews. The list of bands and artists interviewed include Neil Young, R.E.M., Patti Smith, Sonic Youth, The Ramones, T...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. When playing solo, or when playing with her full band, multi-instrumentalist Molly Healey is a looping extraordinaire. She creates a piece of music, loops that piece, then skillfully plays accompaniment, on instruments including cello, violin and  guitar. That sound, combined with her classically-trained voice, produces atmospheric music – often with full string a...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. His radio show begins with – “Broadcasting from Parts Unknown…” but we do know that Ben Vaughn grew up in the Philadelphia area on the New Jersey side of the river. When he was only 6 years old, his uncle gave him a Duane Eddy album. That record would have a profound impact on young Ben, who was playing drums in a garage band by the time he was 12. His interest th...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Florida native Walter Parks was part of the folk duo The Nudes with cellist Stephanie Winters. He would later serve as sideman guitarist to Woodstock legend Richie Havens, and then form his own trio, Swamp Cabbage. He’s performed with R&B drum legend Bernard Purdie and with Judy Collins. He’s currently based in St. Louis and continues to perform and record bot...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Murray Attaway and high school friend Jeff Walls formed a band in the early 1980s. Initially calling themselves Emergency Broadcast System, they would become Guadalcanal Diary, a band who became a fixture in the Athens, Georgia music scene. Their live shows were incredibly popular and before long they signed with independent label DB Records. After a tour of the s...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. While living in Columbia, Missouri, Deke Dickerson formed the much loved garage rock band, The Untamed Youth. He was 17. In the early ’90s, at the age of 22, Deke moved to L.A. and has enjoyed great success as an excellent guitarist. He once had a regular column in Guitar Player, has written several books on guitar, he’s even scored and contributed songs to film s...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Kip Loui has made music in his hometown of St. Louis for years. He’s a co-founder of the annual music festival Twangfest, an event that’s brought music performers from all over the country to St. Louis for 24 years now. Kip has played in some great bands. Belle Starr, The Rockhouse Ramblers, The Transmitters, The High Dives, In recent years, Kip has teamed up to p...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Jon Langford was a founding member of The Mekons, a band formed by art students at The University of Leeds. After moving from Newport, Wales to Chicago, Illinois in the early ’90s, Jon formed The Waco Brothers, a country-punk group. In addition to playing music in many bands, he works as a producer on many records.  Jon also writes books, has a comic strip, and cr...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Steve Scariano was in high school when magazines like Circus , Creem , Phonograph and Rolling Stone were not only publishing articles on guitar gods and rock ’n roll frontmen, but offering record reviews of bands one might not hear on most FM stations of that era. Steve loved reading about and discovering new music, and before long, he was playing bass for bands i...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Larry McCray spent his early years on an Arkansas farm, the second youngest of nine siblings. His older sister Clara introduced Larry to the guitar and to the music of the three Kings of the blues—B.B., Freddie and Albert. Virgin Records subsidiary label, Point Blank signed Larry as its first artist. And over the past three decades of nonstop touring and recording...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. Michael Goldberg’s new book: “Wicked Game: The True Story of Guitarist James Calvin Wilsey” goes deep into the life of a brilliant but doomed unsung genius who we lost too soon. Jimmy wasn’t just a great and unique guitarist, but a music pioneer. Michael met Jimmy Wilsey in 1982 at a Silvertone gig and a few years later interviewed him in 1987.  Not long after tha...

Enjoying Frets? Send me an email. I had a great conversation with Jimmy - at his rehearsal space! Surrounded by some fine guitars, we talked about his early bands, the tribute bands he’s been with, his gig at Killer Vintage and more. He loves his audience and his audience loves him. In addition to the tribute bands Jimmy Griffin is with – El Monstero (Pink Floyd), Celebration Day (Led Zeppelin), T...