Icon Fetch

Tommy Keene has been a regular guest on our show, but his new album is something different – Excitement at Your Feet is eleven songs that Tommy didn’t write, giving him a chance to show off some of his influences. And he digs pretty deep – most people won’t recognize the covers he does of the Who and Stones. We talk to Keene about the inspiration behind the record, choosing the songs (including a...

Photographer Lisa Johnson has just put out 108 Rock Star Guitars from Glitterati Publishing. While there have been many photo books centering on guitars, her book is something completely different: for one, these aren’t just any six stringed instruments, but the favorite axes of some of the legendary guitarists in all of rock. Johnson traveled all around the globe for a chance to snap these hallow...

Long before Richard Barone embarked on a successful solo career, he fronted the Hoboken band the Bongos. The group enjoyed critical acclaim, college radio success, and even got some videos played on early MTV. But by 1986, the band was falling apart. They recorded a final album in the Bahamas, but it remained unreleased, and Barone went solo. Now, after over 25 years, Phantom Train finally gets a...

Jessy J has been named the Hottest Rising Star in Smooth Jazz, scored several #1 singles in the genre, and had a chance to collaborate with some of the biggest names in the business. Her latest CD is called Second Chances. Icon Fetch talks with the sexy multi-instrumentalist about the number “2” re-occurring in the songs on her album, what made her choose the saxophone all those years ago, and a r...

Guitarist / producer Pete Anderson first teamed with Dwight Yoakam in 1986. Together, the duo formed a partnership that would set country music on it’s ear – something badly needed in the genre today. After parting ways with Dwight in 2003, Anderson concentrated on his solo work, and producing records for others. His list of productions include Michelle Shocked, Roy Orbison, Tanya Tucker and the M...

Few artists can still bring it like Delbert McClinton. In a career that’s spanned over 50 years, he’s accomplished a great deal. He had his first taste of success lending the signature harmonica part to Bruce Channel’s “Hey Baby.” That was 1962. Along the way, he’s won three Grammys and released 28 albums. Yet he’s shown no sign of slowing down. His latest release is Blind, Crippled & Crazy, a reu...

Lisa Biales has been called the Belle of the Blues. She’s always done things with a bent toward the past, but her seventh album, Singing in My Soul, takes things to a whole different level. Drawing on a diverse set of legendary songs, from Sister Rosetta Tharpe, to Mississippi John Hurt, from “Write Me in Care of the Blues” to “I Only Have Eyes For You” – Biales has crafted a classic-sounding albu...

Sail Rock 2013 is coming to a town near you. Exploring the mellow side of late Seventies and early Eighties rock. Featuring Christopher Cross, Orleans, Gary Wright, Firefall, John Ford Coley, Robbie Dupree and Player, the show is full of familiar favorites. Icon Fetch talks with John Hall of Orleans about writing a song for Janis Joplin, the success of their biggest hit, “Still the One,” and his e...

Jon Herington has been Steely Dan’s guitarist of choice since 2000, making him the longest-tenured axeman in the legendary band’s history. He’s lent his fretwork to the group’s two most-recent studio albums, and concert tours. Plus, he’s contributed to solo albums from both Walter Becker and Donald Fagan. In whatever free time he has left, he’s forged a solo career. His latest album is called Time...

Chandler Travis’ wry sense of humor and keen melodic sense have served him well through a multi-faceted musical career. In the 1970s, his band Travis Shook & the Club Wow drew the attention comedian George Carlin, who liked the band so much, he asked them to be his opening act, a slot they occupied for several years. In the Eighties, Travis led the power pop band the Incredible Casuals, before emb...

Larry Carlton is one of the most recorded guitarists in all of popular music, playing on over 100 gold albums, including Joni Mitchell’s Court & Spark, Steely Dan’s the Royal Scam, and Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall. He won one of his four Grammy’s for the theme to “Hill Street Blues” in 1981, with Mike Post. Over the last few decades, he’s concentrated more on his solo career – yet his latest off...

Greg Lake is one of the most recognized voices in all of rock. His vocals have adorned such classic rock staples as “Court of the Crimson King,” “Lucky Man,” “Still You Turn Me On,” and “From the Beginning.” Lake’s latest project is called “Songs of a Lifetime,” a document of his recent interactive tour where he played some of his most famous songs and told the stories behind their creation. Icon...

You could say that Lisa Germano colors outside the lines of conventional pop music. Her songs are oftentimes brutally honest and jarringly unconventional, yet deeply personal – she plays the lion’s share of the instruments herself. Germano has just released her ninth album called No Elephants. Her use of everyday electronics (like cellphone noises), interspersed with the sounds of bees and animals...

The Reivers came out of Austin Texas in 1985 with a critically-acclaimed album Translate Slowly. Boasting both a male & female vocalist, the band was part of what was known then as the New Sincerity movement. After three more records, two of them for a major label, the band called it quits in 1992. Now, they’re back with their first new studio album in 22 years called, appropriately enough, Second...

With a last name like Allman, there’s going to be heightened expectations, but Devon Allman certainly delivers the goods. After spending several years in the band Honeytribe, and more recently the supergroup the Royal Southern Brotherhood, Devon has stuck out on his own for his first solo album, call Turquoise. Recorded in part at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis Tennessee, he’s crafted a v...

She is the queen of clubs – Kristine W has scored 16 number ones on the Billboard Club Play singles charts, beginning in 1994 with “Feel What You Want.” At one point she placed nine consecutive singles at the top spot. When Billboard magazine tallied their end of the decade results for the 2000s, Kristine came in third only to Madonna & Beyonce. To celebrate, she’s looking back and looking forward...

With the recent passing of Reg Presley of the Troggs, Icon Fetch has put together an hour-long tribute to the band and their influential lead singer. We’ll hear the story of “Wild Thing” from the man who wrote the legendary song, Chip Taylor. From Larry Page, the band’s manager & producer, who wouldn’t give up on the song, even though everyone hated it, Mike Mills of R.E.M., who played with the ba...

He is perhaps the biggest artist you’ve never heard of. Herbert Gronemeyer is the biggest selling artist in Germany – racking up well over 18 million records in his homeland. He first gained acclaim for his portrayal of Lieutenant Werner is the classic German film Das Boot (the Boat) released in 1981. But Gronemeyer’s first love was music and he began concentrating more on that, finally breaking t...

Marshall Crenshaw released his debut album right at the peak of New Wave’s popularity in 1982, when the world was embracing silly haircuts and synthesizers. Full of melodic hooks, it recalled a time when rock was a little more straight-forward, and featured the hit single “Someday Someway.” Crenshaw has parlayed that success into a career that’s lasted over 30 years, with many twists and turns alo...

Dickie Goodman is the King of Novelty – he holds the record for most novelty singles to hit the Billboard charts – at 17. Things began In 1956 when Goodman, along with his partner Bill Buchanan produced an odd record called “The Flying Saucer” – which took snippets of popular songs and spliced them into a fictitious news report about aliens landing on Earth. The comedy record was a surprise smash...

He’s taken the Do It Yourself mentality to a whole new level. Australian Claude Hay has built his own instruments, his own studio, even customized his touring van. When he plays live, he’s a one-man show, using looping technology to essentially play all the instruments himself. We talked to Hay when he released Deep Fried Satisfied back in 2010. Now, he returns with his 3rd album, entitled I Love...

Icon Fetch talks with Ann Wilson of Heart about the amazing year that saw she and her sister render a stunning performance of “Stairway to Heaven” that brought down the house during the Led Zeppelin tribute at the Kennedy Center Honors. She tells us how Robert Plant reacted to her rendition, and why she was so excited to do that particular song. She also touches on how surprised she and Nancy were...

Gary US Bonds’ hit “Quarter to Three” still stands as one of the greatest party tunes of all time. That song was one of many smash hits that he had in the early Sixties. Now, Bonds serves up his first-ever holiday album, “Christmas is ON!,” featuring ten tracks – eight of which were written either by Bonds or members of his band. We talk with the legendary singer about how he got in the holiday sp...

Ken Scott has worked on some of the most important albums of all time. He engineered Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album by the Beatles, was the producer & engineer for classic David Bowie albums like Hunky Dory & Ziggy Stardust, and worked on records by Elton John, Jeff Beck, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, the Stones, Devo & Missing Persons, just to same a few. Ken has just written Abbey Road to Zi...

He’s been the lead singer of Queensryche for over 25 years – Geoff Tate led the band through such critically-acclaimed albums as their magnum opus Operation: Mindcrime and the multi-platinum Empire (read our review here). Earlier in the year, news came that the other members of Queensryche were splitting from Tate and forming another band, essentially a Queensryche cover band…an odd career move fo...