The City's Backyard

On this episode Andy Powell  from Wishbone Ash drops by from the city's backyard of Redding, Connecticut! Wishbone Ash are a British rock band who achieved success in the early to mid-1970s. Their albums include Wishbone Ash (1970), Pilgrimage (1971), Argus (1972), Wishbone Four (1973), There's the Rub (1974), and New England (1976). Andy shares  some stories of sound checking before a s...

Music is in his blood. Maybe literally. This multi-instrumentalist is the son of legendary rock drummer Joe Vitale, and spent his early years cutting his teeth on the road with Joe Walsh, The Stephen Stills Blues Band, and Crosby, Stills and Nash.  Joe Vitale Jr. finally drops by the city's backyard from Akron, Ohio to chat! Like father like son Joe Jr. has a cool story to tell.   TRIUMPH. OV...

Hilary Greer is an actress, casting director and producer.  She has appeared opposite Naomi Watts in Gypsy, Carey Mulligan in She Said and Eric Roberts in Stalked by My Doctor; The Return. Most recently, she was very excited to appear for a 2nd time on Law & Order; SVU on May 18, 2023.  She has worked almost every job in production from Crafty PA to Producer. Happy in front of the camera or be...

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers music has become the soundtrack for the 20th century and beyond. The Heartbreakers have sold over 80 million records and four of his albums have gone 12X platinum. His songs are heard every day on a variety of radio formats including his own Sirius/XM channel. The Heartbreakers performed sold out shows for four decades. Free Fallin has been performing Tom’s music in...

Fleetwood Macked is a New York based Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band. Hailed as the most authentic Fleetwood Mac tribute band in the U.S., much of the realism comes from the bands history. Husband and wife musical team Hillary and Michael (Stevie and Lindsey ) and friends Caroline, Jay, Phil and Andrew (Christine, John and Mick), that have made great music together in various incarnations finally all c...

We check in with this awesome Texas guitarist this week from the road...Clay Melton is quickly establishing himself as a rising star, having played world-famous venues such as Whisky A Go Go in Hollywood, opening for Grand Funk Railroad on the Chevrolet Main Stage at the State Fair of Texas, and sharing the stage with Sir Earl Toon, of Kool & The Gang fame. Past credits also include opening fo...

Jimmy Carpenter, saxophonist, singer-songwriter, and arranger, began his musical journey over 35 years ago. In the '80s, he toured the east coast with the renegade blues band, The Alka-Phonics , in the ’90s with the blues-rock band The Believers , with whom he learned about the music business. Over the years, Jimmy has toured internationally with Tinsley Ellis, Jimmy Thackery, Walter Wolfman...

We check in with legendary blues band Savoy Brown and their drummer Garnet Grimm. Savoy Brown remaining members are excited to have released its new album, Blues All Around, worldwide on Quarto Records!   The release of the new album is especially poignant in that it comes after the December 13 passing from cancer of band founder and sole constant Savoy Brown member guitarist/lead vocalist Kim Sim...

The Hollywood Allstars are the brainchild and handpicked Supergroup of Grammy Nominated Songwriter/Producer/Keyboardist, and former Epic/CBS Recording Artist, Steve Gaspár on Hammond Organ & Piano. A rare commodity, coming together between tours for fleeting and unforgettable performances. When assembled, The Allstars throw down High Octane Rockin' Funk with Blazing Horns and a crunchy Ha...

Who doesn't love to reminisce about the good times and enjoy some nostalgic music from the 70's and 80's?  We talk about what Yacht Rock means to us today and more with David Mendelsohn from the all new band YACHT LOBSTERS that just were established in 2022 in New York City! The Yacht Lobsters sail the waves of the butteriest Soft Rock of the 70's and early 80's.  Their bi...

We are hangin with  Hoey while he drops by The City's Backyard to chat  about his 2023 Spring/Summer tour in this episode! Rock guitarist Gary Hoey has worked with legends like Joe Perry, Roger Daltrey, Yes, blues icon Johnny Winter, Robben Ford, Leslie West, and KISS drummer, Peter Criss. And he has toured and traded licks with the likes of Jeff Beck, Brian May of Queen, Ted Nugent, Joe Satr...

Funnyman Johnny Rizzo always loves to drop by the backyard to chat about the latest current events and comedy in general! He has a gig coming up soon in Connecticut! This time around he will be at Liberty Hall in Ansonia Saturday night April 29th! Three comedians all together for one night of awesome comedy! Listen to this episode to get warmed up with Johnny to find out more and to get a laugh or...

Eliot Lewis who is originally from Norwalk, CT drops by to chat about his 2023 Spring/Summer tour and his new album!  A singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, Eliot Lewis has toured the world over as a member of the Daryl Hall & John Oates band, as well as a former member of The Average White Band. Eliot has also been the only musician to appear on every episode of Daryl Hall’s popular,...

Mia Caress is a New York based actress who hails from 3 generations of circus performers. Her great grandparents had a dog act, and her grandmother, Ala Naitto was a famous tight wire walker who is featured in circus history books and museums. Her mother was raised on the road and trained in circus arts on Ringling, left the show, and became Miss Massachusetts. She has appeared in hundreds of comm...

Harper drops by The City's Backyard to talk about tour dates in the area and update us all on how playing live has been over the last year for him and the band all over America! PETER D HARPER is an Award-winning Australian singer/songwriter! Peter D. Harper - known in the music world, as "Harper". His latest release “RISE UP’ profoundly expresses Harper’s creative use of the harmon...

  Born in New Hartford Connecticut, Cody Bondra grew up surrounded by country, Rock and R&B music.  His earliest concerts experiences consisted of Charlie Daniels, Poison, Motley Crue and other electric live acts.  But it would be years before he took the stage himself.  Cody first picked up the guitar at 21 and wrote his first songs not too far after.  He released his first EP “Nothin’ Wrong”...

Extraordinary 98-Year 'Young' Bea Franklin Serves As A Real-Life Witness To History! Her House-guests included a former US President + TV & Sports Stars Bea Franklin is quite something. At 98 years of age (99 this June), when most people her age are quite inactive, this treasure is an oxymoron. Breast cancer survivor Bea is living, quite possibly, some of the best years of her life a...

Charlie FARREN burst onto the national scene in the early 80’s as lead singer of THE JOE PERRY PROJECT, teaming up with Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry and releasing an acclaimed album on Columbia Records. Farren penned the Billboard charting classics “Listen To The Rock” and “East Coast, West Coast”, also co-writing four songs with Perry including the hit “I’ve Got The Rock ‘N’ Rolls Again”. T...

It's a mental health check in with Michael Weitzman, motivational speaker, about how to stay sane until Spring with your mental health! He talks about getting well and staying well, using many types of wellness tools and most importantly, the use of laughter as the greatest medicine! He  conducts  workshops giving great advice and gives some great tips on how stay mentally fit! His words will...

Carmine Appice   is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge ; Cactus ; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice ; Rod Stewart ; King Kobra ; and Blue Murder . He also played with Ozzie Osbourne and many others. He is credited with influencing later rock drummers such as Iron Maiden 's Nicko McBrain , Aerosmith 's Joey Kramer , Roger Taylor of Qu...

Tribute bands have grown in popularity over the last few years especially and The Tom Petty Project is a Tom Petty Tribute band based out of Fairfield County, Connecticut! They are playing a show at Park City Music Hall Saturday March 11th and Garcia's inside the Captitol Theater in Portchester April 7th! We chat with a couple of the members! Guitarist Phil Lo Presti who plays the part of Mik...

Meat Loaf 's longtime producer, music director, and guitarist — recently announced the brand new release, Paradise Found: Bat Out of Hell Reignited , a new LP helmed by Meat Loaf's official band, The Neverland Express — featuring alumni Justin Avery , (keyboard, vocals), Tom Brislin (orchestration), Steve Buslowe (bass), Paul Crook (guitar), Randy Flowers (guitar), David Luther (saxophon...

Dennis Dunaway is an American musician, best known as the original bass guitarist for the rock band Alice Cooper (1962–1975, 1999, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021). He co-wrote some of the band's most notable songs, including " I'm Eighteen " and " School's Out ". It is kind of funny how he ended up on Episode 18 and no that was not planned!! Dennis Dunaway wa...

Special Guest  Joseph James drops by The City's Backyard Podcast! GRAMMY NOMINATED MUSIC PRODUCER, SINGER/SONGWRITER & MUSIC EXECUTIVE RELEASES HIS FIRST SOLO EFFORT Berklee College of Music graduate Joseph James has had a keen eye for talent and has helped launch and develop the music careers of many talented artists most notably, Stefani Germanotta aka Lady Gaga & others . . .  Othe...