Michael's Record Collection

Vinnie Moore is a guitar master. He's carved out a great career for himself as a solo artist, a guest musician, and as a guitarist in the legendary hard rock band UFO since 2003. Vinnie recently joined a group of well-known musicians who took part in a great tribute record called Animals Reimagined - A Tribute to Pink Floyd. Playing on the album's best track, "Dogs," Vinnie was joined by ex-Rainbo...

Bassist and composer Chuck Wright may not have a name you instantly recognize, but you've heard his music before. Chuck was in Quiet Riot and played and sang on some of that band's biggest hits and albums. He was also in the band Giuffria, which had a major hit single in the mid-80s called "Call to the Heart." He's played with everyone from Alice Cooper to Gregg Allman to John Waite to Eddie Money...

It's a bonus episode of MRC this week. It's Thanksgiving week and I'm thankful to all the supportive folks out there who have downloaded Michael's Record Collection, streamed my videos on YouTube, subscribed to the MRC newsletter on Substack, and supported the show on Patreon. I'm also thankful to have met some great friends along the way while doing this show. One of those is Brian Colburn, a New...

Chicago-area singer/songwriter Leslie Hunt isn't a household name, but she should be. The lead singer of progressive rockers District 97 and a top 10 finisher on the women's side in Season 6 of American Idol, Hunt is a talented musician and writer with a fantastic voice. She's released two seven-song EPs this year, Ascend and Descend. They're companion releases but each have their own sound. Both...

Neil Poole hosts the excellent Def Lep Pod, a podcast that takes a deep dive into the music of Def Leppard in a humorous way. Neil treats Def Leppard's music with the utmost respect but each episode is a fun adventure through some aspect of the band's music, whether that's a song, an album, or a chat with a guest. I asked Neil about the origins of his Def Leppard fandom and his show and then we em...

Irish-born progressive rocker Dec Burke is known for his time in Frost* and his former band Darwin's Radio. But he's a talented and respected solo artist as well, and he just released his fourth album, Life in Two Dimensions, in late September. It's chock full of guitar heroics, with a modern sound and production, but it retains Dec's melodic sensibilities, which he places first and foremost. Dec...

Steve and Gerry host the excellent Rush-centric podcast Something for Nothing: A Rush Fancast each week, informing and entertaining fans of the band Rush and converting new ones. I had them on to not only tell us about their show and how they got started, but also to talk about my favorite Rush album, Signals! In the first part of the show we talk about Something for Nothing, its origins, and how...

Sometimes interviews are more of a treat than expected and this was the case when I got to talk to multi-instrumentalist and composer Rachel Flowers. You might know Rachel from the documentary Hearing is Believing, which chronicles her life. Born 15 weeks premature, Rachel lost her vision as a newborn. However, her parents quickly discovered that she had an incredible ear for music. Rachel started...

For this episode, I had a great chat with UK singer/songwriter Chantel McGregor about her two summer 2021 releases, Shed Sessions Volume One and Shed Sessions Volume Two. This chat was fun despite the fact that: 1) I forgot my notes at the office and had to wing the interview from memory, and 2) There was a bit of background white noise emanating from something on Chantel's end that I couldn't eli...

I'm extremely excited about this episode because I got to talk to Triumph drummer and co-lead vocalist Gil Moore. The band hasn't released a new album since 1992, but it's still a busy time for the legendary Canadian power trio. Triumph was recently inducted into the Heavy Metal Hall of Fame and, just a few weeks ago, a brand new documentary about the band premiered at the Toronto International Fi...

Progressive rockers Lifesigns have released their third studio album with Altitude, and it might be the band's best release yet. It should appeal to most prog rock fans who grew up listening to the masters of the genre, or really any fan of melodic rock music. John Young is the vocalist and keyboard player in the band and he writes the songs. John is a gifted and versatile musician who plays in Bo...

Bassist Derek "Mo" Moore and guitarist Ryche Chlanda of legendary progressive rock giants Nektar took time out to talk to me about their new live release, ...Sounds Like Swiss. The title is a play on their 1973 release ...Sounds Like This and this new three-disc (2-CD/DVD) set captures the band at the height of their powers in 1973. The DVD features a live appearance on Swiss TV while the CDs cont...

Guitarist Mike Connell and his brother David formed a band in 1984. The band that bears their name, The Connells, is set to release its ninth studio album, and the first one in 20 years! I spoke with Mike about this excellent new record, Steadman's Wake, some of the songs on The Connells' most well-known release, "Ring" (1993), and more. It was great talking with Mike and I can't wait until you he...

England's Inglorious is one of the best hard rock bands in the business today and their 2021 album We Will Ride will be on a lot of "best of 2021" lists at the end of the year. But the band has just released its second album of the calendar year and it has a bit of a twist to it. Heroine is an album of cover songs with Inglorious performing tracks by women who have been an inspiration musically an...

Former Clarence Clemons guitarist Billy Livesay (pronounced "leh-vuh-see") is my guest for this episode and his band, The Livesays, have a great new album out called Not What I Bargained For. This should appeal to fans of Bruce Springsteen or Americana bands. Billy was kind enough to talk to me about the making of the new album (which just came out), working with Clarence, his influences as both a...

Enuff Z'Nuff was a band that got unfairly lumped in with the 80s hair metal bands but that wasn't really their blueprint. The band's music fused power pop with glam, psychedelic rock, and hard rock into a new concoction. The band rose to prominence with its self-titled debut release in the late 80s and the single "Fly High Michelle." I spoke with founder Chip Z'Nuff this week about the band's new...

Sometimes unexpected things happen when recording podcasts, so when I lost my connection with legendary Mountain drummer Corky Laing in the middle of our conversation, I didn't panic. But I wasn't prepared for him to come back on the Zoom call with the news that Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts had died. Aside from that shocking development, I enjoyed talking with Corky about him being on the...

I'm very pleased to bring you my interview with guitarist Brad Gillis of the legendary 80s rock band Night Ranger. Brad was kind enough to tell me about the making of the excellent new album ATBPO (an acronym for "and the band played on," which is how Night Ranger responded to the COVID-19 pandemic last year). With live venues shut down, the band started writing via Zoom calls and eventually put t...

In this episode, I reached out to prog rock musician Dave Kerzner, who has worked with virtually everyone at some point, to discuss his projects and his favorite Genesis record. He chose the 1974 classic double concept album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Dave was the perfect person to talk about Genesis with (in general) and specifically about The Lamb. He's played that piece live for a special...

Jack Russell has had a long and storied career in rock, fronting the well-known band Great White. That band has since split and he now leads Jack Russell's Great White, which is working on a new studio album or original songs. But the band recently spent some time in the studio recording an album full of classic songs by the mighty Led Zeppelin and now Jack Russell's Great White is set to release...

On this bonus episode I welcome Alex Gomez from the entertaining and unique Playlist Wars podcast. They've got a fantastic show with good guests and an interesting premise and every episode brings something a little different. Gomez was kind enough to tell me how he and Brian Colburn got the show started and then we dive into his favorite record: Meteora by Linkin Park. This second album by the ba...

Walter Egan is a criminally underrated American singer-songwriter in what we now call the Americana genre. Many people will remember his 1978 smash hit "Magnet and Steel" with backing vocals by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, but not enough people know how deep and rich his catalog really is. That catalog got even deeper and richer in 2021 with the release of Fascination, an album that chroni...

Guitarist Alex Grossi from Quiet Riot and Guns N'Roses keyboard player Dizzy Reed started a side band in 2003 called Hookers & Blow as a way to have some fun and maybe get some free drinks in Hollywood. Nearly 20 years later, the band is on the cusp of releasing its self-titled debut (on digital, CD, and vinyl). It's a collection of 12 excellent cover songs, mainly from the 1970s. Two of these are...

Clive Nolan is a busy guy. In addition to being in two well-known progressive rock bands (Arena and Pendragon), he writes musicals and works on a plethora of side and solo projects. I spoke with Clive about his upcoming projects, his favorite records, and much more, including his new solo album of "Viking music" based on Beowulf. Learn more about Clive's music at his website . I appreciate you lis...

I'm excited to bring you one of my favorite discoveries of 2021. A Swedish band with the delightful name of Velvet Insane is bringing back the glam rock of 1973 with a new release called Rock 'n' Roll Glitter Suit, which comes out on July 16 on Sound Pollution Records. I spoke to founder and guitarist Jesper Lindgren about the making of the record, his influences, his love of glam rock, the traged...