Crack the Sky
Crack the Sky is an American progressive rock band formed in Weirton, West Virginia in the early 1970s. In 1975, Rolling Stone declared their first album “debut album of the year”, and in 1978, Rolling Stone Record Guide compared them to Steely Dan; their first three albums charted on the Billboard 200. Wikipedia
Read about Crack the Sky in Rolling Stone – August 2018
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Eric Scott
Eric Scott
Washington, D.C. soul/pop artist and bassist Eric Scott has enjoyed a varied and interesting musical journey. As an artist and sideman, he has toured internationally, sharing the stage with artists as diverse as Deanna Bogart, Aaron Neville, Mavis Staples, Ray Charles, Roger Waters, Tom Morello, Little Feat, and Billy Corgan, His original songs have appeared on ABC-TV, Showtime, Starz Network, Cinemax, the WB, as well as several major and indie motion pictures. He has also lent his singing voice to ad campaigns for HGTV, DC Lottery, and Nat Geo, Ford, Chevy, Jeep, Chrysler, and many more. He is a 15-time Wammie winner, as awarded by the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA).
The journey continues in 2019 with the release of the EP THE CHARM CITY SESSIONS and the full-length CD PEACE BOMB, both on his own Itzall Goode Music label. His ‘Modern Soul’ sound continues to evolve, yet remains funky, upbeat, socially aware, and ever soulful. Pop tunes and hooks meld seamlessly with groovy new school RnB, nasty funk, and the introspective lyrical approach of a singer/songwriter that examines relationships, the world we live in, and being true to one’s self. Scott’s gospel drenched voice always remains front and center. A passionate and energetic performer, his show is funky, thoughtful, and uplifting…and not to be missed!
Scott frequently participates in the musical collaborations of BandhouseGigs, including the recent live stream
“From BandHouse to Your House.”
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John Hiatt
John Robert Hiatt is an American singer-songwriter and musician. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including new wave, blues, and country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and has been awarded a variety of other distinctions in the music industry.
COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME® AND MUSEUM TO FEATURE JOHN HIATT AS NEXT POETS AND PROPHETS HONOREE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – July 9, 2024 – The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum will feature singer-songwriter John Hiatt in the next installment of its in-depth interview series Poets and Prophets. The series features songwriters who have made significant contributions to country music. The program will take place on Saturday, Aug. 10, at 2:30 p.m. in the museum’s Ford Theater and is included with museum admission.
Throughout his 50-year recording career, Hiatt has established himself as one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of his generation, as well as a hit composer for country and rock artists alike. Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Country Music Hall of Fame members Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson are among the artists who have covered his acerbic, soul-stirring songs.
Hiatt began his professional songwriting career at age 18, when he moved to Nashville to work at Tree Publishing. Over the next two decades, his songs became hits for Rosanne Cash (“The Way We Make a Broken Heart”), the Desert Rose Band (“She Don’t Love Nobody”) and Three Dog Night (“”Sure as I’m Sittin’ Here”). Hiatt found success as a recording artist with his landmark 1987 album, Bring the Family, which featured “Have a Little Faith in Me” and “Memphis in the Meantime,” among other enduring songs. In its wake, he went from earning cuts to being covered by some of music’s biggest names, including Bonnie Raitt (“Thing Called Love”) and B. B. King and Eric Clapton (“Riding with the King”).
Following a stint in Los Angeles, Hiatt returned to Nashville in the mid-1980s and has continued to write, perform and record. He has released more than two dozen albums, most recently 2021’s Leftover Feelings, a highly regarded collaboration with the Jerry Douglas Band, recorded at historic RCA Studio B. In 2008, Hiatt was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and received a lifetime achievement award for songwriting from the Americana Music Association. In 2019, he became the third recipient of the BMI Troubadour Award, which recognized his work as a songwriter.
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The Nighthawks
What sustains a band for more than three decades? Not a hit radio band, but a roll-up-your-sleeves/drive to the next gig overnight/carry your own gear up the steps and night after night make people happy kind of band. One that makes them dance; sends them home to come back again—and again. What makes that kind band stay together through relatively few personnel changes? Answer: A good idea; a universal yet somehow unique, good idea.
The Nighthawks sought not so much to reinvent rock and roll, but simply to have it reinvent itself by taking the original ingredients and following—if somewhat loosely—the original recipe. And like good cooks, the individual personalities involved ultimately affected the outcome.
The band was over 10 years old and had baffled the mainstream industry before the term “roots rock” was coined to explain the likes of West Coasters like Los Lobos and The Blasters. By then, the affiliation with many of the living blues greats seemed to brand The Nighthawks a “blues band” despite the fact that they played with Carl Perkins as well as Muddy Waters.
The Nighthawks had its genesis when lead singer-harmonica player extraordinaire Mark Wenner returned to his native Washington, D.C. after six years in New York City, lured back by the success of his friend Bobby Radcliff’s local acclaim with a blues band. Mark joined forces with a then very young Jimmy Thackery and formed The Nighthawks in 1972. They spent a couple of years building The Nighthawks’ reputation with a revolving cast of characters until, in 1974, they decided to get the best rhythm section the area had to offer: Jan Zukowski on bass and Pete Ragusa on drums.
The Nighthawks set off on a musical mystery tour that took them to 49 states and a dozen countries. They played with nearly all the living blues legends as well as a new generation of bands, sometimes called “the Blue Wave”, and released several important albums including the best-selling Jacks and Kingswith Pinetop Perkins, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, Calvin Jones and Bob Margolin. (Servern Records 2017)
Could not resist the throwback video..enjoy
