Ole 60

Made in Hancock County, Kentucky, Ole 60 is not your father’s country band. Caught in the crosshairs of indie rock sonics, folk songwriting, and country sensibilities, the six-piece from Hawesville shot to notoriety in 2024 with “smoke & a light,” topping Spotify’s U.S. Viral Top 50 chart with the on-fire single and the Apple Music Country Albums chart with their debut EP, three twenty four, surpassing genre titans Zach Bryan and Morgan Wallen in the process. Last September, they did it again with sophomore EP Songs About You and breakout hit, “Thoughts of You,” topping TikTok’s all-genre Viral 50 Music chart. Heavily influenced by Smashing Pumpkins, Metallica, Radiohead, John Prine, and Nicholas Jamerson, with nearly 700 million global career streams, the band delivers with “solid musicianship, a willingness to experiment with sounds from psychedelic-tinged rock to more stripped-down fare, and a penchant for detailed storytelling” (Billboard). Headlining nationwide now, the boys from Kentucky just released their debut album, Smokestack Town, and surprise follow-up single, “Can’t Take It With You.”

The Marshall Tucker Band

Doug Gray – lead vocals   B.B. Borden – drums   Tony Black – bass / vocals   Marcus James Henderson – keyboards / saxophone / flute / vocals   Chris Hicks – guitar / vocals   Rick Willis – guitar / vocals   Whenever you drop that proverbial quarter into the virtual jukebox of songs that always manage to reach down and touch your soul the exact moment you cue them up, you inevitably find certain artists have a deeper resonance than others when it comes to providing the soundtrack that mirrors the highs and lows of your own life. The Marshall Tucker Band is one such group that continues to have a profound level of impact on successive generations of listeners who’ve been searchin’ for a rainbow and found it perfectly represented by this tried-and-true Southern institution for over five decades. “I’ve been in tune with how music can make you feel, right from when I was first in the crib,” observes lead vocalist and bandleader Doug Gray, who’s been fronting the MTB since the very beginning. “I was born with that. And I realized it early on, back when I was a little kid and my mom and dad encouraged me to get up there and sing whatever song came on the jukebox. It got to the point where people were listening to me more than what was on the jukebox! There’s a certain frequency I found I could share, whether I was in front of five people or 20,000 people. And once that frequency is there, everybody will listen.”   The Marshall Tucker Band came together as a young, hungry, and quite driven six-piece outfit in Spartanburg, South Carolina in 1972, having duly baptized themselves with the name of a blind piano tuner after they found it inscribed on a key to their original rehearsal space — and they’ve been in tune with tearing it up on live stages both big and small all across the globe ever since. Plus, the band’s mighty music catalog, consisting of more than 20 studio albums and a score of live releases, has racked up multi-platinum album sales many times over in its wake. A typically rich MTB setlist is bubbling over with a healthy dose of indelible hits like the heartfelt singalong “Heard It in a Love Song,” the insistent pleading of “Can’t You See” (the signature tune of MTB’s late co-founding lead guitarist and then-principal songwriter Toy Caldwell), the testifying travelogue warning of “Fire on the Mountain,” the wanderlust gallop of “Long Hard Ride,” and the unquenchable yearning pitch of “Ramblin’,” to name but a few. (See, we can hear you singing along to all of them in your head right now as you read this.)   Indeed, the secret ingredient to the ongoing success of The Marshall Tucker Band can be found within a cauldron of musical styles that mixes together equal parts rock, blues, jazz, country, soul, and bluegrass. In essence, it’s this inimitable down-home sonic bouillabaisse that helped make the MTB the first truly progressive Southern band to grace this nation’s airwaves — the proof of which can be found within the gritty grooves and ever-shifting gears of “Take the Highway,” the first song on their self-titled April 1973 debut album on Capricorn Records, The Marshall Tucker Band. “We had the commonality of having all grown up together in Spartanburg,” explains Gray about his original MTB bandmates, the aforementioned guitar wizard Toy Caldwell and his brother, bassist Tommy Caldwell, alongside rhythm guitarist George McCorkle, drummer Paul T. Riddle, and flautist/saxophonist Jerry Eubanks. “The framework for Marshall Tucker’s music is more like a spaceship than a house,” Gray continues, “because you can look out of a lot of windows and see a variety of things that show where we’ve been and what we’ve done, and how we’ve travelled through time to bring those experiences out in all of our songs.”   The Marshall Tucker Band’s influence can be felt far and wide through many respected contemporaries and the artists who’ve followed the path forged by their collective footsteps and footstomps. “MTB helped originate and personify what was to become known as Southern rock, and I was privileged to watch it all come together in the ’70s, night after night,” confirms the legendary Charlie Daniels. “In fact, The Charlie Daniels Band has played more dates with The Marshall Tucker Band over the past 45 years than any other band we’ve ever worked with. Even after all these years — after the tragedies, the miles, the personnel changes, and the many developments in the music business — MTB and CDB are still a viable package that offers an entertaining and crowd-satisfying show.” Daniels adds that he never gets tired of seeing his MTB brothers on the road: “Whenever Doug Gray walks into my dressing room with that big ol’ smile of his and then we hug each other and sit and talk for a while, the evening is complete.”   “I remember seeing Marshall Tucker and The Outlaws play together in Jacksonville many years ago, when I was just a kid,” recalls Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Johnny Van Zant, who faithfully watched the MTB open for his band on a few lengthy, fruitful runs during the 2018 portion of Skynyrd’s still-in-progress The Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour. “And I heard them all over the radio back then too. They were just so cool and so unique that I fell in love with the band, and I also fell in love with the music. Having them open for us on all those dates was like a dream come true, and they’re still as good as I’ve ever seen them. It brought back a lot of memories for me, because I really looked up to those guys when I was first starting out.”   Adds Ed Roland, the lead vocalist and chief songwriter for Collective Soul, “The Marshall Tucker Band had a big influence on me growing up — and they still do.” Roland, who’s lived the majority of his life in and around Atlanta, also proudly points out that his band’s biggest hit, “Shine,” owes a clear debt to the musical structure of “Can’t You See,” and he’ll often start off by singing the opening line to that song — “I’m gonna take a freight train” — whenever Collective Soul performs “Shine” live. “We don’t want to stray from what we grew up listening to,” Roland continues. “I think that’s something important for people to hear. It’s just who we are, and I don’t think we should run from it. Hopefully, people see that connection to the bands we love like Marshall Tucker in our music.”   Though Doug Gray recently turned 70 years young, he sees no end to the road that lies ahead for The Marshall Tucker Band, whose legacy is being carried forward quite reverentially by the man himself and his current bandmates, drummer B.B. Borden (Mother’s Finest, The Outlaws), bassist/vocalist Tony Black, keyboardist/saxophonist/flautist/vocalist Marcus James Henderson, guitarist/vocalist Chris Hicks, and guitarist/vocalist Rick Willis. “You know, I think it was Toy Caldwell’s dad who said, ‘There’s more to gray hair than old bones,’ and we still have a lot of stories yet to tell,” Gray concludes. “People ask me all the time what I’m gonna do when I turn 80, and I always say, ‘The same thing that we’re continuing to do now.’ We’re road warriors, there’s no doubt about that — and I don’t intend to stop.” May the MTB wagon train continue running like the wind on a long hard ride for many more years to come. One thing we absolutely know for sure: If you heard it in a Marshall Tucker Band song, it can’t be wrong.           —Mike Mettler, this ol’ MTB chronologist

Here Come the Mummies

  Here Come the Mummies is an eight-piece funk-rock band of 5000 year-old Egyptian Mummies with a one-track mind. Their "Terrifying Funk from Beyond the Grave" is sure to get you into them (and possibly vice versa).   Since their discovery, HCTM has been direct support for P-Funk, Al Green, Mavis Staples, KC and the Sunshine Band, and Cheap Trick; rocked Super Bowl Village; become a regular on The Bob and Tom Show; appeared on That’s My Jam with Jimmy Fallon; played massive festivals like Summer Fest, Summer Camp, Common Ground, Musikfest, and Suwannee Hulaween; and sold tickets by the thousands across large swaths of North America. Maybe that’s why the ladies (and some dudes) can’t stop losing their minds over these mayhem-inducing mavens of mirth.   Some say they were cursed after deflowering a great Pharaoh’s daughter. Others claim they are reincarnated Grammy-Winning studio musicians. Regardless, HCTM’s mysterious personas, cunning song-craft, and unrelenting live show will bend your brain, and melt your face. Get ready! Here Come The Mummies.   HCTM is:   Mummy Cass - guitar, vocals Eddie Mummy- drums, vocals K.W. TuT- bass, vocals Spaz- keys, vocals The Pole!- bass Midnight Mummy- bari & tenor sax, keys, percussion, talk box, vocals Dr. Yo- saxes, vocal, tambo Highlander- tenor sax "H-POD" (High Priest of Death)- trumpet       www.herecomethemummies.com www.facebook.com/herecomethemummies twitter.com/hctmummies

That One Time at Band Camp

One Night of Queen

For over 20 years Gary Mullen and The Works have been performing their worldrenowned One Night of Queen live concert.   Gary Mullen & The Works (featuring Gary Mullen on vocals, David Brockett on guitar, Malcolm Gentles on keyboards, Jon Halliwell on drums and …TBC.. on bass) will have you dancing in the aisles during their show, while the band pays tribute to the stage theatrics, showmanship, and music of Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees: Queen.   In 2000, Gary Mullen won the Granada TV programme “Stars in Their Eyes” with his performance as Queen’s lead singer: Freddie Mercury. Mullen’s embodiment of Freddie Mercury resulted in him gaining 864,838 votes in the show’s Live Grand Final. The number of fans who voted for Mullen was more than double that of the runner-up, thus setting an all-time record for votes in the history of the programme.   For over two decades, Gary Mullen & The Works have performed to sold-out audiences around the world, playing more than 2,500 live shows to audiences in over 20 countries - performing in many of the same venues that Queen have played at around the world.   So if you're ready to rock ‘n’ roll, don't miss your chance to celebrate One Night Of Queen with Gary Mullen & The Works!   The Show DOES go on!

Gwar

The story of GWAR is carved across the history of this hopeless planet, but GWARthemselves are not of this world…Their story begins far past Uranus, in the deepest reaches of space, where the beings known as GWAR were warriors in the Scumdogs of the Universe, an elite fighting force in the army of the Master of All Reality. But GWARproved too reckless and powerful, and after a series of tragic but hilarious blunders, they were banished to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, with orders to conquer an insignificant backwater prehistoric mudball known as the planet Earth. Once here, GWAR, the original Ancient Aliens, shaped the face of the globe, wiping out the dinosaurs, and mating with apes to create the human race. Having accidentally given rise to all human history, the Master of All Reality froze them in Antarctic ice where they could do no more harm. It was there they were discovered by a shady entrepreneur known as Sleazy P Martini, who sat the band down in front of professional wrestling, late-night horror movies, heavy metal music, and a steady diet of crack cocaine until GWAR became the cultural force they are today!

Colton Dixon

Clay Walker

Clay Walker is a multi-PLATINUM selling country artist who has garnered 11 No. 1 songs, 40 charted singles, four RIAA PLATINUM albums, two Certified GOLD albums and more, and he has established himself as a country music staple with songs like "If I Could Make A Living," "This Woman And This Man," "Live Until I Die" and "She Won’t Be Lonely Long." Diagnosed in 1996 with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Walker has become a passionate advocate and fundraiser for others with the disease through his self-named foundation. Among his efforts are the annual Clay Walker Charity Classic at Pebble Beach. The golf event highlights the highly active way Walker has approached MS, continuing to perform and raise a growing family while showing no signs of slowing. His most recent album Texas To Tennessee, which was produced by Michael Knox (Jason Aldean) and Jaron Boyer (Dierks Bentley's "Somewhere On A Beach"), reflects on his storied career. Walker recorded the album in both his home state of Texas and adopted home of Nashville, delivering 10 tracks that channel his most prolific hit-making music of the ‘90s, while embracing the modern sounds of today's country music scene.

Lorna Shore

YOUR WORLD ACCORDING TO LORNA SHORE Call them heroes or hell-bringers, it doesn’t matter to the men of Lorna Shore. On their fifth album—the declarative I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me—the New Jersey quintet are putting all of metal’s subgenres on notice. Because after one listen, you’ll wonder what motivates them and what took metal so long to evolve. You also might wonder whose truck may have hit you while you were listening. Sure, that last sentence may sound more than a touch hyperbolic. But in the context of the myriad of metal subgenres out there, Lorna Shore—vocalist Will Ramos, guitarist Adam De Micco, bassist/vocalist Michael Yager, rhythm guitarist, synth and orchestral arranger Andrew O’Connor and drummer Austin Archey—are operating on a larger plane than ever before. They’ve hit the viral Spotify charts, racked up hundreds of millions of streams, embarked on highly successful tours and in the process, galvanized a significant fanbase that hangs onto the band’s quest for stylistic inversion. But by virtue of physical onslaught and wanting to divine truth from their music, Lorna Shore have kept themselves fired up by torching the metal rulebook at every turn, practically demanding that other genres step up their game. “I think a lot of bands—especially in deathcore—they write stuff that they think is cool, but they're not necessarily writing stuff that's true to them,” offers Ramos. “I think between everything that we've been through over the last couple years, those things have helped push the band to [think] bigger. We’re putting our heart and soul into it. I think it's those little experiences that we've been through that help shape that. It doesn't necessarily work for everybody, but it works for us” Coming off of 2023’s Pain Remains, the members of Lorna Shore realized they needed to continue to bring their A-game in a big way. Not necessarily in a gladiatorial sense where they must vanquish their colleagues. (Metal might be the most passionate of all the music scenes in the world, but that enthusiasm is parallel to the cutthroat competition.) There are all kinds of levels within the 10 tracks on I Feel The Everblack Festering Within Me. Andrew O’Connor’s orchestral arrangements give the songs an epic, cinematic feel that guides listeners into a mise-en-scene of their own creation. When the other members add their parts, the results are positively stentorian. De Micco can thrust into light-speed, black-metal tropes and then downshift into the kind of phrasing one might hear from a ‘70s guitar hero. Ramos is clearly the heir apparent to the kind of vocal madness that Faith No More’s Mike Patton built his considerable reputation on. Add in the propulsive terror of Yager and Archey, and there’s no reason for Lorna Shore’s collective feet to ever touch the ground. Hardly ordinary by anyone’s standards whether it’s deathcore or black metal, there are things at work on Everblack that feel more like an extension of prog rock due to its extremity and big grandiose gestures. But something unusual happened on the way toward the Everblack. Conventional wisdom would dictate that a band with over 10 years of touring is going to grow as individuals, musicians, writers and friends. Thoughts and ideals change and like a lot of bands working at a certain level for so long, maybe slowing and toning things down to summon the spirit of commercial potential would be both interesting and necessary. To the surprise of absolutely nobody, the Shore-men doubled-down on the extremity on their new album. Lorna Shore have been able to access new generations of listeners because their emotional firepower is just as devastating as their existing sonic armories. “I would say aside from me dealing with depression and anxiety and all this other stuff that motivates me to write music, I feel what everyone's saying, but maybe in a different way,” says De Micco. “I know from being a fan of music, getting lost into something separates you from the shit you're dealing with. I think our job as musicians is to be the wedge between people and the shit they're going through. And I hope we can create a little bit of that solace and peace for five minutes the way someone watches a movie for two hours or binges a video game all weekend. I feel like that's my big motivation because I think a lot of people are dealing with a lot of heavy stuff and I think you have to write compelling music to go against the shit that people are dealing with. I feel that motivation to allow what has existed for me to exist for others.” We posit that you may be hard-pressed to find a better side one/song one introduction as detonating as Everblack’s opener, “Prison Of Flesh.” The synth arrangements are ominous, Ramos sounds like he’s in the middle of a complete mental unraveling, and the band shore him up with a wall of sound that feels more influenced by an avant-garde aesthetic (perhaps even hyperpop’s anything-goes mindset) than whatever aural paint random bro-dudes are rocking at the tattoo shop. Then you realize that the song is about the history of dementia in the Ramos family. “The idea that the world is falling apart, and about the fear of losing touch with reality,” says the singer. “The line ‘They’re coming to get me’ is my way of personifying ‘demons’ or something that makes you feel like you’re losing pieces of yourself. The closer they get, the further detached you become until you’re nothing but a husk of fear and delusion.” The album also offers the poignant “Glenwood,” an arduous piece based on the emotions Ramos had during the extended period of time he was estranged from his father. “My only hope is that when people hear ‘Glenwood,’ they can think about their own lives and the people they’ve pushed away and ask themselves, ‘Is it really worth being upset for this long?’ Time is constantly fleeting, just as we are, as well. There are countless references in this song that only the people who knew me growing up would understand. As you can imagine, this song is one I hold very near and dear to me. I wanted to capture that feeling when I wrote this song. It was so incredibly bittersweet and took a lot of courage for me.” While Ramos possesses a set of vocal cords that perform micro-calisthenics nightly, he also has an uncanny ability to refract his darkness towards his fans. On the surface, it sounds terrifying. But Lorna Shore’s audience fervently embraces the singer’s stories and hardships with relish. The feelings of superhuman graphic-novel vicariousness are just as valid and resonant as stories of broken homes and unhealed familial crises. Lorna Shore’s fandom is acutely aware of this: Their early fans have been bringing their kids to their shows and sharing in the thrill of a dynamic metal band, as well as catharsis Lorna Shore delivers. There’s “Oblivion,” a track significantly influenced by the movie Interstellar, that posits that humanity will constantly fail in its quest to do things for the greater good. “Writing this song felt like the culmination of all the things that we’ve done in the past, but brought to the next level,” explains Ramos. “A more evolved version of what Lorna Shore truly is.” He describes “Unbreakable” as “a song that you can hear on your worst day, and somehow feel like that day was a breeze.” After a significant mindset rehaul (“We didn’t want to throw a million notes on the board, we wanted only the ones that felt… right.”), “Unbreakable” became downright anthemic for the band, with Ramos summarizing it as “a very triumphant, all-inclusive song written to bring people together for a beautiful moment where they can realize that no matter what this world throws at us, it will never break us down. We and our bonds are unbreakable.” That sentiment is clearly the hill that the members of Lorna Shore would die upon only to become resurrected with twice the conviction and ambition. The band were all fans of music before they first picked up their gear. Without throwing shade or serving the tea, they will confess that the state of so-called “heavy music” is in desperate need of a whole new consciousness. “Everything that I fell in love with about metal as an outcast of society was that it was so different and rebellious and was such high energy—and we're missing that in this world,” states bassist Yager. “We all listen to music, we all like music.” says De Micco. “So if it doesn't give us the reaction of ‘This sounds sick, I'm stoked about this,’ then it is not a good idea. I feel like that's always been my threshold, from a fan of music and hearing parts that sound cool or give an emotional reaction to something. If you can't even move yourself, then how the hell do you expect to move others?” Yager continues, “I know when we write music, it's very much like we're writing it for ourselves. They're our songs until they're released.” So in conclusion, Lorna Shore are neither dire misery goats, nor flower-picking pollyannas and definitely not lapdogs currying favor from those who would exalt the ordinary. But once listeners embrace I Feel The Everblack Festering Inside Of Me, they will realize that they’re in Lorna Shore’s movie now, and that might tell them something about their lives. When heroes are hard to find, try looking inside yourself first.

Geoff Tate

Multi-platinum selling, Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Geoff Tate is best known for his 30-plus years as the creative and driving force behind the progressive metal band Queensryche. Since its inception with Geoff at the helm, Queensryche has sold over 20 million albums worldwide and has performed in upwards of fifty countries. Geoff is regarded as one of the most skilled vocalists in the genre with hundreds of modern, popular artists citing him and his former band as a major influence. Combining social consciousness and expertly crafted lyrics with high-energy, melodically complex music, Queensryche with Geoff Tate at the forefront became internationally recognized as the thinking man's rock band. The band's first three albums -- their self-titled EP (1983), The Warning (1984) and Rage for Order (1986) -- all hit gold status selling over 500,000 units each. With the release of their landmark concept album Operation: Mindcrime (1988) -- which won critical and popular acclaim and comparisons to the Who's Tommy and Pink Floyd's The Wall -- Queensryche went on to bring their progressive music to sold-out audiences the world over. Following the album's platinum success, Queensryche released Empire, which quickly entered the Top Ten on the Billboard charts, eventually generating sales of more than three million copies. The album featured the hugely popular hit, "Silent Lucidity," which would be the band's first Top Ten single (#9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart). Geoff and the band would ultimately perform the Grammy nominated song live at the Grammy awards accompanied by a supporting orchestra. In all, Queensryche has been nominated for a Grammy four times and has had their music featured in three feature films. In 2006, the band released Operation: Mindcrime II, a scorching sequel to their original 1988 tale of "Rock, Revenge and Redemption." The band would soon hit the road performing both albums back-to-back in their entirety in an incredible theatrical presentation. The spectacle would be captured on Mindcrime at the Moore, a double CD/DVD release so popular that the DVD would debut at #1 on Billboard's Top Music DVD chart and eventually reach gold status. Shortly after the release of that hugely successful set, Queensryche would release another gem in 2007 titled, Sign of the Times: The Best of Queensryche, that featured 17 career-spanning tracks including seven Top 10 hits with a two-CD deluxe Collector's Edition that added fifteen rare and previously unreleased recordings. Later that year, the band found themselves on the fall leg of the highly acclaimed Heaven and Hell Tour with the late, great Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Vinny Appice along with other special guest, Alice Cooper. The year would culminate with the release of Take Cover, an adventurous 11-song collection of covers ranging from Black Sabbath to Broadway. In early 2009, Queensryche released American Soldier (via Atco/Rhino Records), a concept album inspired by the stories of military veterans that examines the consequences of war from the soldier's perspective... yet another effort that will solidify Geoff and the band in rock history. A truly memorable experience, the band met with, and performed for, troops in both the U.S. and the Middle East. In the year 2010, Queensryche would, once again, display their immense creativity by presenting the Queensryche Cabaret, which was heralded as "the first adults-only rock show." In 2011, the band would find themselves celebrating their 30th Anniversary in rock, marking the occasion with the release of Dedicated to Chaos (Roadrunner Records/Loud & Proud) and an extensive support tour. At the end of 2012, Geoff released his first solo album in over a decade titled, Kings & Thieves (InsideOut Music), that was quickly followed by the news of a 25th Anniversary Mindcrime Tour that would encompass the United States in 2013. Also that year, Geoff would release what would be his last album under the Queensryche name, Frequency Unknown (Cleopatra Records), an effort that would feature such guest musicians as Ty Tabor, K.K. Downing, Brad Gillis, Dave Meniketti and Chris Poland along with the members of his version of Queensryche at the time - Rudy Sarzo, Robert Sarzo, Simon Wright, Kelly Gray and Randy Gane. In 2014, it was announced that Geoff and his band mates would be embarking on their farewell tour as Queensryche, with a subsequent announcement stating that Queensryche with original lead singer Geoff Tate would be changing its name to "Operation: Mindcrime" in September for future tours and recordings. By the end of the year, Geoff began working on one of his most ambitious works to date, an entirely new concept album, titled The Key, that would be the first in a trilogy. Released in September of 2015 (Frontiers Music SRL), the debut album examined the question, "What would you do if you discovered the key to changing the way we view the world, the way we look at time, the way we travel, and could essentially change the human condition -- for better or for worse?" Next in the trilogy would be 2016's Resurrection, completed by 2017's The New Reality. All three albums were followed up with international tours that included extensive tours of the United States. Beginning in June of 2018, Geoff and the current line-up of Operation: Mindcrime, will be are hitting the road to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Operation: Mindcrime, performing the 1988 landmark concept album from beginning to end in its entirety... It's a show that Geoff loves to perform and fans love to see, only proving that good music never goes out of style. As always, Geoff looks forward to the musical journey that lies ahead.      SHORT BIO:     "Geoff Tate celebrates the 30th Anniversary of one of the best-selling rock concept albums, Operation:Mindcrime - certified Platinum and named as one of the “100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time”. Come again and follow Nikki through his journey of a corrupt society as he gets involved with a revolutionary group along with Father William, Dr. X and Sister Mary.               Geoff and his electric band will perform the album in its entirety, featuring the hits “Revolution Calling”, “I Don’t Believe In Love” and “Eyes Of A Stranger” along with a greatest hits set featuring “Jet City Woman” “Empire” and the forever signature “Silent Lucidity”.