The Mescal Sheiks

Rick Smith, lyricist and harmonica player for The L.A.- based band The Mescal Sheiks, was at The Troubadour in West Hollywood one night...

I jumped at the chance to join the committee that hired the music at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. We brought in great...

James Cotton (1935-2017) Jimmy Cotton had a gold tooth and it shined when he smiled. And he smiled a lot. Back in 1966 when he was still...

I graduated from college, upriver from New York City, in June, 1965 and immediately hooked up with Auto Drive Away, a delivery system that allowed me to go coast to coast delivering someone else’s car; I just had to pay for the gas. Snowbirds would fly to California, and I could roll in later that week. This time, I got a brand-new Buick to take to Laguna Beach. My idea was to get a band going in L.A., but I barely got set up with friends near U.S.C. when I got a call from Jo