This live album from Cactus was recorded in 2012.

This live recording definitely lands under metal because most of the music fits.

It’s been a quite a while since Michael Schenker and his band of metal merchants played a support slot here in the Chicago-land area but I guess filling in the “special guest” slot on the Scorpions farewell tour was too good to pass up.  

This is a review of the Japanese import version of Heaven & Earth which features a lot of musicians that Stuart Smith assembled for this great band.

This is being billed as "fusion rock," and that's a pretty apt description. We generally put fusion in under "progressive rock" at MSJ, so that's where this lands.

Vanilla Fudge might be one of the strangest but also coolest bands to come out of the 1960s. Really, progressive rock didn't exist yet, but their sound was such a part of the kind of the thing that would become prog. 

I have to admit that I was shocked when I heard that the Scorpions were going to do a farewell tour. 

Cactus might not have gotten the attention that groups like Led Zeppelin and Cream did, but they were an extremely capable band cut from that same cloth of hard rocking, blues based classic jams.

This hard rocking album really works pretty well. There is nothing here that’s entirely unique or original in terms of songwriting.

This is a reissue of an older Kiss tribute album. It was originally called "Spin the Bottle," and I remember seeing it around that first time out.

What an interesting ride I’ve had leading into this album.

Stuart Smith put together this band some time ago and made an album, then later put out this amazing DVD that showcases many of the proceedings in the studio while working on the project.

Kelly Keeling is a great rock guitarist who has worked with a lot of great people over the years.

I like The Who quite a bit. I mean, they aren’t one of my favorite bands, but I do really like them.