‘Peace Rocks’ by Steve Bonino Review by Robert Craven. Here is a song writer who understands the three minute hero concept. This is a fine CD, each track, cleanly produced and Bonino is a multi-instrumentalist, steeped in the best tradition of American AOR with the necessary edge to lift it out of being mundane. The [...]
Small Town Trouble by Mick Brady Review by Liam Oragh I normally start a review with a description of the front cover and how that initial visual impact then colours my perception of the music when I put it on. But Mick Brady’s ‘Small Town Trouble’ arrived with a bang in the post-box before all [...]
Mama Kaz Band & Allison McGrath take MRU Awards! Musicians Together members Mama Kaz and Allison McGrath walked away with number ones at the Musicreview Unsigned Awards last night. The Mama Kaz Band, including Johnny Skip Crawford, Ali McKenzie & Peter Spratt walked away with the Best Blues Rock category and Allison scooped the Best [...]
MT 6 – Dublin December 11th. 2012. Darkey Kelly’s. Our 6th. MT Monthly Jam in Darkey Kelly’s, Dublin, Ireland, and our 8th. event so far in 2012. Next week we’ll be having an all electric MT Christmas 2012 ! Thanks to all who attended and took part, Ciaran Brennan, Greg Clifford, Aimee Lynch, Sean O’Neill, [...]
STILL LIFE IN BLACK AND WHITE – CD by Sean O’Neill. Reviewed by Robert Craven Recorded in one take, Still Life in Black and white is 14 songs, produced in a pared back production of acoustic guitar, double bass and Sean O’Neill’s vocals. The influences that flow through this CD are [...]
Cover versions get a lot of bad press. They provoke the backward-thinking, reactionary and greedy publishers – and artists doing covers often get criticised for lack of originality or artistic integrity. As much as I love hearing new original music, I can also be inspired by good covers. For this reason, I felt motivated to [...]
You’ve got the band, you’ve got the songs and you’ve rehearsed until you’re ready play in front of an audience. But where do you go and what do you do to organise your first gig? In this guest post, Vicky shares some great tips to help ensure your first gig goes smoothly. The Venue [...]
One of the greatest accomplishments a musician makes is the completion of an album. The time, resources, and effort put in to make the recording perfect are usually on a large scale. One of the best ways to launch an album is to do an album launch party. Here, you get to showcase the team [...]
MELANCHOLICS ANONYMOUS – RUMOUR DEN. CD review by Robert Craven. Founded in 2000, Rumour Den independently released the single ‘Under a cloud’ which garnered both critical acclaim & the financial means to develop ‘Melancholics Anonymous’ into an album. http://musicianstogether.com/video/7AS4U864NS14/Under-A-Cloud Hailing from Antrim, Song-writer A.J. Gilmore & Guitarist Steve Simms finished the album in 2001 & [...]
GREG CLIFFORD by Greg Clifford. Greg Clifford is a talented, multi-instrumentalist from Dublin. Greg’s style is an amalgamation of singer songwriter with rock, blues, jazz and folk. A BA in Music and a masters in contemporary composition audibly augment his undoubted abilities as a guitarist. On this self titled EP Greg also extends his talents [...]
MT Saturdays (1) Darkey Kelly’s
MT Saturdays (1) Darkey Kelly’s May 18th. 2013. Our first Saturday afternoon MT session in Darkey Kelly’s. Music and song by Ciaran Brennan, Brian Aherne, Sean O’Neill and Tony Floyd Kenna. Book reading by Robert Craven. Poetry reading by Daniel Wade. An easy going relaxed vibe contributed to this very successful mixed media presentation. . [...]
UNDER A WESTERN SKY – The Communal Well, reviewed by Robert Craven
UNDER A WESTERN SKY The Communal Well. Reviewed by Robert Craven The Communal Well – Jules Berube (Drums), Guy Cunis (lead and rhythm guitars), Roger Hoeberichts (lead vocals and guitar), Mark Heim (Trumpet, coronet and vocals), Sylvian Herrera (Bass), Greg Kinsey (backing vocals and harmonica) and Casey O’Brien, percussion; hail from Paris. Under a western [...]
CONTEMPLATING THE MUSE – No. 2 – Linda Ibbotson with guest Ryan Cole
CONTEMPLATING THE MUSE – No. 2 – Linda Ibbotson With guest Ryan Cole. . “The idea is to write it so the people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart” Maya Angelou A warm welcome and thank you for joining me. I invite you to pull up a [...]
BANNED FOR LIFE (Paperback) by D. R. Haney, reviewed by Robert Craven
BANNED FOR LIFE (Paperback) by D. R. Haney – reviewed by Robert Craven Just as bebop was the soundtrack to Jack Kerouac, Alan Ginsberg and Neil Cassady, so the sounds of CBGB’s, The Velvet Underground, Iggy and the Stooges, The Clash, The Sex Pistols and New York Dolls fuel D.R. Haney’s odyssey `Banned for Life’. [...]
ROBERT CRAVEN – Writer and music reviewer, in his own words.
Robert Craven is an author and music reviewer for Musicians Together Magazine. Robert lives in the seaside town of Rush in County Dublin, Ireland. . I have two novels; ‘Get Lenin’ and the sequel ‘Zinnman’, published by Taylor Street Publishing and which are currently available for Kindle download and paperback on Amazon.com and Amazon UK. [...]
SONGWRITING REFINED – Justin (Oswlek)
Songwriting Refined Justin (Oswlek) Hello everyone, welcome to my initial foray into the writing-about-songwriting realm. This will either be the first of several installments on a series of different subjects, or an experiment gone horribly wrong. Time will tell. I should admit that I have no great qualification for this role. I’m neither an acclaimed [...]
