ETTORE SALATI

This month's Artist in Spotlight is Ettore Salati from Italy. Ettore is a sought after session guitarist by many prog musicians not just in Italy but all around the world. He started playing piano at a very young age (mostly classical music) but when he became a teenager and discovered the world of Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Genesis and 70's rock in general, he was immediately fascinated by guitar... more

KAT EPPLE (Emerald Web)

KAT EPPLE, flautist and composer, is our interview guest this month. She has won 8 Emmy awards, was nominated for a Grammy and she has released 18 albums internationally. Most of you know her as the other half of the legendary ambient/new age duo EMERALD WEB. She has a very large collection (over 200) of flutes that she gathered from all around the world during her travels. Kat composes original New Age/Jazz/World/orchestral music and has produced film scores and television soundtracks for National Geographic, Nova, CNN, Carl Sagan, Another World, The Travel Channel, Turner Broadcasting System, History Channel, HGN, The Guiding Light, PBS, and NASA among others, and was Music Director for the feature-length film, Captiva Island. She also owns a record company and works on both sides of the music industry as a musician and as a business woman... more

New Grass Revival / On The Boulevard

New Grass Revival are one of the pioneers of progressive bluegrass. Formed in 1971 by Sam Bush (mandolin/vocals), Curtis Burch (guitar), Ebo Walker (bass) and Courtney Johnson (banjo), they immediately got the attention from the industry both in a good and bad way. First of all, they were often told that their music was not bluegrass, and they knew it wasn’t “bluegrass” in its traditional sense, and it wasn’t what they were trying to achieve anyways. They were blending rock, soul and blues rhythms with the traditional bluegrass music. They were not wearing suites, but instead they had a more casual style along with long hair... more

VELVET RAZOR / THE RAZOR’S EDGE (The Garden Studio Sessions) EP

Velvet Razor is a rock band from England. They have a new EP titled “The Razor’s Edge”. The band is formed by 4 musicians: Dave Kent (Vocals and Lyrics; Lead Guitar; Rhythm Guitar, Additional Keyboards; Additional Bass, Mandolin, Programming); Martin Wise (Bass; Additional Guitar, Backing Vocals); Ian Pickering (Piano/Keyboards; Samples and Effects; Additional Guitar, Backing Vocals; Programming); Ian King (Acoustic Drums, Electronic drums and Percussion).

I would not categorize this EP as prog rock, because their style is more like alternative rock, closer to classic rock. The first song on the CD is the Beatles like “Tears Me Apart”. However the vocals carry it to a punk rock arena. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help but think “Love Me Do”.

The second song is “You Don’t Care”. It sounds like The Doors, and the musicianship is good, but the vocal lines are a little simple, and the reason for this is because the lyrics don’t really fit. Also the vocals on these two first songs are not as good as the last two songs on the CD. The vocalist has more like a punk or post-punk type of voice, and actually he sounds pretty good on the third song “The Castle”, kind of like Nick Cave style vocals, and I think he should keep in that direction, in my opinion. And finally the last song “Cherry Red” is more like a classic rock song with 80’s style lyrics. Over all, the musicians in Velvet Razor are pretty good, and most of them are multi instrumentalists, but I believe the lyrics and the vocals could have been better.

You can visit their website at: www.velvetrazor.com

STEPHANIE BUTLER