Singer-songwriter Jose Gonzalez is like a one-man United Nations. He was born to and raised by Argentinean parents in Sweden, where he resides, and he sings his British folk-inflected songs in English.

"And I play a Spanish guitar," says Gonzalez via phone from a Paris venue, eagerly fueling the metaphor. ³And there¹s German microphones."

And let's throw in worldwide success while we¹re at it. Since the 2003 release of his debut album, Veneer (re-released in the US in 2005 on indie Hidden Agenda and again in 2006 by larger indie Mute), Gonzalez has won the Swedish Grammy for Best Newcomer in 2004, the European Border Breaker Award last year and Sweden¹s Music Export Award this year. Veneer went gold, platinum and double platinum in countries around the globe, and he was the toast of the 2006 South by Southwest festival, playing to seven different audiences during the week and captivating every one of them.

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Inspiration can come in many forms for the receptive rock musician, but it's a fairly safe bet that very few of them have ever milked any hit songs from jet lag. Leave it to Chuck Prophet - former Green on Red frontman and longtime solo roots-rock sonic texturalist - to transform an experience that most of humanity attempts to minimize into a creative opportunity.

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The Free Times Magazine has compiled a list of the greatest Clevelanders of All Time! Find out who made the music list here.

This music section has names like Robert Lockwood Jr., Bone Thugs and Harmony, Craw, Gerald Levert and many more.

You can see the entire "Best of All Time" at the Free Time's website at freetimes.com.


See The Music List Here

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Mekons, the Leeds punk group who wound up becoming a guiding force for alternative country from the '80s right up to the present. To commemorate their three decades of making music, the Mekons will be doing pretty much what they did for their 25th anniversary, which is to hit the road in support of a new album.

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Martin Sexton has had some fantastic problems this past summer. His normal routine of spending the season with his family and performing only driving-distance weekend gigs has been dismantled by a full slate of touring. His new album, Seeds, released on his own Kitchen Table label in April, has been selling steadily, producing the No. 1 Triple-A single "Happy" and resulting in the summer tour, which routinely sold out and necessitated the second leg that is looming before him as he relaxes for one last blissful week at his summer home in the Adirondacks.

"It's been a busy summer - good and bad news," he says via phone.

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In the early 90s, Ian Moore was a young guitarist with the natural ability to distinguish himself from the gazillion other string stranglers in talent-drenched Austin, Texas. Given his above-average chops and youthful zeal, no one would likely have been too critical of Moore if he'd chosen to take the path of least resistance and made his bones playing endless variations of the refried Southern blues/soul that captivated Capricorn Records nearly a decade and a half ago and led them to sign Moore for his first three albums.

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If word got out that Jon Spencer suffered from ADD, it probably wouldn’t come as a total shock. Spencer throws himself into side projects with the kind of intensity most players reserve for their primary gig. So, while the Blues Explosion takes a bit of a break and Spencer Dickenson likewise languishes by the proverbial pool, Spencer and fellow guitarist Matt Verta-Ray are taking more than a busman’s holiday with the recording of and tour support for their latest outing as Heavy Trash.

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It's been almost 21 years since Cleveland's Michael Stanley Band broke up, holding attendance records at almost every facility in the area including Blossom Music Center where, in one golden summer in the early '80s, it sold out four shows. Since then Stanley's been alternately praised as one of the city's musical treasures denied his just stardom and reviled as a local has-been whom "no one has ever heard of outside Cleveland." He's even been spoofed in a play called Michael Stanley Superstar by local comedy troupe Last Call Cleveland, which incorporated both concepts.

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It began as a quirky but sophisticated art-school gag at Kent State University 35 years ago. But Devo’s influence has continued to resonate through the years, long past its commercial peak when its 1980 hit “Whip It!” became a hit and the band’s series of distinctive, creative videos became MTV hits in the early ’80s.

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It’s certainly not unusual for a son to follow his father’s footsteps into the family business. It’s not quite as common for the father’s footsteps to be followed with an unerring exactitude that requires extensive learning and relearning. That’s been the path Dweezil Zappa has laid out for himself as he embarks on the second iteration of his Zappa Plays Zappa tour, recreating the beloved work, note for glorious note, of his obscurely famous (and often infamous) father, Frank Zappa, for new and existing generations of music fans.

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Even after 25 years of relative success, They Might Be Giants’ John Flansburgh can’t help but slip into a little momentary paranoia about the positive feedback he and musical partner John Linnell have gotten over their new album, The Else.

“It’s a very exciting moment for us just because it’s getting such a good response,” says the hyper-caffeinated Flansburgh in a phone interview. “In the past couple of months, people that we work with have pulled us aside and said, ‘Really good album,’ in this sort of conspiratorial way, which only makes you wonder if they’ve been lying to you up until now.

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After two blockbuster albums — 2001’s Room for Squares and 2004’s Heavier Things — singer-songwriter John Mayer dialed things back by releasing an album and touring with a blues-oriented group he dubbed the John Mayer Trio. Two years ago, he brought the side project to the House of Blues here for a sold-out show. But now that that’s out of his system, Mayer is back on the singer-songwriter tip and returned last year with Continuum, an album that combines the approach of his other solo albums with the blues tendencies he showed on 2005’s Try! The John Mayer Trio Live in Concert. And even though he hates the word “evolution,” that’s what stands out about Continuum.

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If you actually need proof the Grammy Awards are pathetically out of touch with the music medium they’re supposed to represent, consider 2003’s “Best New Artist” nomination for Fountains of Wayne. Welcome Interstate Managers, that year’s FoW album with the smash hit “Stacy’s Mom,” was in fact the band’s third album on a major label since 1996.

Still, as useless as the Grammys may be, at least Fountains of Wayne’s wickedly clever and ferociously catchy music was finally getting some overdue industry acknowledgment. Despite crafting tunes with reasonable mass appeal, Fountains of Wayne’s creative geniuses Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger were recognized only by a modest in-crowd of fans and critics for far too long.

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After a month-long tour opening for Josh Kelley, Northeast Ohio’s favorite up-and-coming singer-songwriter Kate Voegele made it back home for a rousing performance this past Thursday night at the House of Blues’ intimate Cambridge Room.

Positioned as a CD release party for her recently released MySpace Records debut effort, “Don’t Look Away,” the nearly 90-minute affair provided a snapshot of today and the endless possibilities for this 20-year-old’s tomorrow.

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Ian Gillan, Ray Gillen, Tony Martin and David Donato are among the vocalists who have lent their pipes to Black Sabbath. However, only two lead screamers have mattered in the band’s long and storied history: Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio.

Dio’s voice is as big as his body is small. The diminutive heavy metal maven has been belting out tales of good and evil in his Dungeons & Dragons style for more than 30 years, striking platinum on three separate occasions during his lengthy career.

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I fell for Norah Jonese long before I’d even seen her big brown eyes and hair. That honeyed sting of a voice sunk into me on the 2002 Blue Note debut Come Away With Me, as song after song had me asking, “Where are we going, Norah?” It wasn’t long before I felt like kissing somebody; luckily, my fiancé found herself under the same spell. But I didn’t tell her what thoughts lurked behind my enthusiasm. She plays piano, too?


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Los Straitjackets

Band pays tribute to obscure Mexican rockers

It took Cleveland indie rockers Machine Go Boom nearly three years to release their second album, their follow-up to 2004’s Thank You Captain Obvious. But, says band leader/frontman Mike Branick (aka Mikey Machine), the protracted gestation period that preceded the release this weekend of Music for Parents, was a blessing in disguise.

“Because it took so long other songs came up that probably wouldn’t have,” he says calling from outside the Barnes & Noble store at Crocker Park where he’s hunting down an elusive tome.

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Folk Hero
Chris Difford revisits the Squeeze catalogue

Combining some of the catchiest melodies ever written with wickedly witty lyrics, Squeeze is easily one of the most fondly remembered artifacts of late-1970s British new wave. Further inflating Squeeze’s legendary status, the band’s central songwriters, Chris Difford (lyrics) and Glenn Tilbrook (music), often get lumped with the likes of Lennon/McCartney as one of Britain’s most all-time important songwriting teams. Squeeze hits like “Tempted” and “Pulling Mussels from the Shell” were the tip of a proverbial iceberg of pop-music genius.

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