General

Newly promoted to Keyboard Correspondent for Rubber City Review, Brother Jack is back with this look at the wonderful Otis Spann – a true giant of the blues piano… If you were looking to [...]

Several posts ago, we waxed poetic about Cincinnati’s King Records – home to legendary American artists ranging from the Stanley Brothers to James Brown.  But King wasn’t the only act in town.  [...]

Here’s another “Editors’ Pick” from blogcritics.  It asks the important questions: Would Don Draper approve of the Big-O jingle?  And, can one company bring happiness and [...]

I have this theory about the Beach Boys… that people who live in northern, land-locked areas, where it’s brutally cold nearly half of the year, have little patience for their well-crafted odes to [...]

Every year I get together with five or six of my high school buddies – as well as assorted spousal units and special guests – for a party at my friend’s alpaca farm just outside of a small town [...]

In the early 1980s, I lived in Cincinnati and edited one of those free entertainment newspapers you see blowing through the streets of big cities throughout the country.  The following piece [...]

‘Tis the season for holiday music playlists.  As “the guy who collects music,” I’ve received a number of Christmas-mix CDs over the years from friends, co-workers and family members.  And, sad to [...]

Brother James is a fine-art photographer based in St. Augustine, FL.  Since 1999, he has had unusual access to the people and places of Cuba.  Often riding in the sidecar of an old Russian [...]

I love the sound of a Hammond B3 doing a slow-boil under the bluesy guitar of Grant Green or Kenny Burrell, or wrapped around a warm, soulful sax.  But there’s a thin line between the best of [...]

Break out the Champipple!  Our fledgling operation is celebrating its 10th post with an “Editors’ Pick” from blogcritics.org for this little number on Nick Hornby’s new [...]

Since Brother Jack did such a great job of taking us down to New Orleans in his last post on James Booker, I decided to stay there – and offer up a few of my favorite examples of Crescent City [...]

Brother Jack takes us from the Rubber City down to New Orleans — home of the world’s greatest piano players and the gonzo king who ruled them all, James Booker.  Jack also gives us a [...]

Dear Tim:  I can appreciate your interest in long-deceased artists, but when are you going to start writing about real living, breathing musicians – preferably those who don’t qualify for AARP?  [...]

I used to spend countless hours combing record stores (remember those?) for rare blues and R&B.  On one such occasion, I was convinced that the ganja-impaired proprietor was playing one of [...]

Bluesman Little Walter was the troubled genius of Chess Records.  But when it came to just plain crazy, it was hard to top Walter’s label-mate, Bo Diddley, who recorded some of the most [...]

Greetings from Carefree, AZ… where they like to point out “it’s a ‘dry’ heat.” I’m using this brief respite from the Rubber City as an opportunity to read yet [...]

The cover song is a proud musical tradition – and it dates back centuries. Let’s face it, many popular tunes and entire forms of music wouldn’t exist today without the act of appropriating [...]

Welcome to Rubber City Review.  It’s not intended to be Akron-centric, but I should probably kick things off by asking the question:  When it comes to roots-rock and other mutant forms of modern [...]

Editor/Writer: Tim Quine Contributors: — Kevin Swan, Fly Fishing Correspondent — James Quine, Florida Correspondent/Convention Planner — Jack Quine, Keyboard Correspondent Web [...]