No one poll is ever going to satisfy everyone, no matter the publication. Also, the poll results weren't arrived at by "drug addict magazine writers", they were voted on by musicians. From RollingStone.com: THE VOTERS: Trey Anastasio, Dan Auerbach (The Black Keys), Brian Bell (Weezer), Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), James Burton, Jerry Cantrell (Alice in Chains), Gary Clark Jr., Billy Corgan, Steve Cropper, Dave Davies (The Kinks), Anthony DeCurtis (Contributing editor, Rolling Stone), Tom DeLonge (Blink-182), Rick Derringer, Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), Elliot Easton (The Cars), Melissa Etheridge, Don Felder (The Eagles), David Fricke (Senior writer, Rolling Stone), Peter Guralnick (Author), Kirk Hammett (Metallica), Albert Hammond Jr. (The Strokes), Warren Haynes (The Allman Brothers Band), Brian Hiatt (Senior writer, Rolling Stone), David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Lenny Kravitz, Robby Krieger (The Doors), Jon Landau (Manager), Alex Lifeson (Rush), Nils Lofgren (The E Street Band), Mick Mars (Mötley Crüe), Doug Martsch (Built to Spill), J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.), Brian May, Mike McCready (Pearl Jam), Roger McGuinn (The Byrds), Scotty Moore, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), Tom Morello, Dave Mustaine (Megadeth), Brendan O’Brien (Producer), Joe Perry, Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Robbie Robertson, Rich Robinson (The Black Crowes), Carlos Santana, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Marnie Stern, Stephen Stills, Andy Summers, Mick Taylor, Susan Tedeschi, Vieux Farka Touré, Derek Trucks, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Walsh, Nancy Wilson (Heart)

Adam Lambert Confirms He Will Sing With Queen

It's called having a difference in musical taste.

More on his passing from David Menconi, music scribe for the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina.

http://youtu.be/pIilq3JdCT4

Roy gets quite a bit of airplay on XM's Deep Tracks channel so he gets lots of love there. Same for Rory Gallagher.

Ryan Adams covering Dio, the music starts at around 1:40. http://youtu.be/qFf8iwQG958

The real Blackfoot.

Alison Krauss and Union Station covering the theme song from The Simpsons on the occasion of the 500th episode of the show. http://youtu.be/-fdfJoui3R8

Kurt Cobain would have been 45 today so here's a video of Nirvana doing an in-store in support of Nevermind at Off the Record in San Diego, CA on October 24th, 1991. http://youtu.be/9SxQSwD8Az0 "This was supposed to be an acoustic show, with instruments supplied by the record store, but since they didn't have any left-handed guitars, the band ended up using their own instruments and playing an electric set"__NLG 0:19 Dumb (cuts in) 3:19 Here She Comes Now 6:31 About A Girl 9:32 Polly 13:20 On A Plain 16:40 Been A Son 19:05 Band signing autograph

I don't care for a lot of the Eagles material but out of all of it, it's some of the earlier material that I actually care for (or at least used to). As for "Hotel California", it may be a great song to somebody but I can say without a doubt that I would be just fine without ever having to hear it again for the rest of my life. Perhaps it isn't a bad song, it's just that I've heard it far too many times already and I'm quite alright with never having to hear it again. When it comes to Walsh vs. Felder, that may well be so but I'm still a much bigger fan of the James Gang than I am of the Eagles.

Even though the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival that's held annually out in San Francisco has been mentioned here pretty frequently (mainly due to Robert Plant performing there), I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned the passing of the man that put it on (for free, no less), millionaire Warren Hellman. In his honor, lots of veterans of Hardly Strictly got together yesterday out in San Francisco to remember him. The concert was free and streamed live over the internet. More on Hardly Strictly (which will continue this Fall as usual) here. 02/19/2012 - San Francisco, CA 1. The Weight (All-Star Band) 2. Speeches by Warren Hellman's family 3. I'll Fly Away (The Go To Hell Man Clan) 4. Big Rock Candy Mountain (The Go To Hell Man Clan) The All-Star Band included Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Buddy Miller, David Rawlings, Steve Earle, and Old Crow Medicine Show.

I often refer to it as "the 9/11 of Rock n' Roll" as the first thing I do to this day when I enter a nightclub (or any venue) is to look for the exits. I still cringe when I think back to that night in 2003 when 100 people died at that Great White concert at The Station in Rhode Island. I feel for their families, the owners and Great White themselves. People love to point fingers and place blame but that is beside the point. That's not to say that no one is to blame because someone certainly was but the bottom line is, it could have happened anywhere or to any of us that frequently attend concerts. Nine years later, David Bettencourt, a filmmaker from Rhode Island, is making a documentary about that tragic evening which he hopes to have ready for release next year on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the fire. If you are interested in reading more about the documentary you can do so here.

Great skit that aired on Saturday Night Live over the weekend. Unfortunately the clip has been pulled from YouTube for legal reasons so I can't post it here but I can provide this link.

The last true rock n' roll station in this area (Raleigh, NC), 96 Rock, recently did away with all of their on air personalities. I hardly listened anyway but I'm definitely not going to listen now. Thankfully, this area is blessed with lots of great college radio stations such as WXDU (Duke), WXYC (UNC) and WKNC (NCSU) but it would be nice to have a true AOR station again such as WQDR and WRDU. Strangely enough, both of those stations went Country. A few weeks ago I visited with some folks I used to work in radio with and we visited a station where one of them now works. Hardly anything is done live on the air, the announcers all use the "voice tracking" system where all of their breaks are pre-recorded. In fact, the formats are prepackaged software programs that are loaded onto the stations computers. The only customization is the voice tracking and the addition of commercials. Otherwise, everything is completely automated, there is no real need for live announcers. Then again, I listen almost exclusively to satellite radio where nothing is live. The difference is, they have the freedom to stretch out musically by playing deep album tracks as well as very lengthy songs. There are also no concessions towards censorship, they can play pretty much whatever they want. Meanwhile, commercial radio has become so cookie cutter that it's lost all it's attraction to me as a listener. Thankfully, there are alternatives such as satellite radio and listening to stations via the internet that still have some balls when it comes to programming.

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I have no doubt but actual album rock stations have become the exception these days rather than the rule. That goes not just for rock n' roll radio stations but for other genres as well. I have a friend that works in radio that said when he drove back to North Carolina from Colorado recently he made it a point to tune in some of the stations owned by the company he worked for and all of them sounded exactly the same. Used to, album rock stations had some true depth to them as well as character because they had their own on air personalities and weren't front loaded with syndicated programming as so many stations are today.

I feel fortunate to have grown up during the time period when there were still AOR stations because they actually lived up to their name by playing deep album cuts. You just don't get that with Classic Rock radio, unless you like hearing "Stairway To Heaven", "Freebird" and "Smoke On the Water" for the umpteenth time. So much great music slips through the cracks, such as this one from Pete Townshend's White City concept album.

I'm much more excited about the prospect of Joe Walsh reuniting with the James Gang this year.

I saw them on the last one in 2008 so I'm going to pass this time. If it's anything like that previous tour, I think it would be worth it to see them now. I mean that from a historic viewpoint, not a monetary one. A friend gave me a ticket to that 2008 concert, otherwise I probably wouldn't have gone. You can probably find some tickets at a reasonable price but most likely it'll be in the nosebleed section. I love me some Dave-era Van Halen but not enough to pay $100 or more to see them.

I've only listened to it a couple of times but so far I'm really liking it. I've heard some say they like it better than The Weight Is A Gift (my favorite). I'm not sure if I'd go that far but I do like it better than their last one, the all covers record If I Had A Hi-Fi.