The BIG ROOM

The Companion Page to the Big Room O' Music Column

Welcome to The BIG ROOM! Right now, this primarily serves as an archive for older writings, including my columns and album reviews for the Ithaca Journal in 1997-1998.

Tidbit O' The Century

Elton John auditioned (unsuccessfully) to be the lead vocalist for King Crimson before his solo career. (Source: All-Music Guide.) To me, this is a little like gravity having auditioned to pull everything to the side before finally settling into its role pulling things down.

Columns

(All columns originally appeared in The Ithaca Journal, the Gannett newspaper in Ithaca, NY.)
  • Big Room Buyers' Guide to Anthologies & Compilations, pt. 1 (Jackson Browne, Little River Band, David Lee Roth)
  • NEH Records: Crest of the Next Melodic Wave (Axe, CITA)
  • NEH Records Sidebox (Harlan Cage, Sahara Snow, Storming Heaven, Glen Burtnick; all thumbnail sketches)
  • Trying Times -- An Album Review ('70s Party Killers)
  • Andrew Wood: The Kind That Moves On (Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, Temple Of The Dog)
  • Dalbello: Exposed (Whomanfoursays, She, Whore)
  • You Can Still Prog In America, pt. 1: Magna Carta (Shadow Gallery, Bozzio Levin Stevens, _Working Man_)
  • Big In Japan (Royal Hunt, Ten, Harem Scarem)
  • G3 -- Hit Or Miss? (Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, G3 Live)
  • Renaissance Records (Flash And The Pan, Crack The Sky)
  • Renaissance Records Sidebox (Steel Breeze, Balance, Lake, Spys, Keats; all thumbnail sketches)
  • Rolling On (Ric Ocasek, Elliot Easton, The Cars)
  • Excessive Violins (Jean-Luc Ponty, David Ragsdale, Mark Wood)
  • Big Surprises, Small Labels (Shotgun Symphony, Jenny Labow, Full Moon Bay)

    Individual Album Reviews

    (All of these reviews originally appeared in The Ithaca Journal.)
  • Cheap Trick -- _At Budokan: The Complete Concert_
  • Brother Cane -- _Wishpool_
  • The Storm -- _Eye Of The Storm_
  • Santana -- _The Best of Santana_
  • Blue Oyster Cult -- _Heaven Forbid_
  • _Rock And Roll Doctor: A Tribute to Lowell George_
  • Stabbing Westward -- _Darkest Days_
  • Man On Fire -- _Man On Fire_
  • Jerry Cantrell -- _Boggy Depot_
  • Joe Satriani -- _Crystal Planet_
  • Caliban -- _Caliban_
  • Shotgun Symphony -- _On The Line Of Fire_
  • Spock's Beard -- _Kindness Of Strangers_
  • Pearl Jam -- _Yield_
  • Boz Scaggs -- _My Time: A Boz Scaggs Anthology (1969-1997)_
  • Danger Danger -- _Four The Hard Way_
  • Emerson, Lake & Palmer -- _Greatest Hits Live_
  • Steve Lukather -- _Luke_
  • Soylent Green -- _Nutrient_
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