Gianluca Tramontana
Family Toasts John Phillips’ 66th
Actresses and singers Mackenzie, Chynna and Bijou Phillips hosted a small reception in New York on August 28th to celebrate the release of Phillips 66, their father John Phillips’ posthumous new album, two days before what would have been his sixty-sixth birthday (hence, the album’s title). The party took place at the Phillips Club on —…
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Peter Green Still Has Blues
Very quietly, blues legend Peter Green has just released Time Traders, the fifth release by his band the Peter Green Splinter Group since it began in 1996. The former John Mayall guitar player and founder of Fleetwood Mac was once a leading light of the British blues scene as well as author of some of the era’s classic tunes like…
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‘Wild Thing still gives me the chills!’ Chip Taylor
Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin and dozens more sang his songs, which spanned country, rock, R&B and beyond. Now 83 and having treatment for cancer, Taylor explains why he’s still reaching for his guitar hip Taylor is best known for a song of restless raunchiness – the three-chord groin-thrust of the Troggs’ Wild Thing…
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‘Our government sees it as cute but unimportant’
Post-revolutionary France tried to stamp it out, but working class communities kept speaking it. Now Occitan powers a vivacious and political European music scene Gianluca Tramontana It’s May Day in Marseille, and beyond the celebrations – and the ongoing protests against President Macron raising the retirement age – another smaller but just as potent group…
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Keeping France’s Occitan language alive
Post-revolutionary France tried to stamp it out, but working class communities kept speaking it. Now Occitan powers a vivacious and political European music scene It’s May Day in Marseille, and beyond the celebrations – and the ongoing protests against President Macron raising the retirement age – another smaller but just as potent group are taking…
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‘He has this brilliant ability to inspire’: John Otway
Fans of ‘Rock and Roll’s Biggest Failure’ have taken him from Top of the Pops to Cannes, and keep him touring constantly in his 70s. We head to a fan convention to find out why It’s Sunday evening at the All’s Well bar in Gibraltar and the jukebox is playing non-stop John Otway songs. The…
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‘Elvis kept following me!’ Country singer Mimi Roman
She went from rodeo queen to right-hand girl of the King – but a confrontation with the Ku Klux Klan made her shy from the spotlight. Now she’s finally ready to take her bow ‘Oh good, they didn’t send me the photograph of me and Elvis to sign.” Mimi Roman is opening mail in the…
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SWG Mini-Mekons S1 E1
The Mini-Mekons – a scaled down version of 70s UK musical art collective The Mekons is lead by Jon Langford & Sally Timms. They join me in an apartment in New York City for a fun conversation and three exclusive performances. Transcript Gianluca Welcome to the Sitting with Gianluca season opener, after years of being…
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SWG Personal David Bowie Memories From His Last Recordings
Listen some exclusive, never-been-told recollections from people that worked with him on his last two records along with an audio documentary on the closing Magic Shop recording studio he recorded in. I was granted complete access to the iconic studio in its final days and the documentary also includes some David Bowie recollections as the…
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SWG Justin Townes Earle
In honor of Justin Townes Earle, who passed away a week ago I am airing one of the conversations I had with him. I was one of the first people to ever interview Justin after his first CD and the second to interview when he came out of rehab. He lived down my street and…
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