NEWS & NOTES FROM THE WORLD OF BOOKS
Sammy Hagar - the musician, restaurateur and Tequila- maker - has found a new calling: memoirist. It Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, said it will publish the Mill Valley rocker's autobiography next year. "I've been writing this book my whole life," the onetime Van Halen singer said in a press release. "It's time to put it between two covers." Joel Selvin, former pop music writer for The Chronicle, will co-author the book.
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EXCLUSIVE:
RED ROCKERS, BIG STARS ROCK THE CABO WABO AT SAMMY'S BIRTHDAY BASH
Monday, October 10, 2011
Joel Selvin
Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Kenny Chesney stepped off his private jet last Friday and looked up to see a large banner flying from the terminal. “Sammy Hagar International Airport” it read. ...read it
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EXCLUSIVE TELEVISION REVIEW:
New Orleans Music: The Secret Story Behind HBO's 'Treme'
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Joel Selvin
Who cares about the dumb soap opera plot points? What keeps me coming back week after week to the HBO series 'Treme' is the insider's look at the New Orleans music scene. In 'What Is New Orleans,' the latest episode, the young jazz musician son of the cranky old Mardi Indian winces while his father shows New York jazz great Ron Carter how the bass part should go, right in the middle of Dr. Rudy Van Gelder's hallowed Hackensack, N.J. recording studios, as one of the musicians carefully notes. Dr. John scowls....read it
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 EXCLUSIVE REVIEW:
THE ROCK AND ROLL COWBOY WHO STAYED TRUE TO THE CODE – SHY, SICKLY BUT CHARISMATIC JOHN CIPOLLINA
Friday, December 10, 2010
Joel Selvin
San Francisco never produced a more original rock and roll character than Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cipollina. Even someone as ostensibly far-out as Jerry Garcia had to step back in awe and wonder at the colossus that was Cipollina, with his flowing locks, bat-shaped guitar and mad scientist ear trumpets atop his insane stack of amplifiers. ...read more
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EXCLUSIVE CONCERT REVIEW:
STEVE MILLER, ELVIN BISHOP, SAMMY HAGAR, OTHERS PLAY "BLUES FOR SMART ASS" AT SLIM’S
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Joel Selvin
Subjects of chapters in the new book took the stage last Tuesday at Slims to celebrate the release of "Smart Ass," a paperback doorstop weighted down with old articles of mine. Jazz great John Handy etched a soulful "Nature Boy" with a gorgeous Miller vocal. Seventy-five year-old R&B queen Sugar Pie DeSanto sang "Hi Heeled Sneakers," pulled up her dress, shook her ass, pulled some guy out of the audience and climbed all over him. "That’s what 75 is," she shouted. ...read it.
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EXCLUSIVE CONCERT REVIEW:
The Doobie Brothers at B.R. Cohn Fall Music Event in Sonoma
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Joel Selvin
Like a family picnic more than a rock concert, the Doobie Brothers, freshly reinvigorated with a new hit record, presided over the annual Sonoma Valley fundraiser this weekend run by the band’s longtime manager at his Glen Ellen compound, the B.R. Cohn Winery. ...read it.
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 EXCLUSIVE :
EARTH QUAKE VOCALIST JOHN DOUKAS, LITTLE KNOWN GREAT, DIES IN SOUTH AFRICA
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Joel Selvin
Barely known outside a few East Bay clubs where his band Earth Quake drew rabid followings, vocalist John Doukas, in front of his audience, was as powerful, persuasive and charismatic a performer as any in all of rock. He never knew the fame and fortune of Steven Tyler or Rod Stewart, but he lived the life every bit as much and possibly had more fun....read more
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 EXCLUSIVE NEWS:
CHRIS ISAAK BAND PREVIEWS NEW ALBUM AT ANOTHER S.F. "SMART ASS" SIGNING
Friday, November 5, 2010
Joel Selvin
Closing down early rehearsals for recording sessions to a new album and dragging out the acoustic gear - including the brand new bull fiddle bassist Rowland Salley bought for the sessions - to do some last-minute busking in the Bookshop West Portal, Isaak and his crew were trying to help draw a crowd for another booksigning for "Smart Ass: The Music Journalism of Joel Selvin."...read it.
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 EXCLUSIVE CONCERT REVIEW:
Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart Ponders Disco At the Fillmore
Monday, October 18, 2010
Joel Selvin
Mickey Hart, who likes to check out concerts like field trips, investigated the show by disco remix specialist Paul Oakenfold on Thursday at the Fillmore Auditorium, site of many youthful frolics for Hart and his band of merry men, the Grateful Dead.
Hart is not just another drummer from some famous ‘60s rock band. He has done more than anyone to expose in America drummers from other cultures – India, Brazil, Egypt, Africa, Japan. He wrote – or supervised teams of writers and researchers who produced – three well-regarded books about the history of percussion. ...read it.
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 EXCLUSIVE CONCERT REVIEW:
Nick Lowe & Elvis Costello at The Great American Music Hall
Friday, October 1, 2010
Joel Selvin
Nick Lowe shook his head. “Fabulous reading,” he said, blown away like every other fan in the house, only with a better seat. Lowe stood on stage Friday at the Great American Music Hall and watched his old mate Elvis Costello sit at the piano and transform Lowe’s “I’m a Mess,” from his 2001 album “The Convincer,” into a heart-scraping, wrenching cry of despair.
“Fabulous reading,” he repeated, as amazed as everyone else at the sold out benefit. ...read it.
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