News

John Barbata, the drummer who played on classic recordings by the Turtles, Jefferson Starship, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died, Rolling Stone has confirmed. He was 79.

Jefferson Starship paid tribute to Barbata on social media, writing, “We are saddened to hear of the passing of the great John Barbata, Jefferson Starship’s original drummer. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends and fans. Rock in peace, Johnny!”

The news of Barbata’s death on May 8 was first reported by Best Classic Bands. A cause of death was not immediately available.

If you’re a Gen X or “geriatric” millennial Star Wars fanatic, you probably have a story related to the contortions you had to go through to get your hands on the notorious only-aired-once 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special.

Freshman year. My college roommate Andrew brought back a bootleg tape — there has never been a legitimate release — given to him by a guy who knew a guy at his regular comic shop. We watched with breathless anticipation that turned to quizzical horror — a generational rite of passage.

Today, you can go to YouTube and take your pick from among several Star Wars Holiday Special uploads, at least one of which has remained up for seven years and has 3.6 million views. So much for taboo. So much for resourcefulness. So much for magic.

Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak’s new documentary A Disturbance in the Force captures a lot of what was...

Christmas albums now arrive in every genre — jazz, new age, country — but jam band? Other than Jorma Kaukonen’s 1996 Christmas album, not so much. That may start to change with Michael Falzarano and Extended Family’s A Kaleidoscope Christmas, a collection of original and classic yuletide songs led by the singer and guitarist known for his stints in Hot Tuna and the New Riders of the Purple Sage.

Thanks to those connections, this is a Christmas album that features guitarist Kaukonen and Falzarano’s other Hot Tuna bandmate, co-founder and bassist Jack Casady,...

Jefferson Starship have shared “It’s About Time,” a new single co-written by Grace Slick. The track appears on their upcoming EP Mother of the Sun, out August 21st.

“Old white men have had their turn,” lead singer Cathy Richardson declares in the video over blaring guitars. “Thousands of years, what have we learned?”

“I watched the Women’s March with Grace at her house back in 2017,” Richardson tells Rolling Stone. “She said, ‘This is just like the Sixties!’ and I suggested that we write a female empowerment song for the times that encapsulated the movement.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Jackson Browne, multi-Grammy award-winner Bonnie Raitt, Grammy award-winning blues artist Joan Osborne, Mickey Hart and Friends and Pura Fe & Cary Morin plus host Wavy Gravy, will celebrate the Berkeley-based Seva Foundation on January 12th at a benefit concert at the Fox Theatre in Oakland called Sing Out for Seva.

Sing Out For Seva

This event marks four decades of benefit concerts performed by celebrity artists since Seva was founded forty years ago. By expanding access to eye care in developing nations, Seva is leading the global charge to eliminate avoidable blindness within our lifetime.

Bonnie Raitt to Perform at Sing Out for Seva

Credit/Copyright: Seva Foundation

Seva’s first benefit concert was in 1979, with the Grateful Dead at the Oakland Auditorium. At that same time Seva organized the first nationwide assessment of blindness in Nepal.

Jackson Browne to Perform at Sing Out...