By Rob Nagy

For power punk pop band "Cartel" success has been a series of challenges taking the group closer to the doorstep of superstardom with each passing year. With the average age of the band only twenty-five Cartel has already produced an impressive catalog of songs with the best still to come. Relying on their talent, direction and focus, the sky is the limit for these already seasoned veterans. Fresh off the road, performing a series of college concerts and spring festivals, Cartel is heading back into the studio to put the finishing touches on their third album before hitting the summer concert trail.

Hailing from suburban Atlanta, Georgia, band members Will Pugh (vocals and guitar), Joseph Pepper (guitar), Nic Hudson (guitar), Kevin Sanders (drums) and Ryan Roberts (bass), Roberts was replaced by Jeff Lett in 2006, formed Cartel in 2003 while attending Georgia State University. One year later they released their first EP "The Ransom" followed by their full length debut "Chroma". The bands high energy pop alternative punk sound caught on with the teenage and college crowd placing them on Alternative Press's 2005 list of "Bands You Need to Know" and Yahoo! Music's winner in the "Who's Next" competition. A major recording contract soon followed when the band signed with Epic Records in 2006. National and international tours followed finding Cartel sharing the stage with "New Found Glory", "Early November", "Cobra Starship" and "Boys Like Girls", just to name a few, both as a headliner and co-bill through-out the U.S. Japan and Australia. Epic Records recognized the future of a band on the rise and re-released their debut "Chroma" packaged with their live EP "Live Dudes". In the summer of 2008 Cartel parted company with Epic Records signing with Wind Up Records. "We are very excited to have signed with Wind-up Records" says Pugh. "The overwhelmingly positive familial atmosphere of the label has us looking forward to what is certain to be a lasting and successful relationship. We're extremely eager to begin this new chapter in the life of Cartel. With a new label home firmly secured and fresh winds filling our sails we foresee bigger and better opportunities for us to continue to grow and thrive as a band, while building off the same foundational elements that we have always embraced, hard work, endless touring, good vibes and fantastic fan-friendly relations." Over the past year the band has spent more time off the road, writing and preparing for their new release scheduled for a fall 2009. "We've been in the studio during the week and on the weekend we've had shows", says Sanders. Now that we are about to go off the road and focus completely on the album it will be twelve hour days. I am looking forward to putting my head down and just go. I look forward to getting in there, getting a good rhythm and busting it out. For me this is the best part of being in a band", added Sanders. "It's a nice amalgamation of the last two records", says Pugh. "We are trying to consolidate everything and make it powerful the whole way through rather than having little resting points trying to take your breath away the whole time." Pepper added, "There's a solid fifteen nuggets of gold that we hope will pop into shinier nuggets of gold." For a band wiser than their years Cartel has the talent and the attitude to take them as far as they want to go. They are focused on their music objectives while not forgetting the hard work and growing fan base that has made everything possible. "I don't think any of us expected this", says Pugh. "I think we just wanted it so bad and dreamed about it so much that it just kind of happened. I feel like any hard time we've gone through is just another obstacle to overcome. We're incredibly lucky." With an ever changing music climate the business seems to change daily forcing artists to consistently reevaluate their focus and direction. "While in some respects it has gotten easier for bands", says Pugh, It has gotten a lot harder because there are so many more bands." Pepper added, "The attention span of people is short. Songs aren't really timeless anymore. It's so easy for people now to have songs. So a guy or girl can sing and you get a team of songwriters. They get a single and they're big for as long as the song is on the radio and once that's gone there's another American Idol that will take that persons spot and so on." Our prediction is that albums will be gone and we'll be back to single formats", says Sanders. "It saddens most musicians but to everyone else it's like 'Just give me one song.'"

On May 3, 2009 Cartel played an all ages show to a capacity crowd of teenagers and early twenty something's at The Note in West Chester, PA. Coming off a successful set at the annual Bamboozle Festival in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just the day before, Cartel was in great form performing a seventy five minute set featuring songs from all of their releases as well as a few cover songs. Following this show Cartel will take a break from the road to return to New York City to compete their impending release. Look for Cartel to return to Philadelphia when they play the Electric Factory with "All Time Low" on July 12, 2009. To stay up to date with Cartel go to www.myspace.com/cartel

Photo by Rob Nagy

Promoting new release

By Rob Nagy


It is hard to believe that it has been more then twenty-five years since the L.A. based band “Wall of Voo Doo” emerged onto the new wave pop scene with their smash alternative hit “Mexican Radio”. Anchored by front man Stan Ridgway, Wall of Voo Doo quickly became a phenomenon on the newly launched MTV as well as main stream FM and college radio through-out the U.S. and abroad. Wall of Voo Doo went on to enjoy a six year career before Ridgway departed to pursue a solo career. Having now surpassed more then three decades as a songwriter and recording artist Ridgway, who has been referred to as, “The David Lynch of pop music”, is at it again fronting “Stan Ridgway’s Wall of Voo Doo with his latest release “Desert of Dreams” waiting in the wings with an anticipated summer 2009 release.

Ridgway’s climb to fame started in 1977 when he and his fellow band mates embarked on a musical journey under the name of “Acme Soundtracks”, focusing on music soundtrack work for low budget

Sci-fi horror films. Their efforts soon evolved into what became Wall of Voo Doo. They released their self-titled debut in 1980 followed by their first full length album. Exhausting the L.A. club scene and beyond, Wall of Voo Doo struck gold with their 1982 album release “Call of the West”, which included Mexican Radio. “We wanted it to happen”, recalls Ridgeway. “But in some ways it was kind of accidental. It’s was always the design of the band to have a top forty avant garde single, but we wanted to kind of do something different or original. That was really the whole idea.” In no time Wall of Voo Doo was an MTV sensation receiving heavy exposure on the all music video channel. “Radio in America was pretty closed down playing the established thing”, recalls Ridgeway. “It was very hard for anybody new to get in there. When MTV started up they didn’t really have any videos so we made one and they played it a lot. People saw our video and they would call radio stations and want to hear it on the radio. It was almost like MTV was telling radio what to do.” One year later Ridgway left the band following their appearance at the US Festival. Ridgway achieved some commercial success with the release of his 1985 debut “The Big Heat” yielding the hits “Drive She Said” and “Salesman”. His efforts yielded rave critical reviews noting, “That he had managed to maintain the distinctive vocal and musical style of Wall of Voo Doo while maintaining his individuality.” From 1989 to 1992 Ridgeway continued to enjoy charting success, particularly in Europe, with the single “Calling Out to Carol”, “Roadblock” and “I Wanna Be a Boss”. Ridgway’s songwriting talents caught the attention of the film industry with his songs used in the soundtrack of the films “Pump up the Volume” and “Slamdance”. “I tend to see a song as being images mixed with feelings or declarations of things”, says Ridgeway. “More like a movie or a story or a play other then a diary of emotional events that don’t have a picture to them.” Frequently teaming up with legendary Police drummer Stewart Copeland, Ridgeway furthered his career landing his songs in the films “Rumblefish”, “Sympatico” and “Pecker”. With a decade of radio and film scoring success under his belt, Ridgeway released a greatest hits compilation, “Songs That Made This Country Great”, featuring his best songs, Wall of Voo Doo material and some obscure lesser known compositions.

Still based in L.A., Ridgway continues to enjoy the rewards of his success while attempting to break new ground. “My wife, Pietra and I run our own little empire of ants”, says Ridgway. “We enjoy music. That’s what we do and we do things to keep playing music and touring. This current tour has been a preview of the new record ‘Desert of Dreams’. We are also taking a lot of the older material and working it down to an acoustic level.” Having gone full circle Ridgway has become quite content with his place in music. “I get a lot more out of it now because there’s less problems, less things in the way”, says Ridgway. “With a record company or people like that, they’re not evil, they’re not bad. It’s just that there are so many opinions coming at you that you have to satisfy, a musician can feel they’re last in line. Without that the quickest way to do anything is just don’t ask anybody’s opinion, you just do it and put it out.”

Most recently Ridgway and Wall of Voo Doo played to an enthusiastic crowd of fans at Philadelphia’s World Café Live. Gracing the stage for more than two hours, Ridgway fronted a three piece band, which included his wife Pietra Wexstun on keyboards. He looked every bit the seasoned troubadour dressed in black and sporting a Stetson hat. Much of the performance included songs from his soon to be released “Desert of Dreams” as well as Wall of Voo Doo classics “Mexican Radio”, “Call of the West”, and a remake of “Ring of Fire”. Look for Ridgway to play Europe and the U.S. this summer in support of the new album “Desert of Dreams”, which is scheduled for a July 2009 release.

For more info on Stan Ridgway and Wall of Voo Doo go to www.stanridgway.com www.myspace.com/officialstanridgway For future shows at World Café Live go to www.worldcafelive.com

Photo by Rob Nagy

By Rob Nagy

For John Lilley, life has been anything but dull. Since first strapping on a guitar, Lilley’s adventure has placed him on concert stages all over the world, television, music videos, the historic Live Aid and Berlin Wall concerts playing alongside many of rock and rolls biggest names. As he approaches nearly three decades as a member of Philadelphia’s Hooters, Lilley is set to spread his wings as he embarks on his first solo effort in years fronting the John Lilley Project. With a series of lives dates under his belt and a new album in production, he is ready to share his music with the world.

As an original member of Robert Hazard and the Heroes, Lilley wasted no time showcasing his guitar skills on Hazard’s 1981 self titled debut paving the way for even bigger and better opportunities. Following his departure from Robert Hazard, the Hooters, who were on the verge of breaking big nationally, wasted no time enlisting Lilley’s talents. He appeared on the bands 1983 independent debut “Amore” followed by national releases “Nervous Night” (1985), “One Way Home”(1987), “Zig Zag” (1989) and “Out of Body”(1993). Lilley and company performed at the original 1985 Live Aid concert in Philadelphia, the Amnesty International Concert at Giants Stadium in 1986 and 1990’s Berlin Wall concert in Germany. With all the glory and accolades of being a rock star there is the reality that everything runs its own course and eventually comes to an end. By 1995 the Hooters had reached their plateau and amicably took a lengthy hiatus, with band members moving into a varied directions. Lilley found himself exhausted and in need of a break from the music business. He abruptly put down the guitar indefinitely and eventually found himself a business owner working as a landscape and design artist catering to upscale clients. While Lilley was very talented and financially successful in his new venture, music would eventually knock on his door again. In 2001 radio legend Pierre Robert was planning his twentieth anniversary celebration at the WMMR by hosting a concert at the Philadelphia Spectrum. A long time friend of Lilley’s and the rest of the band, Robert enlisted the talents of the Hooters to headline the event. This was the first time the band would play together on stage since taking their six year hiatus.. On the heels of this one show Lilley’s urge to once again play music was too strong to ignore. He picked up his guitar and noticed a newly charged and reinvigorated artist emerging. Lilley found himself playing in his home recording studio at all hours of the night creating, what he poetically referred to as “The awakening of this sleepy musical cowboy”. While Lilley wants to see where this new direction will lead, he doesn’t want to sound like everyone else and get lost in a sea of artists many of whom sound the same. “I don’t want to be a singer songwriter, which I call, ‘Singer songwiners’”, says Lilley. “I want to develop a character, which I’m quickly discovering and is kind of neat and people don’t really know. The songs are personal about stuff that happens and how you look it. It’s scary and unnerving being the front guy. I’m used to being the book between the two bookends, like the Hooters. They do all the talking I don’t have to say anything. I’ve got none of that now. It’s kind of going back to where I started years ago. “With the Hooters I’m not locked to a microphone”, says Lilley. “Now I’m finding out what that’s like. It’s really a lot of fun.” While touring and recording with the Hooters, months of writing songs and rehearsing his own band Lilley started to test the waters playing shows at small hundred seat venues around South Jersey and the Philly suburbs. His four piece band, includes Tom Hampton on guitar, Fred DiTomasso on bass, Rick Bell piano/organ and Tommy Geddes on drums. Lilley has been pleasantly surprised with the warm reception he has been receiving. Having experienced being at the top and the bottom, with a lot of in between, Lilley is not naive when it comes to work involved in what he is now involved in fronting his own band. “Right now the state of the music business is just so whacky”, says Lilley. “What’s the right thing to do? To do it on your own you have to get a distributor. Then you gotta promote it. I don’t have a huge machine behind me, right now it’s just me doing everything. I am calling clubs and saying, ‘Hey this is John Lilley from the Hooters and I’ve got this band. I’d like to come play your club do you have any open dates? I haven’t had a problem yet, not in four times. I’d like to play some shows in the city but I’d like to play outside the city to really shake the cobwebs out, dust it off, polish it up a bit. This will never be a machine but I want to keep it fun. I love playing the small places, 100, 150 people. I like the intimacy of it. I’m testing the waters doing these shows right now.” Of course with a band and doing live shows comes the promotional tool, making a record, needing to spread the word on a larger scale. “I want to make a proper record”, says Lilley. “I want to have something on the radio. I want to be able to have something for my fans to buy and something I can be proud of. I am still writing songs and seeing what works on stage and what doesn’t. I am hoping to have something released by April of this year.” As if playing with the Hooters and doing his own solo gig isn’t enough, Lilley has given private guitar instruction for years and continues to do so out of his West Chester studio. “I teach guitar privately”, says Lilley, “I enjoy doing that. I have some great guitar students and I find it incredibly rewarding getting into people’s heads, learning how other people comprehend things. When they hit their own personal musical walls I help them break through it. I really get so much out of teaching.” With such an impressive career already Lilley has nothing to prove to anyone but himself and, perhaps, his fans. When you turn fifty everything changes and not just your eye sight”, says Lilley. “You kind of learn to say “No” but then you also learn to say “Yes” to things. I am being myself. I’m very comfortable doing this right now because it’s so new. It’s my thing and I am very excited about that. I really have a great life.”

for more info on John Lilley go to www.johnlilley.com, www.myspace.com/johnlilleymusic, or www.reverbnation.com/johnlilley

Photo by Rob Nagy

By Rob Nagy

It has been more then thirty-five years since the Marshall Tucker Band emerged onto the music scene with their 1973 self titled debut. As the opening act for the Allman Brothers that same year, they were soon headlining their own shows making the Marshall Tucker Band a musical force to be reckoned with both on record and on stage. Now with years of rigorous touring under their belt, the Marshall Tucker Band has earned the respect of music critics and a built a loyal and dedicated fan base. Having released the hit singles “Heard It In a Love Song,” “Fire On The Mountain,” “Can’t You See,” and “Take The Highway,” The Marshall Tucker Band has earned seven gold and three platinum albums. During the 90’s, the band released four hit singles on Billboard’s country chart and one on Billboard’s gospel chart. Their music has even reached Hollywood as a part of the soundtrack for the films “Smokey and the Bandit”, “The Pursuit of D.B. Cooper”, and “Shipwrecked”. Having now played concert stages all over the world many times over, the Marshall Tucker Band is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. While the bands current line-up is not all original members, they have managed to maintain their musical integrity by adding musicians with impressive musical backgrounds in their own right. Their current line-up consists of founding member Doug Gray(lead vocals), David Muse (keyboards, sax and flute), B.B. Borden (drums, Stuart Swanlund (guitar), Pat Elwood (bass) and Clay Cook (guitar). Gray is quick to credit the band’s current roster carrying on that timeless Marshall Tucker Band sound. “The buying public never really cared whether we were country or rock and roll”, says Gray. “They called us a Southern rock band, but we have always played everything from country to blues and all things in-between. We’re still playing all of the classic songs, but we are moving ahead into other styles as well. We’re also playing for a younger audience than we have in the past, perhaps to the kids of the fans we played in front of in the 70’s and 80’s.” Gray added, “People have gotten ‘married and buried’ to classic Marshall Tucker Band songs like “Desert Skies” and “Can’t You See”. While numerous bands have come and gone the Marshall Tucker Band has stayed in the trenches playing to a dedicated audience of fans. “We never play less than 150 shows a year”, says Gray. “Sometimes we play as many as two hundred. We feel we owe it to the fans who have supported us through the years to deliver the music in person.” Gray added, “As we’ve become older our Southern heritage seems to come out even more. But no matter how old we get, we can still rock your socks off.”

For more info on the Marshall Tucker Band go to www.marshalltucker.com or www.myspace.com/themarshalltuckerband Tickets to this Saturday nights show at the Sovereign Performing Arts Center in Reading, PA can be purchased in person at the theatre box office or by calling (610)898-7200.

Photo by Rob Nagy

By Rob Nagy

In the early 1980’s the Philly rock scene was a sea of talent featuring artists like the A’s, the Hooters, Smash Palace, John Eddie and Robert Hazard and the Heroes. Hazard seemed to come out of nowhere becoming the darling of the local club scene heightened by the support of the city’s top rock station WMMR.
In 1981, while playing J.C. Dobbs on South Street, Hazard and his Heroes were given national attention when Rolling Stone Magazine writer Kurt Loder happened upon the band while in town to cover the opening date of the Rolling Stones tour the next day. Loder gave Hazard a rave review praising the band, which only furthered the cause, ultimately Hazard landed a major record deal. In 1982 Hazard released his much anticipated independent self titled EP, which featured regional hits “Escalator of Life”, “Change Reaction” and “Out of the Blue”. Hazard was soon opening up for national rock acts eventually signing with RCA Records. In 1983 Hazard gained national attention when Cyndi Lauper recorded “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”, a song Hazard wrote in fifteen minutes while sitting in the bath tub at a Delaware motel. Hazard’s 1984 national debut release, “Wing of Fire”, was a disappointment for both Hazard and his record label. Lack of radio support and album sales found the band eventually being dropped and returned to the ranks of an independent artist. By the mid eighties Robert Hazard and the Heroes had run their course and band members went their separate ways. Hazard persevered, releasing “Darlin’ in 1986, which again, did not grab the attention of radio or the record buying public. Delving into country and western and folk, his true passions, Hazard continued to write songs performing whenever and wherever possible. Over the next ten years he drifted in and out of the music business, but he was never far from his guitar. More than a decade since his last record, Hazard released “Howl” in 1998, which did not get gain him much needed exposure. Frustrated by the record business altogether, Hazard relocated to Florida then to upstate New York where he remained. Older, wiser and with no grand illusions, Hazard wrote without abandon and in 2003 Hazard released the first of three outstanding solo efforts, “Seventh Lake”, taking him back to his roots as a true folkie, a music style that he was most comfortable with and best suited him. One year later he released “Blue Mountain” and in 2007, what turned out to be his last and most impressive record “Troubadour”. Hazard had gone full circle and found great comfort and solace in his identity as an artist and as a human being. Sadly, Hazard tragically succumbed to pancreatic cancer on August 5, 2008 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is survived by his wife Susan, his two sons and daughter.

On Friday March 27, 2009 a variety of regional singer/ songwriters will converge on Cape May’s Congress Hall to pay tribute to Robert Hazard the man and the artist. Performers include Fred DiTomasso, who will also be emceeing the event, Jan Ward, Tom Hampton, Tom Geddes, J.D. Malone, B.D. Mylo, Kelly Carvin and Nik Everett. The program will feature guest speakers and accoustic performances of some of Hazard’s best known songs by the noted artists. The festivities start promptly at 5:30 P.M. and will end no later than 6:45 P.M. The events publicist Kat Falcey ofTunes2ya.com, a musical public relations service for musicians worldwide feels this tribute to be bittersweet. “I had the brief pleasure to work with Robert Hazard from April 2008 up to his passing in August” says Falcey. “There isn't a day that goes by, that I do not have him in my thoughts. By keeping his music alive and heard, I just know that this would have made him the happiest and even though he had accomplished so much musically there was so much more he wanted to pursue. I am honored that Susan Hazard and John Harris reached to me to organize this tribute and I just know that Robert would have been all smiles knowing how very much we all care about him and miss him and we will always cherish his time with us all. Copies of Robert Hazard’s last album “Troubadour” will be available for sale. All proceeds from this event will go to charity. For more info go to www.myspace.com/sscapemay or www.sscapemay.com