by MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES Liam Hayes shares many of the same compulsions of the classic pop auteurs we are already familiar with. Like Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, Pete Ham, or Todd Rundgren, his music ruminates with bittersweet harmonies, seductive pop melodies, and the kind [...]

BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES Sam Smith does not sound like the name of a pop star, but the man who bares the name doesn’t particularly look like one either. At the UIC Pavilion Friday, Smith was in his element: A sports stadium filled with [...]

BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES Not too long into “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,” Frances McKee forgot the words and looked to her musical partner Eugene Kelly for help. He wasn’t any. They laughed and the song ended, soon after it began, which is [...]

BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES  When singers exit bands that have sustained them most of their lives, the risks in making new music are evident: Will the audience follow? How many risks are too many? What is the invisible line between self-indulgence and taking a [...]

January 14, 2015 BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES Now that reunion tours by Pavement and Guided By Voices are over, it’s time to cue the return of The Grifters, another beloved lo-fi band from the 1990’s that similarly took inspiration in fuzz guitars, four-track recording, [...]

January 12, 2015 BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES New Orleans may be the nation’s hotspot for traditional jazz and brass bands, but one of that city’s brightest musical exports deserves greater attention there and beyond. Ted Joyner and Grant Widmer of the band Generationals have [...]

BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES The person who produced the tribute to Mavis Staples at the Auditorium Theatre Wednesday made one colossal blunder. They forgot Mavis Staples. She appeared in full force only near the end. The nearly four-hour performance was billed as an evening [...]

BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES November 11, 2014 Her new album “Stockholm” (Caroline) may be the first to bear only her name, but Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde worked with a new set of Swedish collaborators who helped energize her sound and set it on the [...]

BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES November 9, 2014 At some point in recent years, Bob Dylan, his management, or maybe just an overambitious set designer friend, conceived his music as cast from shadows, requiring minimal lighting and musical arrangements that made every song sound like [...]

BY MARK GUARINO | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES November 6, 2014 If you have attended a show in a Chicago music room over the last two decades, it’s very likely the man striking the drumkit all night was Gerald Dowd. Dowd is an anomaly in Chicago music circles [...]