The Silver Key

So the Judas Priest concert was cancelled after 70-year-old Rob Halford came down with a bad cold, but 83-year-old Gordon Lightfoot powered through on Sunday with a memorable concert at the Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, NH.
Yeah, my musical heroes are aging--check that, are aged. Or, more charitably, well-seasoned. Gordon as you'd expect has changed quite a bit vocally, losing his resonance and richness, and doesn't move too fast on stage anymore. Not sure if he ever did...

If asked a few weeks or months ago I would probably not describe myself as a heavy social media user. I had Facebook, but not Instagram or TikTok. I have a Twitter account, but one I rarely use save for business-related tweets. But, I had Facebook, and...

This Monday, April 4, I get to see the gods of metal, Judas Priest, play at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell.
Then six days later on Sunday, April 10, I go to see ... Gordon Lightfoot.
It may seem like an odd combo, a pairing that seems to attract radically different fanbases. Except that both are badasses in their own respective spheres of music, each with an unconquered spirit that can be described as metal (using that term as an...

Grim, but not Grimdark
I have said I wanted to review more modern sword-and-sorcery written by contemporary authors, and so stepped up to that promise with Skallagrim: In the Vales of Pagarna. The author is Steve Babb, a name that you might recognize as one of the founders...