Rob Nichols

Pat Todd has been called the most sincere rock and roll singer/songwriter on the planet.  His first group, the LA-based Lazy Cowgirls, called it quits in 2004 after nearly 25 years together. Pat Todd, raised in Indiana, formed a new band, the Rankoutsiders. In them, I hear Jason and The Scorchers, the Georgia Satellites in their prime, cowpunk, and gassed up the guitars with bang-bang-bang drums, all driven in 5th gear. How had I not heard of Pat Todd until 2022?  I have no idea.  But now I have and find a need to share it with my rock and roll … Read more

The passing of Jerry Lee Lewis signifies the passing of one of the few remaining architects of rock and roll. That piano and that voice, recorded in a way that sounds like dim light, beers, AM radio rock and roll, cigarette smoke, and always the underlying idea that a fight might break out.  He made music filled with gospel roots, country music, piano boogie woogie, fire, preaching, loving, sexing, and edge-of-explosion rock and roll.  We dig into his career and find the rockabilly beginnings.  The rock and roll detonation.  The country hits.  The duets and collaborators.  And the attitude.  Always … Read more

Bar band swagger. Like many Minneapolis artists we have been talking about, there were a number of rock and roll bands that paid lots of night-after-night dues in rock clubs and van tours.  They too recorded critically-acclaimed, small-label indie albums before eventually landing a big deal. Or not. Artists – Just like Prince did – heard themselves on top 40 radio stations alongside other cuts from bands playing something different than their core sound, and artists took part of those sounds as their own.  Styles weaving into each. Grabbing something from another band and slipping that sound into their own … Read more

There are small towns known for a musical signature – a sound that you call the Bakersfield sound or the Muscle Shoals sound. There are sounds and bands and vibes tied to big cities like zydeco drums and street sounds of New Orleans, the funk and gloss of the Motown Sound of Detroit, and the stew of garage rock into new wave that was Boston.  Like the swampy soul of Memphis, the sound of the 90’s grunge and alternative rock in Seattle, and the 60’s and 70’s groove and soul with Philadelphia. There is a significant Minneapolis influence of the … Read more

This particular podcast episode found its inspiration in one of the Spotify-exclusive Rock Pop and Roll Radio Shows that we’ve made. They live on Spotify and were created to give me a chance to make an old-school radio show. Listen for 90 minutes to one and hear stories plus the whole song, something we don’t do on the podcast. A callback to the great radio of the 70’s and 80’s.   I was working on a podcast about Minneapolis roots rock/heartland rock bands and how they were oddly influential in the 1980’s musical landscape.  Then I remembered this Prince Spotify radio … Read more

Take a minute to think about Joan Jett.  More than one song.  More than just “I Love Rock and Roll”, as great as that radio song is.  She’s called “The Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “The Godmother of Punk.”   Let’s think about the rock and roll in her catalog and the influences she ultimately passed along.  In the podcast, we talk about her career and how – somehow – she’s may even be a bit undervalued as one of the rock and roll greats. Jett’s self-titled solo debut was released in Europe in 1980. In the US,  the is … Read more

The continuing story of the the echoing Influence of Tom Petty…and how Mike Campbell has taken that influence and made some magic. I hear lots of bands than dig for that bit of Petty magic within their sound. The Wild Feathers.  American Aquarium. Turnpike Troubadours. Eddie Vedder. Cody Canada. Band of Heathens.  Petty left us too early.  His influence has stayed.  I thought it would but you never know.  Some artists just have louder echoes.  And now, Heartbeakers guitarist and his band, Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs, have an album out  – released in early 2022 called External Combustion. Petty … Read more

On the weekend we recorded this, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins died. He was 50.   People are fans.  We aren’t friends.  If it feels awful or heart wrenching to fans, know his friends feel it harder and bigger and sadder. I’m a superfan of what the Foo Fighters represent. The fervor of how they play rock and roll. The satisfaction and pride they seem to feel when they are doing what they do. The Spirit of the Foo Fighters.  What he brought to them.  The fun.  The wow.  The fanboy love of rock and roll, played in the pocket … Read more

Georgia Satellites are owners of one fluke hit from their self-titled debut album – a Chuck Berry-ish throwback-for-the-80s radio.  One song amidst their bucket of barroom rockers.  Those songs don’t come around Top 40 too often anymore.  The “Once Bitten, Twice Shy” or “Jealous Again” type of songs are outliers.  So is “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”.  It rocketed all the way to #2 on the top 40 singles chart in early 1987.  Bon Jovi kept them out of the top spot with “Livin’ on a Prayer”. And why do I still think about the band?  They really weren’t anything … Read more

Huey Lewis and the News  A bar band is a good thing anyway, right?  That means they cut their chops live and can make a crowd – big or small – happy. RN Huey Lewis and the News were a bar band that was better than a bar band. That’s such a lazy way to describe a band anyway.  A bar band is a good thing anyway, right?  That means they cut their chops live and can make a crowd – big or small – happy. Lewis and the band just happened to have the songs, the performance chops, and … Read more