Author Archives: Bruce Sylvester

About Bruce Sylvester

Bruce Sylvester is a regular contributor to Goldmine magazine.

“Bombshell” soundtrack sings the legend of Marilyn Monroe

April 30, 2013 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

By Bruce Sylvester Beauty, talent, ambition, search for love and respect, a sudden death that may have been suicide – the legend of Marilyn Monroe (1926-62) is the stuff that icons are made of. A musical set within another musical … ►

Yazoo’s box “The Return of the Stuff That Dreams Are Made of” unearths the roots of American music.

March 3, 2013 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

“Return of the Stuff That Dreams of” presents two CDs of rustic American music from the 1920s and ’30s. ►

Remembering Patti Page with a 2003 interview

January 4, 2013 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

Patti Page, a classic voice of the 1950s, died on new year’s day at age 85. Here’s the full text of a 2003 phone interview I did with her. An abridged version was printed in Goldmine at the time. ►

Reviews of ‘The Pearl Sessions,’ ‘Live At the Carousel Ballroom’

November 9, 2012 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

An archetype of Woodstock-era rock’s self-destructive hedonism, Janis Joplin died from a shot of overly pure heroin as she neared completion of “Pearl.” ►

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival honors its fallen heroes.

October 11, 2012 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

By Bruce Sylvester The spirit of the recently departed hovered above last weekend’s 12th annual totally free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It especially honored the event’s founder and funder, Warren Hellman. North Carolina … ►

2013 blues calendar boasts audio rarities, never-before-seen artist photos

September 10, 2012 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

Blues Images’ 2013 wall calendar offers vintage illustrated ads for 1920s-30s blues recordings plus as CD of the songs whose ads on the calendar. ►

Newport Folk Festival fans the folk flame.

August 1, 2012 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

Last weekend’s Newport Folk Festival presented the future and long-ago past of American roots music. ►

Newport Folk Festival 2012 is totally sold out except for Friday’s Wilco show.

April 25, 2012 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

This July’s Newport Folk Festival is already totally sold out except for Friday evening’s show by Wilco, Blitzen Trapper, and Megafaun. ►

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival founder Warren Hellman dies.

December 20, 2011 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

By Bruce Sylvester Warren Hellman, banjoist in the Wronglers and billionaire angel of San Francisco’s annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival, died of complications from leukemia on Dec. 18. Born in Manhattan on July 25, 1934, into a family of investors … ►

San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is totally free.

September 23, 2011 | Bruce Sylvester | 0

The totally free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park presents major acts as well as relatively unknown but worthy ones. ►