By Todd Williams
The question is this: If there is only one original member of a band left, is it really the same band?
Generally, the answer is no. The world is full of Bill Haley’s Comets, Creedence Clearwater Revisted and the such, and although I don’t mind taking them in on Deadwood Main Street during Wild Bill Hickok Days, Kool Deadwood Nites or something along those lines, the rock snob in me won’t let me acknowledge them.
But there may (or may not) be an exception.
Pre-orders began Wednesday for the so-long-anxiously-awaited-album-that-it’s-just-downright-ridiculous “Chinese Democracy” by Guns n’ Roses. It’s an album that Axl Rose and the gang started on in the mid-1990s and promised release virtually every year since 1997 or 1998. Of course, the “gang” is all gone. In fact, a handful of them got together and formed Velvet Revolver.
So the question is, if you want to hear a good ol’ fashioned Guns n’ Roses album, do you buy “Chinese Democracy” or do you simply wait for the next Velvet Revolver album to come out?

By Eric Lochridge

I came away impressed by the Remedy Drive show at Fountain Springs Community Church on Saturday night. The room was smaller than I had imagined, and it was nearly full. I’d guess a bit less than 300 people. But the small venue was just right for the band’s big sound.
Along with a hit single at Christian radio, the band’s relentless touring is building its reputation as a top-notch rock act. Frontman David Zach has the manic stage presence of Steven Tyler melded with Bono’s heartfelt social commitment. He knows how to keep the audience engaged, and that’s as important as a tight band and strong songs, both of which are backing him up.
As great as the concert was, maybe more exciting was talking with Zach afterward. My daughter introduced herself as a guitarist, and I offered the fatherly assist of interjecting that she is also a songwriter. So the lead singer of Remedy Drive and my 10-year-old talked music for a few minutes while I snapped a picture of them together. He offered some tips on songs she could easily learn and told her that if she were ever to cover a Remedy Drive song to post it on YouTube and let him know. She was thrilled, and I was impressed that he would take the time.

By Eric Lochridge

Lucinda Williams’ new album, “Little Honey,” is out this week, which got me thinking about her last album, “West,” from 2007.
I got hooked on her music when the single “Righteously” was all over the radio a few years back. That song was from 2003’s “World Without Tears.” I loved that album (her best, in my opinion), and it led me to 1998’s “Car Wheels on A Gravel Road,” which is also lovely.

But “West” never caught me, till now. I listened to it again this week, and it’s good. Williams says “Little Honey” is her feel-good album after the dark “West.” Some of the songs on “Honey” were written at the same time as “West” but didn’t fit that album’s harsher tone.
For now, I’m liking the shadows of “West,” but I’m sure I’ll get to the brighter “Little Honey” in my own good time.

By Eric Lochridge

Bob Dylan has a new album out this week, “Tell Tale Signs: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8.” It’s a collection of alternate versions, unreleased tracks, live recordings and soundtrack material spanning 1989-2006.
I’m generally a fan of these types of collections and giving fans access to rarities and unreleased songs, but my problem with this one is how history is being rewritten to date Dylan’s artistic resurgence back to ’89.
His career appeared to be over till “Time Out of Mind” in 1997. 2001’s “Love and Theft” and 2006’s “Modern Times” continued the comeback, but his late-80s, early-90s work went largely and deservedly unnoticed. Dylan’s bootleg series is perfect for recapturing the rare nuggets from those lean years. But trying to tie those albums to the great ones he has made in the past dozen years just ain’t right.