The Healing and the Heroes
of the Tucson Shooting
Concert slideshow
YouTube slideshow
Do you have a special event that we should know about? Let us know! Contact Us
Uncovering the Heart of Arizona Arts
Hot guitar from Arizonan Mike Breen, available on CD Baby!
Picks of the Week
5/19, Mickey Hart
MIM Music Theater, Phoenix
5/19, Zonal Music Show
Pranksters Too, Scottsdale
May 19th Zonal Music poster below!
Recent Music and More AZ Interviews
- Tom Smothers
- Chris Bliss, Bill of Rights Comedy Show
- Neville's Dumpstaphunk
- Insiders View with Ken Skaggs: Touring with Glen Campbell
- Dan Hicks and the Hot Licks
- Mickey Hart
- Jerry Riopelle
- Ron Barber, Candidate for Gabrielle Giffords' Congressional Seat
Lissa Wale's Photos: Emotion in Motion
On Sale Now: "Sticks and Skins" dedicated to internationally known Arizona Music Photographer Lissa Wales. MusicandMoreAZ explores Lissa's work.
A Groundbreaking Triumph
of Comedy & Community
The Phoenix Bill of Rights Comedy Show
By Mariah Fleming
Last Sunday a “Who’s Who in Comedy” came together to help raise funds for Arizona’s Bill of Rights Monument. If you weren’t one of the audience members cheering and leaping up repeatedly to give standing ovations to the performers, you missed the most phenomenal comedy event in Arizona history. The Phoenix Comedy Festival Bill of Rights Show was a full house, all out smash. Every performance was triumphant, and the audience’s support and reaction exceeded all expectation.
Stars of the show, comedians Lewis Black, Chris Bliss, Bill Engvall, Bobcat Goldthwait, legendary civil rights activist Dick Gregory, Kathleen Madigan, Father Guido Sarducci, ground breaking comedy activist and icon Tommy Smothers and Steven Wright, performed a perfect, well paced, four hour show. As a special treat, Little Feat members Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett played an outstanding set of music at the beginning of the second act. Everyone appeared pro bono for the benefit.
My Conversation with Tom Smothers
By Mariah Fleming
Talking to Tom Smothers in a long phone interview is something I never expected I’d be lucky enough to do. He is a comedy legend, and a legendary activist. Watching the Smothers Brothers was beyond funny. As a kid in the 1960’s, I religiously watched the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Every week I’d turn on CBS to watch their show and be completely transfixed by consistently thought provoking and clever satire. Characters like Pat Paulsen, Super Dave Osborn and Leigh French were, without fail, fresh and full of surprises. And of course, I never got enough of watching the Smothers Brothers do their thing.
The show opened up a whole new musical and comedic universe to me, and had a profound affect on my own political consciousness. It made me ponder important issues and laugh at the same time. The courage to “speak truth to power” came alive for me on that show. Even then, I was struck by the array of wonderful talent of all stripes: music, sketch comedy, and comedians. The 1960’s were a confounding and transformative time.
The Mickey Hart Band: Astral Equals Astonishing Redux
By Mariah Fleming
To many people, The Grateful Dead epitomizes the music of a generation. For generations to come, his music will be known as the music of the universe. “Mickey Hart is nothing short of a musical genius and it shines through in everything he does,” says Jambands.com. That’s not idle praise. His Dec 2011 show at The Compound Grill was a breathtaking journey through the universe that inhabits his mind. Hart’s stunningly interesting music enthralled the audience. Complete with musical sounds pulled from the infinite reaches of our sun and mixed with a phantasmagoric light show, it was unforgettable.
Mickey Hart was one of two Grateful Dead drummers, Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. Hart played with the Grateful Dead from 1967 until its dissolution in 1995, minus a three-year sabbatical in the early 1970’s. When he has time, Hart said he still collaborates with other members of the Grateful Dead under the name The Dead. But Hart is busy with his flourishing solo career. You’ll understand why when he brings his show to the Musical Instrument Museum. The MIM is a superb environment in which to experience Hart’s cosmic musical journey.
He’ll do two performances on Saturday, May 19th at 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. Tickets are $35–$40.
