MusicFridayLive | Music Junkie Press

Amy Loftus gives us new songs at Molly Malone’s in her sweet, easy way.

March 8, 2016

(Los Angeles) I have been listening to LA-based country singer Amy Loftus for over a year now. She appeared on my radio show last May to announce the release of her most recent album, That Whole Entire Time. She completely charmed the audience – and me – with her glowing voice and welcoming manner. She was the girl next door who happened to sing brilliantly, play the guitar and front a kick-ass country rock band. Well, it turns out she is the girl next door – or just a mile or so away from our studio — so I decided to make the short trip to the legendary Molly Malone’s in Hollywood to see her live. Was I ever happy I did! Amy’s seven-song set, delivered in her sweet, easy way, put my mind in pillows and carried me away to many, many nice places. Perched on a dark stage, her gold-silver hair shinning in a single spotlight, Amy welcomed us, appropriately with “Hello”, a new song that took full advantage of her angelic [Read More]

Two-thirds of John the Gun sit down for a chat about life, death and being a sea captain. By Patrick O’Heffernan

February 23, 2016

Tucked away in the northern New Jersey music scene with an occasional foray into venues in New York City, the alt rock trio John the Gun weaves highly sophisticated arrangements and metaphorical lyrics into soul-satisfying hard rock. They have released about a dozen tracks, 10 of them collected into an album called Tread Eternal and they are now gearing up to make some national noise with appearances and social media. We recently caught up with two-thirds of the band – guitarist and vocalist John Cusaman and bass player Dan Jernick who also does backup vocals – for a conversation about life, death and being a sea captain. Patrick. Where did the name come from and what is the evolution story of the band? John. John the Gun started out as an old twitter handle of mine taken from the Sandy Denny song and a minor character in the movie “Snatch” – we are all big movie buffs. The band started as a solo project under my name. I recorded an album by [Read More]

A red hot Maggie Szabo releases “Forgive and Forget” and road tests a new album. By Patrick O’Heffernan

February 23, 2016

(Hollywood). I love going to release parties, especially parties to celebrate the release of a new single or a video because you know you are going to get more than just the release. “More” is exactly what Maggie Szabo delivered Friday night at The Loft on the 12th floor of the W Hollywood Hotel. Billed as a BalconyTV party to celebrate the release of her new single and video, “Forgive and Forget”, she gave us a set list of new, never- heard-before songs. Why new songs? Because she was road testing them – that’s how Maggie operates: she is patient, she road tests her music with her fans and she gets it right. She got “Forgive and Forget” right. I first heard her perform it in a road test gig at the Hotel Café almost a year ago, I realized that she had moved to a whole new level, as I said in my review . But the performance Friday night was also a new level for the Canadian-born LA-transplant soul pop singer, even [Read More]

A conversation with bluesman David M’Ore: Passion, Soul and Fire. By Patrick O’Heffernan

February 12, 2016

(Anaheim, CA) Guitar pyrotechnics are no longer rare in blues or rock these days. Most lead guitarists can and do shred hot licks in the middle of blues and rock songs, giving audiences a bit of an electric thrill. But there is a difference between hot and heavy guitar shredding and chops that come from the heart and not just the fingers. One delivers electricity, the other delivers emotion along with the energy. This is what David M’Ore does; he delivers 6-string heart and lightening like no one else. His guitar playing and his corrugated voice encapsulate decades of blues, rock, R&B, acid, metal – everything about music that pierces the heart as well as the muscles. You can dance to M’Ore’s blues, but you can also meditate to them. Some call him a mystical guitar man from a bygone era. But this Argentine-born, world-raised virtuoso guitarist and singer/songwriter is in many ways on the cutting edge of the modern blues movement. He has created a blues style with his custom-made Fender Strats that [Read More]

Matthew Hager: Halo Circus to launch summer tour with crowdsource startup RoadNation.

February 9, 2016

Patrick O’Heffernan (Pasadena, CA). “The system is broken, that’s why we are doing this. We have to put the power back in the hands of the fans and the artists,” says Matthew Hager, double platinum music producer and bass player in Allison Iraheta’s explosive alt rock band, Halo Circus. He is sitting on one end of a blanket-strewn brocade couch in Halo Circus’ recording studio; frontwoman Iraheta is perched on the other end, nodding and interjecting her thoughts. The “system” is the system for booking bands into small and medium sized venues. Halo Circus, which recently packed Hollywood’s venerable Troubadour in its Say It Loud concert has decided to use the new crowd-sourcing platform RoadNation.com to book its summer tour – unheard of for a band as popular as Halo Circus. Monday, www.roadnation.com went live at to fans nationwide with Halo Circus’s tour announcement. Over the next two months nine other bands, including LA’s experimental punk funk band Project N’Fidelikah and New York’s dream pop songstress, Jennie Vee, will post pages on the [Read More]

Vanessa Campagna’s star is rising fast as she crosses lines from classical to country to pop

February 6, 2016

Patrick O’Heffernan (Nashville, TN). Vanessa Campagna has sung with symphonies, she has shared the stage with Reba and Blake Shelton and Loretta Lynn, she can and does belt pop and rock with the best of them, she has been on Star Search, she wrote the music for an Oscar winning film, and has herself been the subject of a PBS documentary. And that is only the beginning of the career of a 22-year old woman the press has called a “vocal powerhouse”, a “precociously gifted entertainer” and a “singer reminiscent of a young Celine Dion”. I can attest to every single one of those adjectives – I saw her recently live at an exclusive WorldArts concert and could feel the electricity flowing from her every note and gesture. Music FridayLive! was able to talk to her the next day after she arrived home in Nashville. Patrick. You are back home now. Are you in the midst of a song writing project – I understand that songs do get written in Nashville? Vanessa. Yes. I [Read More]

Ozomotli’s Raul Pacheco teams up with Devotchka’s Shawn King at BMI’s Gibson Guitar Showcase.

November 7, 2015

Ozomotli’s Raul Pacheco teams up with Devotchka’s Shawn King to tell stories of courage and hope in Los Dreamers at BMI’s Gibson Guitar Showcase By Patrick O’Heffernan (Beverly Hills, CA) My great grandfather was a “dreamer”. An Irish child plopped down in hostile Oklahoma, he had to make his way in the land of opportunity. He did with hard work and determination to succeed first in farming and then in oil and the nation is the beneficiary of his dream. But he had an advantage that today’s Dreamers from Mexico and its southern neighbors don’t have – he did not have to fight being labeled “illegal” and deported. Almost 1.5 million Dreamers live in the United States – educated, hard-working, many very successful like former New York Times writer Jose Antonio Vargas – and they all have stories. Ozomotli guitarist and composer Raul Pacheco and Devotchka drummer/keyboard player Shawn King have teamed up to tell some of those stories in a new band project, Los Dreamers, and an album by the same name.. BMI’s [Read More]