John Barry, Author at MendoWerks

Grateful Dead Tribute: Dead Meat Serving Up Tasty, Juicy, Tender Music at Newburgh Brewing Company

15Jul

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Interviews

Grateful Dead Tribute: Dead Meat Serving Up Tasty, Juicy, Tender Music at Newburgh Brewing Company

If you’re a Dead Head, you’ve surely seen Grateful Dead tribute band upon Grateful Dead cover band, ad nauseum. Some are good. Some phone it in. And some possess an ability to change your life. Dead Meat - Premiere Grateful Dead Tribute The latter rarely comes through an ability to mimic or replicate the Grateful Dead’s triumphant highs and desperate, lonely, distressed, artistic and authentic lows. That, in my opinion, will never happen, no matter how hard any band, with any lineup, well-known or otherwise, tries. But some Dead tribute bands CAN harness the energy and the power and the thrust of a good Grateful Dead concert. This is an unspeakable and indescribable transfer of inspiration, imagination and vision that far transcends rhythm, melody and lyrics. These bands offer ...

Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music to Open June 7

10Mar

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music to Open June 7

Bruce Springsteen. Courtesy Photo/Shore Fire Media By John W. Barry The Bruce Springsteen Center for American Music, a colossal project dedicated to the legacy of The Boss, the legacy of modern American music and the inspiration both have provided for generations of music lovers around the world, will open June 7 at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ. “The Springsteen Center provides a home for Bruce Springsteen’s archives and places him in the greater story of American music,” Robert Santelli, the Center’s founding executive director, said in a press release announcing the opening date. “Popular music is one of America’s most enduring and respected cultural resources and Bruce Springsteen is one of its most important artists.” Springsteen has sold hundreds of million...

Kathleen Parks, Her Fiddle, Charm and Chops: The Right Notes in the Right Places

10Feb

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Kathleen Parks, Her Fiddle, Charm and Chops: The Right Notes in the Right Places

Kathleen Parks, with fiddle, performs Jan. 29, 2026, at White Lake Studios in Albany, NY. From left, guitarist Arthur Terembula; bassist Dan Bui; Parks; and guitar and pedal steel player Alex Formento. Photo by Will Hahn. By John W. Barry Her charm, her chops and the way fiddle player, guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Kathleen Parks commands a room is mesmerizing. But even more compelling is the relationship that binds her creative spirit to her instruments—which can be summed up in one line. Kathleen Parks plays the right note at the right time—over and over and over and over. Parks and her band recently dazzled an invite-only audience at White Lake Studios in Albany, NY, for a performance that maintained the thrust of a locomotive, the nuance of devotio...

Grateful Dead, Garcia and ‘Big Steve:’ Parish Honors History with Iconic Merch Launch

8Jan

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Grateful Dead, Garcia and ‘Big Steve:’ Parish Honors History with Iconic Merch Launch

"Big" Steve Parish. Courtesy Photo. By John W. Barry Scarlet>Fire. China>Rider. Estimated>Eyes. These are some of the most iconic phrases—song segues, actually— introduced across generations, by the Grateful Dead, into the modern Dead Head lexicon. Well, now you can add another two-word phrase into that lexicon, courtesy of “Big” Steve Parish, an anchor of the Grateful Dead family whose contributions to mankind could never be quantified. Chonga Bonga. Decades ago, Parish and Grateful Dead lead guitarist and vocalist Jerry Garcia were outside the Hotel Navarro in New York City, later to be the Ritz-Carlton, about to get into a limousine. A car materialized out of nowhere and someone handed out the window a white shoebox. Inside was a white ch...

24Dec

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Woodstock, NY: Jeffrey Gaines Returns

Jeffrey Gaines By John W. Barry Musician Jeffrey Gaines isn’t much for the holidays. “I don’t do any holidays,” he said. “I don’t celebrate my birthday. I don’t just blindly carry on traditions because they were already going. I don’t join a lot of parties. Valentine's doesn't mean extra love. I love ya all the time. “My birthday, I had nothing to do with it. It’s just a happenstance. I’m lucky, I’m happy that I get to have another one. But I’ll keep it to myself. It’s nobody else’s news.” This honest, authentic and transparent approach to zigging while others zag is reflected in the music that Gaines performs. The creativity he generates is raw, real and ready. His solo, acoustic version of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” sizzles and crackles like a roa...

moe. celebrates 35 years of Friendship, Music and Survival

24Dec

By John BarryNo Comments

Music

moe. celebrates 35 years of Friendship, Music and Survival

The band moe., left to right, Jim Loughlin, Nate Wilson, Chuck Garvey, Rob Derhak, Al Schnier and Vinnie Amico. Photo by Jamie Howard. By John W. Barry The band moe. two days after Christmas will return to a city in upstate New York for a homecoming performance and banner way to close out the ensemble’s 35th year of making music together as an improvisational collective of inquisitive, creative and funny guys. Asked about that which lies at the heart of moe.’s endurance, drummer Vinnie Amico fired back with a hilarious quip and a laugh. “Stupidity,” he said. “No,” he continued, bringing the conversation back on track. “We really enjoy making music, playing it, playing together, being together, continuing to write good tunes. And at this point, we don’t know how ...

There’s Nothing Phish-eee Here: Artist’s Proof of ‘New Piece,’ aka The Rhombus, Goes Up for Auction

12Dec

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

There’s Nothing Phish-eee Here: Artist’s Proof of ‘New Piece,’ aka The Rhombus, Goes Up for Auction

By John W Barry A timeless piece of art that can hold as much meaning for fans of the band Phish as it does for creative minds around the world is going up for grabs at an online auction set to go live on Monday, Dec. 15—at 4:20 p.m. Call it what you will. “New Piece.” The rhombus. And hail it as a testament to the creative genius of sculptor Tony Smith; or marvel at the inspiration it delivered to Phish co-songwriters Trey Anastasio and Tom Marshall. Hell, if you attended Phish’s 2023-2024 New Year’s Eve concert at Madison Square Garden, you were immersed in an entire world—“Gamehendge”—that unfolded like a rock opera and evolved around a giant rhombus. The actual “New Piece” sculpture sits on a lawn at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. The IAS is one o...

Lost Leaders, Ginger Winn Deliver Captivating Show and Head for Hudson, NY

19Nov

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Lost Leaders, Ginger Winn Deliver Captivating Show and Head for Hudson, NY

By John W. Barry Ginger Winn, center, performs with Lost Leaders, Peter Cole, on the left, and Byron Isaacs, on the right, at The Falcon in Marlboro, NY, on Nov. 15. Photo by John W. Barry. A capacity crowd and a rainy night set the stage for a most compelling performance at The Falcon in Marlboro, in New York's Hudson Valley, this past Saturday, Nov. 15. This auspicious occasion featured the band Lost Leaders singer-songwriter Ginger Winn. Lost Leaders features on bass and vocals Byron Isaacs, who is currently on a break from touring the world with The Lumineers. Byron played in the Levon Helm Band and is in roots ensemble Ollabelle. Guitarist and vocalist Peter Cole is well-known for the band Lava Baby. Winn's songwriting and stage presence charmed the crowd. Lost Leade...

Springsteen, ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ and the American Way—Whatever Your Definition of America

5Nov

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Springsteen, ‘Deliver Me From Nowhere’ and the American Way—Whatever Your Definition of America

Jeremy Allen White, as Bruce Springsteen, surrounded by actors portraying the E Street Band in "Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere." Roughly 40 years after first hearing Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” album in the dishroom at Lock, Stock & Barrel restaurant in Bardonia, NY (Yes, New Jersey, I’m a BENNY), I continue to struggle with that collection of songs. I have been trying and trying to wrap my arms and my brain around “Nebraska.” I’m getting there, but I’m also still working at it. I really enjoyed my first job washing dishes, earning $3.50 an hour when the New York State minimum wage was $3.35. I remember a close friend poking fun at me, earning 15 cents above what most of our peers were making, and singing David Lee Roth’s hit song at the time—“He’s just a gigolo” while ...

Saugerties, NY, Woodstock ’94, Jack Petruzzelli and Celebrating The Local: A Photo Gallery

3Nov

By John BarryNo Comments

Features, Music

Saugerties, NY, Woodstock ’94, Jack Petruzzelli and Celebrating The Local: A Photo Gallery

Singer-songwriter Ginger Winn performs Oct. 26 at The Local in Saugerties, NY. Photo by John W. Barry Saugerties, New York, in 1994 hosted Woodstock '94, a 25th anniversary celebration of the 1969 Woodstock festival. As he was in 1969, Woodstock festival promoter Michael Lang ran the show and, yes, there was plenty of rain and plenty of mud. Saugerties in 2024, in a clever move, hosted a 30th anniversary celebration of Woodstock '94. Yes, that's right, a 30th anniversary celebration of the 25th anniversary celebration of the 1969 Woodstock festival. And yes, doesn't this seem completely appropriate, and doesn't this make total sense for the community where funny man and successful television comedian Jimmy Fallon grew up? Agreed! Saugerties, like Woodstock on the other end of ...