Goodnight, Texas

Goodnight, Texas plays a kind of music that might be termed today as "Americana" but is just as easily put on a shelf with folk or folk-rock bands.

Their clever and often enigimatic lyrics are up front on most songs and the instrumentation has a simple complexity that benefits from multiple listenings. 

The band is Scott Griffin Padden (Drums), Adam Nash (Guitar, Pedal Steel, Fiddle), Chris Sugiura (Bass) and founding members and songwriting vocalists Avi Vinocur (Lead Vocals, Mandolin, Guitar, Banjo) Patrick Dyer Wolf (Lead Vocals, Banjo, Guitar).

Patrick & Avi

The band's name is an actual town in Texas east of Amarillo, though neither Avi or Patrick come from there or had any connection to the place. In its earliest duo configuration, the two were on opposite coasts. Avi was in San Francisco and Patrick was in Chapel Hil, North Carolina. Looking at a map, they found Goodnight in the State of Texas to be the place between them. 

The town is named for Charles Goodnight who is often referred to as the "Father of the Texas Panhandle" and is said to have been "the most romantic man living, not only in West Texas, but in the entire West." If you watch the series 1883, Taylor Sheridan's character is Charles Goodnight.

  ===

2022 marks the release of the band’s fourth album How Long Will It Take Them To Die.

You can find out more about the band, tour dates, buy music and stream their songs on their official and strangely domained website at hiwearegoodnighttexashowareyou.com
and on Spotify. 

Band Photos: Brittany Powers

Grand Funk Railroad

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD (AKA Grand Funk and GFR) is an American hard rock band popular during the 1970s. They were constantly touring and played many large arenas worldwide. They were very popular but didn't receive equivalent critical acclaim.

The band's name is a play on the Grand Trunk Western Railroad, which is a railroad line that runs through Flint, Michigan, the hometown of the band members.

Grand Funk Railroad was formed as a trio in 1969 by Mark Farner (guitar, keyboards, harmonica, vocals) and Don Brewer (drums, vocals), and Mel Schacher (bass). Brewer had been in the band Terry Knight and the Pack, and Knight became the band's manager and suggested the band's name.

They disbanded in the 1980s but were reformed with replacement members and had "The American Band Tour 2019 - Celebrating 50 Years of Funk" starting in January 2019.

       

Gin Blossoms

Gin Blossoms is an American rock band formed in 1987 in Arizona. Their first major-label album in 1992 was New Miserable Experience. The first single was "Hey Jealousy" which was a Top 25 hit and went gold. The album went quadruple platinum with four other singles from it also charting.

Their name, Gin Blossoms, is also in lower case "gin blossoms" a skin condition. Rosacea is a condition that causes "blossoms" (burst blood capillaries) on the face particularly the nose from drinking too much alcohol. In the late 1800s, gin was a popular alcoholic drink amongst heavy drinkers because it was cheap. 

It is said that the band saw a photo of film comedian W.C. Fields in Kenneth Anger's infamous (and often inaccurate) Hollywood Babylon. That photo has the caption "W.C. Fields with gin blossoms."

The band's follow-up album is Congratulations I'm Sorry (1996) which went platinum and the single "As Long as It Matters" was nominated for a Grammy Award. 

Gin Blossoms broke up in 1997 but reunited after a number of member changes in 2001. Major Lodge Victory (2006), No Chocolate Cake (2010), and Mixed Reality in 2018 are their latest albums.

Gin Blossoms has been described as an alternative rock band and jangle pop and very much a road band. They are labeled as being part of the "Mill Avenue sound", or "southwestern sound", and are compared to other Arizona bands such as The Sidewinders, The Refreshments, The Meat Puppets, and Dead Hot Workshop.

Official band website  ginblossoms.net

Guns 'N' Roses

    

Guns N' Roses (AKA GN'R or GNR) is an American hard rock band from Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The frontman and co-founder is Axl Rose (real name: William Bruce Rose, Jr.).

They have released six studio albums, three EPs, and one live album and has sold more than 100 million albums worldwide.

The group was formed in early 1985 by two members of the band Hollywood Rose, Axl Rose (vocals) and Izzy Stradlin (rhythm guitar), combining with members of another band, L.A. Guns, Tracii Guns (lead guitar), Ole Beich (bass) and Rob Gardner (drums).

They combined names to create Guns and Roses with the "and" contracted to 'N."

After only a few gigs, bassist Ole Beich was fired and replaced by Duff McKagan while Tracii Guns was booted for missing rehearsals. (They decided to keep the band name anyway.) That led to adding Slash who had played with McKagan in Road Crew and with Stradlin during a short stint in Hollywood Rose. While on a brief West Coast tour, drummer Rob Gardner quit and was replaced by Slash's close friend Steven Adler.

Their 1987 major label debut album, Appetite for Destruction, has sold in excess of 28 million copies worldwide, reached No. 1 on the United States Billboard 200, and had Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Sweet Child o' Mine" which reached No. 1.



A long period with no album releases after The Spaghetti Incident? in 1993 was fueled by rumors of new songs, tours and OCD-like studio antics from Axl. In 2008, Chinese Democracy was finally released.




Greatest Hits
Appetite for Destruction
Use Your Illusion 2
Use Your Illusion 1
G N R Lies
Chinese Democracy
Guns N' Roses - Use Your Illusion I (World Tour 1992 in Tokyo)
Spaghetti Incident

Band Names From Books

Many bands take their names from book titles, characters and references. We have already written about examples like Steely Dan. Two more bands in our "G" category are Genesis and Good Charlotte.

GOOD CHARLOTTE took its name from a children's book, Good Charlotte by Carol B. York. The band got this name because Joel saw this book at his friend's house when he was 16 (the friend's mom was a teacher) and just thought it would be a cool name for the band.

The Story of Good Charlotte
The Young and Hopeless
Good Morning Revival
Good Charlotte
The Greatest Remixes
The Chronicles of Life & Death (Death Art Version)

         

Genesis began as a 1960s pop band but in the 1970s evolved into a progressive rock band, incorporating complex song structures and elaborate instrumentation. With lead singer Peter Gabriel, their concerts became theatrical experiences with innovative stage design, pyrotechnics, elaborate costumes and on-stage stories.

Their albums became known for "art rock" performances such as the 23 minute "Supper's Ready" and The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway 1974 concept album. After Gabriel's departure, Phil Collins took over the vocals and the band returned to more accessible pop songs with melodic hooks. The turn worked in that they got their first number one album in the United Kingdom, Duke, and their only number-one single in the United States, "Invisible Touch".


They originally considered calling the band Gabriel's Angels. They settled on Genesis which suggested a beginning coming as the first book of the Bible. They carried that forward with their first album's title which was From Genesis to Revelation, referencing the last book of the New Testament.

Abacab
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Seconds Out
Genesis Live [Definitive Edition Remaster]
1983-1998 Box Set 5CD/5DVD
Duke
Wind & Wuthering
& Then There Were Three