Jedd Beaudoin

Formed in 1979 by brothers Bob (guitar) and Tommy (bass) Stinson, guitarist/vocalist Paul Westerberg, and drummer Chris Mars, The Replacements became a band on the fast track to success. By 1980 the group had a contract with the local Twin/Tone label and, by late 1981, its first album.

Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, and Carlos Santana have long admired Peter Green’s playing and B.B. King once said that there was only one guitarist who gave him “the cold sweats.” Born October 29, 1946, Green would found one of the most successful rock bands of all time, leave behind stardom as part of a spiritual quest, and see his legacy swell in his prolonged absence from the spotlight.

Formed nearly a decade ago in Wichita, Spirit of the Stairs has consistently evolved in unexpected but always fascinating ways. From its earliest days as a guitarless trio to its current incarnation as a guitar-heavy quintet, the all-instrumental ensemble has never disappointed.

Patti Smith was America’s first punk poet. Influenced by beat writers such as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs as much as by rock and roll and classic literature­­including French symbolist poets Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud­­Smith’s emergence from the New York punk rock scene of the 1970s ushered in a new era in popular music in which academic intellect and street smarts were equally appealing.