What the…?

What the devil is this? Good question.

Songwriter and music journalist Robert Cherry sits beside a portable vinyl turntable with some of his favorite vinyl record albums and music magazines spread out around him in a circle. Artists represented include: David Bowie, the Verve, Television, the Pretenders, the Beatles, Guided By Voices, The Rolling Stones, George Harrison, Echo and the Bunnymen, Fleetwood Mac and more.

By chance, design or invitation you, my friend, have discovered one man’s treasure/trash trove of recorded works, both and musical and journalistic.

My through-line is a passion for music and all things forward-leaning, emotionally resonant and/or dumbly fun in the way only rock ’n’ roll can encourage. I’ve written songs from the time of my first heartbreak (circa junior high), and while my heart has mended just fine, thanks, the compulsion to capture emotional states through words, music and amp hum has continued unabated. You can sample the results via groups such as Reaper On Red, Plastic Ants and Hot Coma.

But that’s not all…

Ages ago, I was a full-time rock journo. I championed once-fringe music as Editor-In-Chief at Alternative Press during its ’90s heyday and went on to pen pieces for Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Guitar One, The Big Takeover, Interview, Teen People and Cleveland’s daily, The Plain Dealer. Many of those stories are long out of print and pixel, but since they still bring a chuckle to their author and remain relevant in these nostalgia-drunk times, I thought I’d share them here for your amusement.

Thanks for listening, reading or otherwise lingering. Let’s take things slowly and see where they lead, shall we?

_{Robert Cherry cover photo by Nikita Gross; Robert Cherry photo above by Kevin Brummer}