@gregkot.bsky.social
Co-host "Sound Opinions." Former music critic at Chicago Tribune. Author of 7 books, including "I'll Take You There," “Learning How to Die," "Ripped."
You want protest songs? They've been arriving like news bulletins. Springsteen weighed in with "Streets of Minneapolis" and named names -- like "Ohio" for a new era of WTF government-sanctioned violence. But new takes on what's goin' on are arriving every day. Two new favorites are in comments.
29.01.2026 16:32 — 👍 19 🔁 9 💬 3 📌 0
Time to give the drummer some. Oh, and by the way, Jack DeJohnette was also an accomplished composer and pianist. In this @soundopinions.bsky.social bonus episode I pay tribute to the late, great DeJohnette and an LP he helmed in 1980 amid a stellar year for new-jazz must-owns. bit.ly/4bN2Dkg
28.01.2026 15:37 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
51st anniversary this week of the album that was for many the gateway into Bob Dylan's music. Some spiel and a link to our in-depth @soundopinions.bsky.social interview with the unsung Minneapolis musicians who helped make "Blood on the Tracks" a masterpiece here:
www.facebook.com/share/p/1AT6...
Not just a great mockumentary, but a film so spot-on about the ridiculous/poignant/unintentionally hilarious side of rock 'n' roll that a number of bands I interiewed suspected it was about them. @soundopinions.bsky.social interview with Rob Reiner (RIP) on "This is Spinal Tap": shorturl.at/GtwDx
21.01.2026 15:50 — 👍 14 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
The day the Staple Singers met MLK: "Pops returned from his meeting with King at Dexter Avenue Church and gathered his family at the hotel in Montgomery. “If he can preach it, we can sing it,” he said, and essentially set the group’s course for the next 10 years.
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Thanks to Dan the Automator decades ago, I rediscovered this classic groover from Willie Bobo. Latin soul at its finest: "Fried Neck Bones and Some Homefries." Here's a taste on @soundopinions.bsky.social: bit.ly/49J40hp
19.01.2026 16:01 — 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Spieling on Bob Weir in this @soundopinions.bsky.social bonus podcast. A HT to BW and the world he helped create, where "the music plays the band." Here 'tis: shorturl.at/5AgNk
17.01.2026 22:40 — 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
One year in 35 songs. My 2025 mixtape: open.spotify.com/playlist/3ri...
And a few words about why these songs and why now: bit.ly/49MZfEy
“When I listen to The Raincoats, I feel as if I’m a stowaway in an attic,” Kurt Cobain once wrote. Raincoats cofounders Gina Birch and Ana da Silva give us the goods on that indelible debut album, and the post-punk kicks that followed. The Raincoats on @soundopinions.bsky.social: bit.ly/4pCzPhE
12.01.2026 18:30 — 👍 26 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 2
Fare thee well, Bob Weir. I wasn't always into the Grateful Dead, but Weir and his accomplices pulled me in. A few words about the guy who kept going Furthur in his life and music:
www.facebook.com/share/p/17DS...
I've been making year-end mixtapes for decades. Yeah, I still call it a mixtape. Here's the 2025 edition. Please enjoy: open.spotify.com/playlist/3ri...
10.01.2026 16:51 — 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Thinking about Bowie this week, which leads me back to Sinead and this moment at Metro in 2016, a few weeks after DB's departure. ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkI6...
I'll be teaching a class at the University of Chicago's Graham School for "lifelong learners" in the spring. The topic feels more timely than ever. If interested, sign up soon. Class size is limited. Hope to see some of you there.
graham.uchicago.edu/course/rocki...
A quarter-century later, "Kid A" still sounds like the future. But Radiohead's performance in Grant Park the next summer was just as revelatory. Here's why: bit.ly/4jlk9xD
02.01.2026 16:47 — 👍 10 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 2Yeah, that was something. Carole King-Gerry Goffin wrote the song, Aretha at the piano delivered it to the world.
01.01.2026 20:59 — 👍 10 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Joe Ely was such a robust presence, his death still doesn't seem real. A few words about a life well lived on Sound Opinions: shorturl.at/egDkk
26.12.2025 16:26 — 👍 27 🔁 8 💬 1 📌 0
The Roches in flight on SNL 1979. They made a lot of new fans that night. Whenever I put together an Xmas mix, this has to be the leadoff track, every time.
www.facebook.com/reel/1010033...
Best I can do this holiday season to spread some good cheer is this pix I took a few weeks ago: Dusk at Ayers Rock/Uluru in Australia after a rare rainfall. A sacred space in a special part of the world.
23.12.2025 23:09 — 👍 23 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Jeff Tweedy just released a helluva album (actually, three albums) and we had a conversation about it and the times we live in on @soundopinions.bsky.social . As the man said, "Creativity eats darkness." bit.ly/44D0qDK
21.12.2025 22:33 — 👍 19 🔁 4 💬 2 📌 0
Were there moments that you missed? Anything that happened that’s on the cutting room floor? I don’t think there’s anything I missed that I wish I’d gotten. I’ll give you a little anecdote: Stephen Miller was perhaps the most concerned about the portrait session. He asked me, “Should I smile or not smile?” and I said, “How would you want to be portrayed?” We agreed that we would do a bit of both. And then when we were finished, he comes up to me to shake my hand and say goodbye. And he says to me, “You know, you have a lot of power in the discretion you use to be kind to people.” And I looked at him and I said, “You know, you do, too.”
The Vanity Fair photographer from the Susie Wiles story.
Holy. Shit.
www.washingtonpost.com/style/power/...
He absolutely is.
16.12.2025 15:37 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Joe Ely, RIP. His records as a solo artist or as a member of the Flatlanders tower above. I once asked him about where all that wild wanderlust in his music began, and he had a ready if unexpected answer:
www.facebook.com/share/p/1Knp...
My 25 favorite albums of 2025 as well as Dero’s on @soundopinions.bsky.social :
www.facebook.com/share/1DNp4x...
04.12.2025 04:02 — 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Steve Cropper (RIP) had few equals as a minimalist guitar master, an artist who put a premium on space, concision and groove. He was the perfect combo musician in Booker T and the MG’s— no wonder everybody from Neil Young to Bob Dylan wanted to work with him. Link in comments.
04.12.2025 04:00 — 👍 22 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 1
Alan Light makes the case that "Rumours" is the rare classic-rock record that still sounds modern, hooky and painfully honest about relationships unraveling. We break down the music, the history, and why young listeners continue to claim it as their own. Listen here: bit.ly/4pOXj3R
30.11.2025 22:44 — 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Neil’s 80th birthday and the 50th anniversary of “Zuma” arrived only a few days apart this month. Monumental moments both. As I rhapsodize:
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...
