Jed Gottlieb

Boston

Freelance Writer at Freelance

Music and Theatre Critic at Boston Herald

I write those cool LIFE Magazine tribute issues (ABBA, Madonna, Beach Boys, Duran Duran...) + Boston Herald arts + Berklee history of rock class

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Articles

ASP director flips the script on 'Midsummer Night's Dream'

1 week ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

Romeo and Juliet are star-crossed lovers. Maybe it’s fate, probably it’s teenage hormones, but their destiny seems inevitable. Shakespeare often presents love as inevitable.
Boston stages light up for spring

2 weeks ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

The air is warm (well, warmer). Arts are hot (real, real hot). It’s time to get out and see something. What? How about ballet or Beethoven, Broadway theater or loud rock ‘n’ roll. “Carousel”now through April 13, Emerson Colonial TheatreThe Boston Lyric Opera presents an 80th anniversary production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Carousel” at the theater it debuted at in 1945.
'Shucked' co-creator Clark brings corn to Broadway

2 weeks ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

As a kid, Brandy Clark went to a few concerts. Clark loved them and connected quickly with live music. But she also recognized that in-person performances can be rough and raw. So when, as a high schooler, she saw a touring Broadway company do “Phantom of the Opera” at a Seattle theater, she was floored. “I’d never seen live music that was so perfect,” Clark told the Herald.
Genre-blending The War and Treaty head to the Sinclair

3 weeks ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

To create a great song, you need to be intentional, specific, meticulous. Masterpieces such as Diana Ross’ “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” the Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations,” and Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” are built brick by brick, bar by bar. Or maybe, you need to forget all that precision and go with your gut. The War and the Treaty — a wife-and-husband duo who have a ton of great songs — doesn’t labor too much over building its “genre blending” gems.
Lady Pills has 'Roaring' outlook & album

3 weeks ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

Musician Ella Boissonnault was hoping to come out of the pandemic into a second Roaring Twenties. Art would thrive. Music would flourish. The world would bloom with new energy, novel ideas, and joy. “On a grade scale level, that didn’t happen,” Boissonnault told the Boston Herald. “We didn’t have a restructuring of what we think is important in society.”“A hundred years later, everything is completely different and yet it’s the same,” she added.
Experience Hendrix tour pays homage to guitar icon

1 month ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

The era of Jimi Hendrix was the defining era of rock guitar. Sure, sure, there were other great time spans. But in the time between his debut single in 1966 and his death in 1970, Hendrix roamed the same landscape as blues masters, rock innovators, and jazz giants. This was the heyday of Eric Clapton and Buddy Guy, Jeff Beck and Wes Montgomery, Carlos Santana and all the kings (B.B., Freddie, and Albert). Guitarist Eric Johnson was a teenager in this era.
A train trip drove Chadwick Stokes to write rock opera '1972'

1 month ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

In 2008, Boston musician Chadwick Stokes jumped trains across the Great Plains to Denver. It was an unusual way to get to a gig — his then-band State Radio was playing with Rage Against the Machine at a protest show during the Democratic National Convention. But it was hugely influential in how Stokes sees the world and writes songs. “Mostly it’s the people that you meet, where are they going and why are they going there,” Stokes told the Boston Herald.
Rhino release a huge treat for David Lee Roth fans

1 month ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

Every David Lee Roth solo album isn’t better than every Van Hagar record. Not by a long shot — “5150” is often very fun, very catchy or both, while Roth’s “Your Filthy Little Mouth” is blah. But every Roth album is more Van Halen-y than his old band’s work with Sammy Hagar. Thankfully, vinyl lovers no longer need to speculate about my theory. Rhino recently released “The Warner Recordings 1985-1994,” which reissues Roth’s first four LPs and one EP in one handy box.
Revel in the sounds of St. Patrick's Day shows

1 month ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

How cliche do you want to be? Because you can be pretty cliche and have loads of fun — Dropkicks, Guinness pints, Jameson shots, a few Seamus Heaney poems before you drift off. But you can also go the unexpected route with Budweiser and blues covers. Using our patented one to four shamrock rating system (four being the most obvious, but also still awesome), here are our St. Patrick’s Day season concert picks.
Conductor Teddy Abrams honors mentor Tilson Thomas with BSO debut

1 month ago | bostonherald.com | Jed Gottlieb

Teddy Abrams was nine years old when discovered what he wanted to do with his life. Sitting in his seat at the San Francisco Symphony, watching conductor Michael Tilson Thomas work wonders, Abrams was hooked. “Within five minutes of that concert, I had decided I was going to be a conductor,” Abrams told the Boston Herald. After the performance, Abrams made the bold move of writing to Michael Tilson Thomas asking for conducting lessons.