Lady Antebellum, at Allentown Fair Thursday, tops CMA nominees
ABOUT THE WRITERS
GARY BLOCKUS He bought his first album at age 14: Bread’s “Baby I’m A Want You.” The next day, he bought Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and Deep Purple’s “Machine Head.” He’s covered everything in the metal/hard rock genre, from Motley Crue to Papa Roach to Ted Nugent and Aerosmith to the softer side like Bon Jovi.
JODI DUCKETT As The Morning Call’s assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley’s festivals and club scene. She’s no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.
KEITH GROLLER Our local sports editor strays from his post on Groller’s Corner for another of his passions. He’s attracted to the sights (Shania, Faith, Carrie, Martina) and sounds (Paisley, Strait, Adkins, Keith) of today’s country music scene and likes to add a little twang to the conversation.
ARLENE MARTINEZ Her music was influenced by her mom, who hasn’t turned the radio off since Arlene came home from the hospital. She’s a top-40 kinda girl with a special place in her heart for hip-hop, R&B, rancheros and musical soundtracks. Favorites include the Bee Gees, Jill Scott, Neil Diamond, Q-Tip, Juan Gabriel, T.I., Britney Spears and all of “Les Miserables.” She is used to people making fun of her taste.
JOHN L. MICEK caught the rock bug young. The TMC Harrisburg Correspondent bought his first record, U2′s “Under a Blood Red Sky,” at age 13 and hasn’t looked back. Besides listening to artists ranging from The Ramones to Dean Martin, Micek also writes about music, his work appearing in publications including The Big Takeover, Pop Culture Press and Playlist magazine. He is also a former contributor to PopMatters.com. And when he’s not writing about music, Micek is playing it. From 2002-07, he fronted Milkshake Jones, a power-pop act that released two critically acclaimed (if woefully overlooked) records on The Paisley Pop Label of Portland, Ore. These days he handles bass guitar duties for Fink’s Constant, a ska and reggae band that gigs regularly around central Pennsylvania.
JOHN J. MOSER He caught the music writing bug in high school when his Led Zeppelin story won an award. He wrote the first story ever on Jack’s Mannequin, has the number for All-American Rejects’ Nick Wheeler on his cell phone and was the only newspaper writer given access to the Jonas Brothers for a day.
STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today’s ‘new country’ she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre’s diversity.