Steve Knopper is a former Rolling Stone contributing editor, frequent New York Times contributor and author of books including “Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age.” He lives in Denver.
On Isle of Hope, the singer and guitarist channels the loss of his father—Allman Brothers legend Dickey Betts—through the guitars Dickey left behind and a set of songs that carry his memory.
Stephen Wilson Jr. left a food-science career to chase songwriting full-time. A decade later, the Indiana native has built a career on writing the truest songs he can. His sprawling 34-track album, son of dad, honors the working-class fixers who shaped him—and the father who told him to go for it.
On his 10th album, Philadelphia's been good to me, the singer-songwriter pays loving tribute to the city that raised him—name-dropping Sun Ra, recruiting Schoolly D for a video cameo, and recording at his own outlaw-style home studio with the band of brothers he calls the Violators.