Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Darlene Love, Dion, Gary Clark Jr., Jackson Browne, Jimmie Vaughan, Jon Bon Jovi, Mavis Staples, Nils Lofgren, und Public Enemy

When Love was in high school, she was personally invited to sing with a girl group called The Blossoms, who started to work with renowned producer, Phil Spector. Love developed her reputation as a singer with her strong voice that earned her plenty of work as a singer for hire with Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Presley and Tom Jones. The first single that Love sang the lead vocals on was a track called “He’s a Rebel”, the single shot to number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Still with The Blossoms, they contributed vocals to some huge hits in the 1960s such as “Be My Baby”, “Monster Mash” and Frank Sinatra’s famous rendition of “That’s Life”. She also released “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” which peaked at number 11 in 1962.

In the 1970s, Love worked as a background singer, but took a break to raise her family. She featured on the song “Basketball Jones” which made it to number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. When Love came back in the 1980s, she went back to her gospel roots on recordings, and sang “OOO Wee Baby” in The Idolmaker, a film that was released in 1980. She featured as a singer of U2’s cover of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)”, and in 1990 she released an album called “Paint Another Picture”, unfortunately it didn’t make the charts. She released a song called “All Alone on Christmas” which was written by Steven Van Zandt and made it to the Home Alone 2: Lost in New York soundtrack. Her singing made it to the soundtrack of the film Jingle All the Way too. It was December 15th 2010 that Love was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Dion's career first began in the late '50s, as the lead singer for the group, the Belmonts, releasing several early records of classic Italian-American doo wop. A few hits later, Dion went solo in 1960, moving away from a strictly doo wop sound towards R&B infused pop.

This new musical direction found Dion with a string of hits, including "The Wanderer," "Runaround Sue," "Ruby Baby" and "Lovers Who Wander," moving to Columbia Records in 1963. Struggling with a heroin habit since his teenage years, Dion's output by the mid-'60s slowed down, making few appearances, moving towards a blues-based sound on "Bronx Blues" that captured his output during these years.

By 1968, Dion had recovered from heroin addiction, finding a number four hit, "Abraham, Martin and John," with his gentle folk musings. Dion continued in this more mature, contemporary sound, finding critical praise yet moderate album sales. A reunion with the Belmonts in 1972 followed before releasing a new album, the pop-oriented "Born to Be With You," produced by Phil Spector. The album failed to impress, with Dion continuing his solo efforts to moderate success.

Despite failing out of popularity, Dion is often highly regarded by other musicians, cited as an influence to the likes of Dave Edmunds and Lou Reed. New albums arrived in the new millennium, with "Déjà Nu" in 2000, "Under the Influence" in 2005 and "Bronx in Blue" in 2006. Returning to major label after several years, "Son of Skip James" appeared on Verve records in 2007, continuing his blues explorations. A collection of classic rock & roll tracks arrived a year later, titled "Heroes" Giants of Early Guitar Rock," before the final piece in his blues trilogy, "Tank Full of Blues" arrived in January 2012.

Gary Clark Jr. started playing guitar aged twelve. He was born and raised in Austin playing humble gigs throughout his adolescence, before meeting promoter, Clifford Antone, who is the proprietor of the Austin music club Antone’s. Antone has in the past given a platform to Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Jimmy Vaughan. Clark’s career began to snowball and started to ascend in the Texas rock & roll scene. He has experimented with various styles over the course of his career from hip-hop to country. He developed his sound using trademarks such as an extremely fuzzy guitar sound alongside his smooth vocal style.

It was Clark’s third studio album “Blak and Blu” released through Warner Bros on October 22nd 2012, that catapulted him to a new level of success, reaching number 6 in the US, The Netherlands and New Zealand. It also charted in Australia, France, German and the UK.

It was in April 2011 that Rolling Stone declared Clark, “Best Young Gun” in its “Best of Rock” issue. His song, “Bright Lights” can be heard in the video game Max Payne 3, in the premiere episode of House of Lies and the movie Think Like a Man. His song “Don’t Owe You a Thang” made it into Need for Speed: The Run.

He has played at numerous festivals such as Coachella, JazzFest, Hard Rock Calling, Lollapalooza and more. He won eight awards at the 31st annual Austin Music Awards for 2012-2013, for Band of the Year, Musician of the Year, Song of the Year – “Ain’t Messin Round”, Album of the Year, Electric Guitarist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Blues/Soul/Funk Artist of the Year and Male Vocalist of the Year. On January 26th 2014, Clark won the Grammy Award for Best traditional R&B performance, for his song “Please Come Home”

Jackson was born in Germany in 1948 before moving to California where he began folk singing in local clubs. As a teen he moved to New York and became a part of the Greenwich Village scene, befriending the likes of Tim Buckley and Nico. Nico and Jackson became romantically and musically involved resulting in Jackson contributing heavily to her debut album ‘Chelsea Girl’. Although classic songs like ‘These Days’ were Jackson’s compositions he wouldn’t record his own versions till years later.

Under the management of David Geffen, Jackson signed to Asylum Records and released his self-titled debut album in 1971. Singles like ‘Doctor My Eyes’ and ‘Rock Me On The Water’ were popular and a tour with Joni Mitchell helped to further promote the album. His next albums ‘For Everyman’ and ‘Late for the Sky’ received critical and commercial acclaim (the latter peaking at 14 in the album charts) and helped to solidify his sound, becoming known for his memorable melodies and personal lyrics.

As his career continued, his music to remained popular and his contributions to music were acknowledged when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004. He also became known as a vocal activist on environmental issues (such as nuclear power and living more ‘greenly’) and has always contributed to charitable causes throughout his career.

Mavis Staples began her career with her family group The Staple Sisters in 1950. Initially singing locally at churches and appearing on a weekly radio show, the Staples scored a hit in 1956 with 'Uncloudy Day' for the Vee-Jay label. In 1957 The Staple Singers took their music on the road led by family patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples on guitar and including vocals by Mavis and her siblings Cleotha, Yvonne, and Purvis.

They soon evolved from popular Gospel singers to become the most influential spirituality-based group in America. By the mid-1960s The Staple Singers, inspired by Roebuck's close friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr., became the spiritual and musical voices of the civil rights movement. The Staple Singers hit the Top 40 eight times between 1971 and 1975, including two No. 1 singles, 'I'll Take You There' and 'Let's Do It Again' and a No. 2 single 'Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas?'.

Mavis branched out from the group during their successful career to release solo recordings. Her first solo single while at Epic Records with The Staple Singers was 'Crying in the Chapel' which received moderate attention in the late 1960s. The single was later included in a collated album released in 1994 by Sony Music called 'Lost Soul'. Her first solo album came almost ten years later in 1969, she followed this self titled album in quick succession with 'Only for the Lonely' in 1970. A 1984 album (also self-titled) preceded two albums under the direction of rock star Prince; 1989's 'Time Waits for No One' and 1993's 'The Voice', which People magazine named one of the Top Ten Albums of 1993.

If the N.W.A are rap’s Sex Pistols, then Public Enemy are undoubtedly the genre’s answer to The Clash. Chuck D’s mob even go one better than Joe Strummer’s by having never released an album as soul destroying as “Cut The Crap”. That and they’re still together, stronger than ever, although that might be unfair on The Clash seeing as Strummer is, y’know, dead. Anyway, Public Enemy weren’t called “the black CNN” for nothing; they are a fiercely intelligent group and are not and have never been afraid to show it, crafting tracks that crackle with riotous fury and sheer intensity.

They’re not a group for the faint of heart or the soft of head and that’s pretty much a direct result of the groups meeting while at Adelphi University in Long Island, New York. A graphic design student and rookie rapper called Carlton Ridenhour met Hank Shocklee while they both worked at the university’s student radio station. They bonded over a shared love of hip-hop and politics, which they combined when Ridenhour, under the name Chuckie D, rapped over a beat that Shocklee made called “Public Enemy No. 1”.

The track got some radio play among other Long Island colleges, and soon the tape fell into the hands of Rick Rubin, he of Def Jam Records fame, who courted Ridenhour with the intention of signing him to Def Jam. Although he was reluctant at first, the man who would later be called Chuck D started to envision a new kind of hip-hop group, with a hard, harsh and heavy sound backed up with a political manifesto espousing total social revolution.

He knew just the people to contact as well. He enlisted Shocklee to recruit a team of producers, Norman Lee Rogers would DJ under the name Terminator X, Richard Griffin would choreograph their dance troupe “The Security Of The First World” under the name Professor Griff, and finally he recruited his old friend William Drayton to join as a fellow rapper. Drayton created the Flavor Flav persona to act as a laughing, jeering and joking counter point to Chuck D’s intense seriousness, and with that, Public Enemy was born.

Thanks to Rubin’s help, the group made their live debut opening for The Beastie Boys when they were at the peak of their popularity, on the License To Ill world tour. Come 1987, their debut album “Yo! Bum Rush The Show” was released but it wasn’t until their second album, “It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back” that they truly came into their own. The album sold well and even gave them a hit single in the form of “Don’t Believe The Hype”. For a time they were the world’s most dangerous band and simultaneously one of its most critically acclaimed, being the only band in the NME’s half a century history to top their albums of the year list twice and in successive years as well, with “…Nation of Millions…” and its follow up “Fear Of A Black Planet”.

Ever since then, they’ve been hailed as one of the most vital groups of all time, let alone among rap artists, and while their commercial clout might have disseminated given time their intensity, power and influence never have. They can still blow the roof off any venue they play and come highly recommended.