ronnie earl & the broadcasters

So guess where I was this Saturday night? Back at the Tupelo Music Hall, to see Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters this time. And was I ever in for a treat.

I had a seat in the back again, just like for John Sebastian - where there is a row of barstools along the back wall, on either side of the concession stand, that serves as General Admission. In such a small room, if you're not in the first six rows (basically the front half), you might as well be in the back on barstools, a head taller than all the rest. The seat might be hard, but the view is excellent at 13 rows back.

[This picture is hanging on the wall in the rotunda where artists sell their wares and patrons line up to use the facilities]

I fixed the seat problem by folding my overcoat in half and then in quarters, which was excellent use of coat - once I got up there. You should have seen me hoisting myself off the ground backward and trying to land on top of the coat - it was like trying to do the high jump.

Anyways, I'm sitting on my perch, with loads of time to spare - it's 7:30 and the show's not set to go for another half hour. I get my camera out and take a few shots, to see if I've got the right setting figured out. It turns out I don't, so it's amateur photo night again.

The music coming over the speakers is all good blues; I recognize I'll Take Care of You, which always reminds me of James Brown and It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World because of Van, but this must be Bobby Bland singing. I didn't look where the speakers are, but they're obviously not near me, because as the hall starts to fill up, people noise drowns out the music. But it's fun to people watch, and the first thing I notice is it's not the younger generation spending their doubloons and driving to Londonderry to see their favorite guitar hero. No, this is your more mature crowd - the kind that needs a soft cushion under her behind. I'm neither the youngest or the oldest, but there is probably not much more than 10 years' difference among the lot of us.

And with nothing else to do, my mind wanders to the first time I saw Ronnie Earl. Dennis and I went to see him at the House of Blues, back when it was still in Cambridge, at least 10 years ago. This must have been Dennis's idea, because I'd never heard of him. I didn't follow him after that, but for that one night, I can't tell you just how perfect it was. All night long, all he did was play the guitar, and he had me under his spell. So cool, so smooth, a real master of the guitar.

At one point, I kid you not, I was standing there - it was a standing room only gig - swaying to the music, eyes closed, just so into the blues...and at some point, I opened my eyes and there was Ronnie standing right in front of me, wailing away on the guitar. I thought for a second that I must have gravitated to the stage; then I thought, no. he's gravitated to me. It was certainly a moment in time. And it sets the stage for tonight.

And if you've only got the time to listen to one Ronnie Earl song today, click on him playing some soft, slow blues - it's from a recent show - he's wearing the same outfit, same players in the band, and it's one of the songs he played last night (it might be "Miracle" but don't quote me). In the band, there's Jim Mouradian on bass, Lorne Entress on drums, and Dave Limina on piano, playing a Yamaha. When it wasn't Ronnie's turn, it was Dave's, and, boy, he could stomp it out. There was one song, I think this is the one he said was a Bessie Smith tune, where Dave and Ronnie were mixing it up some - a little piano-guitar jam, that was a real pleasure to listen to.

I didn't recognize one song all night - there must have been a good smattering of covers, because every once in a while he'd say, "Here's one of ours"and I wouldn't recognize that one either. For me it was strictly 90 minutes of blues uninteruptus, and apparently that's all I need. There were a couple of times I had to close my eyes and get in between the spaces of the music, but no luck this time in opening my eyes to see Ronnie Earl's nose hairs - the guitar cord doesn't make it this far back in the room.

He's out of Boston, and I see on his website that his upcoming shows are all in New England.I suspect he's a local wonder. I see he's a W.C. Handy Award winner, and that comes as no surprise - he plays with such soul, and he's got such good tone. Talking about W.C. Handy Award winners, last week, just by sheer luck, I got to see T.J. Wheeler for a short set at Strange Brew up in Manchester. It could be that every Sunday night they have a blues jam, but I think this was a special treat to have T.J. Wheeler on hand. I'm not sure he gets out to play gigs much; it looks like he's more into music education in the schools, but it was a delight to listen to him play guitar for five or six songs, much of it New Orleans - some Louis Armstrong, Zydeco, that Dr. John feel.

john sebastian

All week long it's been the same thing - in random acts of kindness, little bits like oh darling be home soon or did you ever have to make up your mind or it's like trying to tell a stranger about rock 'n' roll or some other Lovin' Spoonful song. I've been in my little John Sebastian love-fest - ever since Saturday night, when I saw him up at the Tupelo Music Hall. It was such a good-time night. His voice is completely shot, but the cool thing is, when he's doing all the Spoonful songs, it's more of a group hug moment with everyone singing, or at least I was. And I've been singing ever since.

John Sebastian and the Lovin' Spoonful - forever identified in my mind with the Summer of Love - the Spoonful and Jefferson Airplane - that's about all this 13-year-old girl knew about the Summer of Love. I was more of a Jim Morrison girl, but the Spoonful had a string of hits, all great songs. And we got to hear many of them on Saturday night.

Think Ray Davies and his black book, telling his story through his songs. John is a fine storyteller, disarmingly genuine, whether it's the story of his mother sending him to "commie" camp here in New Hampshire when he was 16 - serving as an introduction to A Younger Girl Keeps Rolling Across My Mind or the one about Mississippi John Hurt giving John a lesson on the guitar, which served as a lead into Lovin' You.

Every song had its story, and they were invariably quite funny, and I had no idea he could pick like he does. Interspersed with the Spoonful hits and Zally stories, he did a lot of songs from Satisfied, the album he did with David Grisman in 2007. It's good-time jug band music and Saturday night was basically sitting in with John while he picked the night away.

[That's John on the left in the photo, signing his CD for a fan]

And it's not all just fun. It's a learning experience too - for instance, I learned where they got the name Lovin' Spoonful tonight - from the lyrics of Coffee Blues, which is one of the songs from Satisfied. And he told a funny story of his days in the Village, taking a young Italian beauty out on a first date, taking her to see the Kweskin Jug Band, which featured a young Geoff Muldaur - and there went Maria D'Amato - young girl falls for the guitar player in the band, leaving John in the lurch. Which leads him to sing Passing Fantasy, also from Satisfied. Nowadays Maria Muldaur, John and David are playing dates. Seeing just a third of the trio makes me think the the three of them together would make for a fun evening. But I don't see anything listed on his site for any upcoming dates, either with them or solo. So it's catch as catch can.

I found a video on YouTube of a relatively recent John playing guitar. It comes in four parts, and it's all good, but you'd get the idea in Part 1.

jesse colin young

It must be synchronicity.

I've recently discovered a little radio station on the Web - the site is boomerradio.com (can you believe it??) and one of the streams they run is called Acoustic Cafe. It's not exactly a great station, but it is pretty mellow, and good for them, there's always some obscurish Van that gets played. Tonight it was End of the Land. Anyways, I was getting tired of all that mellowness (one too many James Taylor, I think) and was going to switch to some live Van. As I was standing up to turn off the speakers, out of who knows where, Darkness, Darkness starts to play.

Remember late '60s, Darkness, Darkness from the Youngbloods? Jesse Colin Young? You know - the c'mon people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now Jesse Colin Young.

It's got to be at least 30 years, closer to 40 more like, that the Youngbloods and Jesse Colin Young fell off my radar. Until last night. In Londonderry, New Hampshire, at the Tupelo Music Hall (the owner is a Van fan I'm told).

And it was all very peace and love-like. And mellow. Me and the Acoustic Cafe and Jesse - all being mellow. Five in the band, including Jesse, on lead guitar, and his wife, Connie, on violin and percussion. I didn't catch the names of the guys on bass, drums and rhythm. I sense the guy on rhythm has been with Jesse for a long time. He plays a good guitar. And a very intense young man on bass. Probably my only complaint of the night is that the violin was too high in the mix during the quieter songs. There seemed to be only two ways to play the violin: loud and louder, so it was a bit of a distraction during some of the contemplative songs in the first set.

Altogether a great show, with songs from all along the way - or so it seemed - he introduced one song, it might have been Four in the Morning, as something from before the Youngbloods, and he did some Youngbloods songs, and some Hawaiian songs, and a couple of songs that were new, and songs like Ride the Wind and Bring Him Home, which I am guessing are from the middle period.

It's Jesse's birthday (69th) on Monday, November 22, and the rhythm guy led us in a rousing Happy Birthday song in Jesse's favor, two days early. We didn't get to sing again until late in the second set on Get Together c'mon people now, smile on your brother... We comported ourselves admirably on both.

There might have been others but the covers I recognized were two of the interesting highlights of the night. The first was John Lennon's Imagine and Marvin Gaye's What's Going On? Jesse sang the Lennon lyrics, and rhythm guy and Connie sang the Marvin Gaye part, trading one song off the other - and it was absolutely delightful. Then third song into the second set, Jesse picked up his (as he informed the blind among us) eight-string ukulele to do Somewhere Over the Rainbow, with Jesse namechecking Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, a Hawaiian musician who had a major hit with the song. The reference went right over my head, but Celeste told me afterward who he was talking about. And here I was thinking Judy Garland. It was a great song, a little bit reggae - very nice rendition. Nothing like a good ukulele player. He kept it for La Bamba and then a song he sang in Hawaiian. Later he said, the words to that are "The spirit of the land shall be brought forth in righteousness." Now, I don't know what that means, but it sure does sound warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?

Then it was back to his guitar, and the volume picked up for something he described as a Youngbloods song, but I didn't recognize it - one of their minor hits, I guess - he said it was the only time they got into the whole funk/soul thing - and giving the bass player an opportunity to be really intense. Then a 12-bar blues in T-Bone Shuffle, taking us to the sing-a-long Get Together - even Celeste knew this one - and ending with Darkness, Darkness. A well-crafted second set. Beginning the set with what he called "a new one," it was just Jesse and Connie on stage, doing a sweet song that might have been called Love Goes On. Then another new one, called Cruising at Sunset. The three ukulele songs worked like a charm, and then it just got progressively faster and louder and more intense (in a mellow kind of way), right up to Get Together, ending with the navel-gazing Darkness, Darkness.

This was the last night of the tour, so if you missed him this time around, you'll have to wait for the next time. In the meantime, you can go to his website and buy some of his coffee. From his coffee farm in Hawaii.

If Jesse Colin Young had been in Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, he would have been the Graham Nash part - not a lot of depth to his voice, and what little there was has diminished over the years. Time will do that. It's not most people whose voices get better with time, right, Bob?

It turns out that Bob was playing 30 minutes down the road in Lowell on Saturday night and, if you can believe it, I stood Mr. Dylan up to see Mr. Young. I can see Bob anytime, but how often does Jesse Colin Young come to my hometown?

Talking about old white guys, John Sebastian is coming to Tupelo Music Hall next weekend. The show is sold out, but we'll see what happens.

joe bonamassa

I've had an email from Beach Blast sitting in my inbox since October 5, announcing two shows to close out the Casino Ballroom season for this year. Saturday night, Joe Bonamassa, and Sunday night, Darius Rucker. I could skip Rucker, but Joe Bonamassa, he I should definitely see. But I didn't rush to get tickets, because they're General Admission, and the show wasn't until November. And then the email started to sink through my Inbox. A couple of weeks later Beach Blast reminded me about the show, and the same thought - no rush, it's not till November. Let's see if I can rustle someone up who might like to go. And it's exactly there that I completely lost thought of it. Until last Friday. I was on my way up to Manchester to a party at Brian's. Well, almost on my way. I was just heating up a cup of coffee to take in the car. And while it was heating up, I thought I'd catch up on Van-L. About three posts in, there is one from Colleen, who for some reason - it seemed random to me - wrote a wonderful story about Joe - what a fan! The coffee bings, I finish reading her post, not enough time to click on the links. While I'm driving up to Manchester, I'm thinking, right, Joe Bonamassa, it's November. Geez, I hope he hasn't come and gone. Then I'd really be mad! (Sometime last month, Van fan Brian from Virginia wrote to say he was going to see Nick Lowe that night, with Johnny Scott on guitar, and had I seen them when they were in Boston the other night? No, I had NOT seem them. I was so mad. I can't express how mad I was. And feeling very pathetic. )

Sort of long story short - Matt looked it up on his gizmo phone and the show was Saturday night (phew, I haven't missed it) but, oh, it's sold out. And the very short of that is that Celeste agreed, without even knowing who Joe Bonamassa even was, that she'd go with me to Hampton Beach and see if we couldn't get ourselves a pair.

And the very, very short of that is we did - we got tickets fairly quickly, from two different gentlemen whose wives couldn't make it, so loads of time to go sit in the only other establishment open in Hampton Beach, in the summer it's a three-level restaurant/bar and they don't need me to plug it, it's always packed. As it is tonight ... the only place in town to sit down until the doors open at 6. [This is the sign we were flashing about outside the venue. Borrowed from a dad and his son, who had been using it to get themselves some tix's, and when they got their tix's, they let us use it. It worked, apostrophes and all.]

They're not very sensitive about cameras and other devices, and since I've got mine, I make a nuisance of myself with our seatmates, Robyn and Dan, who seem equally as glad as me to be here tonight. A lot of people love Joe Bonamassa. The show starts promptly at 8. A sure sign that you're getting nostalgic - everything reminds you of something. About three songs in, I'm sitting there with my eyes closed, soaking up Joe playing guitar, doing the foot stomping, seat dancing stuff I do when someone plays the blues. It's all good, and I think back to all those times, lying on the floor, in the dark, headphones on, listening to the guitars, mostly Eric's, Blind Faith, Cream. It's all coming back to me. Nothing but the blues.

If you thought this was going to be a review of the show, it's right about here that you learn this is nothing of the sort. I didn't know any of the songs, save a really lovely version of Bird on a Wire as the first of his two-song encore. Apparently I'm not alone. I asked around - what was the name of that song? Or that song? And no one knew. I think they just don't care. All they're there for is the guitar solos. I don't blame them.

I had half expected him to blow the roof off the place, but he didn't - he was merely spectacular, very smooth, very clean, and sometimes he'd pull everything from the note and you could feel it crying, he was that good. I absolutely loved every minute of it ... I just wish I could tell you what I heard. If you're a Joe fan, you'll just have to imagine it.

It was two hours of one song after the next. There were a couple of spots where he stopped to talk - once to tell the story of how the last time he was at the Ballroom was 21 years ago with Buddy Guy (or was it B.B. King?) Imagine that. He would have been about twelve 21 years ago. But mostly it was him just playing. Switching guitars after every song. Some of the best moments of the show were when he was on stage on his own. He doesn't really need anybody else.

Maybe somebody can help me. On the last song of the night he was playing a guitar that looked like it was out of the Jetsons, shaped like this: >--- . What kind of guitar is that?

According to his website, http://jbonamassa.com, it looks like Joe is constantly on tour. If you haven't caught him yet, and you like your guitar heroes, then Joe's your man. It's that simple.





These are part of a mural behind one of the bars at the Casino Ballroom. Nosey, is that you?

Martin Sexton at the beach

It was a last-minute decision to go see Marty on Saturday night. I think it was in the middle of the Lyle Lovett show on Friday night that I shifted from "I don't really care" to "I think I had better." The better got even better - my girlfriend Ginnie, who had driven up from Connecticut just that afternoon, was keen to go. The last time Ginnie and I went to a concert was Van at Jones Beach 1999 - Van doing a lot of Back on Top with the Johnny Scott band. That would be the show where my little love affair with "Help Me" began. But that's another story. Ginnie got a good show that night.

Just as I expected she would with Martin. He has a good conversion rate on first-timers. Martin and his band are on the summer circuit, but tonight he was doing a one-off solo show at the Casino Ballroom up in Hampton Beach. The Casino Ballroom is in the same vein as the Roseland in NYC, but this one's at the beach, in New Hampshire, no less. And about half the size. Think Coney Island, on a smaller scale. It's a treat when Martin plays a solo show. He's always got so many tricks up his sleeve, and he uses them all.

He did a few songs from his new album, Sugarcoating, and probably a couple from Solo, his previous album. I haven't listened to either, so they're all new songs for me when he does them. Donna and I saw him at Tupelo Hall in January - a paid rehearsal with Martin and his band, mostly trying out the songs from Sugarcoating, which was yet to be released. I found the songs to be forgettable then, and I found them to be just as forgettable tonight. He did a smattering from each of his albums but saved most of his vocal pyrotechnics for his earlier material. His voice is so versatile - I remember one show where he was singing Latin verses like he was an angel in the holy choir and the next minute he's growling like a coal miner. He sings like his voice is a guitar being played by one of his guitar heros - a lot of noodling up in the high notes and a lot of slides from high to low and back up again, lots of scatting. and in a couple of the songs, he was playing the snare with his voice while playing drums on his guitar, which thoroughly entertains us all. But my favorite is when he can drop two octaves with his voice on the same syllable - lots of that tonight. The lost art of yodeling on "The Way I Am." He worked his chops tonight through a lot of fan favorites, from memory, Black Sheep, Freedom Road, Glory Bound, The Things You Do to Me, In the Journey, Diner, Failure. I think it was during Candy that he took it into Blind Faith's Can't Find My Way Home, and we all love that too, when he gets to go off on his guitar. His Hallelujah had the audience singing their heart out on background, just like the little angels we are.

Marty's all about the live show - about what he's doing that night. And for something completely different, someone requested Brown Eyed Girl, and he gave us a pretty good version, a little more gusto than Van, substituting fu, fu, fus for the sha-la-las. A far cry from the usual In A Gadda Da Vida type stuff he usually treats us with. I overheard someone after the show asking who it was again who sang Brown Eyed Girl. His friend knew. Here I thought everyone knew.

Nice to get two sets, the first with a plugged-in acoustic, the second on electric. You would have guessed the second set would have pushed the limits a little more, but it stayed rather tame - it wasn't a Beast In Me kind of night, so we all just sat around in our seats and let ourselves revel in his vocal gymnastics. It's like he's got a contortionist in there.

He made an interesting comment early in the show about dropping out. I think a lot of people are dropping out these days. It looks good on them.

Lowell music

Friday night was Lyle Lovett and His Large Band (and it is large -- a slew of guitars, including steel; keyboards, violin, drums and a barbershop quartet on backup vocals) down at Boarding House Park in Lowell. The Lowell Summer Music Series runs every weekend during the summer, and there's always somebody you're glad to catch.

Donna and I went down earlier in the summer to see Joan Armatrading -- I hadn't seen Joan in 25 years, so was very glad for the chance. At one point during the show, I had a flashback to Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party." After playing some of our favorites from years gone by, Joan told the audience that now she was going to play some new songs, and there was this audible groan from the audience. Poor Ricky, poor Joan. Her voice is still very strong, but I'd have to agree with audience sentiment that it is at its most eloquent when she sings from a treasure trove of back catalog. Highlight of the show was a rousing crowd response to "Best Dress On." If you've been to see her this summer, you know what I mean. A gimmick to get you to go to her website, but you know me, I'm not going to let a gimmick get in the way of a good dance. The young woman beside me was all liquored up and had had ants in her pants all night, so I knew she'd get up with me, and before long, the whole audience was up, screaming BEST DRESS ON to beat the band - the craic was good.

So here we were again, Donna and I, to see Lyle Lovett. Boarding House Park is an open-air venue - I don't think more than 500 (I'd stand corrected) - all blankets and lawn chairs. And just like for Joan, Donna and I managed to squeeze our two beach chairs in between some blankets up front and made ourselves at home. Apparently you have to get there at 8 in the morning to get a good spot. I'm going to stick with the squeezing in thing.

This was my first time seeing Lyle. He has some devoted fans, and the place was packed, probably with another hundred out on the street. He put on a fine show, very much the entertainer. I'd never heard any of the songs before, except for "Baby, It's Cold Outside,"which he sang as a duet with Kat Edmonson, who had opened the show. Absolutely delightful. A breathy Iris Dement. Hers was a nice set.

Lyle got a few blues numbers in early, but for the most part it was all country. A lot of lyric repetition in each song, sounding very radio friendly. Very charming fellow, bantering with members of the band and with the audience, the band made a huge sound, with some very talented members - especially in the strings. Lyle's voice is pleasing to the ear, and there's nothing not to like. I don't suppose I'll go see him again, but I'm glad for the chance to see him this time around. A nice night out under the stars.

James Montgomery is playing there this weekend. So I might catch him, and that'll probably wrap up the season for me.

finally, Peter Wolf in concert

After a short caledonia stroll around the block, we arrive at the front door of the Port City Music Hall just after 7. It's a cozy little spot, which we're told holds 550; even at that I don't think it was a full house. It certainly wasn't when we got there, still open spaces up at the very front, so I scooted up there to hold some spots while Dennis and Dan got us drinks. Good song selection coming over the speakers - a bit of Mink de Ville and Johnny Cash, Howlin' Wolf's All Night Long, another Mink de Ville.

By the time the opening band came onstage, there might have been a hundred of us clustered around the stage. I wish I could remember the act's name - two guys, Morris? Boris? Sludge? Sledge? and Jim Haggerty, forming the Morris/Boris Sludge/Sledge duo, or something like that. Their gave us a rousing 30 minutes, and if I knew who they were, I'd highly recommend checking them out. I guess you could go to one of the remaining shows on the tour and see for yourself.

I don't think Peter played for more than 90 minutes, maybe 100. But the set was jam-packed with goodies. After the first song, Peter had the event staff remove the barrier set up two feet in front of the stage, putting us in swarming distance when he'd parade along the lip of the stage.

As you might imagine, a substantial amount of the set was taken up with material from Midnight Souvenirs, and for each of the duet songs, including The Greenfields of Summer with Neko Case, It's Too Late For Me with Merle Haggard, and Tragedy with Shelby Lynne, he had a story to tell about how he got together with them to record the songs, including one involving two bottles of bourbon with Lynne. Early in the set he did Cry One More Time, describing it as a song of his that Gram Parsons sang. Peter had some good stories, and some funny ones - including how he got John Lee Hooker's business card. He's actually got the card up on his website. (While you're at the site, click on BIO and on the second page, there are two photos of Peter and Van back in the Boston days.)

The band was introduced as mainly the same as on the album, minus Larry Campbell (that would have been a shocker). We had pedal steel, keyboards, guitar, bass and drums, with Peter on marimbas and harp when the occasion warranted. The only thing missing was the sax, which adds a huge sound in key places on the album.

Peter gets his whole body into the songs - a mix between Mick Jagger, minus the prima dona, and a gazelle. A man in motion. He gets the beat in his feet, and they get going, and the energy from the music seems to explode from his body, driving the song. Song after song, although sometimes he took a break for a sit-down on a stool, but never for more than a song, sometimes only half the song, and the music would hit his feet and he'd be off again.

It was definitely a J. Geils audience - when he pulled out Night Time midway through the set, there was a rush from the crowd; same for Must Have Got Lost and Love Stinks (where he got Boris/Morris to do the basso profondo voice in the refrain; a great touch). More of a raging guitar solo audience than a pedal steel one perhaps. They got what they came for in Looking for a Love, which closed out the first set. That song made the rest of the show seem like a Perry Como rap.

I highly recommend getting out to see Peter if he's coming to your town. The current tour goes until early June, and it's pretty much east coast, so if you get the chance, go for it! His voice sounds in good form. You know what else really impressed me - his diction. Impeccable - I could hear every word. I think he might be the only person I can say that about. Altogether a great show.

Thanks, Dan, for the photos!

breaking news: found needle in haystack

It all started in 1992, when Sleepless came out. That's when my quest to see Peter Wolf started. I hadn't been much of a J. Geils Band fan. Maybe I didn't give them enough credit, but to my "walking through meadows with Van" sensibilities, J. Geils was too short on lyrics and too long on frantic. Sleepless was a whole 'nuther thing. I liked what he was doing and wanted to see him do it live.

Chances of getting that to happen were somewhere between needle in a haystack territory and when hell freezes over, the big snag being he didn't play any shows. Every so often I'd hear a report that he'd showed up at some club somewhere, nothing announced. Enough to make my mouth water, little good that did me.

It must have been summer 2005 and Dennis heard about a concert held in conjunction with some arts and music festival going on down on Cape Cod; there were going to be a couple of good artists - James Montgomery and Marcia Ball on the bill, and I don't suppose we would have gone except for the announcement that Peter Wolf was going to join James onstage for a few songs.

So, we took the opportunity, figuring it might be the only time. It turned out to be an excellent night of music - I'd never seen James Montgomery before, so I was getting to hear his harmonica styling for the first time. It's good stuff - very intense, and I like that. He's a working man. Peter was the icing on the cake. He came out and played three songs, all three of which I've forgotten by now, and off he went. Dennis and I convinced ourselves that it was worth the three- or four-hour drive to the Cape. A legend in his own time. At least in my mind.

Flash forward to last month: Midnight Souvenirs was released, and that's pretty much all I've been listening to since. These days I don't get in a lot of music listening time, so it's pretty precious to me - as such, you're going to have ta' be a serious contendah if you're going to knock Van out of position. Wolf has taken over my listening airwaves.

Better still, Dennis found out that he was playing one night up in Portland, Maine, in support of the new album, and did I want to go? Um, yea! Peter Wolf in concert - a huge, huge item off my music bucket list.

The day of the show Dennis and I were driving up in time to grab a bite to eat and hoping to catch up for a pre-show quiet drink with Dan Hart, denizen of Portland. Haven't seen Dan since the big party at Rockwood Music Hall in in NYC last February, when we were in town for Van's shows at the WaMu.

It serves to remind me that for far too many of my friends, the only time I see them is before a show, and we've both got a drink in our hand. I'm sure there is a lesson to be learned here.

In the meantime, the three of us have a show to get to. Doors open at 7.

Note to self: I've got to learn to write shorter posts. Now I've got to put off my review of the show till the next post. I'll get right on it! Dan's sent me a bunch of photos he took at the show, so I'll have fun putting that together. Till next time!

a confluence of events

The record's stuck. The record's stuck.
On Peter Wolf's Midnight Souvenirs. It's been in constant rotation in the car since I got it a month ago, and when I'm not listening to it, I've got "Tragedy" playing ear candy. It hardly seems like eight years ago that Sleepless came out, and I used to take that one driving too. Definitely, Wolf is road music.

I'd ordered it from amazon.com, and in the same package was Tom Russell's Blood and Candle Smoke and the two new Van-related books, When Rough God Goes Riding by Greil Marcus and Hymns to the Silence by Peter Mills. Both were discounted, Marcus's heavily, if I remember rightly.

I hope so; it's not worth the suggested retail price. The most interesting parts of the book are these bits of arcane knowledge (non-Van content) that Marcus references to make a point about something in Van's music, or he'll go off on a tangential anecdote, and after each one of these, I'd go, wow, I didn't know this, I don't know that I needed to know this, but surely I am a better person for having more knowledge. The other good part is that Marcus abruptly dismisses a huge 17-year swath of Van's music; if he'd liked those years, it would have just meant having to read about more Van Morrison songs that Greil Marcus really likes. It was good that the book was short.

I used to read Greil in Rolling Stone back in the day when music was starting to get good for me, and I always enjoyed reading him - a good wordsmith and from the bit I saw of the video of a book reading he did recently in support of Rough God, well-spoken and confident, a little aristocratic. I was reading Greil before I read Lester Bangs, so you could say I was weaned on rock and roll through Greil's eyes. He really liked Van in those days. And he really liked the music I was listening to, and it was all one big happy time of it. So, despite bad press from listers, I was, in advance, disposed to liking the book, with no grievance to bear.

There's a line in the book that Greil recounts. He must have been talking up his impressions of Astral Weeks performed live and his wife turned to him and told him that's what he should be writing about - Van Morrison's music. And so he did. I don't doubt that Greil is a fan of one particular aspect of Van's music, something that speaks to him personally and he feels passionate about it, but I didn't sense any of that passion coming through on the page, and I didn't find his analysis of the music that insightful. But hey, it's not everyone who gets asked to write a book about Van's music, so good on him for getting it done. I'm sure he gave it his best shot.

I think I was embroiled in the headwinds of Greil's take on The Last Laugh, Van's duet with Mark Knopfler, when a local author's book came to my attention, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life by Steve Almond. Dennis had seen him do a book reading at the Newburyport Literary Festival and got Steve to sign the book for me. Here's what he wrote...

To the Drooling Vanatic Shannon -
Please find (if you don't have already) "Who Drove the Red Sports Car" and CRANK IT UP
xo

This guy is one seriously devoted fan of the music, there aren't enough hours in the day and night to cram it all in, and it's all good, the louder the better. Ergo, the Drooling Fanatic - it's too good to stop now! It turns out he was giving a reading up in Concord the following week, so Dennis and I went along to that. And he's just as good in person as he is on the page - he keeps you laughing, mostly at yourself, because you know exactly what he's going through when the music takes over. I love the story he tells about this hot young thing. for whom bedding is all he's got on his mind, and things are going pretty good in the foreplay to bedding part, and just when he's thinking it's time to make his move, he walks into the living room and Air Supply is playing on her stereo. While it didn't put the kibosh on his short-term plans for the weekend, he couldn't stomach the idea of a future that included her singing "I'm All Out of Love" as if she really meant it. And that was the end of Elise.

Turns out, while Dennis was at the literary festival, he spotted a poster for Midnight Souvenirs in the window of a local shop, and when he went in to buy the CD, he found out that Peter was playing a few shows in northern New England before heading off to tour the album at spots along the east coast, plus one stop in Chicago.

The closest show we could get tickets for was up in Portland, Maine, which is a bit of a hike up the road from here. It's been years since I've been wanting to see this guy live, and the way he tours, it was now or never I figured. It turned out to be a superb night of music...I'll tell you all about it next time.

sitting down

I can't believe it...

I haven't been to this blog since November? What have I been doing that I couldn't come on for ten minutes and at least said hi. And how's everyone been doing on this Van hiatus. I've mostly been listening to live Astral Weeks stuff since November. Or at least I was bent on doing just that. Lately, though, I don't even have time for music...except in the car. Which reminds me, I had a show playing in the car last week, and out of it came a little trivia question:

At what show did Van namecheck Ray Charles in three separate songs; not only that, but the three songs followed each other on the setlist? Hint: it was a show from the '90s.

But no time to listen to music makes for not much time to listen to Van. But that all changes tomorrow. April 1...I'm going to sit down and catch up on some writing. And what I mostly want to write about is that year of Astral Weeks we had.

So guess what I'll be listening to pretty much nonstop for the next while? Everyone else will be off boogying in those southern parts and I'll be crooning in my cups, deep in the throes of Madame Joy et al. Getting on that train!

But that's tomorrow. Tonight, I'm going to pop the Hollywood Bowl DVD in. I was going to watch Basquiat, but it wouldn't play. Last night I watched what I thought was a good movie, The Dancer Upstairs. With the most stunning version of Sandy Denny's Who Knows Where the Time Goes sung by Nina Simone.

I've landed in that area of my Netflix queue where Javier Bardem dwells, and The Dancer Upstairs is another of them. The night before I'd seen him in Before Night Falls, where we get to see the devil-may-care Johnny Depp in a couple of roles.

I was looking forward to another movie tonight. Hollywood Bowl was an easy choice. Take me back.

So, the video watching should work out OK, don't you think?
Here's to the same success with tomorrow's project.
I'll let you know how it goes.