I want a Sunday kind of love, a love that lasts past Saturday night....

Found this student project which used Etta James' exquisite version of the classic Sunday Kind of Love:

(Mark) Sanford & Some (chick in Argentina)...

Don't Cry For Me, Argentina

Possible suspects (gender has not been identified at press time):
Che Guevara (Cuban revolution)
Eva Duarte de Peron ("Evita" - politics)
Diego Maradona (soccer)
Juan Manuel Fangio (car racing)
Carlos Gardel (tango singer)
Gabriela Sabatini (tennis)
Guillermo Vilas (tennis)
Astor Piazzolla (tango composer)
Valeria Mazza (supermodel)
Rene Favaloro (surgeon, inventor of the coronary bypass surgery )
Manu Ginobili (basketball)
Angel Cabrera (golf, won US Open 2007)
Lionel Messi (soccer)
Jorge Luis Borges (writer)
Maxima Zorreguieta (princess - Netherlands)
Mafalda (cartoon) - source

Friday morning trail mix...

Creek Bank (Mose Allison) The Prestige Collection
To a Child (Laura Nyro) The Loom's Desire
Change Is Gonna Do Me Good (Al Anderson) Pay Before You Pump
He War (Cat Power) You Are Free
Red Cadillac & a Black Moustache (Brian Setzer) Rockabilly Riot Vol I
Soul Food To Go (Manhattan Transfer) Brasil
I Love You (The Pipettes) We Are the Pipettes
Bud Powell (Chick Corea) Remembering Bud Powell
Rio Grande (Dave Alvin) Ashgrove
Me & Mr. Jones (Amy Winehouse) Back To Black

The King (of Pop) Is Dead!...

He had become completely irrelevant, but in his heyday...dead at 50

"When the autopsy comes, all hell's going to break loose, so thank God we're celebrating him now," Liza Minnelli told CBS' "The Early Show" by telephone. - celebrity quotes

Wednesday morning at 5 o'clock as the day begins...

Jumped into brother Jim's auto yesterday afternoon to travel up Queen to Staples. Needed a new laptop. What's this? Mr. "Neil Diamond All the Time" was listening to Lucinda Williams!!!!!! Holy shit, he's found salvation! Hey, Jim, when did you discover Lucinda? Who? Oh, he was just listening to the Margaritaville Channel on XM Satellite Radio and had no clue who I was talking about. Baby steps.

Cool show coming: Felice Brothers at Cafe Nine! Now they need to book the Strange Boys.

If you come back, I'll even take the damn cat...

Charlie / OFD has left a new comment on your post "My eggs don't taste the same without you...":

Rejoice Farquahr Fahns ! Several Fabulous Farquahr Melodies are now on youtube! 3 originals and a couple of tributes it can only lead to more of this talented group of rogues who taught us how to have fun, by celebrating felonious lyrics and ribald sketches while we enjoyed God's gift to youth - beer and young ladies.

Johnnykmusic note: cannot find any original Farquahr material on youtube, just tributes.

Now, that makes fifteen bands Jack White is in?...

Forecast fine for Jack White's Dead Weather
NEW YORK (Billboard) – It all started with a lost voice and a missing tour bus. Alison Mosshart sings for the Kills, the dirty blues-rock band that opened for the Raconteurs last fall, when Jack White lost his voice. White's hoarseness came near the end of a fairly cataclysmic tour for both White and Mosshart; the White Stripes/Raconteurs frontman injured his back, and the Kills' tour bus driver disappeared with the group's bus. (A week later the bus was found in a Los Angeles parking lot and the driver was arrested in February in Miami.)

"I was wearing the same clothes I'd been in for a week, because the bus still hadn't been found," Mosshart says. To get their minds off their mishaps, White suggested an impromptu end-of-tour jam session in Nashville. "We had one day left with her before she had to go to New York and we were in Nashville together so we said, 'Why don't we record a 7-inch?'" White says. "We had absolutely no energy left and were completely burned out."

And so the Dead Weather was born, with White on drums, Mosshart on vocals, Raconteur Jack Lawrence on bass and Dean Fertita -- a member of Queens of the Stone Age who tours with the Raconteurs -- on guitar. "We burned the candle at three ends, and all of a sudden we had four songs done," Mosshart says. "And then we just kept going and going, and all of a sudden, we were this new band with this new record. I couldn't believe how kind of natural it felt." The "supergroup's" album, "Horehound," comes out July 14 on White's label, Third Man Records; it will be distributed by Warner Music. For an album that was spawned from frenzied late-night sessions, it doesn't sound at all slapped-together. It's a deep, sludgy collection that recalls early Led Zeppelin and includes a dark, bluesy cover of Bob Dylan's "New Pony." - complete article

Johnnykmusic note: The Dead Weather plays Terminal 5 in NYC on 7/16 and 7/17, then the Boston House of Blues (when was that resurrected?) on 7/18 - Here they are live on Conan

Sunday morning, golf cancelled, waitin' on the US Open...

Little Feat in 1976 at San Fran's Winterland doing Allen Toussaint's On Your Way Down:

From Wolfgang's Concert Vault:
This concert, when Little Feat was opening for Electric Light Orchestra, remains one of their most legendary performances. Broadcast live on KSAN radio, parts of this performance were immediately bootlegged to vinyl and rapidly began circulating under various titles, the most common being "Rampant Syncopatio" and "Chinese Bejeezus," titles rumored to have been supplied by Lowell George himself.

It's no wonder that this performance became so popular, as it captures the band at the peak of the "Lowell George era," promoting the release of The Last Record Album. This album signaled the emergence of jazzier elements being incorporated into the bands sound, as well as stronger contributions from guitarist Paul Barrere and keyboardist Bill Payne, which added greater diversity to the group’s material. - concert summary

Johnnykmusic note: Allen Toussaint will play Sunday Brunch at Joe's Pub in NYC on 6/28 and 7/5. Lowell George is currently dead and not touring with Little Feat, rendering them, while not bad, not really Little Feat.

An exclusive Daily Nugget report from G-Man...

THE STRANGE BOYS CONCERT!!!
“Great show, man,” I said as I shook the Strange Boys bassist’s hand. He responded, “Thanks a lot”, and our conversation was almost as long as their set. I had to throw in “man” otherwise we wouldn’t have connected on such a real level. He understood so I walked away, he went back to talking to the two young females that shook his hand before I did. The Strange Boys were among many bands (Mika Miko, The Coathangers, others don’t remember) that played Saturday night (June 13) in Bed Stuy Brooklyn at The Market Hotel. They were by far the best band and played by far the shortest set. The Strange Boys, an Austin, Texas band (we think in their early-20s), are a recent find by the Kennedy family. I read about them in an interview with Patrick Carney, the Black Keys drummer. He said something to the effect of “they will kick your ass every time”… raced to their MySpace, ignored rent and ordered their debut CD, And Girls Club. I haven’t stopped listening for months straight. It’s the best music I have heard since first hearing The Black Keys and The White Stripes. I’m pretty excited. - complete concert review

Lie down, don't walk, don't run...

Ventures Founder and Surf Rock Mastermind Dead
Los Angeles (E! Online) – Talk about a guitar hero. Bob Bogle, cofounder and lead guitarist of the Ventures, whose riffs on hits like "Walk Don't Run" and "Perfidia" defined surf rock, died Sunday at 75. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer was hospitalized after falling ill over the weekend, per Washington's News Tribune of Tacoma. He had reportedly been suffering from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which forced him to quit the band he founded five decades ago with Bob Wilson. "Even though you know it's gonna happen, when it does it's like a bomb dropping on you," Wilson told the paper.

Bogle did manage to see his band enshrined in the Rock Hall in 2008 after recording indelible instrumentals that include versions of "Hawaii Five-O," "Pipeline" and the Pulp Fiction staple "Surf Rider," and selling more than 100 million records. "If you listen to 'Walk, Don't Run' and 'Perfidia,' the lead guitar is just totally unique," said Wilson of his longtime mate. "He used that vibrator bar—they call it a whammy bar—and he used it like nobody else."

Weekend update...

Dined and sampled the Weekend of Music at Bonterra's on Saturday night along with the Andersons and Valentes. Advertised as jazz, funk and blues starting at nine, we got a sax/keyboards duo who frustrated owner Barry D by strolling in after the scheduled time with no sense of urgency. Once set up, they entertained the late dinner/early bar crowd with standards such as Misty, Yesterday, Satin Doll. Very nice stuff. The only problem was that the style was better suited for earlier in the evening, possibly during dinner, when folks (especially older folks with early Sunday starting times) are alert and animated. We could have used an energy boost. Received good feedback about the bands from friends who dined on Thursday and Friday, so let's hope that the news gets around. The series is scheduled for three more weeks, each Thursday through Saturday.

Meanwhile, down in Brooklyn, the youngsters stopped in at the Market Hotel to catch the recently-discovered Strange Boys, who were one of four or five bands playing that night. The Austin-based Boys played a too-short, but fabulous 6 or 7 song set, including a request for Should Have Shot Paul. Their schedule takes them abroad for awhile starting mid-July, but let's hope Cafe Nine brings them into New Haven sometime.

Finally, from Bonnaroo, a really cool moment: 1. The megapowers collide: Bruce Springsteen joins Phish on Sunday night for a three-song surprise set of "Mustang Sally" and Springsteen's own "Bobby Jean" and "Glory Days," the latter song's second What Stage performance in two nights. Springsteen lays down the groundwork; Trey Anastasio doodles circles and designs over the top. Unprecedented, and not to be forgotten. - complete Bannaroo moments

Stay thirsty, my friends...

A-Rod comes through again!...

Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, waiting to take you away...

Picture yourself on a train in a station,
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties,
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstyle,
The girl with the kaleidoscope eyes. - songfacts.com

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - The Beatles (team9 remix)

Real `Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' gravely ill (AP)
They were childhood chums. Then they drifted apart, lost touch completely, and only renewed their friendship decades later, when illness struck. Not so unusual, really. Except she is Lucy Vodden — the girl who was the inspiration for the Beatles' 1967 psychedelic classic "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" — and he is Julian Lennon, the musician son of John Lennon. They are linked together by something that happened more than 40 years ago when Julian brought home a drawing from school and told his father, "That's Lucy in the sky with diamonds." Just the sort of cute phrase lots of 3- or 4-year-olds produce — but not many have a father like John Lennon, who used it as a springboard for a legendary song that became a centerpiece on the landmark album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." - complete story

Live music this weekend at Bonterra's...

Never anything to do in sleepy old Southington? Bonterra Italian Bistro at 98 Main in Southington center will be having music on Thursday through Saturday nights for four consecutive weeks starting June 11. Jazz, funk and blues will be featured starting at 9pm with no cover and food will be available till 11pm.

Located in the newly renovated clocktower building on the town green, Bonterra loosely translates in Italian to 'good earth' which helps define both the food & drink menus. Fresh, quality ingredients, including housemade pastas & sauces, freshly squeezed juices, and wines that are created from organic grapes and processes.

What are you waiting for?

Be my, be my baby....

A little Delaney & Bonnie for your Wednesday wakeup?...

Can you beat this lineup? Delaney Bramlett - guitar, vocals Bonnie Bramlett - vocals Eric Clapton - guitar, vocals Bobby Whitlock - organ, vocals Leon Russell - piano Carl Radle - bass Jim Gordon - drums Jim Price - trumpet, trombone Bobby Keys - saxophone Jim Horn - saxophone Tex Johnson - conga, bongos Rita Coolidge - vocals

This Fillmore West performance, recorded shortly before Clapton would recruit the core band (Bobby Whitlock on keyboards, Carl Radle on bass and Jim Gordon on drums) to form his next band, Derek & The Dominoes, captures Delaney & Bonnie and Friends in incendiary form and at the peak of this particular lineup's powers. Recorded on the final night of a legendary four-night run in San Francisco, this performance is arguably superior to the official live album. Featuring several of the same songs, as well as material only released on studio albums, this group is literally a musical locomotive driven along by Delaney's charging guitar and vocals and Bonnie's peerless voice, which balances blistering and sweet at the same time. Also for this performance, Delaney's old buddy, Leon Russell, joins the already impressive lineup on grand piano throughout the set. - complete concert summary

R.I.P. Kenny Rankin...

Singer-songwriter Kenny Rankin dead of lung cancer (AP)
LOS ANGELES – Kenny Rankin, a brilliant pop vocalist and highly regarded musician-songwriter whose stylings ranged from jazz to pop to the world music influences he picked up as a child in New York, has died of complications related to lung cancer, his record company announced Monday. He was 69. Rankin died Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Mack Avenue Records spokesman Don Lucoff said.

The musician, who first gained acclaim as one of the guitarists on Bob Dylan's landmark 1965 album, "Bringing it all Back Home," had been preparing to record an album of new material when he became ill a few weeks ago. Recording sessions scheduled with producer Phil Ramone were canceled as his health began to deteriorate. - complete article - Blackbird (youtube)

Shouldn't we all have passionate kisses?....

Before I knew who Lucinda Williams was, there was Mary Chapin Carpenter's version of Lu's "Passionate Kisses":


The Reet, Keith, Sharie and I were at Town Hall in NYC for this version. She pulls this 'wrong key' shit alot. It's charming the first time, annoying after that. But she's still the greatest, flaws and all. She was winding up an LA/NYC tour where she played a complete album each night, followed by a guest-filled jam for the second set. We saw David Byrne, Jim Lauderdale, David Johasson. Great night!:


Hell, while I'm at it, here is the other Lucinda Williams' song I loved before I knew who wrote it. Used to wear this Emmylou Harris CD out in the office in the 1990s:

Monday afternoon trail mix...

The Sheik of Araby (Coleman Hawkins) Body and Soul
Paris Sunset #7 (Ben Harper & Innocent Criminals) Lifeline
Promise (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) Howl
Concerto (Thomas Quasthoff etal) Dialogue Cantatas
Layin' Right Here in Heaven (Maria Muldaur/Dr. John) Louisiana Love Call
Sufferin' In the Land (Jimmy Cliff) Wonderful World, Beautiful People
Stella By Starlight (Stanley Cowell) Close To You Alone
Mollena (James Hunter) People Gonna Talk
It's Alright (Bob Marley & the Wailers) Soul Rebels
That's Not the Way It Works (Jim Lauderdale/Donna the Buffalo) Wait 'Til Spring
Why Don't They Let Us Fall In Love (Veronica) Phil Spector-Back To Mono
Bubu (Milt Jackson) Early Modern
I Could Have Danced All Night (Frank Sinatra) Come Dance With Me
Lana (Roy Orbison) Only the Lonely

Iguanas alert...

The Iguanas perform in an early show tonight at Cafe Nine in New Haven

Sunday morn newspaper reading mix...

Summer of Love (John Fogerty) Revival
For All We Know (Gary Burton & Friends) Departure
Building On Fire (Talking Heads) Best Of...
Wild World (Cat Stevens) Tea For the Tillerman
Slow Motion (Jim Lauderdale w/ Donna the Buffalo) Wait 'Til Spring
The Tourist (Ray Davies) Other People's Lives
Down the Highway (Bob Dylan) The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Can't Help But Wonder Where (Nanci Griffin) Other Voices, Other Rooms
Anything Can Happen (Leon Russell) Anything Can Happen
Letter From Home (Eddie Jefferson) Letter From Home
Ice Cream Man (Tom Waits) Closing Time

Good night for the blues...

Perfect night to venture into the Capitol City for some music and relaxation at the 10th annual Blackeyed & Blues at Bushnell Park in Hartford. The Reet is tired, but always the trooper; a brief nap beforehand rejuvenates her. Our quick trip east on I84 lands us in the midst of rush hour traffic, but we detour off Sisson and then up Capitol to, well, the Capitol! We park right across from the entrance ramp to I84 (for a quick getaway), walk up the front lawn of the Capitol, then make our way around back to the wonderful slope of Bushnell Park. Looks like they let the grass grow pretty high before cutting, leaving a hayfield look to the park lawn. C'mon, Eddie Perez, what's up with that?

It's only 5:30. The Bluelights, the opening act of tonight's 5-act lineup are finishing up their set with an old Elvis tune as we enter the fenced-in checkpoint inspection (whew, the Reet's pocketbook, filled with contraband, passes muster), set up our chairs toward the back of the venue and call Keith. I find him still at his nearby office (those State employees are SO diligent!); he will be here shortly. Sharie, still under the weather, will not join us this evening. I spot a nearby beer tent and order a Red Hook lager (forgot the name), then realized I was supposed to get a band beforehand. Oh well, I put my beer down as I pulled out my ID. Now legal, I rejoin the Reet. Suddenly, Vin (now beardless) and Marsha (also beardless) appear, fresh from work with chairs strapped over shoulders.

Next up are Waterbury's Eran Troy Donner and his band. While Donner kicks ass on guitar/vocals with his bandmates Neal Hatcher on bass and Loyd Norton on drums, Keith finally joins our ranks. He's quickly off with Vin/Marsha to sample the Black-eyed Sally's offerings, while the Reet and I hold down the fort. A chap is handing out fliers for an upcoming Hartford Stage production of Yesterdays, an evening with Billie Holiday. As he offers the flyer he glances at my Anthony Jack's shirt and remarks, "Hey, great restaurant!" I now realize it's getting kind of chilly, so it's a quick trip back up the hill to the car to grab the sweater that I earlier told the Reet wasn't needed. Now it's time for some jambalya! While in line I notice a familiar piano shirt on the girl next to me. Hey, you get that at Jazz Fest? Yeah! Went the first weekend this year and raved about Joe Cocker's performance.

We're all settled in, hungers/thirsts satisfied, minding our own business when we suddenly get slammed by the Alexis P. Souter Band. This larger than life black woman from Brooklyn is fantastic, backed by two white chicks (bizarro world - 'and the white girls sing....') and a fabulous band (Bennett brothers on guitar/bass, Ray Grappone on drums and Bruce Katz on organ). The style is a little like the old Delaney & Bonnie stuff. I get down close to the stage to get the video shown below. Very cool. Keith picks up a copy of her new cd, Just Another Fool. Can't wait to hear it. A check on her touring schedule shows her appearing July 9 at the Battery Park "River and Blues Series" in NYC. The Reet decides to call it a night, so I accompany her back up the hill to the car. I'll go home with Keith, probably after Christine Ohlman. I don't think we'll make it to hear Bronze Radio Return.


We've heard Christine Ohlman, the Beehive Queen, and her band, Rebel Montez, a number of times the last few years, most recently last summer in Hamden on a bill with Los Lobos. Her biography offers ...this queen of blue-eyed rock n' soul grew up loving equally the sweetness of a Memphis horn line and the raunch of an electric guitar riff, whether played by Muddy Waters, Keith Richards, or Pop Staples......all the while continuing to torch clubs up and down the Eastern Seaboard in support of her recordings (Strip, The Hard Way, Radio Queen,Wicked Time, and and two new recordings, a 2008 career retrospective entitled Re-hive and, in early 2009, The Deep End, her first CD of original material in five years, featuring special guests Ian Hunter, Dion DiMucci, Levon Helm, GE Smith, Marshall Crenshaw, Big Al Anderson, Andy York and Eric Ambel) with her band Rebel Montez (Michael Colbath-bass; Cliff Goodwin-guitar; Larry Donahue-drums). "I've come here tonight to set your souls on fire," she'll tell an audience. And she will.

RICK! The Rick appears out of nowhere, beer in hand. Tells us he was at a business 'function' over at Vito's and thought he might run into us here. Best of all, he forks over my pari-mutual winnings from last week's Cape golf trip (I was the ONLY one who bet on VIN! Silly Vin, he bet on me!) Beers are on me, guys! Vin and Marsha take in Christine's first couple offerings, then call it a day. Keith, Rick and I make our way down to the front of the stage to catch the end of the set. Solid show, as always and I'll be most interested in hearing the new CD. Christine will be appearing at Cafe Nine on Saturday, July 11.


It's late. We're out of here! But where the hell was Kevin Meier? Until next time, stay thirsty, my friends.

TONIGHT!, 10th Annual Black-eyed & Bluesfest in Bushnell Park...

Thursday, June 4th, 2009, 5 PM-11 PM
Bushnell Park Pavilion, Downtown Hartford, CT
Admission Absolutely Free!!!

The Bluelights (5:00-6:00 PM)
They are like “Roots Music in Overdrive.” They draw on a wide variety of traditional music to create a new style infused with the energy of the rock ‘n’ roll music of our generation.
Eran Troy Danner (6:15-7:15 PM)
This band is a stripped down, no frills, back to the basics Blues band that has won the acclaim and admiration of true Blues fans everywhere. This red hot trio performs straight forward honest Blues and has opened up for Blues legend BB King, Lucky Peterson, Eddie Turner, Eddie Kirkland, and Blues Traveler.
Alexis P. Suter (7:30-8:30 PM)
Alexis P. Suter has a big voice and knows how to use it. Whether singing about spiritual ecstasy or earthly troubles Alexis makes every song she performs her own. Suter and her top-notch band regularly open Levon Helm’s Midnight Rambles, twice-monthly house parties at Helm’s home and studio in Woodstock NY. That is also where all the tracks on her latest album were recorded last year.
Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez (8:45-9:45 PM)
This beehive knows how to rock, from NBC’s SNL to many festivals around the world, Christine really touches her audience. She just keeps lighting up clubs with her hot guitar and eclectic live shows. Be prepared for a night of big time music.
Bronze Radio Return (10:00-11:00 PM)
Brandishing a soulful, bluesy and highly engaging brand of rock, this hard-working Hartford quintet has been making a lot of noise outside of the Nutmeg state, with tour dates currently on the books from upstate New York all the way down to Virginia. The music will make you dance, sing along and feel good.

They say we're young and we don't know...

Did you know that Dr. John (real name Mac Rebennack) was a session musician backing up Sonny and Cher?

I Got You, Babe (1965)

Cher, Bono heirs sue Universal Music over royalties
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Cher has sued Universal Music Group, claiming that the label's creative accounting has shortchanged her and the heirs of her late ex-husband, Sonny Bono, to the tune of $5 million. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, claims an audit of UMG's accounting to the singer-actress from 2000 to 2003 showed that UMG executives "engaged in wrongful tactics" designed to hide revenue from two hit compilation albums.

The five-count, 22-page complaint claims breach of two recording contracts Cher had with UMG predecessors, one with MCA division Kapp Records in 1972 and a 1987 deal with the David Geffen Company. Cher claims that those deals entitled her -- and, in the case of the 1972 deal, Bono -- to receive up to 50 percent of net royalties received by UMG. The complaint alleges that UMG later made a deal with Warner Music U.K. to distribute a 1999 compilation called "Cher The Greatest Hits," then funneled the money through UMG's international arm to conceal the amount of royalties owed to Cher and the Bono heirs. - complete article

Here is a very touching clip of their last appearance together, an unrehearsed performance in 1987 on the David Letterman Show after Letterman prodded them into singing:

We thought you Sox fans would want to know...

AL East Standings
New York Yankees 30-21 .588 -- Gwen Verdon in "Damn Yankees"
Boston Red Sox 29-22 .569 1.0 Dropkick Murphys doing "Dirty Water"
Toronto Blue Jays 29-24 .547 2.0 Buck 65 - Roses & Bluejays (Live at the ECMAs)
Tampa Bay Rays 25-28 .472 6.0 Sympathy For the Devil (1968)
Baltimore Orioles 24-28 .462 6.5 The Orioles singing "Baby, Please Don't Go"

Just another manic Monday...

I know it's not an original thought and Susanna Hoffs plays up her 'eyes thing' way too much, but it's a really catchy Prince song...