Danny Ainge - WTF? Jared Sullinger and Fab Mello Yellow (quite right) ????..

"Greek God of Walks" traded by Red Sox...

Kevin Youkilis's iPod:
Walk Away Renee (The Left Banke)
Walk Like An Egyptian (The Bangles)
I'm Walkin' (Ricky Nelson)
Walk Like a Man (The Four Seasons)
Walk, Don't Run (The Ventures)
Walk of Life (Dire Straits)  ....great song, and current Burger King commercial
Walkin' To New Orleans (Fats Domino)
Walking On Sunshine (Katrina & the Waves)
Sleep Walk (Santo & Johnny)
Just Walking in the Rain (Johnny Ray)
I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash)
Walk On the Wild Side (Lou Reed)

Peter does The Flatlanders Friday night in Shirley (I think that's the sequence)...

(Special from Peter M to johnnykmusic)

Shirley, for the first time
The Globe was touting the Flatlanders show at Bull Run all week, so I figured what the heck. But where the hell is Shirley? Turns out, not far...45 minutes, even on a rainy night.

First through Ayer, whose economy once depended on Fort Devens, a huge army base, but that's all gone now, and the promised future has not arrived. Then the road bends left and you're in the sticks... derelict cars in the front lawn....you know you're pretty near New Hampshire. Then an ominous looking pile on the left. Takes a few seconds...oh yeah, MCI Shirley, Massachusetts' maximum security prison ...scary.

A couple of miles on the right is the Bull Run. Big rambling collection of old buildings ("serving the tired, thirsty traveller since 1740") and a full parking lot. Ask for will-call....through two sets of swinging doors, through a crowded old time dining room and up the ramp to the girl at the door. Will call? That's me, what's your name? OK. A ticket? No, I know who you are. Downstairs to the bar, strike up a conversation with a pretty woman with cafe-au lait complexion named Debbie and her burly guy named Steve, whose Aussie accent I don't quite get until my second beer. They are regulars and introduce me to the guy in the snap-brim hat, George the owner. (George suggests, "Online, make sure you type in bullrunrestaurant, or you'll get a lot of information you don't want about the Civil War.")

Upstairs for the show. Weird place...big room set up with round tables full of people eating dinner. The opening band is local strummers not trying too hard. My seat is supposed to be at a table with a young family, so instead I find a spot against the wall.

The Flatlanders come out, Joe Ely. Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, plus a couple of guitar guys and a young guy on drums. They put on an energetic show, mixing in current stuff I've never heard, plus the alt country stuff that has made them a semi legendary non-band over the past 40 years. I brought along, but left in the car, my 1980 Flatlanders "One Road More" album and my 1981 Butch Hancock "Firewater seeks its own level" album recorded live at Bob Rosenbaum's Alamo Lounge in Austin and autographed "To Peter and Evelyn. Love, Butch. Bob told me to say that."

These guys are fun to listen to, a few nice anecdotes, no old geezer sentimentality, just good music. But most memorable is Jimmie Dale Gilmore's unique, high, sweet, sad, ironic, charming voice ...you just want him to keep singing.

I'll be back, Shirley

Sunday Morning (watch out, the world's behind you)...

What's your favorite Sunday song?  Sunday Morning (Velvet Underground),  Sunday Kind of Love (Etta James), Sunday Will Never Be the Same (Spanky & Our Gang), Sunday Morning Coming Down (Johnny Cash/Kris Kristofferson) , That Sunday, That Summer (Nat King Cole),  Sunday Papers (Joe Jackson),

G-Man & Yvette at Central Park this evening for the Alabama Shakes.  Envious.  Missed the Carolina Chocolate Drops on New Haven Green last evening.  Shamed.

You owe it to yourself to get some Ruthie Foster this Summer:
8/14/2012 Songs at Mirror Lake, Lake Placid NY
8/15/2012 The Narrows, Fall River MA
8/16/2012 CHIRP, Ridgefield CT
8/17/2012 The Center for the Arts in Natick, Natick MA
8/18/2012 White Mountain Boogie and Blues Festival, Thornton NH
8/19/2012 Payomet Performing Arts Center, North Truro MA

Sweltering Friday pre-thundershower trail mix..

On the Corner (Sarah Borges) Silver City
What Your Man Don't Know (D Smith Blues Band) Playing In the Dark
Wishful Thinking (Laura Cantrell) Humming By the Flowered Vine
Whose Cadillac Is That? (War) Best of War
Trouble In Mind (Mose Allison) Best of Mose Allison
I Want the Waiter With the Water (Ella Fitzgerald) The Early Years
Good Mornin' Little School Girl (Sonny Boy Williamson) Martin Scorses Presents: The Blues
Mozart Piano Trio in C Major (Amelia Piano Trio) "Live"
Move Over Mama (Justin Townes Earle) Harlem River Blues
No Greater Love (Tal Farlow) Trinity
Boogie Like You Wanna (Angela Strehli) Deja Blue
Georgia On My Mind (Hoagy Carmichael) Best of...

Crosby, Stills & Nash (not young)....

Thanks to Stevie P for the photos of CSN from their recent show at the Oakdale: 

Getting Kinky in New Haven on a Tuesday night...

Now, I don't claim authority on all things Kinky Friedman (or all things kinky, for that matter), but whenever I stumble upon his self-titled 1974 album in my collection, I say to myself, "Self, this is good shit!"  And it's not just the notorious signature shot at prejudice, sexism, racism and political correctness that is They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore (almost in spite of it at this point), but rather the remaining collection of clever, funny, raunchy songs, along with a cover of Clyde McPhatter's Lover Please, sung in a wiseass Texas drawl.

The Kinkster has done many things since 1974:  a member of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, author of mystery books, seller of his own lines of cigars, coffee and tequila ("not your father's tequila, your grandfather's gardener's tequila"), and a famous 2005 run at the governorship of Texas ("where I carried every state 'cept Texas").  Interesting guy.  So, earlier this year, when I saw that Cafe Nine was hosting The Governor of the Heart of Texas, I put it on my list of concerts to catch.

My last trip to The Musician's Living Room was a few months ago with the Pool Hall Studs for the Dex Romweber Duo- great show, though we had to wait through a bunch of other acts before Dex, which made for a mighty late night.  Oh, what the hell, it's an 8 o'clock start, so I can do this.  A text to the PHS yields silence, so I'm on my own.  I find a parking spot on State Street, just past the corner of State/Crown.  I amble over to Cafe Nine's side (Crown Street) entrance, where I'm greeted by the familiar somber, well-pierced young girl who takes my $25 cover and stamps my hand.  I enter.  Very crowded.  Pretty old crowd.  Ouch.  No seats.  The dressed-in-black, cigar-in-mouth Friedman is up near the stage, signing stuff, posing for pictures.  I grab a Bud (hmmmm, I could have gone Lone Star, definitely not a Sam Summer tonight) and squeeze into a spot to the front of the bar and wait.  Promptly at eight, a likeable young man (Brian Mulder, I think) does a half-hour set of  low-key, guitar strummin', "I left for Elay, should have thought about it one more day" kind of stuff.  A short break.  I check my messages, send some texts, observe Jack Kerouac up on the wall- hey, I'm a busy guy, not just standing around with nothing to do!

Finally, it is show time.  The Governor works his way from the back of the bar through the dense crowd to the small stage at the front left of the room.  Loud applause.  "Anyone here see Willie Nelson last night?"  Yes, a few.  "You all heard about his drug bust last year on his tour bus.  I later saw him on tv in handcuffs - signing autograph for the police!  That's why I like to call him The Hillbilly Dali Lama."  A song:  Waitress, oh waitress, please sit on my face; eatin' ain't cheatin'.....  Crowd loves The Governor!  A pitch for his Man in Black tequila (website: This tequila is a tribute to men like Paladin,  Zorro and Johnny Cash who wore the dark attire that cloaked them in mystery...he may have been a hero or a scoundrel, but all who encountered him knew that he was a force to be dealt with. He was The Man in Black.)  More songs, some old, but one touching Irish ballad of an 18-year old lad dying for Ireland's freedom.  Powerful stuff.

He calls up a young lass he claims to have discovered recently at a festival they were both performing in, Amy Love, for three songs.  Two standards, one original.  Very good voice, stage presence AND the best damn whistler I have ever heard!  Loud applause.  Kinky returns with a few more songs, stories.  He reads a touching passage about his deceased father, a war hero/college professor/humanitarian, from his book-in-progress- Heroes of a Texas Childhood.  You could hear a pin drop.  I'm thinking, here's a grizzled old bastard, playing unaccompanied, sweating up a storm, voice past its prime, yet wonderfully, completely entertaining.

He finishes with, you guessed it.  The whole crowd yelling out the chorus as Kinky closes it out.  Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, they ain't makin' Jews like Jesus anymore!  They ain't made many like The Kinkster neither.  Totally satisfying show.  Glad I got my ass down here.  (Tonight Kinky Friedman's Bi-Polar Tour is in Collinsville at Bridge Street Live)

Macca @ 70....say it ain't so....

Live music of note..

• Kinky Friedman on Tuesday at Cafe Nine - article
• Carolina Chocolate Drops at New Haven Green on Saturday 

Rock of the Aged...

Received a Father's Day email from JR about the movie Rock of Ages:

"Fun movie. No Oscars here even though Tom does do a pretty good Axl Rose and the rest of the A-listers have good chemistry. But the hit of the movie was the sound track. Great nostalgia for us old rockers!! Ryan and Dodge give it 2 thumbs up."

Track Listing

1.	Paradise City (Tom Cruise)	3:43
2.	Sister Christian /Just Like Paradise /Nothin' But A Good Time (Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin)	5:41
3.	Juke Box Hero /I Love Rock 'n' Roll (Diego Boneta, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Julianne Hough)	2:23
4.	Hit Me With Your Best Shot (Catherine Zeta-Jones)	2:28
5.	Waiting For A Girl Like You (Diego Boneta, Julianne Hough)	3:24
6.	More Than Words /Heaven (Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta)	3:08
7.	Wanted Dead Or Alive (Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough)	4:19
8.	I Want To Know What Love Is (Tom Cruise, Malin Akerman)	3:32
9.	I Wanna Rock (Diego Boneta)	2:26
10.	Pour Some Sugar On Me (Tom Cruise)	3:13
11.	Harden My Heart (Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige)	2:40
12.	Shadows of the Night /Harden My Heart (Mary J. Blige, Julianne Hough)	1:57
13.	Here I Go Again (Diego Boneta, Paul Giamatti, Julianne Hough, Mary J. Blige, Tom Cruise)	3:07
14.	Can't Fight This Feeling (Russell Brand, Alec Baldwin)	3:05
15.	Any Way You Want It (Mary J. Blige, Constantine Maroulis, Julianne Hough)	2:31
16.	Undercover Love (Diego Boneta)	3:06
17.	Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Mary J. Blige)	2:57
18.	Rock You Like A Hurricane (Julianne Hough, Tom Cruise)	2:40
19.	We Built This City / We're Not Gonna Take It (Russell Brand / Catherine Zeta-Jones)	2:18
20.	Don't Stop Believin' (Julianne Hough, Diego Boneta, Tom Cruise, Alec Baldwin, Russell Brand, Mary J. Blige)	4:13
	Total Album Time:	62:51

School's out for the Summer (school's out forever!)...

(AP)- Police in Bloomfield have charged a high school teacher and his wife with growing large amounts of marijuana in their home.  The Hartford Courant reports 40-year-old Christopher Gallagher and 44-year-old Kristine Gallagher face numerous drug charges including operating a drug factory.  Police say they seized 90 plants, 4 pounds of dried marijuana, three guns, $2,200 in cash, and packaging supplies from their home on Tuesday.  Christopher Gallagher, an English teacher and lacrosse coach at Northwest Catholic High School, was being held on a $150,000 bond. His wife was freed after posting a $50,000 bail. 

Police also seized the Gallaghers' iPod:
School's Out (Alice Cooper)
I Shot the Sheriff (Bob Marley)
Welcome Back (John Sebastian)
Teacher, Teacher (Rockpile)
Mary Jane's Last Dance (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers)
Hot For Teacher (Van Halen)

Rolling Stone's "Born on the Bayou: Exploring Louisiana in 18 Songs"...

By James Sullivan

The Lousiana Purchase of 1803 brought nearly a million acres of new land to the United States of America, spreading as far afield as Montana. Working out to about three cents an acre, the purchase continues to pay outrageous dividends, not least in the form of the rich and diverse cultural heritage of the state of Louisiana, which became the 18th state of the Union in 1812. The birthplace of jazz, the state has also given us Cajun and zydeco music and its own brands of blues, country, funk and hip hop, and the place can even make a strong case as the original home of rock & roll. Here are 18 songs that have helped define the rapturous music of the 18th state. (Read more)

"Wild Man," Galactic feat. Big Chief Bo Dollis
"Little Liza Jane," Huey "Piano" Smith & His Clowns
"Mr. Big Stuff," Jean Knight
"Diggy Liggy Lo," Doug and Rusty Kershaw
"Tipitina," Professor Longhair
"Time Is on My Side," Irma Thomas
"Shake Your Hips," Slim Harpo
"Be My Guest," Fats Domino
"Buttercup," Lucinda Williams
"Look-Ka Py Py," Meters
"Bon Ton Roulet," Clifton Chenier
"I Walk on Guilded Splinters," Dr. John
"Yellow Moon," Neville Brothers
"Suzie Q," Dale Hawkins
"Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley," Lee Dorsey
"Do Whatcha Wanna," Rebirth Brass Band
"A Milli," Lil Wayne
"Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans," Louis Armstrong

Can't trust that day...

During a timeout while my beloved Celtics were going down in flames in the 4th quarter on Saturday night, I watched a Burger King commercial featuring this great Dire Straits song - The Walk of Life.  Whoo Hoo, Whoo, Hoo.

And after all the violence and double talk
There's just a song in all the trouble and the strife
You do the walk, you do the walk of life, yeah he do the walk of life

Bonnie Raitt/Mavis Staples were at Mountain Park in Holyoke, MA on Friday night (anyone go?).   Low Cut Connie was at the Living Room in NYC on Saturday, but the Boyz from Brooklyn were locked in on the Celtics.  Suggested to The Reet that we shuffle down to the Mohegan Sun Wolf Den for David Bromberg Sunday night, but she declined the chance to make a fortune at 25-cent video poker.

Newest music purchases delivered today:
Locked Down (Dr. John)
Slipstream (Bonnie Raitt)
Radio Music Society (Esperanza Spalding)

Meanwhile, UConn's Geno Auriemma apparently was on a sugar run in 2009, hitting on a female NBA security official at a hotel bar. Now she's suing (I think because his pickup line was so lame).

Per Kelly Hardwick’s allegation, she and another female official were in the lobby at the team hotel in 2009, when Auriemma approached them from the bar.“He invited himself and started talking about coming from an immigrant Italian background and saying he could relate to inner-city blacks,” Ms. Shannon recalled. “We were like ‘whatever.”  He then rode with them up the elevator and allegedly tried to kiss Hardwick, a former narcotics detective, but she rebuffed his advances. (“You better check yourself before you get hurt!”). more

More dead guize...

Bob Welch, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie

An old favorite of mine, Bob Welch, who played guitar and sang with Fleetwood Mac (1971-1974) after its Peter Green blues period, but before it became the wildly successful overblown pop machine (not that there's anything WRONG with that), committed suicide in Nashville yesterday at 66.  According to some stories, he had health issues that he didn't want his wife to be burdened with.  Sad.  After he sued them in the early 1990s for back royalties, The Mac froze him out of their R&R Hall of Fame induction in 1998.  Screwed.  His last album with Mac, Heroes Are Hard to Find, was always on the turntable in the mid-70s. (NY Times article)

Sentimental Lady (1977)
Heroes Are Hard to Find (1974)

Peter M in (well, at) Paradise with Dr. John...

Peter M w/ Terrie & the Viper at Jazz Fest

(Peter M special report to johnnykmusic):
Sally W called last week with news that her son-in-law and New Orleans sax guy Derek Huston had hooked up with Dr John for a US and European tour and would be at the Paradise Wednesday night. Hoping for comps, but just in case got tix on Monday. Wednesday evening Commonwealth Avenue is a broad thoroughfare of BU buildings, shops, bars, restaurants and retailers with the trolley running down the middle. But we spot a meter and we're off. The sign on the door says sold out, and there's a short line. The door guys decide we're old enough to drink and direct us to the ticket office for the hoped-for comps. We have three, but Sally's youngest and her boyfriend are driving down from NH, so I need to use one of my two tickets. Still doing good.

Inside, Jon Cleary is on stage banging away like a madman. We go upstairs, find what looks like the VIP area and slide in. Cleary is doing a great job, a one-man demolition crew on keyboards. Did we see him at Jazz Fest? With Bonnie Raitt?

Cleary wraps up, pretty much on time, about 9:00. As they are setting up for Dr John, a big bouncer type, 300 pounds and a shaved head, comes to chase us out of the VIP area....great spot, perfect view, right next to the sound guy. But Sally does a great job chatting him up, and he says he'll check it out. Five minutes later he's back, you guys are good. See, treat people nicely and they'll help you out. (And I take a quick walk outside and sell my remaining ticket to a good-looking blond.)

Dr John comes out with his signature cane and hat......does Mac Rebennack use a cane, or is it just Dr John? and the Lower 911 Band gets right down to business. Dr John on piano and assorted keyboards, Jon Cleary more keyboards and anything he can lay his hands on, lead guitar, bass guitar. A girl trombone player...great opportunity for showing off, and she makes the most of it ... and Derek on that monster sax. Derek is not a big guy, no Clarence Clemons, so he's working hard pushing that sax around.

I have not heard Dr John's new album, so don't know how much of it they played. What we did hear seemed to me like vintage New Orleans sound, driving, powerful, full of dark humor and totally entertaining. Great show. They played for what felt like close to two hours, capped off with a one-song encore. No bullshit, very business-like, terrific.

The big tour bus idling outside on a beautiful clear cool summer evening on a now pretty quiet Comm Ave. (Sox must be over...if I had a smart phone I could have known right away that Beckett throws a five-hitter and loses and the Sox are still America's favorite .500 team.) Derek holds forth with a crowd of local friends and family, but Sally and I head for the burbs. An excellent night.

You are HERE....

You give love a bad name...

Allegedly a huge Bon Jovi fan - A Tennessee man faces attempted murder charges after he allegedly shot his former roommate, a local TV meteorologist, with a crossbow and arrow.  (read more)

Shot through the heart during a love spat or did he just get really bad forecast?  Perhaps the answer is found on his iPod:
You Give Love a Bad Name (Bon Jovi)
Broken Arrow (Buffalo Springfield)
Stormy Weather (Etta James)
Crying in the Rain (Everly Brothers)
Ain't No Sunshine (Bill Withers)
Blame It on the Weatherman (B*Witched)

Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down...

Keith & his offensive line

Me used to be angry young man - Back from the annual Cape golf extravaganza.  Keith declared the individual champion after final round canceled by rain, making the title slightly tainted (he doesn't care, though).  He/Vinny were less successful at setback, presenting little challenge to JK & our host, rapper RantOn.  The tagline for the week was, "The secret word is canal." Breakfast trivia question on blackboard at Ruggie's (where I ordered the Mexican Melting Pot) yesterday morning:  What famous Beatles album was released on this date in 1967?  THE ANSWER
  
Wish Gene Z a happy birthday, or just a mediocre one - your call.

"Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" (from Wikipedia, so it must be true)- a song written by Kris Kristofferson and first recorded by Ray Stevens in 1969; it became Stevens' first country chart hit, reaching #55 on the country charts and #81 on the pop Top 100 in 1969. Kristofferson released his own version the following year, on his debut album, Kristofferson. Johnny Cash also released a version of the song that year, on his live album The Johnny Cash Show. Cash's recording won the Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year in 1970 and hit number one on the country charts. In 1974, Cash performed the song during an episode of Columbo (titled "Swan Song"). Most recently it was featured on Willie Nelson's 2011 album, Remember Me, Vol. 1.

A few years ago, we were blown away by the Alexis P. Suter Band at Sally's Blackeyed & Blues Fest (we now miss it each year because of the conflict with the Cape golf trip).  The Alexis P. Suter Band will be playing at the Iron Horse Music Hall on Saturday, July 28.

Forty years of Integrity...

(Htfd Courant)- As the jazz-addicted proprietor of Integrity 'n Music, the ruggedly independent, Mom and Pop, customer-friendly, jazz and blues record shop in Wethersfield, Ed Krech is celebrating his store's 40th anniversary, grateful to be around so long but apprehensive about how much longer he can keep his shop afloat.  Besides being his dream job and a good way to provide a living for his family, Krech (rhymes with Breck) can also celebrate the fact that his cozy, compact shop, with its bargain prices, unpretentious decor and pleasantly low-key sense of hipness, has become a vital part of the social fabric that makes the Greater Hartford jazz community seem so distinctive and such an independent cultural phenomenon.

Presenting live jazz in a record shop is an idea that Krech borrowed from the New Orleans record stores he haunts — along with scouting out Crescent City book shops — when he and Nancy, without fail, make their annual pilgrimage to The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.  As hooked as he first became on jazz as a trumpet-playing teenager growing up in South Bend, Ind., just two miles from Notre Dame, he's become, in middle-age, wholly addicted to everything about New Orleans, absorbing all he can about the Crescent City's music, its culture, cuisine, literature, folk lore, history and even its small, homey book and record shops rooted in local tradition. (Read More)