Sunday morning post-breakfast trail mix...

Eleanor Rigby (Richie Havens) Mixed Bag

Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry (Diana Krall) Quiet Nights

From a Whisper to a Scream (Allen Toussaint) The Allen Toussaint Collection

Nothin' But Time (Jackson Browne) Running On Empty

Fun (Sly & the Family Stone) The Essential...

Peggy Sue (Lou Reed) Rave On Buddy Holly

Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts (Bob Dylan) Blood on the Tracks

House of the Rising Sun  (The Animals)  The Complete Animals

The Lucky Ones (Blackie & the Rodeo Kings) Kings of Love

Not Fade Away (Florence + the Machine) Rave On Buddy Holly

Trouble in Mind (Sam Cooke) The Rhythm and the Blues

Hey Julia (Robert Palmer) Sneakin' Sally Through the Alley

Trinkets (Bonnie Raitt)  Souls Alike

Midnight Sun (Dex Romweber Duo) Is That You in the Blue?

Birds (Neil Young) After the Goldrush
Big Shot (Dr. John) Locked Down
Out at Sea (Heartless Bastards) The Mountain
A Full Time Job (Johnny Ray) A Proper Introduction to...
Saying I Love You (Girls) Father, Son & Holy Ghost

Keith's comments on the Alexis P. Suter gig at the Iron Horse last night:

Great - she put on a great show - had everyone (including moi) dancing in the aisles for the encore!!  Sang some gospel which I loved (my group not completely enarmored with those selections!!)  But the entire show was entertaining and everyone loved it!

G-Man & Yvette have tickets for tonight!...

NEW YORK CITY'S MUSIC FESTIVAL

Randalls Island, July 28–29
Saturday, July 28th

THE BLACK KEYS

TV ON THE RADIO • UMPHREY'S MCGEETWO SETS HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR • ZOLA JESUS * FELIX DA HOUSECAT • THE SHEEPDOGS FORT ATLANTIC • THE DEMOS • THE AVIATION ORANGE * MY PET DRAGON • JDH & DAVE P • PAUL C * PAUL FAVRETTI • THE REBEL LIGHT 

Catalpa – New York City’s Music Festival

The inaugural Catalpa Festival is striving to be a pioneering New York festival, unique in its programming, atmosphere and aesthetic. With as much an emphasis on site artistry, interactive experiences and experimentation as the musical entertainment itself, Catalpa is filling what we see as a gap for an event quite beyond the ordinary in New York City.  A meeting point for creativity, Catalpa will feature over 40 performers from many musical genres including Blues, Rock, Hip-Hop, Electronic, Reggae and Indie. Art installations of all scales, bespoke event structures and enough unique elements will be present to transform people out of their ordinary setting and into an environment more fantastic.  Catalpa will be held on Randalls Island NYC from 1pm to 11pm over July 28th/29th weekend, 2012.

Images of The Hold Steady...

Thursday, July 19 at Arch Street Tavern in Hartford, CT (with permission of Amy Goldstein)

What is your FAVORITE SONG from the year you graduated high school (assuming you did)?

Oh yeah, such great memories from that year you passed your GED exam!  Not saying the year, but lots of British Invasion, Beach Boys and girl groups stuff around. Tie: 

• Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen and 
• House of the Rising Sun by The Animals.

Here are some responses:

• The Sounds of Silence (1965) Simon & Garfunkel
• Truckin' (1970) Grateful Dead 
• Shining Star (1975) Earth, Wind & Fire
• Poetry Man (1975) Phoebe Snow 
• Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 (1966) Bob Dylan 
• (1968) Hey Jude, With a Little Help From My Friends, Everybody's Talking, and about 15 more...
• Midnight at the Oasis (1972) Maria Muldaur

Everybody's working for the weekend...

Yvette with Strange Boys'
Ryan Sanbol

Don't know if he has noticed yet, but Be Brave, from G-man's fav band, The Strange Boys, is the music for a new Dell commercial.

Keith, Sharie and the gang are off to Northampton for a weekend of cycling, shopping, dining and catching the Alexis P. Suter Band at the Iron Horse Music Hall on Saturday night.  We all caught APSB at the annual Blackeyed & Blues Fest at Bushnell Park a few years back.  Additional appearances in the area are:  Thu 8/9 at Bridge Street Live in Collinsville and Tue 8/21 at CHIRP Ballard Park in Ridgefield.

Speaking of CHIRP Ballard Park in Ridgefield,  the PHENOMENAL  Ruthie Foster will be there on Thu 8/16.  Ruthie blew us all away in the Blues Tent at Jazz Fest a few years ago and this is your chance to see her for free!

Tumblin' Dice - Jagger's seven offspring via four women (just thought you'd be nosy enough to want to know)

New Low Cut Connie coming this Fall...

Adam Scott, OUCH!!!!


The original Meters at Howlin' Wolf on 5/15/12 (read article):

Hartford Festival of Jazz, Saturday

1:00 pm - Gates Open
4:30 pm - Matt Marshak
6:00 pm - Elan Trotman with special guest Gerald Veasley
7:30 pm - Jeff Golub
9:00 pm - The Sax Pack featuring Jeff Kashiwa, Steve Cole, Marcus Anderson
10:45 pm - Motown Dance Party featuring Jus’ Us

Last minute, The Reet agreed to spend some pre-Yankees Saturday at the 2012 Hartford Festival of Jazz at Bushnell Park.  Surprisingly hot (the weather, not The Reet, who was unsurprisingly hot).  Arrived at five, caught sets of Matt Marshak and Elan Trotman; finished with a couple numbers from Jeff Golub, who seemed more blues-slanted.  Not a big fan of the smooth jazz genre, but the setting at Bushnell Park was pretty cool - people-watching, lots of food/merchandise vendors.  Waited in line for some shrimp n chips at Seafood Express, but left after 20 minutes.

Festival continues on Sunday, starting with a Dixieland Jazz Mass at Christ Church Cathedral.  Johnny K, the Heathen, will be watching the British Open since Gene Z failed to get us a Sunday morning tee time.

1:00 pm - Gates Open
3:00 pm - Destiny Africa Children's Choir
4:30 pm - Dana Lauren
6:00 pm - Afro-Semitic Experience
7:30 pm - Hartford Symphony Orchestra Jazz & Strings

Some festival views:

Fountain at Bushnell Park

Food booths

View of the Capitol Building from Bushnell Park

View from right side of stage

Johnny K & Reet's view from the hill

Long, but satisfying night in Hartford...

"There are nights when I think Sal Paradise was right.
Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together.
Sucking off each other at the demonstrations
Making sure their makeup's straight
Crushing one another with colossal expectations.
Dependent, undisciplined, and sleeping late."

Not tonight, though.  America's boys and girls were juiced to have Craig Finn and the boys playing at such a small venue Thursday night.  Earlier in the day, after getting an email reply from the Arch Street Tavern that there may be tickets at the door at 8 (show at 9 with two opening bands!), I committed to going Gilbert O'Sullivan-style.  I pull onto Arch Street and notice a single space open in its parking lot!  I park and get into a line of early arrivals.  You got tickets?  Yep, they all reply, so I go up to the hulking security dude with a 'TROUBLE' tat on his upper arm to ask about tickets.  "You should be okay, Chief."  Cool.  Back in line.  Line getting long in back of me.  Call for tickets gets me mine.  Back in line.  At 8 we are admitted.  I grab a beer and snatch a chair in the outside bar area, knowing that I probably have until around 10:30 until The Hold Steady comes on.  Perfect night, weather-wise.  Crowd is primarily 30's-early 40's, with a generous sprinkling of older and younger.  Inside, I catch the end of Ohio-based Mount Carmel's set.  Blusey guitar/bass/drums rock.  Quite good.  It's now 9:15.  Fang Island comes on.  With a small sample of two songs, I decide I'm not a fan and retreat back to my seat outside. Nice chat with a 40-ish Boston 2nd grade teacher and her new boyfriend (he's the THS fan, has seen them a dozen times).  It's about 10:30.  Showtime, finally!

I'm familiar with much of The Hold Steady's catalog, but I'm a mere amateur compared to this crowd.  They not only know every word, they know every inflection, every gesture!  Craig Finn is the ultimate hipster-geek front man.  Great stage presence.  The band is loud - and excellently so (although I do miss the keyboards of the departed Franz Nicolay)!  The place is alive!  It's Steve Urkel meets Kerouac meets (early) Springsteen meets Dropkick Murphys.  No pauses, no breaks.  One song finishes, next one cranks up. The sight lines suck, too many tall people!!!!  I wish I was taller (I wish I was a baller, I wish....). But it's all good, continuing for an hour and a half.  At the end, Finn makes a deal that we wouldn't go through the go-off-clap-come-back-on routine.  "We'll play the encore right now- but give us a minute to figure out what."  Perfect.

"Southtown girls won't blow you away
but you know that they'll stay"

View of stage from near the bathrooms

Ten reasons not to go see The Hold Steady Thursday night at Arch Street Tavern...

1. Who the hell are/is The Hold Steady?
2. It's too late.  The show starts at nine, there are opening acts, the Yankees start at ten.
3. Tickets are $18!!!!  I could buy some serious Subway shit with that.
4. It's in Hartford.  Isn't there an 8:30 P.M. curfew in that city?  How would I find the Arch Street Tavern?
5. I'd have to scout around for someone to go with.  Nevermind, no one would go anyway.
6. I could always catch them NEXT time they come around to an intimate venue in the Insurance Capital of the World (is it still?).
7. I'd miss The Situation Room, although I suppose I could tape it.
8. Brooklyn band?  They are originally from Minneapolis, for Christ sakes, how good can they be?
9. She was a damn good dancer, but she wasn't all that great of a girlfriend.
10. Seriously, who are/is The Hold Steady?

Country music legend Kitty Wells exits at 92...

(From Wikipedia, so it must be true) - Ellen Muriel Deason (August 30, 1919 – July 16, 2012), known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American country music singer. Her 1952 hit recording, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", made her the first female country singer to top the U.S. country charts, and turned her into the first female country star. Her Top 10 hits continued until the mid-1960s, inspiring a long list of female country singers who came to prominence in the 1960s.

Wells ranks as the sixth most successful female vocalist in the history of Billboard's country charts, according to historian Joel Whitburn's book The Top 40 Country Hits, behind Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Reba McEntire, Tammy Wynette, and Tanya Tucker. In 1976, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 1991, she became the third country music artist, after Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, and the eighth woman to receive the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Wells' accomplishments earned her the nickname Queen of Country Music.

Friday the 13th, don't freak me out...

Sunshine came softly through my a-window today

Could've tripped out easy a-but I've a-changed my ways

Tripping out to see the Bronx Bombers v LA Angels (or whatever they're called at this moment) tonight with The Reet, Tom & Kath instead.  Wonder if we will run into Bronx native Dion DiMucci singing on a street corner with the Belmonts.  Yes, I know Dion was a bit hard to take during his evangelist period (following recovery from heroin addiction), but he has put out some very fine blues albums in the last few years.  No, not just a washed up oldies act.  Try Tank Full of Blues. 

Dion Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Speech (Lou Reed)

 It was 1958, and the cold winds of Long Island blew in from the ocean, their high-pitched howl mixing with the dusty, musky, mellifluous liquid sounds of rock and roll -- the sounds of another life, the sounds of freedom.

As Alan Freed pounded a telephone book and the honking sax of Big Al Sears seared the airwaves with his theme song “Hand Clappin’,” I sat staring at an indecipherable book on plane geometry, whose planes and angles would forever escape me. And I wanted to escape it and the world of SAT tests the college boards — leap immediately and eternally into the world of Shirley and Lee, The Diablos, The Paragon, The Jesters, Lilian Leach and the Mellows (“Smoke from Your Cigarette”), Alicia and the Rockaways (“Why Can't I Be Loved?” — a question that certainly occupied my teenage time). The lyrics sat in my head like Shakespearean sonnets, with all the power of tragedy: “Gloria,” “Why Don’t You Write Me, Darling, Send Me a Letter” by The Jacks.

And then there was Dion — that great opening to "I Wonder Why" engraved in my skull forever. Dion, whose voice was unlike any other I had heard before. Dion could do all the turns stretch those syllables so effortlessly, soar so high he could reach the sky and dance there among the stars forever. What a voice — that had absorbed and transmogrified all these influences into his own soul, as the wine turns into blood, a voice that stood on its own remarkably and unmistakably from New York — Bronx Soul. It was the kind of voice you never forget. Over the years that voice has stayed with me, as it has, I'm sure, stayed with you. And whenever I hear it I'm flooded with memories of what once was and what could be.

It's been my pleasure to get to know Dion over the years and even, my idea of heaven, sing occasional backup for him. He doesn't know how long I'd rehearsed those bass-line vocals. I was ready to back up Dion. He had the chops, and he practically invented the attitude. "Ruby Baby," "Donna the Prima Donna," “The Wanderer” … "I'll tear open my shirt and show her 'Rosie' on my chest," a line so good that twenty-odd years later I couldn't resist doing a variant on it for one of my own albums.

After all, who could be hipper than Dion?

-Lou Reed

Get your Sawtelles fix here!...

Plantsville's own, The Sawtelles, announce July schedule:

 JULY

• 12th CT Landmarks culture and cocktails @ the butler-mccook house at the end of capitol ave @ main st. 5:30-7:30p. free but donations for food/cocktails. you can park on prospect which runs parallel to main and there is a small parkinglot behind the house as well.

• 19th wethersfield farmers market 4-6p

• 21st SAWTELLE BIRTHDAY SHOW @ Neverending books, state st new haven 7:30. nails hide metal are our special guests this year. duo, w/girl on full drumkit and guy on vox/guitar. they're awesome.

• 24th sandy hook farmers market @ the fairfield hills campus 3:30p

• 27th Javapalooza main st m'town 7:30-9:30

• 31st (P's actual birth date) spring glen fm @ the spring glen church, across from best video, whitney ave hamden 4p

go to www.thesawtelles.com for all of the details left out happy summer!

Still bleeding...

LONDON (AP) — It was 50 years ago today — as another band almost wrote — that a group of London musicians first performed as The Rolling Stones.  The band members are celebrating Thursday by attending a photo exhibition chronicling their career at London's Somerset House — and rehearsing for new gigs.  Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ron Wood and Charlie Watts are getting together 50 years to the day after the young R&B band played London's Marquee Club. The Stones say they're amazed the group is still going strong. Richards says his biggest regret is the death in 1969 of guitarist Brian Jones, but that on the whole the band's career has been "an incredible adventure." He tells the BBC that the Stones have rehearsed for new shows, but dates haven't been fixed.

Don't you go hating on Jesus..

Jesus Shuttlesworth takes his talents to South Beach...

(Wikipedia) For the role of Jesus, Lee had drawn up a list of every NBA player who could pass for a high school senior. Kobe Bryant had off-season commitments. Lee found Tracy McGrady too reserved and was not impressed by Allen Iverson's performance. Management for Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury wanted a guarantee that one or the other would be offered the part. Travis Best, Walter McCarty, and Rick Fox also auditioned and Lee cast them in supporting roles. Allen became involved when Lee approached Allen during halftime of a Bucks-Knicks game, ultimately offering him the role of Jesus. Allen had never acted before, and so he trained with an acting coach for eight weeks prior to filming.  NBA players Shaquille O'Neal, Reggie Miller, Bill Walton, Scottie Pippen, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley, NBA coaches Rick Pitino and George Karl and broadcaster Dick Vitale made cameo appearances at one point early in the film.

Happy Birthday!...

Birthday hugs n kisses to: Dalai Lama (77), George W. Bush (66), 50 Cent (36), Johnny K (ageless) and to sister Mary (whose birthday was yesterday).  Thanks to all of the well-wishers (and also to Gene).

Wanda Jackson
Joe Simon (for you disco boys/girls)
Rosie & the Originals
The Cranberries
Paul McCartney (I'm gonna have a good time)
Stevie Wonder 
and, of course, Marilyn Monroe

I wanna rock your Gypsy soul, just like back in the days of old....

HAPPY 4th of JULY!

Meanwhile, Bob Dylan set list in Dresden, Germany last night:
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
Watching The River Flow
Under The Red Sky
Things Have Changed
Tangled Up In Blue
Rollin' and Tumblin'
Sugar Baby
John Brown
Visions Of Johanna
Summer Days
Blind Willie McTell
Highway 61 Revisited
Simple Twist Of Fate
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Like A Rolling Stone
All Along The Watchtower
Blowin' In The Wind

Saturday nights are made for fightin'...

Good time last evening at oldies guru Jim Kane's Bristol Friends Sports Reunion, which honored the 1962 Bristol American Legion state champions/NE runners-up and the 1962 Bristol Eastern #1 ranked basketball team.