Greetings! Well, it’s been a pretty uneventful week for me. I tried to go to the Rosendale Zombie Festival, but we got rained out, so I spent the night eating chili with my friend Jeff. Didn’t make it to any of the shows I recommended, but I hope to make up for it this week and next. We’ve got some great music coming your way!

     But first, one of the 35 friends who told me they’d give or send me the Keith Richards autobiography, “Life”, finally did, and I just finished reading it. It’s a fabulous, fast, addicting (no pun intended), read, and I heartily recommend it! I discovered that Keith and I share some of his strange idiosyncrasies. Such as “only eating when I feel like it” and “quite solitary eating habits at odd hours”. LOL. There are some others, but I can’t tell you about them because they’re all illegal. JUST KIDDING! Some jokes at Keith’s expense are hard to resist! There were some other quirky traits we share, but I can’t remember them. Anyway, once you get past his childhood, it’s hard to put it down! It’s in paperback now, so you can probably buy it on the internet for 2 cents. LOL.

     I did my first guest spot on John Madeo’s “Little Delaware Jam” radio show, and I think it went very well. John kept me on for a half hour, and I could have gone another half hour. For now, I’ll be on every other Monday night, but John has been asked to go to a weekly show. Call or email him at the station and tell him he should do it! The show is broadcast on WIOX, 91.3 FM and www.wioxradio.org. The next one will be October 1.

     The Love for Levon benefit is coming up at the end of the week, on October 3. The line up is too extensive to list in detail and always subject to new additions, so if you want more information, go to www.loveforlevon.com.

     And now for this week’s live music picks.

     Wednesday, September 26 – DAVID BYRNE, the force behind Talking Heads, concludes a two day engagement at The Beacon Theater in Manhattan.

     Thursday, September 27 – DAVID GRAY makes his first appearance at the newly reopened Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY.

     Friday, September 28 – My first Pick of the Week arrives in the form of LARRY CAMPBELL AND TERESA WILLIAMS at The Bearsville Theater. Larry, as everybody knows, has been Levon’s musical director, multi-instrumentalist, co-producer, and friend, for many years. Before that, he served the same function for Bob Dylan (minus the friend part). During his stint with Levon, he also found the time to tour with Phil Lesh, and E Street Band member, Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen’s wife. And produced CD’s for Jorma, Hot Tuna, and 3 GRAMMY winners for Levon! And that just scratches the surface of Larry’s long, brilliant, musical career! Teresa is also a Levon Band, and Phil and Friends band member, a wonderful, powerful singer, and Larry’s wife. Adding icing on this cake is the opening act, MIKE AND RUTHY, another married couple who make beautiful music together! See you there!

However, if you can’t make it, there is another amazing show tonight. RORY BLOCK, pulls into the extremely intimate Rosendale Café tonight. Ms. Block is a 5 time WC Handy award winner in the Traditional Blues Female Artist category, and a 3 time winner in the Acoustic Blues Album of the Year category. She is widely regarded as the top female interpreter and authority on traditional Country Blues worldwide! This is also gonna be an amazing show!

Further north, Big Easy guitarslinger, LANGHORNE SLIM, is at Club Helsinki in Hudson. In Manhattan, the highly recommended NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALL STARS are at Irving Plaza, and something billed as “PATTI SMITH, ANDY WARHOL” is at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium at 1000 Fifth Avenue. That’s gonna be a neat trick, if Andy shows up! Tickets are $218, so I suppose it’s gonna be a ritzy affair!

     Saturday, September 29 – At The Andes Hotel tonight, ESQUELA and WHITEY MORGAN AND THE 78’S hold court! Esquela is a band put together by Chico Finn, who throws the best party of the year, Livestock, on his spread in Bovina. Guest appearances have been made with members of The Georgia Satellites and others. Whitey Morgan and The 78’s recorded their CD at Levon Helm Studios with Larry Campbell producing! That right there tells you something about this band! This’s gonna be a goodun! This is an afternoon gig that starts at 2 o’clock. RORY BLOCK makes another area appearance in the lobby of The Ritz Theater in Newburgh, roots rockers, THE BODEANS, ride into The Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, and STEVE EARLE is at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. In the city, JACK WHITE of The White Stripes is at Radio City Music Hall, DAVID BYRNE is at Williamsburgh Park, original British punk band, THE VIBRATORS are at Bowery Electric, and there’s an insane line up in Central Park tonight – NEIL YOUNG, FOO FIGHTERS, THE BLACK KEYS, and BAND OF HORSES. These bands need no introduction! Will Neil jam with Foo Fighters? Go and find out! This has to be my second Pick of the Week! Tickets range from free to $390!

     Sunday, September 30 – The only show in town tonight is STEVE EARLE at The Bardavon Opera House in Poughkeepsie, but this ain’t a default show! First of all, The Bardavon is a beautiful, centuries old building, that has the best sound around. There’s a reason Bob Dylan rented the place to rehearse for a week, twice! And Steve is always one of the year’s best shows, so that all kind of makes it a no brainer!

     Wednesday, October 3 – Tonight the LOVE FOR LEVON benefit is at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ! More information about the star studded line up can be found at www.loveforlevon.com. They just added ROGER WATERS!

In Brooklyn, JAY-Z opens the brand new Barclay Center. Jay is one of the more sophisticated and musical rappers, this is his house, and he’s gonna rock it!

And upstate, the hilarious Margaret Cho is at The Egg.

     Thursday, October 4 – Up and coming new band, THE ALABAMA SHAKES, make their first Manhattan appearance at Terminal 5.

     That’s it. Have a great week!

     Greetings! The incredible live music continues! Last week, on Wednesday, I went to see Jorma Kaukonen and Barry Mitteroff at The Bearsville Theater. It was good, but it was a typical, sleepy, acoustic Jorma show. I left as soon as it ended. I’ll wait for electric Hot Tuna to play The Beacon in November.

     Then Thursday, it was UPAC for 3, and Coheed and Cambria, both of which feature the sons of my favorite local guitarist, Jimmy Eppard. 3 opened the show, and they were amazing! Weaving intricate rhythms and notes, they cast a spell for the audience! I wanted to get a drink, but I didn’t want to miss a note!

     Guitarists Joey Eppard and Billy Riker led the band through a series of genre mixing songs while the amazing rock solid rhythm section of drummer Chris Gartmann and bassist Danny Grimsland demonstrated how it’s done! This is a band of stars, and as good as Joey and Billy are, and they are very good, for me, the real stars of the show were Chris and Danny! These two are a world class rhythm section, and both are destined to be included in the ranks of the greats! In fact, the entire band probably will be after this tour with Coheed and Cambria is over. They’ll finish it up having been seen by twenty thousand plus paying customers, who I predict will all become fans. Their new album and this tour should take 3 to the next level!

     Then C&C took over, and it was obvious who the crowd came to see! The excitement level rose, the crowd got more dense, and the dancing got more intense. The band wound their way through a set of high quality hard rock and metal tunes, reminding me very much of bands I used to listen to in the 80’s – Kix, Ratt, Skid Row, even Savatage, Warrant, and Def Leppard. The audience loved it, but for me, as good as Coheed and Cambria were, 3 were the big winners for the night!

     Friday, I rested, but Saturday, I was back at it, stopping by The Bearsville Theater to check out The Kane Brothers Blues Band, a group of very accomplished musicians who have just gotten back together after a 30 year hiatus, and lemme tell ya, they sound like they never left! Playing standard blues fare, The Kane Brothers convert it to a high intensity rock/blues hybrid that had everyone dancing. This is a great band! Drummer Jonathan Kane is one of the best around, driving the band at an incredible pace. Lead guitarist Josh Colow reeled off one rockin’ solo after the next, and lead singer and harp player, Anthony Kane competently led them through the set, warming up to his task as the night got later. This band is off the charts and highly recommended! Next time they come around, they’ll be the Pick of the Week, and for me personally, must see TV!

     Leaving The Kane Brothers show, regrettably, after the first set, I raced over to BSP in Kingston, where Pitchfork Militia and The Five Points Band were holding court. Five Points rocked through their set of Adams Family rock n roll, and then the great Pitchfork Militia took the stage. Now, regular readers of this column know these guys are my favorite area band, and they did not disappoint tonight! Ripping through a set of prime PM cuts, they kept most of the audience on their feet with a smile on their faces. Peter Head is a vastly underrated guitarist, and their rhythm section is CRAZY! If you like rockin’, great songs, have a sense of humor, and like to dance, Pitchfork Militia is the band for you!

     By the time you’re reading this, I’ll have already done my first segment on John Madeo’s Little Delaware Jamboree radio show on WIOX, 91.3 FM, and www.wioxradio.org, but I haven’t done it yet, so I can’t tell you how it went, but it’ll be better if you listen to it. John’s a great guy and this is gonna be a lot of fun, plus, he plays The Brooklyn Cowboys and has promised to end each show with a BC track! At the moment, the show is every other Monday at 8PM, but John has been asked to do it every week. My segment starts about 8:30. The next show is scheduled for October 1st.

     There’s a TON of live music this week, so I’d better get to it!

     Wednesday, September 19 – The great LEON RUSSELL returns to The Bearsville Theater with THE CONNOR KENNEDY BAND opening, so get there early! Let’s hope Leon does some of his own music at this show. And the great J. GEILS BAND plays the newly reopened Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, the great BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN starts a 3 day run at MetLife, formerly Giants, Stadium, and the great OFFSPRING slide into Terminal 5 in Manhattan.

     Thursday, September 20 – The fun continues with ALO at The Bearsville Theater, TEDESCHI TRUCKS at The Beacon Theater in Manhattan, and PATTERSON HOOD AND THE DOWNTOWN RUMBLERS (he of Drive By Truckers fame), at Club Helsinki in Hudson.

     Friday, September 21 – TEDESCHI TRUCKS and SPRINGSTEEN continue their respective three day runs at the respective venues, over in New Jersey, KISS and MOTLEY CRUE will have The PNC Arena bouncing, and around Woodstock JIMMY VIVINO PRESENTS THE BAND SONGS at Levon Helm Studios, and BIG JOE FITZ will be raising money in a BENEFIT FOR THE ROSENDALE THEATER, a worthy cause for sure.

     Saturday, September 22 – Put this day on your calendar, because there’s something for everyone! THE BOSS and TEDESCHI TRUCKS both finish their 3 day engagements, the COHEED AND CAMBRIA/ 3 tour comes to The Egg in Albany, JOE JACKSON is at Town Hall in Manhattan, THE ROSENDALE ZOMBIE FEST with PITCHFORK MILITIA and other bands at Willow Kiln Park should be fun, CONNOR KENNEDY BAND plays Unison in New Paltz, I think for the first time, great new band THE SHEEPDOGS are at The Brooklyn Bowl, Americana behind-the-scenes genius HUGH POOL rides into Hill Country Barbecue in Manhattan, and guitar virtuoso ERIC JOHNSON plays The Egg in Albany with a star powered rhythm section consisting of WILL LEE and ANTON FIG, both of late night TV fame. This is my Pick of the Week! Oh, and it’s not a misprint. There are two shows at The Egg tonight. (You did know they have two theaters there, right?)

     Sunday, September 23 – Even on a Sunday there’s something great happening! Two amazing shows tonight, actually. The immortal LEE ‘SCRATCH’ PERRY (no relation. LOL), who was one of the most important figures in the rise of Reggae music, producing most of the early Wailers records, as well as tracks for The Upsetters, Junior Murvin, The Heptones, Max Romeo, and many more, is at The Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn! Perry has GRAMMYs and was included in Rolling Stone’s “100 Greatest artists of All Time”. In later years, he worked with The Beastie Boys and his recent live shows have been called “phenomenal” and “show no sign of his advanced age”. He’s 70! He has guests like Keith Richards, Moby, and George Clinton on his albums, so you never know who might show up.

It seems like Brooklyn is the place to be tonight, because at The Bell House, they’re having the star studded BROOKLYN BLUEGRASS BASH with some of the biggest names in Bluegrass! Chris Thile and Michael Daves, Tony Trischka, Andy Statman, and The Calamity Janes.

     Monday, Septemeber 24 – Even on a Monday, we have two great shows! THE DIRT FARMER BAND, which is essentially The Levon Helm Band without the horns, is at The Iridium, and jazz greats CHICK COREA and GARY BURTON reunite for some shows at The Blue Note. Both shows in Manhattan.

     Tuesday, September 25 – DAVID BYRNE of Talking Heads starts a two day run at The Beacon Theater in Manhattan, which obviously continues Wednesday.

     Thursday, September 27 – The week closes out with DAVID GRAY at The Capitol Theatre.

     Whew! I’m exhausted just writing about all the stuff going on this week. I hope I have some energy left to actually go to some of this stuff! Ah well, duty calls!

     Have a great week!

    

     

     Steve Vai is such a rock star! Just look at these pictures and tell me this guy ain’t a rock star! I just got back from Steve’s show at The Egg, and what a show it was! The audience was wall to wall guitar geeks, and once again, Vai showed why he is worshipped by them! He really is one of the best guitar players out there! Steve Vai could walk on the stage with any band in the world and they’d be thrilled to have him! And you couldn’t yank him off the stage with a crane tonight! The encore was an hour, and the show didn’t end until after 11. Vai did everything! Electric, acoustic, band, solo. His virtuosity was on display all night long! From the minute he walked on, it was so refreshing to hear loud, rockin’ music, and that’s what he did for most of the night. The audience loved it and so did I! And The Egg is just about the best venue around for live music. There ain’t a bad seat in the house! My thanks to Ted Etoll at The Egg and Ryan Romenesko with the Vai tour for making it possible!

     In last week’s column, I mentioned that we had a great week for music coming up, and boy, did we! It really started last Friday with The Duke McVinnie Band, who blew a roomful of people away at The Glenford Church. Then Sunday night with Bob Dylan at Bethel Woods, both of which I already wrote about last week. Then rolling into the new week with Mickey Hart at Bearsville, who was great, on Wednesday night, Duke McVinnie wowing them again at Bearsville Friday night, Bob Weir at Bearsville Saturday night, and Steve Vai tonight. Some week, eh? No wonder I’m tired! And there’s no let up next week. We’ve got Jorma, Leon Russell, Coheed and Cambria, The Offspring, J Geils, ZZ Top, Nick Lowe, and more coming this week. I can feel a good one comin’ on! My thanks to Gary Chetkopf and Drew Frankel at WDST for arranging admission into the Bearsville Theater shows last week.

     The Rolling Stones are releasing a special compilation to honor their 50th anniversary. The title is “Grrr”, which for some reason, I find very amusing!

     Well, as I said, I’m toast, so let’s get to this week’s live music picks so I can get some sleep.

     Wednesday, September 12 – Well, we got JORMA KAUKONEN at The Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, ZZ TOP at The Beacon Theater, in Manhattan, and THE OFFSPRING at The Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie. I’d call that a pretty impressive start to the week! In addition, Dwight Yoakum’s guitarist and producer, PETE ANDERSON, is at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, and Americana singer/songwriter, SLAID CLEAVES is at Hill Country Barbecue in Manhattan. Whatta day!

     Thursday, September 13 – Two bands with local roots play a double bill at UPAC in Kingston. COHEED AND CAMBRIA and opening act, 3, both with somebody named Eppard in the band, will rock your Thursday, if you let ‘em!

     Friday, September 14 – Former Mott The Hoople vocalist, IAN HUNTER, who at one time attracted the best looking women in Rock & Roll to his audience, will rock The Highline Ballroom. Local luminaries, JOHN SEBASTIAN AND JIMMY VIVINO, will display their chops at City Winery, and THE ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD, with a Neville, an Allman, and a Wooten in tow, will be Southern Rockin’ Sullivan Hall. All shows tonight are in Manhattan.

     Saturday, September 15 – Upstate in Woodstock, THE KANE BROTHERS BLUES BAND rolls into The Bearsville Theater. They have a long, extensive resume that you should take a look at on the theater’s website, www.bearsvilletheater.com. I’ve got a feeling that this will be a good ‘un. Downstate, we’ve got the former ParliamentarianFunkadelicmentThang AND Talking Head, BERNIE WORRELL, with his orchestra, at Joe’s Pub in the city.

     Sunday, September 16 – Aahhh! Rest up. It’s this week’s day off!

     Monday, September 17 – WORLD PARTY, a band that had a few really good songs in the 80’s, are at City Winery, one of the last real Country singers, DALE WATSON, is at Hill Country Barbecue, and PATTERSON HOOD AND THE DOWNTOWN RUMBLERS (he of Drive By Truckers and son of legendary Muscle Shoals bassist, David Hood) stop by The Bowery Ballroom, all in Manhattan.

     Tuesday, September 18 – There’ll be a hot time in the old town tonight! SLASH is at The Hammerstein Ballroom, ROBERT CRAY is at BB King’s, STEPHEN MARLEY is at Irving Plaza, and DEKE DICKERSON makes an appearance at The Rodeo Bar, all in Manhattan, and upstate, NICK LOWE is at The Egg in Albany.

     Wednesday, September 19 – The great Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, LEON RUSSELL, returns to The Bearsville Theater and THE J. GEILS BAND, who should be in the Hall of Fame, are at the newly re-opened Capitol Theatre in Port Chester. Downstate, THE OFFSPRING pull into Terminal 5 in the city.

     Thursday, September 20 – Tonight we’ve got two shows with bands I’m not really into, but both come strongly recommended by people whose opinions I respect, so I’m giving both of them a rewrite. TEDESCHI TRUCKS take over The Beacon Theater in Manhattan and ALO return to The Bearsville Theater in Woodstock.

     Have a great week!

     Hi! Hope you’re all doing well. It’s been a busy week and right now, I’m getting ready to go see Bob Dylan at Bethel Woods, so this week’s is gonna be an abbreviated column. We’ll do the live music picks and I do have one bit of very cool news, which I’ll get to first.

     Starting September 17th, I will be a regular guest on John Madeo’s Little Delaware Jamboree radio show, which is broadcast every other Monday night at 8 PM on WIOX, 91.3 FM, and on the web at www.wioxradio.org. Basically, what John and I will be doing, is bringing this column to the airwaves. We’ll talk about the latest news from the music world and then discuss upcoming live shows. We might even play some music! It should be a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to it with much anticipation. I hope y’all will tune in.

     So that’s it for now. I gotta go see Bob, so let’s get right to this week’s live music picks.

     Wednesday, September 5 – Tonight is an easy choice, but don’t expect the rest of the week to be like tonight. There’s a lot going on this week. Tonight, if you’re in the city, you gotta go see THE VERNON REID TRIO at The Iridium. Vernon was the guitar player, founder, and principal songwriter in the two time GRAMMY winning, platinum selling band, Living Color (Cult of Personality), amongst a long list of impressive “A” list credits, not the least of which is that The Rolling Stones wanted to sign him to a record deal! And in Woodstock, The Grateful Dead’s, MICKEY HART, will bring some sort of percussion driven ensemble into The Bearsville Theater.

     Thursday, September 6 – My old pals, THE NEW RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, will be riding in to BB King’s. My other pal, Federico Pereda, who almost single handedly carries the torch for Rock n Roll in Chile, his native country, will be making a very special appearance with his band, DINAMITA, at Bowery Electric. And my childhood musical heroes, THE YARDBIRDS, will be at City Winery. All shows tonight in Manhattan.

     Friday, September 7 – This is an awesome week for music! Look what we’ve had in just the first two days, and we haven’t even gotten to the weekend yet! With all this great music happening this week, you may be surprised that my Pick of the Week is a band you may never have heard of. A band who probably will never be famous. They’re called THE DUKE MCVINNIE BAND, and they are the most interesting, original, exciting, new band I’ve seen in a long while, maybe ever! Two vintage guitars, two old tube amps, an electric cello, Manuel Quintana on drums and percussion, they drive the rhythm in a haunting mix of Latin, Rock, Jazz, and a few other genres that I can’t quite put my finger on! They’re fascinating and you won’t want to miss a note! And BTW, no cover! Come out and support these guys. They’re amazing! Way down yonder in NYC, BOB MOULD, formerly of the very influential punk band, Husker Du, and the writer of the music that is used as the theme for The Daily Show, is at Williamsburg Park in Brooklyn. Later tonight, Bob will be D.J.ing at The Highline Ballroom with his partner RICHARD MOREL, under the name THE BLOWOFF. And at The Gramercy Theater is something billed as METAL MASTERS 4, and what it is, is various members of Anthrax and Slayer, teamed up with Phil Anselmo of Pantera, and Billy Sheehan of David Lee Roth and Mr. Big, in an all star hard rock and heavy metal extravaganza! I don’t even really like Anthrax or Slayer, but this is gonna rock, and hard! And at the newly reopened Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, BOB WEIR and THE ROOTS team up for a benefit for HeadCount.

     Saturday, September 8 – Big happenings today. There’s a BENEFIT FOR THE WOODSTOCK GOOD NEIGHBOR FOOD PANTRY, which is a good and worthy cause, at Andy Lee Field on Rock City Road, and the line up is amazing! LARRY CAMPBELL, TERESA WILLIAMS, JERRY MAROTTA, JIM WEIDER, HAPPY TRAUM, JAY UNGAR AND MOLLY MASON, MARC BLACK, MICHAEL ESPOSITO, THE DHARMA BUMS, RENNIE CANTINE, and more with possible surprise guests! Reservoir Music will be closed today as I will be acting as stage manager for this event. Later tonight, BOB WEIR brings his solo acoustic act into The Bearsville Theater. This show is sold out, so good luck getting tickets. And in The Bronx, MADONNA brings her over the top circus to Yankee Stadium. Now, I’m not a huge Madonna fan, but she’s got more than a few good songs, and you have to respect what she’s accomplished. Plus, if you have a good seat, you’ll get to walk on the field at Yankee Stadium!

     Sunday, September 9 – The great STEVE VAI will be at The Egg in Albany, and guess what? Second Pick of the Week!

     Monday, September 10 – It’s your day off. No shows today.

     Tuesday, September 11 – I’m almost not counting this, because almost nobody will get in, but BOB DYLAN is playing a special show at the tiny Café Wha tonight! Good luck getting a ticket, if they exist. For those of you in the real world, Dwight Yokam’s guitarist and producer, PETE ANDERSON, will be twangin’ away at Hill Country Barbecue, STEVE VAI is at Best Buy Theater in Times Square, and THE BRECKER BROTHERS REUNION starts a six night run at The Blue Note in The Village. Now, this is big! The Brecker Brothers Band consisted of the cream of the cream of New York studio musicians in a jazz funk fusion rock stew that tasted mighty good in the 1970’s! Michael Brecker passed away in 1982, but his brother, Randy Becker is still with us, and as far as I know, this is the band’s first reunion since then, so this is huge!

     Wednesday, September 12 – Great shows everywhere tonight! In the city, the immortal ZZ TOP return to The Beacon Theater! These guys are always great, especially when you least expect it! And the Americana singer/songwriter, SLAID CLEAVES is at Hill Country Barbecue. Upstate, JORMA KAUKONEN makes a very rare and special appearance at The Bearsville Theater, and the vastly underrated punk band, THE OFFSPRING is at The Mid-Hudson Civic Center. These guys write intelligent, hook laden, rockin’ hit songs! Why are they so under appreciated?

     Thursday, September 13 – COHEED AND CAMBRIA rock into UPAC in Kingston with opening act, 3. Both these bands have local ties, and they should rock it up pretty good.

     BTW, I wrote the second half of this column after I returned from the Bob Dylan show at Bethel Woods, so here’s my mini-review: His voice is shot! He should retire and let people beg him to play for million dollar pay checks. Overall, the concert was enjoyable, but some songs were pretty terrible. For those of you who don’t know, Dylan never plays a song the same way twice, and often has no set arrangement. From what I understand, he just starts playing and the musicians are supposed to follow him. That said, there’s bound to be some clunkers, and there were, but there was also some real good stuff, but his voice is S-H-O-T, shot! And it ain’t comin’ back! But I do wish him the best and I love his work.

     Have a great week!