We were just outside of Vegas, crossing into Arizona when she asks if I’ve listened to the album “music for the morning after“. “only the song on the radio, “life on a chain“. “Well you HAVE to listen to it, it’s so GOOD!” My sister always put a smile on my face that way. And…
Tag: Concerts
Shakey & friends
I’ve been wanting to go to Pittsburgh for awhile now, I didn’t know why. When I first saw a picture for the artist Shakey Graves, I thought, that sounds like someone I might really enjoy to see. Then came the trifector, Mr.Smalls Theatre. A former 18th century Catholic church that had been repurposed into an…
Tweedy
She excitedly asks me if I’ve heard of the band “Wilco”. When I tell her no, she demands I stop everything I’m doing and listen to the albums 3 A.M. and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. My sister and I always had a way of connecting with music. Eight years gone she now is, but through the…
Come and Go Blues
The clean air and city streets of Atlanta surprise me as much as the Ferris wheel located downtown. It’s as good a place as any for the last day of two thousand and fourteen. The skyscraper lights twinkle in the early night sky, and the festivities haven’t even started yet. I wander safely between buildings…
Tedeschi Trucks with a little GCJ
It was already a chilly evening as I made my way up Griffith Park to The Greek. Although LA’s temps didn’t really work in my favor, I was hoping that a hot show would offset the cold. A line up of The Greyhounds, Gary Clark Jr., and Tedeschi Trucks Band would hopefully do the trick.I…
Come pick me up
There certainly was something in Iowa’s water tonight. Perhaps it was the concrete Death Star auditorium. Perhaps it was the conservative, Midwestern attitude that permeates this part of the country. For whatever reason, people were on edge, rude and somewhat toxic. For those of us not from this area, the negativity was palpable. As Ryan…
Ben Harper, the poet.
In a straw hat, flannel shirt, and unassuming swagger, Mr. Ben Harper quiets saunters onto the stage with guitar in hand. He sits and starts his acoustic set with a song about Trayvon Martin. On the night of Sept 11th, 2014, we all sit and listen to his message. For a political activist, Ben’s demeanor…
"Here" in the Hippodrome with Jackson Browne
Built in 1914, the former vaudeville Hippodrome theater in Baltimore had the old world aire of great performances within it’s walls. As I found my seat near the top, I saw I was stage front center. The perfect seat for an acoustic evening of Jackson Browne’s music. As I sat down, the elderly woman to…
feeling love at David Gray
I really had no idea who David Gray was. I think I downloaded some of his songs back in 2004 when I was trying to build up my CD collection ( before IPods, smartphones, etc…) Once all of my CD’s were stolen though, David Gray fell off my musical radar. Until tonight, that is… The…
Sheryl Crow…songwriter
“I like a good beer buzz early in the morning And Billy likes to peel the labels from his bottle of Bud” “You get down, real low down You listen to Coltrane, derail your own train Well who hasn’t been there before?” “He’s got a daughter he calls Easter She was born on a Tuesday…
the evolution of Ray
The first time I saw Ray Lamontagne, it was a cold December day in Chicago, 2012. We both felt introverted and introspective, sad and melancholy. A sunset being choked out by smog and pollution. The time between then and now have brought about a change. The music is crisp and refreshingly hopeful. Songs that before…
a night with Taj Mahal & John Hiatt
I’d never heard a song from either Taj Mahal or John Hiatt before, yet I had my ticket in hand, ready for a Sunday evening on the lawn. Taj was first onto the stage. A beast of a man, he slowly makes his way to the stool by the microphone, and lets us know in…