www.roanoke.com

Then you must've missed Top Tickets last week, with many many fine, ball-dropping shows.

So that's it for this year. I'm getting out of here, and will plug back in on Friday. '08 was a great year for me -- I never thought I would be as happy coming full-circle as I have become doing the music writer thing. It makes me miss playing drums full-time, but hey, I get to sit in with folks now and then, so it's good.

Thanks a bunch to all of you who have been following this blog. Be safe tonight.

Maybe so. We're hearing sales and inventory are both down there, and there's this bulletin bouncing around on myspace.com today, which I'll excerpt here, with expletives deleted:

> HELP! Things are not looking good for Plan 9. Things are not looking good for anybody right now, I suppose, since it's 1930 all over again right? Well things really aren't looking good for record stores in general, particularly independent ones like Plan 9. Does that matter at all to you? PLEASE come and check out our store - if we don't have anything you want, we can special order LP's, CD's, and DVD's for no extra charge. We have used and new music - we can buy your old albums you don't listen to any more for cash or you can swap them out for new sounds to please your eardrums.

Plan 9's Jamie Booker said today that the store cannot address any of the rumors. But we all know what happens to small-box record stores around here. People don't go to them, and they close. Remember Safe As Milk? The Record Exchange? Will Plan 9, a successful, Richmond-based chain, be the latest to close shop in Big Lick.

That might be up to you.

Go to the story, here, to see what led Cronise, a former Cave Spring guy, to say this:

> You know, I think the human race is controlled by these various energy fields, and you never know how your psychic emanations might be influencing the hardware of your iPod. Or maybe it's just a total coincidence.

Cronise and fellow ex-Cave Springer Trivett Wingo are preparing with their Austin, Texas,-based band, The Sword, to hit the road again with Metallica.

You know, I think the human race is controlled by these various energy fields, and you never know how your psychic emanations might be influencing the hardware of your iPod. Or maybe it's just a total coincidence.

Martin’s Downtown Bar & Grill
413 1st St. SW
Roanoke, VA 24011
Jmart1175@aol.com
www.martinsdowntown.com

1 – Bowl Day Brunch 10:30 – 2:00
2 – The Ruckus
3 – Kerosene Willy
6 – Crobar Cane and Ben Trout
8 – The Rhythm Ripples
9 – Polarity
10 – Barefoot West
13 – Crobar Cane and Ben Trout
15 – Junior League
16 – D.J. Williams Projekt
17 – Symbol w/ The Lost Satellites
20 – Crobar Cane and Ben Trout
22 – The Unfit Mothers
23 – The Alliens
24 – The Mantras
27 – Crobar Cane and Ben Trout
29 – Triscale
30 – Groova Scape
31 – Bad Casper

Did you get anything awesome for a holiday gift? Or crap that you want to return? Did you give music this season? Tell me about it.

It's a bad day for music legends, and their fans.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/jazz-trumpeter-freddie-hubbard-dies-1003925464.story

This guy was responsible for a lot of great songs and great grooves. If he had done nothing else, he and ex-wife Bonnie Bramlett's Delaney & Bonnie & Friends would be enough. But he did a good deal more.

Read the obit here.

Third Street Coffeehouse Calendar for January 2009

Third Street Coffeehouse is a non-profit coffeehouse, established in 1987. We are open every Friday; doors open at 7p for Open Mike; featured performer plays til 10 pm. Welcome to our smoke-free, alcohol-free no cover charge venue!  We “pass the hat” for donations to the featured performers. For more information contact Marian McConnell at 540.309.4707 or threecavrs@aol.com.

Jan 2       Steve Langston - LaLaLand
Jan 9       Commonplace
Jan 16     Paul Kupfer
Jan 23    Bill Payne
Jan 30    David Simpkins

Smoking drummer Kelly Gravely, with bassist Eric Moore, lays it down tonight. I'm not familiar with Moore, but if he's playing with Gravely, he's got to be good. Show starts at 8 p.m.

Got this e-mail earlier in the week from Daniel Cundiff, of the Magic Twig Community. At the bottom is a link to Kindercore Records' (Magic Twig act The Young Sinclairs' new label) holiday EP. First track features Paige "Deedraye" Hodges' inimitable vocals on "Wrap Me Up on XMas." Last tune is the Sinclairs' cover of Tom Petty's "It's Christmas All Over Again."

Get the whole schlemiel right here.

While I was over at their joint writing this story, Sam Lunsford was actually tracking some of this. I thought he was just goofing. Further proof that I'm just hopeless.

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