2009.01.26
Music video: Poe Mack, featuring Shayna, in "November Reign"
See Shanna live on Tuesday -- details.
Poe Mack ft. Shayna - "November Reign" from CrazyDad Productions on Vimeo
2009.01.24
Live: Arturo Sandoval at Jefferson Center
I think I could've written an entire, 12-column-inch review on each song Sandoval and his band played. Those guys are deep. In fact, I'll still be digesting it for a while, particularly the standards. Songs like "Autumn Leaves" have been done to death, but with this band, they're like new songs -- the players know new places to take them, implying new form and melodies, with rhythmic twists to match.
Sandoval, by the way, is kind of hilarious. In a very long, extremely up-tempo scat-singing run, he mimicked an upright bass player, pushing a hand in the air and pretending to detune the E string. His voice followed the downward turn, going deeply bass. At times, he sounded like a digeridoo. He even whipped out a Jew's harp for a down home moment.
I feel like I'm overlooking his trumpet playing. The guy is a master, and he takes the trumpet on its full tonal range.
Unfortunately, I had to leave right at 10, to make deadline, and I feel that he and the band were just getting started on the Latin jazz stuff. Fortunately, I got to hear them smoke through most of "Rhythm of Our World," a melange of different time feels that still meshed together.
2009.01.23
February music at Blue 5 Restaurant
blue5restaurant.com
Live Acoustic Entertainment Every Day For Lunch!!
Every Tuesday is Fat Tuesday at Blue 5!
New Orleans Music & Specials!
Wed. Feb. 4th - Hoppie Vaughan
Thur. Feb. 5th - James Pace Jazz Trio
Fri. Feb. 6th - Telarc Recording Artist - Debbie Davies
Sat. Feb. 7th - Blind Pig Recording Artist - Harper
Wed. Feb. 11th - Blue Ridge Blues Society Meeting & Blues Jam
Thur. Feb. 12th - The Good Sons
Fri. Feb. 13th - The Electric Woodshed
Sat. Feb. 14th - Valentine’s Day w/ Valerie McQueen & Friends
Wed. Feb. 18th - Hoppie Vaughan
Thur. Feb. 19th - Root 2
Fri. Feb. 20th- Jamie McLean - former guitarist for The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Sat. Feb. 21st - Mardis Gras Kick-Off Party w/ The Fat Daddy Band!
Tue. Feb. 24th - Fat Tuesday w/ Blues Bureau Recording Artist Chris Duarte
Wed. Feb. 25th - Hoppie Vaughan
Thur. Feb. 26th - Harmonic Cellar
Fri. Feb. 27th - The Jiving Five
Sat. Feb. 28th - The Cream Of The Crop Blues Band
February live music at 202 Market
Plus the tail end of January and the front end of March ...
Jan 28th "AfJ" 8pm 21+ $5.00
Feb 4th "Second Impressions" 9pm 21+ $5.00
Feb. 11th "Wading Girl /w Tenderhooks" 9pm 21+$5.00 18+$10.00
Feb. 18th "Alliens" 8pm 21+ $5.00
Feb.25th "Paul Brunett featuring Zac Cox, Lew Taylor and Larry Scott" 9pm $5
Mar. 4th "Honest Scoundrels" 9pm $5
Mar. 11 "Ron Swann" back by popular demand 7pm-10pm $5
Chuck Love: Lyrics to 'My True Friend Midnight'
Chuck Love, of Salem, is a singer/songwriter who has been around the Roanoke Valley for years, performing everywhere he can. His wife, Agnes Lovelace (that's Chuck's true last name, btw) told me that when Chuck recites this spoken-word song, grown men cry.
Love didn't have a recording of this, so I asked him to send me the lyrics ...
Look for my story on Love in Sunday's Extra section.
FloydFest favorite Railroad Earth to play The Lantern, Blacksburg
Rootsy, rootsy, rootsy. Show is set for March 20 at The Lantern. See more about the band and hear songs at railroadearth.com
American Idol winner David Cook to perform at Radford U.
He won on "Idol," made a record, and now David Cook is on tour. Radford show is on April 5. See tour dates here.
2009.01.22
New Derek Trucks Band CD enters Billboard chart at No. 19
Who knows how long it will remain? Will is keep selling? Will it fall off next week? I don't know. I'm just glad people are buying it. It's a really good album, and it grows on me the more I listen.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to Trucks' myspace page, where six cuts from the CD are streaming.
Rev. Billy C. Wirtz's book, "Sermons & Songs," is out
Wirtz is playing Kirk Avenue Music Hall on Feb. 14, in part to promote his new book, "Sermons & Songs: Selected Writings from the First House of Polyester Worship," and in part to play some great piano and tell funny stories.
I saw Wirtz for the first time last summer, at the Sedalia Blues Festival, and I tell you, all you need is Wirtz in decent voice and a piano, and you have a show.
His friend, music biz manager Harry Turner, of Salem, dropped off a copy of the book for me today. And without giving anything away, I'll just excerpt here a quick bit from Wirtz's account of acquiring Elvis Presley's toe tag.
" ... I was washing dishes at the 'Bow Room,' when the news came over the radio ... Elvis was dead.
"At the end of my shift, I started drinking. I must have drunk a lot. I don't remember much about the rest of the day or night, but sometime around midnight, they called my girlfriend to come pick me up. I was standing in a tall trash can (I couldn't stand up without support), eating a chili dog, and crying."
That's rock 'n' roll, babies!
2009.01.21
Here's one that slipped through the Top Tickets crack: Kandinsky Trio show on Saturday
Sorry, Alan ...
Kandinsky Trio, 8 p.m. Saturday, Olin Theater, Roanoke College. Music of Schubert, Haydn and John D'earth. Box Office # 231-23333.
From the event page at roanoke.edu ...
> The Kandinsky Trio presents “Influencens.” Haydn breathed new life into the piano trio genre, and his style could certainly be felt in Schubert’s treatment of the form. Two works showing each composer at the top of their game will be performed: Haydn’s masterful A flat major Trio and Schubert’s transcendent E flat major Trio. John D’earth’s “Silent Faustus” a piece championed by the Kandinskys will round out the evening. Tickets are $20 for the general public and $12 for students/children and senior citizens.
