www.roanoke.com

Headed for Tennessee. Have a good holiday, music lovers.

Photo: Brett Winter Lemon

In my review at roanoke.com, I only hinted at the coolness of one particular song, "Junkyard." There just wasn't any room in 12 column inches to write about what a performance Zac Brown Band gave on that number.

"This next song's going to make you want to eat a whole handful of Prozac," he said, to laughter.

Then he told a story about how he'd spent his youth holed up in his bedroom, holding a knife and thinking about how he'd like to kill his step-father. He said that the well-appointed Georgia house he grew up in was not a home. He didn't find a home until he moved into a rented trailer, after leaving that house.

But ultimately, he told the audience, "Junkyard" was about letting go of hatred.

ZBB kicked into the song, with lyrics showed that the old man was no good, a put-down artist, a violent man. "You are as sick as you are ugly," bassist John Hopkins sang, in the musical role of step-father. The lyrics were evocative, but it was a musical interlude the band took that turned me into a full-on fan of Brown and his group.

The music dropped out, leaving only Brown on his acoustic guitar and Jimmy Di Martini fiddle, playing what I was certain was a Pink Floyd "The Wall"-era instrumental. (After returning to work to write the review, I sang it to my friend and colleague, Neil Harvey, who helped me figure out that it was the prelude to that album's "Is There Anybody Out There?")

From there, the band launched into a repeating four-bar phrase of a jam -- the first four bars were in straight time, the fourth in a prog-ish 7/4.

Where else are you going to hear a country band doing that? Well-played, gentlemen.

Read print review.

Now for a couple of things I didn't have room for in the review:

> Ysaye Barnwell held down the bottom end for this act. It would be tough going for Sweet Honey without a solid bass presence, or at least the lower end of baritone. Barnwell made that happen, and in combination with the other vocalists' chord singing on beats two and four, provided a deep groove for whoever was singing lead at the time. It was like drums and keyboard at once.

> Sweet Honey in the Rock has long worked with an interpreter for the deaf. Its interpreter, Shirley Childress Saxton, apparently gets quite a workout, too.

> I am pathetically ignorant about sign language, but I learned two things tonight. First, the sign for the word "heaven" is flat palms to the heart. For "devotion," the hands are clasped in from of the chest.

> During a percussion-only section of the Malian prayer song "Denko," Saxton worked out a hip polyrhythm with her hands. It doesn't take fluency to get that, and you don't need to hear it to realize something cool is going on.

Now for a quick note on Jefferson Center's latest version of its Star City Performance Series. Announcer Cyrus Pace, filling in for the Jeff's artistic director, Dylan Locke, told the crowd that the 2009-2010 series has recorded its best-ever season ticket sales.

Afterward, box office and guest services manager Sarah Webber said it has sold 397 season tickets this time out. Last year, it sold 289.

Next up in the Star City series: The Robert Cray Band, on Oct. 18. That show has already sold out, and judging from a couple of listens to Cray's latest disc, "This Time," the audience is in for a series blues/rock/soul treat.

We had this in the paper a couple of weeks ago, but they finally made it official -- Lyle Lovett and his Large Band are coming to Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre on Oct. 31. Hey, Halloween! Wonder who Lovett will come dressed as? Abraham Lincoln?

According to a Roanoke Civic Center news release, Lovett will play songs from his upcoming record, "Natural Forces," as well as old favorites.

From the news release:

> Tickets are $55 and $45 and will go on sale at 10 a.m. tomorrow. Visit the Roanoke Civic Center box office from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Monday-Friday, or 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday.  To purchase online, visit RoanokeCivicCenter.com, or charge-by-phone at 1-877-RCC-TIXNow (1.877.722.8496).

> For more information on this and other upcoming events at the Roanoke Civic Center, call 540.853.LIVE or visit us online.

Music is what started MySpace.com's virtual media shower, and it's the only thing that can keep it relevant.

After a few years on the site, I still get a tremendous number of band add requests. Most of them do not impress me, but today I found a couple that I really liked.

Let's start with the Milwaukee, Wisc., band Jail. This band can rock hard, but it understands dymanics and the importance of tempo diversity. The songs combine straight-up rock with elements of cowpunk, garage, psychedelic. The song "All It Was" carves out an early-Radiohead-meets-Toadies sound, with such self-deprecatingly strange lyrics as "I fell out of the cab, and soiled my pants, and nobody cared at all.

Jail tours all over the country, so maybe it will come here, and we can see if its live chops are up to its MP3 standard.

The other band I had to big up this afternoon is Marcella and the Forget Me Nots, led by The Puppini Sisters Marcella Puppini. She bills it as an all-girl post-apocalyptic cabaret orchestra, and that sounds about right to me.

Check out the MySpace page's opening cut, "What Have You Done to Your Face," in which Puppini castigates a friend who went under the plastic surgeon's knife at least one too many times. But the strongest cut is "To The Water," a slow and spooky number, darkened by cello.

According to band publicity, it will release a record in October 2009. Maybe Pippini and cohorts will come over here from the UK for some touring.

August is a little slow, musically, around here. No major concerts -- but still a lot of good club shows. So I've been trying to play catch-up on e-mail and get my schedule together for what promises to be a big fall and winter of concerts in the valleys.

But hey, I haven't posted anything on the blog since Saturday. So, I thought I'd take a look at a couple of wire stories and make comments.

First off, RIP to Jim Dickinson. He was father to Luther and Cody Dickinson, of North Mississippi Allstars, but more than that, he was a huge figure in music, both as an instrumentalist and producer. Dickinson played with and/or produced Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Big Star, and the list could go on and on.

Finally, there are burial plans for Michael Jackson. He's going in the ground on the day he would've turned 51. At least the body didn't remain above ground as long as James Brown's did.

Guitar and production great Les Paul's estate was apparently less complicated than those of Jackson and Brown. He'll be buried Friday, near Milwaukee.

So, apparently, Miley Cyrus did a stripper routine, pole and all, on the Teen Choice Awards. I challenge anyone to tell me that youth culture isn't frighteningly reminiscent of Huxley's "Brave New World."

In other Cyrus news, a 53-year-old man charged with attempting to stalk the new Britney Spears is "a human being," according to this AP story headline. Well, sure. But what is Cyrus? A young fem-bot.

And finally, The Smashing Pumpkins have a new drummer. He's Mike Byrne, and a wire story said he's 19, but he looks about 13. Go, Mike!

Chan Kinchla (left), John Popper

John Popper showed he still has his harmonica and vocal chops down, and Blues Traveler sounded tight and seasoned as always. The band played my favorite BT song, "Carolina Blues." It got a pretty good response, but nothing like the response to "Runaround," which Popper has joked is the only Blues Traveler song most people know.

I heard what I guessed were new songs, which went over OK, but this crowd was here for the biggies, including "Hook." I'm sure the band played that one, but I wasn't around. I had to get over to the admin tent and a landline to call the copy desk before deadline with an attendance estimate.

And now, I get to beat the print version. Organizers estimated a crowd of between 11,000 and 12,000 by the middle of Blues Traveler's main stage headlining set. Last year's total was 12,000. There is still a day to go at FloydFest 8.

http://mjkpr.com/Glove

So, I got this news release today, which just got me tickled.

> For Immediate Release

> Profiles in History Selected to Auction Michael Jackson's iconic illuminating white glove adorned with crystals from his "Suit of Lights" worn on stage during The Jackson's 1984 Victory Tour.

> The single most iconic piece of Michael Jackson memorabilia in the world is emblazoned with bugle beads and Austrian crystal rhinestones and fitted with 50 small lights.

> There were only two of the illuminating gloves made for use by Michael Jackson on The Victory Tour and Michael gifted this glove to Ted Shell in 1986. The glove is accompanied with a signed letter of authenticity by Shell as well as a signed letter by Judie Mallen of L.A. Marquee Special Lighting Effects who installed the lights in the glove for the tour.

> "Michael Jackson was the undisputed King of Pop. This glove, used at the zenith of his career, is the most symbolic piece of his on-stage legacy, as he will always be remembered as the 'gloved one'-one of the greatest cultural icons of the 20th century. This glove is the ultimate piece of Jackson's performance memorabilia in the world. It is truly priceless," said Joe Maddalena, president of Profiles in History.

This immediately reminded me of the old SNL bit for "Elvis Presley's Coat." If you're goofy like I am, watch the video ...

This one is in honor of John Fred Young, the fine drummer from Black Stone Cherry, which opened the 3 Doors Down show on Wednesday. (The band may have been mediocre, but Young was great.) It's time for some drummer news.

First up, Asylum Street Spankers have a new drummer, bass player, fiddler and mandolinist since I last saw the band. It amazes me that no matter how many times the band lineup changes, the shows are always tight.

After the Spankers show, I went to Martin's, where it turned out the Spankers were hanging post-show. I spoke for a while with drummer Mark Henne, while Hoots and Hellmouth was playing. This four-piece newgrass act stomped a lot of stuff to make a beat, and Henne told me that he had auditioned with H and H, to no avail. After that, he got the Spankers' gig, on which he kills.

At Kirk Avenue, Henne and bassist Morgan Thompson had pulled off a fat piece of solo time, in which Henne used his sticks to play jazzy rudiments on Thompson's strings, while Thompson moved his left hand on the fretboard to make it musical. Spankers' frontman Wammo popped open a bottle of beer for Thompson, who used one hand to guzzle it while dragging his other hand up the bass neck to create a beer-appropriate effect. Easy moves, but great showmanship from the newest ASS guys.

Henne wouldn't be able to do that with H and H, so I think he gets to have more fun on his new gig. That's not to say that Hoots and Hellmouth aren't a fun band to hear. The act is good and tight, and singer Sean Hoots sounds just great.

Later, I met Hoots during the Old School Freight Train set. He told me that OSFT's drummer, Nick Falk, just got a scholarship to the Thelonius Monk Institute of Jazz, in New Orleans. That is one amazing opportunity.

So that creates an opening for the drum slot with Old School Freight Train. If you want it, you'd better be really good!

On a final note this morning, I'm trying to produce the second half of the Wammo podcast, but I'm having a tough time filtering out a high-end whine. Bear with ...

Deering banjos

For some reason, I wasn't feeling Tift Merritt's set at the main stage. She was singing sweetly as usual, and the musicians were on  and rocking it well, but it just wasn't doing it for me. So I wandered around for a while and found this big tent by the main stage that is just loaded with guitars, banjos, mandolins, etc.

The coolest thing about the tent was that there were plenty of instruments for people to play. So it was like a traveling music mall, with a whole bunch of different dealers.

Pickers try out some banjos.

There were Martins and Gibsons and Taylors and lots of strings, electronic gear, mandolins, resonator guitars. And they were all really nice. The only disturbing thing was to see a Martin ukelele with a $245 price tag on it. It's not that I don't take uke seriously -- there are some amazing players out there. I just imagine plunking down that kid of green for a little ol' ukelele. I'm sure it sounds better than any uke I've ever heard.

As I was posting these photos, Merritt's "Good Hearted Man" was establishing earworm dominance in my noggin. She did perform it really well. Maybe that show will sink in on me eventually. Or not -- after all, there are a lot of other potential earworm-inducing performers coming up.

Martin uke for $245