Those April showers are a distant memory. They’ve been replaced by May pollen.
But plenty of live tunes are in bloom too, including a rare Cereal Killers show. Let’s get into it!
Tonight, you can catch Cockburn at Memorial Hall.
Oops, my bad, the video above is Frank Cockburn. It’s Bruce Cockburn who is playing Memorial Hall this evening.
Other shows tonight include:
The Arcadian Wild w/ River & Rail at the Woodward
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass at the Taft
Ovation is hosting a Clown show. I hear there will be lots of jugglers there. Oops, my bad. Juggalos.
Tomorrow night, the Smoking Popes will be at Madison Live. They’re from Chicago, just like the white smoke Pope!
Also, Lettuce and GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan will be co-headlining a show at the Taft.
And Dave Mason brings his “Let it Flow 2025 Tour” to Memorial Hall. It sounds a little something like this:
On Thursday, you can choose Furious Bongos (Ludlow Garage) or Napalm Death (Bogarts, with The Melvins).
Or you can chill out with the Farm Jam at Lost Bridge Beverage Company (North Bend, OH), featuring Sean Geil of the Tillers. And Liberty Theater has the Tray Wellington Band with Adam Gilliam.
Tray Wellington Band is a high energy progressive bluegrass band, led by IBMA award winner Tray Wellington. This band continues to push themselves musically to draw on the influences that continue to shape their musical mold.
Oh, and Jim Gaffigan kicks off six shows over the course of four days at the Taft.
This Friday and Saturday, Springfield will be the center of the musical universe.
Springfield, Ohio is hosting a FREE music festival called IndieCraft. Here’s the lineup:
Wild Pink and Aaron Lee Tasjan for free? You’re damn right I’ll be there Saturday!
(I like what I’ve heard from Snarls too. And I’ll be there in time for The Back Alley – the ticket price is right.)
Shows a bit closer to home (unless you live in Springfield) Friday evening:
Tommy Prine plays Southgate with Conrad Moore and Jordan Lee King
Rachel Baiman is at Liberty Theater with Maggie Noëlle of Magnolia Boulevard
Ben Levin plays Arnold’s
Alex Salcido (of The Harmed Brothers) plays Lost Bridge Beverage Co. in North Bend
Ludlow Garage has FJ: a tribute to Foreigner AND Journey featuring Constantine Maroulis (“sixth-place finalist on American Idol season 4!”)
For some strange reason, you see a lot of FJ band fans on the golf course.
And the Madison Theater has Kid Kentucky and the American Badass Band… yes, that’s a Kid Rock Tribute. Or you can go to the waste treatment plant on Kellogg Avenue near Lunken Airport for free. Potato/Po-tah-toe.
Speaking of punchable faces, Truist Arena (NKU) has Gutfield Live on Saturday.
And here’s the list of shows that actually will be entertaining on Saturday:
The aforementioned freebie Wild Pink, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Snarls show in Springfield
JJ Grey & Mofro w/ The Marshall Tucker Band on the lawn outside the Hard Rock Casino
Jeffrey Osborne at Ludlow Garage
Plazmatic album release show with Electric Indigo and Cousins at the Woodward
Hyryder (Grateful Dead tribute) at the Madison Theater
On Sunday, The String Cheese Incident and The Wood Brothers play the Rose Music Center, and Travis Talbert will be at the Lost Bridge Beverage Co.
On Monday and/or Tuesday, you can be part of a massive 69 at Memorial Hall.
The Magnetic Fields will be performing their 1999 triple album masterpiece 69 Love Songs in its entirety over those two nights.
Also on Monday:
A Place to Bury Strangers, The Serfs, and The Mall play Northside Tavern
The Toasters play Southgate
Next Wednesday, May 21, the always progressive, cutting edge lineup of shows at Riverbend kicks off with… (checks list)… Billy Idol and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. Who needs the Bill & Ted phone booth when you can just buy a ticket to a Riverbend show?
Next Friday, Dark Star Jubilee weekend kicks off in Legend Valley (nee Buckeye Lake):
Other shows on Friday, May 23:
Blues singer Carolyn Wonderland plays Southgate’s main room with Scotty Bratcher opening
Angela Perley and Hello June are upstairs in the Southgate Revival Room
Ricky Nye Inc. plays the Southgate Lounge for free
Hunter Root plays the Liberty Theater in Lawrenceburg, Indiana
The Ben Levin Quartet plays The 1931 (at the Hilton Netherland downtown)
On Saturday, May 24, it’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for: The Cereal Killers play Big Ash Brewing!
Regular readers* of this…uh, whatever the heck this is… know that I’m cuckoo for CK and their amazing repertoire of classic punk, new wave, power pop, and just plain damn fine songs. It’s like a 97X Modern Rock 500 come to life!
*all 3 of them
Cereal Killers gigs have been as rare as hen’s teeth over the past several months. They are the local band equivalent of a century plant:
Some flowers are so rare and extraordinary that they bloom just once in a lifetime—or even once in a century! These plants may require decades of patience, but when they finally burst into bloom, the display is nothing short of spectacular.**
Rare and extraordinary? Check. Decades of patience? Well, maybe just months, but it feels like decades. “The display is nothing short of spectacular” is 100% accurate!
As usual, I’ll be offering my “first beer’s on me” guarantee that this show will be time well spent. Just present this voucher (which I totally did NOT steal from some unsuspecting artist on the interwebs) on your phone and I will buy your first beer.
**it should be noted that although I compared the Cereal Killers to a plant that blooms only rarely, I am NOT comparing them to the corpse plant, whose unique aroma when it blooms every 7-10 years has been described as “smelling like cheese, garlic, smelly feet, diapers, or rotten fish.”
Other Saturday shows that you won’t be attending because you’ll be at Big Ash drinking free beer and rocking out to great tunes:
North by Northside kicks off a two-night run at the Northside Tavern
Carriers have an album release show at the Woodward with Gardener and Dyan
Maria, etc. has an album release show at the Liberty Theater with Anna Applegate
Brit Floyd “Wish You Were Here” 50th anniversary show at the Rose – it’s sold out, but fear not, you can catch the same band on the same tour at the same venue in August…
On Sunday, 5/25, Kinda Grassy plays Lost Bridge (Carriage House Farm).
Monday, May 26 is Memorial Day, a day when we pay tribute to fallen soldiers… typically by grilling hot dogs at the pool.
The Garcia Project (Jerry Garcia Band tribute) plays the Woodward on Tuesday, May 27.
On Wednesday, May 28, I’ll be motoring up to Cleveland to catch The Wedding Present and The Tubs at the Grog Shop.
Peelander-Z and Penfold’s Revenge play Southgate that evening too.
Young Widows play the Woodward on Thursday, May 29 with Kowloon Walled City and Fotocrime on the undercard. And Stanley Clarke kicks off a two-night stand at Ludlow Garage.
Midwest Fest kicks off on Friday, May 30.
Other shows on Friday, May 30:
Casey Campbell plays Lost Bridge Beverage Co.
Nikka Costa is at the Woodward
Dallas Moore w/ Pure Grain at the Liberty Theater
Taft Theatre has An Evening with Jon Stewart… it’s sold out
Wrapping up the month, Italian guitar phenom Matteo Mancusco plays Ludlow Garage on Saturday, May 31.
American Aquarium plays the Southgate House on Sunday, June 1, with Justin Wells opening. I plan to hit that show. Eric Johnson is at Ludlow Garage that same night.
We love it live!
Ken “Lobby Boy” Laube, his friend Suzanne and I went up to Columbus to see Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds on 5/2. What a show! Our seats were pretty far back on the main floor, but we bum-rushed the stage during the 2nd song and stayed there for the duration of the gig. Nick’s a live wire!
List member couples Rico & Ashley and Jay & Alyssa also were in attendance. Nick loves us all.
“When I tell the audience that I love them, the sentiment is entirely true. I feel an emotional transaction with the crowd that is powerful and profoundly intimate. I stand before you all – strangers – witnessing you both individually and collectively, and sense an unbounded love. This love is true. It is not symbolic, metaphorical, or platitudinous. I see before me a group of human beings, precarious and vulnerable, granted a brief time on this earth, each filled with a shocking potential for beauty and terror, good and evil, and with the extraordinary capacity to give and receive love. At that moment, love is the appropriate response.”
True to his word, “Disco Dan” Lewis was at the Son Volt show, along with his friends John W. (also a list member) and Steve (the voice of “The Oasis” – the station that is now on 97.7 FM… I remember that frequency!).
Other list members in attendance: Dan Bockrath, Gene Dow, Mark Morse, Tim Morse, Andy B., Tom W. and Jamie. Dan Bockrath summed up the show quite nicely:
Fantastic show from Son Volt at The Ludlow Garage. Bumped into many longtime music friends at the gig. Up close and personal for a career spanning set. Amazing!
Meanwhile, list member Kevin Sullivan snuck down to Nashville to catch Lucy Dacus at the Ryman:
An updated version of the 97X Modern Rock 500… with a new spin!
Inhailer Radio (catch Ken “Lobby Boy” Laube Fridays 11a-3p!) is doing an updated version of the old 97X Modern Rock 500, counting down the top 500 indie songs over Memorial Day Weekend.
And this year, they’re expanding the list of songs and extending the listening window with “qualifying laps”:
If you tune in to the 500, you might just catch your ol’ pals Dave and Damian doing a few breaks.
Shameless Self-Promotion (while also promoting the Indie 500)
Dave and I also interviewed Inhailer’s Music Director, Nils Illokken, about the station and this year’s countdown for a “very special episode” of our “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush” podcast. You can catch that episode on 97Xbam.com here, or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Podbean, or any other podcast platform that hasn’t banned us yet.
Hot Ticket Alert
X and Los Lobos play the Rose Music Center on Sunday, September 21. They’re calling it the “99 Years of Rock ‘n Roll” tour.
I already have my ticket, courtesy of Steve “El Blanco” White.
The Sad Section
A heartfelt FB post from list member “The Lovely & Talented Elizabeth Cannon”:
Follow-up single “Spirit of ’76” — which Peters co-wrote, as he did for most of the band’s songs — recounted his early days of discovering punk rock and name-checks the likes of Johnny Rotter and Siouxsie Sioux.
“The song is about the most important time in my life,” Peters wrote in the program for the Strength tour. “I had my whole life mapped out before me and life seemed pretty unexciting. Then I saw bands like The Jam and The Buzzcocks and U2, and things and they really had an impact on my life. It gave me the courage to leave something behind and go out and try to build a new life for myself.”
Here’s a shot of Mike Peters with Mr. K and Jetson from 97X, along with some fans (not pictured: The Lovely & Talented Elizabeth Cannon):
And R.I.P to singer/songwriter Jill Sobule, who died in a house fire.
Sobule was known for taking control of her career by fundraising so she could make her next album. In 2008, after two major record companies dumped her and two indie labels went bankrupt beneath her, she raised tens of thousands of dollars from fans so she could make a new album.
“The old kind of paradigm, where you’ve always waited for other people to do things, you’d have your manager and your agent,” she said at the time. “You’d wait for the big record company to give you money to do things and they tell you what to do. This is so great. I want to do everything like this.”
Shortly before her death, Sobule had written and recorded a provocative song titled “J.D. Vance Is a C***” in collaboration with friends Michelle Lewis and Kay Hanley under the name Sugar Tits. The song, filled with biting satire and rhymes, quickly went viral on social media, thrusting Sobule back into the spotlight in her final days. It’s not radio-friendly. It’s not my best song, but it does get to the point.”
Public Service Reminder for hipster parents of teens
Album Cover(s) of the Week(s)
There’s so much to love in this one. The outfits, of course. The amazing hairdo on the woman… or is that a beaver pelt? And best of all, the band name that’s illegible on that busy background. But we don’t need to read that! Everybody who is anybody knows that’s Johnny & Nadine Rexroat (and the Gospel Travelers).
“Great day for a hike! Let’s put on our best dresses and our white high heels and start ‘going through the land.’”
One response to “Tunes in bloom”
Fred
“And the Madison Theater has Kid Kentucky and the American Badass Band… yes, that’s a Kid Rock Tribute. Or you can go to the waste treatment plant on Kellogg Avenue near Lunken Airport for free. Potato/Po-tah-toe. ”
I was eating and almost spit out my food LOL
Like an agitated monkey, I’m about to fling some poop at you.
But you should be used to it by now – I do it every few weeks! If you can navigate around the verbal shite, you’ll find some cool concerts to check out.
Shows on tap for tonight:
Henhouse Prowlers and Moonshine Drive at the Liberty Theater in Lawrenceburg
William Elliott Whitmore and Dave Hause at the Woodward, with Micah Schnabel opening
The Screaming Orphans at Ludlow Garage
Comedian Sebastian Maniscalco is at the Coliseum
Saturday shows:
Sylmar does two sets at MOTR
Buffalo Nichols plays the Liberty Theater
Southgate hosts the Newport Music Roots Festival (doors 3 p.m.) – details below
Woodward Theater has “Play for L.A.” – a benefit for fire-impacted musicians. The lineup includes Rae Fisher, The Montvales, Jess Lamb, Siri Imani and more.
Mike Detmer and Adam Gilliam play the Lost Bridge Beverage Co. in North Bend
Christine Harvilla Duo with Colleen Clark plus Sami Riggs at the Boone County Courthouse
Annie’s hosts Grateful River III (a benefit for Down Syndrome) – details below
On Sunday, Ben Levin Blues Band is doing the Rabbit Hash Music Behind the Stove Series at 2 p.m., and the band Lawrence plays Bogart’s in the evening.
Woodward has An Evening with Yo La Tengo on Tuesday. I’ll be at that gig, along with several other list members. Because Georgia, James and Ira are badasses!
Shannon McNally plays Southgate on Wednesday.
Thursday gigs:
Shadowgrass in Southgate’s main room, and Jake Blocker in the Revival Room
“Sons of Cream” (Kofi Baker, Malcolm Bruce and Rob Johnson) play Ludlow Garage. (Maybe they should call themselves “Half & Half”?)
Liberty Theater has a Comedy Night featuring Adam Minnick
Concerts next Friday, March 28:
The Blind Boys of Alabama with Shemekia Copeland at Taft Theatre
Chicago Farmer & the Fieldnotes at Southgate
The Outlaws at Ludlow Garage
Cody Ikerd & the Sidewinders Album release show w/Joe Clark at Liberty Theater
Little Miami Brewing’s event center has “Night Moves: The Ultimate Bob Seger Experience”
Blue Note in Harrison hosts The Prince Experience (pancakes not included)
The slate on Saturday, March 29:
Liberty Theater has a Rebel Whiskey tasting (4 FREE tasting!) from 5-7, followed by the Lowdown Brass Band
Blackhawk at Ludlow Garage
Lily Rose at Bogart’s
Bumpin’ Uglies at Madison Theater
Willi Carlisle at Southgate in the Revival Room
Annie’s has the all-female Led Zeppelin tribute band Zepparella
Blue Note features “Midnight Blue” (Foreigner Tribute) with One Way to Rock (Sammy Hagar tribute)
Shows on Sunday, March 30:
The Star Devils play Rabbit Hash in the afternoon
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers are at Liberty Theater (I plan to go to that show)
JD Simo and Luther Dickinson (of North Mississippi Allstars) at Southgate
Ricky Nye will be tickling the ivories as only Ricky can on Monday, March 31 at Memorial Hall, and Taft has The Faint with Plack Blague.
Shows on April Fools’ Day:
The Surfrajettes with Black Widow at Madison Theater
Al Stewart & Livingston Taylor at Memorial Hall
The Righteous Brothers “Loving Feeling Farewell Tour” makes a stop at Taft. (If you’ve lost that loving feeling, see your urologist!)
Wednesday, April 2 is another WEENsday at The Columbia in the East End (4311 Eastern Ave.) and this month’s featured WEEN album is Chocolate and Cheese… so they’ll have some chocolate-covered cheese to share.
I plan to attend that event. You should too – The Columbia is a very cool space (with a vintage jukebox in the basement), and WEENsdays are free and you can BYOB!
Tunes & Blooms kicks off at the Cincinnati Zoo on Thursday, April 3. Moonshine Drive and Pickin’ Pear will be on the T&B stages. The full April lineup is here. That same evening, right down the street, you can catch The Seven Wonders (yes, yet another Fleetwood Mac tribute band) at Ludlow Garage.
The Liberty Theater in Lawrenceburg has a Record Fair April 4-5.
Shows on Friday 4/4 include Judah & the Lion* at Bogart’s and Eaglemania “The World’s Greatest Eagles Tribute”** at Ludlow Garage.
* If Bogart’s says their bathrooms are clean, they’re lion… er, lyin’.
**Pretty sure the world’s greatest Eagles Tribute is playing the Sphere in Las Vegas.
On Saturday, April 5:
The Young Dubliners play Ludlow Garage
John Waite is at the Taft
Queensrÿche plays Belterra Casino in Florence, Indiana
Patterson Hood is at the Whirling Tiger in Louisville, with Lydia Loveless as the opener
Sunday, April 6, Ludlow Garage has The Phil Collins Experience (warning: contains no Phil Collins).
We love it live!
MJ Lenderman and Wild Pink at the Green Lantern Bar in Lexington KY was off-the-charts amazing (set list is here). A Top 5 all-time show for me, thanks to list member Frank B.
“Once music and work and money all become the same thing, it gets hard to do it casually. But that was the reason I was able to do anything meaningful in the first place,” he admits. “You can see that through my whole life, just being able to go to a friend’s house and make something and not worry about what it is.”
Now hear this!
The new album from The Tubs is top-notch. Richard Thompson meets Hüsker Dü.
Speaking of Richard Thompson, Bandcamp has a great feature about his influence on younger artists. Sayeth Mary Timony:
“His tone is always amazing, but here’s the thing—most importantly—his songwriting is great. He’s kind of the total package, in that he does both songwriting and playing guitar very well.”
Congrats, you’ve nearly made it through “Dryuary!” Now it’s time for a portmanteau that’s even more cumbersome (but not in the Seven Mary Three way), and not really a portmanteau TBH. But when Febrockuary rolls around, you can put on your concert-going shoes (Doc Martens?) and get out to a gig or three.
On Thursday, the Woodward Theater has Donny Benet with Yusef Quotah. Check out Donny’s promo photo:
It’s giving off some serious “love child of Dom DeLuise and ‘Meathead’ from All in the Family” vibes.
Ludlow Garage hosts “Family Tradition: A Hank Williams Jr. Tribute” on Friday. (I hope they play the Monday Night Football Theme that Junior sang… complete with the Jazzercise background dancers.)
That same evening, CG5 plays the Woodward, and MOTR kicks off the preliminary rounds of the Bockfest Sausage Queen competition. (Eat your heart out, Abe Froman.)
The full Sausage Queen schedule, rules, and judging criteria are here.
Febrockuary kicks off Saturday with a full slate o’shows – although most of them are of the tribute band variety:
JD Shelburne plays the Liberty Theater, with Jordan Dermody as the opener
Madison Theater hosts “Tell Me Lies – The Fleetwood Mac Experience” while next door at Madison Live it’s Riddim Fest
The old Annie’s has “Grunge: The Sounds of Seattle”
Bogart’s hosts “Cash Unchained: The Ultimate Johnny Cash Experience”
At Memorial Hall, it’s “Genesis ReTouched” (a tribute to late 80’s to late 2000’s Genesis concerts… quite specific!)
On Sunday, check out the Positively Mainstrasse event at the Village Theater in Covington. It’s a Cincinnati Children’s “Giving Hope to Kids” fundraiser and features dozens of local artists doing Dylan covers. Who knows, maybe Timothée Chalamet will show up…
[Artwork for the poster above by list member Keith Neltner.]
Sunday is Groundhog Day too!
The Chris Comer Trio plays the “Jazz at the Memo” series on Monday, Feb. 3rd, and they’re doing something interesting:
Following last year’s debut at Memorial Hall, The CC3’s (Chris Comer Trio) return engagement will feature a unique inspired arrangement of the landmark ambient piece MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS by Brian Eno. The evening will conclude with an original collaboration by all three CC3 members called MUSIC FOR SPACESHIPS, juxtaposing the styles of the meditative Eno composition and the jazzy groovy “outer space music” of the Comer trio. This concert is in-part a tribute to Cincinnati musician and radio legend Ron Esposito, who has performed MUSIC FOR AIRPORTS and collaborated with The CC3 many times.
“Music for Spaceships”… far out, man! Almost as far out as this version:
Shows on Wednesday, Feb. 5:
Cheryl Renee plays the blues at Arnold’s
The Blue Wisp Big Band is at Caffe Vivace
The Columbia (see our previous post for more on this event space) has WEEN Wednesday, and the album will be The Pod
Highly Suspect plays the Mike Brady on Thursday, Feb. 6th.
IMHO, Mike Brady IS highly suspect. We never found out how his first wife died… mysterious circumstances, no doubt. And somehow we’re supposed to believe that a guy who mixes up architectural plans with a Yogi Bear poster can afford a luxury home and a live-in housekeeper? Is “Cousin Oliver” really Mike’s love child from an affair that his first wife found out about? And what’s the deal with the AstroTurf yard? Is Mike covering up (literally) a backyard grave? Tune in to my new true crime podcast “Here’s the Untold Story of a Man named Brady…” as we do a deep dive into the clues hidden in plain sight. (Tiger knows a lot more than he’s letting on.)
Plenty o’ shows on Saturday, Feb. 8th:
Hot Tuna plays the Ludlow Garage
H.R. (of Bad Brains) plays Southgate, with Knife the Symphony
Vanessa Collier headlines the Cincinnati Winter Blues Experience* at Manor House (*not to be confused with the Cincinnati Winter blues experience of having snow and ice on sidewalks for weeks on end…)
Electric Indigo, Eastwood, and Funky Ducks play a free show at MOTR
The Woodward Theater hosts “Dark Wave” (a covers show benefitting the Freestore Foodbank). Lots of local bands on the bill, including Wussy, Fairmount Girls, Tweens, Leggy, and Static Falls. The full lineup is here.
Last but certainly not least, when you think of “Hard Rock” your mind no doubt goes right to the titans of that genre: Black Sabbath, Metallica, and Air Supply.
One of those three bands will be at the Hard Rock Casino on 2/8.
On Wednesday, Feb. 12th, the Redmoor in Mt. Lookout hosts “Forever Simon & Garfunkel.” Have you ever seen the Photoshop version of S&G’s Bridge Over Troubled Water album cover with Paul Simon removed?
It makes Artie look like Donny Benet:
Mdou Moctar plays a special acoustic performance at the Woodward on Thursday, Feb. 13th.
Friday, February 14th is Valentine’s Day. I choo-choo-choose you to be my favorite blog post reader.
When love is in the air, our minds naturally turn to thoughts of noted romantic balladeer George Thorogood, with his equally lovestruck band the Delaware Destroyers. They’ll be at the Hard Rock Casino. (When typing this, I nearly transposed the “C” from Casino with the “R” in Rock, by accident. But it made me realize I could do that on purpose and score some promotional ad dollars from Enzyte.)
Where was I before I nearly got in trouble with Citizens for Community Values? Oh, yes, concerts… Other shows of note on Saint Valentine’s Day (I threw in the “Saint” to get ‘em off my case):
Josh Morningstar & his band play Southgate’s Revival Room
Liberty Theater has CFG & the Family with Heather Redman & the Reputation
Unlike the Hard Rock, Ludlow Garage knew the V.D. assignment – they have “Lovesongs: a tribute to The Cure”
Little Miami Brewing Co. hosts “Captured: The Ultimate Journey Tribute”
On Saturday, Feb. 15th, the Liberty Theater features the Mama Said String Band with Andrew Hibbard. The Downtowne Listening Room has EG Knight and Maria Carrelli. Also, Valentine’s Day is over.
Joe’s Truck Stop hits Rabbit Hash’s “Music Behind the Stove” series on Sunday, Feb. 16, and Todd Lipscomb plays Arnold’s on Tuesday, 2/18.
R.I.P. Garth Hudson, the mad professor
Now there’s no one left in The Band. Garth was the oldest member, and it seems fitting that he was the last to go, as he was the rock of that group in so many ways.
Amanda Petrusich also paid tribute in The New Yorker.
And now, my favorite Band song… with Garth just coolly crushing it on sax:
Sidebar: Now is probably not the time to get into the petty squabbles and financial dealings of The Band, but reading this in the AP obit made me super-sad, and even more of a Team Levon guy:
In recent years, Hudson struggled financially. He had sold his interest in the Band to Robertson and went bankrupt several times. He lost one home to foreclosure and saw many of his belongings put up for auction in 2013 when he fell behind on payments for storage. Hudson’s wife, the singer “Sister” Maud Hudson, died in 2022.
Joan soldiers on
I’ve always liked Joan Armatrading’s music, and think she deserves a bit more recognition.
I agree! Blurb above is from this interview in The Independent. Her most recent album is How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean.
Well, the title of my new album is How Did This Happen and What Does It Now Mean. I have no answers and I haven’t met anybody who has, but I hope we get rebooted to something a bit more balanced. I think we’ve become polarised because when you’re face to face with somebody, things such as body language and eye contact stop us doing certain things. That doesn’t happen on social media, then it spills into the real world. We’re not going to get rid of all wars and disagreements, but the album title is asking how on earth do we get out of this situation that we’re in and get back to a nicer place.
Hot Ticket Alert
More info and a ticket link on the Woodward website.
And this event — a lecture from author Michelle Zauner, who also fronts longtime 97Xbam faves Japanese Breakfast — sold out before I could tout it:
But I can at least mention that the newly refurbished/remodeled Mercantile Library is even more amazing than it was before, and the annual membership is totally worth it to get dibs on great literary events. (Poet Laureate Ada Limón will be there on 8/27.)
That’s Sooo Cincinnati ticket alert
Billy Joel and Rod Stewart are playing the Bengals stadium on Saturday, September 20th. I don’t know when tickets go on sale, but I DO know it’ll cost a gazillion dollars to see two dinosaurs.
Railbird lineup
It skews fairly “mainstream country”:
I’d rather spend $2.49 for this Jelly Roll action:
Music is Medicine
Singer-songwriter Laura Burhenn, who records as The Mynabirds (and does house tours via Undertow!), asked Janine Awan to design two complementary poster for her Bandcamp merch site.
A portion of the proceeds from both posters will go to support the World Central Kitchen’s important work in the US and abroad in areas torn by war and climate disaster.
Meet new singles in your area!
The winter new music freeze is finally thawing out. Check out new singles from The Tubs (loved their last album, they remind me so much of Richard Thompson), Lucy Dacus, Sharon Van Etten, and a posthumous release from The Chills/Martin Phillipps.
Album Covers of the Week(s)
Decca certainly didn’t “sell the sizzle” with the adjective they used to describe Earl. Was “versatile” the best that they could come up with? It feels like the album cover equivalent of a “he’s got a great personality” blind date.
There’s a LOT going on with this cover. Good luck coming up with a coherent narrative based on this imagery. The girls is writing in an album (who writes in an album?) while dreaming of a fur trader who doubles as a malt shoppe owner, and he in turn is dreaming of a photographer from 1872. Also a chef is going overboard with the pepper – so much so that the liquid splashing out of his saucepan is black. And there are two anthropomorphic ink blots who get feature credit…
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