Friday-July 27, 2007

Excuses: Southside, Pittsburgh, Pa.

I was feeling kind of toasty before we started playing; two shows in one day ain’t as easy as it used to be. “Git By”, “Yesterday’s Gone”, for the Southside girls. “Somethin’s Cookin”, “Burnin Up”, I was starting to come back to life at this point because we were doing some laughing. “We Come a Long Way”, “Steeler Nation”, Excuses has become an unofficial Steeler bar in the past couple of years since the Steeler business headquarters moved up the street from the bar. Cool! Set two kicked with “Nothin To Lose”, yea baby….. Strong. We sent out “Sidewalk Romeo” out to Terrible Tom. Whitey sang the ole Parliament tune “Testify” for the first time. It came off pretty well. Harry crooned a very casual “Pot’s n’ Pans” to the delight of the white trash in attendance, my people. By the end of the night I guess I was gittin a little stupit. Hey, my a** was draggin.

Friday-July 27, 2007

South Park: Pittsburgh, Pa.

We’ve opened the show for Southern Fried Johnny and the Jukes of Hazzard on many occasions and yes, it’s always a good time. Our show opened with “Boilermaker”, a song that a lot of these very casual music fans had not heard before, at least not performed by us. The response was luke warm, I wasn’t pleased. My hope, that “Rock n’ Roll City” would get their attention panned out. Now I got ya right where I want ya. “Reddy Freddy” hit home hard. “Heat of the Night” did what it’s supposed to do, turn the tide. We took em’ ta church wit “Amazin Grace”. Then sang of love grown cold with “You Go Your Way”. Vinny Q was earning his keep the whole way down the line playing a great feel good rhythm and rippin some short but oh so sweet leads. “That Girl” pumped the beat up again, then “Rich Kid” gathered together loads of applause. My confidence was soarin. We called ole buddy Jeff Kazee, da Jukes keyboard ace, up onstage to help us close out the set. Kazee got a little goofy as he tried to imitate the animal noise I sometimes make towards the end of “Burnin Up”. Laughter is good medicine. Whitey and Harry carried us all thru the last tune “Shake Rattle n’ Roll”. I hadn’t planned to do that song, something told me it would get over with this crowd. I think I took off my guitar and started jumpin all over the stage. If I did, it was only because I was high on the music. Vinny Q on guitar, Whitey bangin da tubs, Harry, like a huge catfish, swimming round da bottom, and Kazee bringin his high level keyboards to da east side sound. Who wants it? You do.

Saturday July 21-2007

Moondogs: Blawnox, Pa.

The excitement in the air was everywhere. You could just feel that something was gonna happen. We kicked it wit “Git By” & then “T-Bird”. Glenn Pavone then joined us for “Amazin Grace”, “You Go Your Way”, “Shake Your Moneymaker”, “Work Together”, I think we played a few other tunes but I can’t recall exactly how it all went down. I remember that I wanted to give Harry the chance to sing “Little Wing” with Glenn on guitar and I remember the looks on peoples faces as I sat in the audience watching it happen. Priceless. We got Dave Tauberg up to play bass on “Bowlegged Woman” as Glenn Pavone ripped. Annie Sutton got on stage to sing "Shakey Ground" and "Dust My Broom", this Pgh girl sounds as good now as she did back in the day when she was hanging tight wit those Jersey boys the Young Rascals. Bernard Allison was in the house. This gentleman, son of blues legend Luther, showed us why he is on his way to legend status himself. Glenn Pavone hung with Bernard every step of the way as Whitey and Harry slugged it out in the rhythm section. Bernard’s bass player, my ole buddy Jassen Wilber, and their regular drummer did a set with Bernard and Glenn. Everyone in the dog house knew that what they were seeing and hearing was a once in a lifetime thing.  After a short break, me and mine did a few, “Boilermaker”, “Ain’t It Amazin”, “Mr. Right Now”, “Hell’s Highway”. I then called Michigan bluesman Larry McCrae to the stage and we did a funky blues together. Nice. I got Glenn back on stage to throw down with Larry, it was smoking. Larry’s rhythm section was in the house & they got up to relieve Whitey and Harry, who worked their butts off all night. Somewhere around two thirty in the morning it all ended but not before Bernard Allison got back on stage to join Larry McCrae for a world class jam. Larry, Bernard and all the guys they had with them were all total class. I was very lucky to be a small part of this magical night. If you were there, so were you.

Saturday July 21-2007

Pittsburgh Blues Festival: Hartwood Acres, Pgh, PA

We were billed as the Pittsburgh Blues All-stars. Each year Ron “Moondog” Esser and the Pgh Food Bank has been gracious enough to use me and mine to play with different musicians at da PBF. This year they wanted us to present John Purgel, lead singer and Ric Proudfoot, lead guitar player both of The Pawnbrokers along with Andrea Pearl from Mo-Black’s Magic, Ali Schelin from The Cause, and Jill Simmons on vocals. We also had Phil Brontz from 8th Street Rox on sax and Bob Addleman on trumpet. John and Ric, two experienced blues men, joined me, Phil, Bob, Whitey, & Harry to open the show with 2 tunes, “Wait on Time” and a smoking slow blues. Folks dug it. It was then time to present something different. John and Ric sat down as we brought up Jill, Andrea and Ali to sing. Jill sang “Million Tears” and we was grooving. Ali did “If I Had a Child”, I could see the audience getting more and more interested in this unique presentation. Andrea did a funky take on “Little Things” and helped us get the crowd right where we wanted ‘em. Ali brought things back to a laid back thang on “You Go Your Way”. Jill rocked the beat with “Chain of Fools”. Stage manager Mary Pam then informed me that our show had to be cut short so we had to bypass a couple numbers I was really looking forward to playing. Cut to Jill rippin “I’d Rather Be a Blind Girl” and just tearin it up. I called John and Ric back on stage to help us close the show with“Mojo”.

Friday, July 20-2007

Moondogs: Blawnox, Pa.

Da dog house was packed full of real music people. Me and the boys kicked it off with “Lazybones”, “Boilermaker”, “Till The Cows Come Home”, “We Come A Long Way”, “Hells Highway” and “Sick And Tired”. Ain’t nothing better than playing for folks who understand the power and glory of the Blessed Sacrament. Straight from the Pittsburgh Blues Festival’s main stage, Devon Allman got on stage with Whitey, Harry and I to play “All Along The Watch Tower” complete, with a touch of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday” thrown into the mix. We then got George, Devon’s bass player, to join us on “Sweet Little Angel”. Everybody was going goofy. Whitey, George and I spanked out “Work Together”, Love it. Me and mine closed out set one with “Ain’t It Amazin” and “Little Things”. Set two fired up with Devon, front and center singing “Purple Rain”. Once again, folks were going goofy. At this point me and mine ripped “Nightclub”. Then, Erie PA harpman, Ron Yaroz took center stage to sing a soulful “Help Me” with Mick on drums.  Jason, ole friend and bass player who is also from Erie, joined in the fun. Cool. Marcy, of The Sweaty Betty Blues Band, sang a grooving shuffle. Later in the show we got young Kate on stage to sing “Be My Baby”. She generated a ton of applause. Love it. Where was you at ?

Saturday, July 14-2007

Mogie’s: Lower Burrell, Pa.

Out on the patio there was a party goin on. This beautiful summer eve was well spent entertaining the good rockin locals. “Lazybones”, “Rock n’ Roll City”, I saw a lot of the ole “Gun Towne Crew” that I used to see 25 years ago, mostly older Italian dudes that’s still rockin n’ gittin it on. Harry sang “King of the Road” and put smiles on everybody’s faces. Whitey sang “Shama Lama Ding Dong” and got the dancers going. The songs that hit the mark on the show was all the ole stuff “That Girl”, “ Burnin Up”, “Nothin To Lose”, “Love Dog”, dats what I’m talkin bout. Look for us to be out at Mogie’s once more this summer, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Wednsday, July 4-2007

Mike’s Place: Leetsdale, Pa.

Everybody came back inside after the fireworks. Da joint was rockin. “Up Jumps the Devil” got the dance floor jumpin. “T-Bird” kept em’ goin. “Ain’t It Amazin” showed em’ we meant business. An amazing performance of “That Ain’t Gonna Happen” and “I Seen Too Much” made my whole evening. “Pittsburgh. Pa.” led into “Steeler Nation”, which got over so well we did it twice. ‘dem Stiller fans can’t get enough. We hadn’t done Rufus Thomas’s “Walking the Dog” in over six months and I don’t know why I even started to play it but, when I sang the line “didn’t get back till the fourth of July”, I got a chill. Mary joined us onstage to sing Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces”. I counted it off too fast. Next time I’ll know better. Glitter sang “Smoke Two Joints” with all his heart. Da joint was rockin!