A couple of weeks ago, the Pennsylvania State Senate voted on a resolution to declare April 30th “Hooters Music Appreciation Day” in the state. The resolution, sponsored by Senator Daylin Leach, passed unanimously and The Hooters have cemented their place in the PA history books. The band accepted the award today and celebrated the occasion by treating some fans to a lunchtime concert in the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg.

Senator Leach introduced the band and presented the framed resolution and explained that despite the many other important matters the senate has to discuss and vote upon, it is important to recognize the arts as well. The senator praised the band’s contributions to the state of Pennsylvania. April 30th marks the band’s “33 1/3^rd anniversary” together, with “33 1/3″ also being the title of their upcoming European tour this summer.

The band was set up on the lower level of the rotunda so the crowd was gathered on both levels, when the band stage, the audience greeted them with warm applause. They kicked off with the energetic and uplifting “I’m Alive” from their 2007 album, Time Stand Still. A group of school children were dancing and enjoying the show right alongside the folks in business attire and the fans in Hooters t-shirts. It was almost a bit surreal seeing a rock band getting a crowd going like that in the middle of a work day.

The fun continued with a parade of hits from the late 1980s including “Day by Day”, “All You Zombies”, “Satellite”, “Karla With a K”, “And We Danced”, and “Beat Up Guitar”. This is music with heart and soul and it was inspiring to see such a diverse group enjoying the show.

The Hooters may have made their biggest national splash in the 1980′s, but they are still going strong 33 1/3 years later.

This past Saturday (October 6th) was the annual Little Buffalo Arts Festival, at the Little Buffalo State Park in a remote area of Perry County, Pennsylvania. Along with art, poetry, kids activities and food, was some great free music on two stages. On the main stage was entertainment by five different acts of diverse music which ranged from a high school marching band to a national recording artist and many degrees in-between. This is the second year we’re covering the music from this festival and the second year it was headlined by Jeffrey Gaines. Last year we did an article at DAMES of PA called Gaines and the Rain at Little Buffalo. Unlike last year, however, the rain held off and the crisp fall day ended with lots of sunshine.

Following the Trinity High School Percussion Ensemble whih started off the entertainment on the main stage, the acoustic quartet Koretzky, Neidig, Gehret & Campbell took the stage. These seasoned musicians with decades of combined experieince, played a pleasant set with a haunting quality in the mixture of acoustic bass, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and various other instruments. Guitarist Kevin Neidig performed lead vocals on the original songs, which had a mild “outlaw country” vibe.

Next came another 4-piece group, The Reese Project, who focused primarily on instrumental jazz with piano, flute, bass, and drums. While all members here were excellent performers, particularly interesting was Laurie Haines Reese on electric cello, who alternated between using her instrument as an acoustic bass and cello.

Central-PA’s princes of power pop/rock, The JellyBricks followed with a high energy performance of original music, drawing from material that spanned their 15 year career. The band has a creative knack for songwriting with straightforward, witty lyrics, lots of guitar hooks and a tight musical performance. The song hooks draw you in and hold onto you until the final notes of their energetic and entertaining live performance.

As a transition to his headlining set, Gaines joined the Jellybricks on stage for an inspired rendition of Elvis Costello’s “Peace Love and Understanding”. Unlike last year, when Gaines played a solo acoustic set, he was backed up by a rhythm section made up of bassist Mike Giblin of Parallax Project and Jellybricks’ drummer Tom Kristich, who stayed on for both sets. Gaines professed his positive outlook on love, happy for every opportunity, happy for every day and that comes across in his music and  live performance. He was very interactive, telling the crowd to “get up, dance and be spontaneous”. Gaines, a Harrisburg native who now lives in Philadelphia, went through a whole bunch of originals, spanning his entire career, which is now into its third decade.

The Little Buffalo Festival had an audience that seemed to appreciate diversity in their music, which was alluded to when Larry Kennedy of the Jellybricks thanked the crowd for accepting their all-original performance and not calling for “Freebird”. A little bit of everything was packed into this autumn afternoon at this normally quiet and remote state park.

~

The Reese Project
The Jellybricks
Jeffrey Gaines

They wanted to create a new venue for local musicians and music lovers to gather. Hence…….The birth of The King Street Coffeehouse.

It began with three acts, twice a month for four months. They built a lineup of local performers. In the beginning they found local groups and businesses to host the shows. Now seventeen years later, there are shows every second and fourth Friday of the month. The season runs from September until April and in January there are shows every Friday night. What an achievement to have grown from eight shows a year to eighteen!

Hosting the venue for the past several years has been Townside Garden at 253 Front Street in Northumberland, PA. Cost for each show? $7 at the door. The money collected at the door goes to the performer and the venue for use of the space. The King Street Coffeehouse itself gets no money. It has been manned by a devoted group of volunteers over the years.

The season begins this Friday September 28th at 7pm.

* Anniversary Show
** Change to First Friday
 

Tweet

Early yesterday morning my good pal and fellow musician Nik Allen passed away after a long battle with cancer. It is hard for me to wrap this guy up in a few sentences. So I will just grab the first story that comes to mind.

A few weeks ago, I picked up Nik to take him to a gig. He couldn’t drive anymore and honestly he had no business going to a gig in the first place. Oftentimes he’d be rigged up with wires, tubes, and bags in a fashion that made you believe he should be in the ICU instead of onstage. But it was what he loved to do. If Nik got the green light and was up for going to ANY gig, my other partner in crime Bubba would always pick him up. If Bubba couldn’t do it, I would grab him.

On the way to this particular show I sat there and listened to this crazy old guy tell story after story about whatever came through his head. His kids, his old lady, run ins with the law, having no money, or his old job. And every story would be accompanied by an a cappella rendition of some blues song that applied to the situation. “My Home Is A Prison”, “Big Boss Man”, and on and on. Then that would be followed by a ripping harp solo….. played alone in the front seat of my car while I drove. After that came a discussion of the blues greats. Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Jimmy Reed, Son House, and on and on.

Now, over the years I have played lots of big shows in many amazing places. But I will tell you that there have been very few experiences in my life that made me feel more like a real musician who plays for the right reasons. I made peace with my musical path on that drive through the Pennsylvania mountains. And Nik provided the soundtrack….and the sermon.

A very successful folk musician once said to me: “I am not Bob Dylan or James Taylor…..but I’m in the club.” Most of the musical world didn’t know Nik Allen. But he is in the club. And when we played together he made me feel like I was in it too.

It doesn’t matter how much money you leave behind. Someone can piss it away. It doesn’t matter how many buildings get built with your name on it. Someone can always tear them down. But your character, soul, vibe, and the stories you leave behind will live on. And if the hero was just, the legend only grows with time. I suspect that Nik is fine with that.

So Nik, safe travels my friend. Play on. You gave me the blues I never knew I had.

~
Bret Alexander
 

Tweet

A few weeks ago we were having a record breaking heatwave across the country as well as here in PA. My annual trip to Brigg’s Farm Blues Festival was going on right in the midst of this oppressively warm and humid spell. It was sunny and a steamy 95 degrees when Ed Randazzo took to the Back Porch Stage to kick things off  on Friday, July 6th. The stage and seating area was sheltered under the shade of a tent and there was an occasional breeze, but it was still akin to hanging out in a steam sauna. Oddly, the heat didn’t detract from Randazzo’s intense and inspirational performance.

Randazzo just released his second CD, Show and Tell, earlier this year in follow up to his brilliant first CD, See that My Grave is Kept Clean. He sang songs from these two collections as well as some Blues/Gospel classics accompanied by Bret Alexander – his producer and collaborator – on acoustic guitar. Listening to Ed sing is a moving experience. His physical presence is rather diminutive, but his voice commands attention from the very first note. Once you get over the initial surprise of the deep, mellow and emotive sounds coming from this unexpected source, you are drawn in to the music and forget all about the heat.

Later in the evening, while the air was still akin to a steam bath in the cornfields of Brigg’s Farm, blues singer Alexis P. Suter took the stage.  After wowing the audience with several songs, she and her band were soaking wet and it wasn’t even raining. She commented that it was “hot as blazes out here” but went on to say ” but I thank God that I am alive to feel the heat.”

So while some people might think of singing the blues as singing about depressing things and situations that make you feel “blue,” what we experienced at this blues fest was music and performances that inspired and encouraged us to look for the positive in every situation.

~
K.A.

Tweet

The other day, a Facebook friend posted something that really struck a chord. To paraphrase, he said something like he felt as though he was a 22 year old spirit stuck in a 42 year old body and openly wondered whether he should continue playing music. Another friend posted one of those cartoon sharing things expressing a similar sentiment that you are only as young as you admit to being. This whole debate on the age appropriateness of listening to or (especially) performing music has gone on for a long time. In 1976, Jethro Tull did a mini “rock opera” about a 1950s “greaser” who was now in his mid-thirties (gasp!) called Too Old to Rock n’ Roll, Too Young to Die.

I think what strikes me most about all this is the constant obsession with chronological age. There are things that you enjoy now that you enjoyed when you were younger. Keep on enjoying them! Fun can be had at any age, the key is not caring what other people think about your age or whether what you are doing is “age appropriate.” Just like the 60ish guy driving a Sebring convertible and blasting REO Speedwagon’s “Roll with the Changes” who pulled into the gas station next to me, just go with it and have fun – age is just a state of mind! Heck, look no further than Paul McCartney, who just turned 70 last week. What if he would have decided he was “too old to rock n roll” three decades ago?

My husband worked with a man for several years and they became good friends. However, after knowing him for years, my husband was surprised to find out that his friend was in a “new wave” band in the early 1980s and they had actually made some professional recordings. This man had not played music since that band broke up in 1982 and further, he had not heard the studio recordings because they were in digital audio tape format and no one had a device to play that. My husband took the tapes to a studio to be converted, did a little mastering, and came up with a CD for the band (check out the final product here). When the band members, now well into their fifties, heard the music they produced over a quarter century earlier, they were absolutely giddy.

The question I’d like to ask my Facebook friend is simple – on your final day, when your reflect back on the moments and deeds of your life, do you really think you’ll regret playing too much music while you were in your forties?

~
Karyn Albano

Tweet

Tweet

The sun has been bright and the skies have been blue, but for me it didn’t feel quite like summer until Thursday, June 14th. You see, at the beginning of almost every summer in recent memory I have seen Pennsylvania’s best kept secret, Darcie Miner, perform. So it was not until I saw her on Thursday with guitarist Jimmy Patton on the lawn in front of the Cocoa Beanery coffee shop in Hershey, PA that it really felt like summer had arrived.

This is my first summer in three years in which I am not romantically linked to anyone, and Miner’s songs about heartbreak and broken relationships spoke to me with a fresh voice. Two summers ago when I was on a ‘break’ with my past girlfriend, I thought I completely understood the meanings behind Miner and Patton’s work on their fantastic 2009 album Loneliness Anonymous (read my review of that here). This is a mistake many people make with good music. We’ve all heard a song so much we believe we’ve mastered it, and then we hear it somewhere down the line and new layers of understanding reveal themselves. It is a testament to Miner’s talent that her songs sound better every time I hear them. It also points to the problems with a lot of today’s modern pop music; much of it has little to no depth, while bands such as Rush, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd continue to be revisited, talked about, and discussed. OK, I’ll hop off of my soap box and return to the review at hand.
This was the first time in nearly a year since Darcie Miner performed live and it did show at times, with some hesitations, false starts, and Darcie’s own admittance to using lyric sheets to guide her along. There were also a few technical difficulties during the two-set performance, but none of this really affected my enjoyment of the show and Miner played off the problems with humorous comments and witty banter. She has a naturally good stage presence, which can easily cover up mistakes or instrument malfunctions.

Since this performance did not include a full band one would naturally think some of the songs from Loneliness Anonymous would not sound quite as textured. On the contrary, one of my favorite songs from that album, “Rollerskating Song” sounded great despite the lack of synthesizers and other instruments that make up its bulk. All of the songs sounded pretty good bare bones with her on acoustic and Patton on electric or steel guitar. There were also a few fun covers such as “Breakdown” by Tom Petty in which Miner’s soulful voice added a new layer to the classic. Before that, “Found Out About You” by the Gin Blossoms was a happy surprise that brought the audience back to the nineties with a steel guitar twist. A “Life Lion” helicopter disrupted the wonderful song “24”, but it was still a great listen and just a minor bump in the overall great ride. Another of these bumps was quickly fixed thanks to Mr. Patton who saved the fantastic tune “Somerset” when he jumped from behind his steel guitar to fix some wires. The true gem of the evening was a song that I believe was called “Westward Bound”, a track that did not make it onto Loneliness Anonymous but after one listen it was clear that the song could have fit perfectly well on the album.

Besides being a great multi-instrumentalist and performer, Jimmy Patton (“JP”) is a top notch producer. This is immediately evident upon listening to Loneliness Anonymous, which has a sound as good as (or better than) any major label release. Since that album in 2009, Patton has built a brand new studio of his own design in Mount Joy, PA and new material by Patton and Miner is greatly anticipated.

The show itself was put on by The Hershey Center for Applied Research, who have scheduled talented musical acts in conjunction with the weekly Farmer’s Market in Hershey every Thursday night during the summer. These performances will raise awareness for the H.C.A.R. which is working to further study in the fields of life sciences, cancer, medical devices, green technology, and nanotechnology. As always seeing Miner and Patton play was a complete joy and put me in the mood for the upcoming summer.

~
J.D. Cook
 
Darcie Miner website

Tweet

>

Tweet

How do you discover your favorite local musicians? Do you just head out to clubs and bars and hope for the best or do you do a little research first? These days there are so many outlets available to find new sounds to please your ears.

One of my favorites is to listen to radio shows featuring local music. I often stream one from a Wilkes-Barre station called Music On the Menu. The show is hosted by Alan Stout, who has spent many years covering local music in Northeast Pennsylvania. Through his show, i discovered artists like Shawn Z, The Underground Saints and many more. Check this one out Sunday nights from 8 to 9PM, If like me, you live outside of the broadcast area, you can stream it live from 102.3 FM, the Mountain’s website.

Harrisburg’s 97.9, The River also has a local show hosted by Michael Anthony Smith on at 10PM on Sunday Nights. He plays an eclectic mix of local music and he always encourages local artists to send him their songs so he can play them.
Sunday nights typically don’t have a lot going on anyway, so why not give one of these shows a listen, you may find a new favorite band!

~

Tweet

Tweet

Summer festival season is here! This is the time of year that live music is released from the dark, late-night confines of nightclubs and bars and flows into the great outdoors. Pennsylvania is a great place for outdoor summertime music. We have blues festivals happening in rural cornfields, folk music under the stars at wineries, and multi-genre festivals in the hearts of our cities and towns.

This past weekend, the city of Harrisburg forgot about its fiscal crisis for a few days as it hosted the annual Artsfest in the scenic Riverfront Park. This festival kicked off the season in the state capital. Next up will be a wine festival to be held at Fort Hunter Park which will include live music as well. you will find events like these all over the state so you should have no trouble finding an event that suits your musical taste and budget. My personal favorite is the Briggs Farm Blues Festival near Nescopeck, PA which usually falls on or around my birthday in early July.

There is something great about kicking back in a grassy field at an outdoor concert with your friends and family. Hearing live music is always a worthwhile activity, but outdoor festivals really capture the vibe perfectly and can be a wonderful family activity. While many folks associate live music with the late night bar scene, which is fun but not really family friendly, these outdoor venues allow you to spread out a blanket, bring some snacks and let the kids enjoy the show too. Lots of times the kids are the most enthusiastic dancers in the audience. these events are a great way to expose kids how to good music as well as create priceless family memories. Of course, there is always the risk of inclement weather, but this is a small risk for the reward of music under the sky.

~
Karyn Albano

Tweet

Tweet

With a playlist that transcends many rock sub-genres, a lead vocalist role that is ever-revolving throughout the show, and a solid edge of melodic rock, Wired performs a solid and entertaining live act. The band performs covers from Elvis Presley to Kid Rock, from Lynard Skynard to Smash Mouth and various acts along the rock pantheon in between.

Based in Newport, PA, the band is anchored by a husband and wife team of guitarist John Miller and keyboardist Sandy Miller. The band was formed about four years ago and consisted as the same five-piece group until last July (2011) when Phil Brosius took over as lead guitarist. Brosius, has performed in a variety of Central Pennsylvania bands throughout the years, including Silver Creek, China White, No Way Out, Shovel Head, Spent, Jezebel Sons, and The Resonators. He is currently composing some original songs for a future project.

Bassist Eric Spotts performs lead singer duties on a couple of songs and provides a solid rhythm throughout the show, especially on the centerpiece “I’m Your Captain/Closer to Home”, originally written by Grand Funk. Spotts also currently performs in the power trio B.B Rock & The Ringers as well as the hard rock outfit Iroquois Confederacy. Drummer Tom Sikorsky rounds off the lineup, providing a solid backbone to the band’s sound.

In all, the band puts on an entertaining performance with enough familiar material to get you dancing along with enough unusual material to keep things interesting. Look for Wired performing through Central PA in the near future.

~
R.A.

Tweet