The Mavericks Capitalize On Enthusiastic Concord Audience

The Mavericks came to Concord, NH on Saturday May 10th.  They broke up back in 2003, but reunited last year with an excellent CD entitled "In Time." They lost none of their greatness as a band  during their ten years apart.

My night started with a couple of pre-show brews and a bit of food at the Draft Sports Bar across the street from the Capitol Center where the concert was taking place. I was joined by my dear friend Hamburger Heather and we started off with the chicken "minions." These were little chicken tenders that were fun to eat. It was an appetizer but you got roughly 100 of these little chicken chunks. My friend Hamburger Heather got a hamburger for dinner.  Did not see that coming. I went with my health-conscious grilled hot dog. My only complaint was they do not serve sauerkraut. I have lost countless hours of sleep worrying about the future of sauerkraut in our great nation. Hopefully only New Hampshire is neglecting these strings full of deliciousness.

Next it was off to the Capitol Center For The Arts to see the show. A cool, relatively new feature to the Cap
Center is you can get a glass of wine or a beer in the lobby and pour it in a nice sturdy plastic cup and bring it right to your seat. Not that it is necessary to do that at a concert, but it is a neat option.

The crowd was a bit on the older side, but what they lacked in life expectancy they more than made up with enthusiasm! I was surprised to see so many people head to the stage to dance as soon as the music started. Besides the five core members of the band, they featured a horn section, an accordion player and an upright bass player.  Singer Raul Malo is still the focal point of the band. He has an amazing voice and can sing all sorts of musical styles. The band played quite a few songs from their 1994 breakout cd "What A Crying Shame." They won all sorts of awards that year, way too many for me to type. The Mavericks came out for a couple of encores and their last four songs, were quite possibly their best four songs! I could have listened to them all night.  They will be playing at the Indian Ranch in Webster, MA on Saturday August 9th if you want to check them out this Summer. The Indian Ranch is a cool place to go. It is like a classy trailer park next to a beautiful lake that somehow gets good musical acts to perform there.

Junior Brown Was Just In Town

Junior Brown, the inventor of the pretty famous "Guit-Steel" guitar, recently performed at the Bull Run in Shirley, MA. This guitar has a double-neck, one of which is an electric guitar and the other is a lap steel guitar.  Junior would be considered a Country performer, but he also adds some Blues and Jazz, and Surf music into his shows. He also showed he can rock as he went through about a dozen classic Rock guitar riffs from the likes of Jimmy Page and Dave Davies. Junior also has a unique singing voice like Ernest Tubb, deep and barrelly. His two most famous songs are likely "My Wife Thinks You're Dead" and "Highway Patrol." With his combination of guitar virtuosity, his voice, and his interesting songwriting, Junior is an excellent person to see in concert.  I saw him for the first time around 1997 and he is still great today. He has a new song entitled "Hang Up And Drive" which fits nicely in the Junior Brown catalog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PWSmMuBNK0

The venue for this show was the Bull Run in Shirley, MA as I mentioned earlier.  This place is super cool. It has been around since 1740 and there is a rumor that Paul Revere swung by there on his famous horse ride. I know for a fact that Martin Van Buren, Andy Van Slyke, Abigail Henry, and Soupy Sales stayed there when it was an inn. It also has a covered bridge in the parking lot overlooking the majestic Mulpus Brook.

I think it is a great place to see a concert and I am sure you would too.

As a side note, which won't mean anything except to about four people, I attended this show with 4 friends all of which I have been friends with for 35 years or more! I think that was a cool little chunk of information. It was like the 5 of us flashed back to the 80's for a few hours. All of this added up to a memorable night.
These pictures were taken by my friend Barry and though they may appear dark, they are called "art" and you should appreciate them as such.

Nick Waterhouse is cool

This new cd from Nick Waterhouse is so cool it should have come wrapped in  a piece of Fonzie's leather jacket. You can tell right away that Nick is a West Coast guy. His music exudes a kind of old Hollywood glamour with a hybrid combination of smooth jazz with a splash of surf music. I would love to hangout in a club that featured this type of music.  The place would be so hip, all of the selfie's taken in there would come out in black and white. The disc is entitled "Holly".  It has a picture of a pretty girl in a field on the cover, who may or may not have a mustache. I can't tell for sure, but it probably isn't important either way.  I have never been good at finding hidden meanings in songs or titles, but I like to think title is referring to Hollywood. Ordinarily if an artist throws in a secret meaning in something, it will stay secret from me. I need obvious references or forget about it, I am moving on.  I have lots to think about during the day and can't devote lots of time to just a few items. This is going to be one fantastic cd to cruise in the car with!  It has everything you need; dynamic vocals, good lyrics, horns, organs, background vocals, all good!  I consider myself one of the few cutting edge senior citizens, so just to add to my street cred, the last couple of Rolling Stones magazines have had this cd on their Top 10 College Albums list.  So there you have it.  Check it out.

                                             

 

Saints Go Marching Out

This has been one wild offseason for the New Orleans Saints. They whipped up their own brand of March Madness this year. They released four of their defensive starters from their 2009 Super Bowl winning team, Jonathan Vilma, Will Smith, Roman Harper and Jabari Greer. There are no longer any defensive players left from that squad on the current roster (I don't have anyone to do research for me, but I believe that to be true.) They also released wide receiver Lance Moore, who made a fantastic catch on a two-point conversion in that Super Bowl victory. He had been with the Saints since 2006 and was one of their all-time best receivers. Then came rumors that they were going to release running backs Darren Sproles and Pierre Thomas. It was then I started to regret my Saints tattoo again. Darren Sproles has been one of the most exciting players in the NFL for quite a few seasons now. He was personally recruited by quarterback Drew Brees to join the team after the departure of the beloved Reggie Bush.  Sproles was one of the most effective weapons in the Saints offense for the past three seasons. The thought of losing him and Thomas was not a pleasant one. Well, they ended up trading Sproles to the Philadelphia Eagles for a 5th round draft pick, which was better than just releasing him, although Mrs. Sproles would not agree with that as she so eloquently shared on social media.  Also, from the last 8 of the Saints 5th round draft picks, a good solid 5 or 6 of them turned out to be good NFL players. Rob Ninkovich of the New England Patriots happens to be one of them (the Saints didn't need him making big plays every weekend.) They did end up keeping Pierre Thomas which was good, partially because I love saying his nickname "PT Cruiser" every Sunday. Now that a couple of weeks have gone by, I am still pledging my faith to General Manager Mickey Loomis and coach Sean Payton that they have a master plan which will make them successful next season. I believe they are trying to make the team younger and stronger and faster in order to battle the top NFC teams like the current Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks, the San Francisco 49ers, the Carolina Panthers and those sneaky Green Bay Packers. They have to go through all of this for a chance to meet next seasons winner of the Denver Broncos versus the New England Patriots in their inevitable meeting in the AFC Championship game. As they say in Cajun Country, "Geaux Saints!"

Ronnie Earl with special guests The L&M Rhythm Kings

Great night at the Blue Ocean Music Hall in Salisbury, MA on Saturday March 8, 2014!  If you haven't been to this place, you should go. The sound is great, the place is beautiful and reasonably priced. I have to tell you that even though Ronnie Earl was the headliner, my main reason for going to the show was to support the opening act, the L&M Rhythm Kings.

I have been following these guys around Massachusetts and New Hampshire in various forms of this band for about 20 years. Shockingly they have never put a restraining order on me. You can't find a nicer group of guys than these four and they deserved to play in a nice place like this with a great audience.  They played their usual top-notch mix of Blues and Funk and were well-received by the crowd. These guys can play it all. Keep your eyes and ears open and if they are in your area you should go check them out!Well, enough about those lovable lads for now.

What can I say about the world-famous Blues guitarist Ronnie Earl that hasn't already been said better by someone else?

He has few peers as a guitar player. Some might call him a virtuoso, but I am not exactly sure what that means. From what I have heard about him, his generosity and warmth is also off the charts.  Ronnie and his band were great and mesmerized the audience with their musicianship. I have seen him play a few times and he always puts his heart and soul into each note he plays. It was a fabulous night near the end of a long Winter.  The timing could not have been better.

Girls Guns and Glory

A new CD has taken over my musical life. It is from a Boston band called Girls Guns and Glory. The name of the CD is "Good Luck." The CD came out in February 2014 and I was lucky to see them perform soon after I bought it. I guess for a genre you might throw them under the Americana umbrella. They do some 1950's style rock and roll and some old school country as well. Think Chris Isaak without Helena Christensen. The disc is a fifty-fifty mix of rockers and slower country tunes. For rockers I love "Shake Like Jello" and "Be Your Man." For the slower tunes I enjoy "All The Way Up To Heaven" and "One Of These Days." The best song however might just be "Rockin' Chair Money" which shows off the dynamic vocals of lead singer Ward Hayden.I strongly suggest that you buy this CD and if you get a chance, go see them in concert. These guys have got it together.