"Candy Store" by Kristine Jackson

For those of us who first saw her back in her days in Blues on Purpose as a horn player behind Mary Bridget Davis, Kristine Jackson’s first CD of mostly original material “Candy Store” is just another step in the evolution of someone on her way to big things. From horn player to guitarist to vocalist to songwriter to performer of her own material to fronting several different versions of her own band, each step she has taken has been in the right direction.
“Candy Store” features nine Jackson originals along with Tom Waits’ “Way Down in the Hole,” acoustic blues numbers she has been playing in her shows for the last several years. The album is dedicated to her cousin Liz Bohman Szczepanski, who died of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma last year at the age of 27. Kristine will be playing a bunch of CD release dates this weekend in support of “Candy Store,” including Thursday, February 25 at Fat Fish Blue from 7-9, then at the Parkview from 10-12; Seekers Coffee Shop in Middleburg Heights on Friday, February 26; and at West Park Station on Saturday, February 27 from 6-9.
Jackson has always worn her emotions on her sleeve and in her songs, and “Candy Store” is filled with songs of hurt, forgiveness, and recovery. Amongst the highlights on the disk are the title tune, “Baby Girl,” “Hammer Mill 5,”“Wishing Well,” and “What Moves You.” She has really grown into a very good singer/songwriter.
Hopefully the next project in her growth as an artist will be done with a full blues band behind her. For more about Kristine Jackson, her music, and her work with the Kicking the Cancer Blues Foundation, visit www.kjblues.com.

"Ain't Misbehavin'" at the Cleveland Play House

Watching the Cleveland Play house's adaptation of the Fats Waller musical "Ain't Misbehavin'" last Wednesday at the Bolton Theater was like watching this year's version of the Cleveland Cavaliers, too much talent on the floor. From the five leads in the company to the players in the band to the songs in the musical review, this production of this enjoyable musical was nothing but top shelf.
Featuring over thirty numbers mostly from the black jazz era of 20's, 30's, and 40's, not to be confused with the Bing Crosby lead white jazz of the same time period, the play was filled with great dancing, outstanding vocals, and very good costumes and staging. As the company and the band went through not only Waller's greatest hits but those by composers such as George Marion, Jr., Andy Razaf, and others, the audience loved every moment of it, and broke into spontaneous applause often.
The five members of the company that did all the singing and dancing, with more than a healthy dose of humor, are all young regional theater veterans from around the country. Rebecca E. Covington, Angela Grovey, Christopher L. Morgan, Ken Robinson, and Aurelia Williams each showed great skill and talent. Musical Director and pianist Darryl G. Ivey lead a solid band of local musicians that featured trombonist Chris Anderson and drummer Thomas A. Fries.
"Ain't Misbehavin'" is running at the Bolton Theater until February 21, and I highly recommend it. This is the third year in a row the Play House has hit a home run with a musical biography, two years ago it was Ella Fitzgerald and last year it was Mahalia Jackson. This version of "Ain't Misbehavin'" might be the best of the bunch.
The Play House has two productions left in their season. An adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma is running from February 26 to March 21, and Bill W. and Dr. Bob, a drama about the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous set in Akron, from April 9 until May 2. Also upcoming is their FusionFest 2010, their annual multi-arts festival. Visit www.clevelandplayhouse.com for more information on any of these events.

14th Annual Cleveland Rock Off

Below is my article about the Tri C Rock Off, Cleveland's annual battle of the bands for high school musicians, that first appeared in the January 20 edition of CoolCleveland.com. Pictured here is Streetsboro High guitar virtuoso Brian Poston who played in four bands at this year's Rock Off.


It is January and that means it is time for one of the great annual musical events here in Northern Ohio, the Tri-C Rock Off. Now in it's fourteenth year, the event lets local high school musicians and their bands have a moment of glory or two on the big stage at the House of Blues.
It is a three-step process to win the Rock Off. First, hundreds of bands submit videos and CDs to be picked to perform at the HOB. Sixty-six bands are then selected to perform twenty-minute sets over three weekends. Three bands from each night are invited back on February 6 to perform again, with a champion and several runner-ups chosen.
The bands that get selected to play at the House of Blues are good. They show talent, imagination, and the results of a lot of hard work and practice. During their sets most bands perform several original songs and one cover. Even with 10-13 bands playing a night, things run pretty smoothly as the HOB sound and stage crews keep things moving, with very little down time.
I've been to the Rock Off on and off for years, and I think for most of the bands it’s the chance to perform on a big stage in front of their families and friends which is a bigger deal than actually winning the whole thing.
The first nights of performances were January 8 and 9, with more sets coming on Saturday, January 23; Sunday, January 24; Friday, January 29; and Saturday, January 30. The finals will be at 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, February 6. For more information and a performance schedule of bands visit the website www.cleveland.com/rockoff.
For some of the performers it's a once in a lifetime thing, but for others it's hopefully a stepping-stone to greater things. Brain Poston, an 18-year-old senior at Streetsboro High School, is in his second Rock Off, this year playing with four different bands (Project Rock Star, Steffani Reeder, Maddie Finn, and Shane Stokes). "Last year it was awesome, the best experience of my life. But I was really nervous," he says. This year it's different for the lead guitarist. "I'm a vet, last year we made it to the finals. I'm not nearly as nervous, I'm going to have fun."
Brian is one of those who is looking for a future in music. "Very soon I travel to the Berkeley School of music in Boston to audition. Just me and my guitar and a round trip plain ticket," he says with a confident smile. "If that doesn't work out I'll study music at a local college. As for now, I'm playing out somewhere every weekend, and practicing with someone every weeknight."
I checked out some of the opening night bands, and as always, the talent was impressive. I saw a band from Chagrin Falls and Kenston called Kid Brother who had a great 90's indie rock sound to them. They did a song called "She's Hot" that had a great opening bass line from Amph Fritz and got the audience up and jumping. Yield on Mars hails from Bay Village, and they were definitely influenced by their parents Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd albums, and featured some great guitar work and drummer Jeremy Guffin on vocals. Project Pop Star is a coed project from Streetsboro High School that had a bit of theatrics and a lot of jump to them. There was plenty of big beats and some slick guitar work from Brian Poston. Near Forget Tomorrow features kids from Lake Catholic and Painesville Riverside, and had a sound reminiscent of Pat Benatar and the GoGo's. ESD returned for the second year in a row, and featured almost all instrumentals, and some great guitar work led by Tim Vopat. Selling You short was another guitar driven band with players from St. Ignatius and St. Ed's, who gave a very polished set.
Who's going to be the next Raspberries? MSB? Mushroomhead? Black Keys? You have a chance to check that out over the next several weekends at the House of Blues for the 14th Annual Tri C Rock Off.

"Sideswiped" by Blue Lunch on Wilberts Records 001

The guys in Blue Lunch have been playing the blues so long, either individually or as group, that their live shows almost become a lesson in blues music, showing influences from Chicago, New Orleans, Soul, 50's Rock and Roll, and everything in between. Their fifth release on Wilberts Records Sideswiped does the same thing, with fifteen solid tracks featuring Blue Lunch's many styles and talents.
The disc includes seven originals and eight covers. Bob Frank, Pete London and company have you up and dancing on almost every track. The best of the originals include the title track, a great Memphis sound number; "All Things to Come," one of their favorite live tunes; and "Don't Point that Thing at Me." Amongst the covers are the R & B classic "Everyday will be Like a Holiday," with great four part harmony on the chorus; and the album's closer, a rowdy version of Doc Pomus's "Too Much Boogie."
Blue Lunch is Frank on guitar and vocals, London on harmonica and vocals, Raymond DeForest on bass, Scott Flowers on drums, Mike Sands on piano, Keith McKelley on tenor, Bob Michael on trombone, and Mike Rubin on trumpet. The guest list for Sideswiped is a who's who of the blues, including a couple of great sax solos by Boston's "Sax" Gordon Beadle.
Blue Lunch is going to be quite busy in the next several months, including a trip January 20-24 to the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. They come home to play the House of Swing on January 29 and Fat Fish Blue on January 30. For a complete schedule of show dates, and for more information about Blue Lunch, go to www.bluelunch.com.
I highly recommend Blue Lunch's new release Sideswiped, it’s a great piece of music from some local guys who really know how to do it.

Alejandro Escovedo at the Beachland Ballroom 13 Jan 2010

Alejandro Escovedo
Beachland Ballroom, Cleveland
13 January 2010

Alejandro Escovedo is one of those recording artists I have always heard great things about from friends whose musical tastes I respect. He's one of those singer/songwriters who has been around forever crossing over into several genres, but has never reached what the general public would call superstar status. Often compared to everyone from Santana to Springsteen to the Rolling Stones, he brought a four-piece band to the Beachland last Wednesday. It was my first chance to see him, and I will probably never miss him when he comes through town again.
He and his band performed a twelve-song set followed by an encore of four songs. Most of the songs were autobiographical upbeat rockers, and featured some terrific guitar work. Songs with titles like "Wasn't I Always a Friend to You," "The Bed is Getting Crowded," "Sister of Lost Soul," touched on the themes of romance, family, and traveling the road. He wears his emotions on his shirtsleeve and in the songs that he writes and performs. It was wonderful stuff. One of the new songs "After the Meteor Shower" opened with this line, "She was pretty as a star/take a photo please." He is a very good songwriter.
The show's closer "Castanets" had more than a little Chuck Berry beat and guitar to it. His final two encores where the only covers of the evening, rowdy versions of "All the Young Dudes" and "Beast of Burden." The Beachland was almost filled to capacity with both Escovedo and serious music fans, most seemed to enjoy the show tremendously.
For more about Alejandro Escovedo and his music, including his new release "Real Animal," which is available on CD and vinyl, go to www.alejandroescovedo.com. As always, there are a lot of great shows coming up at the Beachland including Ronnie Spector on June 22; local rockers Cats on holiday doing a benefit on January 23; the Deanna Bogart Band on February 4; the subdudes on March 19; and the Paul Thorn Band on March 25. Fore information on these shows and more visit www.beachlandballroom.com.

Lost in Yonkers at the Cleveland Play House

A terrific story and near perfect casting make for a wonderful night of theater at the Cleveland Play House with their current production of Neil Simon's Lost in Yonkers. Directed by the Play House's Artistic Director Michael Bloom, the play is running until January 31 in the Drury Theater.
Simon's autobiographical play was first performed in 1991 and won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. The story revolves around a young widower; his two sons; and their uncle, aunt, and grandmother facing the hardships of World War II at home. The father is forced to go on the road to work to help pay off his deceased wife's hospital bills. The boys are forced to live with their strict German immigrant grandmother and their mentally impaired Aunt Bella. Also showing up is their Uncle Louie, a shady character who also has some issues of his own.
The whole play takes place in the living room of their home in Yonkers, above the candy store that is the family's source of income. There are many humorous and touching moments, as the young boys survive ten months living without their father.
Alex Wyse and Maxwell Beer are very good as the two young boys Jay and Arty. Sara Surrey does an outstanding job as Bella their aunt. Broadway performer and star of television's As the World Turns Rosemary Prinz steals almost every scene she is in as the elderly German Jewish grandmother.
Coming up next at the Play House is Fats Waller's Ain't Misbehavin' from January 29 to February 21; An adaptation of the Jane Austin novel Emma from February 26 to March 21; and Bill W. and Dr. Bob, a drama based on the lives of the two men who founded Alcoholics Anonymous, from April 9 to May 2. For information on these shows, and all the other great things happening at the Cleveland Play House visit www.ClevelandPlayhouse.com.

Michael Stanley and the Resonators, The House of Blues Cleveland, 18 December 2009

By the time the spring of 1980 had rolled around, I had lived a dozen lives with Michael Stanley and the various forms of his band. It had been almost seven years since I first heard the studio version of “Let’s Get the show on the Road” from his solo album “Friends and Legends.” It was the great David Sanborn sax solo that first caught my ear. The first MSB album had “Old Dancin’ Fool,” on it, a lost gem that still reminds me of some long ago friends from that time in my life. The next album had the Jonah Koslen make out on the couch classic “Waste A Little Time on Me.” But it was the next album that blew me away, it was the next album that should have made MSB big time. I’m talking about “Stagepass,” and to this day it is still a favorite of mine.
But "Stagepass" didn’t make them international stars, just in fraternities and dormitories from Bowling Green to Athens to Oxford. The next two albums were missing something, there was too much over dubbing of the vocals, too many bells and whistles. The best songs on both “Cabin Fever” and “Greatest Hints” sounded great live, but didn’t have the guitar and honest vocal sounds the earlier albums did. A lot of fans blamed the change on Jonah Koslen, and later Daniel Pecchio, leaving the band. But the new guys seemed to show their talents live, it just didn’t come across on the records.
Then in the spring of 1980 the band came to central Ohio on one of the mini-tours they always did around the Midwest when a new album was due. And it was at the Dixie Electric Company in Columbus (yes, there was one there too), with a bunch of my frat buddies from Ohio Wesleyan, that I heard most of "Heartland" for the first time. I left there that night totally convinced the album was going to be a million copy seller, the one that would put MSB and Cleveland on the musical map for sure. “All I Ever Wanted,” ‘Lover,” and “He Can’t Love You” were all going to be top ten hits. Kevin Raleigh had finally shown he was a worthy replacement for Jonah Koslen, Rick Bell, “The Cleveland Horn,” was with the band full time and wailed on the sax parts that Clearance Cleamons played on the album, and the over all band was as tight as it ever was.
There were great things on the horizon…and I also thought at the time Brian Sipe was going to lead the Browns to the Super Bowl, and Joe Charboneau was the next Mickey Mantle, and we all know how everything turned out. But instead of a million, Heartland did sell a couple hundred thousand copies, and its success kept MSB in business for a few more years.
Thirty years later, "Heartland" is still a solid album. It’s guitar lead basic rock and roll, with some pretty good song writing and musicianship. This version of MSB would be the most popular, never quite reaching national acclaim but doing pretty good in the homeland and a few other markets. Listening to the album from beginning to end and most of the songs stand up to time. It only seemed natural that Michael and his current band The Resonators would do a Heartland tribute.
Last Friday the first of two Michael Stanley and the Resonators holiday shows featured songs from "Heartland," as well as a few new tunes and a whole bunch of old ones. It was a very good night of rock and roll, and it was enjoyed by the players as much as the audience. Among the "Heartland" songs performed included "All I Ever Wanted," " I Never Needed Anyone," "Don't Stop the Music," "Voodoo," and of course, "Lover" and "He Can't Love You."
Amongst the Stanley standards were "Rosewood Bitters," "Midwest Midnight," "In Between the Lines," and "My Town." The best of the new tunes was the night's opener, "It's All About Tonight," from an untitled album coming out soon. Amongst the surprises were a Bob Pelander piano number called "Smokem, if you Gottem," that did a great job of leading into "Let's Get the Show on the Road," and a return to the 1980's version of "Strike Up the Band" as the nights last encore, with Pelander on vocals for most of it, and the crowd singing along to all of it.
This version of the Resonators has been with Michael Stanley longer than any version of MSB, and it is a talented and tight group of musicians. Here's to hoping we get to spend a lot more Christmases together.
Opening act Colin Dussault gave the crowd forty minutes of rock and blues standards, with his great barrelhouse vocals and harmonica playing. When you got a chance, check him out playing around town almost any weekend, go to colindussault.com for a list of shows.
Michael Stanley and the Resonators will do one more holiday show at the House of Blues, this Saturday, December 26. It's a request night, with fans picking their favorites at MichaelStanley.com. Showtime is at 8:00.
As always, the House of Blues has some great shows coming up, including Rusted Root on December 30, Buddy Guy on New Year's Eve, and Yes coming in January. Check out their calendar at www.hob.com/Cleveland.