Monday, June 27, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Steve Popovich
I did not know Steve Popovich for a very long time, but like many others he had crossed paths with, I had a great love and respect for the man.
His fingerprints are all over the music of my youth, that Sound of Cleveland that put the city on the rock and roll map. He played an active roll, either as a promotion man, producer, or label owner, in the careers of Bruce Springsteen, Ronnie Spector, the Michael Stanley Band, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Ronnie Spector, Ian Hunter, and, of course, Meat Loaf. It sounds like a set list of a Kid Leo show back in the glory days of Cleveland radio.
Although he has lived recently in Nashville to be near his son and his family, he often returned to Cleveland. And when he did return, he often stopped in at the University Inn in Tremont for lunch, a drink, or just to say hi. (The picture of him on the front page of the Plain Dealer announcing his death was taken in one of the dining rooms at the Inn). He liked the place for the same reason hundreds of others do too, he was friends with the Sokolowski family who run the place, and the smell of the ethnic food there reminded him of the kitchens of his youth growing up on Cleveland’s east side. He liked hanging out at the Inn because he felt comfortable with the people there, including many music lovers like himself he grew up with one foot in the polka music his parents grew up with and the other in the rock and roll he and his friends grew up with.
What has been left out of the many tributes to Steve written about him the last few days is that he was a great storyteller. On several of the occasions when he dropped in unannounced at University Inn I was lucky enough to be one of the guys who sat around and listened to his stories, whether it was about Emmylou Harris singing “Amazing Grace” at June Carter Cash’s funeral; Tony Bennett getting upset with him because Andy Williams’ version of the “Theme from Love Story” became a hit and his version didn’t; or just talking about what a great guy the late guitarist Mick Ronson was.
Mike Sokolowski, one of the siblings who runs University Inn, was an especially close friend of Steve. Besides seeing Steve when he did stop into the Inn, they talked several times a month on the phone and emailed each other often. Last fall when Mike and several of the Inn regulars attended a roots music festival in Nashville, Steve delayed a trip he had planned to show the boys around town. “I’m really going to miss him,” said Mike. “He was a wonderful man. I can’t believe he is gone.”
It has been stated in several of the tributes written about him that you can give Steve Popovich the highest compliment you could ever say about someone from Cleveland that when on to great success nationally in any walk of life, whether it is entertainment, sports, or business. He never ever forgot where he came from.
Good bye, Steve Popovich, thanks for the music and the stories.
His fingerprints are all over the music of my youth, that Sound of Cleveland that put the city on the rock and roll map. He played an active roll, either as a promotion man, producer, or label owner, in the careers of Bruce Springsteen, Ronnie Spector, the Michael Stanley Band, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Ronnie Spector, Ian Hunter, and, of course, Meat Loaf. It sounds like a set list of a Kid Leo show back in the glory days of Cleveland radio.
Although he has lived recently in Nashville to be near his son and his family, he often returned to Cleveland. And when he did return, he often stopped in at the University Inn in Tremont for lunch, a drink, or just to say hi. (The picture of him on the front page of the Plain Dealer announcing his death was taken in one of the dining rooms at the Inn). He liked the place for the same reason hundreds of others do too, he was friends with the Sokolowski family who run the place, and the smell of the ethnic food there reminded him of the kitchens of his youth growing up on Cleveland’s east side. He liked hanging out at the Inn because he felt comfortable with the people there, including many music lovers like himself he grew up with one foot in the polka music his parents grew up with and the other in the rock and roll he and his friends grew up with.
What has been left out of the many tributes to Steve written about him the last few days is that he was a great storyteller. On several of the occasions when he dropped in unannounced at University Inn I was lucky enough to be one of the guys who sat around and listened to his stories, whether it was about Emmylou Harris singing “Amazing Grace” at June Carter Cash’s funeral; Tony Bennett getting upset with him because Andy Williams’ version of the “Theme from Love Story” became a hit and his version didn’t; or just talking about what a great guy the late guitarist Mick Ronson was.
Mike Sokolowski, one of the siblings who runs University Inn, was an especially close friend of Steve. Besides seeing Steve when he did stop into the Inn, they talked several times a month on the phone and emailed each other often. Last fall when Mike and several of the Inn regulars attended a roots music festival in Nashville, Steve delayed a trip he had planned to show the boys around town. “I’m really going to miss him,” said Mike. “He was a wonderful man. I can’t believe he is gone.”
It has been stated in several of the tributes written about him that you can give Steve Popovich the highest compliment you could ever say about someone from Cleveland that when on to great success nationally in any walk of life, whether it is entertainment, sports, or business. He never ever forgot where he came from.
Good bye, Steve Popovich, thanks for the music and the stories.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Concert Highlights for Local Clubs and Smaller Venues for the First Half of Summer
Now that summer is finally here, hopefully, music fans will be out and about to the various venues around Northern Ohio. Just because it is summer, please don’t ignore our smaller music clubs and venues. Many a time as you fight the traffic to get in and out of Blossom on your way to hear today’s “in” generic country band sound just like they do on their video and pay eight bucks for a beer, you could’ve seen someone a lot more talented, in a lot smaller venue, for a lot less money. The first half of summer alone has a great line up of national acts coming are way at various clubs including…
Nighttown has three great reasons for those who don’t like jazz to come to Cleveland’s best jazz club. This Friday Raul Malo, former lead singer of the Mavericks, will do a solo show. What an opportunity to see the best singer in the business in an intimate setting. On Wednesday, June 8, tango music comes to Nighttown with Argentina native Hector Del Curto, and on June 28 & 29 is the return of California rock legend J. D. Souther doing solo acoustic shows. I saw him the last time at Nighttown and he was terrific. If you are into singer/songwriters check one of his shows out. And, as always, there are also a lot of great jazz acts coming through Nighttown this summer, check out www.nighttowncleveland.com for more info.
Beachland will be rocking this summer also, starting with guitar legend David Bromberg this Friday. The man has played with everyone in rock and blues and folk over the last thirty years. On May 24 John Oates of Hall and Oates brings his solo band in; on June 9 blues guitarist Jimmy Thackery, co founder of the Nighthawks, brings his current band to the Beachland; and on June 21 Jimmie Dale Gilmore makes an appearance. For information on these shows and all the great stuff going on at the Beachland visit www.beachlandballroom.com.
The Winchester in Lakewood has a CD release party for the Rick Bay Band’s “Can’t Lie Hard Enough” on June 3; Blues guitarist Kelly Richey and her band make an appearance on June 10; and British rock icon Ian McLagen comes in on June 17. McLagen played in both the Faces and the Small Faces, and played keyboards on many of Rod Stewart’s early hits including “Maggie May.” For information on these shows and more visit www.thewinchester.net.
Down in Kent they will be getting into blue grass, country and the blues this summer with Sam Bush on June 3; the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on June 4; and Cleveland favorites Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes headlining the Kent Blues Festival on July 23. For more info go to www.kentstage.com.
And let us not forget our friends downtown at the House of Blues with the legendary Robin Trower on June 2; jam rockers Grace Potter and the Nocturnals on June 4; and blues guitarist Jonny Lang on June 23. For more info on these shows and a whole lot more go to www.hob.com/cleveland.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Pete Hamill at the Ohio Theater 26 April 2011
Last Tuesday journalist and novelist Pete Hamill was the last speaker for this year’s William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage series at Play House Square, and he did a great job of doing what you see him often do on various T.V. shows, entertaining the audience with stories from not only his life as a writer but his life growing up as one of seven children of Irish immigrants in his beloved New York City.
Whether it was coincidence or not, Hamill spent much of the evening talking about libraries, both the important place of libraries in the world today, and the affects of the libraries of his youth growing up poor and unable to afford his own books (the series is coordinated by the Cuyahoga County Library Foundation). He gave some interesting observations on the future of the print word in the digital age, he’s optimistic about journalism but not for newspapers; told the back story of his relationship with Bob Dylan that led to a Grammy Award for writing the liner notes for “Blood on the Tracks”; and, like a lot of journalists who have seen too many of them up close, sprinkled in some very serious anti-war comments.
Hamill is a natural speaker, and had, for the most part, the audience listening all the way. The best story was how his father met his mother. His dad had a wooden leg because of an accident, and his soon to be mother saw him sitting by himself at a dance. She walked up to him and asked him to dance, he turned and showed her his artificial leg and replied, “I can’t.” She smiled and replied, “Either can I,” and, as Hamill put it, grabbed his hand and danced into his life.
The 2011/2012 writers series was announced at the end of the show and will include Michael Pollan and Annie Lamott. For more information go to www.writerscenterstage.com.
Photo by Google
Monday, April 18, 2011
Legacy of Light at the Drury Theater at the Cleveland Play House, running now through May 1
This is suppose to be a review of Legacy of Light, this year’s featured production in Fusion Fest, the Cleveland Play House’s annual spring festival of new and collaborated works. In short, I really enjoyed Legacy of Light and I think you would to. I highly recommend seeing it.
Now what I really want to write about. Legacy of Light is the last production I will see at the Play House’s theaters located near the Cleveland Clinic between Euclid and Carnegie. I have been luckier than most middle class jocks from the other side of town, and have probably seen over the years more than a sixty productions there. I was first dragged there as a boy by some parents who wanted to make sure their kids grew up with a touch of culture in their otherwise typical middle class suburban lives. I attended a couple of field trips as a student at a high school who had English teachers who thought students needed to see live theater. But I really hit stride when I became one of those teachers, and spent some of the happiest days of a thirty year teaching career taking students to the matinees that both the Play House and the Great Lakes Theater Festival have offered. And as icing on the cake, I have been reviewing plays for the last five or six years, and when it didn’t conflict with my coaching calendar, attending media nights for almost every Play House production over the that time. And I have loved all of it, especially being a teacher taking so many students who otherwise would have never seen a professional play to a real live theater.
I have such mixed emotions about the Play House’s move downtown. I know it is the right thing, and for me it is the right thing for two reasons. The first is the cost and upkeep of their current facility is becoming too expensive. The second is the opportunities that will present themselves downtown, especially in their collaboration with Cleveland State. Good things are happening at CSU, and their plans with the Play House, if they pan out, could be wonderful for the school, the theater, and all of Northern Ohio.
With all positive changes come many good things and a few not so good. I worry about the bartenders, and parking lot attendants, and other support personnel who will probably not go downtown with the theater. I worry about the older patrons who have enjoyed being dropped off at the door and parking near by. I hope their will be some sort of special valet service for them at the Allen Theater. I’ve really enjoyed going to Stages before the show for a drink or two and some appetizers. What’s going to happen to everyone who works there? How many will lose their jobs?
I hope the Play House keeps offering great programs to the schools and students of the area. I hope they find a way to keep up their Christmas tree decoration tradition. I hope they soon revive The Christmas Story, I’ve seen it each year they produced and have never grown tired of what has become Cleveland’s Christmas story. I know there are a lot of great places to go before and after a show in the Play House Square area, but I hope they find a way to have their own place inside the theater similar to Stages.
And I wonder, with the move downtown, will this be the catalyst for the Play House and the Great Lakes Theater Festival to finely become one? I know they have explored it in the past and decided against it, but in these current economic times that don’t look to be getting much better, and now being in the same neighborhood across the street from each other, will it finally happen? This might be the time to be collaborating rather than competitive. With their new proximity, why pay for two administrative staffs? Why try to hustle money from the same people and foundations? Why pay for two advertising budgets? There are a lot of egos involved in our theater world, would those egos let something like that to happen?
Now what I really want to write about. Legacy of Light is the last production I will see at the Play House’s theaters located near the Cleveland Clinic between Euclid and Carnegie. I have been luckier than most middle class jocks from the other side of town, and have probably seen over the years more than a sixty productions there. I was first dragged there as a boy by some parents who wanted to make sure their kids grew up with a touch of culture in their otherwise typical middle class suburban lives. I attended a couple of field trips as a student at a high school who had English teachers who thought students needed to see live theater. But I really hit stride when I became one of those teachers, and spent some of the happiest days of a thirty year teaching career taking students to the matinees that both the Play House and the Great Lakes Theater Festival have offered. And as icing on the cake, I have been reviewing plays for the last five or six years, and when it didn’t conflict with my coaching calendar, attending media nights for almost every Play House production over the that time. And I have loved all of it, especially being a teacher taking so many students who otherwise would have never seen a professional play to a real live theater.
I have such mixed emotions about the Play House’s move downtown. I know it is the right thing, and for me it is the right thing for two reasons. The first is the cost and upkeep of their current facility is becoming too expensive. The second is the opportunities that will present themselves downtown, especially in their collaboration with Cleveland State. Good things are happening at CSU, and their plans with the Play House, if they pan out, could be wonderful for the school, the theater, and all of Northern Ohio.
With all positive changes come many good things and a few not so good. I worry about the bartenders, and parking lot attendants, and other support personnel who will probably not go downtown with the theater. I worry about the older patrons who have enjoyed being dropped off at the door and parking near by. I hope their will be some sort of special valet service for them at the Allen Theater. I’ve really enjoyed going to Stages before the show for a drink or two and some appetizers. What’s going to happen to everyone who works there? How many will lose their jobs?
I hope the Play House keeps offering great programs to the schools and students of the area. I hope they find a way to keep up their Christmas tree decoration tradition. I hope they soon revive The Christmas Story, I’ve seen it each year they produced and have never grown tired of what has become Cleveland’s Christmas story. I know there are a lot of great places to go before and after a show in the Play House Square area, but I hope they find a way to have their own place inside the theater similar to Stages.
And I wonder, with the move downtown, will this be the catalyst for the Play House and the Great Lakes Theater Festival to finely become one? I know they have explored it in the past and decided against it, but in these current economic times that don’t look to be getting much better, and now being in the same neighborhood across the street from each other, will it finally happen? This might be the time to be collaborating rather than competitive. With their new proximity, why pay for two administrative staffs? Why try to hustle money from the same people and foundations? Why pay for two advertising budgets? There are a lot of egos involved in our theater world, would those egos let something like that to happen?
Friday, April 8, 2011
Charity Event on April 30
What: A Benefit to Raise Funds to Publish a Book of Poetry Written by the Men of the 2100 Lakeside Men’s Homeless Center
When: Saturday Night, April 30, 8:00 p.m.
Where: The Harp, 4409 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland
Cost: $20 in advance, $25 at the door, includes live music by Cats on Holiday, an appetizer buffet furnished by the Harp, a chance at some pretty cool door prizes
It has been awhile since we have thrown together a charity event. The last few we have been done have been quite successful and also a lot of fun, whether raising money for a friend going through a scary cancer treatment; starting an education fund for a young boy whose father unexpectedly died; or to furnish a rec room at a non profit adult center.
All of the above we I was aided by a whole bunch of friends and family, including my friend Nikki Krejci and Denis Devito, and Dennis’s band Cats on Holiday. We did a few events at the old 2527 Club, and the last one we did at the Harp on Detroit on the near West Side. When Nikki approached us about the latest cause she needed some funding for, we know we had to get involved.
Nikki works for Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, which does a lot of non denominational charity work around Greater Cleveland. Amongst their projects is the 2100 Lakeside Emergency Men’s Shelter, which has over 260 beds that are all filled every night with men with nowhere else to go. Over the past year some of the men have started to take poetry writing classes, and some of the finished products out of the classes are pretty good. Good enough to do something with…
So that leads us to the event on April 30 at the Harp described on the flyer attached to this email. We are going to throw another gala event at the Harp with all the proceeds going to publish a book of poetry by the men of the 2100 Emergency Shelter. To do it right, we will probably need to raise some where between $3,000-$4,000, and we hope you will be a part of it.
Saturday, April 30, is going to be a beautiful early spring evening; it will be nice enough to even have some cocktails on the patio at the Harp. Cats on Holiday will once again do a stellar job, the Harp will again put out a great buffet of appetizers and finger food, and the joint will be filled with the some of the usual colorful friends and family members, as well a knucklehead or two, and hopefully some new friends.
We have gotten pretty high tech in our endeavors, and that includes being able to sign up for this event before hand on the internet. Go to www.lutheranmetro.org/Shelter-Housing/ to sign you and your friends up for this gala event. Another cool thing about this event is everyone who attends, or pledges at least $20 towards the project, will get his or her name listed in the book as a patron. How cool is that, your name in print. For those of you who live out of town or can’t make it that night, you will still get your name in print by donating online.
Plans for the future include having two book store signings this summer after the book is finished, one at Mac’s on Coventry and the other at Visible Voices Books in Tremont. More info on those events will be sent to you in June.
Please pass this flyer on!
When: Saturday Night, April 30, 8:00 p.m.
Where: The Harp, 4409 Detroit Avenue, Cleveland
Cost: $20 in advance, $25 at the door, includes live music by Cats on Holiday, an appetizer buffet furnished by the Harp, a chance at some pretty cool door prizes
It has been awhile since we have thrown together a charity event. The last few we have been done have been quite successful and also a lot of fun, whether raising money for a friend going through a scary cancer treatment; starting an education fund for a young boy whose father unexpectedly died; or to furnish a rec room at a non profit adult center.
All of the above we I was aided by a whole bunch of friends and family, including my friend Nikki Krejci and Denis Devito, and Dennis’s band Cats on Holiday. We did a few events at the old 2527 Club, and the last one we did at the Harp on Detroit on the near West Side. When Nikki approached us about the latest cause she needed some funding for, we know we had to get involved.
Nikki works for Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, which does a lot of non denominational charity work around Greater Cleveland. Amongst their projects is the 2100 Lakeside Emergency Men’s Shelter, which has over 260 beds that are all filled every night with men with nowhere else to go. Over the past year some of the men have started to take poetry writing classes, and some of the finished products out of the classes are pretty good. Good enough to do something with…
So that leads us to the event on April 30 at the Harp described on the flyer attached to this email. We are going to throw another gala event at the Harp with all the proceeds going to publish a book of poetry by the men of the 2100 Emergency Shelter. To do it right, we will probably need to raise some where between $3,000-$4,000, and we hope you will be a part of it.
Saturday, April 30, is going to be a beautiful early spring evening; it will be nice enough to even have some cocktails on the patio at the Harp. Cats on Holiday will once again do a stellar job, the Harp will again put out a great buffet of appetizers and finger food, and the joint will be filled with the some of the usual colorful friends and family members, as well a knucklehead or two, and hopefully some new friends.
We have gotten pretty high tech in our endeavors, and that includes being able to sign up for this event before hand on the internet. Go to www.lutheranmetro.org/Shelter-Housing/ to sign you and your friends up for this gala event. Another cool thing about this event is everyone who attends, or pledges at least $20 towards the project, will get his or her name listed in the book as a patron. How cool is that, your name in print. For those of you who live out of town or can’t make it that night, you will still get your name in print by donating online.
Plans for the future include having two book store signings this summer after the book is finished, one at Mac’s on Coventry and the other at Visible Voices Books in Tremont. More info on those events will be sent to you in June.
Please pass this flyer on!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
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