Ed S

Steve Wilson

Just back from the Tampa Bay Blues Festival. Had a great time. My wife and I went all three days - though we did not see all of the bands every day. We were joined on two of the days by some of her family members who live in Tampa - which was nice. The venue: Basically a nice sized park on the waterfront surrounded by trees. Around the perimeter were tons of local food merchants plus the beer/wine/liquor kiosks. Beer was $5, wine was $6, liquor was $7. I got hooked on the Taco Bus Mexican food truck and also had a great pizza on Sunday from a portable wood fired pizza oven, of all things. They allowed chairs and there was an area towards the back of the spectator field that you could erect umbrellas and such. Having been stuck behind an umbrella more than once - that's a nice idea. You could stray from the the spectator field and head over to the sea wall - where you could sit and watch pelicans and dolphins - which I thought was pretty cool. There was also a section of vendors - some local, some not - selling jewelry, clothing, hats, and one selling the complete works of L Ron Hubbard along with a complimentary "stress test". I did not see those guys getting much business however. The music: In a word it was great. Friday I went to see Lucky Peterson - who hails from my home town Buffalo, NY. I also saw most of Rod Piazza and the Might Fliers - who were okay. The highlight of the day was Janiva Magness. She is terrific and the crowd loved her. Jim Alfredson just ripped it up on the keyboards. I was very impressed. It was also nice to say hi and finally meet Jim after the show. I skipped Dickey Betts who was the headliner of the night. I'd gotten up at 4 AM, spent the day in transit, then visiting my wife's father in a nursing home, the heading over to the hotel and then the Festival. I'm not the biggest Betts fan there is so we headed back to the hotel. More about that later. Saturday, we got to the Festival a little later in the day. The third act of the day - Sugar Ray and the Bluetones were playing. For those who've been to festivals like this there are always guys you've never heard of before who leave a great impression. This was one of those acts. Highlight of the day, IMO. Another guy I never head of - Curtis Salgado was up next and they were pretty good. My wife really wanted to hear the headliner of the night - Jonny Lang. She picked up his first couple of albums years ago and became a fan - based on those. All I can say was that to me especially, but also to her - he was a huge disappointment. I actually thought the show was a mess. Lots of chops overlaid on crappy songs. Long periods of noodling around. Some of the songs were just so plodding that they were almost painful to listen to. Also - his spiritual awakening was a little too much in evidence for my taste - no offense intended. After 7 or so songs, we headed back to the hotel. Sunday was fabulous. Started off with a nice lunch with my wife's brother and his girlfriend at an outdoor restaurant on Beach Ave, then headed over to the festival We then were treated to another one of those bands you've never heard of but were glad you did to start our day off - Walter Washington. Great stuff. Next up was the Royal Southern Brotherhood - one of my must sees at this festival. I stumbled on these guys last year at the Ottawa Blues Festival midway through their set and thought they were phenomenal. Hearing their full set this year confirmed that. Lots of really nice originals incorporating Blues, southern rock, soul, and a touch of New Orleans. They do a a killer version of Fire on the Mountain and also do great covers of One Way Out and Gimme Shelter. The band features Devon Allman, Cyrille Neville and Chuck Zito. If you dig the Allman Brothers - which I do - these guys can't miss. And they did not. My absolute favorite of the Festival, though - was the last show I saw - Tab Benoit. Great, great, great show. Blues dripping with a Louisiana Bayou feel. The guy has a great voice and plays great as well. The music was a blast to listen to. About midway through the set he brought out Devon Allman, Cyrille Neville and Chuck Zito of the Royal Southern Brotherhood for one of those special moments that can only occur at live events like this. They played 3 or 4 songs that were phenomenal. For sure - a night to remember. The hotel: I wanted to stay close to the Festival and as I booked this fairly late in the game - so most of the "big guns" were booked solid. A TripAdvisor search led me to a boutique hotel about a 15-20 minute walk away from the Festival called the Hollander Hotel. Great place. It's older and oozing with atmosphere. Rooms were clean and decently sized. Bed very comfortable and flat panel TV. They were certainly friendly and welcoming. Here's an example. They have a shuttle running to the Festival. It's an older gas golf cart. My wife and I were walking back from the Festival on Saturday around 10PM and they apparently recognized us, pulled over and asked us if we wanted a ride back to the hotel. Who recognizes people staying in your hotel these days? The Lobby of the hotel was a beehive of activity. Really nicely decorated in a very eclectic fashion - sort of old world meets mid-century modern. There's a nice fireplace sitting area where we had some salsa and chips and our own wine on our last night. There's a huge porch with sitting areas as well as tables where we hung out on Saturday after the festival and, in the rest of the lobby - there's a bar area, dining area and lounge are with live music that was packed on Friday and Saturday. We ended up getting a few beers and hanging out each night as the atmosphere was great, they have 20-some beers on tap and live music. Can't say enough about the place. Overall - good time. I've got regular trips to Tampa to visit my wife's father for the foreseeable future. I like to tie the visits in with hockey or baseball game. I'm thinking this Blues Festival could work as well for the next little while.

Anyone ever been to this? Perhaps an interesting coincidence...... My wife's parents live in Tampa. In February, her mother passed away. As a result of the time we had to spend in Tampa - we missed two shows back in Buffalo that we had planned on attending - Tab Benoit and Jonny Lang. A couple of weeks ago, I was surfing the net and checking out where some bands were playing. I stumbled on the Tampa Blues Festival - and guess who's playing there? Tab Benoit and Jonny Lang. There's a couple other favorites of mine as well - Lucky Peterson, Royal Southern Brotherhood, Dicky Betts, Trombone Shorty. There's also some female blues singer named Janiva Magness...... At any rate - I thought the coincidence to be be very interesting and since we needed to go down to Tampa to see my wife's father and take care of some legal matters I said what the hell - let's go to the Blues Festival. Just wondering what the scene is like there - what's the venue like, can you bring chairs, how's the food, how's the parking, how's the beer?

I have had the 4 LP Return To Forever Live set since it came out in the late 70s. It was still virtually brand new when the entire set was damaged - as in soaked - in a flood - in my parent's basement. Hey - I was a young college student living at home. At any rate - we are talking a raw sewage type sewer back-up. Very nasty. The box and booklet were destroyed, but I hung on to the LPs - even though they sounded horrible afterwards. Snap crackle and pop like you have never heard. As I had not listened to vinyl for decades, all my LPs were in storage until a year or two ago. I finally picked up a turntable and dragged my LPs out of the crawls space in which they were stored. Of course, I found my RTF LPs and they sounded as nasty as I remembered. So last night - I tried the glue. The results are remarkable. Stunning improvement - just a few residual pops here and there. I thought the RTF albums almost an unfair trial due to the extreme conditions to which they were exposed. So I found a copy of the Blood Swear and Tears album - the self titled one with Spinning Wheel. I played it and it had the requisite snap crackle and pops. After the glue treatment - sounds like virgin vinyl. I am a believer.

Wes Montgomery Echoes of Indiana Avenue

"Tenderly" from This Is The Place playing right now on John Scofield Station. Sweet.

I thought I was making a big discovery last night when I tried Organissimo in Pandora. I know Pandora doesn't always hit the target with their mix of similar artists/music - but I like what I've heard so far.

I'm totally disgusted by all of this. I have come to be a fan of cycling over the past few years and the more I got into following cycling, the more I realized how dirty it was. I've also done some reading on Armstrong and believe that he deserves whatever repercussions from his confession he gets. His conduct throughout his career has been disgusting. That he has ruined so many lives is despicable. F him. In addition to Lance, I am sooooo disappointed that Leipheimer's whole career was the product of doping. F him. I hope he never rides again. Add Zabriske, Danielson and Vande Velde to that list. Same with Hincapie and his "achievements". I thought that letting him lead the peloton onto the Champs Elysees last year was a totally hypocrital move by the entire peloton. As a casual fan, I used to look at the TdF standings and check where the Americans were. Usually it was Lance up near the top with Landis, Vande velde, Leipheimer in the mix. I thought it was great that they were successful in a sport dominated by Europeans. Total frauds.....and total letdowns. The rest of the peloton? - all frauds as well. Right now, no one is beyond suspicion to me. That include the Sky team of this past year with their questionable physician, all the race directors previously associated with doping, teams that have notoriously turned a blind eye towards doping like Astana and Katusha (who were denied a world tour license). Barry Bonds - you have been passed in doping infamy. I just hope my interest in cycling will carry through this transition period and that eventually a clean peloton will emerge.

While viewing the video, I spotted this one. It's almost an hour long. I found it very interesting "La vie Django":

Sounds like a great project. I'd help out through kickstarter or by whatever means. Just as importantly - who is the new guitarist for Organissimo?

But only 2 days ago - that way it won't be too tough to shave IF this is all a hoax.

I stopped shaving

Anyone pick this up yet? I've been listening to it the past few days and am really enjoying it. Over the past 3-5 years, I've really become a fan of Van's. I must have about 10 discs by him at this point and this one hold up against any of them. Not saying it's a classic, but I think it classic Van Morrison - if you know what I mean. There's the typical blue eyed soul, blue, R&B influenced stuff with a jazzier orientation. I find it very refreshing that a guy who's pushing 70 (I think) is still out there doing new albums with all of his own material. There's a nice video of a live performance of "Open The Doors To Your Heart" from the new album on his website - http://www.vanmorrison.com/index.html I've never seen him live and hope he decides to tour the US at some point. On a side note - I'll never forget my first night in Ireland a couple of years ago. My wife and I were in a small pub near St Stephen's Green with live music. I could reach out and touch the guy who was playing guitar (solo). I went to the bar and ordered something on tap called Bulmers. I thought it would be a beer, but it turned out to be a cider. I loved it - and, thanks to a board member who educated me - now drink it as Magner's in the US. At any rate - during a break, I requested a Van Morrison tune - anything but "Brown Eyed Girl" as I put it. He obliged and sang the best version of "Crazy Love" I've ever heard. Very special night

Thanks for the recommendation. As I usually do after seeing a show and I realize I've missed out on a lot of an artist's catalog I'll go out and buy a few CDs. This one will be on the list.

FWIW, my wife - who never heard of Traffic or Steve Winwood was with me and she said she enjoyed it. But maybe she was being nice to me as I really did not want to go to Vegas. So we compromised and went to Vegas. (ha ha) Actually the compromise was a day trip to Death Valley and the Winwood show. She's 11 years younger than me and our tastes in music are quite different. I've dragged her to enough shows and know her well enough to know when she's BS'ing me - so I think her endorsement was sincere. When I dragged her to Return to Forever - well, that's a different story.... We both like Blues however! Long story short - it's not a must see in the same way that a Pink Floyd reunion Tour would be must see. But if you're not doing anything and like Winwood - I don't think you'll be disappointed.

I was in Las Vegas for a brief trip, wanted to catch a live music show and stumbled upon the fact that Steve Winwood was playing Friday night at the Pearl Concert Theatre. I guess I would characterize myself as both a Traffic and Winwood fan from afar. I knew of Winwood's hit songs from his solo career and of course have heard a lot of Traffic material over the years on the radio - but the only music I actually have featuring Winwood is Traffic's Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. Thus - I figured I'd be in for a night of Winwood's solo hits, probably some new material and a few Traffic songs - more or less an oldies sort of act rehashing the hits - maybe even in medley form. Well I only got one Winwood solo hit - Higher Love. There were two Spencer Davis songs - He opened with I'm a Man and Closed with Gimme Some Lovin'. I never knew SDG did I'm a Man until after the show when I looked it up and did not realize that Winwood sang on or that SDG had done Gimme Some Lovin'. So, such for my knowledge of Winwood's career. I knew I was in for something interesting when I saw that the only keyboard on stage was a B-3. I had expected a keyboard array and maybe a piano. I knew I was in for something special special right from the opener which went into an extended jazz oriented jam. He followed that up with a couple of newer pieces that were well done and then, the band just hit a groove and they went on extravaganza of extended jams - jazz influenced rock, sometimes jam band like. They did some song i did not recognize for perhaps 20 minutes of excellence that was just plain outstanding. They followed that up with an equally impressive and extended version of Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. He did a fabulous extended version of Mr Fantasy as well. There were a couple of songs I recognized as Traffic songs - but don't know the titles - all done with everyone in the band having an opportunity to stretch out. The band was terrific. The only name I recognized was the percussionist - Cafe. The drummer was excellent, the guitarist top notch. He had an interesting style and technique. The band member who really impressed me was the guy guy who played tenor sax, soprano sax, flute, backup vocals and the B-3 - when Winwood was not behind it. The tenor solos were excellent - added to the jazz orientation of the music -and again - I was surprised that there was a guy on sax at all. Winwood himself impressed me the most. His voice was in fine for and he really seemed to be enjoying himself. But I had no idea how great a musician he is. He spent most of the night behind the B-3 and was really really good. Certainly not the greasy jazz B-3 of Jimmy Smith - more rock oriented but flavored with jazz - if you know what I mean. He really tore it up on Low Spark and the other long jam I mentioned above. I found it interesting that he actually played the bass pedals on the B-3. I would not have expected that out of a rock guy. He also took a break from the B-3 and did several songs on guitar - with some amazing solos - especially on Mr Fantasy. I have to say the whole night far exceeded my expectations and I was quite frankly blown away by the quality of the music.

Quite a while now, but I hadn't seen this thread. THis past July I went to see the van Gogh exhibit while in Ottawa. Very nice.

It's disgraceful, shameful, disgusting and any other adjective you can throw out there that the Tour de France will not be able to have a winner from 1999-2005 because virtually every possible alternate choice was a doper too. Unbelievable. I watched the UCI press conference and was amazed at the aura of denial they had when speaking of doping which was pervasive throughout the sport leading up to and during the Armstrong years.

Wow - that was fast.

As I mentioned in my post opening this thread, I could not see how Armstrong could have won those 7 Tours riding clean. Since it was made public, I've spent parts of every day reading through the "Reasoned Decision". I am flabbergasted and blown away by the overwhelming and insurmountable evidence - as well as by the scope of doping, the influence LA had on his team relative, the intimidation, the complex network that supported the doping, the involvement of spouses/SOs, the involvement of team support personnel. I'm particularly disappointed to read of the involvement of Hincapie, Leipheimer, Danielson and Vande Velde. Particularly Hincapie whose career was so entwined with Lance's and whose life so benefited from that association. What a bummer. I've always know that Lance was pretty much a prick and had a huge ego. I wonder how it must be to be forced to step down as head of your own organization and be dropped by career long sponsors like NIKE, TREK, Giro etc. The shock waves are still resonating - Levi was fired, White was fired by Green Edge, Sky is forcing riders to sign a no doping statement. The Bruyneel hearing is still to come. One of the articles I've read over the past week characterized Armstrong as the greatest fraud in American Sports history. Move over Barry Bonds - I could not agree more. Huge disappointment.

Wish I could have done one of the in-house concerts. I saw that someone did! That's fantastic. $11,525 right now. Looks like you guys are going to make it! Congratulations in advance

I was a little later to the CD party - probably around '87 or so. My first purchases were a bunch of McMaster Blue Notes (longboxes) that were being sold at "The Record Theatre" - a local record chain in Buffalo that at one point had 5 or 6 locations. I remember picking up a bunch of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Dexter Gordon - purchases all inspired by my having seen 'Round Midnight. I actually still have all of those early purchases - never having upgraded. I posted earlier in another thread that I need to make some time and revisit the collection - most of which I have not listened to in years. This thread makes me want to do so even more.

Over the past 12-18 months, I've become quite a big fan of Steve Wilson. Takes me back to my roots in some ways.

I usually don't reply to these sort of threads, but holy smokes, this one really hit me. I was raised during the space race years and to me, Armstrong embodied everything great that our country and our planet can be when he walked on the moon. Years later, when my son was in 2nd grade (10 years ago) his class was asked to write about who they admired most. Most of the kids picked movie stars, music stars like Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera, presidents present or past. I saw a Thomas Edison and Henry Ford in there too. My son picked Neil Armstrong. I don't remember ever having mentioned Armstrong as a personal hero of mine, so I was really impressed by my son's choice. So, I sent a copy of what he wrote about why he admired Armstrong along with the drawing of him walking on the moon that my son did as part of his project to a company for which Mr Armstrong was a board member. Eventually, my letter made its way to Mr Armstrong and he was nice enough to write a thoughtful note to my son - something that he has to this day. I have to say that I was touched, especially after reading that Armstrong was somewhat guarded when it came to signings and letters to Eagle scouts,etc. Something like that tends to reinforce the admiration I already had. Sad day.

In a word, Warren Wolf was amazing. Never heard of the guy - but wanted to take my sons to the Vanguard - so I went. An incredible show. For the encore they did Back in New York City and Fly on a Windshield. Both were excellent. Trey Gunn, by the way was incredible. It was a real treat to hear him play.