Tickets to Boz Scagg’s concert at Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids were already sold out and got me realizing I’ve got to keep better track of my favorites as other folks seem to like ‘em too. I’ve been going to concerts since before I could drive, starting with Tiny Tim (1) in Las Vegas while on a westward car trip with my friend Shorty. I clearly got over that. Since then, concerts have been way too numerous to count, ranging from seeing Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen in a basement dive in Ann Arbor to joining 200,000 or so of my hippie friends at Goose Lake to take in a unbelievable ticket that included the likes of Bob Seger, Chicago, Joe Cocker, 10 Years After, Mountain, the James Gang, John Sebastian, Alice Cooper, and others. 15 bucks well spent. They closed the place down, never to host anther concert, after locals raised concerns about some of the hippies’ behavior, like drugs. Damned shame.
Over the years, I got to know what I liked, but strayed away from concert going as I eased into the “serious” years of my life. I’m not sure what triggered it, but about 10 years ago I realized that my favorites were my age or older, and maybe wouldn’t be doing it much longer. Hell, how are they doing it now, old men that they are? Our area has abundant venues for music, ranging from the outdoor playgrounds at Pine Knob, Meadowbrook, Freedom Hill, and Comerica Park, to capacious indoor arenas like Joe Louis, Cobo, and Little Caeser’s with old roaring 20s era movie palaces reborn as performance venues like the Fox, Fillmore (a.k.a. State) and the Masonic. Close to home, we have our incomparable 400 seat Ark, no better place to hear a concert. And we weren’t above traveling elsewhere in our great state if the act was right. In fact, the water into which we would dip our toe was in Kalamazoo, at Bell’s Brewery’s Eccentric Café. We headed there on a July day to see the legendary Johnny Winter. We’d seen enough pictures and video of this albino wonder to be prepared for his otherworldly appearance. But when he shuffled onto stage, bent over, half blind, steadied by 2 husky men, Kathy and I wondered if he was on the right side of the pale. When he sat down and put his hands to his axe, it was clear his fingers were still working just fine. He put on a rip-roaring show, finally carried off by the same men who’d brought him in. A few weeks earlier when I was telling my friend Forrest – whose knowledge of music vastly outstrips mine – about our concert plans, he just said “See ‘em before they die!”. Always a risk when you’re seeing septuagenarians and octogenarians. I dubbed our exercise the “fogey rock tour”. Little did I realize we’d claim our first casualty so soon. A month and 2 days after that July 14 date came news out of Bülach, Switzerland that Johnny had been found dead in his hotel room. As the next stop on our tour was with Ringo and his All Stars, we were pleased that nothing happened after to start a string. Indeed, ol’ Ringo’s still at it 9 years later, and going strong. Not that there haven’t been other losses. 11 musicians of note have passed on some time after we’d seen them in concert: Buddy Cage (New Riders of the Purple Sage), David Crosby, Charlie Daniels, Jim Dapogny (Ann Arbor music professor and jazz legend), George Frayne (a.k.a. Commander Cody), Glen Frey, Merle Haggard, Dan Hicks, Stuart McLean (Canadian raconteur), Tom Petty, and Peter Tork (Monkees). As we’ve racked up 188 concerts so far since 2014, that’s a pretty low mortality rate. I put up on my blog my concert list through September 2020, if you care to see what we were seeing (2).
So, what I started to do this morning was jot down a list of artists I’d wanna go see anytime, anyplace. In this modern age, they all have web sites with their tour schedules, so those took the next column in the spreadsheet. Looking these over gave me the opportunity to sign up for notifications. Then, for perspective, the last two columns have details on last concert of theirs we’d seen then the next reasonable chance of seeing them. One, we already had covered (Robbie Fulks in Three Oaks), but now we can look forward to seeing if Tommy James can jump as high as he did 8 years ago in Meadowbrook and catch Willie Nelson and John Fogerty at Blossom near Kathy’s old stomping grounds. Hey, as I’ve been working on this, I got a call from a nice lady at Flint’s Whiting, where Boz also has a show, now I’ve got tickets!
I realized this urge to scrutinize schedules should not ignore home field. The Ark has a way of sneaking acts in, so at least a monthly review is in order. So, now we’ve got tickets to Tommy Prine (John’s son!), Bill Kirchen and Redd Volkaert, and Tom Paxton, who was apparently kidding about that farewell tour 2 years ago.
So, here’s my spreadsheet. I intend to consult it regularly. Should you be unfamiliar with some of these artists, I’ve included at the end links to YouTubes of one of their song’s that I like a lot. Note the birthdates, placing most of these folks squarely as my peers or beyond. Oh, sure, I’ve let in some young’uns, like that 60-year-old whippersnapper Robbie, who’s told me I remind him of his father (Robbie’s very tall, too), the 59-year-old (totally bald) Paul, and little 44-year-old (!) wisp of a thing Eilen. Then there’s a few of the extremely advanced, but please no dead pools. Looking at 90-year-old Willie in action last weekend, there are no safe bets.
As I’ve had to resort to a JPEG to get that table over, I’ve pimped you out of all the URLs. So here they are. Click away!
Representative songs.
- Asleep at the wheel. Half a hundred years (3). Big Ray and company recount the band’s history.
- Karla Bonoff. Personally (4). One of the sexiest songs ever.
- Brass Band of Battle Creek. They do everything well, but since it’s Benny Goodman’s birthday today, how about their take in “Sing, sing, sing” (5)?
- Mary Chapin Carpenter. He thinks he’ll keep her (6). Mary Chapin’s sardonic take on husbands.
- Marshall Crenshaw. Whenever you’re on my mind (7). When I first heard it, I knew I wanted to have a woman about whom I could fell that way. For nearly 40 years now, I have.
- Rodney Crowell. It ain’t over yet (8). A great song for our demographic.
- Robbie Fulks. I just want to meet the man (9). How about his creepiest song?
- John Gorka. Love is our cross to bear (10). For those 4 years when Kathy was in DC and I stayed back in AA, this was our theme song.
- Tommy James and the Shondells. Crimson and clover (11). Over and over
- Eilen Jewell. Thanks a lot (12). Not her song, actually first done by Buddy Rich, but can she squeeze the emotion out of it!
- Billy Joel. We didn’t start the fire (13). A joy to history teachers everywhere.
- Bill Kirchen. Hot Rod Lincoln (14). Bill’s taken Commander Cody’s only hit and made it his signature tune.
- Leo Kottke. Jack gets up (15). Every day in the morning when you get up and crawl out of bed…
- Sonny & Cindy. Blues Attack (16). The guitar nerd and the blonde beauty rip it up.
- Willie Nelson. It’s hard to be humble (17). As I heard him do this as an encore, I knew he’d written me a new theme song!
- Tom Rush. The remember song (18). Tom never ignored the deepest issues of the day.
- Boz Scaggs. Loan me a dime (19). It took up the whole second side of his first solo album and was worth every minute. Still is.
- Ringo Starr and his All Star Band. With a little help from my friends (20). Always a rousing time in every outstanding Ringo concert.
- Paul Thorn. Viagra (21). Paul knows love.
- Joe Walsh. Analog Man (22). Joe feels our pain.
- Jennifer Warnes. Joan of Arc (23). Everything she sings is so impossibly beautiful, but this duet with the author of the song is so moving. Today is St.Joan’s feast day in the Catholic church, 592nd anniversary of her execution, burned at the stake at Rouen in English-controlled Normandy
References
1. Tiny Tim – Tiptoe Through The Tulips. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcSlcNfThUA
2. Ike B. concerts. WordPress 9/16/20. https://wp.me/sbBaof-concerts
3. Asleep at the Wheel – ‘Half a Hundred Years’. YouTube.
4. Karla Bonoff – Personally. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CAXCJlIoY0
5. Sing, sing, sing. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6wvVUc_yb4
6. He Thinks He’ll Keep Her. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVL4mDFX3rY
7. ”Whenever you’re on my mind”(1983) Marshall Crenshaw (HQ). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-or2AET9L4
8. Rodney Crowell – “It Ain’t Over Yet (feat. Rosanne Cash & John Paul White)” [Official Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFrpzPR6TLY
9. Robbie Fulks – I just want to meet the man. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPnGt2isRJ8
10. John Gorka – Love is Our Cross to Bear. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq-QJiNFS_U
11. Tommy James and the Shondells – Crimson and Clover. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS0niyiKlcw
12. Eilen Jewell sings “Thanks a Lot”. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl4Zt5kqJPA
13. Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start the Fire (Official Video). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g
14. Bill Kirchen – “Hot Rod Lincon”in Washington D.D. *UPGRADED*. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsLdufJePz0
15. Leo Kottke -Jack gets up (Live). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghHhRklLQzE
16. Sonny Landreth & Cindy Cashdollar. Blues Attack 9-22-16. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qpe30ew0g70
17. Willie Nelson – It’s Hard to be Humble (Official Video). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdZ5wY9XxdA
18. The Remember Song Redux Performed by Tom Rush, Written by Steve Walters. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kg__ykHM3A
19. Loan Me a Dime Boz Scaggs. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RTh5t8yEqI
20. Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band – With A Little Help From My Friends – 5/19/23. YouTube.
21. Paul Thorn “Viagra”. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4YepLZ7I9M
22. Joe Walsh – Analog Man (Live). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il1Byvn_vMA
23. Joan of Arc – Jennifer Warnes & Leonard Cohen. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtwUyDPXROQ
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