I've got alot of musical regrets in my life. Not staying with the acoustic guitar in my 20's. Not seeing the Dead, or Led Zep or The Who or Pink Floyd or The Band in their prime. Missing the Zappa show at the college radio convention in Chicago in 1978 because of overindulgence in the A&M Records hospitality suite (no details on that one). But I'm trying to rectify some of the misses these days. And it helps that many artists are being forced to tour into their dotage. With royalty payments from the streaming services at a miniscule amount, and few folks buying cds or records these days, many artists realize that the only way they can make money is to get back on the road. And some of the classic artists are doing it in solo form. Playing the songs and telling the stories of those magical days. In the last few years I've had the chance to see Rock & Roll Hall of Famers like Roger McGuinn, Richie Furay and Chris Hillman in small intimate settings. Many others are out there as well. David Crosby has released 4 stunning cds in the last five years and is back on the road. You can see people like Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler,Robert Plant and the re-made Queen playing big venues. But I prefer the small places…like the Meyer Theater in Green Bay where I'll be seeing Roseanne Cash on Friday night. Or the Thrasher Opera House in Green Lake, or the Stoughton Opera House or the Fish Creek Auditorium in Door County, or The Dakota in Minneapolis, The Riverside in Milwaukee and of course our very own Grand Theater. One cool spot I've been is the Cafe Carpe in Fort Atkinson which specializes in folk and Americana music and brings in top notch folks to play in the most intimate space you can imagine. The classic old building has a bar-restaurant in front and the back room where the shows are has a tiny stage and seating for maybe 50 people. Its's like going to a concert in your living room. I saw Steve Forbert there a few years ago and am going back April 20th to catch Eric Anderson and Scarlett Rivera. Bought the tickets yesterday. Anderson was part of the revived folk music craze of the early 60's and wrote some classic tunes including Violets of the Dawn and Thirsty Boots. The more intriuging part of this show is he will be accompanied by violin virtuoso Rivera who was plucked from obscurity to play on the Dylan LP Desire in 1976 and be a part of his Rolling Thunder Revue Tour(another miss to my long time chagrin). Go back and listen to that Desire LP and hear the haunting violin that permeates every song. She's great and she also released a self-titled LP (a sample below) featuring some jazz-rock fusion that was very popular in the late 70's . It will be great to see some more of the folks who made the 60's and 70's the musical treasure house it was. And I would heartily endorse checking out Cafe Carpe if you are in that area. You can find out more about Cafe Carpe
here
Were you able to endure the Facebook/Instagram shutdown yesterday?
Reports are saying that the three-batter minimum for pitchers and a roster expansion to 26 are coming in 2020 in MLB. There will also be a single trade deadline.
Markus Howard of Marquette is the Big East player of the Year.
Only one central Wisconsin team is in this weeks State Boys Basketball Tournament. Marshfield Columbus will play tomorrow morning. The tournament gets underway this afternoon at the Kohl Center.
Beto O'Rourke has announced he's running for President. Lots of intruiging choices to end the shit-show currently running in DC.
Quotes Of The Day
“Still unanswered: Why did Justice Anthony Kennedy retire so abruptly? What role did his son's job at Deutsche Bank play? Who paid off Brett Kavanaugh's $92,000 country club fees plus his $200,000 credit card debt plus his $1.2 million mortgage and purchased themselves a Supreme Court seat?”-Andrea Junker
“Trump promised he'd drain the swamp but instead he hired the biggest alligator in the swamp and now that alligator has been turned into shoes and a belt.”-Ronald Klain
“Perhaps this is a good time to talk about all the perfectly legal ways the wealthy are both allowed and expected to manipulate college-admissions systems while teaching their children to disparage “affirmative action”.”-Andi Zeisler
“Hey Britain, We're friends right? So can we be honest? The reason this Brexit thing is a catastrophe is because it's a terrible idea promoted by terrible people aided by terrible foreign governments and now entrusted to terrible politicians. Does that help? Love, America.”-David Rothkopf
Songs Of The Day (after the Beatles left the road they would release promotional films to promote their new records. On this date in 1967 they released the film for Strawberry Fields Forever and this date in 1968 it was Lady Madonna)
