VIDEO: 'Jam > Stone Soup > Jam'

Just a quick few stills from the 12/7 show overtop the jam in and out of "Stone Soup," an original made up on the spot by guitarist/vocalist Kyle Lawson.

Tonight's Setlist: Charlie Hustle & the Grifters, 12/7/12, Club Café, Pittsburgh, Pa.

"Always bet on Charlie Hustle..."

The first Charlie Hustle show was a gas. This one was a BLAST. We were having so much fun that Kyle straight made up a song in the middle of the late-set jam!

Click here to stream/download the set, courtesy of Archive.org — I also recorded the Grifters' opening set, it will be up soon as well!

One set (Grifters opened):

Floating Bridge (J. Estes)

Nobody Knows (the Way I Feel This Morning) (L. Armstrong)

It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Dylan)

New Mexican Shuffle*

Don't Look No Further (B.B. King)

Dock of the Bay (O. Redding)

Gentleman of Leisure (J. Winchester)

Shoot Me Down#

Third Street Woman (J. Reynolds)

Warrior with a Bottle#

Mystery Train (J. Parker)

Magnolia (J.J. Cale) >

All Along the Watchtower (Dylan) >

Jam > Stone Soup# > Jam >

Soul Serenade Jam >

Good Morning Lil' Schoolgirl (J. Williamson)

*P. Varine

#K. Lawson

Charlie Hustle & the Grifters are:

Kyle Lawson, electric guitar, vocals

Peter Flynn, electric guitar, vocals

Trish Imbrogno, bass

Dave Varasse, drums

Patrick Varine, acoustic/slide guitar, vocals

Today's Setlist: 11/10/12, Fall Fest, Upper St. Clair, Pa.

Ah, the crisp scent of rotting leaves... 

just kidding, love this time of year.

I was initially a little concerned about this outdoor gig in mid-November, what with the FRIGID-ASS WEATHER the last week. But today couldn't have been more perfect — 62 degrees and sunny. It was one of the only gigs I can remember where I wasn't sweating like a pig.

Click here to download/stream the set, courtesy of Archive.org.

Early set:

The Captain*

Althea (Dead)

Man Smart Woman Smarter (N. Span)

Have Someone Play Dixie For Me (Dry Branch Fire Squad)

Strange Moon*

New Mexican Shuffle*

Will Ye Go Lassie Go? (Clancy Bros.) >

Peggy-O (Dead) >

Glendale Train (New Riders of the Purple Sage) >

I Know What I Know (P. Simon)

Row Jimmy (Dead) >

Floating Bridge (J. Estes)

Boys in the Barroom (R. Hunter)

New Coat of Paint (T. Waits)

Bertha (Dead)

Fast Train (S. Burke)

Feelin' Alright (S. Winwood) >

Alligator (Dead) >

Rosie (Trad.)

Late set:

It Hurts Me Too (E. James)

Rain Song No. 3*

Dire Wolf (Dead) 

Angel Band (Stanley Bros.)

Jimmy Olsen's Blues (Spin Doctors)

It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Dylan)

In the Pines (Leadbelly)

Dauphine*

Black Peter (Dead) >

Don't Look No Further (B.B. King)

New Speedway Boogie (Dead) >

Push Those Clouds Away (Trad., Varine arr.) >

Jam > Southwest Sky* >

Eyes of the World (Dead)

Factory*

Slow Train (T. Bruno) >

Dark Star (Dead) >

Jam > Smokestack Lightning (C. Burnett) >

Dark Star > Slow Train

Mystery Train (J. Parker)

*Original

Tonight's Setlist: 9/21/12, Thunderbird Café, Pittsburgh, Pa.

Had a blast opening for the Old E Allstars at their record-release show. It's always a good time hanging out with Pittsburgh's premier funk band.

Click here to download/stream the set, courtesy of Archive.org:

Third Street Woman (J. Willie Reynolds)

Dauphine*

Strange Moon*

Rain Song No. 3*

Mystery Train (J. Parker) >

Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell) >

Mystery Train

Don't Look No Further (B.B. King)

I Like It*

*Original

Last Night's Setlist: 9/20/12, Coco Coffeehouse, Leechburg, Pa.

I took the calculated risk of going into last night's gig without any prepared setlist, which is a first for me. Even when I was going to open stages back in the early 2000s, I had a clear idea of what I wanted to play, mostly because of my preference for stringing together suites of songs.

But I wanted to try just flipping through the songbook and sort of following the vibe of the evening. At times, it made for a bit less cohesion, and there was the occasional flub, since as per usual, I was playing songs either for the first time at a gig or the first time in a long time at a gig.

Click here to download/stream the set, courtesy of Archive.org.

Early set:

Anna Begins (Counting Crows)

Big Railroad Blues (Dead)

Drag the Lake, Charlie (Drive-By Truckers)

Lookin' Out My Back Door (CCR)

New Minglewood Blues (Dead)

The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down (L. Helm/R. Robertson)

Dauphine*

Sugar Mountain (N. Young)

I Like It*

It Hurts Me Too (E. James)

Me and My Uncle (Dead)

Late set:

Don't Look No Further (B.B. King)

On a Foggy Night (T. Waits)

Man Smart, Woman Smarter (N. Span)

It Makes No Difference (R. Danko)

Strange Moon*

Little Wing (J. Hendrix)

Third Street Woman (J. Willie Reynolds)

Have Someone Play Dixie For Me (Dry Branch Fire Squad)

In Color (J. Johnson)

Highway 29 (Springsteen)

Rosie (Trad., Varine arr.)

In the Pines (Leadbelly)

New Mexican Shuffle*

Will Ye Go Lassie Go? (Clancy Bros.)

You Can Keep It*

Slow Train (T. Bruno) >

Dark Star (Dead) >

Jam > Dark Star >

Slow Train

*Original

Tonight's Setlist: 9/7/12, The Twisted Thistle, Leechburg, Pa.

I was definitely in a country-blues mood last night...

Perhaps inspired by the blues stylings of Roger Montgomery at last weekend's Pears Garlic Fest, I was feelin' some country blues at the Twisted Thistle last night. Good crowd, saw a few old friends from back in the day. Good time. The setlist was a little bit all over the map — more than usual for me — and I think it's a little disjointed. I tried out a bunch of new tunes: "God Rest His Soul," an old Gregg Allman song from the Allmans' pre-fame days, "Third Street Woman," a down-and-dirty blues from the '20s by Blind Joe Reynolds... I even tried out an old field holler, "Rosie," that's got kind of a creepy edge to it.

Click here to stream/download the set courtesy of Archive.org.

Early set:

Smokestack Lightning (C. Burnett) >

The Captain* >

Spanish Ladies tease > The Captain*

Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight (Oak Ridge Boys) >

Glendale Train (New Riders of the Purple Sage)

Strange Moon*

God Rest His Soul (G. Allman)

Rain Song No. 3* >

Darkness on the Edge of Town (Springsteen)

I Like It*

It Hurts Me Too (E. James)

Friend of the Devil (Dead)

Midnight Moonlight (P. Rowan) >

Love Please Come Home (B. Monroe) >

Cat Man Blues (Blind Boy Fuller)

Late set:

Mystery Train (J. Parker)

Cocaine Blues (G. Davis) >

Dire Wolf (Dead)

New Coat of Paint (T. Waits)

New Mexican Shuffle*

Dauphine*

Southwest Sky*

Have Someone Play Dixie For Me (Dry Branch Fire Squad)

Third Street Woman (J. Willie Reynolds)

Factory*# >

Jam >

All Along the Watchtower (Dylan) >

Harbor Lights (S. Miller) >

Jam >

The Other One (Dead) >

Rosie (Trad., Varine arr.) >

Dark Star (Dead) >

The Other One >

Good Morning Lil' Schoolgirl (J. Lee Williamson)

*Original

#First time played

Tonight's Setlist: 8/4/12, The Twisted Thistle, Leechburg, Pa.

YES! I FINALLY GOT TO BREAK OUT THE ENGLISH SEA CHANTEY QUINT SINGS IN 'JAWS'!!

It's true. Ever since I started recording sets on a regular basis, I've been looking for a good opportunity to bust out "Spanish Ladies," better known as "The Sea Chantey That Quint Sings in 'Jaws.'" When I was diving into 1800s music, I thought of it, Googled that sh*t, and lo and behold, it's got like six more verses. It's a pretty good bar singalong, too.

Not to mention that The Twisted Thistle, Leechburg's newest dining and drinking establishment, is a helluva spot. Old-school wooden interior and brickwork, Great Lakes beer on tap and a pork-belly appetizer that is the double-SHIZNIT. I highly recommend it.

Click here to download/stream the set, courtesy of Archive.org.

Early set:

Mystery Train (J. Parker) >

Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell) > Mystery Train

Quite a Night*

Feelin' Alright (S. Winwood)

Althea (Dead)

You Can Keep It*

Row Jimmy (Dead) >

Floating Bridge (J. Estes)

Big River (J. Cash) >

New Mexican Shuffle*

I Like It* >

You Don't Love Me (W. Cobb) > I Like It

Late set:

Jimmy Olsen's Blues (Spin Doctors)

Summertime (Gershwin)

It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry (Dylan)

I Ain't Superstitious (C. Burnett)

In the Pines (Leadbelly)

Dauphine*

Candyman (Dead)

Copperhead Road (S. Earle)

Black Peter (Dead)

The Captain* >

Spanish Ladies (Trad. English sea chantey) > The Captain

Bird Stealing Bread (Iron & Wine) >

Bertha (Dead)

Cat Man Blues (Blind Boy Fuller)

*Original

Tonight's Setlist: 8/2/12, Club Café, Pittsburgh, Pa. with The Grifters

Great time.

Co-headlined a great evening at Club Café with The Grifters. Thanks to everyone who came out. The recording link will be up shortly, including a couple Grifters tunes I caught before running out of memory!

Tonight was only the second time I've covered a Hendrix song — obviously, you have to choose those carefully. "Belly-Button Window" is a good one, mostly because it's not all that Hendrix-y. It's just a straight blues shuffle. A fitting precursor to my son, who will be "coming down into this world, daddy" in October.

Click here to download/stream the set, courtesy of Archive.org.

Setlist:

You Can Keep It*

Dauphine*

Down in the Flood (Dylan)

Rain Song No. 3*

Quite a Night*

Bird Song (Dead) >

5:55 AM* >

Southwest Sky* >

Brown-Eyed Women (Dead)

Strange Moon*

Magnolia (J.J. Cale) >

Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell) >

The Other One (Dead) >

Blackbird (McCartney) > The Other One >

Belly-Button Window (Hendrix) >

Jack Straw (Dead)

--

It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry^ (Dylan)

Pig in a Pen^ (R. Skaggs)

Floating Bridge^ (J. Estes)

Deep Elem Blues^ (Dead) >

Malted Milk^

Angel Band^ (Stanley Bros.)

*Original

^with The Grifters

Tonight's Setlist: 7/14/12, 'Play for Trey' Benefit, Penn Hills, PA

Do I play with a Boss Distortion Pedal? No. Does it sound like it on this recording? Kind of...

Two things happened tonight. Well, three. 1) I definitely maxed out the bass limit on the Zoom H1 recorder. This recording is pretty crisp on the high end and most of the vocals... fully strummed chords and anything below the low G string? Not so much... 2) I'm pretty sure I contributed to the crappy recording by placing the Zoom too close to my amp, which in turn created a semi-audible hum through said amp. Dammit. Why didn't I pay closer attention in the ONE audio technology class I took?

Other than that, the set went well. Oh, the third thing... 3) I discovered a great singing/songwriting talent in Penn Hills senior Heather Catley. We collaborated on the final four songs of the set, and her all-original solo set was excellent. Check her out on YouTube. In fact, in a few days there will probably be videos her sister shot from this evening on there

Extensive EQing proved largely fruitless, so FYI, I do not recommend listening to this at anything approaching high volume. Click here to download/stream the set courtesy of Archive.org:

Rain Song No. 3*

Push Those Clouds Away (Trad.) > Jam >

Southwest Sky* >

Eyes of the World (Dead)

Strange Moon*

Row Jimmy (Dead)

I Ain't Superstitious (C. Burnett)

Astral Weeks (V. Morrison) >

Crazy Fingers (Dead) >

Peggy-O (Dead) >

Darkness on the Edge of Town (Springsteen) >

Jam/Dylan Medley Tease >

Friend of the Devil (Dead)

Mystery Train (J. Parker) >

Statesboro Blues (Blind Willie McTell) >

Mystery Train

Summertime** (Gershwin)

Angel Band** (Stanley Bros.)

Brown Eyed Women** (Dead)

Don't Think Twice, It's All Right** (Dylan)

*Original

**with Heather Catley

...In Which I Lay Waste to VH1's Pathetic '100 Greatest Artists of All Time' List...

According to VH1, out of 200 modern musicians surveyed, this is not, I repeat, NOT, one of the 100 greatest artists of all time. Seriously.

I shouldn't have watched it. I knew it would only upset me. But I had to. In a supposed survey of 200 modern musicians, VH1 attempted to compile its list of "The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time." Now, I'll be the first to say this is something that should be separated out by genre, especially once you starting getting into the top 15. There are too many great musicians in individual fields and too many apples-to-oranges comparisons to make it legit. (how the hell are you supposed to compare Jay-Z to the Rolling Stones?)

But VH1 tried. And failed. Miserably.

Here's a link to the list. I'll hit some of the highlights/lowlights and give my thoughts on various facets of the list.

To start, let's note right off the top that THERE ISN'T A SINGLE FUCKING JAZZ MUSICIAN ON THE ENTIRE LIST. That's right. No Miles Davis. No John Coltrane. One of the few forms of music that was truly invented in America is not represented IN ANY WAY on this list. I should also mention that there is not a single blues musician. No Robert Johnson, no Muddy Waters, no Howlin' Wolf. According to VH1, it makes no difference that if it weren't for those guys, there would be no Rolling Stones or Led Zeppelin, two of the top five on the list.

Christ on a cracker. On to the shame of it all...

Let's start with Category #1: Artists Who Should Absolutely Not Be On The List. That includes Depeche Mode (98), Journey (96), ABBA (81?! Are you fucking kidding me?!??), and Def Leppard (70 — we all get it, alright, it's hard to drum with one arm).

Moving on to Category #2: Artists Who Should Be Way Lower On the List. That includes U2 (19 — this is more of a personal opinion, but I think U2 might be the most overrated Bigtime Rock Band ever), AC/DC (23), Radiohead (29), The Police (40), Kiss (56 — and to be honest, Kiss is flirting with Category #1), and Pink Floyd (18 — I love me some "Dark Side of the Moon," but "The Wall" is probably the most overrated rock album of all time).

This one isn't really a category, but there's no fucking way Elvis should be higher on this list than Chuck Berry. And the only reason he is, is because record mogul Sam Phillips "wanted to bring African-American music to a wider audience," which of course means, "doing it without an actual black guy."

Category #3: Artists Who Should Be Way Higher On the List. This includes the Beastie Boys (89 — they should be at least as high as Run DMC at 76 or Jay-Z at 47), Curtis Mayfield (84), Otis Redding (68), Parliament-Funkadelic (49), Johnny Cash (35), The Band (85) and Aretha Franklin (27)

Category #4: Artists Inexplicably and Inexcusably Left Off the List. The following artists amazingly do not appear on the list at all: The Allman Brothers, the Grateful Dead, Paul Simon/Simon & Garfunkel, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, the Stanley Brothers, Fela Kuti, Booker T & the MGs, the Funk Brothers (okay, they were a backup band, but they backed up EVERY SINGLE MOTOWN ARTIST), MF Doom, Peter Tosh, Snoop Dogg, Lee "Scratch" Perry, Eric Clapton (although Cream made it at 61, so technically he's in... I've never been a huge Clapton fan, but he damn sure should be on here over AC/DC, the Velvet Underground, and Guns'n'Roses), Robert Johnson, and Dr. Dre.

Category #5: The Top Ten. Let's go through them one-by-one with commentary, shall we:

• #10 — Stevie Wonder — You get no argument from me there.

• #9 — James Brown — Ditto.

• #8 — Elvis — I reiterate, if you're going to put Elvis here, you have to put the man he stole rock'n'roll from at least one step above, cultural significance or not.

• #7 — Prince — Never been a huge Prince fan, but he did turn R&B and funk on its head in his own, very unique way.

• #6 — Jimi Hendrix — No problem with that. Hendrix did things with a guitar that no mortal man should be able to do.

• #5 — Bob Dylan — Probably should be #2 at the worst. Definitely should be above...

• #4 — Rolling Stones — Again, if you're not going to put blues masters like Johnson and Waters on this list, how are you going to include the group that owes its entire career to them? I love the Rolling Stones, but that just straight-up doesn't make sense.

• #3 — Led Zeppelin — Works for me.

• #2 — Michael Jackson — OK.

• #1 — The Beatles — Correct.

Taking into account that this is complete personal preference, my separated lists would probably go thusly, at least the first few entries:

• Rock: Beatles at the top, then Dylan, followed by, in no particular order, the Grateful Dead, the Allmans, Hendrix, Chuck Berry, a begrudging nod to Elvis, Zeppelin, Springsteen, Stones

• R&B/Soul/Funk: Michael Jackson, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Prince, the Funk Brothers, Aretha Franklin, Parliament-Funkadelic, Fela Kuti

• Hip-Hop: Run DMC, Beastie Boys, MF Doom, Snoop Dogg/Dr. Dre (they should probably be packaged up, since together they basically ushered in the gangsta-rap era), Nas, Jay-Z, Biggie, Tupac

COMING UP! — 8/2/12, Club Café, Pittsburgh with THE GRIFTERS

It's gonna be a goooood time.

The Grifters are one of the first members of the local Pittsburgh music scene I connected with after moving back home. We jammed at my buddy's birthday party and have played together a few times since then. Their home base is American roots music and the blues, which meshes perfectly with my mix of the same stuff along with Dead, originals and random singer-songwriters.

Club Cafe is a great venue, a nice intimate place for a show, and you can't beat the price for two acts and several hours of acoustic music.

The plan is to play one set each, and a short third set together to round out the evening. Click here to purchase tickets through Club Cafe's website.

See you there!

Click here for a little taste of what the evening may have in store, from the Riverside Music Festival in April up in Cambridge Springs, Pa.

Tonight's Setlist: 5/23/12, Club Café, Pittsburgh, Pa.

"Many is the night we spent pickin' and singin'..."

Tonight I had the privilege of opening for Rachael Sage at her CD release show at Club Café on Pittsburgh's South Side. It was a good time and a very cool venue. The set was short but sweet. Click here to download/stream the set, courtesy of Archive.org:

The Captain* > Jam >

Southwest Sky*

Strange Moon*

Dauphine*

Magnolia (J.J. Cale) > 

Lady with a Fan (Dead) >

New Speedway Boogie (Dead)

*Original

'Riding to Finish'

Seeing as how my newspaper's regular website archives are currently unavailable because of the transition to a new format, I wanted to post the article, "Riding to Finish," here. I was honored with a Press Club of Western Pa. Golden Quill Award for the story, about a local man living in Italy who battles his multiple sclerosis by competing in insanely-long ultramarathon bike races:

Italian film director Lucia Marani was immediately captivated when her father began telling her about a man he met the day after Christmas in 2007. The man was riding his bike in the pouring rain along the Tyrrhenian coastline. 

“My father told me about this ex-Olympian baseballer for Italy, Italian-American, struck with (multiple sclerosis), preparing for a legendary bike race in France… I was already captured by his story,” she said. 

Marani’s father had met Penn Hills native Tony Lonero, who has dual citizenship and has lived in Italy since the late 1980s. Marani is hoping that both Italian and American film audiences will be equally captivated by her documentary “Ride to Finish,” about Lonero’s extraordinary life. 

Lonero’s was already quite a story, even before the events that inspired the documentary. He was the youngest boy ever to play American Legion baseball in Penn Hills. Between 1978 and 1981, Lonero led the Chipola Junior College Indians to two state final appearances, and was awarded a full scholarship to Louisiana State University. In 1982, Lonero played professional baseball in Italy with the Nettuno Indians, who are essentially the Yankees of Italian baseball, having won 18 championships since 1948. Lonero was also a player on Italy’s 1984 Olympic baseball team, which finished fifth. Since retiring from baseball in 2000, Lonero has started an Internet design and hosting company.  

The story could stop there, but it doesn’t. 

Lonero was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 10 years ago. “In 2001, I had come home from walking and was doing some stretching, and I fell over,” Lonero said. “I couldn’t get up and my leg wasn’t working. That was the first symptom.” 

Because of the lesions on his spine, Lonero said he was unable to run or walk for exercise, but one day he discovered that, for some reason, riding a bike did not cause any inflammation or pain. “My doctor said, ‘Do what makes you feel good, but you gotta move,” he said. 

That was 2002. 

By 2003, Lonero was participating in the 776-mile Paris-Brest-Paris cycling ultramarathon, one of the world’s oldest cycling events. In 2003 alone, he biked more than 1,580 miles. 

“Tony’s story is so incredible not because he has MS, but because he has a different approach to the illness,” Marani said. “He lives so intensely; every moment is precious. He never stops, he never resigns, he never regrets. 

“Filming Tony was great fun, although it was a very demanding project. Following a cyclist day and night, rain or sun, for days, no stop, is really hard, but it makes you understand how deep the motivation is that moves people like Tony.” 

Some of that motivation has also come from Lonero’s mother, Plum resident JoAnn Bary. In fact, when it comes to the number of miles traveled, Bary may give her son a run for his money. 

“I used to be a marathon runner,” Bary said. “But I ended up with some stress fractures, so cycling was easier on my joints.” Bary started cycling at the age of 50. At age 69, she completed a 3,000-mile bike trek the entire width of the United States, from California to Florida. And though they’re separated by thousands of miles of ocean, Bary and her son even got a chance to pedal side-by-side. 

“For Pittsburgh’s 250th anniversary (in 2008), there was a cycle relay from Washington, D.C. to Pittsburgh, to carry historical documents to the Point for the big celebration,” Bary said. “I was talking to one of the PNC (Bank) representatives who was organizing the relay, and I told her my biggest dream was to do a race with my son. Before I knew it, she told me, ‘We’ll bring him home.’” 

Bary said PNC paid to fly Lonero home, and he was able to bike from Cumberland to Frostburg, Md., with his mother.  

“We did the leg together at two in the morning,” she said, “I just said, ‘Well, you can shoot me now, I can die happy.’” 

“He never gives up,” said Walter De Luca, southern Europe sales manager for Gore Bike Wear and Running Wear. Gore is helping to sponsor “Ride to Finish.” 

“He’s the most persistent person I ever met in my life,” De Luca said. “I think not just cyclists, but all of us, can learn from him. With the disease he has, most people would not even think of doing an extreme-distance bike ride, but he does, and he does so with such a passion and dedication that it sets new standards in expectation for everyone, healthy or not.” 

Lonero is setting new standards for himself as well. He is already gearing up for the 2011 Paris-Brest-Paris event, but depending on how he feels, Lonero plans to partner with one of his closest friends in Italy, Paolo Bronzetti, and attempt the annual Race Across America, held in June and billed as “the world’s toughest bicycle race.” Lonero said he plans to enter the 3,000-mile, 12-state marathon and raise money for multiple sclerosis research along the way. If he is successful, he would be the first person with MS to complete the race. 

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Lonero? He would give it all up at the drop of a hat. 

“The movie’s great, the bikes and the sponsorship and the support I’ve gotten is great, but I’d give it all back to wake up without MS someday,” he said. 

Marani said a firm release date for “Ride to Finish” has not been set yet — Lonero attended a showing on Jan. 22 in Marani’s hometown of Rome — but she is hoping the documentary will have a spring 2011 premiere in Italy, and an English version is in the works for release in the U.S. 

“‘Ride to Finish’ is not just a motto (with Tony), but a sincere philosophy of life,” Marani said.