Bonnaroo 2010

I was in Tullahoma the weekend before Bonnaroo 2009, and my friend Dennis

tried to get me to stay for it. He had a hookup that was enticing but "maybe next year." Well, it actually came to fruition. Me being in the music biz and never attending the festival in my backyard (actually owned a home outside Manchester just three miles from the farm and hunted on the property when I used to do that sort of thing) was an injustice which had to be rectified. So I agreed to help Dennis and Butch in the name of the Rotary Club get attendees into the grounds by becoming a human traffic cone, wearing the shirt in the picture, in exchange for a staff band to enjoy the remaining three days of the festival. Little did I know that I would spend ten hours as a traffic cop without a break in order to attend just over four hours of Bonnaroo on Saturday. The pics below were snapped as our group arrived to take our shift at 2 PM. Things were smooth and orderly coming through the ticket lanes, merging into two steadily moving lines of vehicles heading into the grounds. At around 4 PM, a parking staffer comes to me and says they are closing half of the gate since lots were either flooded from the previous two days of rain or already full. "Are you sh!*#ng me?" Nope. Stayed closed for all but 90 minutes of the remaining 7 1/2 hours we were there. Those two orderly lines became 12, entering in SINGLE F#&*ING FILE!, most waiting another 30 minutes or so to be released into the flow of traffic. We heard that cars coming from Nashville, normally an hour drive, took 9 hours to get to us at our temporary entrance off westbound I-24, and we had to make them wait more! But you know what, these concert-bound partiers were 98% unfazed. What a great bunch of people! And not just kids...I saw an RV with four generations inside, for example. Of course, I'm all into putting on a little show for the patrons, too, telling jokes, tipping my hat, hand gestures, laughing, yelling, slapping high-fives...many knew what our staff "pay" was and said they would look for us inside during the weekend. How cool was that for a guy old enough to be the father of many of them, or to quote an early Cheap Trick lyric, "I might even BE your daddy!" And the variety of music emanating from these cars was amazing. My favorite moment was three girls absolutely singing their collective arses off to a Sonia Dada record that came out when they were probably five years old! God, I wanted to just hug 'em, but I would've probably gotten into trouble....

Would I volunteer to be a traffic cone again at Bonnaroo? Absolutely.

Joe Bonamassa "Black Rock"

OK, I'm going to get this out of the way so I can get into my
brief Bonnaroo experience in a couple of days. I had high expectations for this record as you can tell from the other two posts about JB. Sadly, it was more like the old JB records than the newer two, just barely making my grade for a keeper. Black Rock has 13 tracks, of which 7 were good, the other filler in my book. So just over 50% was good enough for me to keep the whole album, based on his most recent work. It is certainly his best selling record to date, and I'm happy for him, but my recommendation, JB if you are reading this, is to trust your own songwriting capability and do a complete record of your own compositions, not 50/50 with covers. In fact, I think I'll go back over these last two records and track a set list of the JB originals. That, my friends, will be a great album.

Oh, and the anticipation factor is still up for the next release, which is set to feature Glenn Hughes, the rock and roll legend from Trapeze and Deep Purple who Stevie Wonder once claimed was his favorite white singer, and Jason Bonham, timekeeper of many a legendary name. The group will be called Black Country and I believe will tour late this year. I don't see how this could be a letdown...

Road Trip

On the recent trip to Tennessee, I grabbed a case of CDs which was filled about the year 1991, so everything included was approximately twenty years or older. So essentially I-75 became Memory Lane, so to speak. Besides the obvious Mad Rocker pleasers, ie. Crowded House, the Cult, Pat Travers, the first Widespread Panic, Cold Chisel and a solo record by Chisel's guitarist, Ian Moss, I stumbled across a couple of records that some of you may spit your beer out as you read the name, and others of you may want to investigate. So here goes...



The Bogeymen was on Delicious Vinyl, better known for rap and R&B records than rock. Featured 2 ex Masters of Reality members and also sounded like Cream or Budgie. Believe it or not, you can still buy this record for $9. Great cover, too.


House of Freaks was a band from Virginia who moved to LA for a major label and promptly farted out. A two-member band waayyy ahead of that current trend, they eventually became Gutterball, which some of you may recall.


Starz was formed by the Looking Glass rhythm section (Brandy, You're a Fine Girl) and became one of the 70's most unlikely and under-appreciated arena rock bands of the decade. They opened for Aerosmith"Rocks" tour in 1976 and I was hooked. Also toured with Ted Nugent and Rush to name a couple of others. Far better than Kiss and real close to being as good as Sweet. Later cited by Cinderella and Bon Jovi as influences.



Material Issue out of Chicago area, I believe. Just look at this promo disc and check out the covers, the Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel, the Cowboy Song by the great Thin Lizzy, and Blockbuster by the aforementioned legendary Sweet! And their own music was a cross between Cheap Trick and Split Enz, so I don't understand how they flew by unnoticed. Bugged the principal songwriter, too, as he committed suicide a few years later.

Stone Temple Pilots Deluxe Edition

STOP! Save your money. Don't buy into the hype...
This record is a turd. Well, that's not fair, it's OK if you want the same ol' shatola. I guess I expected too much from this release. I had all the respect in the world for this band until now. STP's first three records in the 90's were outstanding, but this is a prime example of major music label crap. Recycle, repeat, regurgitate, just to make big money for all the top heavy executives. I may have raised an eyebrow on two or three tracks, but it took a live version of "Vasoline" from 1994's "Purple" for me to smile. Might as well go back and listen to the early stuff. I have "Tiny Music" lined up for the road trip to Bonneroo...

Portugal. The Man "American Ghetto"

If you go all the way back to the beginning of this blog, you will find this band on my list of best releases of 2008. Little did I know that it was their third album. The media covering the Alaskan connection to Sarah Palin put them on my map. Without that coverage, I missed an album last year, and I'll have to get it to trace the evolution of the band's sound to this one. "Am. Ghetto" is a much more produced product than '08's "Censored Colors," and if you know the Ol' Mad Rocker, that can be a good thing. This record has a funky, groovy, slinky feel to it, like some of the best
80's danceable new wave. The guy has a higher register vocal and at times I thought it was a female, so much so I had to scan the credits more than once. This is good eclectic, intelligent pop music, along the lines of the Scissor Sisters but without all the glam. And it's too damn short at 36+ minutes...

John Hiatt "The Open Road"

Back in the early 80's a good friend of mine kept praising the
talents of this guy but I just didn't get it. Some ten years passed before I caught on to what he meant. "Perfectly Good Guitar" was the record that broke my barrier, and I even went back and got the three previous albums. Also got to see him live in New Orleans when he was in the "supergroup" Little Village (go ahead, look it up, I'll wait)...
He writes good pop/country/rock songs, swaying from style to style. He's had more success from others doing his work, i.e. Jeff Healy "Angel Eyes" for one example. "Open Road" has a decidedly country bent to it, so if you're a fan of the genre, you owe yourself a listen to one of the great songwriters of the last 35 years.