Want to know how to make a video?

We're hoping to see some video submissions in O-R Flix soon. Not that we don't appreciate all the photos (we do), but we'd be excited to see some moving images from our readers. And what better thing to film than fireworks?

For those of you taking short mpg videos with a digital camera using memory, you won't need much help. Just hook the camera up to your computer with a USB or Firewire cable and drag the movie files onto your machine. Edit them if you want or upload them raw to our system. However, if you're running off a camera that uses miniDV cassettes, its a little more complex. Read on.

If you've never uploaded a home movie off cassette to your computer before, its not too hard...well, it depends on a lot of things, truthfully. First, I'm definitely a PC person but I have to be up front here; you Mac users are going to have an easier time of getting your movies up. You'll need a video camera (obviously) and a means of connecting it your computer. This means a firewire cable if both your Mac and your camera are new enough to support that (if they were made in the last 8 years or so, they almost certainly are; check your user manuals), or if you're working with older equipment, AV cables and a video capture card. If you don't know what a video capture card is, you probably don't have one. Google it; prices aren't too bad and setup is fairly easy.

The last thing you need is software, and this is where Mac makes it easy. If your Mac was made any time this millennium, it has some version of iMovie on it. Again, Google is your friend; search for tutorials on how to use the various features of your version of iMovie. We aren't expecting Citizen Kane here, so if you feel intimidated by all the fancy titles, transitions, and effects, just skip them! Remember to convert your video to a format supported by our site (popular formats such as avi, mp4, mov, mpg, and wmv are all supported but dv is not) and to keep the size below 30 mb. These options are also easily available in iMovie.

As I said, Windows users are going to have it a little harder. The steps are basically the same but the software is hit or miss. There is no iMovie for Windows and the alternatives are frankly less user friendly most of the time, not to mention more expensive. Different PC vendors like HP and Dell will typically include proprietary video software on all but their most basic machines. You can give that a try but the features are typically lacking and/or the controls are far from intuitive. You can also look into paying for a better program, but the price is normal pretty steep by the time you're looking at something worthwhile (and I use the description worthwhile based on my needs; you will also find that the best programs have a lot of features you will never want or need). Still, with a little effort most Windows users will be able to find something they are comfortable with and can start uploading video too!

Linux users will undoubtedly have some open source programs they can toy with; if you're using Linux to begin with you're probably pretty tech savvy and don't need my help.

Once you feel daring enough to try out a movie and get it uploaded, don't forget to help us out by providing a title and description for it so we know what we're watching. We're chomping at the bit to see what some of you might have to offer us in the way of original video content.

Back on board

It's vacation season, so ...

All right, I was going to use that as my excuse for not posting in like three weeks. This is a blog, for goodness' sake. You're supposed to put up something new every day!

That's not good for people who would've been naturals for "Short Attention Span Theater." Or those who need 25 hours and eight days. Or ...

OK, no more excuses.

I'll tell you that I have a lot to write about in the very near future, catching you up on some great music I've been witness to, plus I have a couple of artists' recordings to tell you about.

Summer's here, and the time is right for dancing in the street ... as long is it doesn't rain on you.

Speaking of which, I had an opportunity to see the Jaggerz the other night and caught this medley before the guy running the soundboard turned off the audio patched into my camera. Oh, well. This is pretty cool:

• "Dancing in the Street' > 'Some Kind of Wonderful" at Chartiers Township Community Day, Chartiers-Houston High School auditorium, June 29, 2008

Check out Jimmie Ross in his Wild Things jersey:



He and Benny Faiella are the two originals in the 42-year-old band, and they still know how to put on a show.

-- Harry from the paper

More on O-R Flix

I've been noticing a lot of you taking advantage of the O-R Flix system we've set up. I think this is a great system that allows you to not only share you photos (and videos too!), but also to rate and comment on each others' submissions. I've noticed one thing that our uses can do to help get submitted content online faster.

When you submit your content, it has to go through a quick check before it goes live. That's just in case someone decides to submit something...questionable. However, we also have to check each submission and make sure it has a title and description. I can come up with titles of some submissions myself, but sometimes I won't be able to. This is mostly when I have a picture of a person that I don't know.

If you want to see your content appear on our site in a timely matter, it may be helpful for your to add your own titles and descriptions. If you don't know how to do this, its fairly simple; while logged in to O-R Flix, click "My Gallery." You will see all of your submissions. Under each submission is a small link that says "edit." Click that and then fill out as much of the information as you can, although all we really need from you is title and description.

By doing this, you'll help us get your material up sooner. Thanks, and keep using O-R Flix! We'll be looking forward to your 4th of July submissions! Don't be afraid to try video uploads too.

The Wrigley tradition

Each morning as I'm getting ready for work, I tune in to ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning." The hosts, Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic, have developed the radio personas of just a couple of regular guys who still are awed by the company they keep, even though they have become two of the best-known sports entertainment personalities in the business. Greeny is a best-selling author, to boot.

This morning, one of Mike and Mike's guests was Chicago Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney, who turned out to be a classmate of Golic at Notre Dame in the early '80s. They talked about the baseball team, then Kenney extended an invitation to the Mikes: Come sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" in the time-honored tradition at Wrigley Field.

Golic has been known to sing on the air and has a decent voice. He suggested Greeny's microphone be turned way down, or off. But either way, they seemed genuinely thrilled to follow in the footsteps of the late Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray, whose seventh-inning-stretch renditions of the song became legend.

Since Caray's passing the honor of leading the crowd in song has gone to various celebrities, not more than a few of whom have been ridiculed for their performances. Mike and Mike expressed some concern about how they'll be viewed. But they had little doubt that they'd do better than British rock singer Ozzy Osbourne, whose "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" at Wrigley really is the stuff of legend. See and hear for yourself:



He should have sung "Crazy Train"! Maybe he'd have known at least some of the lyrics.

Duck and cover!

On recent travels, I picked up a "Fallout Shelter" sign in a curiosity shop, and I nailed it to the fence up by the street in front of my house.

My kids started asking me what the deal was, and I started talking about how we grew up on the ’60s and ’70s (and for folks a bit older than me, the ’50s) under the constant threat of "commies" dropping atomic bombs on us. So much time has passed that we can laugh about it now, and I guess I consider the "Fallout Shelter" sign a bit of nostalgic kitsch. And if anyone wants to take the sign seriously and haul up in my basement, there are a lot of CDs down there to play.

I also mentioned the films they used to show via projector, about how to ostensibly protect yourself in the event of a nuclear attack. Almost immediately, one of my sons found this video, which brought back plent of memories:



What's up with the monkey holding the firecracker on a string? I didn't know they had suicide bombers back in the '50s!

And I don't know about that turtle surviving a nuclear blast, but those diligent, adult-obeying, all-American kids stood no chance whatsoever, unless they were ducking and covering inside a lead-lined room.

The powers that be obviously didn't want to tell us about the effects of radiation back then. I don't remember seeing any films about eyewitness accounts from Hiroshima or Nagasaki ...

---

I spent lunchtime Tuesday in Pittsburgh at the Three Rivers Arts Festival, watching the Jason Kendall Band play a set. I'd heard (and really enjoyed) his CD "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore," and I'd intended to see him play one night in California, PA, before Hillary Clinton decided to make a campaign stop at the local university and I had to film that.

Here's a video of "St. Augustine," which closed the show. I'll post more soon, including footage of Jason showing off his prowess on the saxophone.

And thanks to Ron, who was manning the soundboard for the festival's main stage and let me patch right into the soundboard!

Joy Ike in Washington

Music aficianados should be glad that Joy Ike has made Washington a "tour stop" the past two years, performing at the Main Street Farmers' Market.

Her visit Thursday coincided with the mercury shooting upward (do they even put mercury in thermometers anymore?), creating less-than-ideal conditions for playing music. But as Joy mentioned, it was better than playing in the rain!

Joy's set featured numerous songs from "Good Morning," her first full-length CD, which is scheduled to be out later this month. A CD release party is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday, June 28, at the EastSide Borders and will feature a full band.

In Washington, she performed with her piano and her exceptional voice, which was fine with those who were listening. Often, there are requests for musicians to "turn it down" during the farmers' market; while I was out in the heat shooting video, I didn't hear anything of the sort during Joy's show.

Here's some biographical information about Joy:

The 24-year-old has been writing and performing only snce 2005, but already she has received acclaim from local and national media alike. She was voted second for "Best Solo Artist" by the Pittsburgh City Paper in 2007 and was featured on Allhiphop.com's "Alternatives" as "one of the artists [who] will ultimately be responsible for placing Pittsburgh's music scene firmly on the map.

Ike's music has earned a reputation for being lyrically challenging, addressing issues of social awareness, faith, loneliness and the complexity of relationships. "Good Morning" is an anthem to all four concepts and specifically tackles our human need for dependency and the growing obligation to realize that the world is bigger than our own individual problems.

Joy says: "This CD is especially good for Monday mornings. If you can't seem to wake up, just stick it in your player and turn it up. No coffee necessary!

I'll be giving "Good Morning" a good listen and let you know more about it. In the meantime, check out the video of Joy performing "Hey, Where Are the Kids?" at the farmer's market. We posted her playing this song last summer, but we've improved our equipment since then. I patched directly into the mixer, and I think the audio conveys Joy's voice particularly well.

Also, see her perform "City Lights."

Goodbye, Bo

The final album that Bo Diddley cut was called "A Man Amongst Men," and the title s descriptive of the impact he had on a generation of rock 'n' roll musicians.

Ellas Otha Bates McDaniel, who took his stage name from a song he composed – or maybe vice versa – died today in a year that would have seen his 80th birthday. His passing means that just a few pioneers of the early days of rock, roughly half a century ago, still are with us.

"A Man Amongst Men," released in 1996, features performances by some of the guitarists he influenced: the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Ron Wood, and Texas axeman Jimmie Vaughan, all of whom obviously held Bo in high esteem.

Bo Diddley never sold a ton of records, but he brought plenty to the table: a resolute self-assurance emulated by many of his predecessors; his trademark square-body guitar; and, of course, the "shave-and-a-haircut" cadence that became known as the Bo Diddley Beat.

His compositions turn up on countless albums of the rock era, many of which fail to spell his name properly. One of the more notable tributes to Mr. McDaniel's songwriting prowess is "Happy Trails," released by Quicksilver Messenger Service in 1969, a full two-thirds of which is based on a couple of Bo Diddley tunes, "Who Do You Love" and "Mona." (If you can find it, give it a listen, if nothing else for the transcendent guitar playing of the late John Cipollina.)

"Who Do You Love" is probably the most covered of Bo Diddley's songs, done by everyone from Ronnie & the Hawks – that's Ronnie Hawkins backed by musicians that later would form The Band – to George Thorogood & the Destroyers playing the version that's received the most airplay.

Around Pittsburgh, his "Bring It to Jerome" gained brief notoriety around Super Bowl XL, in relation to Steelers running back Jerome Bettis. In fact, the song was about Jerome Green, who accompanied Bo on maracas for decades.

If you're curious about Bo Diddley, your best bet is to locate "The Chess Box," which features most of his essential work on Chess Records from the '50s through the '70s.

No. 15: a milestone, of sorts

In the ever-changing world of newspapers, we're trying out new ideas that we never dreamed of doing as recently as a couple of years ago.

At the Observer-Reporter, we've come up with a concept called "What's Up With That?" The premise is self-explanatory: We find something we're wondering about, and do our best to impart ... what is up with that.

The tricky part about the series is that it requires a complementary video component. That's not a particularly easy concept to grasp for journalists who have worked strictly on the print side for decades. Nor for the person in charge of producing the videos (that's usually me), who worked strictly on the print side for a good 20 years.

The current video episode of "What's Up With That?" is our 15th. We hope that the individual episodes have gotten more polished and more entertaining as we've proceeded. We're learning all the time.

The latest episode is Scott Beveridge's "Mysteries of the courthouse," detailing some of the unusual stuff you'll find at the Washington County Courthouse. Scott was hesitant to appear in front of the camera, but he came across well. And I had a lot of fun programming the opening of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" (or some facsimile thereof) to use as theme music.

In case you want to catch up, or compare and contrast the various episodes, here they are so far:

• Episode 15: Mysteries of the courthouse


• Episode 14: 'Roman' around the Trust Building


• Episode 13: Cut me a deal


• Episode 12: The hot dog question


• Episode 11: 'Shoefiti'


• Episode 10: General Tso's chicken


• Episode 9: Red, white and blue barber poles


• Episode 8: Brave, Hero and other place names


• Episode 7: Where the clothes go


• Episode 6: What's with the wires?


• Episode 5: Size does matter


• Episode 4: Old dorms, new dorms


• Episode 3: Big church, little church


• Episode 2: Kids ponder frozen water


• Episode 1: Amanda ponders the hereafter

Submit your videos and pictures!

O-R Flix is live! We're still working out some of the kinks and design issues, but the system is ready to receive your submissions. Submit videos and pictures of almost anything you can think of so long as its pertinent to the readership of the Observer-Reporter or the Almanac. To get started, create an account and log in! View our channel listing to get a few ideas.

One great thing about this system is that it allows you to embed any video you see in our system on your web page. Example, our most recent What's Up With That:




Another interesting feature is that you can submit videos and pictures to us through your cell phone! Again, visit the site for more information. If you're at the site of an important event, YOU can be the one to break the story!

Main Street Artist Series: Ramblin' Ron Boone

This week's featured artist at the Main Street Farmers Market was Ron Boone, known as Ramblin' Ron to his fans. Ron specializes in folk style music and plays both the guitar and the banjo. We're featuring a few choices of him on the latter instrument.

Ron's performance of 'Greenland Whales Fishery' tells the story of fishermen on an Ahab-inspired journey. Following that we have 'Nine Hundred Miles'. Finally, Ron's quick rendition of 'Lonesome Traveler' which he used simply to warm up (but I thought it was pretty good and worth sharing anyway).

Also, the O-R will be debuting a new feature for our online readers tomorrow. This new addition to our website is called O-RFlix and it allows you to submit photos AND videos to us and in turn see them displayed on our pages. In a way, this will allow our readers to become a part of the journalistic process. Check it out tomorrow!

Putting the band back together

Some of them hadn't seen each other since they were high-school classmates, some three decades ago.

But once they started playing their instruments, it was just like the '70s again.

Alumni of the jazz band formed and led by the late Dave Pew, then the band director at Peters Township High School, have been rehearsing in preparation for a concert Saturday night. Their mission is to raise money toward a scholarship fund in honor of Mr. Pew, for a Peters student who plans to pursue a career in music.

I'll quote the information provided by Dave Sphar (Peters Twp. HS '77), who organized the effort and invited me to check out a rehearsal:

Before teaching, Dave played all over the country with several big bands, and he was selected to play lead trumpet in the San Francisco Air Force Band. At the end of his tour of duty, he studied music at Duquesne University and upon graduation began his teaching career at Peters Township.

His belief in the power of music was evident as he developed an award-winning program for the district.

The concert is at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 24 at Peters Township High School, also featuring the current high school jazz band. Tickets are $10 for adults and are available at the door.

Tax-deductible gifts directly to the Fund are also encouraged. Please make checks payable to “WCCF” with “Dave Pew” written on the memo line. Checks should be mailed to: Washington County Community Foundation Inc., 331 S. Main St., Washington, PA 15301.

For more about the concert, click here to see video.

Ramblin' Ron

The Main Street Farmers' Market in Washington is entering its fifth season, believe it or not.

The market has become a much-anticipated weekly event each Thursday afternoon from May through October, and those who attend can enjoy live performances by musicians.

The practice of featuring music at the market started rather informally, with people who cared to do so bringing their guitars and other instruments. Eventually, the market organizers started scheduling musicians as weekly features.

In 2006, the organizers came through with a professional amplification system, including four strategically placed speakers, so that the music could be heard throughout the market. And in June 2007, with the dedication of the Patriots Pavilion next to South Main Street, the musicians had a nice stage area on which to play.

Ramblin' Ron Boone, a South Strabane Township musician-author-traveler (hence the "Ramblin'" part), has been lending his talents to the farmers' market since the beginning, and he'll return Thursday with his laid-back folk songs, including a number of originals from his CD "Song Stories."

Ron is scheduled to play at the May 22 market, and we'll be there to film him as part of our Main Street Artists Series of videos.

Check out Ron's music on the Ramblin' Ron Boone site, including the humorous "Old Man's Rap."

Life's a long song

Some people like to hear a song that starts and ends in the space of three minutes. Short attention spans.

I certainly appreciate a concise, to-the-point tune. One of my favorites is Grace Slick's "White Rabbit," which in its Jefferson Airplane hit-single version lasts less than 2 1/2 minutes.

Then there's the other side of the equation.

I remember how excited I was to hear the full-length version of Peter Frampton's "Do You Feel Like We Do" – hey, I was 13 – when I helped propel "Frampton Comes Alive" to platinum status. Then I discovered that such songs as Iron Butterfly's "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" and the live version of Deep Purple's "Space Truckin'" took up entire sides of records.

And then … I was perusing albums in my favorite store when I came across one called "Live/Dead" by a group called the Grateful Dead. Although it contained two records, only half a dozen tracks were listed. To me, that meant some of those songs must have gone on forever, so I took the album to the counter.

Indeed, the first song, called "Dark Star," clocked in at 23-minutes plus. I put the disc on my turntable and started listening. It was like nothing I'd heard before, no fixed beat or chord changes, a free-flowing surge of instrumentation bookended by two brief vocal passages reciting thoroughly abstract lyrics.

Most listeners would have turned it off or left the room after a few minutes. I played it all the way through, then all the way through again.

Now that rock 'n' roll music has been around for half a century, historians can point to certain milestones, and "Dark Star" represents one of those: The Grateful Dead took the cue from John Coltrane and other masters of jazz improvisation, and adapted their methods to the rock idiom.

Critics at the time may have written off such sonic explorations as self-indulgent. But those who did apparently paid no attention to the effects of the music on the audience, particularly the Grateful Dead's audience.

I've been a big fan of "Dark Star" for more than three decades, and when I got the capability to do so, I downloaded dozens of versions of the Dead doing the song. The longest is 47-plus minutes in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in 1972.

So my ears perked up the other night during a show by the Pittsburgh Dead-influenced band theCAUSE when bass player David Tauberg launched into the run that introduces "Dark Star." After all, I was capturing it for posterity.

To see the resulting video, click here. I added some goodies for those who appreciate the type of music being performed.

And while you're at it, check out the medley of originals that the band One Gig at a Time performed back in March. That makes for a lengthy listening experience, too.

Just the way some of us like it.

Main Street Farmer's Market opens

The Main Street Farmer's Market is open again. Besides offering a range of locally produced goods, the Market (which operates on Thursday afternoons) features musical acts. The inaugural performer this year was Dan Baker who, with an assortment of other talented artists, played several jazz tunes for shoppers.

The O-R has decided to start a new video feature; the Main Street Artists Series. We will be featuring as many of the various artists that play at the Market as we can on our website in an ongoing series of videos. For our first week, I recorded Dan playing a couple of lighthearted numbers early in the afternoon.

The first is 'Summertime'. Dan is the guy with the awesome red dreads. Accompanying him were two tenor saxs (Bill Shadel and Sam Kearney), an alto sax (Mark Higgins), two drum sets (Curran McDowell and Joel Panian) and a trombone (Jim Cope). The same ensemble performed 'Black Orpheus'. Look for a new artist to be featured as often as every week.

Flyboy

I've never been averse to going up in airplanes. So when I received an invitation from John Klatt Airshows to take a trip, I didn't hesitate to accept.

Maj. Klatt, who hails from Minnesota, is in the Air National Guard and has been flying for the military for nearly 20 years. He is in town for the Wings Over Pittsburgh air show at the 911th Airlift Wing in Moon Township (Saturday and Sunday).

When he said we'd do some rolls, loops and the like, I figured, that sounds great! How many people get that opportunity. It certainly was exciting when we started flying upside down, then we twisted around a bit. What a view!

Al Serafini, the director of operations at the newspaper, was in a plane flying tandem with us, shooting photos through the open door. As Al later told it, he had more fun that I did.

That's because of the ol' stomach acting up on me. After a while, I had to ask Maj. Klatt to take it easy, so we headed for downtown Pittsburgh to see the sights from the sky. That was cool, too, but my gut was calming down only marginally. So I looked up at the blue sky and white clouds, thought about ginger ale, and managed to make it back to solid ground intact, so to speak.

I later put together a video/slideshow featuring Al's photos and portions of the commentary between myself and Maj. Klatt during the "mission."

Click here to check it out.

Monday, Monday

Monday mornings stink. You know the feeling. Aching muscles and joints from yard work all weekend. The prospect of another long haul at the office. Trying to get the kids out of bed to get 'em to school. Lousy performances in fantasy baseball. Etc., etc., etc., etc.

So I check my e-mails this morning, and there's one – among the tons of junk I have to wade through each day – labeled with a "". For some reason, I decided to open it. Wrong move.

A gentleman – let's call him Methuselah – provided some feedback with regard the video we shot last week to go along with the latest in our "What's Up With That?" series. (We're up to 11 episodes already!) The subject was the proliferation of footwear being tossed over wires, a phenomenon known as "shoefiti." I figured I'd give it a try and see if I could land my golf shoes.

Could I do it? Check out the video!

Anyhoo, here's what Methuselah typed:

Just one thought.......

You really gotta be hoping that when something bad happens (power outage, telephone or cable disruption.......injury..... worse...)

That nobody remembers this "instructional" video.

Oh I know..... It's gonna happen anyway. There will be no shortage of footwear on the the lines.

Just trying to sell soap, entertain.

Like I said,

Just a thought.

You're absolutely right, Meth. People are going to do it, anyway. And we are trying to entertain. Most folks enjoy being entertained. Please give it a try sometime.

I'm glad you put "instructional" in quotes. According to my kids, my technique wasn't any good, so no one should learn anything from what I was doing.

And by the way, we shot the video on the privacy of our company's own property. No public utility lines were involved.

But during my improvised dialog, I should've uttered this:

KIDS, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. OR UP ABOVE YOUR STREET.

There ya go, Meth. Happy Monday.

---

We do enjoy receiving feedback, though, especially when it looks like this:

Dear Mr. Funk,

I think that you did a bang-up job producing the video about Mr. Davis’ production of the Music Experience at Trinity Middle School last week. It was a blast seeing the interior of the school again (I am a ’76 grad of TMS), and a current teacher and musician. Thanks for showing that there are good things happening in education.

Linda Sherwood

Unfortunately, my reply of thanks to Linda bounced right back to me for some reason. Probably our sometimes-cheesy e-mail system.

But if you're checking in, Linda, you succeeded in brightening my Monday!

USA's Olympic Softball Team visits Washington

Last Thursday night I had the pleasure of going to watch the USA Olympic Softball Team play an exhibition match against Robert Morris University at Consol Energy Park. Having looked at the schedule of Team USA's exhibition matches, I was expecting a blow out (scores of past games typically featured Team USA in the double digits with their competitors all scoring zero runs). That's exactly what happened this time, but the game was exciting and considering Team USA is widely considered to be the best softball unit in the world, Robert Morris probably felt proud just to be on the field with them.

I'm not a big follower of softball, but I'm told that for softball fans, meeting Jennie Finch is like meeting Jordan or Ali. She is the face of softball in this country and was even featured in Sports Illustrated (albeit the swimsuit edition). I was immediately struck by how tall she and fellow star pitcher Cat Osterman are. Both were several inches taller than my 6 foot height. Other highlights included watching Crystal Bustos hit a three run homer in the first inning only seconds after the person standing next to me proclaimed, "That's the Babe Ruth of softball." No kidding!

Some highlights from the game followed by interviews with both Jennie Finch and Cat Osterman can been seen in the video footage. The game ended in 6 innings (one shy of the standard due to the 16-0 score), but the team stayed to sign autographs mostly for girls of all ages playing softball at various levels locally. Team USA will be playing in Beijing this year and pursuing their 4th consecutive gold medal. The sport was introduced at the Olympic level in 1996 and will be discontinued after this year, meaning Team USA would have won gold in softball every single year that it was possible should they do so again.

The Concert Experience

A couple of years ago, a gentleman named Mark Davis got in touch with me about an event he'd been organizing annually at Trinity Middle School.

The Concert Experience is something that we never got as kids: an educational program aimed at letting youngsters know what to expect if they venture into the wonderful world of live music!

Several professionals in the music business, as well as law enforcement officials, were at the school today to explain various facets of what goes into performing, attending concerts, etc. I was fortunate to catch a talk by Pittsburgh legend Joe Grushecky, concluding with an acoustic a performance of the title track to one of his albums.

• See video of "Coming Home"

I also had a friendly conversation with Johnny Polansky, a Trinity graduate who's played percussion with some of my own favorite musicians. Check out his band, One Under.

After learning about the music biz and enjoying a "tailgate party" under a suddenly sunny sky, the middle school students were treated to the actual concert experience, by the Brass Knuckles Band, featuring music teachers from areas such as Uniontown, Connellsville and Hundred, W.Va.

The kids were in for a surprise, too. It was announced that the band's regular vocalist had been summoned to Florida on business, so up to the microphone stepped none other than Mr. Davis. He proved his voice was up to the challenge by opening with the Ides of March's hit "Vehicle."

I compiled a video documentary if the day's proceedings, if you want to see what The Concert Experience – at least, the one at Trinity Middle School – is all about.

And thanks again for letting me know about this, Mark!

More from the hard drive

Shooting video is one thing. Preparing it is quite another.

In the office, I'm armed with a Macintosh G4 loaded with iMovie. That's a fine program -- you don't have to be an expert in video editing to use it! -- but it does have one drawback. You can work on only one project at a time.

That leads to unprocessed footage backing up on the hard drive, a situation that needs to be remedied every once in a while. Video makes for some huge files.

A project that finally is seeing the light of day, a full month and a half after I filmed it, is the concert presented by One Gig at a Time at P.D.'s Pub in Squirrel Hill.

I'd seen One Gig back in January and had a great time. The band draws inspiration from the psychedelic ballroom shows of the late '60s, including using a swirling-color light show as a backdrop.

I've edited three videos from the P.D.'s performance:

• "Next" opened the show and features a clinic in six-string bass playing by the song's composer, Steve "pUNK" Cunningham.


• "Step Away" was composed and sung by guitarist Dan Eaby, who tag-teams a stellar jam in the middle with guest guitarist Bill Maruca.


• "Little Wing" is the Hendrix classic, performed in a style remiscent of the version recorded by Derek & the Dominos just prior to Jimi's death. One Gig is joined by guitarist Patti Spadaro, a favorite of this blog.

One Gig at a Time puts on a heck of a show, and if you enjoy what they were doing musically during the Fillmore era, check out the band at P.D.'s on May 24.

Miley: not Fair!

You knew this was bound to happen in some capacity, sooner or later.

Miley Cyrus, the latest teen sensation for her role as "Hannah Montana" (I've never seen it, so I can't comment), is apologizing in advance to her fans for an upcoming photo spread in Vanity Fair magazine.

The photographer was Annie Leibovitz, who has built a legendary career since the early '70s for her work with Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair. Remember the portrait of Demi Moore, nude and covered with a "suit" of body paint? That was vintage Leibovitz.

She didn't do anything remotely as radical shooting Cyrus, but the 15-year-old will appear in the magazine posing in "what appears to be a satin bedsheet with her back exposed," according to an Associated Press video about the young star.

Disney, which is raking in a ton of money courtesy of Cyrus, is critical of the Vanity Fair spread. That should be expected from the megacorporation, considering that Miley is "one of the biggest and most G-rated acts in the country," according to the video. Can't sully that image, even if many of Miley's fans are too young to know or care what Vanity Fair is.

I, for one, have expressed confidence with my admittedly scant knowledge of Miley Cyrus that she won't go the route of other teen stars who couldn't seem to make the adjustment to adulthood without embarrassing themselves on an almost daily basis.

But it's a good idea to watch what you do in front of the camera, even if there's a legend behind a lens.

Lists

OK, I'll admit that I ripped one of these ideas off Peter Gammons, the baseball expert who also knows quite a bit about music. He appears by telephone each Friday morning on ESPN's "Mike and Mike Show," and after his baseball commentary he provides a suggestion for a song to download. This morning, it was a selection by a '60s-era musician named Tom Rush, whom he attributed as teaching James Taylor how to play guitar.

If you look to the right of the blog posts, you'll see an assortment of flotsam and jetsam related to music, videos or a combination of the two. Among those is a list called "In the CD Player," where I've been jotting down stuff that ... well, you can guess.

After listening to Gammons and Mike and Mike, I'm going to add another list: zunetunes, or what pops up on my Zune player. There are 3,000-plus songs in there now, and I keep adding whenever a have a little bit of free time.

I try to be somewhat eclectic in my musical tastes, but don't expect to see certain genres included. And if you notice a heavy lean toward songs from approximately 1965-75 ... hey, I still enjoy the stuff I listened to when I was a kid.

More than likely, you'll never have heard of much of the stuff I list. So if you want to know more, that's what the "Comments" function is for! Just ask, and I'll be glad to clue you in on what it is and why I like it.

So if you're looking for some ideas, listen to what Peter Gammons has to say. Or check out this blog and take a look to your right.

AmeriSon Records releases on the charts

Peters Township resident Tom Breiding is one of my favorite Pittsburgh-area musicians, with talent to burn when it comes to songwriting, singing and guitar playing. His AmeriSon studio and record label is producing quality products. And he's a heck of a nice guy, to boot.

Tom sent this info about his latest album:

Tom Breiding's "The Unbroken Circle: Songs of the WV Coalfields" jumped 18 spots to #58 on the AMA charts with 97 spins this week! 471 total spins since the release date! Keep the requests coming!

Also:

Bill Toms' AmeriSon Records release "Spirits, Chaos and a Troubadour Soul" (produced by Tom Breiding) received its first spins this week.

From Tom:

More great news from AmeriSon Productions as "The Unbroken Circle" continues to get lots of attention. It received 97 spins this week on reporting Americana stations only. I have had several requests to service AAA stations and many non-reporting stations have included it on their playlists, so I can't keep track of them. But it is safe to say that the album is being heard in every corner of the U.S.

I received a fantastic five star review on the well known about.com this week. Check out folkmusic.about.com/.

Tom also is hosting the AmeriSon Ballroom Folk Series at Cefalo's Nightclub in Carngie. Tonight's lineup (7 to 10) includes Tom Breiding, Rick Malis, Bob Beach and headliner Beaucoup Blue,

Also, Tom Breiding and American Son is playing at 10 p.m. tomorrow at PD's Pub, Forward Avenue, Squirrel Hill.

Check out videos for Tom's 'The Longest Darkest Day' and 'Obituary of Joe Fry'

View on the music

There's a great discussion taking place on my colleague Brant Newman's blog, View on the News. The topic is "Who Are Your Musical Heroes?" and people are coming out of the woodwork to express their two cents' worth.

I had to respond because Brant placed the Grateful Dead in the "overrated" category. It's not like I've never heard that before. In fact, that's one of the first things I heard about the band back in the '70s. So Brant isn't alone. But I still have to stick up for my musical heroes ...

Another of my big-time heroes is the late Frank Zappa, who, of course, is another acquired taste. Let's just say that no one has explored the genres of rock, jazz, classical, R&B, doo-wop, avant garde, electronic and even flourishes of blues and country -- not to mention humor -- the way FZ did. And I'm betting that no one ever will.

Teke: Don't give up yet

Fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates (if there are any left) will recall Kent Tekulve with fondness.

The tall, sidearm-throwing relief pitcher was a staple of the team during its run of glory of the '70s into the early '80s, especially during the championship season of 1979.

Teke was a guest of the Rotary Club of Washington today, and I stopped by to tape the proceedings. Check out the O-R blog In the Doug-Out for more details and to see the video.

Earth, Wind & Doctor

When I open my e-mail each morning, most of the stuff goes straight into the trash. The subject line for this one -- "Earth, Wind and Fire to Receive Honorary Doctorate from Columbia College Chicago" -- made me open it.

Sure enough, members of the venerable rhythm-and-blues group now will be known as Dr. Maurice White, Dr. Ralph Johnson, Dr. Philip Bailey and Dr. Verdine White.

"Columbia College Chicago has a long standing tradition of quality education and a rich history of supporting the arts," the future Dr. White is quoted as saying. "We are honored to accept this very prestigious honorary doctoral degree from the renowned institution."

The ceremony is taking place Sunday, May 18. So get ready to Celebrate. Each of these guys is a Shining Star.

I'll stop with the puns now.

Tuesday's almost here

For Democrats, the Pennsylvania primary actually means something this year. Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have battled for the state's voters for several weeks, and the day of reckoning is tomorrow.

Both visited Washington County during the past week, and Marc and I were on hand to tape their appearances. If you'd like to check out what they say prior to heading to the polls, here is what we've posted:

• Clinton: Speech excerpts | Full speech (26 mins)


• Obama: Speech excerpts | Full speech (56 mins)

If you're Republican ... stay tuned for November.

One more Saturday night

I had the -- let's call it, to be diplomatic, opportunity -- to film Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton when she touched down in Washington County during a five-stop whirlwind tour of Pennsylvania on the final Saturday before the primary.

Now, I've never been exactly a 9-to-5 guy when it comes to my job. I learned 23 years ago, when I first started working for newspapers, that you don't just drop everything and go home at a certain time. That's not the way the news works.

But I can't admit to being ecstatic about Sen. Clinton's visit, given the projected time of her appearance (7:15 p.m.) at California University of Pennsylvania. I knew it wasn't going to be a case of waltzing in, shooting some video and being done with it 'til Monday.

With these types of events, of course, the best idea is to arrive very early, so that the proper security measures can be taken. So some three hours prior to the senator's scheduled arrival, there I was on campus. Our photographer Celeste Van Kirk actually had arrived at 4, after receiving word that was the time to be there. She didn't have an opportunity to grab a bite to eat beforehand.

Before entering Cal U.'s Hamer Hall, we members of the media had to set all of our equipment in a line outside, where a dog sniffed around for any funny business. The equipment checked out, so the next step was a quick metal-detector search. After that, we were free to set up wherever we wanted, except in spots designated for the "traveling press."

Speaking of which, there was a food spread set up, but the only members of the media who were allowed to partake were of the "traveling" variety. We poor local schlubs could only smell the viands, which must have been torturous for Celeste. (I'd stuffed my face in mid-afternoon, anticipating a long night.)

So I set up, then looked at the clock. Two hours and 45 minutes to go, if Sen. Clinton was on schedule. I called my wife to complain about abject boredom.

Fortunately, my friend and colleague Brad Hundt, the O-R's entertainment writer and member of our editorial board, showed up because of his deep interest in politics. I talked with him at length, and also checked in with Celeste and our staff writer Scott Beveridge periodically. Plus I knew a few others in attendance, so I managed to gab my way through the waiting period.

Prior to Sen. Clinton's arrival, we were "treated" to rousing speeches by the two Democratic Washington County commissioners, as well as such luminaries as state Rep. Pete Daley, who seems to be quite charismatic, and Angelo Armenti Jr., president of Cal U.

Meanwhile, the Clinton caravan was delayed for 45 minutes, and when the senator did arrive, she was accompanied by people who took the microphone before she did. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing LauRen Merola, 2008 Miss Pennsylvania USA -- that's her in the picture; everyone knows what Hillary looks like -- who gave her endorsement for Sen. Clinton. Then Gov. Ed Rendell put in his two cents. And then came the featured attraction.

In a 25-minute blitz, the senator provide a list of "solutions" to help Pennsylvanians and the rest of America on the road to recovery from our various difficulties. Several times, she hit on the problems with oil and gasoline prices, and with the effect that's having on everyone, I decided to use those comments as the basis for a three-plus minute distillation of her speech.

Click here, and you can check it out.

I'll post the entire speech when I have a chance to process it Monday morning. By the time I finished with the excerpts and got everything ready for the newspaper's Web site, it was going on midnight Saturday, meaning I'd basically worked an entire shift to capture a 25-minute speech for posterity.

In case you ever wondered, sometimes that's how it works in the news biz.

Sean Costello (1979-2008)

Several years ago, I spoke by phone with a young blues guitarist who seemed to be as polite as he was talented. We spoke about his starting to perform at an early age and some of his influences, including the late Mike Bloomfield (one of the most well-regarded American guitarists of the '60s) and multi-instrumentalist Shuggie Otis, whose stellar material from three decades ago finally is being recognized.

The guitarist I interviewed, Sean Costello, would have been 29 on Wednesday. But the day before, he was found dead in an Atlanta motel room.

I can say this his album "Moanin' for Molasses" (2001) contains some fantastic playing and singing, and that his other recordings have drawn a good amount of praise in blues circles. As far as I know, they're looking into the circumstances of his death, but to tell the truth, I'd prefer not to know right now. I'd prefer to remember him for the pleasant conversation we had back in 2002.

Here's the story I wrote for the Observer-Reporter back then:

---

Guitarist Costello stays true to blues tradition

Rock 'n' roll has always owed a great debt to the blues.

Just ask the big boys.

"I would read about Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, people along those lines, and they always listed blues musicians as their influence," Sean Costello recalled.

His curiosity piqued, the aspiring preteen guitarist found a whole musical world beyond standard FM radio fare, discovering the likes of Buddy Guy, B.B. King and Howlin' Wolf, the legendary bluesman who's featured on the first album Costello ever purchased.

"With Howlin' Wolf, when you're 10 years old, a name like that will catch your attention," he said.

Likewise, the playing of the Wolf's longtime lead guitarist, Hubert Sumlin, caught the attention of Costello and gave him a role model as he started honing his prodigious talents.

Now 22, Costello has nurtured his first musical love to develop a style that has drawn rave reviews from blues-oriented publications for its adherence to tradition. As he tours in support of his third album, "Moanin' for Molasses," Costello continues to dig deep into the historical aspect of the genre.

"I just love the music and always have wanted to know everything about it. That's been my life," he said this week while en route to perform in Louisville, Ky. "It's not just the more popular names. I want to find the guys who speak to me as an individual."

For example, the new album's title track, a swinging instrumental featuring the guitarist's fluent picking, is a composition by another former Howlin' Wolf guitarist, Jody Williams – hardly a household name, even in blues circles, although Williams recently returned to performing after decades of retirement.

The closing track, "Good Advice," is a tune by the late J.B. Lenoir, another artist revered by blues enthusiasts but escaping mainstream attention.

And another song, "You're Killing My Love," was co-written by legendary axman Mike Bloomfield, whose scorching leads for the Butterfield Blues Band in the '60s paved the way for white players to gain respect on the blues circuit.

But Costello is not all about cover versions. "Moanin' for Molasses" also features four Costello originals, each one displaying a strong feel for the roots of his material while showcasing his own songwriting voice.

The album's tight sound is a result of Costello's working with members of his backing band for several years now. Drummer Terrence Prather, for instance, has worked with the guitarist since he was a young teen-age prodigy fresh off winning the Blues Talent Contest sponsored by the Beale Street Blues Society.

"We can really work well together," Costello said about the band "There's a lot of common vocabulary between us now."

The album's sound is very similar to Costello's live performances, as his band is intact with one notable exception: longtime collaborator Paul Linden, whose harp figures prominently on "Moanin' for Molasses," is taking time off to work on his Ph.D.

When the band comes to Pittsburgh, it will mark a return trip for Costello, who's played here both as a solo artist and as guitarist for blues chanteuse Susan Tedeschi. He said he's gotten warm receptions in Western Pennsylvania.

"It seems to be a good area
for the blues, at least in my
experiences."

As he continues to hone his songwriting skills, Costello also keeps on the lookout for recordings by artists who sound "cool" to his ears.

Some of his recent finds include the late Eddie Hinton, a former Muscle Shoals session player who recorded some distinctive and highly acclaimed Southern soul, and Shuggie Otis, whose groundbreaking mid-'70s album "Inspiration Information" is finally getting the attention it deserves today.

"You just stumble across people like that all the time."

Play it again, Patti

Amwell Township resident Patti Spadaro is opening some eyes around the Pittsburgh area with her guitar playing. And a sampling of her show at P.D.'s Pub last month shows why.


She ended her set with a highly energetic version of "Turn On Your Lovelight," a song made popular by Bobby Blue Bland, Them and the Grateful Dead, among others. Her fluid guitar playing meshes exceptionally with the upbeat tempo, causing at least one member of the audience to get up and dance to the music.

Patti also welcomed a musical guest, longtime area keyboardist/guitarist Bill Maruca, to join the proceedings, and Bill lent some impressive slide playing on his Stratocaster to Sonny Thompson's blues workout "Tore Down."

Patti and her band - featuring a new drummer, Janelle Burdell, who's worked with former Dead percussionist Mickey Hart, among many others - return to P.D.'s in Squirrel Hill this Friday, April 18. And look for her to return to play the Main Street Farmers' Market in Washington once it starts up again (she's scheduled for May 29).

Click to watch the P.D.'s Pub videos:

• "Turn On Your Lovelight"


• "Tore Down"

Senator Obama speaks with vets

Senator Obama brought his campaign to Washington yesterday, speaking to veterans at a town hall style event on W&J's campus. The event was geared specifically towards the veterans concerns in the coming election, meaning the topics of the war in Iraq, the veteran administration, and physical and mental health care for discharged veterans were among those discussed.

We're featuring a similar setup to President Bill Clinton's videos from a few weeks back. You can catch a brief highlight clip of the speech and subsequent question-and-answer session, or you can watch the entire thing from start to finish, roughly 56 minutes of video.

Senator Hillary Clinton will allegedly be visiting Cal U on Saturday, though that has yet to be corroborated. Her daughter Chelsea stumped for her at Waynesburg yesterday.

Better late than ...

The computer makes editing video a lot easier than the days of working with tape. But the files tend to get rather large, and it doesn't take long to fill up a half-terabyte hard drive.

While clearing some space off my drive today, I found an iMovie file labeled "SAILAWAY." I couldn't remember what it was, so I opened it. Here I'd started editing a musical performance I shot in February, and I'd neglected to finish it.

The performance is of saxophonist Josh Dunlevy and guitarist Dan Baker playing Tom Harrell's "Sail Away" at event held by the Washington (PA) Jazz Society. Click here to check it out, a month and a half later.

Also watch two other performances by the duo:

• "Red's Blues"


• 'Ornithology'

I think that's everyone

While I was filming the benefit show for Tony Janflone Jr. a month and a day ago, I was excited. I figured I'd have plenty of video highlights to post, material that would sound and look decent.

As it turned out, once I started editing the footage, I never thought I'd stop. There were so many quality performances by some of the area's finest musical talent that I contined to put together videos, whenever I had some relatively spare time at the office.


I wanted to post representative material from everyone involved, and the final piece of the puzzle turned out to be the event's opening act, the Skip Peck Trio featuring vocalist Donna Peck (that's her at left).

I certainly enjoyed the ensemble's jazz-flavored set, but I knew there would be a few issues once it came time to edit the video.

That night, I recorded the audio using a "matrix": one channel from the soundboard, one from an audience microphone. That setup worked fine for the louder acts, but the Trio played at a somewhat softer volume. That and a relatively inattentive, chatty crowd (to be fair, they were just settling in) rendered the audience recording almost useless.

The soundboard patch had its problems, too. I still was trying to get a proper balance for the show, and as a result, I ended up with some very ugly electronic noise at key places.

The selection the Trio played I ended up posting was "Summertime," one of my all-time favorite compositions, a song that's been performed in just about every genre imaginable. (Heck, Janis Joplin sang a rock version with Big Brother & the Holding Co.) My edit, though, only encompasses the second half of the song; the audio to that point was beyond salvage.

So enjoy the video of "Summertime," then scroll down and check out all the other performances I've posted for one memorable evening in March!

Welcome to Western Pa.

My standard punchline regarding music is that I don't know much about anything prior to 1980. Sometimes I push that date back to 1975, or even '70.

While I make no secret about my preference for tunes from the days when giants walked the earth - Beatles, Stones, Dead, Doors, etc. - I still appreciate getting to know the music of artists who are alive, well and performing today.

I learned about two such performers this week. When Bill Toms played a CD release show over the weekend for his new "Spirits, Chaos, and a Troubadour Soul," two musicians who were in town opened for him.


First went Erin Sax Seymour, a New Yorker who's raising some eyebrows with her compositions and performing style. I took a quick look on her myspace site to learn a little about her. Here's some of what I found:

Sax started writing songs as a teenager to help her through tough times, and then as a way to record the experiences she witnessed while traveling the world as a documentary filmmaker. … Through it all she understood that there really are just a handful of stories and moods that every person comes across in a lifetime, no matter their circumstance. Her music is the heart of these stories.

She has recorded a CD called "Good Girl" (which features some interesting cover art), and here is a video of the title song recorded at Cefalo's in Carnegie.

Another video shows her playing "New Orleans Rain."

Following Erin was Lorenzo Bertocchini, who - though you wouldn't know it from his mastery of English - hails from northern Italy, where he fronts a band with the intriguing name of the Apple Pirates. ("We just go around and steal people's apples all day," he jokes.) The English-language portion of Lorenzo's trilingual site provides some biographical information:

His live career started in 1990, when he put together a band called The Beer Bellies: a lot of fun, but not a long ride … only a few months. His second band was a guitar trio called The Wanted! Lorenzo wrote the songs, sang and played acoustic guitar and harmonica. The trio was born at the beginning of 1991 and eventually split up at the end of the following year. In December 1992, Lorenzo got in touch with the piano player Roberto Masciocchi and started a new project called The Getaway. The name soon changed to Pirates and then to Apple Pirates. With a lot of hard work and true devotion to their roots-rock roots, the band started building itself the solid reputation it enjoys today in the Italian rock scene. The boys have released a CD called "Greatest Hits" and two songs on a compilation of Varese bands called "Musica Va."

The band has a new single called "Everybody" - click here for video - which Lorenzo performed at Cefalo's with Phil Brontz, saxophone player for 8th Street Rox and Bill Toms' Hard Rain band.

Welcome to Western Pennsylvania, Erin and Lorenzo. Don't be strangers.

Jason Kendall: 'Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore'

What a cool title!

I saw that Fayette County musician Jason Kendall named his debut release "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore," which, of course, is reminiscent of Martin Scorsese's film "Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore."

For old-timers like me, the names Alice and Cooper also go quite well together.

It turns out that Jason's title refers to the home of the grandparents of Vincent Furnier, who has been known to generations as Alice Cooper. The old house in Flatwoods, also in Fayette County, now is a tavern, Casa Del Santo.

Now, there's your answer to a trivia question.

The music on Jason's disc, though, bears no resemblance to that of the venerable shock-rocker. Most of it is based on the adept picking of his acoustic guitar, with some complementary instrumentation that he adds himself.

The relatively sparse arrangements are appropriate to the subject matter. "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore" is presented as a tribute to small-town America, the feistiness of the people in Jason’s neck of the woods in the face of superhighways and strip malls. As Jason says in the press release accompanying his CD:

Southwestern Pennsylvania has such a unique history of prosperity and poverty, hard winters and a blue-collar pride. It's an area that, despite its beauty, over the past several years has been limited in opportunities. I do think that a renaissance is on the horizon, one that is based on our collective creative spirit and rooted in the rich aesthetic of industry, perseverance and heart. It is my hope that my songs, in some small way, capture and reflect those fine qualities.

The songs might be thematically linked in the stated manner, but Jason mixes them up stylistically enought to keep everything fresh as the album progresses.

Hear selections from "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore"

The opener, "Pennsylvania Window," features a deceptively easygoing finger-picked riff that takes the listener through a journal entry about a dream: "the ghost of hope, she turned away and flew off from the sill/I woke up petrified." That's certainly an apt description of what Jason's home region has faced, especially when this line in the chorus is considered: "Without an eye toward springtime here, the winters last so long, so long."

Amen, brother.

"Last Dollar Spent" also features a jaunty tune with ominous lyrics: "Where's the next dollar when the last one's gone?/How do you make it right when all your love's gone wrong?" Add references to the Book of John, Charlie Daniels and J.D. Salinger, and you have one cleverly constructed song.

The pace changes for "I Don't Feel Like Singing," which features Jason accompanying himself on piano. The sparse arrangement suits the subject matter; the listener, however, can picture someone Phil Spectorizing this song by adding strings and a chorus. It doesn't need it.

The catchiest and most upbeat track is "Think of You," a love song augmented by handclaps and Jason's multitrack harmonies. He keeps the subject matter grounded, though, with lines like "I drank too much again but me head won't ache/I woke up much too early 'cause I couldn't wait."

Jason sticks mostly to major scales until the album's closer, "Saturday We Lock the Door," another finger-picked gem that presents several brief, well-worded insights to the deep feelings shared between a couple: "Today you laughed at my first graying hair/On the front porch watching spring grow through the rain."

No, Cooper doesn't live here anymore. We love ya, Alice, but Jason Kendall seems to be taking a more meaningful musical direction.

---

A release show for "Cooper Doesn't Live Here Anymore" is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 2 at Club Cafe, Pittsburgh's South Side. Accompanying Jason are Jim Graff, guitar; Jon Kavendish, bass; Jim Platania, drums; and Bob Banerjee, fiddle. Opening is London native Joel Lindsey.

Bill Toms in concert

This past Saturday, I was attending an alumni weekend at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. But I didn't want to miss Bill Toms' release show for his new CD "Spirits, Chaos, and a Troubadour Soul."

Fortunately, that's what video cameras are for, and Marc Felman filled in admirably to capture the concert, at Cefalo's in Carnegie. Here are videos of a few of the songs to start:

• 'Tell Her I'm Home'


• 'Together'

We'll work on editing some more material by Bill and his band, Hard Rain, as well as performances by opening acts Erin Sax Seymour and Lorenzo Bertocchini.

Meet the All-Stars

We've seen the front men of the "Pittsburgh All-Stars," the crack band assembled to perform at the Tony Janflone Jr. benefit on March 13. Now, let's meet the rest of the guys:

Rick Witkoski, guitar. The veteran performer, known for his work with Crack the Sky, also is a veteran producer at his Studio L in Weirton, W.Va., which he runs with his wife, Deborah. Why Studio L? The Witkowskis are co-composers of "Vitamin L," B.E. Taylor's 1983 hit.

And speaking of Crack the Sky, the band will perform at the Rites of Spring Festival (RoSfest) at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, Pa., on May 4. As a side note, the theater is right around the corner from where my grandparents on the Funk side lived, so I spent plenty of time in the vicinity as a kid. Small world ...

Derek Bayer, guitar, helped organize the benefit with Curtis Swift, saxophone player in Tony Jr.'s regular band.

Tommy Bellin, bass guitar. "He is like the premiere bass player in Pittsburgh," says Rick Witkoski. To see what he means, check out the bass solo in the middle of "Vitamin L," as Tom does a take on a Vince Guaraldi favorite. You also can catch him with No Bad Ju Ju, and he has played in B.E. Taylor's band.

Rick Dickerson, drums, has played for numerous area bands, including Tony Janflone Jr.'s. He appears on the album "Live at the Blues Cafe."

Jamie Peck, keyboards. Along with composing music for a variety of radio and TV projects, Jamie Peck is an accomplished producer. Among those he has worked with are B.E. Taylor, Peters Township musician Tom Breiding and Christian singer Sandy Lusco.

I have some more footage from the benefit, so bear with me as I get it ready to post!

Another All-Star

I shot about three hours of footage at the recent benefit for Tony Janflone Jr. (actually, that was going on two weeks ago), and I'm slowly but surely getting around to editing a representative sampling of the video.


The latest features Rob James of the Clarks, jamming with the "Pittsburgh All-Stars" unit that highlighted the benefit show. Rob, a fellow IUP alumnus, performs "Better Off Without You," a song he wrote for his regular band. The studio version appears on the Clarks album "Let It Go" (Razor and Tie, 2000).

BTW, I still have footage from that night of Tony Janflone Sr. jamming with D.C. Tanner, and also of the Skip Peck Trio. If you've been enjoying the videos as they've come online, keep an eye out for additional material!

A shot of Vitamin L

Someday I'd like to apologize to B.E. Taylor.

When he released his album "Love Won the Fight" in 1983, I was asked to write a review about it for the college newspaper. Since I was a know-it-all who considered anything recorded after 1970 not to be worth my while, I didn't have the greatest things to write about the record.

Hey, that was a quarter-century ago. What did I know?


What I do know is that hearing B.E. perform "Vitamin L" at the recent benefit concert for Tony Janflone Jr. was an experience that certainly transcended writing for the school paper. With a stellar cast, including "Vitamin L" composer Rick Witkowski on guitar, B.E. had the audience members where he wanted them, including yours truly.

A highlight of the performance was a bass solo by Tommy Bellin, who does a jaw-dropping rendition of Vince Guaraldi's "Linus and Lucy" in mid-song. Aspiring bass players might want to study Johnny's technique closely. Tommy, by the way, plays regularly with No Bad Ju Ju, a band that's definitely worth catching.

Here's the full video version of "Vitamin L."

And if you run across a 1983 copy of the IUP Penn with a writeup on B.E. Taylor, please ignore it.

Pittsburgh's Mr. R&B

The one time I met Billy Price, I thought I'd impress him by bringing along a CD of an album on which he sang in the early '70s: Roy Buchanan's "That's What I Am Here For."

Billy took a withering glance at it. "That's a lousy album," was his comment.


Well, I like it, but I wasn't going to argue with him. After all, he's been one of the most popular Pittsburgh performers for three decades.

And seeing Billy perform these days is a heck of a lot different than what he was doing with the late Mr. Buchanan in the day. That was in kind of a blues-rock motif, punctuated by Roy's feedback-laden, virtuoso guitar, good listening for college kids sitting around their apartment (the first time I heard it), but ...

Today's Billy Price Band is a rhythm-and-blues shot of energy, with Bill delivering the suitably gritty vocals of a seasoned veteran. And he has a crack supporting cast that epitomizes the polished, professional R&B revue.

Billy joined the top-flight crew of musicians who gathered recently to help fellow performer Tony Janflone Jr., the Washington guitarist who is recovering from injuries so he can return to the stage (and play more benefits on behalf of others, and he's done countless times in the past).

With my video camera perched atop a video game machine at the Rhythm House in South Fayette Township, I captured the Billy Price Band in performance. Here are some tunes from that show, all from the band's 2006 album, "East End Avenue":

• "Keep It to Yourself" (Price, Tiven, Tiven)
• "Soul Sailin'" (Mike Sweeney)
• "If You Cook Like You Walk" (Jimmy Britton)

Here's another one: Bobby Lexing's "Bump and Grind." For whatever reason, my recorder cut off the end. Plus, from my vantage point, guitarist Steve Delach was standing behind a speaker, so I couldn't catch the visuals of him playing his hot licks.

And yes, catching the band live beats sitting around listening to "That's What I Am Here For." (Sorry, Roy, wherever you are.)