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!