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November 28, 2023

Newly Discovered Songs from Springfield Mo.

“Doubles on Ice is a previously unheard Lou Whitney composition and I always wanted to use the image of a figure skater in a celebration of Lou.

 

A couple of years ago recording engineer Eric Schuchmann was doodling around The Studio, the beloved recording space on the outskirts of Springfield, Mo. He stumbled across a DAT tape marked “publishing demos 98-99.” Schuchmann had been long-time right-hand man for the brilliant bandleader-bassist-singer-producer Lou Whitney.

Whitney was also the spiritual force behind the great American rock n’ soul bands The Skeletons, The Morells, and the seminal [...]

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September 2, 2023

The Sun Will Never Set On The Spirit Of Jimmy Buffett

 

Jimmy Buffett was a best-selling author, songwriter, businessman, airplane pilot, sailor, surfer, father, husband, environmentalist, tequila drinker, dog lover, and more. Yes, he lived a huge life.

Buffett died on Sept. 1 from cancer. He was 76 years old.

The thread of all his magical pursuits is how he paid attention to detail.

Jimmy Buffett listened for every heartbeat.

He found a twinkle in the eyes of everyone he met.

I have dozens of Buffett stories. Twice I brought Richard Harding and his daughter Catherine to Buffett shows in the Chicago area. Richard Harding was the grizzled owner of the Quiet Knight music room south of [...]

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July 28, 2023

“Beatle Bob” Matonis, a life of music: 1953-2023

Bob Matonis, we loved you yeah, yeah yeah.

One of America’s greatest rock n’ roll fans known as “Beatle Bob” Matonis died on July 27  in his native St. Louis, Mo. He was 70 years old. He died of complications from ALS.

Matonis spent decades dancing a mosh-up of the Twist and the Frug in the front rows of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, South by Southwest in Austin, Tx. FitzGerald’s in Berwyn and hundreds of other music clubs. He often wore black suits that matched his black bangs, even as the world spun into global warming,

Matonis said he saw 9,439 days of concerts in a row.

That number was in an e-mail he sent out earlier this year [...]

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July 5, 2023

The Hibbing that Shaped the Life of Bob Dylan

Early “North Country Blues” in Hibbing.

 

HIBBING, MN.–I drove alone into the north country unguarded. I carried no expectation or pretense. A songbird hovered along a roadside lake. A good highway leads to connections.

Hibbing did not disappoint.

I thought Hibbing would be a nice companion piece to last summer’s trip to the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Ok. Robert Zimmerman was born May 24, 1941, in Duluth, 75 miles to the east of Hibbing. But he spent his formative years in Hibbing. When Dylan was seven years old his father Abram moved the Zimmerman family to Hibbing where he opened [...]

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