Live Music in Minnesota in 2014

Most but not all of the live music that we see nowadays is free or cheap, mostly outdoor concerts over the summer months. Precious little of it is your conventional concert in a stadium or concert hall and with a ticket price in the $20 up to $100 range. Fortunately, there is a wealth of music in venues that suit our taste pretty well and most of it is free or maybe there's a $6 cover or thereabouts. So with that in mind, here's a quick tour of the live music that we saw in 2014.

Live Music in 2014 Best Shows

1. Robben Ford with Greg Koch Band—Lowertown Guitar Fest (Mears)

Ford really commands the stage playing world-class guitar in support of capable vocals and an engaging stage personality. The Greg Koch Band was a perfect complement. Make a note to watch for Dylan Koch, drummer, to emerge someday, and maybe not too far off into the future, as a great, great player. I mean, he already is that, but someday he’ll be recognized as such.

But returning to Ford, I’d call him smooth or pop-rock/pop-blues, and he is very very highly recommended. An underrated artist, at least based on what I have heard of him in my little corner of the world.

Mears Park is a downtown park in St. Paul and it is a terrific venue for live music, though it is subject to the weather.

2. New Standards—Music in Mears

I had the pleasure of meeting Chan Poling, keyboard player and vocalist for the New Standards and formerly The Suburbs, at a private party this year, and was embarrassed to admit I had never seen the New Standards. Consisting of Chan’s keyboards, John Munson on standup bass, Steve Roehm on vibraphone, and Poling and Munson on vocals, it turns out they have the freshest sound around, and create exceptionally original and pleasing versions of, well, new standards—songs that most people would recognize from the 1980s to the present.

Their signature  is the Suburbs’ biggest hit, “Love Is the Law,” featuring a really lovely little riff in the piano and vibraphone, which is really their signature sound as well. Online you can find versions of "Love Is the Law" with horn sections playing that riff, and with drums, and other instrumentation. If you see them live, and especially if you see them free, you'll probably just see the trio. Either way, this is a terrific band.

3. High 48s—Loring Park, Franconia Sculpture Park and Aster Café

A high 48 is a specific type of rail box car. The High 48s are a traditional bluegrass band based in the Minnepolis area. I tend to be more of a newgrass guy, but these guys do traditional bluegrass right, with tremendous energy and precision. They’re just fun, fun, fun, so we saw them three times this year.

4. The Butanes—Shaw’s

The Butanes are billed as a blues band but that’s just playing to the local market. What they really do is blue-eyed soul and light R & B, and feature the classic Hammond B-3 organ sound. Their version of Booker T.’s “Time is Tight” was a highlight for the year.  On this particular night, they also had Maurice Jacox singing with them and his version of Sam and Dave’s “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, Something Is Wrong With Me” was terrific.

5. Jim Campilongo--Lowertown Guitar Fest (Mears)

All I can say is the guy sitting next to me came all the way from Wausau, WI, to hear Robben Ford, but he left with a Jim Campilongo record under his arm. His “Blues for Roy,” a tribute to Roy Buchanan, was absolutely great and inspired me to go back and rediscover Roy on You Tube. Roy’s “Sweet Dreams” became another of my big hits of 2014 along with Jim’s “Blues for Roy.”

6. Communist Daughter—Music in Mears

7. Fort Wilson Riot—Music in Mears

8. Small Cities—Music in Mears

I have a Communist Daughter EP but the other two bands were new to me. Both impressed. Communist Daughter, meanwhile, was better than I expected. In concert, their music rocks more than it does on disc, with a fair emphasis on percussion, at least on certain tunes.

9. Rosie Flores—Lowertown Guitar Fest (Mears)

Rosie is surely in her 60s (age-wise) and she is a marginal guitarist and just a passable vocalist. But she just exudes personality and makes her songs her own by the force of that personality. So she was in fact very very entertaining. 

10. Willie & the Bees Reunion—The Cabooze

Willie & the Bees were the best "local" rock 'n' roll band ever in the Twin Cities, though it would be more accurate to say they were a blue-eyed soul band. Their heyday was in the 1980s, and this was like their 2nd performance together in almost 30 years. We used to see them at a downtown Minneapolis dive called Moby Dick's that was bulldozed in maybe the early 1990s.

The fact is they were pretty rusty, so this was for nostalgic value mostly. On that score, it was a fine event.

Live Music 2014 Awards

Best Artist—Robben Ford

Best Band—Robben Ford with the Greg Koch Band

Best Vocals—Maurice Jacox with the Butanes

Best Guitar—Robben Ford

Best Keyboards—Chan Poling, New Standards

Best Bass—Roscoe Beck, Greg Koch and Robben Ford bands

Best Drums—Dylan Koch, Greg Koch and Robben Ford bands

Best Other Instrument—Steve Roehm, vibraphone, New Standards

Best Songs*

*This list includes songs that weren’t necessarily performed in these concerts, but that these concerts inspired me to go out and find and listen to, such as  Roy Buchanan’s “Sweet Dreams,” inspired by Jim Campilongo’s “Blues for Roy.” Similarly, the Butanes covered Booker T.’s “Time Is Tight,” but it is Booker T.’s version that makes this list.

           

1. Sweet Dreams—Roy Buchanan*

2. Blues for Roy—Jim Campilongo

3. Time Is Tight—Booker T. and the MGs, covered by The Butanes*

4. When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, Something Is Wrong with Me—The Butanes with Maurice Jacox

5. Love Is the Law—The New Standards

6. Snow Day—The New Standards

7. Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Cryin’—Robben Ford

8. Speed of Sound—Communist Daughter

9. Ghosts—Communist Daughter

10. Supermarket—Willie & the Bees

Actually the highlight of the High 48s was a guest appearance by Derek Johnson, formerly of the High 48s and now of course with Monroe Crossing. He is brother of the High 48s mandolinist Chad Johnson who is also now leaving the band. The gig at the Aster Café on November 28 was a “farewell to Chad.” So Derek showed up, and Chad and Derek played a lovely duet, and then Derek played a tune or two with the band. I don’t recall what Chad and Derek played but it was indeed lovely and would be top 10 except I don’t remember what song they played.

2nd Annual Lowertown Guitar Fest--Robben Ford, Jim Campilongo, Rosie Flores are 2nd to none

Yesterday's (Saturday August 9, 2014) 2nd annual Lowertown Guitar Festival in Mears Park in downtown St. Paul, MN, turned out to be a fabulous and worshipful day of guitar-based music featuring Rosie Flores; Jim Campilongo; Greg Koch and his band; and, finally, Robben Ford, "the master," as Koch described him, and Ford did not disappoint, not even close.

Rosie Flores, "little but loud" as one of her songs quite accurately describes her, is a force of nature at 64 years of age, still playing and quite evidently still loving the 1950s rock 'n roll of her childhood including songs of Elvis Presley, Janice Martin and more. She is neither the greatest guitarist nor the greatest singer--despite her diminutive size, she is a shouter in the tradition Wanda Jackson, another of her idols--but she is an incredibly engaging personality and entertainer.

Later I saw her sitting in the audience watching the artists who followed, which is quite unusual and amazing in its own right. I approached her and said that my friends and I had loved her set. "Thanks for coming to St. Paul to play for us." She thanked me quite humbly, but did not forget to say, "Then come see me at Lee's Liquor Lounge on Thursday."

So, Twin Cities music fans, if you read this in time--it's Rosie Flores, force of nature, at Lee's Liquor Lounge at 10:30 p.m. Thursday, August 14, 2014. If you have not seen her, do it now.

Jim Campilongo followed with a set of instrumental music--meaning there was no singing, and so he plays his songs' main melodies along with all the fill and filigree needed to make them really come alive--sort of like Roy Buchanan playing, say, Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams." (If you don't know what I'm talking about, by all means visit You Tube and find Roy Buchanan at Austin City Limits in 1976.)

Campilongo's second song, "Blues for Roy," was a heart-felt tribute to Buchanan, and when applause greeted Campilongo's mention of Buchanan's name, Campilongo was obviously pleased. "You remember," he said. "That's great."

Still much of his set consisted of substantially chunkier tunes reminiscent of Jeff Beck or Frank Zappa. On the other hand, "The Prettiest Girl in New York" was more in the spirit of Les Paul and Chet Atkins. So I guess eclectic is the word.

And you've got to love a guy with a sense of humor, right? You know, as exemplified by song titles like "Heaven Is Creepy" and "I'm Helen Keller and You're a Waffle Iron." He also does a song called "Manic Depression," not, as he said, the Hendrix tune but rather inspired by the Hendrix tune and meant to convey how it feels to have manic depression. Okay.

Whatever. The bottom line is that the guitar player sitting next to me, who had come all the way from Wausau, WI, left with a new Campilongo disc and nothing by Ford.

Greg Koch followed, a returnee from last year's 1st annual Lowertown Guitar Festival. The man is an awesome machine of guitar technique, but just not the singer-songwriter-entertainer to connect with normal audiences.

Fortunately, this was not a normal audience, this was an audience of guitar geeks, but also Koch has surrounded himself with a remarkable group of supporting musicians--most notably bassist-extraordinaire Roscoe Beck, but also drummer (and son) Dylan Koch, and guest guitarist-singer-songwriter David Grissom.

We saw some terrific bass players today including Campilongo's Hagar Ben Ari, but Beck is something special--a rock/funk/blues veteran/expert of longstanding. And not only that but he, according to Koch is mentoring son Dylan, who is also a student at the MacNally Smith School of Music in St. Paul, major sponsor of the event. Beck and Dylan Koch made up a truly remarkable rhythm section.

(One thing we did not see, however, was a keyboard. Not so much as a one all day long.)

So, all the more wonderful was it that Koch and band stayed on stage to accompany Robben Ford. Ford later remembered Beck as someone he had played with during his earliest days in the music industry, while Koch introduced Ford as "a close personal friend."

Whatever the reason, the quintet was tighter than tight as Ford ripped through a 90-minute set of rock 'n blues classics, beginning with Lee Dorsey's "Everything I Do Gonna Be Funky," and continuing on through Ray Charles' "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" and on to the end. A highlight was a Beck bass solo followed by a dynamic drum solo by Dylan Koch.

But it was Ford focus, and Ford is of course a singer as well as a guitar master so, unlike Campilongo, his guitar is meant to accompany and embellish the vocal but not play the main melody. So it's a more conventional style, to be sure, derivative like most of American rock 'n roll from 1940s and 1950s blues. But derivative is not meant here as a criticism, just a description. I mean, if Clapton is God, basically playing black blues from the 1940s and 1950s, what exactly is Ford? Well, "the master," according to Koch, and based on last night's performance, who could disagree?

I mean, I took a quick tour of You Tube yesterday and watched, mostly, Campilongo and Ford, and said that I thought Campilongo might be a better guitarist. Well, the world need Campilongo and others like him more than it needs another Ford (another Clapton). But, no, Campilongo is not a better guitarist. Ford plays riffs of such complexity and beauty, and plays them so naturally, with such apparent ease.

Naturally, yes, that's the word. And easy, that's another. Not only do Ford's riffs seems natural--perfectly crafted for the song--but his playing is remarkably natural. He makes it look easy while some, like Campilongo and Grissom, to name two, make it look more like labor, work, effort. Rosie Flores is, in fact, another who makes it look easy and natural, like burpin' and fartin.' Yeah, of course it's easy, it's what I do.

And that--natural and easy, or workmanlike--like whether music is "derivative" or "original," is not a judgement call. One's not better than the other. They are what they are. But within his oeuvre, Ford indeed proved to be "the master."

Great show. Can't wait for #3.

Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era

Just to give everybody a better idea of what I consider Boomer Rock to be--and what are its most glorious cases--here at the top artists of the rock era.

The Big 4

1. Frank Zappa

I've written a lot more about Frank. Suffice it to say the Zappa Plays Zappa is among my top 10 for the 21C so far.

2. The Beatles

The Shins ain't got nothin' on these guys. They changed my life. I still remember the night I first saw them on Ed Sullivan. I joined my 1st rock and roll band a couple months later.

3. Bob Dylan
4. Bruce Springsteen

A tough pick between these 2 guys but I guess I'll go with Dylan's extra decade of longevity. There's an obvious gap between the Big 4 and the rest of the Inner Circle.

The 5th Beatle

5. Pink Floyd

"Echoes" is the single greatest rock and roll song or "track" of all time.

The Inner Circle (goes thru #33)

6. Leonard  Cohen

"The Future" is the greatest "LP" of the '90s.

7. The Beach Boys

Probably the earliest pop/rock artists of whom I said, "Wow. I have never heard anything like that in my whole life."

8. Ry Cooder

Everything from mainstream rock and R & B and folk-rock to Cuban and Tex-Mex. An incredibly prolific and versatile fellow.

9. Mark Knopfler

Best artist of the 1980s by far.

10. Bela Fleck

Makes the point that a lot of "country" music is rock music at the same time. Not Nashville country, however. Too sweet. But the revival of earlier country styles in and around Austin, Texas, and the revival of bluegrass and new grass music have that old rock and roll spirit oozing out of its amplifiers.

11. Ray Charles

The greatest singer of my lifetime.

12. Paul Simon

Another remarkably durable and versatile and creative force.

13. Jethro Tull

From the most beautiful, melodic music to some of the hardest driving music all from one band.

14. Steely Dan

Pure fun. Plus, my wife's and my 1st date was to a Steely Dan concert. Say no more, say no more.

15. Pat Metheny

Defined fusion guitar.

16. Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac

The most morose and depressive blues you've ever heard, and isn't that what the blues is about? But also incredibly original, ala "Albatross," "Oh Well" and lots more.

17. Talking Heads

One of the most exciting bands ever at their peak, and we mean Stop Making Sense and Remain in Light up through "Nothing but Flowers."

18. Aimee Mann

We used to say that "chicks" couldn't sing rock and roll. More than anybody, it was Aimee Mann who disproved that.

19. Gordon Lightfoot

Has the reputation today as something of a lightweight. But if Joni Mitchell and Judy Collins and others from the folkie side are deserving of respect, then ditto Gordo. "Sit Down Young Stranger" and "The Minstrel of the Dawn" capture that era as much as "Woodstock" and "Ohio."

20. Eric Clapton
21. Jimi Hendrix

#1 and #2 as guitarists, inseparable on the big list, too.

22. Van Morrison

From classics to great '90s and 21C music.

23. Allman Brothers Band

What might have been. But, hey, what was. Just an incredible band.

24. Sufjan Stevens

A true original.

25. Bonnie Raitt

Multi-talented. One of the great women guitarists and bandleaders. But mainly just an impeccable interpreter of a wide range of songs.

26. Arcade Fire--Just 3 LPs but that's only 2 less than the Doors, and their concerts have been a lot more frequent and a lot more satisfying than the Doors for reasons we won't get into.

27. The Doors--Nobody has ever sounded at all like the Doors. What an original and creative group of guys.

28. Jerry Douglas--Incredibly prolific. He always sounds like Jerry Douglas and he never fails to embellish a song with just the right emotion.

29. Iris DeMent--Merle Haggard once called her the greatest singer he had ever heard. He would know.

30. Phil Ochs--Forgotten genius of protest music.

31. Rufus Wainwright--Great performer, have seen him live twice now. And he's got a lot of great material now 15 years since his 1st LP.

32. Led Zeppelin--Again, in their prime, they didn't sound like anybody and nobody sounded like them. I mean, Page and Plant, what a pair. I saw them outplay Eric Clapton and Blind Faith at the Milwaukee Pop Festival in 1969.

33. Neil Young--Hard or soft, Neil could and did get you either way.

And that concludes the Inner Circle.

The Second Tier would include:

34. Los Lobos--Incredibly versatile band. Hard rock, Tex-Mex, acoustic, you name it, they can do it.

35. Indigo Girls

36. Wilco

37. Creedence Clearwater Revival--All-time great singles band.

38. Rolling Stones--Not the greatest rock 'n roll band in the world, really, but there's a lot of great music in that immense catalog.

39. Bill Frisell--Certainly 1 of the great solo instrumental guitarists.

40. Yes--Sure, they represent a sound and a genre that is pretty much passé but in their prime they had a hell of a sound and could and did reproduce it in concert, flawlessly. I guess you had to be there.

41. Alison Krauss

42. Donovan

43. Judy Collins--Possibly the greatest female voice of the rock era.

44. Marvin Gaye
45. Chuck Berry
46. Elvis Presley
47. Prince
48. Orleans
49. Steve Goodman
50. Patsy Cline

Second 50

51. Louis Jordan
52. King Crimson
53. Joni Mitchell
54. Jeff Beck
55. Roy Orbison
56. Tift Merritt
57. Tim Hardin
58. The Byrds
59. Linda Ronstadt
60. Shawn Colvin

61. Marshall Crenshaw
62. Hem
63. Everly Brothers
64. The Animals
65. Mark-Almond
66. David Grisman
67. k.d. lang
68. Radiohead
69. Bruce Cockburn
70. Eagles

71. Zappa Plays Zappa
72. Bob Wills
73. John Phillips
74. Buddy Holly
75. The Who
76. John Fahey
77. The Band
78. Black Keys
79. Al Stewart
80. Auto Body Experience

And that concludes the Second Tier.

The Third Tier would begin with the following and continue on up through about #125 or so though I haven't tried to list them.

81. Steve Forbert
82. Little Feat
83. Natalie MacMaster
84. The Band
85. Procol Harum
86. Lynyrd Skynyrd
87. Hold Steady
88. Jackson Browne
89. John Prine
90. U2

91. Murray McLauchlan
92. Sam Cooke
93. The Doobie Brothers
94. Billy Joel
95. Peter Paul and Mary
96. Bob Marley
97. Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel
98. James McMurtry
99. Sarah Borges
100. Ricky Nelson

Bubbling Under

Joe Walsh
Supertramp
Peter Gabriel
Willie Nelson
Hank Williams
Ray LaMontagne
Zero7

Bobby Darin

The Platters
Willie Murphy
Sheryl Crow
Travis
World Party
Tracy Chapman
Bruce Hornsby
Marty Robbins
The Four Tops
Dave Clark Five
The Grateful Dead

Rock music is in a very good place in 2013-2014

It's tough talking about pop music because it always comes down to this: My music is great, yours sucks. Everything in genre X is better than anything in genre Y. This is especially true when the conversation goes across generations.

So let's be clear. I'm a boomer. I love Boomer Rock: Music that has the sound and the feel and the spirit of music from the 1960s (meaning roughly 1964-1971, give or take).

When I was a kid, of course, adults said, Rock 'n roll is just a fad. It will die when you kids grow up and graduate to "grown up music." Well, the music our parents listened to in the 1960s wasn't "grown up music" at all. It was music that expressed the sound and feel and spirit of the 1930s and 1940s, the swing era, which they had never outgrown.

Sociologists now know that every generation forms its musical tastes during their courtship years, and they ride that horse until they die. So we (Boomers) never abandoned rock 'n roll, we never developed a taste for "grown up music." We're gonna ride that horse until we die.

Like I said, I love Boomer Rock. But unlike many of my peers, I'm not gonna say that your music sucks. I'm just gonna say, I love Boomer Rock. And, further, I'm here to say that rock music (meaning: Boomer Rock) is in a very good place as 2013 gives way to 2014. A very good place indeed. Perhaps the best place it's been since the late 1970s, when punk and disco infringed upon 1960s-style rock 'n roll. Later came hip-hop and grunge. Again, I'm not sayin' they're bad, I'm just sayin' they're not my cup of tea.

And, so, now, if rock is in the best place it has been in 30 years or more, it's pretty simple--that's because as I listen to rock music today, I don't hear punk or grunge or hip-hop influences hardly at all.

You'll notice I didn't mention disco, one of the things that first crowded Boomer Rock out of the mainstream because, of course, there's Daft Punk. The robots discovered disco and laced their electronica heavily with it, bringing in the dance guitar master Nile Rogers, and the result was/is that Daft Punk is suddenly mainstream, a Grammy winner. So there's one exception to my rule, but it comes from the not-rock alternative that is least familiar and thus least offensive to a Boomer Rock sensibility today.

But if it's cheery Brit-pop you like, or liked back in the 1960s (think, of course, the Beatles) , well, now there's Vampire Weekend. If it's the trippy hippie music (think: the Dead), there's Phosphorescent. If it's a little louder, blues-based music that you crave (think: the Stones, Led Zeppelin), there's the Queens of the Stone Age. If it's sunny Southern California singer-songwriters, there's Dawes. It it's something a little darker (the Doors), there's the National. If it's big and progressive, Arcade Fire. Stripped down and quirky (like the Who), the Arctic Monkeys. Folkie, Dylanesque, Jake Bugg. Or if your idea of the '60s is country (Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline), there's Keith Urban, Kacey Musgraves and the Mavericks. Or, more soulful (Motown), there's Lorde and Rhye and John Legend.

Every major trend in '60s music has its parallel. What's harder to find is parallels for punk and grunge and hip-hop and disco. What sounds you hear from these not-Boomer styles is filigree, spice, not core to the music itself.

So here's the best music of 2013 from a boomer point-of-view.

Top Albums

1. Muchacho--Phosphorescent
2. Modern Vampires of the City--Vampire Weekend
3. In Time--The Mavericks

Nothing really says early rock 'n roll like big band country swing and the Mavs are the best at it right now.

4. Same Trailer, Different Park--Kacey Musgraves

Cute beyond words. Yeah, I mean the short skirt and the cowgirl boots with Christmas lights. But I also mean the tunes. Cute and clever and, well, sorta profound, right? The best debut LP by an alt-country diva since Gilliam Welch.

5. We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic--Foxygen
6. Reflektor--Arcade Fire

The weakest of their four LPs. Definitely going counter to the rest of the world, this dance-fusion thing. But these guys are too good not to be interesting.

7. Trouble Will Find Me--The National
8. Jake Bugg
9. Let's Be Still--The Head and the Heart
10. Stories Don't End--Dawes

I hear Jackson Browne at his best.

11. Random Access Memories--Daft Punk

Nothing about this is my cup of tea, but put it all together and it is just irresistibly catchy.

12. Fear Fun--Father John Misty
13. Pure Heroin--Lorde
14. Magpie and Dandelion--Avett Brothers
15. Southeastern--Jason Isbell
16. Babel--Mumford and Sons
17. A.M.--Arctic Monkeys
18. Ghost on Ghost--Iron & Wine
19. Repave--Volcano Choir
20. Like Clockwork---Queens of the Stone Age

Top Songs

1. Follow Your Arrow--Kacey Musgraves

Catchy and politically correct beyond belief.

2. From a Window Seat--Dawes

Great stripped down rock with just perfect understated guitar work.

3. Step--Vampire Weekend

Say what? Unique, clever, trippy.

4. Pink Rabbits--The National
5. Muchacho's Tune--Phosphorescent
6. Back in Your Arms Again--The Mavericks
7. Get Lucky--Daft Punk
8. A Charm/A Blade--Phosphorescent
9. Open--Rhye
10. Shake--The Head and the Heart

11. We Exist--Arcade Fire
12. Merry Go Round--Kacey Musgraves

Can't believe this got the Grammy instead of "Follow Your Arrow," but glad she won.

13. Unbelievers--Vampire Weekend
14. Ride On/Right On--Phosphorescent
15. Shuggie--Foxygen
16. Two Fingers--Jake Bugg
17. All Over Again--The Mavericks
18. Silver Lining--Kacey Musgraves
19. Obvious Bicycle--Vampire Weekend
20. Nancy from Now On--Father John Misty