CityToCity/GerryRafferty

Over the weekend I listened to 2 albums One was City to City by former Stealer's Wheel member Gerry Rafferty best known for there hit "stuck in the middle with you". The album features the hit Baker Street which has great sax played by Raphael Ravenscroft who has played with such artists as Abba,Pink Floyd and Robert Plant. Another Classic song and the other single from the album Right Down the Line. I found this at my mom's house mixed in with some other gems The smoker you drink the player you get by Joe Walsh and the best of America two really great albums. I would recommend all 3. Here is the original video for Baker Street.

RUSH AT THE FAIR!!!

Last night I went to see Rush at the Minnesota state fair grandstand. It was one hell of a show. All though out the night they played stuff from there new album Clockwork Angels and also stuff from the 1981 classic Moving Pictures such as Limelight and Tom Sawyer. They had amazing videos for most of the songs and awesome pyrotechnics. I wish they would have played my favorite song Fly by Night. But they did play some of my other favorites such as Freewill and a weird version Working Man where it started out more relaxed and mellow but then midway though they burst back into the original version which was really cool. It was also Alex Lifeson's 57th Birthday and as a present the crew and band go him a very long corndog and a porkchop on a stick. The drum solo by the greatest living drummer Neil Pert was incredible because it was 8 minutes long it had a cool video to go along with it and in that video I could see pictures of Big band drummer Gene Krupa. I liked the jazzy solo alot to bad that when I recorded it it did not turn out to well.Then at the end we decided to wait for the fire works because we were not in any rush to leave. During the fireworks I released the Tom Emmer for Governor balloon with the hope of it getting destroyed by the fireworks but sadly it just floated the other way. Here is Geddy early on in the show.

Crossroads

On Tuesday I went to Eden Praire AMC theather to see Eric Clapton's Crossroads guitar festival from Chicago. It had every blues and rock preformer you could think of.Buddy Guy,Sonny Landreth,Ronnie Wood,Jeff Beck,Johnny Lang, ZZtop and of course B.B King. The first act was Eric Clapton and one of my favorite guitar players Sonny Landreth. I can tell about all the acts but I will tell you about my favorites.ZZtop played some stuff from Tres Hombres such as Waitin' for the Bus. There was also Vince Gill and Sheryl Crow plus a few others doing Eric's classic lay down sally which was good. Eric doing Voodoo Child with former Blind Faith band member Steve Winwood was awesome as well. Then Wood,Guy and Lang all did a song on stage which was good.
Then at the end they played Sweet home Chicago with Lang,King,Wood,Guy,Cray,Beck and Winter who is very sick. Here is a picture of ZZtops Bass player Dusty Hill when they were showing still pictures of the festival before the show .

Famous Daves Blues Fest

On Saturday June 12 I went to Peavey Plaza in downtown to go the 6th annual Famous Dave’s BBQ & Blues Festival to see Hubert Sumlin, Pinetop Perkins & Willie "Big Eyes" Smith and guitar shorty.It had been raining the whole day but it did not rain during the concert which was a good thing. The cool thing was that Pinetop Perkins was 96 years old and it was his 97th birthday so they brought a cake on stage and we all sang happy birthday it was lots of fun. Then after the show I went to get autographs from the blues legends. There was a line to see Perkins. when I got there he signed a pamphlet I picked up from the Minnesota Blues Foundation. Then I saw Sumlin off to the side and I asked him to sign and he did. I told what an honor it was to meet him and then I thanked him and left. Then about 5 minutes later I went over to Willie "Big Eyes" to get his autograph I said to him that it was an honor to meet him and he signed the pamphlet. Then I went back to ware my mom was sitting so I could get ready for the next act which was Guitar Shorty. Shorty came out on stage and then played for a little bit. Then he came down off the stage and walked through the crowd well playing and I followed him for a little bit with my mom's blackberry. I picked up one his guitar picks that I found on the ground. Then he went back on stage and he played a cover of Jimmi Hendrix's classic song Hey Joe which was good. Then after that we went home.

IOWA Arts fest. The Sonnydogs

On Saturday June 5th I went down to Iowa City to the Iowa arts fest to slide guitar great Sonny Landreth perform live. While I was there I got to see Minneapolis band The Honeydogs who are pictured above. On top is guitarist Brain Hanson and in the middle is the leader of the band Adam Levy. I had seen Levy before at a park near my house but the show was canceled part way through due to tornado sirens and lighting. This time the show was postponed for about 10 to 15 minutes due to a heavy down pore. Then they kept on playing. I had not really heard much of there music before but I liked the show. After the show I went over and got a Cd signed by Adam Levy and he and my mom talked about last summer's show.
Then I made my way up to the front of the stage so I could get a good view of Sonny and also get some good pictures. Landreth’s picture is on the bottom. Sonny played lots of songs from his most recent album From the Reach that features Dr. John, Eirc Clapton, Jimmy Buffet and Dire Straits guitar player Mark Knopfler and many others. Since I have that album on my I pod I knew most of the songs he played. One of the songs he played was a song he wrote about New Orleans after the hurricane called Blue Tarp Blues since he is from Louisiana. At the end of the show I wanted to get a picture with him. Finally I did but when I looked at it later it was blurry I was really pissed. But the concert was fantastic.

Gene Vincent - Long Tall Sally

Here is Gene Vincent in 1963 doing a cover of Little Richard's Long Tall Sally.You can see what the crash did too him.