Contributing an Essay to “Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology”

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I’m pleased to have been invited to submit a contribution to the upcoming  Rust Belt Chic: The Cleveland Anthology, a book that is being assembled and edited by Anne Trubek and Richey Piiparinen. With several dozen contributors, it will be published in September as a trade paperback and an ebook. I completed my piece and submitted it yesterday, a personal essay titled “Remembering Mr. Stress, Live at the Euclid Tavern,” on a venerable Cleveland bluesman and the venue where he played for many years, which proved personal gateways to my lifelong enjoyment of live music. A bit closer to publication I will cross-post the entire essay here on this blog. For now, here are some lines from it.

“The club included a central music room with a low stage for the band and a dance floor, an outdoor area in back, plus a basement bar. It was a veritable cruise ship of nightlife. During breaks between sets I often made new friends in my ambles around the lively deck. In the room opposite the stage was the main bar, a long hitching post of a drinks station where multiple bartenders pulled beer taps and poured liquor. Behind and above them was a sign that became a watchword in my life: “It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you’re on the ground with the turkeys.”

Clevelander or not, if you’re eager to support this exciting self-publishing initiative in cultural urban renewal, you can pre-order copies of the book via this link. You can also support the effort by

–Following us on twitter at @rust_belt_chic

–Liking the Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rust-Belt-Chic-The-Cleveland-Anthology/385206038193184

–Bookmarking the website: http://www.rustbeltchic.com. The site will be updated frequently.

Please help us spread the word.

In the weeks to come I will post more information and additional links related to the anthology and its contributors. For now, here’s a current photo of the Euclid Tavern taken by my sister Pamela Turner along with shots of the artwork and sleeve from the LP that Mr. Stress released in the early 1980s, the period covered in the piece.

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There’s Music in the Trees!

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During NXNE at the unofficial CBC Radio 3 picnic in Toronto’s Trinity-Bellwoods Parks organized by host and author Grant Lawrence, the musicians Adrian Glynn and Zach Gray literally climbed a tree to perform the three songs that made up their excellent set of music. They had funny banter from aloft, including about their band moniker, which I’ve confirmed with Adrian Glynn is Emperor of the North AKA Murder on The Canadian AKA the Caboose Boys. I managed to record one of their tunes as a video on my IPad. I’m glad I got it, even if it cost me a stiff neck to train my device on the two of them for 4 + minutes. Fun stuff. For more info on Adrian and Zach you should go to www.adrianglynn.com and www.thezolasmusic.com. Click through to see all photos and captions.

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Terre Roche, on the “New Busking” in the Music Biz

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I’ve written on this blog about the delightful Friday night singing circle that longtime singer and songwriter Terre Roche leads in NY’s Battery Park most Friday nights in May and June. My wife and son and I went on June 8th and we had a good time, singing along to songs like “The Weight,” “Bird on a Wire,” and “The City of New Orleans,” while getting rained on by a lower Manhattan sun squall and seeing a rainbow.

I’ve also read and enjoyed Terre’s sister Suzzy’s current novel, Wayward Saints, so for me the past few months has been a Roches-inflected season, discovering and rediscovering their creativity. They are clearly a very talented family, and don’t just rest on their laurels for things they did back in the day (with third sister Maggie) as The Roches, with great songs like “Hammond Song,” with its theremin-like lead instrument. It’s still a beautiful song, and deserves a fresh listen, if you haven’t heard it recently, or ever.

Today, Terre’s published a self-aware  NY Times opinion piece titled The New Busking, a somewhat rueful take on how she’s found that trying to generate support for her current music project, a fusion called Afro-Jersey, through Kickstarter and Indiegogo* has inevitably shifted her focus away from creating and more toward networking. Her column reminds me of similar laments I’ve heard from authors who regret the things they have to do get published, or even to surface amid the bevy of authors and books out there nowadays.

As a longtime bookseller, editor, and publisher–in short, not an artist but a member of the commercial class that promotes creative work and shares it with the public, or declines to do so–I have no easy answer for those authors, or for Terre. This is the pass we have come to in the early 21st century–the new busking, indeed. Still, I did want to make note of Terre’s column and say  I recognize the dilemma and the struggle. Somehow, though, I remain hopeful that even while Web platforms such as those she engaged represent a distraction from creative work, they also offer a chance for that work to be heard, seen, and read. Clearly, for better and/or worse, there’s no going back.

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Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 at Bowery Electric

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I happen to have as Manhattan neighbors the venerable indie rocker and songwriter,  Steve Wynn, and his wife, drummer Linda Pitmon. In the 80s, Steve led The Dream Syndicate, a formative post-punk band that’s sometimes mentioned in the same context as REM and the Replacements. On Wynn’s website I see that Trouser Press wrote of him at some point, “What he took from punk had more to do with attitude, noisy energy, abyss-skirting emotions and musical riskiness–qualities, of course, present in the best rock and roll of any scene, era or sub-genre.” I should add that I published a compilation of Trouser Press’s album and band reviews that came out in 1991, The Fourth Edition of the Trouser Press Record Guide: The Ultimate Guide to Alternative Music, edited by Trouser Press maestro Ira A. Robbins. In that book, still a reference I often thumb through for valuable guidance, Ira cites the Dream Syndicate album “Ghost Stories” as the best work they put out.

Nowadays, Steve and Linda often play as part of The Baseball Project, and I’ve heard them perform under that rubric. However, this past Thursday Steve and Linda played at Bowery Electric under the billing Steve Wynn and The Miracle 3. I went to the show and they turned out to be a hard-driving rock n’ roll 4-piece that may be a touch closer to Steve’s longtime rock roots than the baseball songs are. Steve and The Miracle 3  played a great set–although the songs were all new to me, they hooked me in right away–with great musicianship from all four players, including bassist Dave Decastro and lead guitarist Jason Victor. Songs that stuck out for me were “The Deep End,” “Death Valley Rain,” and “That’s What You Always Say.”

My first time in Bowery Electric, the club was also a good ‘hang,’ as I heard one friend in Toronto say during NXNE last week about one of that city’s many splendid music venues, The Dakota Tavern.

An added bonus for this fun night was spying in the crowd a familiar face from suburban Cleveland, where I grew up. I was positive we’d grown up going to some of the same schools in Shaker Heights. After the Miracle 3 had finished their energetic encore, I approached this fellow, and noticed that the woman he was with was showing him on her phone display a 4th quarter score from Game 5 of the Heat-Thunder series, with the Lebron-led Heat way ahead. Given their rueful looks, I knew he must have grown up in Cleveland. I introduced myself, and sure enough, he was John Bendes, a name that struck a bell; though remote in my memory, I was now certain that we had grown up in the same community. I gave him my card that IDs me and this blog and I look forward to being in touch in the future.

Click through for all photos and captions.

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A Brilliant Instrumental Trio [Updated w/News of Their Revival]

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June 19 Update: I wrote on this blog in March that the three albums of the great instrumental trio Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet are being re-issued and now I’m delighted to see that a revival of the band is being mounted this summer. Filling the spot of the late bassist Reid Diamond is The Sadies‘ Dallas Good. CBC Music’s Vish Khanna did an interview with them after the first of their new live shows, which you can read and view at this link.
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Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet were a brilliant instrumental trio whose modified surf sound can still be heard as the theme music on the always funny TV show “Kids in the Hall.” That theme song, “Having an Average Weekend,” and a few others can be heard on this 4-song sampler of their work. I love their insistent beat and inspired musicianship. I believe they wouldn’t be insulted to be called the Ventures of Canadian rock ‘n roll. I believe The Sadies have been influenced by Shadowy Men. According to this item, their three albums are being reissued. [Original blog post published March 19, 2012.]

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Day 6 in Toronto–Heading Home to NYC

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Late evening update: The Publishing People for President Obama fundraiser, held at a handsome downtown loft–which I rushed to after landing at LaGuardia late in the afternoon–was great fun. According to organizer Barbara Lowenstein, it was a big financial success, with nearly $150,000 raised from it. Presidential advisor David Plouffe addressed the group and answered more than a half-dozen questions, making clear that the OBama campaign will draw sharp contrasts wherever they can do so. He was followed to the stage by Rosanne Cash and a fabulous guitarist John Leventhal. They played three songs and made a lot of us in the crowd even more glad we had come to support the president.

Afternoon update: I’m at Pearson Airport in Toronto, soon to board a flight for home to LaGuardia.

My productive and fun visit to Toronto ends today, and I am packing up my room this Monday morning. After I’ve checked out of my hotel and left my luggage with the concierge, I’m heading off to breakfast with my friend and book business colleague Marc Glassman, former owner of Pages Bookstore, and nowadays organizer of Toronto’s This is Not a Reading Series, and film critic. We last saw each other when I came to Toronto for NXNE last June, so we’ll catch up about the past year, including this blog and my new client, Speakerfile. Marc’s coordination of panels for his innovative reading series makes him potentially an ideal person to utilize the Speakerfile platform.

On Sunday, I attended an outdoor performance by the wonderful 6-piece band Ohbijou. They play a special kind of chamber-pop featuring guitar and soaring vocals by Casey Mecija and violin by her sister Jenny. The rest of the instrumentation makes for an unusual and appealing soundscape: electrified cello, keyboards, bass, and drums. In the evening I took the Toronto subway for the first time out to the northern reaches of the city to join a Father’s Day BBQ hosted by the Fish family, my Toronto relations. The family includes Abe and Marcy Fish, a cousin to my late father Earl. This was the second year in a row I was able to join them for this occasion, also after finishing up at NXNE. I enjoy enormously being with Abe and Marcy, and with their son Joel, at whose home we gathered. Surprise arrivals were Arthur and Bonny Fish, at whose vacation home on Prince Edward Island my family and I enjoyed a wonderful evening with their three sons a few years ago.

This whole trip has been my first attempt to more or less live-blog an event and it was a mixed bag, with some growing pains. I regret that the problems I faced in writing and posting about my activities limited my posting–due to the fact that 1) Verizon made fatal mistakes with my account and the SIM card on this IPad before I crossed the border into Canada, denying me access to cellular networks, and leaving me dependent on sporadic Wifi at many venues; and 2) Publishing photos in Wordpress–the environment for this site–on the IPad is a very incomplete interface. In short, I had hoped and intended to post as rich a brand of content as I do from NY, with links and photographs and video, but it just hasn’t worked out that way.

I apologize to readers that these failures limited what I’ve been able to post from Toronto; still, I’m hopeful I will have learned valuable lessons over the past week that I can apply to my blogging the next time I travel.

Next time I post I’ll be back at my desk in NY, eager to upload and share my NXNE photos and write about the many great bands I heard over the past week, the interactive/digital/social media connections I made, as well as the new friends I met, and the great time I had hanging with my CBC Radio 3 friends. Toronto is a great city, vibrant, lively, diverse and cosmopolitan, a true engine of urban discovery.

When I land in NY later this afternoon, I’ll be heading right from LaGuardia to a Publishing for President Obama fundraiser. I look forward to seeing many NY book friends there.

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