Hard Times Come Again No More

We’ll keep hoping that soon Hard Times Come Again No More. But until then, let’s rock the f out tonight on Handful of Brains (Tuesday 7 – 9 PM on WRIR 97.3 FM Richmond Independent Radio)! We’ve got music from The Thermals, moe., Dire Straits, Guster, Arlo Guthrie, Death Bells, Cory Wong, Tami Neilson, Donald Fagen, & The Mommyheads!

Here's a link to the show: http://files.wrir.org/shows/202008041900.HandfulOfBrains.mp3 and a link to the playlist: https://www.wrir.org/2020/08/04/hard-times-come-again-no-more/#playlist

(Photo: Corbis)

Weekend Picks: Arlo Guthrie, Benefit for Jason & Liz Throckmorton, People's Blues of Richmond, John Kadlecik Band, DJ Williams Projekt, Mekong Xpress

People's Blues of Richmond will play their show that was postponed by snow last weekend on Thursday night and I can't think of a much better, or louder, way to start your weekend. That goes down at The Broadberry. Tix are $10 advance, $15 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with Jouwala Collective opening. They'll be touring in February out west to Colorado, San Francisco, Nevada, Nebraska, St. Louis and Chicago so come give them a good Richmond send off. Here's their full set on 3/5/15 at Ziggy's in Winston-Salem when they opened for JJ Grey & Mofro.



Friday, Mekong Express will get funky at Cary Street Cafe. That gets underway at 10 and it's $7 to get in. Here they are playing "The Pushback".



Saturday afternoon, from noon to 7, there is a special Benefit for Jason & Liz Throckmorton. "Jason & Liz Throckmorton were involved in a terrible accident recently, they were both injured badly and Jason, unfortunately, lost his mother in the same accident. While they are recovering at home now, Jason will not be able to go back to work for quite some time and will need some financial assistance to help with his bills." The event takes place at Cary St. Cafe. This event was put together quickly so only one band, British Sterling, is confirmed. but I'm sure there will be some other fine music and it's a great cause, so stop by and contribute and have a beer or two.

Saturday and Sunday at Modlin Center for the Arts Alice Jepson Theatre, folk legend Arlo Guthrie brings his multimedia show, "Alice's Restaurant 50th Anniversary Tour" to the stage. "Curated with talented musical guests, an awe-inspiring light show, and previously unseen images from the Guthrie archive, this performance will spotlight the Thanksgiving events that transpired in 1965." Tickets range from $10 to $50 depending on who and what you are. The show starts at 7:30 PM both nights. Here's a clip of Arlo doing "The Motorcycle Song" from an earlier performance on this tour. It starts with a little claymation based on the song, Arlo talks for a moment and then Arlo and the band play the full song.

Over at The Broadberry Saturday, guitarist John Kadlecik brings his band to town. John was a founding member of Dark Star Orchestra and then was tapped to join Phil Lesh & Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead in Furthur. Tix are $15 advance, $17 day of show. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9 and no opener is listed. John still plays with the Dead guys every once in a while. He'll be joining Phil Lesh & Friends for two shows in Vegas in February. John doesn't just play Grateful Dead songs. He also plays songs from The Police, Bill Withers, Traffic, Jimmy Cliff, Dylan, some originals and here's one from Pink Floyd:



Tuesday night at The Broadberry, DJ Williams Projekt performs for your pleasure. Doors open at 8, show starts at 9. It's $8 to get in. No opener is listed. The band will playing at The Broadberry every Tuesday night in February with a different theme each night. This Tuesday in Funk Night and few get funkier than DWP! Here they are doing Band of Gypsys' "Power of Soul". Not sure if they'll do this on Funk Night or save this for Rock Night. Go both nights and find out.



That'll do it. Have a great weekend! I'll leave you with a new song that sounds like old school funk with a twist from Bibio. It's not much of a video but I dig the song. This is "Feeling":



And I'll bring you a classic too. Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton doing Dylan's "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right":



Tony Jordan

Arlo Guthrie, No BS Brass Band, Victor Wooten:Late Night Pick of the Night

This is gonna be a quick one for two reasons.  1 - There isn't much going on this weekend.  2 - I'm tired from the Dumpstaphunk show last night, which was a great, fun, funky, crazy time (as predicted) but went a little later than a thought but it's Friday so I knew I could rally for a few hours and make it to the weekend.

No BS! Brass Band will be at The Camel tonight (Friday).  Door at 8, show starts at 9, $7 to get in.  Here's No BS! rockin' the field at Best Friend's Day here in Richmond in 2009:


Folk legend Arlo Guthrie will be at University of Richmond, Camp Concert Hall, Booker Hall of Music.  That's a really long venue name. Tickets run from $10 to $40 depending on if you are a U of R student, how old you are, whether you have a Q in your name and a number of other demographic factors.  Here's Arlo doing the "Motorcycle Song".  I, for one, think that one could have a pickle and ride a motorcycle at the same time, but Arlo begs to differ:


After seeing Dumpstaphunk which has two bass players playing their basses at the same time for an extra deep funky sound (they put the dumpsta in the dumpstaphunk), I got a hankerin' for more bass and who better to provide that bass than a guy who was picked by Rolling Stone readers as one of the top 10 bassists of all time.  That would be Victor Wooten of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.  Victor will be on Jimmy Fallon tonight at 12:35 AM on NBC.

Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

Terence Simien, Arlo Guthrie, Ani DiFranco webcast

A quick blog to update you on Thursday's happenings.  Meant to do a full blog last night but fell asleep while putting my son to bed and didn't wake up until late.

Terrence Simien will be at Jumpin' at the VA Museum of Fine Arts tonight.  Tickets are $14, gates open at 6 and the show starts at 6:30.  No word on if there is an opener but none is listed.  Terence is a master of zydeco (he won a Grammy for Best Zydeco or Cajun Album in 2007) and he apparently brought the weather from New Orleans too.  But at least you know the heat & humidity won't affect him much.  Hell, it will probably make him feel right at home.   Here's Terrance and the band last week:


BTW, I just noticed that YouTube put a little soccer ball icon under the videos.  Pressing it adds the ominpresent (at least if you've been watching the World Cup) sound of the vuvuzelas to the video.  Love it.  Vuvuzelas sounds like something Dr. Seuss made up.

While Arlo Guthrie is not from New Orleans he does sing a song called "City of New Orleans" so perhaps he is responsible for this weather also.  Arlo will be at Groovin' in the Garden tonight at Lewis Giner Botanical Garden tonight.  Doors open at 5:30, show starts at 6 with George Truman opening.  Reserve seats are $50, general admission is $30.  Arlo is a master storyteller, both spoken and in song.  Here's Arlo up in NYC recently with a story and then "Coming Into Los Angeles":


Also, tonight, if you want to stay at home in your AC, Ani DiFranco will be doing a webcast of her show at 11 PM at http://creativeallies.com/.

We'll be back tonight with the weekend happenings.

Tony Jordan

A case for The Hooters; Cracker and other weekend shows

Shows of note this week.

Cracker plays an acoustic gig along with the Hackensaw Boys at Toad's Place on Thursday night. Doors open at 7:30 and tix are $15. This is a benefit show. Here's why:

A Benefit For Bryan Hoffa, Sound of Music Engineer, Producer, and Musician. Bryan was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a serious but curable disease in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheath surrounding the spinal cord. As a result, the nervous system is short-circuited and varying levels of paralysis effect the body.

Thankfully Bryan is now in recovery but it involves months of physical therapy and a long time away from work.

Some of Richmond's finest musicians have donated their time and talents to help the Hoffa family during this difficult time. All proceeds from this show will go to their daily living expenses.

W.A.S.P. will be at Toad's on Tuesday. Show starts at 9 PM and tickets are $20. If you like your hair big, you bands loud, and a guy named Blackie Lawless in the band (despite what you think of the band, that is a cool rock and roll name), this is the show for you.

Serj Tankian of System of a Down is at Toad's on Wednesday. Show starts at 8:30 and tickets are $30.50.

Outformation plays at the Canal Club on Friday. I think it starts at 9 PM but there is something wrong with the Canal Club site and I can't get to their calendar. Outformation is a jam band in the tradition of Widespread Panic.

Arlo Guthrie plays at the Modlin Center for the Arts on Sunday and Monday night. Shows start at 7:30. Tickets are $36. Arlo is a master between-song storyteller and has some true classics in his repretoire (City of New Orleans, Alice's Restaurant).

New Riders of the Purple Sage bring their psychedelic cowboy music to the Capital Ale House Downtown on Tuesday. Doors open at 8 and tix are $20.

Also wanted to point out that The Hooters are back! Here's an article about them in the Philly Inquirer: http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20080205_STILL_HOOTER-RIFIC.html.

You may be thinking, "Come on, Tony.. The Hooters?!?". I grew up in Philly in the 80s. The Hooters were our hometown boys made good. We had been listening to them since they had released their first independent album, Amore, in 1983. That album featured many of the songs that would appear on Nervous Night, in their more raw and ska-influenced versions. It still is a great album. (I still have the cassette.) This was back in the days when a major local station would still play local music and WMMR played the Hooters all the time.

I first saw the Hooters live a week before Nervous Night was released. They played at Glassboro (now Rowan) College's All College Day/Spring Fling show in a field at the college so me and a few of my friends in high school went. They put on a great, spirited live show and you could see that they were all excellent players, after having built their reputation in Philly on their live show. That was one of stranger shows I ever saw, as the openers were local new wave band Beru Revue and Run DMC, who had yet to hit big. I dug Run DMC that day too. But that's another story for another day.

When Nervous Night broke big, Philly was excited. Sure, the album was overproduced and added a little too much sugary sheen (and a little less ska) to their sound. But, they were our home town boys made good and they didn't abandon Philly for NY or LA. They filmed their videos in Philly (And We Danced was filmed at a local drive-in theater). They still played in Philly. They opened Live Aid in Philly. They broadcast their big Thanksgiving show on MTV from Philly.

Their popularity began to wane but I would still catch them on occassion playing clubs in Philly. They moved into more of an Americana type sound, which was more in line with what I had moved into. They were still writing excellent songs for themselves and other people (Joan Osborne's hit, One of Us).

I'm looking forward to hearing their new album, Time Stand Still, and if you want to hear it, you can check a couple tunes out on http://www.myspace.com/thehooters. If you think they were just an 80s pop act, give them a listen.

Finally, if you every wanted to know the TRUE story (well, maybe) about the making of the song Footloose, check this out: http://youtube.com/watch?v=nX1Nh6c80wo. I never knew that a drunk Michael McDonald could weild a machete with such ferocity. Be warned there is some nasty language in this clip so watch your volume if at work or with the kids.

Oh, and check the couple items below that I added over the week but didn't send out an email update for.

Have a great weekend.

Tony Jordan