February 8, 2014 Clark Paterson at the Tonic Room - Concert #3

These are the sad faces of my dogs as I left them behind to head to the city for the early show at The Tonic Room tonight. I am trying to keep up with my attempt to see fifty concerts in this my fiftieth year. We are five weeks into the year and tonight's show will be number three for me and a second visit to The Tonic Room. 

After a slow drive through the snow on the Dan Ryan and a quick subway ride up from Chinatown, I make it to the Tonic Room to see Clark Paterson perform tonight. I'd never heard of him until I saw he was performing here tonight. That's what this concert plan I have is all about...checking out all kinds of music. After the band set up the stage, the bass player grabbed his acoustic guitar and performed solo as the opening act.

This is Simon Flory and I really enjoyed his songs. Well written country songs that had me smiling at the lyrics. For example one song had a reference to John Hiatt and Bobby Bare. From what I could gather from his between songs banter, he is from Arkansas and currently lives in Texas. He was really good at changing his singing style to fit the songs he played. I got a chance to talk to him after the show and picked up his CD, Unholy Town. He said he should be back in Chicago this summer. I would recommend checking him out.

 Clark Paterson and his band took the stage after Simon and it took a few songs for me to get into the songs. Clark has a distinct raspy voice that took didn't seem to suit the songs... 

 ...but by the time he covered "Hungry Heart" by Bruce Springsteen as a country song I found myself enjoying the show. Clark really made that song his own which I love when artists do that with well known songs. I loved the pedal steel guitar sounds especially on Hungry Heart played by Brian Wilke. (Hope I got his name right.)

That's Bill Brown on drums and Simon Flory on bass. Clark's songs crossed between country and rock'n'roll pretty good. I am a lyrics first music fan and some of Clark's songs grabbed me, some didn't. That's just my opinion not a criticism because he sang the songs like they meant something to him. That's very important to me because if the singer doesn't get into the song, why should I? I said a quick hello (Clark knew quite a few people in the bar but he took a moment to talk to me) and bought both of his CD's. I do have to admit that I really enjoyed his latest CD, Walkin' Papers. If I actually make it to fifty shows I will end up with a hell of a lot of new music, an added bonus that I didn't consider when I hatched this crazy plan. I truly do believe in supporting live music and the artists that entertain me. Thanks to this crazy internet thing, you can check out both of these musicians...maybe you will find a new favorite song.

After a visit to the always entertaining bathroom wall at the Tonic Room. I headed home...

....where I saw this interesting message on a DePaul Building near the Fullerton Red Line station. I love being in the city.

February 2, 2014 Snow Hike At Indiana Dunes State Park

We stopped at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Visitor Center on our way to the dunes this morning. The ranger at the center showed us this amazing video of the shelf ice on Lake Michigan.

Then we headed out to the Indiana Dunes State Park to see it for ourselves.

 We hiked to and from the beach on Trail 7 today. We were the only people without snowshoes that we saw today. And yes, we sank in the high snow up to our thighs.

 The old girl, Roxie, is usually so slow we take her off leash...

...today she was so exited to go hiking she led the way.

A couple snowshoeing ahead of us.

We are on the beach now but the snow covered the ice shelf and it was impossible to tell where the beach ended and the lake began.

Oslo had to remove snow from his paws several times on our hike.

The shelf ice is pretty high above the water.

Roxie headed back through deep snow...

...Chrissy and I both fell in up to our thighs.

I got better pictures from on top of the dunes. You can see how far out the ice is on the lake.

This has been the coldest and highest snowfall winter in a very long time around here.

Oslo getting pissed off about the snow in his paws. He actually let me remove the snow from his paws today. He never lets anyone touch his paws.

We stopped at the beach parking lot to take a few pictures. Here you can see how much higher the ice is over the beach. 

Of course there are warnings all over about the dangerous shelf ice. It felt good to go hiking today. Afterwards we had lunch at Bartlett's on Route 12. It all added up to a fun day.

February 1, 2014 The Merry Ploughboys at Gaelic Park - Concert #2

Due to various excuses (bad weather, working too much, old, fat and tired), I have fallen behind my pace of a show a week so I can see 50 concerts this year. So when our dinner plans changed due to bad weather, I decided to met up with some friends at Gaelic Park to see The Merry Ploughboys. They are a Dublin band that own a pub with the same name. So if you are ever in Dublin, look them up.

 The all day snow storm did not dampen the spirits of the very Irish crowd at Gaelic Park tonight and The Merry Ploughboys did their best to warm up a cold night with traditional Irish music. They mixed in bar sing-a-long songs with ballads and drinking songs that had everyone singing and clapping along all night. The band traded off lead vocals which always adds a different sound to each song. 

 The band was definitely having fun on stage which usually means the crowd is doing the same. Tonight was no exception. I had a great time enjoying a few Harp beers with my friend Mike. I also want to thank Kim, Molly, Brian, Sheila and John for including me in their group. Sheila is friends with members of the Merry Ploughboys. The band even wrote a song called Chicago Town about her father. I think this is how Molly got picked to come onstage and seductively put on one of the band's t-shirts. 

 Here Gareth explains that in 25 years of doing this, they have never had a man up on stage to do this...

...and Molly was a good sport about it and got a free t-shirt and CD from the band.

After the show, I had a chance to talk music with Gareth Campbell, the mandolin player in the band. I also talked with Molly about music therapy, which is her job at a local hospital. It was interesting to talk about how music is used in such different ways...the band plays it to entertain people drinking in a bar, Molly plays it to soothe or distract little kids from the reason they are in a hospital. It really made me think just how amazing and powerful music can be. I'm also glad I went out tonight to enjoy it with a few beers. Maybe tomorrow I will use it to soothe a medical condition commonly known as a hangover. Two shows down, forty-eight to go.

January 11, 2014 New Year, New Idea (Also The First Show of the Year - The Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival)

Happy New Year to anyone who reads this blog. I hope this is the year you realize all of life's amazing possibilities. Everyone has big plans at this time of the year, do not end this year by saying "I should have done that"...like the Nike ad says...JUST DO IT! Here's what I am going to attempt. Last year I created a Social Club to try and get people to hang out at various events. I want to thank everyone who showed up to any or all of those events. I really enjoyed the idea but I have decided to try something else this year. The Social Club may have a few events this year but it will not be a monthly occurrence like last year. That said, here's my idea for 2014. I love music. I love live music even more. A few years ago, I read a story about Robert Christgau. He has been the rock critic for the Village Voice for as long as I can remember. (I know he no longer works there). For his 60th birthday, he went to a live music show for 60 straight days. Since I am turning 50 this year, I have decided to try to see 50 shows this year and I am inviting everyone to join me. You can contact me if you want to either invite me to a show you are going to or check which shows I am already going to and join me. The shows can be as big as Lollapalooza and as small as an open mic night at the corner pub...I just want to see someone playing music. My plan is to use this blog to report on the shows that I attend. Hopefully some of you will discover that you like one of the bands that I have seen play live and check them out. As I have said repeatedly, "Please support live music as often as you can." 

A few days ago, I read about The Chicago Bluegrass & Blues Festival in the Chicago Reader. It is a month long festival that takes place in various clubs from January 10th until February 8th. So I decided to see the show at the Tonic Room tonight. This place is a very small narrow bar...how small...imagine a band playing in your living room. This is not a bad thing, actually it is a very good thing. Because the sound is fantastic mostly due to the talented guy running the soundboard. 

 The first band was The Howlin Brothers from Nashville. I spent a few minutes talking music and Nashville with Ian, the fiddle and banjo player, before they played. He recommended Layla's Bluegrass Inn, Robert's Western World and The Wheel for anyone visiting Nashville. They sounded great. The music was upbeat and people were dancing on the small dance floor. All three of them took a turn or two on lead vocals, which I love when bands do that. It gives a different sound to each song and all three of them play and sing exceptionally well. Jared loved to dance while playing guitar. He even brought along a small dance floor that he used on stage so he could two step while he played. Whenever they switched song tempos they kept the crowd into the songs, like when they switched from the rave up of "Monroe" (I think that was the title of the song) to the slow smoky "Tennessee Blues". I loved the music, the sound and the well worn look of the guitar and stand up bass. The best description I can give is they play infectious dance hall ravers if your dance hall is located in a barn...and I mean that as a huge compliment. I'd like to thank the bass player Ben for telling me that my idea to see 50 shows because I am turning 50 this year was one of the coolest things he's heard. After their set, Dr. John's "Right Place, Wrong Time" played over the PA system. Perfect. It's gonna be a good night.

Like I said before, this place was small, so changing bands was quite a challenge with equipment everywhere. So I took pictures while the next band set up. This band has the best band name I've heard in years...ClusterPluck. And they were great on stage tonight.

Once again tonight, I got to see a talented band that loves to play live and have fun...so did the crowd.

This five piece band from St. Louis swapped instruments and lead vocals while harmonizing throughout their set.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a good picture of the guitar player on the right side of the stage because he was an incredible singer. This band has stage presence and is great at setting the mood of a song whether it was a fast dance number or a soulful slow song. I loved every song they played tonight. I also enjoyed talking music and artistic talents with acoustic bass player, Justin. Check these guys out if you enjoy good music.

I always judge music clubs by the bullshit written on the bathroom walls. The crazier the graffiti, the better the music club. This places passes the test. 

I loved this sign above the stage.

This artwork pretty much covered what the crowd looked like in the Tonic Room tonight.

 Acoustic Anonymous was the headliner tonight. Another very talented band that straddled the line between picking and grinning and just plain jamming. Again multiple lead vocalists with various styles. It seemed to be a theme tonight and I really enjoyed it.

 The only electric instrument all night was the bass player for AA. I am not the biggest fan of jam bands, but when these guys stretched out their songs, I enjoyed the groove. I really enjoyed the wide variety of songs but by the end of the night, the crowd wanted to dance and ignored the slower songs...which was too bad because this band was very good at playing both types of songs.

He's playing bongos here, but he was really good on harmonica all night. Sorry but I could not find the names of the guys in this band. But I would like to thank the young couple, Craig & Becca that talked music with me all night. They recommended the following bands to me...Altan, Steel Drivers, Trampled By Turtles, Railroad Earth, Elephant Revival and Signal Ridge. So check them out, I know I will. I have 49 more shows to go.