READ THIS NOW!! Lots going on TONIGHT!
RECOMMENDED:
TONIGHT! — MELISSA ETHERIDGE (at the Troub? need I say more?), Thurs 7 p.m., The Troubadour, West Hollywood, $44-$244.
TONIGHT! — ALBERT LEE (never heard of him? you’re not alone but go listen any time he’s within 20 miles, a picker’s picker, played with everyone from Eric to Everlys to Emmylou), Thurs 8 p.m., The Rose, Pasadena, $24-$44.
TONIGHT! — MASON SUMMIT, Irene Greene (one of SM’s finest young singer-songwriters, you’ve seen him opening Library Girl at the Ruskin since he was 12, by now he’s got something to say and he sings it real good with the help of golden voiced Irene Greene), Thurs 7:30 p.m., The Love Song Bar, DTLA, free.
TONIGHT! — LA PHIL - SALONEN, Stravinsky (Myth Ballets “Orpheus,” “Persephone,” director Peter Sellars), Thurs, Sat 8 p.m., Fri 11 a.m., Disney Hall, DTLA, $55-$194.
It’s the COACHELLA!!! Valley Music & Arts Festival - JANELLE MONAE, KACEY MUSGRAVES, CHILDISH GAMBINO, BILLIE EILISH, TAME IMPALA, TY SEGALL, KHALID, UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA, WEEZER, PINK (plus this year’s Beyonce, cough cough, Ariana Grande, not so great reviews from her first weekend’s performance, and a couple more), Fri, Sat, Sun, all day and all night, Empire Polo Club, Coachella Valley Preserve, twixt Palm Springs and Indio, $429 and up, way up.
KURT ROSENWINKEL Standards Trio (OK forget his unsexy name, the “standards trio” tag, you will hear something different that you will remember), Sat 8 p.m., Moss Theater, Santa Monica, $35-$40.
WAYNE HANCOCK (if you ever start to muse, what does REAL country music sound like? just throw on some Wayne The Train or, lucky you, head on down to Alex’s Bar Sat), Sat 8 p.m., Alex’s Bar, Long Beach, $18.
BOB DERWOOD ANDREWS, Zander Schloss (Derwood left Gen X, grew his beard long and grey and knocks you out now with lap steel authenticism, Zander you may remember from Circle Jerks and Weirdos but this is the 21st Century, ain’t it?), Sat 9 p.m., Maui Sugar Mill Saloon, Tarzana, free, buy 2 drinks.
LOS LOBOS (sure it’s a long way south but, it’s Los Lobos, in a smallish club, need I say more?), Sat 8 p.m., The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, $45.
SONNY GREEN & the Soul Brothers (straight outta Compton, and Inglewood, this diminutive soul and blues crooner is a giant, believe me, I’ve seen him many times on his home turf, and The Soul Brothers with Lester Land are a band to reckon with who can play everything through the roof from Otis to the Stones to the Tempts to Johnny Cash to Nipsey Russell), Mon 8 p.m., Maui Sugar Mill Saloon, Tarzana, free, buy 2 drinks.
DWIGHT YOAKAM (boy things have changed since I first saw Dwight for free at The Palomino in the early’80s and he would scream at his band or the sound guy if things weren’t just dwight, now he’s got 25M albums sold, 12 gold and 9 platinum, five No. 1s on the Country charts and 14 others in the top 10, 21 Grammy noms and lotsa wins, blah blah blah but the important thing is, this Kentucky native was a large force in focusing country music away from slick Nashville and back to CA), next Thurs 8 P.M., The Roxy, West Hollywood, $100.
COMING ATTRACTIONS: CHRISTIAN McBRIDE BIG BAND, The Soraya, Northridge, Apr. 26; LA CHAMBER ORCHESTRA - MOZART’s REQUIEM, Apr. 27, Alex Theatre, Glendale, Royce Hall, UCLA, Apr. 28; The Spring Quartet with ESPERANZA SPALDING, JACK DEJOHNETTE, JOE LOVANO, LEO GENOVESE, John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, Hollywood, Apr. 27; RED HEN PRESS: The Figure of Orpheus in Poetry and Performance, Broad Stage, SM, Apr. 28.
BODACIOUS BIRTHDAY: — today, not last Thursday, is CLARENCE “GATEMOUTH” BROWN’s birthday but I was rolling too many spliffs while writing last week’s column and mistakenly wrote about him last week. When I should have picked Friday’s boy, the very interesting JOHN KAY of Steppenwolf. I have a personal story about him from years ago, but maybe another time.
So, yesterday you had ROY ESTRADA (1943) aka Roy Ralph Moleman Guacamole Guadalupe Hidalgo Estrada, who recruited a guitarist into his Soul Giants band named Frank Zappa, giving birth to The Mothers of Invention, and later was a founding member of Little Feat. He was also in Capt. Beefheart’s Magic Band and played with Ry Cooder, Van Dyke Parks and Leo Kottke. But his good judgment abandoned him and he is currently serving 25 years without parole in a TX slammer for child abuse and won’t be released until he’s 93.
Skip to tomorrow and you have another Mother, MARK VOLMAN (1947), probably better known as a founding member of The Turtles, which morphed out of their Westchester High surf band The Crossfires. He has remained a musical partner for more than half a century with Crossfire/Turtle Howard Kaylan. Their weird contract for The Turtles did not allow them to use that name for any project, nor their own names (?!) so when they split they proceeded as The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie, or Flo & Eddie, into a myriad of bands and projects. And I do mean myriad, and motley.
Volman returned to college at age 45, at Loyola Marymount and earned his B.A., magna cum laude (his parents were shocked), and as valedictorian led his fellow grads in singing “Happy Together.” He went on to earn an MFA, is now an Associate Professor and does a lot of music business consulting and teaching, from junior high level up through university.
A book, a thick book, could be written about his partnership with Kaylan. I had the hilarious privilege to interview them in their messy Hollywood office in the early ‘80s, arranged by their famed producer Henry Lewy (Van, Joni, Neil, Leon, Mamas & Papas, Leonard Cohen, CSNY, The Chipmunks) and it was crazy. Neither could complete a sentence because the other would jump in mid-sentence, like twins, and always trying to up the humor quotient while attempting to provide actual information.
They had just released a reggae album, a real-deal rocksteady and reggae album (classic songs but throwing in a great version of “Happy Together”) recorded at Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Studios in Kingston with stellar Jamaican sidemen, their last recording as a duo. “And we never said ‘Yes I’ once, the whole time,” Volman grinned. I think Kaylan grunted, “Respect.” They were taking turns for my entire long interview rolling giant spliffs. (I did not partake, they most certainly did.) They were very excited about having taken on some project marketing a doll because it was so left field. They would say yes to anything, then figure it out.
They recorded with Alice Cooper, John Lennon, T. Rex (added the “inadvertent extra chorus that worked” to “Bang a Gong”), Stephen Stills, The Knack, Psychedelic Furs, Blondie, Bruce (“Hungry Heart”), The Ramones, Darlene Love, Hoyt Axton, many others. Versatile, and in demand by the best.
In ‘77 the duo met for the second time with David Bowie to discuss starring with him in his film “The Traveller,” for which he had written a 750-page outline. They went over every detail for several days in New York, flew back to LA — and never heard another word. They were prominent in Zappa’s cwazy movie “200 Motels,” for which my NM friend Jill Silverthorne later produced a documentary, “The True Story of…,” working with Frank (not a cakewalk) in his home in the Valley.
Charles Andrews has listened to a lot of music of all kinds, including more than 2,000 live shows. He has lived in Santa Monica for 33 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com
