FEW BUT MIGHTY LIVE SHOWS ON TAP

BUT FIRST, NOT GOOD NEWS

Gibson Guitars has just gone chapter 11. Longtime boss Henry Juszkiewicz will remain for a year but in an unknown capacity. Who plays/played Gibsons? Lemme see... short list:

Jimi (the Flying V), Bob Marley (was buried with his), Bill Monroe, Billy Gibbons, B.B. (“Lucille”) & Albert & Freddie King, Brian & Steve & Mick & Mick Jones, Mick Ronson, Keith Richards (sold his to…), Mick Taylor, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Muddy Waters, Duane Allman, Frank Zappa, Rosetta Tharpe, Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Elvis, Carl Perkins (“King of Rockabilly”), Duane Eddy (“King of Twang”), Chuck Berry, Alvin & Albert (one given him by Don Everly, one by Clapton, both kept under lock and key) Lee, Charlie Christian, Johnny Winter, John McLaughlin, Neil Young (“Old Black”), Carlos Santana, Earl Scruggs, Slash, Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Entwistle, Pete Townshend, John, Paul & George (“Lucy,” gift from Clapton -- before he stole George’s wife), Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, T-Bone Walker, Marc Bolan, Hetfield & Hammett, the Everly Brothers, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Jack Bruce, Maybelle Carter, Dylan, the Edge, Roy Orbison, Jerry Garcia (early, ‘60s), Wes Montgomery, Dave Grohl, Woody (“this machine kills fascists”) & Arlo Guthrie, Robert Johnson...

(I couldn’t resist, the rare, if sad, opportunity to be able to list all those amazing players in one sentence, with what they have in common, a love of Gibsons. Let’s hope Gibson is not yet another legend to bite the dust.)

Meanwhile, with our unenforced monopoly laws, Dow and DuPont, AT&T and Time Warner (+ DirecTV), Bayer and Monsanto, probably Sprint-T-Mobile and Apple-Netflix, get to merge and grow even more ginormous. Ain’t unrestrained capitalism wonderful? Go make yer own guitar, kid.

RECOMMENDED:

ERIC ANDERSEN (performing 55 years now, praised by Dylan who introduced him to Johnny Cash at Newport who then put him on his TV show, one of the original Greenwich Village folkies, landed in NYC and immediately opened for John Lee Hooker, later for the Doors, Elton John, the Byrds, toured with the Dead, Janis, the Band, Buddy Guy, helped register black voters in Liberty, MS in ‘65, transitioned into pioneer singer-songwriter, inspired Leonard Cohen to start writing songs, only person to record with both Lou Reed and Joni Mitchell -- he taught HER some new open tunings -- rare venture forth to America from his home in Holland in support of new 2-CD, 33-song career retrospective “The Essential Eric Andersen”), Thurs 8 PM, Grammy Museum, downtown LA, $20; Sat 8 PM, McCabe's Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, $30; Sun 7 PM, the Coffee Gallery Backstage, Altadena, $20.

ERNIE ANDREWS (it ain’t just the fabulous surname, this Andrews is the real deal, a legend you may not know but should, big band jazz vocalist here with excellent backing quartet, still performing at 90!! -- go!!), Sat 9 PM, the World Stage, Leimert Park, $25.

LIQUID KITTY PUNK ROCK BBQ @ Harvelle’s -- Lawndale, Mailmen, Sumo Princess, Big Pig, the Alley Cats (they’re doing it again! -- the new owners, Jason and Damian, coming from the sadly lost Liquid Kitty, are revitalizing our landmark blues club on 4th Street and celebrating the best of the old joint with another marathon punk fest, free, that feeds your ears and your belly), Sun 1 PM, Harvelle's, Santa Monica, no cover, free dogs.

-- then you may as well stay for:

THE TOLEDO SHOW (soul singer, hip swinger, jazzman, poet, choreographer, connoisseur of haberdashery -- just because he’s there every Sunday night don’t keep putting it off, see the inimitable and ever-better Mr. Diamond), Sun 9 PM, Harvelle's, Santa Monica, $10.

CHARLIE MUSSELWHITE, BEN HARPER (60 bucks, yikes! but Ben is really, really good, no matter what style he’s playing or with whom, and Charlie is a flat-out living monument to the blues, harp-style, and at the intimate, historic Troub? I would go if I hadn’t already seen them both a few times), Mon-Tues-Wed 7 PM, the Troubadour, West Hollywood, $60.

BAND NAMES OF THE WEEK: Bird Concerns, Bad Religion, Numb.er, Arctic Monkeys, Pianos Become the Teeth, Janine the Machine, The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Manic Hispanic, Pinata Protest, The Ukulele Orchestra of the Western Hemisphere, Supreme Dicks, Sumo Princess.

LYRIC OF THE WEEK: “If you had just a minute to breathe and they granted you one final wish, would you ask for something like another chance? Or something sim'lar as this? Don't worry too much, it'll happen to you as sure as your sorrows are joys, and the thing that disturbs you is only the sound of the low spark of high-heeled boys. The percentage you're paying is too high priced while you're living beyond all your means, and the man in the suit has just bought a new car from the profit he's made on your dreams, but today you just read that the man was shot dead by a gun that didn't make any noise, but it wasn't the bullet that laid him to rest, was the low spark of high-heeled boys.

If I gave you everything that I owned and asked for nothing in return, would you do the same for me as I would for you? Or take me for a ride and strip me of everything, including my pride, but spirit is something that no one destroys and the sound that I'm hearing is only the sound, the low spark of high-heeled boys (heeled boys)” -- Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi (for Traffic)

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 32 years and wouldn’t live anywhere else in the world. Really. Send love and/or rebuke to him at therealmrmusic@gmail.com