Live Music Log, September 2019

This is a blog that was originally meant as a memory aid, to help me reminisce about the people I've seen play in later years.  It has become more, in that other people read it sometimes, and less, in that I have fallen so far behind that I can't remember entire shows if I neglected to take notes, and I often did if I was living in the moment.

9 1 19  DACIA BRIDGES TRIBUTE EVENT featuring DBP3, Tosha Owens, Kenny Olson, Skip Franklin, Grace Gheen, Sokhna Heathyre Mabin, Nathan Moore, Bill Caskey, Mike Fuerst  Jerico, Kalamazoo  Dacia Bridges was an R&B/rock/soul/unclassifiable singer, and a force of nature, and she was my age.  She passed away very suddenly in Traverse City last summer, leaving friends, family and bandmates with a gaping hole in their lives.  This event was a celebration of her many lives:  boxer's daughter, German expat, rising dance music star in big time circles, rebooting as a Kalamazoo local artist with acoustic guitar.  The Dacia Bridges Project, her badass backing band of killer Kzoo women, played with numerous guest vocalists and lots of tears.  Highlights I can remember were Nathan Moore, choked with emotion, and Tosha Owens, one of the biggest voices I have ever been in a small room with.  People were enjoying jamming with each other and remembering, with as much joy as possible, this woman who hurricaned through their lives.  Funds were raised for the tween daughter she left behind.

9 7 19 The Verve Pipe #5  Bell's, Kalamazoo  That #5 over there is misleading:  this blog only tracks numbers since my return to Michigan.  It's more like two dozen over the years for The Only Big Band From GR.  Down to one original member (plus part time Griff), but the show is always professional, tuneful, and occasionally still heartfelt.  New ringers Channing Lee and Lou Musa, plus erstwhile Papa Vegas leader Joel Ferguson on bass, bring genuine excitement to the old tunes and aid in some credible new ones.  (I miss Donny Brown's harmonies, and he wrote my favorite tunes, but time marches on.)

9 13 19 Patty Pershayla #3/Emilee Petersmark #10/Red Rio #4/CHARLIE DARLING  Creston Brewery, Grand Rapids  "But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"Some mighty fine music was performed by a quartet of women with unique points of view:  Charlie is caustic but hopeful folk; Red Rio is scalded, scalding, tough by necessity not choice; Emilee is harnessing her demons and using them as tugboats to cross the rough waters; and Patty is a howling id that just met its favorite superego. This was her CD release show and she really stacked the bill, powerful tunes ringing tinnily off the tin ceiling.  I don't know if any of that makes sense, but it was almost a year ago.  And my friends had to literally sit on me to keep me from running out the door after being dumped by a Vulcan in a manner that she probably thought was kind but was in fact....not.

9 14 19 Darcy Wilkin #19  Crane's Pie Pantry, Fennville  This one is a casualty of too much time passed.  I'm sure a pleasant time was passed under the portico in the early afternoon with the sweet sad snowcone of Michigan folk. A year later, while the Rona rages, I'm grateful she exists.  But this one is lost to the mists of aged memory.

9.20-22.19 EARTHWORK HARVEST GATHERING: SIERRA SKYE BAKER/Max Lockwood #5/FAUXGRASS/Kate Pillsbury #5/Schrock Brothers Big Band #2/May Erlewine #19/Public Access #11/Airborne or Aquatic? #4/Emilee Petersmark #11/SUSIE PARR TRIO/Corn Fed Girls #7/Dan Rickabus Band #11/Samantha Cooper #4/ELIZABETH PIXLEY-FINK/Erin Zindle & The Ragbirds #2/The Crane Wives #74/Molly #6/Daniel Kahn #3/Patrick Carroll's Glow In The Dark/Appleseed Collective #4/LEAF & FOOTE/Josh Rose #3/JO SERRAPERRE AND THE WILLIE DUNNS/Kaitlin Rose #13/Ian Link #2/JES KRAMER/Political Lizard #4/The Accidentals #13/Nicholas James & The Bandwagon #9/Chris Dorman #2  Earthwork Farm, Lake City   This is The Big One, the one the whole year counts down to, the one where they let me help do stuff despite being woefully unqualified.  I went up Thursday night for the big prefest meeting and to help with stuff around the edges;  I found my chair that had vanished from the back of the barn last year, ON the Hill Stage. 

9.27.19 HANDMADE MUSIC FESTIVAL:  LES OLDER & THE GANJA GANG/THE RUPPLE BROTHERS/CHARLIE MILLARD BAND/Earth Radio #5   Showboat Park, Chesaning

9.28.19  The Crane Wives #75  Rockford Brewing, Rockford

9 28 19 Jordan Hamilton #4/Nicholas James & The Bandwagon #10/Dede and the Dreamers #7  Founders Brewing, Grand Rapids