In Tune With Wade

Movin' on

It's been three years, a couple hundred blog posts and many more stories for the newspaper. My last day at The Bradenton Herald is Friday, my final column will run in the Feb. 1 edition of Weekend. Thanks a million for reading my reports, reviews and rants. I am grateful for the blog feedback, especially from frequent commentators such as Kellie M. and Ben B., who is booking the best original live rock shows in Bradenton. I also enjoyed seeing opposing points of view, such as when Anton Anonymous called one of my pieces a "total crock."

My journalism career will continue in print and online for Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. North of the Skyway is where I will live and roam the streets looking for stories and soaking up tunes. So long, B-town, it's been a ball.

Get out the hankies here's my...

Farewell playlist
"I'm Movin' On," Elvis Presley
"Hear My Train a Coming," Jimi Hendrix
"It's Over," Roy Orbison
"My Way," Frank Sinatra
"Goodbye's All We  Got Left to Say," Steve Earle
"Move to the City," Guns N' Roses
"Born to Run," Bruce Springsteen
"It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," Bob Dylan
"We'll Meet Again," Johnny Cash
"Happy Trails," Will Rogers

The pics below are me kissing the Stanley Cup, watching Bruce Springsteen perform in New Orleans, sipping champagne with Allison Janney and working hard at The Herald. Cheers.

Dickey Betts at his best

Dickey Betts was hotter than the Florida sun in 1974. Following the death of Duane Allman, Betts became co-leader with Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band for the recording of the wildly successful "Brothers and Sisters" LP, which came out in 1973 and produced the band's biggest hit single, "Ramblin' Man."  The song was written by Betts, featured his sunshine soaked vocals and went to No. 2 on the Billboard Pop chart.

While Gregg climbed the charts with his masterful soul-blues solo album "Laid Back,"  Betts released, under the name Richard Betts, the equally impressive "Highway Call," which spotlighted his country music roots with spirited fiddle playing by the great Vassar Clements. The album cracked the Top 20 upon being released in November of 1974. 

A previously unreleased Betts concert that can be streamed for free here was recorded Dec. 14, 1974, at the legendary and now defunct Winterland concert hall in San Francisco.  The 134-minute set is a tour-de-force of what Betts dubbed the Great American Music Show. It featured him leading a 14-piece band including Clements and other A-listers such as Spooner Oldham on organ.  Heavily influenced by the Western swing of Bob Wills, Betts creates an American music tapestry that holds its own with just about any live album of the 1970s.

Lengthy versions of "Blue Sky," "Hand Picked" and "Jessica" cook from start to finish as does the concert's centerpiece, a 40-plus minute rendering of "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed." The show is mandatory listening for fans of Sarasota County resident Betts and the Brotherhood he may no longer be a part of but greatly helped define from the late 1960s through the 1990s.

Here's to hoping "Dickey Betts' Great American Music Show"  gets remastered and issued as a gorgeous double CD some time soon.

Bare Jr. back in Tampa

I can't rave enough about Bobby Bare Jr. and his space cowboy CD "The Longest Meow," which came across my desk last summer and remains popular in my stereo to this day. Bare lives in Nashville, near his legendary outlaw country dad, but seems to play Tampa more often than the Bucs. His latest gig takes place 8 p.m. Sunday at the intimate hipster hangout New World Brewery in Ybor City for the bargain price of $8. The Heathens and The Diviners open the show. 

Here's the interview I did with Bare Jr. originally published Aug. 23, 2006, in the Bradenton Herald.

Bare Jr. takes 'outlaw-country' down new path

By WADE TATANGELO

Bobby Bare Jr. is becoming a fixture of the Tampa Bay music scene. Granted, he lives in Nashville but the alt-country luminary has performed around here lately more often than many popular local acts.

Recent Bare gigs have included a set at WMNF (88.5)'s Tropical Heatwave, playing outside Raymond James Stadium prior to the Kenny Chesney show and then headlining his own gig at New World Brewery in Ybor City.

Bare will share a bill with The Walkmen on Monday at The Orpheum in Ybor City. He is touring in support of 'The Long Meow,' which (was) released Sept. 26 (2006) on Bloodshot Records.

The album effortlessly sways from classic country to 1960s psychedelia and punk rock while featuring lyrics that are alternately heart-breaking and humorous. An advance copy sent to The Herald several weeks ago has proven to be one of my favorite CDs of the year. Concertgoers already privy to the new material have responded with similar enthusiasm.

The album's killer opening track, 'The Heart Bionic,' can be heard at www.myspace.com/ bobbybarejr.

"I've never had this kind of response from a new album," Bare said when he was called at his home in Nashville. "It's more aggressive and people are reacting to it."

Thanks to a tune that was anything but "aggressive," Bare scored his first hit at the same age most people start kindergarten.

"Twenty years from now he's going to be so ashamed of what he did on this record that's he's probably going to sue me," jokes country music legend Bobby Bare Sr. during the recorded introduction to "Daddy What If." "He and all his friends are going to be sitting around stoned and he's going to say "Look what the old man made me do.'"

"Daddy What If," which was written by Shel Silverstein, reached No. 2 on Billboard's Country Singles chart in 1974 and netted Bare Jr. a Grammy nomination at the age of 5. Just as his dad predicted, a smart aleck tried to humiliate Bare Jr. by playing it over the cafeteria speakers at Belmont University in Nashville., Tenn.

"He tried to embarrass me," Bare said. "But I wasn't embarrassed. Listen to the lyrics of that song - they will make you cry.

"Shel (Silverstein) was tickling me as I sang that song," he recalled fondly.

Bare writes and performs songs that can sound far removed from the records his father made. But the satiric yet sweetheart nature of the lyrics can be traced directly back to the dozens of Silverstein songs that the elder Bare recorded during the 1970s. As it happened, Silverstein would proof all of Bare Jr.'s lyrics and even co-wrote a song with him.

"He'd critique me," Bare explained. "He'd say, 'You're being lazy here.' Or 'I lost you at this pint.' Or 'That was really great.'"

Silverstein died in 1999, the same year Bare hit No. 12 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock Chart with "You Blew Me Off," which was featured on the "Cruel Intentions" soundtrack. It remains a favorite at concerts. In it, Bare sings "When I said I loved you / You blew off, it turned me on."

"It's a big, stupid, dumb, fun song about something sad," Bare said. "To get a roomful to laugh at something like that is great."

When "You Blew Me Off" was released, Bare was fronting a band called appropriately enough Bare Jr. and it was signed to the major label Sony/Virgin. But the relationship lasted only two albums. Since then, Bare has formed a new band and has been at Chicago-based indie label Bloodshot Records since the release of "Young Criminal's Salvation League" in 2002.

"It was the best thing that could happen to me," Bare said. "(Virgin/Sony) wanted rock radio hits. They wanted us to go head to head with Everclear and stuff like that. Which is fine and I did fine, but being at Bloodshot is a better use of my talent.

"'Whatever talent I got," Bare added with a chuckle.

Whereas this year it's Bare's "The Longest Meow" that I can't get out of my stereo, last year found his father's "The Moon Was Blue" being played in my work computer, in my car, and at high volumes at my home. In retirement for the better part of two decades, it took his son, who produced "The Moon Was Blue," to get Bare Sr. back into the studio.

"Once he got there, though, he was on fire," Bare Jr. said. "And he loved it."

Bare might have prodded his famous father to finally start recording again, but that doesn't mean dad doesn't still chide his son about making music.

"'You're lazy,' he'll tell me," Bare Jr. said with a laugh. "'Why aren't you writing more songs?'"

Roller derby rawks!

Bradenton has finally arrived — we got Roller Derby, baby! Joining popular leagues in neighboring metropolises such as Tampa and Orlando, our city now boasts the Bradentucky Bombers. Their 2007 season starts 6 p.m. Sunday at Florida Wheels ($12 admission) with a bout between the Cut Throat Cuties and Mensa Misfits. The event will also feature a performance by area rockers Last Great Hope, which might consider goosing their set with a punk makeover of Jim Croce's  "Roller Derby Queen." Check out the Bombers' Web site for rules, rosters, pics and video clips.

Click here for info regarding my writing future.

Food, drink, tunes and people watching

It's the block party that brings out a most interesting cross-section of locals. Bradenton's monthly  Get Down, Downtown bash features food, beverages and live music. It's also where you'll find civic leaders rubbing shoulders with bikers while young parents push junior around in a stroller. B-town will get down from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday on Old Main Street. Entertainment will be provided by the DT's.
"We play acoustic rock," said lead singer Terry Harris. "You're gonna hear anything from Jimmy Buffett to Pink Floyd."
The DTs were a popular on the area bar scene from 1990 to '93. The group reformed with original and new members a couple months ago.

WHAT LOCAL BAND WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE PERFORM AT THE NEXT GET DOWN, DOWNTOWN?

Celtic punks to play B'town

Celtic punk rockers The Scurvy return to Rasher Tierney's Back Bar in Bradenton on Friday for another evening of bag pipes, power chords and primal screams concerning good beer and bad women. The Tampa-based seven piece reportedly blew the rafters off the place the last time they played the pub. Attendees are advised to stop in the restaurant for a hardy plate of shepherd's pie and bowl of Irish stew before braving the high-voltage sounds that will be unleashed in the back bar when The Scurvy get rowdy with Spirits Down and Code Zero.

DAC: My guilty pleasure

I have endured much criticism for digging politically-incorrect country singer David Allan Coe. I've met and interviewed the ex-con and found him to be as entertaining as the hillbilly and Southern rock music he makes. This Florida show from 1984 finds him in fine voice with an ace backing band that includes Warren Haynes, who gets introduced and sings a verse when Coe covers "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Other highlights include Coe's "Willie, Waylon and Me" and a spirited reading of The Band's "Up on Cripple Creek."

Simon Cowell is silly

"American Idol" pimp Simon Cowell prefers Kelly Clarkson to Bob Dylan. Beautiful. To think Cowell actually dug Dylan would make my stomach turn. It would be like learning Saddam Hussein requested Hendrix's version of "Star Spangled Banner" just before they strung him up or that George W. Bush  had a soft spot for N.W.A.  ... Or that my mom and dad also kept a copy of Portishead's "Dummy" album by their bedroom stereo at all times.

"Do I prefer Kelly Clarkson's music to Bob Dylan's? Yes. I've never bought a Dylan record. A singing poet? It just bores me to tears," Cowell tells February's Playboy. The acerbic "American Idol" judge adds: "I've got to tell you, if I had 10 Dylans in the final of 'American Idol,' we would not be getting 30 million viewers a week. I don't believe the Bob Dylans of this world would make 'American Idol' a better show."

The Stooges get snubbed (again)

I applaud Grandmaster Flash becoming the first hip hop act inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I also tip my hat in honor of R.E.M., The Ronettes and Patti Smith. But it's a shame that Van Halen made it over a far more influential and substantial band such as The Stooges. Had Iggy and co. only recorded the proto-punk, heavy blues masterstroke "I Wanna Be Your Dog" they still should have been inducted their first year of eligibility, which was years ago. Until this injustice is rectified I can't help but view the R&R H.O.F. with incredulity.

Best suited for a coaster?

There was a time not too long ago when a vast CD collection was a source of pride. Hosts regaled guests with shelves of alphabetized albums that ran the gamut from hip hop to bluegrass. Collections that took years to build started with AC/DC or Aerosmith and ended at Frank Zappa or ZZ Top. Those days are gone.

Invite a person under the age of 25 over and she will likely view those immaculate rows of jewel cases with more suspicion than awe. While you, the proud owner of 1,200 CDs that includes Bob Dylan bootlegs pressed in Denmark and lavishly packaged Miles Davis reissues, beam with self-regard she will shake her head in disgust.

"Why don't you just get an iPod?" she will inquire. "I haven't bought a CD in years."

You can try and explain to her the beauty of digesting an LP such as "Layla and Assorted Love Songs" or "Abbey Road" in one sitting but your argument will fall on deaf ears. I would like to think that it's a passing fad among young folks but that would be foolish. Digital downloads continue to soar while CD sales plummet, reports Nielsen Soundscan.

Soon, it will only be us old people using those nifty little discs for anything but a coaster.