DOG: Who's Next?

First Ed Mcmahon. Then Farah Fawcett. And Michael Jackson.

Now Billy "Oxi Clean" Mays. All in less than one week.

Must be a bitch to be a "celebrity." Who is next?

WAYLT #8 - The Dog Returns... finally.

Due to a blown Operating System and some time in Europe I haven't posted for over a month. The exception being the few comments to Fan's posts when I could sneak on to someone else's computer. But it looks like the patient will live. A few apps need to be resuscitated yet but the good stuff is all restored and working. So what y'all been listenin' to since I been gone?

Since my whole music collection is pretty much dependent upon a functioning hard drive I had to do some exploring on the iPod for much of my absence. Perhaps a mistake when I burst out laughing on an airplane listening to the Butthole Surfers sing "Julio Eglasias jacked-off in outer-spac-ias." Yeah, I got stuff on my iPod I haven't ever listened to all the way through yet.

So here's what has been flowing through the Dog's Bose Quiet Comfort 2s these days:

7. Billy Flynn - Chicago Blues Mandolin - Nice to hear some different instrumentation sometimes.

6. "Little Smokey" Smothers - Bossman! - Finally got my first "Little Smokey" album. Very good.

5. Ike Turner - Risin' With The Blues - Ike's final album. Returning to his roots. Surprisingly entertaining.

4. Big Daddy Kinsey and Sons - Can't Let Go - One of Big Daddy's best albums in my opinion.

3. Omar Kent Dykes - Big Town Playboy - A new release with Omar leaving the Howlers behind.

2. Duke Robillard - Stomp! The Blues Tonight - Duke returns to the horn arrangements on an album of mostly jump blues and swing which is strongly reminiscent of the original Roomful of Blues.

1. Rod Piazza & The Might Flyer Blues Quartet - Soul Monster - This MF (Mighty Flyer) kicks serious ass! This is by far the best Rod Piazza album with which I am familiar. It's a brand new release. In addition to leading a top notch band, Rod is lucky enough to be married to his keyboard player, Honey. Honey Piazza is unquestionably the nicest person you will ever meet in the blues and one hell of a musician as well. This one comes highly recommended by the Dog!

On an ironic note, it is Omar Kent Dykes who sings, " Better hear me baby, better believe what I said. If you don't quit now baby, honey I'm goin' upside yo' head" and not Ike Turner.

So I have returned basically to my bread & butter, blues, blues, blues.

FAN: Birthday Trip

Avast....on the 25th of October in the year 2009 Still A Fan and Stilladog will emerge from a car in a beat up factory lot after overpaying severely for parking to drink beer and eat with Genco employees and then watch the Stillers slowly take apart Brett Favre and the Vikings. There will be drinking of the ale and eating of the burnt flesh. Speaking of the burnt flesh...Still A Dad should on the 24th of October go to said local butcher in Listie and buy thee some local T-Bones about one inch thick (and some more ale). Also, Still A While should agree to meet us in said parking lot to tailgate with the Still A's and see two of her favorite people in Fan and W and meet The Dog for the first time ever.

FAN: BIH Michael Jackson

While RIP suffices for Rest In Peace, has anyone ever considered using BIH for Burn In Hell? Crimes against children are bad enough before you have one, but after being a parent, it takes on a whole new meaning. A business associate I had lunch with today said she cried when she heard about MJ. Cried? I felt nothing. Was I a super fan? No. Did I own Thriller? Yes. You'd be hard pressed to find somebody my age who didn't. I had that on wax! I have 3 Jackson 5 songs on my iPod as well as Don't Stop Till You Get Enough which predates Thriller. I think it was on "Off The Wall" but I'm not sure. Anyway, when I said "the world is free of one less child predator today" she took offense. Oooops. I'm sorry. Did I say something inappropriate? ME?? C'mon. She then said he was sick and we should just imagine instead of his predisposition for children we should just pretend he had cancer. Hmmmm. Interesting. If he never hurt a fly in his life and committed suicicde, I could equate it to thinking he had cancer. But he didn't. If three kids (or however many) came forward with allegations, doesn't that mean 12-15 had Jesus Juice and had to pet the magic spitting puppet? I don't know. When you pay millions to make the court cases go away you do nothing to clear your name in my mind. If most people are going to think you did it anyway - fight the case to prove your innocence - don't pay to make it go away. In the end, if you want to talk about Karma, which is something I could subscribe to, you know he was guilty. He hurt those kids, maybe ruined them for life...maybe they are currently molesting children or addicted to drugs or beating their wives or something because they can't deal with what happened to them...shit, he could be at the top of a very tall pyramid of abuse that could last for generations.....and he paid for it. He lost his musical edge to write relevant material. He lost his money. He lost his nose....well, his face. He lost it all. He went from being a person who could change the world to being a person who changed the world for a lot of innocent kids. Did he change his appearance because of self loathing over his love for little boys? Dunno. Somethng to think about though, right? Karma. He couldn't Beat It.

FAN: RIP Farrah

Guilty. I had the poster hanging on my bedroom wall. What guy my age didn't? I don't know if any of you guys did this or not - but when I was 10-16 and went to the mall - I would go in any store that sold posters and browse through them one at a time. I had every poster memorized for years. When a new one came out, you knew it was new just because you had never seen it before. Whether it was Murphy's, McCrory's, National Record Mart, Hills or Gee-Bee's - I headed straight to the music and posters section. Do kids still do that? I don't think so. Mine doesn't. She has a 4x6 foot cork bulletin board that I made her covered with pullouts from tweener magazines - but not a single poster. Even when I got to college, my roommate and I had a decent collection of babe posters, the best being a door size poster of Brandi Brandt that was on the ceiling above my top bunk parallel and centered on the bed. Sweet. Is it true Ryan O'Neal is trying to get Cheryl Ladd to replace her? Sorry....couldn't resist.

FAN: Steel Resolve

I was recently trolling Craigslist looking at the gigs link for potential web consulting deals. One caught my eye: an Eagles writer for a new national sports website. Feeling lucky I went to the Pittsburgh link and the same ad was there for the Steelers. I sent an iquiry and was given a faux assignment to write. I shot them this link, but all they found out from it was that I like torture and revenge movies. Actually he said there was was decent stuff here but wanted to see a more realistic article. So, it's been a day or two and I haven't heard back so I thought I'd post it here. The task was to describe the deciding factor in the Steelers repeating or not repeating next year. Hope you enjoy. It had to be 400-600 words so I hope it's not too wordy. I think I've written 2,000 word diatribes about air travel.



Steel Resolve by Still A. Fan


On January 20, 1980, the Pittsburgh Steelers added a fourth Lombardi trophy to their case before any other team even added a third. Quite an accomplishment was that, as was winning all four titles within a span of six years. In February of 2010, should the Steelers find themselves on the friendly side of the Super Bowl scoreboard one more time, they will again own two more trophies (seven) than the next closest collectors – Dallas and San Francisco.

Ask twenty different towel-waving, sandwich-eating diehards of Steeler Nation what they think the odds of that happening are and you will no doubt get 20 different answers. Follow that question up with an innocent “Why?” and watch Mr. Eleven Letters ending in “ski” and his lunch buddies get animated very quickly. “If the O-Line can keep Ben healthy, it’s seven.” “They didn’t go O-Line in round one, they’re done.” “Parker’s health – write it down.” “Ben finds a way to win no matter what – they repeat.” “If Ward or Holmes goes down the season is over. O-V-E-R.” “Remember 2005. They stunk it up the following year. No chance.”

All reasonable assessments coming from some of the most, if not the most, passionate and knowledgeable football fans in the country. One response was both close and yet far away from what I profess to be the main factor in this equation. My black and gold brethren, the deciding factor in the quest for seven is….Mike Tomlin. Why do I say that? Come along for the ride. Short of banging coconuts together on the sidelines and offering shrubberies to referees as bribes - Bill Cowher found his Holy Grail in winning Super Bowl XL. After all the failures to win it all (or even get there) - it is my opinion that the 2006 season was nothing more than a collective sigh of relief. He lost his hunger. He was losing it prior to 2005. In earlier years he could will that team to win in tough spots. Like he did before in his coaching career, I feel that he got too friendly with his key players the following year and it showed. He became one of the boys and he loved his vets to the point of it hurting the team.

The sheer amount of talent on the current team is enough to get them to the Super Bowl every year for the next 3-4 years. To keep the team focused and hungry though is an entirely different story. Mike Tomlin is Bill Cowher in 1994. He’s still hungry. You can hear it in his voice and see it in his actions. The 2009 Steelers will not go “Hollywood”. They aren’t going to pat themselves on the back all through training camp and be media darlings. I have a feeling Tomlin has already delivered a “last year is over” type speech. They are 0-0. True, they’re the defending champions of the world – but anybody who put money on them in Vegas in the 2006 preseason would like to kneecap anyone who suggests doing that this year. The obstacles are focus, determination, hunger and mostly pride. Who is driving the vehicle that will steer them through the emotional obstacle course, knowing when to praise and when to pounce? Mike Tomlin. It is my humble opinion that Mike Tomlin will do in 2009 what Bill Cowher failed to do in 2006 - refocus the team in camp. Yup, it’s as simple as that.

Keep‘em wavin’.

FAN: Father's Day

I've had a whirlwind 24 hours with Steel A Stroke. Last night we went to her school's carnival for 3.5 hours. Ate well, gambled a little and won a lot of stuffed animals. I won two decent sized offerings on my first two games....even dunked a girl at the dunk tank.....twice in six throws. This morning, I woke up at 5:30, decided the weather wasn't good enough for my normal Sunday run at the lake so I was getting in some good web time until breakfast. Mrs. Fan and Stroke made me stuffed French toast. It was two slices with cream cheese and blackberry jam on the inside with whipped cream, blackberries and raspberries on top. Wow, was it good! Since it was overcast with no sun beating down Stroke and I went to the kind of local outdoor farmer's / flea market. She added a nutcracker to her collection and I picked up several cds - nothing for more than $3 and 2 of them were only $1 each. We also bought fresh candy and caramel apples for lunch dessert. New to the music collection thanks to 4 different vendors are: Frank Sinatra 1953-1960, KISS my ASS (KISS Tribute cd), Rod Stewart Unplugged and Seated, Sarah McLauchlan Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (more for Mrs. Fan), The Clash The Singles ($1), Pearl Jam Live On Two Legs and The Who Quadrophenia. Not a bad day and it's only 11 AM. Next we brought burgers and fries home for lunch as we were gone longer than expected. After watching a movie together (and falling asleep for the last 20 minutes) we decided to go work out together. Stroke and I ran two miles and then did some plyometrics. Came home, took a shower and was then treated to one of my favorite meals....ribs, coleslaw, mac-n-cheese and watermellon. Later tonight after a few lazy hours we had dessert which was a cream pie with blueberries and blackberries in it. Talked to Still A Dad a while and buried myself on the couch to watch True Blood. The day kind of revolved around food but I've been dropping pounds like crazy. After weighing in at 201 on New Years Day, I'm now down to 184. Can't think of anything that could of made the day better...unless that's waiting for me upstairs.

FAN: Torture, Death and Revenge

Any Dad with a bit of an angry streak should check this movie out. The plot is simple. Girl is kidnapped, Dad seeks revenge. If you want to scare your teenage girl from trusting anyone, let her watch this. I personally loved it that Dad showed no mercy while tracking her down. He got what info he needed and killed anyone who got in his way. He even left an Albanian dude hooked up to electricity and walked away after getting the information he needed. Superb. The writer also took a shot at France for allowing sex slave traders to operate within France's borders. The torture scene may have been a political statement as well. It answers the question "When is it OK to torture to somebody?". The answer is obviously whenever you take away a Dad's little girl.

FAN: More Cheap Music

Still A Stroke and I got up early on Saturday AM and went to some local yard sales, a Strawberry Festival slash flea market and a used book and music shop. I added five more disks to my collection and was extremely happy with my haul. Picked up at a really crappy yard sale were three AC-DCs that I never owned. High voltage, Let There Be Rock and BallBreaker were all picked up for $1 each. At the used store I added two Cure cds for $5 each....Wild Mood Swings and the UK compilation Japanese Whispers. Then, to my pleasant surprise, I noticed all were worth $3 on secondspin.com so I paid $13, ripped them all, then sold them to secondspin for $15 minus whatever they might deduct. Sweet deal.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

FAN: Pens Win Third Cup

Apparently this other sport, hockey, had it's playoffs recently and Pittsburgh's team is pretty good at it too. I watched a lot of hockey back in the Lemieux, Jagr, Stevens, Francis, Trots, Mullen days but haven't watch a whole lot recently. In fact, I didn't make it through the second intermission last night without falling asleep. I woke up just in time to see the celebration.

FAN: Brady Flips Kayak

Darn. Somebody was there to help him.

FAN: New (Old) Music

Something that is highly unusual of me lately is buying CDs. I haven't bought any in a long time. Until last week. While in Portsmouth NH at a used shop - I picked up Snooky Pryor's Shake My Hand from 1999. As it turns out, Stilladog already owned it so I could have "borrowed" it and accidentally put it on my iPod, but that's ok. Sometimes finding something used feels good. Anyway, I've listened to the disc front to back about 10 times already and I really like it. Alot. I ripped it, put it on my iPod and now I'll throw it in the yardsale pile. Feeling good abuot the find, at the mall the following weekend our local FYE had a $1.97 bin. Hmmmm, I'll take a look. I ended up buying another 4 discs. The first was George Thorogood and the Destroyer's Bad To The Bone from 1982. I had it on cassette but haven't seen it since about 1989 when I bought my first CD player. I love BTTB the single, but the rest of the CD is not the kind blues I like. I'll be surprised if I listen to it in it's entirity again after moving off BTTB t omy party mix. Next was something I really wanted and it sucks. It's a Ray Charles compilation called Essentially Ray Charles. It's not even listed on Wikipedia's discography so I'm assuming it's posthumus and a money grab. It's live and the damn cover doesn't even say it's live or I would have never bought it. Also, no cover art was found to be associated with it after I ripped it. The sound quality is a step above using a tin pie pan as a speaker. I wasted $1.97. David Lee Roth's Your Filthy Little Mouth 1994 came out of the bin as well. It has a few songs that are in the spirit of Eat 'em and Smile's Tobacco Road cover which I love. Again, for $1.97 you can't go too wrong and Dave at the very least usually puts tight bands together. Eat 'Em continues to be one of my most listened to "go to" cds. Being a huge fan of VH's original lineup, I thought E'EAS destroyed Van Hagar's first offering. The last bin find was Howlin' Wolf. It ended up being a compilation cd as well, but at least it was full of songs I didn't own. So the next morning, I go to a neighbor's yardsale and pick up 3 more discs for $0.50 each! Jay-Z something or other that contains Big Pimpin' which I like. Classical compilation of Mahler which is really good. Madonna's something or other that I knew Mrs. Fan didn't own but would want for half a dollar. I think it's the disc right before Ray of Light also from mid 90's. All in all I picked up 8 cds for less than $20. Heck, I think I got $20 worth of enjoyment out of the Snooky Pryor cd. It really reminds me of a Jimmy Witherspoon cd "Live at the Mint".

FAN: Olan Mills

So I put a suit on tonight at 7:50 PM to go to our church to have a picture taken for the directory. You get a complimentary 8x10 just for taking part. Ha. Ha! HA! Fools, all of us. About 20 photos were taken and we were then lead into a room with a sales girl with super software that showed the pictures every which way to.....SUNDAY. I do not get snookered, so please don't think I got snookered. We haven't had a family portrait taken since Still A Stroke was 3 1/2 years old. She's going to be 10 this summer. It was time. But getting a photo for a church directory should not feel like buying a car! What's it going to take to put you into this 16x20 canvas - touched up professionally - with our overpriced frame and live forever magic epoxy?! I didn't even take my wallet. I had no idea. One minute I'm watching Harry Potter with Stroke as we're gearing up for the next movie installment July 15th, the next minute I'm discussing if I can bring the package down from $280 if I don't get the fancy smokey corners! What's wrong with the picture from 2003 that's only 11x14 above our mantle? My hair was still somewhat brown! My face was thinner! Look how cute Stroke's little bare feet are at 3! Why? Do we really need a 16x20 canvas as part of our package? Sigh. Yes. Also as a side note if you currently work at Olan Mills......when people are going to drop large amounts of cheddar with your company, you shouldn't ask them to "please don't do that, sir" when you whip out your BlackBerry to take a 2 megapixel blurry photo of your daughter while posed all cutesy. "Hey Honey, F Olan Mills....I got us the winner right here on my cell phone!".

DOG: The Color Of Jazz

Joe Farrell - Canned Funk, 1975

Back at Christmas Mrs. Dog got me a coffee table book called "The Color of Jazz." It features album art from jazz albums released from the late 1950s through the early 1970s. All of these covers are photographs of a guy named Pete Turner.

Turner did most of his album artwork during this period for a now defunct jazz record label, CTI, run by Creed Taylor. And not only is it classic artwork but in many cases it's classic jazz music as well.

I had a number of the albums featured in the book but there was a whole lot of which I was completely unfamiliar. So I went on a mission to discover the music behind the photographs. And yesterday I found one of the remaining ones I have not located, Wes Montgomery's Road Song. Upon finding it I decided since we regularly discuss music and the lack thereof (American Dildo) on here, it might be nice to open the discussion (or the lack thereof) to album art too.

So starting today I will post from time to time album art starting with the contents of The Color of Jazz with as much information as I can find about the picture and album. And since outstanding artwork is by no means limited to jazz we can branch out into all kinds of music with no regard for how good the music is but focus on the uniqueness of the artwork instead.

The cover photo is Joe Farrell's Canned Funk, the last of 5 albums he did for CTI. Below is Milt Jackson's Olinga album from 1974 also his last album on the CTI label.

FAN: The Hottest Band In The World, KISS

So, while Still A Dog was enjoying the Blues Fest - the Fan family caught the ending to American Idol's recent season. Haven't talked much about it as I haven't had a lot of time to post. Much like I singled out David Cook to win last year after hearing his audition, I thought the same this year for Danny Gokey. I told Still A Dad to write it down before all the gold tickets were even given away. Compared to who ended up winning, he should have. Kris Allen sucks. He sucks bad. It took a pretty big man to admit on stage after 100,000,000 votes came in that Adam Lambert deserved to win. Jesus, he blew him away singing with Brian May screaming on guitar in the background. Kris Allen shouldn't be allowed to plug in Adam Lambert's microphone. I've had a nickname for him for months....Cheeky Monkey. He looks like a baby chimp. I want to find the 5 people who would pay hard earned money to go see this clown in concert. 5. Find me 5. Adam, glam as he is, came out and rocked Beth...then joined Kiss for two half versions of Detroit Rock City and Rock and Roll all Nite. Funny, Paul Stanley was just in my building last Friday doing a radio interview for his art work. I took in his solo LP and a sharpie and went out in the lobby every 3 minutes for 30 minutes straight, but didn't catch him. So far since I've been there Bobby Flay, Little Steven and a host of other "celebrities" have been in. I've met one half of the DJ team that is easily Philly's finest and if I got to see Paul Stanley last week it would have been cool, but alas, security snuck him in a side door because of all the creepy 40 year old guys with shit to sign standing around. Actually, maybe 12 people were actually waiting for him. Anyway, back to Idol......some thoughts for the entire thing:

Bikini Girl getting Punk'd was awesome. No way she knew that was coming. You can't act that mad. Kara tore her up.

Blind dude should NOT dance. You copy? Blind guy....no dancing!

I am so tired of Megan's little shoulder shimmy. But she's still got something like a young Jenny McCarthy thing going on.

Bikini Girl will be in Playboy....or porn....write it down. This I know.

It was cool to explain to Still A Stroke that Queen's singer died and they couldn't "carry on, carry on" because nobody could sing his songs. I saw George Michael do a pretty good job at the Wembley concert for AIDS and they gave him the hard ones....but Freddy could blow. Adam Lambert is the next closest thing to Freddy Mercury. If it was 1985 he'd be all spandexed up singing with Crue or something. Did I just say Freddy could blow?

I don't like Lil Rounds. She stupid. She look like TO when she talk.

Who the fuck is dressing Queen Latifah? Really? Sorry for the rude language people but Jesus....she was a mess. She's a couple Super Sized #3's away from Aretha Franklin.

I really thought Whitney Coke Whouston was going to come out while Tatiana was doing her lame acting. It didn't even fool my 9 year old. Lame. Booooooo.

Randy should bring out Journey with Steve Perry, not freaky looking Steve Perry clone, and do Don't Stop Believin' smoe year for the final.

Rod Stewart is the farthest thing from sexy I can imagine. Please stop thinking you're sexy.

Oh well......that's what I listened to tonight. Every group song sucked. The duets with stars were OK. What the hell song did Lionel Ritchie sing first? The Black Eyed Peas were OK I guess...if you're in a club...which I'm never going to be again...so I have no reason to listen to them.

I give the entire show tonight an 8 because I got to see KISS and Queen.....and Steve Martin playing banjo....and Cyndi Lauper playing and singing....always liked her.

Peace. Gotta get a goodnight's sleep for the drive. Kris freaking Allen....are you kidding me????

DOG: Chesapeake Blues Festival - Day 2

Day 2 of the Chesapeake Blues Festival started off with a ROAR. Albert Cummings came out 15 minutes early with his Stratocaster blazing and took the audience by storm at 10:45am!

Albert asked the crowd what they wanted and then gave it to them. After standing in the rain for over an hour to get in, when he took the stage the rain ceased. And the rockin' blues began... in a big way. I had not been very familiar with the music of Albert Cummings prior to the festival so I was very anxious to hear the man play. His set started off slowly but by the third song he was loosening up and it just got better and better with each one he played. He ended his set with a medley that closed out with Led Zeppelin's "Rock N Roll" and he ended that with the tag riff from "Stairway To Heaven." By then everybody was on their feet.

I have been attending this festival since 1999 and have been there all but 2 years. And I can say that Albert Cummings was by far the best opening act the festival has ever booked. If his intention was to gain more fans by playing here, then mission accomplished. He set the bar very high for those who would follow.

Fortunately, the next act was Zac Harmon. And we learned The Blues According to Zachariah.

Harmon brought that authentic Mississippi sound all the way up from Jackson, MS. And this guy is indeed the real deal. I was familiar with some of his tunes prior to seeing him so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and I was not disappointed. I grabbed my lunch while Zac Harmon laid down the blues as background music.

So there I was with potato salad, coleslaw, baked beans, smoked chicken, peppered sausage, and pulled pork (with the HOT Hoochie Coochie sauce) and a refreshing Starr Hill India Pale Ale and Zac Harmon blaring out the blues. I can imagine Heaven being very much like that. Anyway, Day 2 caterers for the VIP section (of course I'm a VIP when it comes to the blues) , Red, Hot & Blue did an outstanding job. Much much better than whoever catered day 1.

Next up was Maryland's own Nighthawks featuring Mark Wenner on the blues harp. These guys have been playing everything from wine festivals, roadside barrooms, clubs, field parties, and bar mitzvahs, to large arenas and concert halls (and probably a few weddings and funerals) across America and Europe ever since I started working in Maryland nearly 30 years ago! But they're based in Silver Spring just outside of DC. They also are the bar band in the HBO series 'The Wire' and play the theme song, "Down In The Hole," for the final season. I've seen them play dozens of times over the years and I can honestly say you never know what you're going to get cause they can play damn near anything. But for the festival they had a special surprise for us. Guesting on guitar they had Hubert Sumlin!

For those who don't know, Hubert Sumlin was the guitar player for Howlin' Wolf. Muddy Waters so envied the Wolf's guitar man that he offered him more money to play in Muddy's band and Sumlin accepted. This caused a great rift between Muddy and Wolf that was never ever repaired. Eventually, Sumlin quit Muddy's band and returned to play with Howlin' Wolf until his death. Anyway, Sumlin was treated for cancer back in 2003 and I've seen him play a few times since then but he's never really had much energy. This was not the case on Sunday. Hubert announced to the crowd that he was feeling good and he really was. He danced and played and took more lead solos than I've ever seen. It was good to see one of the few remaining legends of the blues out still having fun. Don't know if it was playing with the Nighthawks, who always seem to have fun, or what. But Hubert Sumlin was on his game.

After that came Lydia Pense & Cold Blood. And here's where I got off the blues train. Nothing special about the music. Nothing special about the band. Lydia looked like a spasmatic with St. Vitas and ants in her pants while trying to sing and move about the stage. To me, this act was just God-Awful. How they got booked, let alone this high on the bill, is amazing to me. Not bad musicians mind you, just not entertaining at all. (But still, I'd listen to 100 hours of Lydia Pense before I'd listen to 5 minutes of American Idol).

The highlight of Day 2 was, as expected, Shemekia Copeland. By now they call her "The Queen of the Chesapeake Blues Festival." She is the only artist to have appeared 6 times at the festival and I have seen every one of those shows. As she was singing I recalled back to the first time I saw her perform, and it was on that same stage. She was only 20 years old back then. She captivated me and Mrs. Dog (who was just "Mrs. Dog wanna be" then) with an a capella version of "Ghetto Child." A song which she always dedicates to her father, Johnny "Clyde" Copeland, a damn good bluesman in his own right before he passed away. Of all the artists I saw over the weekend, Shemekia is the one that you absolutely must see. She has the most powerful voice I've ever heard, and yes, that includes Aretha Franklin.

After Shemekia everything else was non-descript. Blood Sweat & Tears came on and I guess the REALLY old folks enjoyed them. They were fine. No big deal.

Jonny Lang finished the festival. And for my sake I wish he'd have stayed home. He still doesn't know what he wants to be. A singer? A guitar-slinger? A rock-n-roller? A Christian artist? He screams instead of singing. He plays distortion instead of blues riffs. He exudes false pain on his face with every note. I can understand those facial expressions though, it was painful for me too.

Anyway, that's what I've been listening to. How about you?

FAN: Najeh's Car Dumped

I cannot believe for the life of me that the author of this story didn't say the car was "dumped". Still Avail, who will celebrate his wedding this weekend in the Crescent City sent me an email as soon as he saw it saying he couldn't wait to see what we'd come up with for this crazy story.

I got nothin'. I thought I might, but I don't. It's kind of sad actually. Dude had a decent career going, nothing special, but now he's chasing his stolen vehicle down the street watching it slam into 4 parked cars. The fact that the car is so old leads me to believe it's an old muscle car on hydrolics or something. I thought maybe after he caught him he would hold him down and shit in his face.

No such luck.

Well, Najeh, all I can say is I wish you would have taken your role as a Steeler a little more honorably. The city was ready to love you. You didn't want it bad enough. Had you shown the same ferocity for the goal line that you showed your Impala.....maybe you'd still be playing.

Good luck this weekend Still Avail. I will be in stinking Patriot's country this weekend so I have to hope my "PITT 6SB" license plate doesn't get my car spit on.

FAN: Word Verification of the Day

Still Moor Cowbell sent this to me today and I busted a gut at work. Had I busted something else, there would be....oh, nevermind....that's low brow humor. Anyway, check out the word verification!!!!

DOG: MNF Hits Below The Belt

The good news is that ESPN is getting that blathering idiot with the assoholic personality off the air for Monday Night Football. Yes, you've probably heard by now that Tony Kornheiser (aka KornHoler) has been fired from MNF by ESPN. This is living proof that there is a God, he does hear your prayers, and sometimes he answers them!

On the other hand he is being replaced by John Gruden (aka Chucky). Gruden has the possibility of making this work since he obviously knows volumes more football than KornHoler. And the argumentative nature of his prick personality will definitely cause some heated discussion between him and Jaws. But he is indeed a PRICK (all caps intentional) and if you don't believe me just ask anybody who ever played for him. He is such a mean prick he makes even Bill Parcells a teeny weenie in comparison.

So there you have it folks, replacing an asshole with a prick is all waaaay below the belt and another low blow to the viewing public.

Who would I have chosen? Brian Billick with no hesitation. Billick has the knowledge and personality to become much better behind a mike than he ever was on the sideline. But he's under contract to Fox Sports so it wasn't in the cards this time.

At least the KornHoler is gone and I know God hears my prayers. That's good enough for now.

DOG: Chesapeake Blues Festival - Day 1

Sandy Point State Park, Annapolis, Maryland. Site of the 2009 Chesapeake Blues Festival. The greatest Blues venue in the world.

Raises money for Johns Hopkins Cranio Facial, Special Olympics, Make-A-Wish Foundation and more.

And has turned The Dog on to more great music in a weekend, every year or so, than a million replies to "What Are You Listening To Now?" could ever hope to.

So this year the Festival kicked off with the Chesapeake Ladies of the Blues. A group of local blues women who are fairly well known in the greater Baltimore-Washington area. The most noteworthy of which is pianist/saxophonist, Deanna Bogart.

The others being vocalists Patty Reese, Nadine Rae, and guitarist, Melanie Mason. They were all right as an opening act and they did fine for not playing together much. It's nice to get local people some exposure on a stage this big.

They were followed by blues harpist Sugar Blue who is most famous for playing the blues riff on the Rolling Stones song "Miss You." That song was covered in a different time signature and was the highlight of Sugar Blue's set.

Next was the surprise act of Day 1, Back Door Slam! Led by young guitarist Davy Knowles, BDS really impressed everyone. They rocked the house, jammed out, mellowed down, and generally gave the audience more than any of us expected! Their original material was just as strong as the two covers they did, CSN&Y's "Almost Cut My Hair" and Cream's "Outside Woman Blues." Davy Knowles had the place abuzz for sure.

Be sure to see him in August at Oregon Ridge in Hunt Valley, MD where he will open for Joe Bonamassa and Derek Trucks at the Hot August Blues Festival.


The great Lonnie Brooks was next with his unique blend of Louisiana and Chicago blues. He was joined on stage by one of his three blues-playing sons, Wayne Baker Brooks. Lonnie was the consummate professional bluesman. Everything was precise. He had the white Gibson SG blazing. And while Lonnie did not bring the house down. His set was a solid performance of classic blues material.


Sorry I don't have any pictures of the next act, Ana Popovic. She's a favorite for the guys and she's quite a good guitarist. Not a great singer and struggles with English, still. But she's getting better. During her set we went to buy Mrs. Dog a sweatshirt for the cold weather we heard was on it's way for Sunday's part of the festival. So we heard rather than saw Ana.




Big Bad Voodoo Daddy followed and they are very good. A tight horn section is emblematic of the whole band. A top notch musical outfit from top to bottom. They play mostly jump blues and swing music. They covered a ton of Cab Calloway songs including "Minnie The Moocher". And a favorite of mine, "Reefer Man" which I first heard done by the Widespread Depression Orchestra. Fan will like BBVD because he likes Cherry Poppin' Daddies and these guys are in that vein. A West Coast swing band with lots of soul. I was digging them very much. Not sure how some of the others felt, but lots of people could not keep their feet still during their set.

The night was capped off by Los Lonely Boys. And they played a thoroughly inspired set. Very good stuff from this power trio. They turned their hit song "Heaven" into about a 15 minute jam. This closed out the first day. Their was a surprise appearance by the two guys pictured below who I am not sure of their identity. Some have identified them as Los Horny Boyz, others called them Warriors For The Blues. They just look like a couple beer-drinking, hell-raising blues fans to me... Day 2, tomorrow.