Thursday, April 05, 2007

sxsw photos

those of you who read my blog from sxsw this year might be wondering where the photos are. wait no more. some of them are now posted up in the photo section of the blog. i'll post more when i get the chance this weekend. most were taken by caroline lee, but a few by me. most venues were not lighted that well and, of course, there was lots of crowd jostling, so these should be looked at as candid shots, not professional portraits. there were already some up from last year: willie nile, steve wynn, and cyril jordan (of flamin groovies' fame). i tried for some audio verite recordings, but have yet to master the digital recorder. i will need to remember to bring the frickin' instructions next time. next year's blog will feature mp3s from sxsw as well as photos and live blogging. we'll do a show shortly with musical portraits of who we saw (and heard).

clapton report

here's a different take on the clapton concert than the kc star's. submitted by correspondent joe jenkins:

Clapton at Kemper April 2 .
If one came to see EC play his pop hits you were likely disappointed last night. No I Shot the Sherriff, no Lay Down Sally, no Tears in Heaven. Personally, I was dreading a set list dominated by the hits. No worry. Eric was all about the blues last night. The only real pop hit in the set was Wonderful Tonight. Mostly blues standards like Key to the Highway, Drifting Blues, Nobody Loves You When Your Down and Out, Further On Up the Road etc. EC and his second guitarist Doyle Bramhill played these songs about as well as they can be played. Several songs from Derek and the Dominoes album including a cover of Jimi Hendrix' Little Wing. Nice acoustic set in the middle. Crowd really went nuts with Layla. Kemper sound was muddy as usual but seemed to get better as the night went on or maybe I was just able to wrap my ears around it. Strong encore with Cocaine and Crossroads. I enjoyed the guitar fireworks on stage and though no expert it sure seemed like Clapton's playing was as good as ever. But many in the capacity crowd seemed restless and people were headed for the exits before the encore. Not sure why. Clapton did not say much. But I expected that. He's always been a shy performer. I think he sometimes would love to just be a musician in a band instead of the front man. Maybe many in the crowd wanted to hear the hits or it's just the state of short attention spans. At his core Eric Clapton is a bluesman and he proved it last night. Good show.

yeah, it's april fools

for those that care, the show sunday by jim jackson, the guest dj, was, indeed, an april fool's joke, but only the premise. the music was no joke and it was good. i've recommended him for a permanent gig at kkfi. i had a few callers who didn't notice that he had not been there for "ten years" which reenforces my belief that people really don't care who the host of the show is, but care about what the music is and how good it is. this thought keeps me humble. not that i promote myself much anyway. back to a regular show on this easter sunday. it will end with an anti war set, entirely appropriate for easter, i contend. in the coming weeks, i will do my annual sxsw show with caroline, and a comedy show with harry, my co host. when he started out on the show, that's the kind of shows we did, because everyone needs to lighten up sometimes. hope to do some live concerts soon as well. more about that, later.