We wanted to tell you about a very worthwhile and exciting new project from our good friend Matt Kacar...Matt has started The Artists Connection Podcast, a series of interviews with artists he respects and admires, many of them local Lehigh Valley musicians, including our very own Doug Ashby and Dave Joachim of Tavern Tan, who sat down with Matt and talked all kinds of good stuff! In December, Tom Aczel sat down with matt in his basement rock n roll museum for a chat. Check 'em out; these are long-form discussions that last from 45 minutes to over an hour. If you long for the days when the art of conversation meant something, and you need more Dick Cavett and less Jay Leno in your life, than this is definitely worth subscribing to—FREE! Matt is just getting started but he already has great discussions with Mike Watt, Chris Thomas King, John Lee Hooker Jr, Danielle Lubené, Mike Dugan, Bev "BC" Conklin...its all good, [...]
Tavern Tan: Blog
We wanted to tell you about a very worthwhile and exciting new project from our good friend Matt Kacar...Matt has started The Artists Connection Podcast, a series of interviews with artists he respects and admires, many of them local Lehigh Valley musicians, including our very own Doug Ashby and Dave Joachim of Tavern Tan, who sat down with Matt and talked all kinds of good stuff! In December, Tom Aczel sat down with matt in his basement rock n roll museum for a chat. Check 'em out; these are long-form discussions that last from 45 minutes to over an hour. If you long for the days when the art of conversation meant something, and you need more Dick Cavett and less Jay Leno in your life, than this is definitely worth subscribing to—FREE! Matt is just getting started but he already has great discussions with Mike Watt, Chris Thomas King, John Lee Hooker Jr, Danielle Lubené, Mike Dugan, Bev "BC" Conklin...its all good, [...]
In July we ended our run as the hosts for the monthly blues jam at Godfrey Daniels in Bethlehem. Godfrey's is a one-of-a-kind place, and we had a great time hosting the jam for several years...we had many wonderful nights, some crazy ones, and only few kind of lame ones...it was a true working man's blues gig, very improvisational and we always tried to make it about the music...and we often made some wonderful sounds with all the great musicans who showed up over the years—from pros to beginners. We made a lot of great friends and probably a few enemies...and there were some who are probably still scratching their heads about what was going on every 4th Wednesday night of the month in that place! Special thanks to Jeff Huff for his support and patience with a bunch of guys who were busting out of their jobs on a wednesday night to work their blues jam tan! We hear that the jam will be continuing with new host Dana Gaynor from The James Supra Band (jamessuprabluesband.com/), and that [...]
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You may have heard that Alex Chilton has passed away. Under appreciated by the general public but hugely influential on just about everything and anything that came after him that has to do with anything good in American Music, he was certainly one of Tavern Tan's musical heroes. Here are two of the best of the many tributes that made the rounds in the last few days, these two by incredible musicians and heroes, who knew Chilton personally. This one hurts:
Paul Westerberg in the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/opinion/21westerberg.html and Chuck Prophet, from his blog:
http://chuckprophet.com/blog/alex_chilton/
Friday march 12 was truly a Night of Champions, Pilgrims.
Dougie and Tom scraped some dough from The Fez Monkey Records Fund and visited Larry Holmes’ Ringside Lounge and Restaurant for the big David “Honeyboy” Edwards show. It was a knockout!
At the ripe young age of 94, Honeyboy is one of the last surviving original links to the real lineage of Delta Blues: he listened to Charlie Patton play, and Robert Johnson was one of his pals. Alan Lomax recorded Honeyboy in Clarksdale in 1942; he traveled for years with Big Joe Williams and was in Chicago in the 1950’s with all the usual suspects: Muddy, Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sunnyland Slim, Big Walter, Johnny Shines, etc. He is truly an American Treasure. He still records and gigs on occasion, and as he remarked to Dougie when we thanked him for playing out, “I just keep winnin’, don’t I?”
It is very rare to hear this sort of unfiltered blues anymore…Honeyboy’s [...]
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Dougie and Tom scraped some dough from The Fez Monkey Records Fund and visited Larry Holmes’ Ringside Lounge and Restaurant for the big David “Honeyboy” Edwards show. It was a knockout!
At the ripe young age of 94, Honeyboy is one of the last surviving original links to the real lineage of Delta Blues: he listened to Charlie Patton play, and Robert Johnson was one of his pals. Alan Lomax recorded Honeyboy in Clarksdale in 1942; he traveled for years with Big Joe Williams and was in Chicago in the 1950’s with all the usual suspects: Muddy, Wolf, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Sunnyland Slim, Big Walter, Johnny Shines, etc. He is truly an American Treasure. He still records and gigs on occasion, and as he remarked to Dougie when we thanked him for playing out, “I just keep winnin’, don’t I?”
It is very rare to hear this sort of unfiltered blues anymore…Honeyboy’s [...]