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Rolling Stones' Taylor ill but there are plenty of musicians and bands performing at venues
Published on Thursday, Jul 23, 2009
Like most music lovers, when I think of Kent, Ohio, the first thing that comes to mind is the blues.
No, not buying it?
OK, how about, hey everyone, it's time for the Kent State Blues Fest! On Friday and Saturday in the heart of N.E. Ohio's blues capital will be free shows by area blues and R&B artists culminating in what was supposed to be a performance at the Kent Stage by former Rolling Stones guitarist Mick Taylor. Unfortunately, Taylor suffered a blood clot in his lung forcing him to cancel.
By the way, Taylor is the second classic rock legend to fall ill shortly before a scheduled gig in Kent. Earlier, Cream bassist Jack Bruce had to cancel his Kent gig and the rest of his American tour because of an illness.
If singer/songwriting great Leon Russell should suddenly fall ill before his Sept. 11 show, we may have to start taking these cancellations personally.
Anyway, the festivities begin at 5 p.m. on Friday at the Home Savings Plaza (Main and North Water streets) with Cleveland singer/guitarist/Cuyahoga Community College guitar instructor Frankie Starr. At 7 p.m., the Kidney Brothers will perform at Water Street Tavern (132 S. Water St.) followed at 9:30 p.m. by the Robert Lockwood Jr. All-Star Band.
Over at the Venice Cafe (163 Franklin Ave.) at 8 p.m. will be the Juke Hounds, while at the Loft (112 W. Main St.) also starting at 8 p.m., the wonderfully named Cleveland Fats will perform.
A few doors down at the Zephyr Pub (106 W. Main St.), guitarist Ian Penter will sling his six-string, and Ohio-to-Hawaii transplant Colin John and his band will blues-rock the house at 9 p.m. at Ray's Place (135 Franklin Ave.).
Also, at 9 p.m., local R&B favorite the Wanda Hunt Band will regale the folks at Dominick's (147 Franklin Ave.) with its mix of old soul and old blues while talented guitarist Mike Lenz will play at 9 p.m. at the Professor's Pub at (110 E. Main St.)
On Saturday at 7 p.m. at the Kent Stage, 15 60 75 the Numbers Band will move up from opener to headliner with special guests Sonny Robertson and the Howard Street Blues Band.
Here is an interesting bit of six-degrees-of-separation musical trivia: Mick Taylor has played guitar on Numbers Band singer/guitarist Robert Kidney's song Lucky from the Golden Palominos' 1989 record A Dead Horse. Kidney was looking forward to finally meeting Taylor, but alas it is not to be.
And, while we're on the subject of the Numbers Band, Kidney tells me the band's years-in-the-making upcoming album is essentially done and should be ready for a late summer or early fall release. The album of all new material will be called Inward City and was produced by Pere Ubu's David Thomas and will be released on his Hearpen Records with artwork from veteran Cleveland graphic artist John Thompson.
Love and rocking
Our heartfelt congratulations go out to Kira Leyden and Jeff Andrea of Akron-bred, L.A.-based pop/rock band the Strange Familiar. The band released its latest full-length album, This Is Gravity last month to iTunes, Rhapsody and Amazonmp3 and will celebrate the CD release with a show Saturday night at Musica in Akron.
The homecoming concert will also mark the first time the couple of 26-year-olds has performed in their hometown as husband and wife as the middle-school sweethearts and bandmates finally made an honest man and woman out of each other. That's right, their mutual love of music and making music together blossomed into true love.
Adorable, ain't it?
After the show, the newlyweds will return to La-La Land where they plan to flesh out the band and hit the road to promote the album.
Being 21st century artists, the Strange Familiar (which will also include bassist Frank Freeman and drummer Brian Piper when the band plays in Akron) has developed a healthy relationship with the ABC Family series The Secret Life of the American Teenager (new shows air at 8 p.m. Mondays).
The show has used the band's songs Secret Life (You and Me) and Courage Is .
A video for the Secret Life tune featuring a few cast members is included on the series' season two DVD and the video is also available at iTunes.
The series, which is in its third season, is using the band's latest single, the piano-driven pop-rocker I Just Want to Love You.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Like most music lovers, when I think of Kent, Ohio, the first thing that comes to mind is the blues.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 12:21 PM, 07/23/2009
Congrats to Jeff & Kira from Strange Familiar . . . a good write-up about a good band of good people.
