Friday, August 05, 2005

Bluegrass and Lonesome

Big show tonight featuring two groups you can see at the Newport Folk Festival on Saturday at a much higher price.

The Lonesome Sisters are the openers, coming to us from upstate New York. They specialize in rootsy lonesome songs. That's them playing a gig in your blogger's former hometown, Cincinnati, Ohio, the Gateway to the South. Cincinnati almost became what Nashville became. Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, James Brown and the Isley Brothers all recorded in Cincinnati. Apparently some of the studios relocated to Nashville in the 1950s for whatever reason, and the rest is history.

Steven Speilberg is from Cincinnati. Actor George Clooney comes from a family in the Cincinnati area; his dad, Nick Clooney, had a local television talk show. Doris Day is from Cincinnati as well; in fact, your humble blogger's late mother used to see her (when she had a different, German-sounding name) in the neighborhood growing up. Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods (they had a hit "Billy Don't Be A Hero" in the 1970s) is from Cincy, and John Fred and the Playboy Band (who had a hit "Judy in Disguise" in the 1960s) was known as "Ivan and the Sabres" when they played your humble blogger's grammar school in the Western Hills area of Cincinnati, a farming region. Dwight Yoakam is from the Cincinnati area. Pete Rose not only played for the Cincinnati Reds, but lived in the Western Hills area your humble blogger resided in. In fact, your humble blogger once went to his house and sold a candy bar to his wife at the time. She came to the door in a rather alluring nightgown. Sure, she'd support our team and buy a candy bar!

Enough.

Also playing Friday night at the Narrows is Jim and Jennie and the Pinetops. Here's how Bluegrass Now magazine described them:

"Jim & Jennie and the Pinetops are the sort of upstarts who have rustled a few feathers amongst bluegrass purists - as only a 4-piece from Philadelphia can. Yet there's no denying the powerful harmonies projected by Jim Krewson and Jennie Bedford, recalling such greats as The Carters, Hazel Dickens and Red Allen - but with more spunk. "

See you tonight at the Narrows!!

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