April 30, 2020 BANG MAGAZINE #7 Count Interview
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Monthly Archives: April 2020
4-29-2020 Wednesday
The Boston Rock And Roll Anthology Vol. #21 is about to happen!
The goal is to write on this page daily and keep people entertained and informed. Check out this great rendition of Bobby Hebb’s “Sunny”
Sunny by Bobby Hebb Kit Morgan – guitar Jerry Crozier-Cole – guitar
This performance was recorded and filmed on the 8th March 2018 Guitar Extravaganza live at Cedars Hall, Wells Cathedral School. Recording and editing by Dom Balchin see Bobby Hebb Dot Blogspot Dot Com https://bobbyhebb.blogspot.com/2020/04/sunny-by-bobby-hebb-kit-morgan-guitar.html
Jerry Crozier-Cole
Preacher Jack Rest in Peace 4-26-2020
Preacher Jack in 1998 sans long hair
My Malden Observer interview/ article on Preacher Jack
https://malden.wickedlocal.com/x392062497/-Just-a-closer-walk-with-Preacher-Jack
By Joe Viglione / recordreview2001@yahoo.com
Posted Sep 5, 2008 at 12:01 AM
Updated Sep 5, 2008 at 5:16 AM
For those who love the unique piano sound heard on the soundtrack to the Tom Cruise/Sydney Pollack movie “The Firm,” the hard-working piano man from Malden offers that style of ivory tickling and so much more.
“Preacher Jack” (a.k.a. Jack Coughlin), commands the stage like an evangelist explaining his “religion” of rock and blues with a raw, distinctive voice that cuts through better than Jimmy Swaggart or Jerry Falwell could ever hope to — probably because when The Preacher dives in to “Just A Closer Walk With Thee,” resplendent in Gospel overtones and backing vocalists, you believe him — and understand he believes in what he’S singing and playing.
The Malden Observer caught a performance by Jack on May 8, 2008 at Club Bohemia, the downstairs of the Cantab Lounge in Central Square, Cambridge.
It’s a dark den of sin in need of redemption that Preacher Jack lovingly provides as he bangs away on his traveling keyboard. Offstage, he’s a very personable — and quite reserved — individual, pleasant and engaging.
Here’s a bit of background that the Boston-area legend provided us.
Observer: How long have you lived in Malden?
Preacher Jack: I was born in Malden Feb. 12, 1942 and lived there until the late 1970s. I moved to Salem, Mass., and have resided at the Lafayette Hotel on Washington Street ever since
Observer: Did you first start playing music in Malden in school?
Preacher Jack: Yes. I was influenced at an early age by my mother, who was a runner up on the Major Bowes Radio Show in 1939, and my father, who was an amateur vocalist with a sort of baritone type range. My brother is also a singer with great success.
Malden Observer: What were your first bands?
Preacher Jack: Well, my first band could be considered Malden’s first garage band — we were called “The Jupitors” (sometimes called Jack and the Jupitors) in 1956 with boyhood pals Irving Fineberg on Guitar (self taught, I may add) and Charlie Peavy (later to work at his family’s business “Peavy’s Speed Shop” on Main Street) on drums.
Malden Observer: What were your first live gigs?
Preacher Jack: We played gymnasiums, the YMCA, churches, private parties, lots of clubs that are long gone from the North Shore, and later on worked with Arnie Woo Woo Ginsberg at his famous “Sock Hops” in Saugus on Route 1.
Malden Observer: How did the Rounder album come about?
Preacher Jack: George Thorogood spotted me at the Shipwreck Lounge on Revere Beach, took a liking to me, and brought me to the attention of Ken Irwin at Rounder. We recorded two albums for Rounder with the Delaware Destroyers and Sleepy LaBeef as my backup band(s).
Malden Observer: What was “the demo that got the deal” with Rounder Records?
Preacher Jack: Well, George liked the Luke The Drifter (Hanks Williams alter ego) pieces I was doing and Ken was also a huge Hank fan so I think it was the C & W part of my rep that won the folks at Rounder over.
Malden Observer: Let’s talk about your new disc, “Tales From Life’s Other Side.” What about the double entendre title?
Preacher Jack: It is actually “Pictures From Life’s Other Side,” a play on the Hank Williams song “A Pix From Lifes other side.” Peter (Levine), my manager, and Lady Eleanor (Ramsey) came up with the title. We sat around, listened to the diverse selections on the disc and thought a lot of these songs are snapshots of people’s lives, not necessarily my life, combined with my love of Hank we thought it would be a nice companion title for these tales.
Malden Observer: When did you start developing this album?
Preacher Jack: It is a combination of two sessions, one in 1982 with Dick Berwun at his home studio in Lexington and another done in 1996 at Sound Technique in Boston, which was financed by Gary Cherone of Extreme. When Bill Hunt from Cow Island Music approached us about signing me we had the material just sitting around, so it all came about quickly last year. We released on Feb. 12 of this year and it has been a wonderful relationship with Bill at Cow Island.
The MySpace http://myspace.com/thepreacherjack is full of information on Preacher Jack, including a 10-minute YouTube video posted on the front page.
Jack’s in great voice and the deep piano sounds resonate through the computer as he dips into more gospel: “Preacher Jack is at your service.”
Over a dozen gigs are booked through Oct. 25, including key ones at The Beehive (beehiveboston.com) located at 541 Tremont St. in Boston (617-423-0069) Sept. 10 at 8 p.m., and The Pawtucket Film Festival, 175 Main Street, Pawtucket, R.I., on Sept. 14 at 8 p.m. (www.mirrorimage.com/mi/film.html).
Check out http://www.myspace.com/thepreacherjack for more dates or go on to You Tube and put in the name “Preacher Jack” to watch the videos that are getting thousands of hits, taped live at Dodge Street, Sandy’s Jazz & Blues and other venues.
Preacher Jack in 1998 sans long hair
Checkmates “Black Pearl” Posting 2:29 pm 4-26-2020
(EXCERPT FROM AN ONLINE REVIEW BY JOE VIGLIONE, ALL MUSIC GUIDE /ALLMUSIC.COM/)
Sunday 2:07 pm April 26, 2020
April 25, 2020 I didn’t have the strength to post…Smokey Joe passed away at 8 am under my bed…peacefully… I petted his head and told him he was loved. Here’s a photo of Smokey in the rafters…he loved playing in secret places. It’s difficult to go through the thickness of the day when a long-time pet goes on to the next journey. My little double-pawed kitty.
11:53 am 4-24-2020
Varulven Records Page on Facebook Established April 24, 2020 https://www.facebook.com/Varulven-Records-100670684968158/
See my page AMG Reviews by Joe Viglione http://joeviglione.com/?page_id=113
In 1982, David Bowie released In Bertolt Brecht’s “Baal”; four years earlier, the prestigious RCA Red Seal classical label had Bowie narrating Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and with his stint on Broadway as The Elephant Man, the artist stretched himself brilliantly. There is not enough spoken word by popular recording artists in today’s world. Steven Tyler may show up on a Kerouac tribute performing one track; Grace Slick, Lou Reed, Peter Frampton, Marty Balin, and so many others have cut promotional interview discs for insiders, but it is surprising how the record industry has, for the most part, ignored this inexpensive and wonderful format to further endear artists to their fans. Jim Morrison’s poetry, after all, was all that was left when Elektra published An American Prayer — and that fans purchase low-quality bootlegs of many artists should have been a signal in the past to deliver this type of product to the marketplace. The scarcity of such projects makes Bowie’s close to 30 minutes of narration that much more delightful. The Peter and the Wolf album is divided into two sides. The narration by David Bowie of public domain material originally written by Prokofiev takes up 27 minutes and eight seconds, while the second side of this green-colored vinyl LP has 17 minutes and ten seconds of Eugene Ormandy conducting Benjamin Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ormandy and the aforementioned musicians from Philly also back up Bowie on side one. This RCA Red Seal release includes detailed liners and the project, according to Mary Campbell’s notes, is specifically geared to “introduce children to the sounds of the individual instruments in the symphony orchestra.” Both Prokofiev and Britten wrote their respective pieces with this aim in mind. That makes this record all the more charming — imagine what it could do if teachers would actually use it on a large scale to educate? As for Bowie’s performance, it is splendid. He tells the well-known fable with his usual eloquence and style, and gives instructions at the beginning for kids to understand how the music corresponds to characters in the story. The accompaniment from the Philadelphia Orchestra is first rate, the lush sounds more exciting on the Bowie side than on Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell, which makes up side B. Interesting how this project, if promoted today, could bring the name David Bowie to a huge audience of young people. A remarkable and well-crafted project. ~ Joe Viglione
Sometimes I forget my own resume’ … I can’t believe ten years have slipped by …today, Friday, is cold and rainy – a strange sort of rain, not sprinkling but kinda on and off showers…so Thursday March 4, 2010 at Bookends author Noah Boyd stopped by.
4-23-2020
Welcome to the Thursday, 4-23-2020 edition of JoeViglione.com Joe V is an expert on pop culture, psychic phenomena and rocket science. In fact, he’s quickly speeding towards his sixty-sixth travel around the sun! And proud of it. In fact, having survived obstacles that would make the Mos Eisley spaceport blush with envy, he has the street cred to say:” You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. We must be cautious.” We filter out the craziness so that you can enjoy this humble yet fascinating website. Who needs a site menu when as above so below. Above is our table of contents, below the page pertinent links to other like-minded genius types.
Adam Ezra in today’s Boston Globe https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/04/24/arts/adam-ezra-raises-glass-with-his-nightly-concert-series/
“Shimmy Baby, Pt. 1,” a lively early-’60s rocking studio performance with overdubbed applause and glasses tinkling, easily melts into a creative Hawaiian instrumental from Eden Ahbez entitled “Lonely Island,” which in turn weaves its way into the third track, “Walking Down the Street.” None of Joey Dee’s five Roulette Records Top 40 hits appear on this Scepter release called The Peppermint Twisters, and no one song stands out as memorable, though it is an interesting artifact from the day. Dee singing “hey hey” in “Walking Down the Street” could be the precursor to Chris Montez asking “Let’s Dance,” or Tommy Roe’s plea to “Sheila,” a low-rent predecessor to the two big hits that would emerge a year after this outing. “(Bad) Bulldog” resembles many a Kingsmen album that would follow in these footsteps, so the style of the sound that Joey Dee was imprinting on these Scepter discs would have its impact, which makes these dozen performances all the more interesting. “Coming Back to Me” dips into the ’50s — and though there are no credits other than the star and liner note writer Ira Howard, one wonders if actor Joe Pesci is performing in this 1961 version of a band he was a part of in that era, the Starlighters. Joey Dee sounds more like a teen idol cutting the Doc Pomus classic “Lonely Avenue,” Willie “Loco” Alexander giving it a more intense reading two decades later as documented on El Loco’s Greatest Hits release. The manufactured “live concert” sounds return on the second side, along with “Shimmy Baby, Pt. 2,” and those sounds are as bothersome as they would be showing up on The Kingsmen on Campus a couple of years later. Maybe it was a Scepter/Wand label thing. If you ever had a need to hear the Flamingos backing up Bobby Vee, the song “The Face of an Angel” sure comes close. “These Memories” keeps the mellow mood before the instrumental “The Twister” kicks in like a B-side from the Champs, with presumably Joey Dee on saxophone. “Before We Met” might have the most personality on an album that lacks that quality, though is a pretty accurate imprint of the sock-hop sounds of the early ’60s. ~ Joe Viglione
Canned Heat includes: Bob “The Bear” Hite (vocals); Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson (various instruments); Henry “Sunflower” Vestine, Harvey Mandel (guitar); Larry “The Mole” Taylor, Mark Andes (bass); Frank Cook, Adolfo “Fito” De La Parra (drums).
Recorded between 1967 and 1973. Originally released on Liberty/United Artist Records. Includes liner notes by Bill Dahl.
All tracks have been digitally remastered.
JV REVIEW
This initial best-of package, Canned Heat Cookbook, was released rather quickly in 1969 after the band’s initial burst of creativity resulted in four albums and two hit singles between 1967 and 1968. Friend/manager/producer Skip Taylor lists tons of the band’s engagements from 1966 on the gatefold of the album, which constitutes its only liner notes. Dozens and dozens of gigs, from the Monterey International Pop Festival to Club 47, the Boston Tea Party, and what they call the Woodstock Pop Festival, are all listed and this is a staggering resumé suited well to a greatest-hits package. There are baby photos of the five bandmembers (and the obligatory thanks to their moms for providing them), as well as a very cool cover design by Dean Torrence which features his artistic rendition of each performer along with a couple of butterflies. They look somewhat like the Band here, and their rocking blues was actually somewhat similar to the dudes who backed up Bob Dylan. But the sound of their records differed from that other ensemble, and Al Wilson’s personality shines through on “Goin’ up the Country” and “On the Road Again,” two blasts of ’60s pop which were quite different from anything else on the radio at the time. Repackages are often arbitrary and one can quibble that the song named after the group, “Canned Heat,” is missing, but this best-of album is worthy of the moniker regardless and contains “Bullfrog Blues” and “Rollin’ and Tumblin'” from the 1967 self-titled debut; tracks from 1968’s Boogie With Canned Heat, including “Amphetamine Annie,” the hit “On the Road Again,” and the 11-minute-plus “Fried Hockey Boogie”; and material from yet another 1968 album, Living the Blues, including “Goin’ up the Country,” which was as identifiable to the band as “On the Road Again” with Alan Wilson’s high-pitched, earnest, nasal request giving the audience a musical handle, as well as “Boogie Music,” also getting the nod from the Living the Blues disc. Three selections from 1968’s Hallelujah album — “Time Was,” “Sic ‘Em Pigs,” and “Same All Over” — round out the original vinyl version of the LP. The group would release a live album on Liberty in 1970 after this compilation, and hit again with “Let’s Work Together” from another studio album in 1970, Future Blues. For those who want to get a good glimpse of this band, Canned Heat Cookbook is the place to start. Len Fico at the Fuel 2000 label put together a 2002 compilation which features the same tracks along with the addition of the third hit, “Let’s Work Together.” ~ Joe Viglione
4:38 pm 4-22-2020
Dec 2, 1978 The original show that packed the house, that rocked the house, and that launched Unnatural Axe, Thrills and the Neighborhoods into the Paradise. http://joeviglione.com/?p=1257 Show put together by Joe Viglione and Jon Macey, the second of 49 performances by JV at The Best Concert Club in New England. Our first show was June 29, 1978
THE LOST BALL N CHAIN RECORDING FROM THE 1980S
TWO BONUS TRACKS FROM JOE BLACK – talk about seeing red! 5:28 pm in the wind and rainstorm I fetched this photo of the emerging flower. Today at 4:44 pm it is a cold 44 degrees…I did not plan all the fours in a row, five fours, play that number! Cloudy and windy it feels like it is in the 30’s here five miles north of Boston.
2:26 pm 4-21-2020
Alfred Dreyfuss was Willie’s PR person, Hilaire Ames ours!
Demo that got the Deal for Bruce Marshall Group
1:20 pm April 20, 2020
Your daily Boston Rock & Roll pop culture. Our Keyword for today is ROBUST Welcome to Monday, 20, 2020 of April, enjoy the numbers as you won’t be seeing that date again for centuries to come. I believe Genya’s June 9, 1995 letter was regarding the Anthology #19. We are doing plenty of publicity during COVID-19 and want to thank Only Rock Radio and Lonely Oak Radio for playing Mad Painter. We’re also thankful for Only Rock Radio playing “Space and Time” by Pamela Ruby Russell and “Counting Down to Zero (From One)” by Greg Walsh’s New Ghosts. Follow the information on my Twitter https://twitter.com/JoeViglione
Joe Viglione’s BIOGRAPHY of Genya Ravan on AMG https://www.allmusic.com/artist/genya-ravan-mn0000165261/biography
We were in residency at Cantones (Love and Flame) and later at Chet’s Last Call (Dimension Ten)
