DocWu's Other Blog

I went to the Sportsmans again, this time to record for a podcast featuring Peter Case. He was playing there with Mark Winsick, Jim Whitford, and Rob Lynch backing him.

Peter is a former Buffalo-area resident who left the area and found fame as a songwriter and leader of the punk band The Plimsouls. After they left the scene, he has been playing as a solo act as well as collaborating with many other respected artists.

His songs have been covered by so many people it would be impossible to list them all here. A charity organization, Hungry For Music, which raises money to support music in education, much as Bufalo's Music Is Art group does, has put out a tribute CD - three CDs in fact - of other artists covering his songs. His tour through Buffalo was to support this CD. The CD is called A Case for Case, and has 48 songs, every one of them a great track.

I've been talking with Mark Winsick about doing a podcast for some time. We've been waiting for the right time to do it - a date where he can do at least a set of his original material, but haven't done it yet. I hope we still will. I think Mark and his band, Jim Whitford and Rob Lynch, is one of the best blues bands you will see anywhere. They are each exceptional musicians, but when they play together, they just click. It's easy to see why they play together. They would have been the perfect band to back up Case, even if Mark and Jim weren't long-time friends.

I recorded the show. It was the first show I used my new Fostex MR8-HD recorder on and I put up three mikes and a direct feed out of the sound system and it came out great. It is so cool being able to play around with the four tracks after the fact and tweak things just so.

Peter felt he didn't have the best night and asked me to let him preview the recordings before I use them for a podcast. I'm a bit dissappointed in that, but I hope when I get back with him and let him hear the show, he'll approve it. I thought it sounded great and - as I always say - the podcast isn't a studio recording, it's supposed to have the feel of a live show, crowd noise and all, so perfection isn't necessary.

In any case - no pun intended - I had a great night enjoying a legend perform in an intimate venue and got some great recordings out of it. I'm happy, but I'll be happier when I can share it in a podcast.

On Saturday April 1, 2006, I went to the kickoff party for the AllWNYRadio.com kickoff party. It was held at the UAW Hall in Lockport.

AllWNYRadio.com was something new to me. Apparently, it's a streaming radio station that features local music. Kind of the same thing I am doing, only as a stream.

The owner, Scott, contacted me on MySpace and I figured I'd go check it out. It was a good time.

They had four bands play that evening, Jeremiah Dean Band, Gil Transit, Limited Freedom and Blues Justice.

The Jeremiah Dean Band was quite good. Pretty standard rock from a four-piece band.

Gil Transit came up next and was, in my opinion, the best band there that night. Another four-piece, they were strong lyrically and fell somewhere in the range of progressive rock.

Limited Freedom was a three-piece band of young teenage kids. Their parents were their roadies, helping set up and make sure every little thing was right. I could almost feel them squirm under their over-attentiveness :-) But they were good. The singer has an excellent rock and roll voice and their playing was quite good too. The crowd was suitably impressed, or else was all relatives :-) Not the best band there, but not bad at all and watch out for these guys, they are only going to get better as they work at it.

Finally, they closed the show with Blues Justice. I had seen them play once before so I wasn't in for any surprises. As the only blues act of the night, they were tough to compare to the other groups, but the veteran performance by their lead singer showed they are pros. His harp playing was great and left me wishing for more of it.

All in all, it was a fun night. It was lightly attended, but as word gets out and they hold more of these (as they promise) it should be a good venue to showcase local talent. One good thing, it was pretty family-friendly, unlike going to a bar to see a band play. While they did serve beer, under careful control, it was open to all ages, a refreshing thing, these days.

I was feeling pretty good yesterday and decided to go out for the evening. There were a bunch of good pre-Christmas shows going on, so it was tough to choose.

I decided to go up to the Sportsmans' The Pocahotties were playing the early show. The Pocahotties are Rose Bond, Alison Pipitone, Pamela Ryder and Susan Rozler, all musicians of note on their own. This was an annual Christmas show.

Pam Ryder is now based out of Austin TX, so this was a semi rare appearance. I got there late, but caught the last three songs. The house was packed, I could just get in the door. I stood there watching them with John Gaeta, the sax player from Flyin' Blind.

So I stuck around for the Flyin' Blind show. This was their first appearance at the Sportsmans' and it was a good show. The crowd thinned out quite a bit, but there were a lot of enthusiastic fans there. I've got a feeling that the next time they play there, the word will be out and it will be packed.