Enjoying the Songbirds as a music fan

Together they soar. The Songbirds filled my heart with joy as my first concert at the library as a music-lover-only. Without my communications specialist camera duties of the past years attached, my dear wife Karen accompanied me to appreciate the individual and collective cool of Johanna Jewitt, Maureen Henesey and Conna Colton in the Liverpool…

Bye-bye, Elton John, thank you for these decades

I waved farewell to Elton John on Saturday night in Syracuse. Tears came to my eyes after a joyful 150-minute ride through five decades of his unforgettable songs. My dear wife Karen and I had waited two years since I purchased the tickets online. They had cost a pretty penny. So we did the day…

A great night under the stars with Lake Street Dive

Lake Street Dive under the stars with a hit. I will have a greater appreciation for the music in my dear wife Karen’s car for sure. Lead singer Rachel Price certainly takes a crowd under her spell. Kudos to the folks at Beak and Skiff for a smooth outdoor show, too. I’d go to their…

No, they did not play Smoke on the Water

Midway through the super set by The Wood Brothers at Beak and Skiff, an alarming amount of smoke began billowing over the left corner of the stage. Dark, ugly smoke. I had to go down and ask the security guards about it. It appears the neighbor with adjoining property was burning something in his fire…

Music can heal

A couple weekends back, my dear wife Karen and I went to a special show at local joint Sharkey’s. I needed to show my support for the leader of the Todd Hobin Band. It’s been a tough summer for Todd. Just weeks before this show, his longtime band mate and friend, Doug Moncrief, passed away…

Enjoy some Sunday jazz from the library

A couple of Sundays ago, I got to take photos and videos at the concert by a combo show by two of Central New York’s finest at my library job. Ronnie Leigh on piano and voice and Marcus Curry on guitar earned standing ovations in the Liverpool Public Library’s Carman Community Room. I had to…

Don’t wait for Tom Hanks’ version to meet A Man Called Ove

The momentum built, from touching Swedish novel by Fredrik Backman to vastly entertaining movie directed and written by Hanes Holm starring Rolf Lassgard as the cantankerous title character who rules his tidy suburban housing complex with raised voice, eyebrow and, occasionally, fists clenched at his neighbors and the world at large. And now Hollywood word…