A Taste of the 20th year

A couple of weeks back, Rick from Syracuse radio station TK99 sent me a Facebook request for a few minutes of my time. Could he talk to me for a show he was putting together for the 20th anniversary of the Taste of Syracuse, please? Sure, I replied. Then, I thought: Has it been that…

My first time at Woodstock

My former colleague at the big daily Bill LaRue dug up a golden oldie from his files the other day and sent me into flurry of memories. That’s me, arms covered with muck, working hard on the old-fashioned laptop at Woodstock ’94 in Saugerties, N.Y. LaRue and I were the two reporters from the Syracuse…

Mary Fahl, Joe Whiting welcome in May

Tom Honan will be busy this weekend bringing interesting music to Central New York. The main behind Live Space Entertainment cranks up for May with a pair of shows flanking Syracuse. Friday night, Mary Fahl performs at Homer Center for the Arts. Fahl is a singer of note who also carries a connection to the…

Tedeschi Trucks Band knows how to get tight

I love when a band proves it can think out of the box. Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks proved that so by putting together a really cool video for NPR’s great feature, the Tiny Desk Concert. The southern rock blues bunch proved you can indeed get 12 working musicians crammed behind one desk. My connection…

Now you see Tom Hanks, now you don’t in A Hologram for the King

A Hologram for the King begins with the nightmare of businessman Alan Clay singing Talking Heads’ classic Once in a Lifetime to a chilling effect as he jets to Saudi Arabia to escape and — possibly, hopefully — eradicate the noted pain of said subject matter. Wife, lost in divorce. Life, in turmoil. After he…

Petty’s music from Hard Promises at the Palace

Hard Promises is making its Syracuse party bigger this year. Front man Jeff Gordon dropped me a line with the news that Petty Fest IV is moving on down — as in , a flight of stairs and the road ‘a piece from its former spot at Upstairs at the Dinosaur. The new spot is…

We started singing, bye-bye American Idol …

I don’t know if you noticed, but American Idol put on one hell of a finale last week. The FOX competition show signed off after 15 seasons of crowning an amateur singer as best of the bunch by winning over the panel of judges and America in voting week after week. The system worked to…

Love, Love Me Do, for Beatlecuse and Orange

Paul Davie plans long and works hard to put on the annual BeatleCuse show in Syracuse’s Landmark Theatre. The promoter and musician picked Saturday night as the date for the third edition of his merge between a large and talented collection of the city and its surrounding area’s best musicians and a couple of special…