Working hard to get it exactly right

Kimberly Schad will throw a big party Friday night in Syracuse, at The Palace Theater on James Street, where everybody can come and appreciate her performing her music for free. It’s a release celebration for her EP, The Mystic Kingdom. Schad started recording an album five years ago, and didn’t like the final result. She…

Bringing the signficance and sounds of Sinatra alive

Frank Sinatra was born 100 years ago. Come fly with me, time. The sounds of Francis Albert have meant so much to me since my father turned me on to him when I was really small. Syracuse singer Ronnie Leigh had a similar introduction, I discovered when I interviewed him for the latest installment of…

18 bands big is quite a state

The kids in uniform kept coming up the steps and passing our seats at the Carrier Dome last Saturday. Many kids in many different uniforms, up the steps they went to seats far up in th section. It was obvious that something was going on at halftime. The guys behind us joked half-heartedly about how…

Bob Halligan Jr. bridges the best of Syracuse again

Bob Halligan Jr. will sing with a couple of Syracuse’s favorite groups from the Wayback on Nov. 21. He can do it. When I met up with the singer, keyboardist, guitarist, songwriter, bandleader and all-around good person Tuesday for a bite to eat and catch-up chat, I knew he would have something interesting to tell…

Listen and learn with Nancy Kelly

The folks at CNY Jazz are all worked up about this weekend. Nancy Kelly is taking over their cozy downtown Syracuse theater Saturday and Sunday. The popular vocalist will host the organization’s fall Vocal Jazz Jam and Stars of Tomorrow Cabaret. Not only can guests see and hear Kelly’s distinctive voice and style, but they’ll…

Jen Chapin has seen the world go by as she’s performed

Jen Chapin doesn’t mind a quick run up to Syracuse for an Oct. 24 show in the Steeple Coffee House series, she says during a phone conversation. To make it work best, the singer and songwriter explains, she quickly worked her contacts to book a sister show in nearby Rochester. “It’s nice to have two,…

With Livelong Day, Chip Prior rocks his belief

Chip Prior, Livelong Day Odd Mann Out Music Before she started this summer of retooling of her PriorHouse blog, my friend Whyvette dropped me a package by U.S. Post that included the new CD by her husband, Chip Prior. She wondered to me if his music would be too Christian for my liking. Livelong Day…

The Baseball Project sounds perfect for this time of the season

Bring on the playoffs, say baseball fans all over today. Not just in New York, where the Mets and Yankees have both qualified for the first time since 2006. Can we get the second Subway Series, 15 years after the World Series matchup? (In retrospect, that was one I believed helped pave the way for…

On what would would have been John Lennon’s 75th birthday, a salute will come from Mark Hudson

The man who keeps BeatleCuse going is making sure Syracuse has something cool going on to mark the day that John Lennon would have turned 75. Yes, the first Beatle to leave us was born on Oct. 9, 1940. My how time does pass us by. “There will be some national attention given to this…

The big stage still revs Jimmy Cavallo at 88

I’ve had the chance to talk to Jimmy Cavallo for a quarter century now. Back when I worked for the big daily, he and his bud Stan Colella even allowed myself and a photographer colleague to tail them around a downtown Syracuse joint called Styleen’s Rhythm Palace as they posed for the cover of their…