The Steve Miller Band, from the wayback

The plan sounded solid, cemented even further from the on-site texts telling of too much heat and less folks than expected. No, wonderful daughter Elisabeth, Georges Three and Two and Sue would not be sticking around the New York State Fair to eat dinner with us Sunday. They’d taken the early route, and eaten from…

Remembering Woodstock on the Ridge

For a certain generation in America, many things changed 46 years ago this month. In their music, and thus in their life. The Woodstock Music & Art Fair took root on Max Yasgur’s farm in Bethel, N.Y., Aug. 14 to 18, 1969. Hundreds of thousands of young music fans descended upon the land. The New…

A whole lot of mentoring will be goin’ on

The members of the Syracuse Sunshine Rotary Club are getting fired up. It’s not the biggest organization going, this 20-or-so-member philanthropic club. But, oh, they have big dreams for a festival they’ve cooked up for Aug. 15 at Kellish Hill Farms in Manlius, just a bit to the southeast of the city. It’s a music…

Lake Street Dive unveils its Princess

The catch a rising star moment wrapped the M&T Syracuse Jazz Fet in its happy arms early Saturday night. Lake Street Dive, good to know you now. I only hope those plaques proclaiming it your day all four of you brought home, the bouquets placed in the arms of lead singer Rachael Price and bassist…

Aretha Franklin still qualifies as the Queen of Soul

The Queen of Soul still holds courts on a stage. Aretha Franklin took the 10,000 and more folks who pressed onto the campus of Onondaga Community College for her finale set of the M&T Syracuse Jazz Fest and showed them a thing or two about proper soul singing Saturday night. And it was very, very…