Irv Lyons delivers his songs with love

Irv Lyons Jr., , Wonderland Syracuse guitarist and singer Irv Lyons Jr. obviously put his heart and soul into his new album Wonderland. The 10-song collection bursts with love songs touched with his rich guitar work, innermost lyrical poetry and plenty of help from his Syracuse music community friends. The veteran member of standout blues…

Sing it cool, Eli

It’s always comforting to see Eli Harris out in the Syracuse elements playing his music. The singer and guitarists knows the Syracuse University athletic schedule. Carrier Dome patrons are serenaded, sweetly, regularly, through cold and sometimes really cold. Elijah Harris and I go way back, to my decades as the music writer for the big…

Kim Lembo comes back to her hometown with a different voice

For a glorius half-dozen years, Kim Lembo was the real deal in Syracuse music, and constantly threatening to be the Next Big Thing to take the world’s ears by storm. I covered her voice and her four albums and her live shows, from her debut in 1994 on Baldwinsville’s Blue Wave Records until she moved…

A party to remember and celebrate the life of Roosevelt Dean

I still vividly remember that Saturday night of April 4, 2009. I was sitting on my recliner in the Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood when the phone rang. Former New York state Senator Nancy Larraine Hoffman was on the line for me. I wasn’t working on any sort of story for…

A sunny day slinks into the perfect night for the Syracuse blues

You sure can have a wicked case of the blues with the sun shining, temperatures in the 70s and bands doing their best on the big stage non-stop in front of you. Food trucks at few steps away, too. Friday at the 23rd edition of the New York State Blues festival in downtown Syracuse’s Clinton…

Getting better with age on stage

I was on the phone last night interviewing two guys in the Syracuse music scene I’ve been fortunate enough to have seen play many times. Guitarist Terry Mulhauser and harp-blower and singer Pete McMahon are veterans who’ve played with different bands and a wide array of other musicians. But the cream always rises to the…

Thank you, Riley ‘Blues Boy’ King

It was his time. B.B. King passed away Thursday at the age of 89 after a lifetime of delivering a world of wonder to anybody who opened their ears to the blues. With the famous guitar he named Lucille, Riley “Blues Boy” King rang out notes of beauty that struck you that second, hung out…

Talking about the New York State Blues Fest and its music

The 23rd edition of the New York State Blues Festival is two months-plus in the future, but time does fly. Besides, there’s new direction at the top of the event that will bring its 23rd edition to downtown Syracuse’s Clinton Square on July 10 and 11, so I invited first-year executive director Eric McElveen and…

Sitting in at the first Snow Plow Blues Festival heats things up

The wind chill was way into double-digit-negatives and the murky white banks flanking Syracuse’s James Street were way over your waist as the music fans some 150 strong braved their way into the Palace Theatre. Promoter and host Tom Honan had the right words to set the mood. “We were going to do it outside,”…

Kohlton Pascal decides to pass on ‘American Idol’ Hollywood ticket

The 21-year-old who sounds like an old soul blues singer won’t be trying to match up with the young pop world of “American Idol” in Hollywood after all. My good friend and former colleague Melinda Johnson reports this morning on syracuse.com that Kohlton Pascal of Auburn and Skaneateles and Syracuse, N.Y., has decided to pass…

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Mark Bialczak

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Tag Archives: Blues music