Getting set for DonnaPalooza and hanging out with Althea

Today’s the day when the Syracuse music community is going to pay tribute to the wonder that is Donna Colton. Donnapalooza will celebrate the music and personality of Donna Colton, the singer, songwriter and guitarist who’s been spreading her rich vibe of warmth in Syracuse and its surrounding counties through the decades. Donna has been…

The Guise lays down a familiar and comforting sound

The Guise, “Forthcoming,” Sound Ideas Music I popped “Forthcoming” into my car CD player and said to myself, “yup,” as soon as the first notes of “You Never Know” hit my ears. No way had I heard this song written and being played by The Guise before. But I knew it was going to make…

I can still hang out with KP and Tater and talk about golf

It may take awhile until the golf courses of Syracuse are green enough and dry enough to accept these first spring steps. And I’ll pretty much play in the brown muck to get out there for initial swings with my longtime golf buddies KP and Tater. This February, though, has crushed our spirit in cold…

A new hour talks about Syracuse music and entertainment

You have to want to get to the studio of WVOA-FM out on the eastern outskirts of Syracuse. James Austin had asked me to be a guest on the new music and entertainment hour he hosts with Scott Johnson that’s broadcast online and over the air, so I drove the snowy Wednesday night down 298,…

Snow four dogs high

Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle’s got to walk. No matter how high the snow gets in our Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood. On this weekend morning, the extreme cold of this February being a bit less crushing, my dear wife Karen joined us on the two-block loop to nearby Norwood Park. I asked her to…

Talking Springsteen, ‘SNL’ and Syracuse with blogger Phil Prehn

I’ll always jump at the chance for a live chat with somebody whose blog I follow. So when Phil Prehn emailed during this bitter Syracuse winter to set up a coffee get-together at Cafe Kubal, up James Street from my dear wife Karen and I’s Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, I…

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,”…

Well it looks pretty nice

Things were looking pretty as Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle raced to do her morning thing off the back porch of the Little Bitty my dear wife Karen and I share in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Syracuse. The sun was inviting. Postcard alluring, perhaps. Vivid skies invited birds to the treetops off in the…

What’s worse, the snow or the cold?

I’ve yet to venture outside this Sunday morning, choosing instead to work on my blogs. Here’s why. At 10:25 a.m., the crawl on “CBS Sunday Morning” proclaimed the temperature in Syracuse, N.Y., to be -4 F. My peering out the side at 8 allowed me the vision of Good Neighbor Tim and Wonderful Wife Lorraine…

You win some, you lose some

Snow and cold, hot Italian food, snow and cold, hot college basketball, cold and snow. A happy Valentine’s Day it was for my dear wife Karen and I in Syracuse, N.Y. We started with a drive through the snow to Carrabba’s Italian Grill in nearby Fayetteville. The 2 p.m. late lunch/early dinner plan was perfect…