Who was who
at the Who's Hoo?

Who? How 'bout an assortment of outstanding local musicians, capped off with a fine performance by popular Columbus performer Mike Perkins.

Adam Jacobs has been singing and playing around this area since high school except for a few years out of town, including time spent in Columbus where he met Perkins (a few Who's Hoo attendees noted the similarity of rhythmic style between Mike and Adam... coincidence?). Adam has been playing Thursdays at Uncle Butter's for several months, and struck an agreement with the tavern to hold a music festival - the Who's Hoo. Well-known local musician / promoter Trevor Quillan and bassist Moe Angelo (the Kellys) were recruited to broadcast the live festival over their RuKus internet radio. Adam also asked several of his musician friends to join in for half-hour sets.

Trevor must have had some rain left over from his recent Furthermind festival, and he brought it along to Mahoning Avenue in Warren that night. The first storm threw hail at the electronic equipment on Uncle Butter's patio, but the sun peeked out just after the 5 o'clock start time and proceeded to bake the first few performers, French Blue (actually "Seven Saturdays" - see below), yours truly - the Professor, Tony T., and Joey B. At that point the wind-driven rain returned, sending the visitors to shelter while Adam, Trevor, Moe, and Tony scrambled to keep their equipment dry. Rick Hartley played during the next semi-dry interval, accompanied by Larry Nell on soprano sax and flute and Vince Monti on conga. Another storm caused the gang to give up on the portable gazebos and regroup under the permanent bar roof. Denny London started the next set, followed by Trevor, and then Adam took the stage for a few numbers. A short break for Mike Perkins' setup turned into a half-hour battle with an intermittent hum accompanied by an occasional nerve-rattling screech from the PA. Finally, after solving the problem by disconnecting most of his effects, Mike proceeded to entertain the crowd, bringing them out of their seats to dance on the deck. The party lasted until 1 AM and the many faithful visitors gave all the performers a standing ovation.

French Blue is Jennifer Lamb (from Warren, via Austintown) on vocals, and Steve Pownell (Niles) on acoustic rhythm guitar.  At Who's Hoo they were accompanied by Jimmy Martin (Warren) on lead guitar and harmonies, Sam Petillo (Niles) on bass guitar,  and Robb Byron (Howland) on drums. Jennifer explained that she and Steve are the cover duo French Blue, and the full band (who's name, Seven Saturdays, became official right there at Who's Hoo) was formed to perform their original material. French Blue hung around long enough to listen to the Professor's set, then hurried off to their other gig of the evening. Robb also had a later gig with his band SHAKEDOWN. You can check out French Blue at www.myspace.com/frenchblueohio.

Read about and listen to some of the other Who's Hoo musicians on their websites:
Adam Jacobs - www.adamjacobs.net and www.myspace.com/adamjacobsmusic
the Professor - mvlivemusic.com/musicians/professor/professor.htm and www.myspace.com/mvprofessor
Tony T - www.myspace.com/ekoosticmusic
Joey B - www.myspace.com/joeb786
Rick Hartley - www.myspace.com/therealrickhartley
Denny London - www.myspace.com/dennylondon
Trevor Quillan - www.myspace.com/trevorqmurphy
Mike Perkins - www.myspace.com/mikeperkinsmusic

If you missed the festival and the live RuKus broadcast you may be able to catch some of the performances on rukusradio.net. (7/28/08)

Mahoning Valley Live Music is a year old!

Conceived, created, and published to the web (as a Road Runner personal page) in February 2007, and soon after moved to current URL - http://mvlivemusic.com.
The Shows page is the most popular, averaging more than 45 views per day.
The Musicians page has grown to 144 perfomers and their website links.
Over 5000 "hits" to date, averaging over 30 visitors a day, and growing fast!

Vote for Mortisha's Secret!

Missy and Tod have submitted two really cool video commercials for a Heinz 57 ketchup contest. Here are links to the videos:

Rate and leave a comment on YouTube, and watch for the final vote.

Joe Fritz visited the Mardi Gras many times with his previous band, In Harms Way, and they penned a song, "Houma Girl", about a lady they met there. A Louisiana newspaper has published an article about the band and their song - you can read it here, and listen to "Houma Girl" from a link from this article (right-click the link in the article and select "Save Target As...".

I mentioned Nate Scott in a previous comment, and I recently found his MySpace site and have been communicating with him. Nate is from Virginia, toured with major Nashville stars, and wound up in this corner of Ohio. I recommend that you visit his site - click here - and read his story. I'll keep you posted on any gig updates.

Two new songs have been added to the player - John Ruman's "Ain't Got Time To Bleed" and the BreezeWay's "A Perfect Life". John is a well-known local musician, and, although the BreezeWay now call Nashville home, they are originally from Salem, and two of the members are sons of Bill Henceroth of the Professors. Check this site's schedule tomorrow for their Salem gigs this weekend. Thanks to John and the BreezeWay for allowing me to post their songs. Enjoy the music. (8/8/07)

Richard Powell...

is a Newton Falls singer/songwriter who retired after 30 years of performing all over the US and parts of the rest of the world. He recently came out of retirement to perform at Veterans' Park, where I had the opportunity to enjoy listening to Richard's acoustic guitar and vocals. I looked up his website when I got back to my computer and discovered that Richard is an exceptional songwriter, and that his current album was recorded with help from guest musicians Phil Keaggy and John Sferra! You can read the lyrics to his songs, listen to a clip, and buy the CD from his website. (Click photo to enlarge) (8/7/07)

Steve Vuich Birthday Bash

It was a helluva party at Tulley's in Sharon, with great music from Vooch, Randy Bass, Danny Lynch, and a fantastic lineup of guest musicians. Click here to see pictures... (8/7/07)

A MySpace introduction

I've found many Mahoning Valley bands and performers that don't have an internet presence, and I try to convince them of the benefits. MySpace.com offers a fantastic (and FREE) method of internet promotion. Sure, having your own web address, like YourBandName.com, has advantages over myspace.com/YourBandName, but against the money you would pay for site development and domain space, it's worth the trade-off. But it's also a great idea to establish a MySpace identity even if you already have a website, because of the "community" concept, and the interaction between musician friends and their fan base, through features like "Friends", "Comments", "Messages", "Blogs", and so on. Here's some things to consider before you venture into MySpace...

Musicians - make sure you sign up into MySpace Music! It's just for performers, while plain old MySpace is for everyone else ("Music" offers special categories and features, though MySpace and MySpace Music are all one big, happy, interactive community). I didn't know that initially and wound up deleting my first identity to create a new one in "Music", but I couldn't register with the same email address I used in the first attempt.

You need to give a name to your MySpace Music account. Ideally it would be your band name, and your URL would be MySpace.com/YourBandName, but, in all likelihood there's already a band out there somewhere with the same name as yours, and they already registered. In that case, you can add numbers or another word - YourBandName007 or YourBandNameMusic (that's why I'm at myspace.com/mvprofessor). You'll also need a password for account administration - DON'T FORGET IT!

Once you have an account, you can log in and fill in the blanks such as "Band Members" and "Influences", upload pictures and songs (MySpace will install a music player on your page), and maintain your gig schedule. Start searching  for your friends' MySpace identities, and send them friend requests (you have to wait until they respond to the request). Then you can send comments and messages.

There are two views of your MySpace page - the editing (managing) screen and the page that everyone else sees, and you, too, at the address MySpace.com/YourBandName. To manage your page you have to first log in, by going to, simply, MySpace.com, or by clicking "Home" on the upper left on any MySpace page. You can go to your normal page view from the editing view by clicking on the address at "My MySpace URL:". You can navigate all over the place and not have to log in again unless you close your browser.

If you contract MySpace envy after viewing your friends' fancy pages, you can "pimp" your space. Those fancy fonts and backgrounds are programmed in something called Cascading Style Sheets, or CSS. You can search the web to learn how to do it yourself, or to find code to copy, or click on an advertising link on someone else's page for one of the CSS generator sites. Or, you can have someone else do it for you. I'm willing to help with a basic background change and with inserting MySpace's slideshow. Check out my page or the page I created for Jeff Welsh Band for examples. If needed, I'll even give you an email address to register - YourBandName@MVLiveMusic.com. Happy MySpacing! (8/5/07)

Where was I?

Been a while... my recent excursions include: Bustin' Loose at the Fireplace, Chasin' the Blues at Dash Inn, Following June at Bill's Place, Guys Without Ties in the Newton Falls Memorial Park, Jang a Lang in Warren's Courthouse Square, Kevin Ciambrone at the Harrison St. SOI and Margherita's (w/ yours truly), Krazy Bone and open-mike with Zeke and Dan, both at the Ice House, Little Ambition at Toey's, Silvertone at Jumpin' Jack's, the Smackdaddys at Club Leon's, TIm Drummond at Clancy's, Tommy Chris and the Cats at Drunken Jacks', and last, but not least, Wildwood Express on the McKinley Memorial lawn. I've also revisited many musician friends that I've previously mentioned in this blurb (and played a few songs here and there). Wow, is this a great job, or what?!!

By the way, my open-mike is canceled. I'm thinking about some other gigs - watch here for updates. (7/18/07)

Music player additions

Alton Cooley graciously sent me his CD, "My Woody", and I've added the first track, "Going to Chicago", to this site's playlist. After you whet your appetite for Alton's excellent blues/rock on this sample, go to his website and order the CD... Neil Hogue of Drivin' Wheel surprised me with a visit to my open-mike last week. I was looking forward to including one of Neil's original songs here, but I haven't received it by the time of this writing. Keep checking the music player - I hope to have it soon... Thursday was full of surprises for me - Todd and Missy Shay, Mortisha's Secret, also stopped in and played for the Bushwackers crowd, and they brought along their CD "Us Against the World". You can hear a clip of their inspiring 9/11 anthem, "Never Forget This Day" on the player, and then buy the CD from their website. Missy and Todd also gave me a promo DVD. I'm extremely impressed with the production and I planned to add a video clip here, but I found out they have a video on YouTube, which you can watch by clicking here... Last (but not least), I'm putting in a family plug - my son Bill's roots are in the blues and rock that his Dad always listened to, but he makes money selling rap beats, composed in his Buzzhawg Productions studio. I've uploaded a fantastic example of his talents, his rock-inspired "Flying High". Click on "Free Rap Beats" on this site's "Cool Links" sidebar to hear more of his rock, blues, classical, and folk compositions... I'm still trying unsuccessfully to get the player to cycle through all clips - until then you can select another song to play from the drop-down list and then click on the ">" button.

Thanks Missy, Todd, and Neil, and all the other professional musicians who took time out of their busy lives to play at my open-mike. Everyone at Bushwackers has been impressed with the quality performances, particularly me! By the way, I finally caught up with Tie-1-On (at Tangier), the Professors (Jumpin' Jack's), and Redline (Fireplace), and thoroughly enjoyed each of the shows (and I know you will too). Visit their websites and check Mahoning Valley Live Music's "Shows" page to find out where they are playing next, and "be there or be square". (5/6/07)

More of the Professor's Ramblings

A spider has found MVLiveMusic's forum and keeps posting spam, which I delete daily. Please ignore posts titled "Article...". Remember - the best way to fight spam, email or whatever, is to NEVER click on a spam link. If they don't make click money they'll go out of business. UPDATE: You now have to answer a simple question to post to the forum, and that has stopped the robot spammers.

Musicians: I apologize if I haven't been around to meet you yet. I never imagined the total number of local acts when I started this site. Every week I find at least one musician or band that I wasn't aware of before, and there is a large group of performers - I'll call them "twenty-something" for lack of a better description - that I've barely investigated. Since most live music is on Friday and Saturday, and I can only make a couple places each night, it will take me a long time to see everyone at least once. Meanwhile I've been trying to revisit new musician friends,  keep up with old friends, and play at a few open-mikes. Speaking of open-mikes, mine is moving to Tuesdays, starting May 15th (at Bushwackers), and here's two new ones - Sinners and Saints at Jumpin' Jack's on Thursdays and Steve Vuich at Big Mike's on Sundays (wow, that's seven open-mikes I'm trying to make, counting Club Khameleon in Kent!)

New friends: Check out the Groove Dawgs - "Rock with a bite!" - and their website, and the Look, who are working on their own site, and do one HELLUVA job on Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights"! (4/25/07)

This is not a shameless plug, really!

I had a very pleasant surprise Thursday at my open-mike...

Tino Navarro III and his cousin Joe arrived early with their guitars, ready to play and sing for us. I met Tino a year or so ago at another open-mike. I've been hoping to meet up with him again soon, and there he was, at Bushwackers! Tino and Joe are young and extremely talented, so I believe that in the near future I'll be bragging "Those famous Navarros played at my open-mike!"

Shortly after Tino and Joe took the mike, I was doubly surprised to see Jim Golen, Rick Hartley (and DeeDee), and Joe Fritz walk in the door! I had been corresponding with Jim by email, and I explained that I didn't expect working musicians to perform for free at my open-mike, but, that said, I would love to see him visit Bushwackers some day. Well, not only did Jim show up, but he brought most of the "Clancy's" gang with him! Jim, Rick, and Joe treated the Bushwackers crowd with solo and duo performances (and Rick and I finally got to play duo guitars and harmonize on some Byrds songs, a real thrill for me). Rick and I go waaaaaay back - I used to give him a lift home from dances when he was too young to drive. I never met Joe before (though I knew of him from typing his shows into the schedule), so that was a real treat. We had much in common to talk about - it seems we've been running in the same circles for years, just missing meeting up until now.

Of all my Thursday visitors, only Jim has a web site (come on guys, get with the times!) In my opinion, Jim Golen stands out as one of the very best of all the fantastic guitar players in the area. Visit his site http://www.jimgolen.com, listen to his song clips, and see if you don't agree. (4/14/07)

Signs

Is life full of coincidences, or are there no coincidences, only a coordinated scheme? Sometimes I have to wonder...

I never heard of Samantha St. Ives until a few weeks ago, when I first saw her name in the newspaper entertainment schedule. A few days later I met up with Randy Bass for the first time in a couple years, at a River Saints gig. He told me he was also performing with Samantha, as "Sinners and Saints"! Well, this past Saturday I happened to be way down in North Lima jammin' at a friend's house, and "Sinners and Saints" was playing in town that very night. I stopped in at Jumpin' Jack's, said "Hi" to Randy, and he introduced me to Samantha. I told her about this site and then sat down at the bar, eating chicken planks while listening to Samantha's beautiful voice. A guy came over to me and said he overheard me talking about my web site and it sounded interesting. He introduced himself - Bill Henceroth - and explained that he and another KSU instructor were performing as ... the Professors! We both had to laugh at the irony. Anyway, who knows when I would have found out about the Professors, and when Bill would have discovered MVLiveMusic.com, if I hadn't been in North Lima, if Samantha wouldn't have been performing that night, if Bill hadn't stopped in to listen and didn't have such excellent hearing, if the planets weren't aligned... Oh, and one more coincidence(?) - another musician friend, Gary "Angel" Jones, also walked in the door that night, driving all the way from Warren to hear Samantha.

Well, both Samantha and the Professors are now listed in this site's Musicians page along with links to their respective Myspace pages, and their gigs will be in the schedule in the Shows page. Check out the songs on their web sites, and make sure to get out and listen to them perform. By the way, Bill's son is in a band out of Nashville, the BreezeWay, on the verge of breaking out into the big time. They're playing in our area this week. Visit their web site at thebreezewaymusik, check their schedule, and go see them at local venues. (4/4/07)

Swimmin' the Mahoning Valley

Years ago there was a movie where Burt Lancaster swam across the Hollywood Hills, one backyard pool at a time. I kinda feel like I'm doing the same, except I'm not getting wet (well, maybe on the inside). Here's what I've been up to lately...

Davis & McKay at the Mocha House - great acoustic Beatles and more. Jim Golen at the Austintown Quaker Steak on St. Patty's Day - another great acoustic set, and then some fantastic electric work (Stevie Ray!) afterward when we both stopped in to see Jeff Welsh (earlier, I had just walked in to the Lube when Jeff called to me over the mike to play a couple songs while he and Dan took a pit stop. I balked - I hadn't even had time for a shot to bolster my confidence - and blew a chance to brag that I had played to a St. Pat's packed house at the Lube!) A soulful night of blues with Burnt Barrel - loved the Buddy Guy! Checked out Smokey's Martini Bar while reuniting with my friend Damian Knapp. Mortisha's Secret at the Wagon Wheel, another St. Patty's stop. Country-rock at Big Mike's with Drivin' Wheel. Frankie and the Sensations at Avalon Gardens. Joe Lexso at the Wet Spot (he dropped by my open-mike,  introduced himself, and played a few songs for us). Take II at Bachos. No Xcuse at the Powerhouse. Gary Pirrung at Victory Lane Lounge, with Nate Scott (another open-mike visitor, who absolutely FLOORED me. If you haven't met Nate yet, ask around - amazing story, and you might have seen him on TV). Teddy Pantelas Trio several times (see below). The Shagadelics and the Hern Brothers, also at Victory Lane Lounge. I belted out "Daaaaaaaaayoh" with Rudy and the Professionals at Up a Creek. And last, but not least, I reconnected with my bud Steve Vuich at his new open-stage gig at Cliffhanger's, and Steve, Danny, Greg, Randy, and Jason when the River Saints played another night there.

WOW, there's great music in the Mahoning Valley! Hey, Burt, dry off and join me. This isn't Hollywood, but you'll hear better music and meet better folks. (3/26/07)