Forgive me if I sound a bit cranky this week but my wife gave me her cold when she was done with it.
That means I missed the Lucero show on Tuesday night and have been drinking NyQuil like its my job. Blech.
What better time than now to hector musicians, PR-types and club-owners about how to send information about shows to the Limelight. The TV stations dont give a rats aspic about the Tallahassee music scene, so Limelight is your best bet for getting noticed. And, hey, its free to get listed in our calendar sections. (If you want to buy an ad, thats across the hall from my desk.)
If your band or bar has a big show coming up or even a small one please visit Tallahassee.com/calendar about two weeks before the event. Fill out all the information, upload a photo if you have one, and send it over. Its relatively easy, but if you have any trouble, email RAtwood@tallahassee.com.
We dont need to know about shows that are coming to town in July until around, oh, mid-June. The paper comes out every single day and the website is running 24/7. A show in July is so far off from this late January day that it becomes an abstract notion. And we dont deal in the abstract. Please be patient with us. Limelight has a staff of two or three, not 23.
After you are done with the calendar page, please send the same information to my email address: mhinson@tallahassee.com
To get listed in this weekly column, I need more information rather than less. Include the name of the band or performer, the type of music being played, some song titles (originals or covers), the opening acts. What should the audience expect to hear? Next, please do not forget the basics: time, date, venue, street address, phone number, website, cover charges or ticket prices.
The ticket price should not remain a closely guarded secret to the paying public. No one likes sticker shock at the box office.
Telephone calls are not the same as emails and we will not take concert information over the airwaves. And its no because we are paranoid of the NSA. We need an email trail in case a correction is needed. Plus, no one likes to answer 10 phone calls when trying to concentrate on writing a piece for publication. Emails are less intrusive and can be answered when there is a natural break in the writing process.
Feel free to include a jpeg photo of your band or yourself (if youre a singer-songwriter kinda guy). The photos should not feature your bands name boldly emblazoned across the image. It will just be cropped out or, worse, never used. Try not to be boring, either. A photo of four or five guys standing nervously against a wall looks like a firing squad is about to show up for work. Be creative, but keep your clothes on.
If your band or act has a lewd word in its name, it will be censored or left out because, if Limelight were a movie, it would be rated PG.
This column, in print, has a finite amount of space, so some items may or may not make the final cut. It is a guided tour, not a complete list (thats the calendar). I need the information by the Monday before that weeks Limelight, which comes out every Friday.
Got all that? Good. Now lets see how well it works:
HEAR A MASTER AT WORK: Texas singer-songwriter-storyteller Eric Taylor (Whooping Crane) returns to the city for an intimate house concert that starts at 8 p.m. Friday at a private home in east Tallahassee. The seating is very limited and costs $20 per person. That includes a barbecue dinner, too, which starts at 6 p.m. For reservations and directions to the house, email glboggs@hotmail.com.
Taylor is a tall, sardonic, crusty guy who writes carefully crafted, gorgeous, cinematic songs about everything from knife-throwers to Beat literature icons. He is a master when it comes to writing lyrics that unfold like short stories.
Eric taught me that every word in a song matters, fellow Texas singer Lyle Lovett said in a video on Taylors website.
Lovett continued, (He taught me) a song could be about something. A song could have a narrative quality, could tell a story. And a song could be filled with images that filled in all the blanks in that narrative.
During this encore performance, Taylor will showcase several new songs off his latest album, Studio 10, which came out in 2013. A lot of them are about friends of his who have died. Be warned, Taylors songs hit close to the bone. But you wont soon forget them.
KEEP UP WITH THE JONES: The joint will be jumping when The JW Jones Band, which just finished a tour with Johnny Winter, gets the party started at 10 p.m. Friday at the Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. Tickets are $13 in advance and $15 day of the show. Visit www.bradfordvilleblues.com.
ACME IS BACK IN ACTION: The ACME Rhythm & Blues band will play everything from dance tunes to Jethro Tulls Locomotive Breath (complete with flute solo) during a show starting at 8:30 p.m. Friday at the American Legion Hall on Lake Ella. The cover is $8 per person or $15 per couple at the door.
RAMBLE OUT TO BRAMBLETT: Multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Randall Bramblett and the Randall Bramblett Band breaks out the instruments at 10 p.m. Saturday at the Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. Tickets are $23 advance and $25 day of the show. Visit www.bradfordvilleblues.com.
BACK TO THE KUNTRY: Tallahassee singer-guitarist-personality H.J. Kuntry presents his Dixie-Phonics Musical Revue from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the American Legion Hall on the shores of Lake Ella. Kuntry is getting some musical help from Bo Lawrence, Mike Lewis, Ben Banks, Jan DeCosmo, Ksena Zipperer and more. Food will be served. There is no cover charge but donations will be accepted at the door.
CABOS HELPS OUT A FRIEND: Katie Schlinger, 26, a popular employee at Cabos Taco, was nearly killed a few days before Christmas when she was allegedly car-jacked and attacked while visiting her brother at a hospital in Aiken, S.C. The hospital bills are hovering somewhere around the $250,000 mark.
The musical community and Cabos are pitching in to help out with the bills with a benefit concert, silent auction and a party that runs from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Cabos, 1221 Apalachee Parkway. Debbie Jordan will take the stage around noon and be followed by Hal Shows and the Catbirds, Brandom Groom, Chris Buda and Jeff Trautner. There also may be a tuba choir wandering around the place. Donations will be accepted. For more, call 345-5378.
SAY GOODBYE TO DANIEL COX: A memorial for actor-musician Daniel Angus Cox is being held at 2 p.m. on Sunday at the Bradfordville Blues Club, 7152 Moses Lane. It is open to all friends, fans, fellow actors and musicians who knew him.
Cox, who grew up in Tallahassee, was working as a professional actor in New York on TV programs such as Boardwalk Empire and The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. He spent his New Years holiday back in his hometown of Tallahassee but came down with flu-like symptoms on his way back to New York and died on Jan. 2 in Atlanta. He was only 51.
I met Danny, as I called him, in the 80s when he was a kid playing drums in a rock band called The Method, which is a great name for a group if you are planning to become an actor.
The Method, which also featured Mark Stidham on guitar and Rick Weissinger on bass, specialized in covers by such bands as U2, Lets Active, Echo and The Bunnymen, The Violent Femmes and R.E.M., which was pretty cutting edge in those days.
In keeping with Coxs upbeat personality, The Method certainly displayed a sense of humor. One of it most memorable gigs was on New Years Eve at the Chuck E. Cheeses restaurant and Skee-Ball palace when it was still located on Apalachee Parkway.
Cox also pounded the skins in the band called Duffton Loop. It featured guitarist Bob Anthony, guitarist-singer Pat Puckett and bass player Dave Murphy, who would go on to form the legendary band The Casual Ts after Cox bowed out of the group.
Danny was a really, really good drummer, Murphy said. A fine musician and a really nice guy. He was very much like Stewart Copeland, very toppy and very accurate. He was on top of that snare.
Murphy said Cox would show up for rehearsals wearing ascots and smoking jackets. He liked to get into character before playing the drums.
He always had a theatrical side to him, Murphy said and laughed.
PROJECT TRIO IS BACK: If you think all classical music is stuffy and inaccessible, think again when the rip-snortin Project Trio returns for an Artist Series concert at 4 p.m. Sunday in Opperman Music Hall. Tickets are $23 general public; $5 students free for 12 and under (if accompanied by a paying adult). Visit www.theartistseries.org.
Ive seen Project Trio play twice once in a fancy concert hall and once in a renovated dairy barn and, let me tell you, these guys play with a furious passion. Flutist Greg Pattillo, cellist Eric Stephenson and bass player Peter Seymour like to mix things up with what they call classical jam music. Think of the best street buskers you have ever heard performing in the New York subway or Paris metro and then multiply it by 10.
We play everything from Mingus to Mozart, for sure," Seymour said during a past visit. "This is high-octane chamber music is what it is."
BIG BANDS IN A SMALL CLUB: By now, youve probably noticed that the Florida State College of Music has a bang-up jazz department. Hear what it sounds like during the Jazz Night: Big Band Showcase at 9 p.m. Thursday at the Club Downunder, in the FSU Student Union. Tickets are $5 general public and free for FSU students at the door.
There will be three big bands crammed into the modest-sized club, so the sound may knock you down. The bands are being led by drummer Leon Anderson, trombone player Paul Mckee and graduate students from the College of Music. Be ready to dance, too.
AND IN OTHER MUSICAL NOTES ...: The Tony Young Trio will warm up a cold night with some songs by Lynyrd Skynrd, Johnny Cash and Brad Paisley (our Limelight cover boy) starting at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Millers Ale House, 722 Apalachee Parkway. Also expect a few original tunes. There is no cover charge. ... Beaucoup Blue plays some down-home blues at 7 p.m. Friday at The Mockingbird Cafe, 1225 N. Monroe St. Its $5 at the door. ... Rick Ott, Stan Gramling, Lindsay Sparkman and more are throwing the January Dance Party Blowout starting at 8 p.m. Saturday at the American Legion Hall on Lake Ella. Its $10 at the door. Wear comfy shoes. ... The Pleasant Peasant will provide some hirsute tunes for The Best Beard Brodown 2014 bash at 9 p.m. Saturday at the All Saints Hop Yard, 453 All Saints St. There is no cover and youd better like hairy men. ... The New 76ers set up the thump bass at 7 p.m. Saturday at Waterworks, corner of Beard Street and Thomasville Road in Midtown. There is no cover. ... Buffalo Buffalo stampedes the stage at 9 p.m. Saturday at Club Rehab on West Tharpe Street. Tickets are $5 (over 21) and $7 (under 21) at the door. ... Take a quick trip to Brazil without leaving Midtown when The Jorge Continentino Pifanology Quartet fills the air with the sounds of South America around 8:30 p.m. on Thursday at Waterworks. There is no cover, but you have be over 21 to enter. ... Heartfelt folk singer Brianna Lea Pruett pays a visit to town from California for a show at 8 p.m. Thursday at The Office Lounge, 636 McDonnell Drive in the Railroad Square Art Park. Langtry and Allison Milham will open. Its $6 at the door and its an all-ages show.